Closing Time (In More Ways Than One)

John Yoo has been hitting the op-ed pages alot, lately. The most recent one (that I know of) being this piece in the Wall Street Journal that attempts a critique of President Obama's order to close Gitmo. While the piece is ostensibly about why closing Gitmo is a bad idea, some have argued that the real money shot is here: What such...

Every law professor has that one edited book to which they wish they had contributed.  This one is mine.  The contributors read like a Who's Who of international criminal law: A.  Major Problems of International Criminal Justice Part I. How to Face International Crimes Collective Violence and International Crimes, A. Ceretti State Responsibility and Criminal Liability of Individuals, ...

[Patrick Keenan is Associate Professor at the University of Illinois College of Law] I’m grateful to the folks from VJIL and here at Opinio Juris for the chance to share a few thoughts about my article. My aim in this article is to try to broaden the way that scholars and policymakers think about sovereign wealth funds. The standard fear about...

Economics Professor William Easterly of NYU has launched "Aid Watch," a new blog that is "just asking that aid benefit the poor."  Check out Easterly's inaugural post in which he takes on World Bank President Robert Zoelleck's recent request for a stimulus package for the world.  Whether you agree or disagree with Easterly's "tough love" approach to international aid and...

[Vlad Perju is Assistant Professor of Law at Boston College Law School] I thank Opinio Juris and the editors of the Virginia Journal of International Law for providing this forum to discuss my recent article on Reason and Authority in the European Court of Justice. I am also grateful to Oliver Gerstenberg for kindly agreeing to comment. I start this project...

The Virginia Journal of International Law is delighted to continue its partnership with Opinio Juris this week in this online symposium featuring three articles recently published by VJIL in Vol. 49:2, available here. On Tuesday, Professor Vlad Perju of the Boston College Law School will discuss his article Reason and Authority in the European Court of Justice. Professor Perju’s article...

NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross has a great interview with P.W. Singer of Brookings (and coordinator of the Obama campaign's Defense Policy Task Force) about his new book concerning battlefield robots, Wired for War.  Ken and others have written extensively about the use of battlefield robots on this blog and elsewhere, so I won't re-hash the various legal, moral,...

Yesterday Barack Obama signed an Executive Order directing an immediate review of al-Marri's status. "The Review shall expeditiously determine the disposition options with respect to al-Marri and shall pursue such disposition as is appropriate." So what should the Supreme Court do with the al-Marri case now? As I noted earlier this month, Obama essentially has the choice...

I have a new paper up on SSRN, appearing shortly in the Wayne Law Review, The Assumptions Behind the Assumptions in the War on Terror: Risk Assessment as an Example of Foundational Disagreement in Counterterrorism Policy.  Here is the abstract from SSRN, with apologies from the Department of Shameless Self-Promotion: This 2007 article (based around an invited conference talk at Wayne...

Philippe Sands and Dahlia Lithwick have kindly responded to my post about CAT and the prosecution of torture suspects.  Here is their response: We don't believe we are in disagreement on the approach to the obligation under CAT, under Articles 7(1) and (2). The obligation is to "submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution". What happens...

Although a DC resident, I couldn't persuade myself or my wife to brave the crowds or the cold to attend the inauguration yesterday, and instead watched it instead with a group of friends on hdtv.  Leaving aside Chief Justice Roberts fumbling the oath (see last graph in this post for President Obama retaking the oath on January 21), some of...