Over the last year, Julian and I both participated in a task force on treaties, jointly convened by the American Bar Association and the American Society of International Law.  Along with the task force’s other members, including former guest bloggers like Ed Swaine and Curt Bradley (see the full list here), we’ve now produced a consensus report.  Medellin served as the impetus for the task force’s creation, and our report focused on (1) identifying the range of available interpretations of that case; (2) potential consequences of its decision on the role of treaties in U.S. law; and (3) recommendations for addressing such consequences.

In terms of how to read Medellin, the report focuses on the case’s implications for (a) which treaties will be found to be non self-executing, and (b) what legal implications flow from attaching a non-self executing label to a treaty.