Bruce Ackerman has these thoughts, via FP Passport. I can't see Bush going to Congress to get permission to lob some cruise missiles against critical sites. Contrary to Ackerman's view (representative of the old congressional power purists), I don't think Bush would be constitutionally required to do so, either, given the long practice of unilateral military action by Presidents in...
The Harvard International Law Journal has launched a web-based companion site called ILJ Online. The site will host original web-only content such as remarks by U.S. State Department Legal Adviser (and Opinio Juris guest-blogger) John Bellinger on the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It also provides web-only articles and commentary, such as a recent useful discussion of topics...
Opinio Juris is pleased to welcome Professor Eugene Kontorovich as as guest blogger for the next week or so. Professor Kontorovich is on the faculty of the George Mason Law School, and is currently a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School. He specializes in public international law, constitutional law, and law and economics. His...
This is one of the coolest graphic tools I have seen in a while. Created by a non-profit group in Stockholm, Gapminder interfaces with Google to permit downloads of active graphical interfaces that display various development indicators. The project is described as follows: It all started in 1998 from an idea to enhance the understanding of world health....
Opinio Juris has been selected as part of a Library of Congress program to capture and archive web-based content that is of interest to researchers and the general public. This means that, in addition to being able to find us through the usual internet portals, you will soon be able to find our content at the Library of Congress...
As a State Department alumn (I was a Foreign Service Officer, not a lawyer with L), I want to echo Chris’s comments below and respond to some of Eric Posner’s assertions about the role of the State Department the debate over the legal policy to take as regards the GWOT. Eric says of the State Department: The State Department’s job...
President Bush's surge strategy in Iraq may be the final ingloroious blow to Tony Blair's legacy. But the "special relationship" appears to be further strained by the Atlanta police department's overzealous enforcement of the Georgia jaywalking statute against a world-renowned British historian and self-described "ageing member of the bourgeoisie." A friend at the FCO, aware that I am...
One of the under-reported stories of the past four years is the tragedy of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. That the near collapse and human decimation of one of Africa’s most beautiful, prosperous and resource-rich countries has been relatively ignored at the UN and in Washington and the European capitals is, perhaps, the unfortunate result of a confluence of distracting world...
Christopher Hitchens captures here exactly why the death penalty is a mistake in the case of Saddam Hussein. I have been surprised throughout the process at the IST how many American human rights lawyers have worked for and with the tribunal, knowing that death by hanging was a likely outcome. Surely, if there is one "international norm" that...
In a case that is already fueling a debate in Africa, and which may become an example of how local law enforcement in North America and Europe should handle the brutal practice of female genital mutilation, an Ethiopian immigrant in the US state of Georgia was found guilty yesterday of aggrevated assault and child cruelty for cutting his own two-year...
We are pleased to welcome Professor Hari Osofsky as a guest blogger over the next two weeks. Hari teaches at the University of Oregon Law School and is an expert in international environmental law. Her current research focuses on transnational regulation and the intersection between international law and geography. Her SSRN page is here. In addition to...
Professor David Sloss of Saint Louis University has provided this commentary on the Military Commissions Act. David has published widely in the area of foreign relations law. We are pleased to welcome his comments here: The Military Commissions Act of 2006 contains a number of provisions that raise intriguing constitutional and statutory interpretation questions. This comment will focus on...
