What happens if a foreign national is informed of his VCCR rights and declines the opportunity to invoke them? That was one of the critical issues in the recent death penalty case of Marquez-Burrola v. State, 2007 WL 1140411. Here is an excerpt of the decision from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest court in Oklahoma...
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, (the second worst shooting spree in world history) there has been a tremendous outpouring of criticism in the world press, particularly European press, against the United States regarding our gun control laws (or lack thereof). I am quite sympathetic to those arguments. But just to put matters in perspective, I did a...
Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and in honor of that day I am planning to do a series of posts in the coming days on different subjects relating to genocide and the Holocaust. Primarily the focus will be on the neglected subject of the intersection between genocide and religion. But today I wanted to just flag a great op-ed in...
Federal courts are often requested pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1782 to assist with discovery in a case before a foreign or international tribunal. Traditionally that has been understood to exclude discovery before international arbitration tribunals. But last week a federal district court cast doubt on that rule. A New Jersey district court in In re Oxus Gold...
As Julian has noted (see here and here) a federal district court in Washington D.C. last week has dealt a major blow to claims for damages for alleged torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. Given the importance of the case, I wanted to flesh out the decision a little more and provide my own quick thoughts on the case. ...
I happened to be perusing the Yale Law School calendar looking for a link to this seminar when it hit me: it's non-stop international law at YLS. In the month of March there was a featured extra-curricular lecture, presentation, or event about international or foreign law at YLS every single school day of the month: March 1: Dean...
Opinio Juris has invited scholars who are experts in international environmental law to give their thoughts in the coming days on the Supreme Court's "global warming" decision in Massachusetts v. EPA. I am not an expert on either standing or environmental law, but I do know a fair bit about administrative law. In that vein, I wanted to...
Less than six months after the Softwood Lumber Agreement was signed, the United States has invoked the dispute resolution provisions of the SLA to request formal consultations as a prelude to the filing of an arbitration claim. According to USTR, the dispute concerns application of the "surge" mechanism that is triggered when lumber prices fall below a certain threshold....
There are plenty of reasons to be suspicious of the annual law school rankings published by US News & World Report. Law deans have long argued that the rankings are “arbitrary,” “inherently flawed,” and “unworthy of being an important influence on the choice” of law schools. But a law student in Washington D.C. has recently uncovered evidence indicating that it...
The first day of the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law began with a morning session on the future of arbitration involving states. This "pre-meeting" event is co-sponsored by the ASIL and the Institute for Transnational Arbitration and was chaired by Professor Catherine Rogers and yours truly. Details are available here. It included great...
On March 25, 1807, two hundred years ago today, Parliament passed An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Here is the key language of the Act: Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the...
The European Court of Human Rights rendered an important decision this week on the European Convention's guarantees regarding "therapeutic abortions", i.e., abortions necessary for the life or health of the mother. The case summary of Tysiąc v. Poland is here and the full text of the judgment is here. Polish law (the "1993 Act") authorizes the termination of pregnancies if...
