I want to offer a few thoughts on Dean Edley's email, which I appreciate Deb posting. I am much less impressed by his reasoning than Deb appears to be. (And please, Deb, correct me if I am wrong about that.) At the outset, it is important to note that I think Dean Edley's conclusion -- that Yoo cannot be fired, at...
Cross-Posted at Balkinization Following my testimony last month to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security on military commissions and the like, Senator Kyl (R-AZ) was kind enough to send along some follow-up questions to answer. His first follow-up question was one of the same as one he’d posed in the hearing itself: What if any empirical...
Yesterday, the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission awarded final damage awards for the fifteen partial and final awards on liability it rendered between July 1, 2003 and December 19, 2005. You can access the damages decisions for Eritrea here, and those for Ethiopia here. According to the AP, both sides will accept the awards, but neither is apparently thrilled with...
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative frequently does impressive work; witness the U.S. WTO victory this week over China. But when it comes to openness and transparency, USTR's efforts do not have the same shine; this is an agency notorious for its resistance to traditional inter-agency procedures (e.g., the C-175 procedure), let alone opening up its work to the public eye. So, I...
The WSJ has a very important (and certain to be much debated) story today on the front page, "A Global Surge in Tiny Loans Spurs Credit Bubble in a Slum," WSJ, A1, Thursday August 13, 2009. Also see the follow on stories, "Group borrowing leads to pressure," which is about the problem that when you use 'peer pressure' rather than...
I know how much our readers like pirates, so I thought I would share the State of Victoria's remarkably loony criminal statutes on the subject. Here is s70B of the Crimes Act 1958: A person commits a piratical act if...
In case this is of interest to Opinio Juris readers, I want to point out that I have a new essay posted to SSRN entitled Hearts and Minds and Laws: Legal Compliance and Diplomatic Persuasion. Here's the abstract: This essay, written for the South Texas Law Review’s Ethics Symposium, considers the role of international legal argument in the war on terror...
Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban commander who orchestrated, among many other things, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and many other atrocities, is dead. The initial, somewhat confused reports expressed some doubts, but experts are gradually concluding that a US Predator missile strike killed him. At the strategic level, this is one area in which the US is having success. One can find...
There has been a very interesting -- and potentially very troubling -- development in the Lubanga trial. In response to a submission by representatives for the victims and over a strong dissent by Judge Fulford, the majority of Trial Chamber I has given notice to the parties and participants in the trial "that the legal characterisation of the facts may...
Last month the Eleventh Circuit in Valencia-Trujillo v. United States rendered an unusual decision that required the court to decide whether a state was acting "pursuant" to a treaty. If it was, the defendant had standing to pursue the action. If it was not, then he had no such standing. In extradition jurisprudence, the so-called “specialty rule” provides that...
Marc Ambinder over at the Atlantic has posted his interview with Professor Glenn Sulmasy, whose new book The National Security Court System: A Natural Evolution of Justice in an Age of Terror has just been published by OUP. Ambinder summarizes the central arguments and proposals of Sulmasy's book: Sulmasy expands on what he calls a "hybrid" approach to the quandary of...
The government's new "cash for clunkers" program has been wildly successful. Under the program, consumers may receive up to $4,500 towards the purchase of a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle. What is surprising is the impact this it is having on consumer spending patterns regarding domestic vs. imported vehicles. According to press reports, more than 70% of the...
