... in my response to Eugene on the First Amendment and free speech and the HRC, over at Volokh. I'm not cross-posting it here because it is somewhat specific to Eugene's post. However, it is filled with many generalizations and unsupported assertions about what I think international law professors, taken as a community, think about free expression and the specifically...
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Samantar v. Yousef, a lawsuit by Somalis who alleged torture and mistreatment by a former Somali prime minister. Here is the issue: Whether a foreign state’s immunity from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. § 1604, extends to an individual acting in his official capacity on behalf of a...
Here is one part of the Obama Administration policy that I can (sort of) support: an effort to reach a comprehensive sustainable peace agreement in Sudan. Although the Obama envoy, Scott Gration, is getting plenty of deserved flak from right and left for his infamous "cookies" quote about dealing with the Sudanese government, the general idea seems sound. Absent any...
Ben Wittes, who has guest-blogged with OJ in the past, has a blistering op-ed in yesterday's Washington Post, criticizing, well, just about everyone for the failure to take the policy issues of detention to Congress to craft a formal structure for addressing them. The piece has made the rounds in the blogosphere, so I won't comment except to say that...
I have to admit I really don't know for sure, but this WSJ op-ed makes me think this issue is likely to be an important one as the crisis over Iran's compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty comes to a head. According to the author, the U.S./E.U. concession that Iran has a right to peaceful nuclear technology is both wrong as...
The essential irrelevance of the United Nations to global economic policy was nicely illustrated this week by President Obama's trip from New York to Pittsburgh, site of the G-20 summit. Potentially important, even momentous decisions, on economic and financial policy were discussed and maybe even decided there, while the U.N. General Assembly meetings showcased its usual mix of wacky heads...
The Washington Post has a blistering editorial on the Obama Administration's quiet decision last week not to seek legislative authorization for the preventive detention for terrorist suspects. It is the, the Post declares, a "politically expedient and intellectually dishonest route." Like President George W. Bush, President Obama now asserts that the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force gives him...
CNN has the story: "Where do you live?" Seems like a simple question, doesn't it? But the answer is not clear-cut for everyone. Take people who live in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, which is wedged between India, Pakistan and China. India and Pakistan have gone to war repeatedly over the disputed territory. Technically, it's "Indian-administered." But on Facebook, it's simply in India. Questions like this have...
So, on the lighter side, the Onion shows Secretary General Ban how to deal with collective action problems once and for all ...
Ed Whelan notes (in his typically colorful way) that State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh has been implementing one of President Obama's signing statements with respect to meeting with designated state sponsors of terrorism at U.N. meetings. A federal law passed by Congress and signed by Obama prohibits such meetings, but Obama issued a signing statement saying the provision on...
I opened the latest SSRN Public International Law listings this morning and noted with pleasure Peggy's response to Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen's recent article on constitutional interpretation and international law. Peggy's reply is in the Yale Law Journal online edition. As always Peggy makes fresh and lively arguments, and although I incline to Professor Paulsen's views on this, I think...
Among many administration doings on the human rights front this week, the Senate this week voted to confirm Mike Posner as Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Mike had served as executive director at Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) for decades since its founding, and is as steeped as...
