The ICJ is hearing oral arguments this week in a long-running case between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congo is alleging that Rwanda is responsible for the deaths of some 3.5 million Congolese who have died during Congo's civil wars because of Rwanda's intervention in that civil war. Congo is asking for an order from the ICJ requiring...
Just in time for Independence Day, Northwestern Law Prof John McGinnis has posted this neat little article arguing that the Founders were free traders much in the same vein that the U.S. government is today. In particular, he notes that the Continental Congress approved a "Model Treaty" that would have provided "national treatment" to treaty partners, e.g. that nationals of...
I have very little to add to the zillions of articles and blog posts about the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her likely successor. I did want to point out, though, that Justice O'Connor was (not surprisingly) a moderate in the Court's recent embrace of foreign and international law. Justice O'Connor appears to see some useful analogies...
As I suggested earlier this week, the U.S. government had to announce what it was going to do about the WTO's cotton subsidy decision by Friday, July 1. Well, the U.S. announcement is here and it is pretty mind-numbingly technical. It basically adjusts some export credit programs. The announcement was made by the U.S. Dept of Agriculture rather than the...
In my original post I stated that, legally speaking, the embassy hostages issue was pretty much a closed case, and that a suit is unlikely to be successful against the President-elect of Iran. Julian put some meat on the bones of this statement in his post concerning the Algiers Accords and statutes of limitation. Upon more reflection, I think we...
Just to follow up on Chris' post on Iran's new leader. Ordinarily, the former hostages might have been able to sue the new Iranian prez in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute. But they would face innumerable obstacles including a 10-year statute of limitations. But most importantly, it appears that the 1981 Algiers Accords, which resulted in...
CNN reports that several former hostages of the 444-day US embassy hostage crisis in Iran believe that Iranian president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as one of their captors. Other reports stated that he was believed to have acted in a capacity akin to chief of security for the hostage-takers. The aides of the president-elect have denied the allegations and former...
Some folks get excited about "global governance" and "world government". But while there are some trends toward global integration in the form of free trade and greater international cooperation, I sometimes think the more likely trend will be toward regional integration. The recent setbacks for the EU notwithstanding, regionalism is more likely to occur because of competition from...
Just in time for beach reading season, I have just posted to SSRN my newest article, Resolving Treaty Conflicts, which is coming out in the George Washington International Law Review. I grapple with the question of what States should do when they are signatories to multiple treaties (such as, say, a trade agreement and an environmental agreement) that frustrate each...
In an important decision on treaty interpretation and the political question doctrine, the D.C. Circuit yesterday affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a number of Korean, Taiwanese, and Filipino women who alleged rape, torture, and other abuse at the hands of Japanese soldiers during World War II. The lawsuit was brought under the Alien Tort Statute and had...
A U.N. Commission of Experts has recommended that the Security Council push Indonesia to re-open trials of individuals suspected of committing war crimes in the Timor-Leste (East Timor). Indonesia has conducted prosecutions via an ad hoc tribunal, but according to the commission, these prosecutions were little more than sham trials.I haven't seen the report which is not available online,...
This very interesting piece from the St. Louis Post Dispatch notes that the U.S. is obligated to announce its measures for implementation of a March WTO decision requiring cotton subsidy cuts by Friday (July 1) and that many cotton farmers are understandably nervous about the expected cuts.This may make the WTO seem fairly powerful, but in reality, the U.S. could...
