In association with the International Commission of Jurists

International Human Rights Law

22 Jun

Legend has it that the Danes undermined German efforts to persecute Jews in Denmark by acting in solidarity with them by wearing the yellow star. (And yes I know the story is apocryphal). We can't exactly do the same thing today for Iranians, but one small act of solidarity we can do is make it easier for Iranians to...

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21 Jun

Saree Makdisi, a professor of comparative literature at UCLA and an old friend from the literature program at Duke, has a superb editorial in today's Los Angeles Times about the media's -- and thus our -- use of language concerning Israel and Palestine.  Here's a taste: In the U.S., discussion of Palestinian politicians and political movements often relies on a spectrum...

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21 Jun

With the number of the exonerated now at 240, giving prisoners the right to prove their innocence through DNA testing would risk “unnecessarily overthrowing the established system of criminal justice.” It might lead to a reasonably accurate one....

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19 Jun

As most people probably know by now, the Washington Post, completely overburdened by liberals like Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, George Will, Jim Hoagland, Michael Gerson, Robert Kagan, Fred Hiatt, David Broder, Richard Cohen, John Bolton, Joe Lieberman, and Douglas Feith, has fired Dan Froomkin, author of the wonderful blog White House Watch.  Froomkin has yet to say anything about his firing, other than that...

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16 Jun

David Bernstein is back with another attack on Human Rights Watch.  This time, he's up in arms that an HRW official had the temerity to criticize Israel in Saudi Arabia during a fundraising dinner: A delegation from Human Rights Watch was recently in Saudi Arabia. To investigate the mistreatment of women under Saudi Law? To campaign for the rights of homosexuals,...

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16 Jun

Scott Horton has a typically must-read post today at Harpers.com on Jose Padilla's lawsuit against John Yoo, which, happily, just survived a motion to dismiss and appears to be headed to trial.  Scott takes apart the state-secrets defense advanced by both Yoo and -- predictably -- the secrecy-obsessed Obama administration.  Here's a taste: In seeking dismissal, Yoo argued that the case...

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15 Jun

Florence Hartmann's contempt trial began today at the ICTY.  Hartmann, a celebrated journalist who served as the Tribunal's spokesperson from 2000-2006, is charged with knowingly disclosing confidential Tribunal information: On 10 September 2007, a book entitled Paix et Châtiment, authored for publication by Florence Hartmann, was published by Flammarion. Pages 120-122 of the book Paix et Châtiment in particular disclose information...

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08 Jun

I'm not a comparative constitutional-law scholar, but I find it interesting that, pursuant to Section 44(iii) of the Constitution of Australia, no one can serve in Parliament who "[i]s an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent."  The solvency requirement harkens back to the bad old days of U.S. history, when most States prohibited individuals who did not own property from voting.  But...

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06 Jun

In various posts on OJ about Predator drones, targeted killing, and such topics, I've made reference to a book chapter I've been drafting for Benjamin Wittes's forthcoming edited volume of policy essays, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform (Brookings Institution Press 2009).  I'm pleased to say that my chapter, Targeted Killing in US Counterterrorism Strategy and Law,...

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04 Jun

Last month, the Obama Administration informed the Senate of its treaty priorities via a letter from the State Department (you can access it here). The letter lists 17 treaties for which the Administration seeks Senate advice and consent "at this time," including (as predicted here and here) CTBT, CEDAW, and UNCLOS. It also lists 12 treaties "on which...

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