Search: Symposium on the Functional Approach to the Law of Occupation
29 Aug What if Erie had nothing to do with the status of customary international law in U.S. law?
That’s an argument that my colleague and friend, Craig Green, here at Temple is making with his work, Repressing Erie’s Myth, which will appear in the California Law Review next year (you can download a copy of it in draft form here). For years, the conventional wisdom suggested that customary international law operated as part of U.S. federal common law, or as Justice Gray put it in the Paquette Habana, “International law is part of our law, and must be ascertained and administered by the courts of justice of appropriate...01 May Florida Narrows Foreign Law Ban to Foreign Family Law
Florida’s legislature has just passed a bill that is an interesting variation on the wave of other foreign law bans that have been enacted in U.S. states. Florida’s new law would ban the use of foreign law in Florida state courts if that law “contravenes the strong public policy” of Florida or if the “law is unjust or unreasonable.” It also limits the use of foreign law in choice of law provisions in contracts or forum selection clauses under the same “strong public policy” standard. In fact, Florida’s law is...10 Mar Why the “Public Authority” Defense Does Not Work for the CIA
that international law necessarily controls the scope of a public authority justification in domestic law. If that were true, a state could never sanction any act in its domestic law that would violate applicable international law. We both know that is not the case (except in perfectly monist domestic legal systems), although doing so creates international legal responsibility for the international law violation. This is not to say that any such domestic legal authority has international or transnational effect. Those who commit acts sanctioned by their state's domestic law but...21 Apr Grand Opening Conference for the West Point Center for the Rule of Law
[Major John C. Dehn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Law, US Military Academy, West Point, NY. He teaches International Law, and Constitutional and Military Law. He is writing in his personal capacity and his views do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Defense, the US Army, or the US Military Academy.] First, I express my thanks to Opinio Juris for permitting me to comment on recent events here at West Point in my personal capacity as an international law scholar and U.S. citizen. Last...
09 Oct Islamic State Is Not a State
...enterprise, and proscribed terrorist organisation, not recognised by Australia or any other jurisdiction as a State able to enact law… As far as we are concerned the pronouncements on the permissibility of rape and slavery were unlawful and contrary to the law of Syria and Iraq at the time not to mention contrary to international criminal law. Needless to say, the outrage is warranted. As Hogan Lovells noted, all of Sharrouf’s acts were equally illegal under international criminal law (ICL) and both Iraqi criminal law and Syrian criminal law. ICL...17 Jan Unlawful Enemy Combatants
affirms the long-standing distinction between lawful and unlawful combatants because it limits “prisoner of war” status to lawful combatants, such as members of the regular armed forces of a Party to the Convention. The underlying concept here is simple –unlawful combatants should not be provided combatant immunity during wartime, and should be held criminally accountable for their acts of war. By contrast, AU Professor Robert Goldman explains that lawful combatants have combatants’ privilege, which “immunizes members of armed forces from criminal prosecution by their captors for violent acts that do...15 Jan What Are International Law’s “Must Reads” from the Past Decade?
of analysis of the international law of statehood and sovereignty. James Crawford, The International Law Commission’s Articles on State Responsibility: Introduction, Text and Commentaries (Cambridge 2002). This should have been on the original list back in 2005. A key reference to an important project in international law. Report of the Study Group of the International Law Commission on Fragmentation of International Law: Difficulties Arising from the Diversification and Expansion of International Law (.pdf) (13 April 2006) UN Doc A/CN.4/L.682 and the accompanying Analytical Study (.pdf). Much the this post is...
31 Oct Fourth Annual Symposium on Pop Culture and International Law: “Equivalent Exchange” – Reparations for Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law in Fullmetal Alchemist
for the Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law [BPGR]. These Principles, also known as the Van Boven/Bassiouni Principles, from the names of the two Special Rapporteurs who drafted them, are not legally binding. However, as stated in paragraph 7 of the Preamble, they “identify mechanisms, modalities, procedures and methods for the implementation of existing legal obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law” regarding reparations. Thus, in the words of one of their drafters, the BPGR “are meant...29 Jul Is Messy Constitutionalism the Enemy of Effective Strategy?
and a group of institutions that responds to the conflict of our time. He begins by examining the “law of September 10,” that is, the overlapping techniques and regulations stemming from law enforcement, intelligence operations, and warfighting, that have defined our complex responses to terrorism in the past, ranging from Federal trials to cruise-missile attacks. This actually mirrors how many law schools teach the course “National Security Law”: we pull together a smorgasbord of constitutional law, criminal law, the law of armed conflict, international criminal law, foreign relations law, and...