Between 1998 and 2000, I worked in Somalia for the UN Development Program. This experience very much informs my view on how international system deals (or does not) with state failure. As it is known, Somalia has been without a functioning government for the past 20 years. And Somalia is often referred to as the main example of State failure. In...
State failure is an almost intractably thorny question for international law. Its intractability is both practical and conceptual. It is practical because state failure – defined by Giorgetti as ‘the prolonged implosion of governmental structures and the ensuring incapacity of the government to provide political goods to its internal and external constituencies’ – poses tremendous political, social and humanitarian challenges...
Failed and failing states are relatively new phenomenons that have not yet been recorded in the international law radar screen. However, the rise of piracy off the coast of Somalia, and increased instances of terrorism and international organized crime underline their relevance in the international legal system. In my book, A Principled Approach to State Failure: International Community Actions in Emergency...
We are very pleased to host from today through Friday an online symposium considering Chiara Giorgetti's book A Principled Approach to State Failure: International Community Actions in Emergency Situations (Brill 2010). Dr. Giorgetti, an attorney at White and Case and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center, will be with us for the rest of the week, discussing various of themes from her...
The following is a guest post from Chimene Keitner, Associate Professor of Law at Hastings. My thanks to her for contributing it! The Second Circuit’s recent panel opinion in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum has justifiably spurred much talk in the blogosphere, including posts by Trey Childress, Ken Anderson, Julian Ku, and Kevin Jon Heller. Here are my preliminary thoughts. First, it...
Steve Vladeck has been having a fascinating debate with Ben Wittes and Bobby Chesney about the merits -- or lack thereof -- of Sen. Lindsey Graham's proposed "Terrorist Detention Review Reform Act," which Wittes and Chesney support and Steve opposes. Steve doesn't need my help in the debate, which I think he's clearly winning. But I couldn't let one point...
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,...
