Search: crossing lines
02 Jun Law of the Sea Treaty Ratified! (By the Interior Department)
...the new lines is none other than the Law of the Sea Treaty, which, as the paper points out, the U.S. has thus far refused to ratify. Actually, this is not as crazy as the Times believes. The U.S. has signed the treaty after all, and it has also recognized many of its provisions as customary international law. U.S. courts apply customary international law all the time in resolving territorial disputes between states, so it seems fine if an executive agency (which otherwise has that authority) wants to use the...26 Oct Book Roundtable: Ruti Teitel’s Humanity’s Law
I’m delighted to have been asked to participate in this discussion of Ruti Teitel’s Humanity’s Law. Let me start by simply saying what a great read this book is. Congratulations to Ruti on a book that really does shift our thinking about the base lines of international law, challenge conventional notions of a state-centric international legal system, and help make sense of the changes across a range of sub-fields in international law that all do more to privilege the individual. Ruti’s central claim is that there has been a move...
21 Jun The Inadequacy of the US State Department Report on Arms Exports Assurances: Part II
...refute this concern, the Report should have examined all foreseeable and relevant factors that would affect that determination. And given the gravity of the decision, and the failure to pursue various foreseeable lines of inquiry, the Report is indefensible. In fact, we can recall that some reporting claimed that the internal State Department cables between the non-political departments reached a drastically different outcome on the assurances than the Report given to Congress does. We know that a State Department employee who was a contributing author on the first draft of...
23 Aug International Investment Law Symposium: Is Foreign Direct Investment a Blessing or a Grift?
...Arbitrators preserve the solipsistic thinking of investors, translating special interests into general principles of the regime. Normative conflict is the only possible outcome as each demographic battles over jurisdictional lines. For example, a clever argument recently pursued to support the injection of human rights into the adjudication of panels is the ‘necessity defence’ under customary international law. Do prospective violations of human rights or ecological sustainability amount to a “grave and imminent peril”, permitting states to breach their investment treaty obligations? While this might seem like overreach, some investment tribunals...16 Sep Corporations for International Law!
Don’t be surprised if you see a headline along these lines in the not-so-distant future. The NY Times today has an interesting lead story on how corporations are now pushing for federal regulation in various areas instead of fighting it, on issues ranging from fuel efficiency to predatory lending practices to cigarette lighter safety. The story highlights three elements of this about-face. First, business would rather have a single set of federal regulations than a patchwork of them from the states. Second, the big players are seeing the downside of...