Professor Kevin Heller of the University of Georgia Law School will be guest blogging at Opinio Juris for the next couple of weeks. Kevin is an expert on evidence and criminal law, with a particular interest in international criminal law. His SSRN page is here. Prior to teaching, Kevin spent some time as writer and legal advisor on several television...
The U.S. District Court for Washington D.C. has dismissed most of a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld and various high-level military officials alleging responsibility for detainee abuse in Guantanamo Bay. The plaintiffs are four UK nationals who were detained, and then released, by the U.S. authorities in Guantanamo. They have now sued for damages in Rasul v. Rumsfeld (not on the...
The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) has a post that provides useful links to cartoonists' perspectives on the Muhammad cartoon controversy. Here are some of the highlights:One Picture, A Thousand Outcries: "It’s been my experience that most groups are humor-impaired when outsiders make fun of them...
Current ICJ judge Rosalyn Higgins was elected today to be the next President of the International Court of Justice. Higgins, who was named to the Court in 1995, was the first female member of the ICJ and remains its only female judge. Hailing from the UK, which named her a Dame of the British Empire, Professor...
So how fast is international trade growing? For one clue, look at the traffic at U.S. ports. According to this report in the L.A. Times, U.S. ports are facing "cargo volume that is just beyond belief." And the growth is not limited to the top ports. "For more than 20 years, only three North American ports — Los...
Following up on the law prof's letter about NSA spying from last week, Andrew McCarthy of National Review Online has dug up a very interesting 1994 memo from Clinton's then-OLC chief Walter Dellinger arguing that the President has the authority to refuse to execute statutes that are unconstitutional. Dellinger's memo is actually not limited to foreign affairs statutes, but with...
The New York Times has an interesting graphic on the deaths in Iraq in January. According to their report there were 800 total civilian and military deaths in Iraq in January. If my math is correct, with Iraq's population of 26 million, that would be an annualized death rate of 36.9 deaths per 100,000. I was curious how that compared...
As AG Alberto Gonzales prepares to testify before Congress on the controversial NSA spying letter, the law professor critics of the NSA spying dispute have filed this blistering response to the DOJ's 43-page defense of the warrantless wiretapping. I'm a bit surprised at the letter's sharp tone, but it is a pretty effective letter nonetheless.For a different take, see this...
A Super Bowl commercial has highlighted government abuse by TSA personnel at our nations' airports. You cannot help but feel sorry for the guy who fell victim to this sort of unauthorized surveillance. Just go to this website and check out the first TV ad....
Chances of an airstrike on Iran by March 2007? About 35%, almost the same chances that the Seattle Seahawks will win the Super Bowl today. Compare the betting line here and here....
Iran's decision to resume uraniam enrichment is precisely what it threatened before the IAEA Board meeting last week. In a letter dated February 2, 2006, Iran firmly requested that the case not be submitted to the Security Council. It included the threat that "I am afraid to warn that if the interlocutors of Iran want to put pressure on the...
Last week the D.C. District Court ruled that the claims against Sudan for materially supporting the embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya may go forward. In Owens v. Sudan, the court ruled that there were sufficient allegations that Sudan materially supported the terrorist attacks to overcome a motion to dismiss. The concise holding is that if you finance terrorism, in...
