The federal court for the Eastern District of New York yesterday dismissed, in part, a class-action lawsuit brought by a number of immigrants who were detained without charges by the federal government in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York. The plaintiffs in Turkmen v. Ashcroft alleged that they, and a number of other illegal...
I may have spoken a bit too soon about the likelihood of Nigerian compliance with the ICJ's 2002 judgment awarding the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon. Here is a report detailing seriously angry reactions in Bakassi itself. My favorite angry reaction: The Paramount Ruler of Bakassi, Chief Etim Edet said: "I was born there. I schooled there. Watch out, on...
The NYT has a fascinating article today detailing the story of Moazzam Begg, a UK citizen who was detained by the U.S. in Afghanistan and Guantanamo for nearly three years. Mr. Begg, the NYT reports, is on a tour promoting his book (pre-order it here) describing his experiences in U.S. detention (he says he wasn't tortured, but does say...
Jess Bavin has another informative piece on the ICC in today's WSJ, noting the warming trend of the US toward the ICC: That new approach will be on display today, when the ICC's chief prosecutor reports to the United Nations Security Council on his investigation into alleged war crimes in Darfur. The U.S., which now considers the ICC perhaps the...
Richard Steinberg and Jonathan Zasloff of UCLA have just posted on SSRN their ASIL centennial essay on "Power and International Law" to be published in the American Journal of International Law. In a sense it is a nice summary of the movement of international law scholarship over the past 100 years. The article is available for download here. ...
Attorneys for a number of detainees suspected of ties to Islamic terrorist groups are challenging their continued detention by Canada in Canada's highest court, the Seattle PI reports. The three non-Canadians have been detained for years without being charged or without any evidence about them being released, apparently for purposes of deportation to their home countries. Because they might...
Phillip Carter, an attorney, blogger, and U.S. Army captain currently serving in Iraq, gets the front page treatment today in the WSJ. Phil blogs regularly at Intel Dump and he is a thoughtful and serious guy who, by the way, is involved in very important and difficult work in trying to develop the legal system in Iraq. The...
In a rare triumph for the ICJ, Nigeria and Cameroon agreed yesterday to implement the 2002 ICJ judgment awarding the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon. Under the agreement, Nigeria will begin withdrawing its troops from Bakassi within 60 days. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the agreement as a "remarkable experiment in conflict prevention by Cameroon and Nigeria." And he's right,...
The NYT reports that the U.S. government has invoked its "state secrets privilege" in federal court motion seeking to dismiss the main legal challenge to the NSA wiretapping program. (The ACLU complaint bringing this challenge and its various supporting memos can be found here). Although I don't have a copy of the transcript of oral argument today in the Michigan...
As I reported a few weeks ago, the tiny Caribbean nation of Dominica filed a strange and seemingly ridiculous case in the ICJ against Switzerland alleging violations of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Today, wiser heads in Dominica prevailed and Dominica has withdrawn its application. The ICJ's docket is now down to 13 cases with two cases currently...
If a priest engages in sexual abuse in Portland, Oregon, can victims of his abuse sue the Holy See? A federal district court in Oregon ruled last week that they could. In the case of Doe v. Holy See, available here, the plaintiff sued the Holy See for respondeat superior, negligence and fraud. The Holy...
Extending its string of decisions applying the political question doctrine to U.S. foreign policy, the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday dismissed another lawsuit by a group fo Chileans alleging that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was responsible for their torture, imprisonment, and abuse during the coup that brought Pinochet to power. The court's...
