In association with the International Commission of Jurists

SCOTUS Votes 9-0 that Corporations Cannot Be Sued Under ATS for Extraterritorial Acts Without U.S. Interest At Stake

17 Apr

[Apologies for all the random short posts, I think what make blogging interesting, sometimes, is that one can think out loud online.  Dangerous, I know, but fun too!] Here is one quick take:  As Deborah noted below, the Supreme Court voted 9-0 that the Kiobel plaintiffs should be dismissed because their claims against a foreign corporation for actions in a foreign...

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17 Apr

It is worth noting that Justice Kennedy offered a very short concurrence. Here is the complete text of his concurrence, which should hearten ATS supporters that there is some room for future extraterritorial ATS cases (a very small room, I guess). The opinion for the Court is careful to leave open a number of significant questions regarding the reach and interpretation...

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17 Apr

The US Supreme Court released its long-awaited Kiobel decision this morning, affirming the Second Circuit's dismissal of the plaintiffs Alien Tort Statute claims.  Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion, joined by Justices Scalia, Alito, Thomas, and Kennedy.  Justice Kennedy wrote a separate concurrence; Justice Alito did likewise, joined by Justice Thomas. Justice Breyer concurred in the judgment, joined by Justices...

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17 Apr

So reports the Kuwait News Agency. The building is expected to be completed in late 2015. Here is the winning design: You can read more about the design, and see more artists renderings, here. It's not a bad design, but it's a bit too high-modernist for my taste. I preferred the one by Wiel Arets Architects & Associates that won third prize...

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16 Apr

An opinion piece in Al-Jazeera by an international lawyer who works with the Palestinians, John Whitbeck, reports some interesting comments by Fatou Bensouda about Palestinian ratification: During a public discussion held at the Academie Diplomatique Internationale in Paris on March 20, Fatou Bensouda, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, addressed the potential membership of Palestine in the ICC. During the...

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16 Apr

The Asahi Shimbun is running a couple of interesting features on the International Court of Justice and Japan's relationship with it.  One essay features interviews with Japan's current and former members of the ICJ: President Owada and former vice-president Oda.  The other explores what might happen if Japan were to somehow send its disputes with China and Korea to the...

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15 Apr

Apparently, the answer is yes, according to Professor Jeremi Suri of the University of Texas writing in the New York Times: The Korean crisis has now become a strategic threat to America’s core national interests. The best option is to destroy the North Korean missile on the ground before it is launched. The United States should use a precise airstrike to...

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14 Apr

Calls for papers In case you haven't seen it yet, we have launched our own call for papers aimed at LL.M, Ph.D and S.J.D. students as well as those practitioners/academics within the first five years post-degree to participate in our New Voices symposium starting in July. The deadline for 200-word abstract submissions is May 1, 2013. Vermont Law School will host the fourth-annual Colloquium on...

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13 Apr

Last November, two documents appeared within a few days of each other, each addressing the emerging legal and policy issues of autonomous weapon systems - and taking strongly incompatible approaches.  One was from Human Rights Watch, whose report, Losing Our Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots, made a sweeping, provocative call for an international treaty ban on the use, production,...

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