A good editorial, one that provides important context. Here's a snippet: From the beginning, the case against Garzon has seemed to be motivated by political and personal vendettas, and the timing of these decisions is no exception. Early in the week, Garzon had asked Spanish authorities for a seven-month leave to work as a consultant to the International...
Ken has already flagged the editorial, in which Schuck -- a superb scholar who teaches at Yale -- argues that it would be constitutionally permissible to strip Faisal Shahzad's US citizenship because of his attempt to set off a car-bomb in Times Square. I'm skeptical of Schuck's argument, so I thought I'd explain why. Here are the key paragraphs: Revoking the...
I was going to wait until the book -- entitled The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa -- came out to mention it, but now seems like an opportune time. You can pre-order the book from Amazon here, and here is the description: A revealing account of how Israel’s booming arms industry and apartheid South Africa’s international...
Last week a special committee organized by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has recommended that virtually every clause of the anti-gay bill drafted by Uganda backbencher David Bahati be rejected. As reported here, The recommendations ...
I will write in more detail when I have a bit more time, but I can't let Dershowitz's ridiculously slanted and ahistorical attack on Richard Goldstone pass without comment. Sasha Polakow-Suransky, a Senior Editor at Foreign Affairs who is an expert on Israel-South Africa relations, has responded to the allegations made in the Yediot Ahronoth story Dershowitz cites, allegations that...
In 1995, while Elena Kagan was an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, she wrote a review about Stephen Carter’s book, The Confirmation Mess. Carter’s book, of course, was highly critical of the confirmation process and identified numerous ailments, including most famously, the handling of the confirmation hearing of Robert Bork. Kagan begs to differ....
There's hypocrisy, and then there's Omar al-Bashir: Sudan's justice minister has asked Interpol to arrest the leader of Darfur's most powerful rebel group, state media said on Monday, a step likely to dash hopes of progress in a faltering peace process. [snip] The Sudanese Media Centre quoted Abdel Basit Sabderat as saying the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader,...
Yesterday a federal court in New York granted Chevron's request for discovery of outtakes from the 2009 documentary Crude about the multi-billion dollar litigation in Ecuador. Chevron's request was pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1782, which authorizes a judge in the United States to order discovery of evidence to be used in proceedings before a foreign tribunal. As reported here, Chevron's...
That is what Mike Allen is reporting at Politico. If he's right, our next Supreme Court Justice will likely be the woman who recently argued this (h/t: my friend Steve Vladeck): [W]ith regard to the material support statute, there are substantial (pending) issues with regard to its scope, given that the Ninth Circuit invalidated the "service," "training," and "expert...
Michael Kearney at the University of York has written a long and interesting response to Julian's post, which I have posted below to make sure people see it. I'm far from expert about the law of statehood, so I'm reluctant to comment on the international-law debate. I continue to believe, though, that accepting the Palestinian declaration would be disastrous for...
Julian entitled a post last week "The ICC Begins to Fade in Importance in Sudan." Julian might want to have a talk with Bashir about that: On the international summit circuit, no one can clear a room more quickly than Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Leaders have maneuvered to stay out of photographs with him, dashed ...
Fascinating video of a Dutch Navy strike team recapturing a German vessel that had been captured by Somali pirates. It shows just how dangerous, expensive, and difficult it is to combat piracy. It looks cool, but frankly, the Somali pirates have the Dutch and everyone else outnumbered. There can't be that many of these kinds of strike teams and there...
