Senator Feinstein has withdrawn her bill that would amend the Alien Tort Statute. Her terse letter to Senator Specter states that while the legislation was designed to address concerns about the clarity of the existing statute in light of Sosa "I believe that the legislation in its present form calls for refinement in light of concerns raised by human rights...
Julian, regarding your last post, I take a different view of the Canadian softwood lumber cases. My perspective on whether the United States shall give effect to international tribunal decisions depends first and foremost on whether there is a federal mandate relevant to the question. Obviously our obligation to implement a decision of an ICSID arbitral panel is very different...
U.S. Secretary of State Rice is visiting Canada this week in a likely futile attempt to defuse a worsening U.S.-Canada trade dispute over softwood lumber. As I've blogged in the past (here and here), U.S. relations with Canada have been steadily worsening over the past few years over a variety of issues. But the refusal of the U.S. to comply...
The proposed Feinstein Amendment to the Alien Tort Statute includes an interesting provision regarding presidential waivers of litigation. That provision would stipulate that “No court in the United States shall proceed in considering the merits of a claim under subsection (a) if the President, or a designee of the President, adequately certifies to the court in writing that such exercise...
It is difficult to imagine a situation when Julian may ever be satisfied with what the UN has done. Here the UN actually accuses high-level Syrian and Lebanese officials of taking part in a murder and he thinks this is another example of the UN being inconsequential. There’s just no pleasing some people.Julian mentions “allegations” of possible “high level” interference...
“I love Yale…. [but] why bother giving to it? My resources are very far from limitless, so why not give where it makes a difference?” That is the question posed in a wonderful New York Times article on Sunday by Republican multi-millionaire entertainer Ben Stein to, among others, Democratic human rights advocate/scholar and Yale Law School Dean...
Before we get too excited (see Chris' post here) about the U.N.'s wonderful effectiveness in the investigation of Harari's death, it is worth pointing out that allegations of high level U.N. interference have been circulating almost from the moment the report was released. In particular, the electronic version of the U.N. Harari report contained embedded text of last-minute changes. According...
Suzanne Nossel at Democracy Arsenal has a good post on the UN report implicating the Syrian government in the Hariri killing.She explains succinctly how and why the UN can play an important role in investigating such crimes, especially in situations where we, the U.S., cannot. Nor could anyone else (such as the E.U. or the ICC) have done the job.This...
I just finished attending the International Law Association Conference in New York and one of the highlights was the insightful commentary on the treatment of detainees in the war on terror. I was particularly impressed by a new professor, Geoffrey Corn of South Texas Law School. Corn was a former Special Assistant to the Judge Advocate General for Law of...
There has been much speculation in various academic circles as to why Senator Dianne Feinstein--a liberal Democrat representing a state that has been at the vanguard in applying Alien Tort Statute--would propose amendments to the law. Here is her own statement as to why she perceives a change to be necessary:“Many recent legal cases have demonstrated the need for clarification...
This story will no doubt heighten trans-Atlantic tensions. A Spanish judge has issued arrest warrants for three U.S. soldiers whose tank fire on a Baghdad hotel killed Jose Couso, a Spanish journalist. According to the report, the United States has undertaken three separate investigations to determine whether the GIs engaged in any unlawful conduct. In each case they were exonerated....
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, has introduced a potentially revolutionary amendment to every international lawyer's favorite statute, the Alien Tort Statute. While Sen. Feinstein calls her amendment a "clarification," it looks to me like she is proposing a near-complete evisceration of the Alien Tort Statute as we (international lawyers) know it. And such an evisceration is almost certainly...
