Just before President Clinton left office and on the last day it was open for signature, the United States signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Bush Administration would later, through John Bolton, inform the United Nations that the United States did not intend to ratify the treaty, thereby removing any obligations associated with the U.S. signature...
I'm not familiar with these things, but it strikes me as a bit odd that the Obama Administration is leaking draft versions of its executive order on Guantanamo. Just release it, already! You are the President now! In any event, the draft order does take a fairly hard line on closing Gitmo, but it leaves itself plenty of wiggle room. ...
The Cable has a short post on Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter taking a leave from Princeton to become the head of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff (a post previously held by George Kennan, Paul Nitze and, more recently, by Tony Lake, Dennis Ross, Richard Haass, and Stephen Krasner). Anne-Marie, as many readers of this blog would know, is a prominent international...
One other added benefit of the upcoming Obama years (and there are likely to be few) is the end of the dishonest or at least inaccurate charges about the radical nature of the Bush Administration's views on executive powers. The most annoying one that I've heard a million times from Keith Olbermann but also from otherwise intelligent and respectable constitutional...
No "citizen of the world" talk today. I was a little surprised at the fairly pronounced us/them premise of the speech, a worldview still defined by states. And no nods to international institutions, even as a general proposition. Of course Obama is the President of the United States (and most Americans certainly expect the national framing), but if I were...
I admit I am not exactly looking forward to the Obama years. Still, it did warm my heart a bit to hear the new U.S. commander-in-chief endorse the continuation of the war on terrorism in his inaugural speech yesterday. That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network...
Barclays Bank v. Franchise Tax Board (1994) was a case that some of us (those who started teaching in the mid 90s) saw as a breakthrough case on foreign relations federalism, a sharp turn from Zschernig and the 'one voice' line of foreign commerce clause cases. As Jack Goldsmith wrote in 1999, for instance, "Barclays Bank marks a return to...
According to the Guardian, the ICJ may soon have a chance to opine on the numerous legal issues arising out of the current Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. The UN general assembly, which is meeting this week to discuss the issue, will consider requesting an advisory opinion from the international court of justice, the Guardian has learned. "There is a well-grounded view...
Here’s a new job posting a colleague just sent along that even Ken might find of interest: The DoD Office of General Counsel is soliciting resumes for multiple attorney term positions. Successful applicants will be part of an interagency team representing the government in over 200 habeas corpus petitions filed in D.C. District Court by individuals detained by DoD at...
So this video is obviously intended to defend the actions of the Israeli Defense Forces during their action in Gaza. But it is fascinating in terms of its footage of precise IDF bombings, and its provision by provision discussion of certain relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions. Obviously, it is a piece of advocacy, but it is effective. Anyone have a...
'Whatever are you dreaming of, sir?' Mathilde asked him. There was a note of intimacy in her question, and she had come back running and was quite out of breath in her eagerness to be with him. Julien was tired of self-suppression. In a moment of pride, he told her frankly what he was thinking. (The Red and the Black, vol....
John Bolton and John Yoo have this op-ed in today's NY Times vaunting Article II treaties over congressional-executive agreements. While conceding the fact of CEAs in the international economic context, the duo argues that going the CEA route for such agreements as the ICC and a successor to the Kyoto protocol "would pose a serious challenge to American principles...
