The Council of Europe issued a blistering report today denouncing the U.S. and certain European countries for cooperating in a "reprehensible network" of detaining suspected terrorists in CIA-run secret prisons. I understand the legal arguments against renditions based on the Convention Against Torture. Plainly, countries cannot torture or send someone to a country that is likely to engage...
A French court in Toulose has held the French state and the state railway company SNCF liable for transporting a Holocaust victim to death camps near the end of the Second World War. As reported here, The tribunal in Toulouse ordered the state and the SNCF to pay a total of €62,000 (£43,000) to the family for their deceased father, and...
I'm not sure what I think about this, but international law commentators David Rivkin and Lee Casey have an article today in the Washington Post laying out the legal case for either Israel or the U.N. Security Council to attack or invade Iran. Here is the crux of their argument: . . .Ahmadinejad's rant [against Israel] features a direct...
Dan Kahan offered these remarks at Yale Commencement on the general topic of a Yale Law School education. In the course of those remarks he discussed two YLS alums, John Yoo and Jack Goldsmith. Comparing Yoo and Goldsmith he states, "...
Which is more important to globalization, technology or trade? In a recent McKinsey survey of business executives, (registration required) one of the questions was "What single factor contributes most to the accelerating pace of change in the global business environment today?" Of these eight factors, guess which ranked from most important to least important: Awareness and activism of consumersEase of...
One of the top candidates for the U.N. Secretary-General slot opening up later this year is Ban Ki-Moon, Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He spoke at some length last week in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations about his candidacy and his vision for the future of the United Nations. The transcript is of...
Is the "tide of sex workers" arriving in Germany in anticipation of the World Cup the result of human trafficking and sexual slavery or of legalized prostitution and free enterprise? Or maybe both? The U.S. State Department is concerned but some in Germany maintain that the increase in sex workers may be just market forces at work in a...
The most compelling, cutting-edge, honest legal writing being produced in this country today is happening on the Internet, and the crop improves daily. From the fistful of judges (including Richard Posner) who maintain regular blogs, to the vast and growing number of law professors and law students who find the time to post daily, it's clear that the real bones...
Michael Van Alstine has just posted on SSRN his most recent article to be published in the UCLA Law Review entitled Executive Aggrandizement in Foreign Affairs Lawmaking. Here is the abstract:This article analyzes the power of the President to create federal law on the foundation of the executive’s status as the constitutional representative of the United States in foreign...
This case is the most bizarre domain name dispute I have ever heard of. The case involves a claim to the domain name "mymorganstanleyplatinum.com" brought by Morgan Stanley against respondent "Meow, Respondent Penelope Cat of Nash DCB, Ashbed Barn, Boraston Track, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, WR15 8LQ, Great Britain." Here is the key section of the opinion holding that a cat...
One of the advantages of teaching at the University of Missouri is having access to one of the world's great journalism schools. Several of our law students earn joint degrees (JD/MA, LLM/PhD) in law and journalism, and I have had the opportunity to bring experienced international journalists into my classroom to talk about reporting on humanitarian crises. I...
My vote for the most interesting international law case for the month of May is United States v. Juvenile Male 1, 2006 WL 1427281 (D. Ariz. 2006). The case is an unusual choice as it involves federal district court criminal proceedings against a juvenile charged with sexual abuse of a minor on an Indian reservation in Arizona. Not the typical...
