As Texas stays on track to execute Jose Medellin on August 5, it is worth shifting our attention back to Texas. I've always thought the ideal solution to the ICJ-Vienna Convention conundrum is for each individual state to independently comply with the ICJ's judgment. Although I think the ICJ's interpretation of the Vienna Convention is not entirely persuasive, I think...
As frustration with the Bush administration's War on Transparency continues to mount, scholars and pundits are beginning to suggest that the U.S. should think about creating a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the administration's many crimes. Nicholas Kristof is one example. Richard Clarke is another. And a third is Katherine Tiedemann, writing in The American Strategist: The South...
The Seventh Circuit last week rendered the most unusual foreign non conveniens decision I have ever read. The case presents a cautionary tale about the impact that foreign judicial corruption can have on domestic litigation. Mañez v. Bridgestone Firestone involved a tort action against Bridgestone Firestone filed in Indiana after José Samuel Mañez-Reyes died in a "rollover" car accident in...
The New York Times has a prominent, page 3 international story datelined from the UN by C.J. Chivers, "US Position Complicates Global Effort to Curb Illicit Arms." Let me step here directly, but I hope carefully, into the international aspects of a very emotional US political debate. (And thanks to Glenn Reynolds once again for the Instalanche! I also want...
Past and current presidents of the American Society of International Law today urged leaders in Congress to take legislative action to comply with the ICJ decision in Avena and halt the executions of Jose Medellin and the other affected death row inmates until the review required by the ICJ has been carried out. Full text of the letter is here. So, readers, is...
Senators Arlen Specter and Joe Lieberman have a joint commentary in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (July 14, 2008), promoting a federal law to discourage so-called “libel tourism." Libel tourism refers to the practice of a plaintiff suing for libel in a plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction – i.e., the UK – and then seeking to have the judgment enforced in US and other...
In today’s Washington Post, a front page article titled, “Multitude of Forces Drains the Spirit of Giving,” by staff writer Philip Rucker. Compared with the tsunami of 2004 and Katrina, the natural disasters of Burma and China have not produced anywhere near the outpouring of American charitable aid donations: In the weeks since a cyclone laid waste to Burma's delta...
I understand that Opinio Juris will be hosting a discussion of Benjamin Wittes' new book, Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror (Penguin 2008) when it is released for distribution on June 19. That is a very good thing to do. I have heard Ben present material from that book and...
