The International Herald Tribune has a copy of the deal reached in the six-party talks involving North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. Putting aside its content, as a treaty lawyer, my immediate question was what kind of commitment is involved? Is this deal intended to be a legally binding agreement or a statement of political commitment? The Vienna Convention...
Although details are still forthcoming (see the early AP report here), it looks like North Korea has agreed to some kind of deal to shut down its main nuclear reactor and eventually dismantle its nuclear weapons program. It sounds like a pretty good deal for the North Koreans, who get lots of energy assistance in exchange for promising...
Is there really much suspense about the likely outcome of the ICJ's decision in the genocide application brought by Bosnia against Serbia? Not much. Indeed, there are signs that the governments in question already know the result and (the losing ones at least) are preparing their arguments against the ICJ's legitimacy and authority. The Republika Srpska, the Bosnian...
Now that he's officially declared, what do we know about where Barack Obama stands on international law? Not much, of course, given his limited legislative experience. (Anyone know if he took any IL courses at Harvard Law?) Here is his report card from various advocacy groups with IL-related agendas (see also this). Ivo Daalder takes Obama as...
Bruce Ackerman has these thoughts, via FP Passport. I can't see Bush going to Congress to get permission to lob some cruise missiles against critical sites. Contrary to Ackerman's view (representative of the old congressional power purists), I don't think Bush would be constitutionally required to do so, either, given the long practice of unilateral military action by Presidents in...
General William Odom has a thoughtful op-ed in today's Washington Post with the title quoted above. He begins by debunking what he views as four myths concerningt he war (includng we must continue fighting to prevent Iran from gaining power in Iraq and we must continue fighting to prevent a blood bath). He then goes on to explain...
Because kiwis would never vote for a Prime Minister stupid enough to say something like this:Obama said Saturday at his campaign kickoff in Springfield, Ill., that one of the country's first priorities should be ending the war in Iraq. He has also introduced a bill in the Senate to prevent President Bush from increasing American troop levels in Iraq and...
Mark your calendars! News reports out of the Balkans suggest that the International Court of Justice will release its long-awaited ruling in Bosnia's application against Serbia on February 26, 2007. Bosnia has alleged that Serbia committed genocide during the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the ICJ held extensive hearings on the case last May. No confirmation...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday upheld a lower court order barring U.S. forces in Iraq from transferring a U.S.-citizen enemy combatant to Iraqi custody. The case, Omar v. Harvey, is a potentially important one because it indicates that U.S. federal courts will continue to maintain habeas corpus jurisdiction, even where petitioners are held by...
For the first time ever I am using Google Books as a resource in my current legal research for my forthcoming article. You have probably read about the Google Books project before, but if you are like me you have not yet incorporated it into your research. Based on my recent experience, I would strongly recommend that you do...
Ed Swaine had suggested in response to post of mine several months back that there might be a downside to the increasing willingness of flagship journals to publish IL-related articles, namely, that student-edited IL specialty journals might be orphaned as a result. That seemed like a plausible hypothesis. To make a comparison to a similar phenomenon in a...
[Jay Thomas is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center where he teaches, among other things, international intellectual property law.] The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently held that a U.S. district court did not possess subject matter jurisdiction over assertions of foreign patent infringement. In Voda v. Coris Corp., the Federal Circuit rejected the district...
