The Public Editor of The New York Times has a nice piece today criticizing the newspaper's "seriously flawed and greatly overplayed" front-page article “1 in 7 Detainees Rejoined Jihad, Pentagon Finds.” Others have thoroughly debunked similar Pentagon reports -- see here, for example. I just want to call attention to the following paragraph from the Public Editor's article, which is...
[Dr. Anne T. Gallagher is the Head of Operations at Equity International, Technical Director of Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons Project, and the former UN Adviser on Trafficking] My response to James Hathaway, written with the benefit of close involvement in the development of the new legal framework, as well as in its implementation at the national level in over forty...
The Virginia Journal of International Law is delighted to continue its partnership with Opinio Juris this week in this online symposium featuring three articles and two essays recently published by VJIL in Vol. 49:4, available here. Today, Dr. Anne T. Gallagher, Head of Operations of Equity International, Technical Director of Asia Regional Trafficking in Persons Project, and former UN Adviser on...
I'm not a comparative constitutional-law scholar, but I find it interesting that, pursuant to Section 44(iii) of the Constitution of Australia, no one can serve in Parliament who "[i]s an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent." The solvency requirement harkens back to the bad old days of U.S. history, when most States prohibited individuals who did not own property from voting. But...
President Obama’s speech in Cairo was nothing short of remarkable. The issue of interfaith dialogue is dear to my heart, and his speech deserves to be studied and discussed far and wide. I cannot think of a more important message about the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world in American history. If you have...
In various posts on OJ about Predator drones, targeted killing, and such topics, I've made reference to a book chapter I've been drafting for Benjamin Wittes's forthcoming edited volume of policy essays, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform (Brookings Institution Press 2009). I'm pleased to say that my chapter, Targeted Killing in US Counterterrorism Strategy and Law,...
Last month, the Obama Administration informed the Senate of its treaty priorities via a letter from the State Department (you can access it here). The letter lists 17 treaties for which the Administration seeks Senate advice and consent "at this time," including (as predicted here and here) CTBT, CEDAW, and UNCLOS. It also lists 12 treaties "on which...
I'm on the fly, but quickly wanted to post this update to my earlier posts on targeted killings and Predator strikes. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial execution, Philip Alston, has called for an investigation into US Predator drone attacks. Here is a quick news story on it. I think the press account somewhat overstates matters - I would characterize...
This post was written by Gabriel Swain, a Research Associate at the University of Kent's School of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research. I think the project's reports will be of great interest to our readers. Since its birth in the 1950s, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has functioned, through implementation of the rights guaranteed by the European Convention...
Karen DeYoung has a very interesting account of the on-going Predator drone campaign in Pakistan, on the front page of the Monday, June 1, 2009 Washington Post, "Al Qaeda Seen as Shaken in Pakistan." The story is sourced to US intelligence and military officials, as well as some Pakistani officials, and recounts how the Pakistani army's campaign to retake the Swat...
This is bizarre on so many different levels: Moazzam Begg, from Birmingham, was captured by the CIA and thrown in jail at Guantanamo Bay in 2003. The 41-year-old, who was released in 2005, will now feature as himself in the game for Microsoft's Xbox 360. In the game, players control a detainee at the camp, which has...
Jack Goldsmith observes in a Washington Post op-ed that when one avenue of national security closes, another is opened up, sometimes with worse collateral consequences for third parties. As he says: Demands to raise legal standards for terrorist suspects in one arena often lead to compensating tactics in another arena that leave suspects (and, sometimes, innocent civilians) worse off. I think this...
