Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
07 Jul Customary International Law Symposium: Making Sense of Law as Practice (Or: Why Custom Doesn’t Crystallize)
[Jutta Brunnée is University Professor and Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto.] With her provocative new article Making Sense of Customary Law, Monica Hakimi challenges doctrinalists as well as theorists of international law to engage in a sophisticated conversation about a classical problem: how do we know when customary international law (CIL) exists as “a general practice accepted as law”? Monica argues that “orthodox” accounts of custom are overly concerned with identifying stable primary rules (i.e. rules regulating behavior) and, to...26 Oct The Mary Ellen O’Connell and Benjamin Wittes Debate on Targeted Killing and Drone Warfare
well. The Obama administration has reasons given its preferred domestic law lens of the AUMF for relying on the first. There is nothing wicked or bad faith about that; the international law views are plausible and offered in good faith, and if it sees one as meshing better with its domestic law views, that is fine, too. But notice how different this approach to “international law” – regardless of whether one agrees with the specific legal judgments being made, the general approach is the traditional one of the State Department...11 Dec Top International Law Journal Or Mid-Level Mainline Journal?
Washington & Lee Law School’s “Most Cited Legal Periodical List” there is now objective data to assist in making such choices. According to that website these are the top ten international law journals in terms of citations (excluding Tulane Law Review which I don’t count as a true international law journal), together with their overall rank among all law journals: 1. American Journal of International Law (#18)2. Virginia Journal of International Law (#54)3. Fordham International Law Journal (#61)4. American Journal of Comparative Law (#69)5. American University International Law Review (#75)6....10 Apr VJIL Symposium: Introducing Stephan W. Schill’s “Enhancing International Investment Law’s Legitimacy”
EU, deal with problems similar to those dealt with in investment arbitrations. Such a approach should help to link international investment law to general principles of public law and support increased recourse to public law thinking, including proportionality analysis, public law standards of review, public law requirements of reasons-giving, among others. Overall, I suggest that we should explore how public law analysis can help rethink rather than, as suggested by some critics, kill international investment law and investor-state arbitration. Internalizing this public law thinking in investment treaty arbitration, as is...03 Feb Medellín, the Alien Tort Statute, and the Domestic Status of International Law
...law governing the extraterritorial conduct at issue? Stated differently, if a case involves extraterritorial conduct and effects, and parties other than the U.S. government or a U.S. national (e.g. Filartiga), is any domestic law even potentially applicable as such? Clearly, U.S. courts can apply foreign law as the law governing extraterritorial conduct without "domesticating" the foreign rule of decision. In such cases, the conflict of laws rule is domestic, but the foreign law rule of decision that it requires to be applied is not. It is, as they say, "discovered"...18 Dec Events and Announcements: December 18, 2016
Here’s an extra-long edition of our Events and Announcements for the holidays. Thanks to all our readership for following us on OJ! Calls for Papers The blog IntLawGrrls: voices on international law, policy, practice, will celebrate its first decade with “IntLawGrrls! 10th Birthday Conference” on Friday, March 3, 2017. The daylong event will be held at the Dean Rusk International Law Center of the University of Georgia School of Law, which is hosting as part of its Georgia Women in Law Lead initiative. Organizers Diane Marie Amann, Beth Van Schaack,...13 Apr Catherine Powell at HuffPo on Koh and Customary International Law
Catherine Powell has an essay at Huffington Post responding to those criticizing Harold Koh for his views on customary international law. She writes: Harold Koh’s position that customary international law is a form of federal common law reflects the conventional view since the founding of the nation. For over 200 years, Congress, the courts, and the Executive Branch have recognized that each branch has authority to observe customary international law (or, the law of nations) as part of federal law. Such customary norms include basic rules governing international business transactions,...19 Nov Chertoff on International Law
can help these persons understand that international law is OUR law and they as well as us are to comply with that law. Thus, when Chertoff as head of the Criminal Division of Justice gave advice and comfort to torturers in other government agencies by agreeing that if certain harsh interrogation techniques were used then the Criminal Division would not prosecute he should understand that as a matter of domestic (war crimes) and international law that was wrong. But the domestic law doctrine of prosecutorial discretion which might be of...19 Apr Charming Betsy in the Ninth Circuit
that “the customs and usages” of the nations of the world, as revealed in these and other sources, form customary international law entitling them to higher wages. This claim fails because customary international law is not a source of judicially enforceable private rights in the absence of a statute conferring jurisdiction over such claims. See Princz v. Federal Republic of Germany, 26 F.3d 1166, 1174 n. 1 (D.C.Cir.1994) (“While it is true that ‘international law is part of our law,’ it is also our law that a federal court is...21 May No, the UN Has Not Said the U.S. Is Engaged in an “Armed Conflict” with Al Qaeda
...does not claim the right to intervene when purely internal violence conforms to IHL or human rights law, but may intervene when it doesn't (see Libya, Kosovo, etc.). Is this evidence of some form customary international combatant or equivalent functional immunity for the state's leaders and armed forces engaged in purely internal armed violence? Do Gaddafi's ICC charges effectively indicate the removal of a functional immunity recognized by customary international law? Again, I am not making an argument here. I am thinking out loud and welcome your thoughts. Some have...