Seton Hall Law School (where I am a professor) organized an excellent panel on the travel ban and immigration restrictions last Thursday, Feb 2. For those who wish to learn more about the legal effects of the executive order, I encourage you to watch it here. You will see presentations by Professors Lori Nessel, Ed Hartnett and Jonathan Hafetz discussing the...
It is early days, and much we don’t know – including, indeed, whether the draft Executive Order the new Administration is contemplating (as reported by the New York Times and Washington Post) is indeed an official document of the new Administration. For the time being, let me offer a few reasons why I’m worried, and reasons why I’m not...
It is with great sadness that I report the passing of my friend and Doughty Street colleague Sir Nigel Rodley. Cribbing from the statement issued by the International Commission of Jurists, of which Nigel was President: Elected President of the ICJ in 2012, he was serving his third term as such. He had been first elected to the Commission in 2003...
[Marc Weller is Professor of International Law and International Constitutional Studies in the University of Cambridge. He is the Principal Investigator of the Legal Tools for Peace-Making Project, drawing on extensive experience in international high-level negotiations in Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Libya, the Darfur crisis, Yemen, Somalia and, most recently, Syria. Tiina Pajuste is a Lecturer in Law at Tallinn University,...
It's a bit overdue, but I want to call readers' attention to a new blog, The Law of Nations. Here is the blog's self-description: Public and private international law play an increasingly important role in the decisions of the English courts. From commercial cases to human rights claims, a huge range of public and private international law principles are now regularly...
For those interested in the policy merits of the Iran Deal, it's important to note the letter sent today by 37 leading American scientists, including multiple Nobelists, nuclear arms designers, former White House science advisers and the chief executive of the world’s largest general society of scientists -- detailing the effects of the deal to date and urging the...
On December 1 in a meeting in the UN’s Trusteeship Council, the UN Secretary General apologized for not doing more in the UN Haiti Cholera affair, stating “"On behalf of the United Nations, I want to say very clearly: We apologize to the Haitian people … "we simply did not do enough with regard to the cholera outbreak and its...
Cross-posted at Balkinization There should by now be little doubt that various members of the incoming administration, including the President himself, would be willing to torture terrorist suspects should opportunity arise. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump expressed a desire to return to “waterboarding” terrorism suspects and “worse.” Mike Pence declined to rule out torture when asked about it expressly...
Like most policy issues in his campaign, Trump’s references to the UN and multilateralism have been brief. If one searches for Trump & the UN, the main hit are statements made in 2005 that he could do a much better job renovating the UN than the UN itself! Apart from disparaging remarks about the Paris climate change agreement, the TPP, NATO...
As we all continue to digest the stunning election results from last week, I continue to focus on ways in which a President Trump could use his substantial powers over foreign affairs in unique and unprecedented ways. Withdrawing from trade agreements could be a major theme of his administration. Somewhat less noticed is the possibility that a President Trump fulfills...
As I recover from the gut-punch delivered last Tuesday, I plan to get back to blogging – something I have put aside for other priorities in the past years. The times and the issues are urgent, and I am anxious to engage with our readers and colleagues around the world at what I see as an extremely fragile period for...
