In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

14 Apr

Ed Whelan's latest post on Koh's nomination to be Legal Advisor lands a sharp and potentially serious blow. Reviewing Koh's writings and his testimony to the Senate in favor of Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Whelan argues that Koh's testimony deliberately omitted discussion of important interpretations of CEDAW by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: The...

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13 Apr

There has been tons of commentary on the pirate thing now, so there is little more to add.  Except that there is a brewing debate about where to try the remaining captured Somali pirate.  In theory, the pirate could be tried before a military commission, if Obama wished, but I somehow doubt that his going to happen (although if he...

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13 Apr

My professor in the Literature Program at Duke University, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, has passed away.  Eve was one of the pioneering figures in queer theory.  From Duke University Press's announcement: Duke University Press mourns the loss of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.      We have been proud to publish six of Sedgwick’s books. The first, Tendencies (1992) is...

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12 Apr

Pope Benedict XVI's Easter homily included this message of hope and reconciliation: If it is true that death no longer has power over man and over the world, there still remain very many, in fact too many signs of its former dominion. Even if through Easter, Christ has destroyed the root of evil, he still wants the assistance of...

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11 Apr

Stuart Taylor, the eminent legal affairs columnist for National Journal, writes this week on the vexed issue of the detainee cases.  This sentence in particular caught my eye: So clogged with detainee cases are the federal courts in D.C. that they may not have time to conduct any ordinary civil trials this spring or summer. Stuart is a very diligent journalist, so...

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09 Apr

I have tried to stay quiet in the ongoing “Koh Wars” in the blogosphere, where Ed Whelan seems to be taking on the entire legal academic blogosphere himself and getting in a bad mood about it.  I am also conflicted. I am a former student of Professor Koh and I have always admired his energy, passion, and his willingness to...

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02 Apr

Read all about today’s blockbuster decision in which a U.S. federal district court held, in light of Boumediene, that detainees held at the U.S. Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, have a constitutional right to petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. courts. A longer description and link to the 53-page opinion are here. Key caveat:...

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01 Apr

Back in February, I noted that the ASIL Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward the International Criminal Court had adopted a set of recommendations for how the Obama Administration could take steps to engage with the ICC in new, more positive ways than the preceding Bush Administration.  As part of the ASIL Conference last week, the Task Force released a...

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