In association with the International Commission of Jurists

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14 Sep

This Sunday, September 16, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of its conclusion. The Protocol has aged well, frequently celebrated as the most successful international environmental treaty. It has effectively phased out or controlled the production and consumption of most ozone depleting substances that threaten the ozone layer. ...

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14 Sep

Thanks to Opinio Juris for inviting me to blog. I have learned a lot about blogging. It is fun, but the brevity of posts makes misunderstanding easy. My main theme has been the tension between two kinds of global order on offer—one generated by international law and the other by American action, which in turn is regulated by American law....

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14 Sep

Great post by Scott Horton on the meaning of "Novus Ordo Seclorum" (Latin for "A New Order of the Ages"). It’s there on every dollar bill. Turn it over and read the legend under the pyramid–”novus ordo seclorum”–”a New Order of the Ages.” Hollywood makes it the center of a treasure hunt. Religious nuts who populate the world of cable TV...

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13 Sep

One international right about which I am extremely enthusiastic is the right of migration. As Ilya Somin and I have written about in the paper I have previously referenced, one concern about international law, if it were actually enforced, is that it would make it harder for individuals to vote with their feet against bad laws, because international law creates...

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13 Sep

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau delivered a nice, succinct speech this week to business leaders addressing the globalization backlash. Here's a quick summary: As a result of unprecedented gains in productivity in recent generations, millions of people today enjoy lives unrecognizable a century ago, in terms of the quality and quantity of food, health care, housing and other goods...

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13 Sep

One issue for international law is the degree of American exceptionalism. Is the United States an exceptional nation in way that suggests international law should not apply to it in the same way as to other nations? Or perhaps its exceptionalism suggests that it should remain strictly dualist and not apply international law without the endorsement of the political...

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12 Sep

My purpose here is to provide a brief taxonomy of recent international law skepticism. 1. The Rational Actor Critique: In their book, The Limits of International Law, Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner express skepticism that customary international law often influences the conduct of states. States are rational, self-interested actors and it is difficult for custom to reflect stable equilibria that reflect...

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11 Sep

I wanted to briefly comment on John's most recent post, and his very interesting essay, since it suggests an emerging consensus among legal conservatives about the Bush Administration's war on terror legal strategies (see also Ken Anderson's writings here). As both John and Jack Goldsmith seem to be arguing, the Administration's problems were mostly a failure of political strategy...

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11 Sep

Today, the anniversary of September 11 terrorist attacks, I read with great interest the recent message of Osama Bin Laden. (Full transcript here). There has been plenty of news coverage about the timing, appearance, and tone of the speech. But there has been insufficient analysis of one key component of the speech: its central message. So on September...

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11 Sep

I was very interested to read the New York Times essay on Jack Goldsmith, recently referenced on this blog by Roger Alford. Oddly enough, a week ago, I posted a draft essay, Losing the Law Wars: The Bush Administration’s Strategic Errors, that made some criticisms of the Bush administration’s policies from the outside similar to his from the inside. The...

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