If you go to the New York Times homepage today there is a large advertisement for the CNN documentary on Osama Bin Laden scheduled tonight at 9 p.m. EST. Should be interesting. But the review of the documentary in the Times is less than flattering. My favorite line is "[w]ith the heavy rotation of soulful portraits of the soft-voiced...
I rarely listen to podcasts, but this podcast by Ann Althouse is definitely worth ten or fifteen minutes of your time. The first half discusses the irony of Judge Taylor’s decision requiring respect for the rule of law. Althouse says of Judge Taylor, “How dare you criticize the President for abusing power when you are blind to your...
The Third Circuit earlier this month rendered one of the more interesting decisions I've seen on the subject of Executive Statements of Interest. In Gross v. German Foundation Industrial Initiative, available here, the Court was faced with a claim that interest in excess of DM 100 million was due on the DM 5 billion German slave labor settlement fund....
James Fallows has an important article in the current issue of The Atlantic Monthly (subscription required) that argues the United States is succeeding in its struggle against terrorism and that the time has come to declare the war on terrorism over. "Declaring Victory" is a long and thoughtful article that is difficult to summarize. But I will do...
I'm sure a few of our readers have some interest in the international legal aspects of the arrest in Thailand of John Mark Karr in the JonBenet Ramsey case. There is some discussion of the topic at the International Extradition Blog. Because it is surprisingly difficult to find information about the U.S.-Thailand Extradition Treaty on the Internet, I...
Professor Mariano-Florentino ("Tino") Cuellar at Stanford Law School has an interesting article forthcoming in the Georgetown Journal of International Law on an unusual subject: refugee security. The title of the article is Refugee Security and the Organizational Logic of Legal Mandates. The abstract and article are available for download here. Cuellar presents a compelling case for...
What a difference a year makes. Lionel Beehner at the Council on Foreign Relations has some interesting thoughts on the one-year anniversary of the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "One year later, President Ahmadinejad has emerged as one of the world's leading anti-American voices. His rhetoric has inflamed an already tense Middle East and empowered the region's Shiites...
One of the most interesting aspects of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 is what it might mean for the future of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. There are several provisions of U.N. Resolution 1701 that I find of particular importance as they relate to the future of Hezbollah: The Security Council ...
From the BBC: They planned to detonate liquid explosives on up to 10 planes. They would have smuggled it on board hidden in drinks, electronic devices and other "common objects". At UK airports on Thursday - with the country on its highest terror alert of "critical" - bottles of water were taken from passengers and mothers asked to taste their...
The Eleventh Circuit sitting en banc rendered an interesting decision yesterday involving the conviction of five defendants who conspired in the Cuban government's downing of the "Brothers To The Rescue" airplane. In United States v. Campa, five defendants who acted as unregistered Cuban intelligence agents were convicted of conspiring to commit murder. The defendants appealed their convinctions and...
On Monday the Ninth Circuit issued one of the most important decisions interpreting the Alien Tort Statute since Sosa. In Sarei v. Rio Tinto, the Ninth Circuit addressed whether corporate liability can apply to human rights abuses committed by Papua New Guinea ("PNG"). Plaintiffs allege that Rio Tinto and the PNG government quelled an uprising in 1990 that...
Earlier this week Justice Kennedy provided the keynote speech at the ABA annual meeting in Hawaii. The speech is pure Kennedy in all his earnestness. The full transcript is not available but the video is here. Here is an excerpt of the speech: We are at another turning point in the history of the law…. [W]e are...
