In association with the International Commission of Jurists

National Security Law

08 Apr

Mary Ellen O'Connell (whose recent book The Power and the Purpose of International Law was the subject of one of our book discussions) has a post at Balkinization called "Who's Afraid of International Law?" that considers the fear-mongering by some in the media concerning international law.   After briefly discussing the views of the Founders,  she writes: So why does Glen Beck seem to fear international law? Why...

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08 Apr

Ed Whelan responds to my post mostly through name-calling, labeling me an incoherent, liberal academic. Yet, no amount of ad hominem attack can obscure the basic weakness of his argument. He continues to worry that international elites will subvert the will of democratically elected leaders in the executive and legislative branches. But who exactly are these international elites and how...

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08 Apr

It is a rare thing indeed to find a published mediation decision involving a matter of such profound importance as the settlement of 9/11 litigation. Last month, Judge Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York published an order accepting the mediated settlement of 95 claims against the airlines for approximately $500 million. The order and accompanying mediator...

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07 Apr

My long slow slide into complete disenchantment with the Obama administration continues.  Comes now, via my two favorite national-security law bloggers, Glenn Greewald and Scott Horton, a truly terrifying tale in which a nameless and faceless Department of Defense committee attempts to put Clive Stafford Smith, one of the world's great human-rights lawyers, in jail for...

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06 Apr

Over at Volokh, Eric Posner has a very interesting post today on the Koh nomination.  Here is a snippet: Foreign-law opponents, take heart! Koh is not a cosmopolitan who seeks to sacrifice American sovereignty to foreign gods. He is a liberal who wants to move American law to the left. International law serves as a handy vehicle, to be used or...

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04 Apr

The more things change, the more things stay the same -- at least with this administration: He had become the most vocal opponent of the trial of Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr, taking on a position more akin to politician than lawyer and launching a two-year public and media campaign that landed him on the front pages of newspapers and inside...

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03 Apr

Tod Lindberg, research fellow at the Hoover Institution and editor of Policy Review (and, full disclosure, good friend of mine) has a new article out in Commentary, "The Only Way to Prevent Genocide."  The article argues that while "creative diplomacy" can make a difference, in "the end, it may all come down to the willingness of the United States to...

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31 Mar

I was very happy to hear last week the news that Dean Harold Koh of Yale, someone I have known for many years and whom I greatly admire, was being nominated to head the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser. It’s one of those picks that just makes sense: Koh is widely respected in the legal profession (among lawyers with a...

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29 Mar

A quip that is often heard at gatherings international lawyers is "If I were [insert name of some prominent Bush Administration official], I wouldn't plan on any more vacations in Europe."  Well, after all the talk of possible European prosecutions of one or more officials from the previous administration, the possibility has now taken a step closer towards becoming reality....

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27 Mar

Complex Terrain Laboratory, where several OJ people sometimes participate, is hosting an online discussion next week on PW Singer's new book on robotics and war, Wired for War.  We have mentioned this book in the past, and OJ has a number of posts on battlefield robotics in the last year or so.  Singer is participating in the CTLab symposium and,...

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22 Mar

That is the conclusion of the most comprehensive study of the issue to date, "Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies: A Scholars' Initiative," conducted by Purdue University.  From the New York Times, which held follow-up interviews with some of the sources cited in the study: Charles W. Ingrao, the study’s co-editor, said that three senior State Department officials, one of them retired, and...

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