General

The Perils of Global Legalism (University of Chicago 2009) is just out, I see, and my copy just arrived via the magic of Amazon one-click.  I read an early ms. draft, but am looking forward to reading the final version. This is yet another book from Eric that promises to provoke lots of people in the international law community, but...

Cross-posted at Balkinization I was all set to zone out this vacation when we happened to stroll past an SUV featuring one bumper sticker (among others) announcing: “Waterboarding: Keep it safe, legal and rare.” Nothing like a little vacation motivation to make me peruse (at an admittedly slower pace) the wave of old OLC memos that came along with the...

A remark in passing by KJH ("law review editors, I mean you") caused me to recall a question I've had for a while.  Do student law review, or international law review, editors read or know about OJ?  I have asked this question of my own school's international law review editors over the last couple of years, and the answer was...

Like Duncan, I had my first week of public international law. In a brief introductory discussion on customary international law one of the students asked, "How does a practice that has achieved the status of customary international law cease to become customary international law?" It is an interesting question. We spend plenty of time in international law...

I started teaching my introductory course to international law this week.  I've got nearly 80 upper-level students, which is a pretty good number considering that an equal if not greater number of students had the opportunity this past spring to take international law as a first year elective.  Nor is Temple alone in moving international law into the first year...

The success of a UN Secretary General is largely dependent on two things:  (1) the charisma and personal drive of the office holder; and (2) his (to date, they have all been men) ability to lead and work well with the Secretariat.  On both dimensions, recent evidence suggests Ban Ki-moon appears to be in real trouble.  Unless...

Cross-posted at Balkinization UPDATE: The long-awaited report by the CIA Inspector General completed in 2004 and kept secret since has now been released by the Administration. The memos former Vice President Cheney says demonstrate the efficacy of torture in eliciting information are also now available. Note the Cheney memos are heavily, heavily redacted and it is impossible to tell...

Kathleen Sullivan has filed a petition for certiorari (2009 WL 2173302) in Abdullahi v. Pfizer arguing that there is a circuit split on the question of corporate liability under international law: There is no general international common law of torts. Thus, to establish subject matter jurisdiction under the ATS for a violation of international law by a private corporation or individual,...

I received this notice that I thought our readers may find of interest: The National Law School of India Review (NLSIR) is the flagship journal of one of India's premier law institutions, the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. The NLSIR is a peer-reviewed journal, and is published twice a year. The latest issue - Volume 21(1) - included contributions...

Aaron Zelinsky, YLS '10, smart person and occasional correspondent with me, has an article up at HuffPo arguing for a certain parallel (a negative one) between the Lockerbie release this week and the Guantanamo detainees.  Aaron argues that it was wrong for the Lockerbie bomber to have been released, and would not have been, had he been tried and convicted...