William Taft gave excellent legal advice to the Secretary of State and to the President. The Supreme Court, our international allies, U.S. public opinion, and the President have each vindicated him. The advice of the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, by contrast, proved to be short-sighted or worse. If you haven’t already done so, please read Taft’s memo on the...
The transcript of Secretary Rice's comments at the Annual Meeting of the ASIL have been posted online here....
As many of you may already know, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave the keynote address at the American Society of International Law’s Annual Meeting. This, in and of itself, is worthy of special note. However, on top of this, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduced the Justice with a short speech covering the relation of the rule of...
Following is an excerpt from the State Department press briefing from April 1st in which Richard Boucher discussed Security Council Resolution 1593 (transcribed, along with state comments, here), referring the Darfur situation to the ICC (see also the press release from the ICC itself, with links to other resources, here). Some of the questions focus on whether the Security Council...
The text of the resolution, as well as a summary statements of Security Council members on the resolution, is here.The resolution passed 11-0-4. The four abstentions were Algeria, Brazil, China, and the U.S. The technique of not necesarily supporting something but not preventing it either by abstaining has been a technique that has become more common in the Post-Cold War...
Suzanne Nossel at DemocracyArsenal has posted a news report stating that the US has agreed to let the ICC handle the trials of the crimes in Darfur. An ICC referral is a topic that we here at Opinio Juris have debated at length. See here, here, and here for only three examples (other links our within these previous...
There is an excellent new foreign policy blog called Democracy Arsenal that is focused not only on current issues in international affairs but also on elucidating a progressive foreign policy. The bloggers have experience in government service, political campaigns, NGOs, and private enterprise. I know one of the writers, Suzanne Nossel, I think her writing is incisive and intelligent....
In its Second Interim Report, the Volcker Commission has exonerated Kofi Annan of any wrongdoing in relation to the award of a $10 million dollar contract to Cotecna, a Swiss company that employed his son, although he report does question Annan's handling of the affair. The BBC report is here.According to CNN:"There is no evidence that the selection of...
Professor Barry Carter of Georgetown University Law Center recently posted onto the American Society of International Law’s listserve that the 2005 National Defense Strategy, undersigned by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld states the following in the section assessing America’s vulnerabilities:“Our strength as a nation state will continue to be challenged by those who employ a strategy of the weak using international...
Daniel Drezner has a post (and there are some equally interesting comments) on the ousting of the President of Kyrgyzstan. He asks whether the news from Kyrgyzstan and the recent events in Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan are the first hints of a new “wave” of democratization, in the sense popularized by Samuel Huntington’s book The Third Wave.I hope that...
In the ongoing saga of Augusto Pinochet, the Supreme Court of Chile found that he had Head of State immunity that prevented from his being prosecuted for the killing of his predecessor, General Carlos Prats. See the BBC report here. Pinochet is also being investigated for human rights abuses under Operation Condor, which persecuted and killed left-wing opponents during the...
George Kennan, one of the architects of “containment” policy during the Cold War, passed away yesterday in Princeton at the age of 101. See the Washington Post story and the NY Times story. Kennan’s writing was erudite, stylish, prolific, and influential; his “Long Telegram” written as a foreign service officer shaped the views of government policymakers on the Soviet Union...
