Along with Julian, I had the good fortune to participate in a symposium last week at Fordham Law School on "International Law and The Constitution: Terms of Engagement." Details about the symposium are available here. The Fordham Law Review will devote a symposium issue to the conference in the near future. Here are a few quotes...
Here's a strange case I came across that I thought you might enjoy. It seems one Quintin Littlejohn had his own ideas about how to handle the situation in Kosovo and was upset with how the International Court of Justice was hijacking his issue. So he sues the ICJ. Here is an excerpt of the decision of...
I am part of a wonderful international arbitration listserve and in the past couple of days there has been an interesting exchange regarding whether international arbitrators or international judges are more prone to bias. One prominent academic at the London School of Economics had this to say: I see it more as a matter of established principle than theory that...
The Ninth Circuit has rendered another fascinating case on the use of the political question doctrine by corporations that allegedly aid and abet international law violations. In Corrie v. Caterpillar, plaintiffs alleged numerous violations of international law against Caterpillar arising from the bulldozing by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of Palestinian homes. According to plaintiffs' complaint, Caterpillar sold the...
The Ninth Circuit rendered an important decision last week regarding a class action § 1983 claim for damages for violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. In Cornejo v. County of San Diego the plaintiffs argued that they could bring a § 1983 claim for monetary damages for "deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the...
A federal district court in Washington has ruled that the answer is no. In Biton v. Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority, the court ruled that it had jurisdiction over the Palestinian Authority, and that recent developments do not confer sovereign immunity on defendant. The defendant argued that: We recognize that the court previously has held that [D]efendants are collaterally estopped...
With all the press about the recent annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, I thought it was worth opening up some discussion about this new organization. If you spend a few minutes on the webpage, or read a few articles about the annual meeting, you cannot help but be impressed. This is not Davos, or the Aspen...
The common refrain of constitutional comparativists is that foreign experiences offer persuasive authority that may serve as a useful guide to judges in their constitutional decision-making. The idea is, as Justice Breyer has argued, that since all modern democracies are facing the same basic problems and are searching for the same basic answers, why not examine how other constitutional...
I have had two wonderful days at Princeton's Center for Theological Inquiry with Jeremy Waldron, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Nicholas Grief and noted theologians discussing the intersection between theology and international law. One of the topics that came up was whether international law is teleological. My strong assumption is yes. Albert Schweitzer in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture talks about...
Kudos to the State Department for launching the Digital Outreach Team, a.k.a. the Foggy Bottom Bloggers. As reported here, they are doing marvelous work spreading the message of tolerance and dialogue to Middle East blogs frequented by radical Muslims. The team concentrates on about a dozen mainstream Web sites such as chat rooms set up by the BBC and Al...
Now you too can become a micro-lender to the working poor with Kiva. I just learned about Kiva this past week and I find it just incredible. As the websites describes it, "Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can "sponsor a...
The United States is frequently described as an international outlier on human rights. Numerous books and articles have been written bemoaning American exceptionalism. But is it true? I have been thinking a fair bit about comparative law recently and it strikes me that the only valid way to describe the United States as a constitutional outlier is...
