OK, I never thought I'd write a post tying international arbitration, chess federation elections, and post-Soviet politics together. Nor did I think that I'd follow that up with a post expanding on the post-Soviet politics issue and also throwing allegations of UFO abductions into the mix. And now, in the midst of all this other drama, World Chess Federation President (and...
It's always dangerous to opine on a judgment you have only skimmed, so I'll phrase my thought as a question instead. Here is what the ATS Statute says: The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the...
[I posted this about the same time that Ken posted his discussion of the same case below, which is definitely worth reading. Please forgive any repetitions. But we are both on the same page.] In a blockbuster opinion that could spell the end of the vast bulk of Alien Tort Statute litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit...
I have just now been forwarded a copy of the 2nd Circuit opinion released today in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. I say "apparently" because I have hastily read it in the last couple of minutes; see also Julian's post above. But unless I am greatly mistaken, it is a blockbuster opinion on the basics of ATS litigation. However, the...
Ben Wittes has a post at Lawfare today discussing ways in which the Obama administration might be able to avoid litigating the ACLU/CCR lawsuit challenging Al-Aulaqi's targeting. One of his preferred responses is the "political question" doctrine; in his view, "enemy targeting" is a classic example of a political question with which the judiciary should not interfere. I would not be...
The conventional wisdom among many international law folks is that the U.S. has (wrongly) embraced American exceptionalism in world affairs, often to the detriment of compliance with international law. I don't disagree that American exceptionalism exists, but I think the main problem with the "exceptionalism" meme is the idea that the U.S. is unique in its "exceptionalist" philosophy. Other countries can,...
Gerald Steinberg, the head of right-wing propaganda outlet NGO Monitor, is not happy about George Soros' recent $100 million gift to Human Rights Watch: In accepting a huge grant from George Soros, Human Rights Watch has spurned the public advice (and warning) offered nearly a year ago by its founder Robert Bernstein. Rather than grapple with the serious...
I have received a significant amount of feedback on my previous post on apportioning responsibility for international violations and therefore I wanted to do a couple of follow up posts on the subject. As Judge Simma indicated in his Separate Opinion in the Oil Platforms case, there arguably is a general principle of international law that joint tortfeasors are...
Something that our European readers have already probably heard as it is one of the most viewed stories on the BBC website (but not so much here in the U.S.), the Basque separatist terrorist organization ETA has renounced (at least for now) the use of violence: Armed Basque separatist group Eta says it will not carry out "armed actions" in its campaign for...
Next week the ICJ will have oral proceedings in the case Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Georgia v. Russian Federation). The .pdf of the press release is here. As far as I can tell, unlike in the Kosovo proceedings, there will not be an internet simulcast. (The Kosovo simulcast was very...
As you may remember from my previous post on this topic, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of the autonomous republic of Kalmikia the President of FIDE (the world chess federation), has been named in a suit before the Court of Arbitration for Sport seeking the disqualification of his FIDE candidacy. While that case is still set to be argued next week, he has announced...
