As I predicted back in April, a panel of the D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected constitutional and treaty-based challenges to a trial of alleged terrorists by military commission. The decision reversed a lower court's finding that the whole military commission system is a violation of the Geneva Convention. The D.C. Circuit's key holdings:The Sept 11 Resolution for the Authorization of the...
This week Japan granted undersea gas drilling rights to an area also claimed by China. This is a separate dispute from Japan's attempt to convert a rock into a Tokyo address. But it is another serious irritant in what is an increasingly contentious and dangerous relationship.Why can't Japan and China agree to submit their dispute to the ICJ like Benin...
The papers this week have been filled with discussions of the ten-year anniversary of the Serb massacre at Srebrenica. Two articles well worth reading are Christopher Hitchen's post at Slate, and this one in the Economist (sub. req'd). I also read with great interest the comments to Julian's post on the broader question of deterrence and international criminal law. While...
While some (mostly right-wing) groups continue to worry about the transfer of "sovereignty " to the UN in treaties like that for the Law of the Sea Treaty, there is a far more important international struggle afoot: control of the internet.As CNET reports, a recent meeting of the U.N.'s Working Group on Internet Governance turned into a gripe-session where various...
I just wanted to thank those readers who have added very thoughtful comments to my post on deterrence and international criminal justice here. For those of you who haven't seen the comments, I hope you find time to take a look and maybe drop a few comments yourself....
A Chamber of the ICJ issued a decision today (only the summary is available so far) in the long-running border dispute between Niger and Benin. The Court awarded Niger 16 out of 25 disputed islands, including the largest island, lying in the Niger River on the border between the two countries. The two countries have been squabbling over...
Sometimes, international law wanders far afield from questions of international criminal justice and basic human rights. Sometimes, it is just about collecting some money. Case in point: the City of New York has apparently won a judgment in federal court clearing the way for it to collect a total of $25 million in back taxes from the governments...
UVA lawprof Rosa Brooks has a measured op-ed in Sunday's LA Times surveying the progress of efforts to prosecute serious violations of international human rights on the 10th anniversary of the massacre at Srebenica. Unlike some advocates of international criminal justice, Prof. Brooks is restrained in her claims for the benefits of international tribunals like the International Criminal Court. Even...
The ASIL international organizations interest group has forwarded the following information about a conference call tomorrow, July 9, at 1:00 pm EDT, with Ed Mortimer of the UN and Don Kraus from Citizens for Global Solutions. For those of you interested in the reform agenda and the upcoming September summit, this sounds like a good opportunity to get up...
I didn't want to seem wholly unaffected by the horrible terror attacks in London, but I didn't feel like I had anything useful to add from an international legal point of view. But where a cautious lawprof blogger fears to tread, lawyer Andrew McCarthy does not, in this blistering National Review Online piece.McCarthy's basic point is that the UK, unlike...
Rising Washington & Lee lawprof David Zaring has a nice (and somewhat brave) post up at Prawfsblawg previewing some descriptive research he has done on the citation in foreign law by U.S. courts over a long stretch of time. Here is his main conclusion so far:citation to foreign authority is hardly unprecedented, even in the modern era;but such citation,...
In yet another case of U.S. compliance with an international tribunal ruling, the Bush Administration has proposed legislative changes that would reduce U.S. cotton subsidies (by about $350 million) and bring the U.S. into compliance with a WTO decision won by Brazil. This action follows its announcement last week that the Administration would make certain administrative adjustments to comply...
