In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Foreign Relations Law

17 Jun

The Supreme yesterday gave the green light to an individual asserting a Tenth Amendment defense in a criminal prosecution under a federal statute enacted pursuant to the Chemical Weapons Convention (Bond v. United States).  The facts of the case are certainly more lurid than our run-of-the-mine foreign relations law cases.  The basic claim:  the Treaty Power doesn't add anything to...

|
17 Jun

The D.C. Circuit held this week that torture by non-state actors was not actionable under the Alien Tort Statute. The case, Ali Shafi v. Palestinian Authority, arose from the alleged torture in the West Bank by the Palestinian Authority and the PLO of a Palestinian national who was an Israeli spy. The Shafis argue that “the [Palestinian Authority's] conduct...

|
16 Jun

Here is the Administration's legal analysis (in full) of why the 60/90-day clock of the War Powers Resolution doesn't apply to the continuing Libya operation: The President is of the view that the current U.S. military operations in Libya are consistent with the War Powers Resolution and do not under that law require further congressional authorization, because U.S. military operations are...

|
03 Jun

Here's the text of the resolution passed in the House this afternoon on Libya, as introduced by Speaker Boehner.  It's not insignificant, as an institutional pronouncement, even though it's non-binding. It amounts to a kind of soft law.  The resolution provides that "the President shall not deploy, establish, or maintain the presence of units and members of the United...

|
26 May

In Serbia, not surprisingly: Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general accused of overseeing the worst massacre in Europe since the end of World War II, has been arrested, Serbian authorities said Thursday. Mladic is Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect for his alleged role in the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the enclave of Srebrenica,...

|
24 May

This according to the New York Times: The charges — brought by prosecutors Mr. Mubarak had appointed — included hints that former subordinates might testify against him, as onetime allies and government insiders turn on one another. A Cairo criminal court is expected to set a trial date within days, and the Egyptian people could soon see the leader...

|
19 May

[Harold Hongju Koh is the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State.] I write in response to those who have raised questions regarding the lawfulness of the recent United States operation against Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. United States officials have recounted the facts of that well-publicized incident, most recently in the interview of President Obama on CBS News 60 Minutes...

|
10 May

The Gottingen Journal of International Law has just made available online its new special issue that focuses on the relationship between resources and conflicts. This issuse is the result of a symposium which was held this past October. The sixteen papers are organized around the four panel themes: (a) resources before, during, and after conflicts; (b) actors of armed conflicts and international...

|