Lately I have been doing extensive historical research on the development of international law and I came across this remarkable quote from the 1921 edition of Lassa Oppenheim's International Law: “A constant increase of population must in the end force upon a State the necessity of acquiring more territory, and if it cannot be acquired by peaceable means, acquisition by conquest...
Texas Tech professor and retired Army colonel Richard D. Rosen has a very fine new article up on Westlaw on targeting and civilian immunity. It is a superb article - I myself am broadly in agreement with its sensible views on civilian immunity, human shields, sheltering among civilians, etc. - but even those who might disagree will find an outstandingly...
Here is an interesting example of the way that local governments, with encouragement and guidance by the national governments, are leading the US and Canada into a mini-trade war. Ordered by Congress to "buy American" when spending money from the $787 billion stimulus package, the town of Peru, Ind., stunned its Canadian supplier by rejecting sewage pumps made outside of...
The Thomas More Center has a sent a curious and oddly reasoned letter to the U,S. Secretary of State Clinton, demanding that she pressure the UK government to allow controversial (but popular) radio talk show host Michael Savage to enter the UK. The Thomas More Center offers two international legal arguments in favor of a "right" for Savage to be admitted...
It's official: President Obama is going to revive the use of military commissions to try war on terror suspects currently held in Guantanamo Bay. Funny how he always announces these sorts of climb-downs on Fridays. The ACLU has vowed to litigate this, no matter what, so there will be at least one argument somewhere. If that's the case, it would be really...
In the course of discussion with journalists at the Brookings Institution meeting I mentioned below, one interesting side question arose. In the course of the debates over Bush administration lawyers, and now Pelosi and the CIA, Republicans have publicly (and perhaps increasing numbers of Democrats privately, as the Pelosi debate gains strength) argued that Democrats should be careful what they...
I apologize for the late posting of this -- the deadline for applicants is TOMORROW, May 15. This would be a terrific opportunity for those newly minted JDs who have the option (as Roger discussed here) to be paid by their law firm for an outside volunteer opportunity with an NGO: The American Society of International Law (ASIL) invites applicants for...
It's certainly not over yet, but it isn't looking good: As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) moves to ease a backlog of executive branch nominations, he suggested on Tuesday that he does not have the votes to bring up President Barack Obama’s pick to run the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. “Right now we’re finding out when to do...
I am obviously on record as supporting the criminal prosecution of the individuals involved in the CIA's torture regime -- the interrogators who inflicted it, the military and government officials who ordered it, the OLC lawyers who rationalized it. Such prosecutions are, unfortunately, extremely unlikely -- at least in the United States. Moreover, there does not seem to be any...
It seems the new Secretary of Agriculture may be provoking another round of trade litigation with Canada. Canada took action against the United States at the World Trade Organization on Thursday over a U.S. meat labeling law that Canadian producers say has hurt their hog and cattle sales. Ottawa requested a further round of consultations, a formal step that will enable...
This is obviously not an objective source, but it is interesting to see the trends in international human rights law advocacy overseas. Abortion used to be a no-no subject for NGOs like Amnesty, and still is for some groups like Human Rights First. But, if this report is correct, Amnesty International has gotten off the fence on this question. I...
Peter may be amused that there is now a "Sovereignty Caucus" in the U.S. Congress. Not surprisingly, their first target is the Koh nomination. Maybe sovereigntism is quite dead....
