Some of the commenters have been trying to prod John Bellinger to discuss the administration’s internal arguments about the legal approach to the war on terror. Of course, he cannot comment on these matters, but we should not let that stop us from discussing them. Media reports about the debates about international law within the administration appear to reveal three...
Today I’d like to offer thoughts on a few aspects of Common Article 3 (CA3) of the Geneva Conventions. I’ve heard lots of questions and concerns about why the President wanted to define in greater detail the terms of CA3. Some say, “The military has been able to train to the standards of CA3 for years. How...
[Opinio Juris welcomes Professor Eric Posner as a guest respondent. Professor Posner is Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law at the University of Chicago.] Thanks to Roger for asking me to write a reply to John Bellinger’s post. I’m going to ask—even though I suspect that John will decline to answer—what is at stake in this argument. The...
[Opinio Juris welcomes Professor Charles Garraway as a guest respondent. Professor Garraway is a Visiting Professor of Law at King’s College, London, an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, and a Visiting Fellow at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex. He is a former Stockton Professor at the United States Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.] There is an...
My next three posts will cover issues relating to the law of war. I know that many people have objected passionately to some of the Administration’s policies and legal positions relating to detainees. I have heard many assertions that U.S. detainee policies violate international law, and I must say that I think many of the criticisms are based...
I am grateful to Roger Alford and Duncan Hollis for inviting me to provide several blog entries on matters of particular interest to my office. Along with many of my colleagues in the Office of the Legal Adviser, I enjoy reading the blog and believe it provides a useful forum to discuss and debate important matters relating to international...
With the rush of so many events—the War in Iraq and the “surge,” Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, the Sudan, the Global War on Terror, Guantanamo, you name it—I just wanted to pause for a minute in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As is the custom each year, the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC (online audio stream here)...
The following is from the Times of London, via Talking Points Memo (emphasis mine):Frederick Kagan, 36, is the author of Choosing Victory, a blueprint for the surge adopted by President George W Bush. Just as everybody had begun writing off the influence of the neocons at the White House, genial, chubby-faced Frederick gave the muscular intellectuals a lease of life. It...
There is little doubt that but for a constitutional impediment one of the top Republican contenders for President in 2008 would be Arnold Schwarzenegger. In a country that embraces immigrants like no other, it is anachronistic and even anti-American that our Constitution does not allow naturalized citizens to become President. That was the message of a great LA...
Charles "Cully" Stimson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, gave a radio interview on Thursday in which he attacked law firms that give pro bono assitance to Guantanamo detainees and suggested a boycott of such firms by American companies may be in order. Thankfully, the Pentagon is distancing itself from DASD Stimson's remarks. CNN has the story....
Or so to speak. The standard narrative about the law of expropriation is that there was a wave of nationalizations (and subsequent arbitrations) in the 1960's and 1970's, then a wave or privatizations in the 1980's and 1990's. Today's disputes about expropriation, so the story goes, are about regulatory expropriation--how different types of regulations (environmental, health, tax, etc.) can actually...
President Bush's surge strategy in Iraq may be the final ingloroious blow to Tony Blair's legacy. But the "special relationship" appears to be further strained by the Atlanta police department's overzealous enforcement of the Georgia jaywalking statute against a world-renowned British historian and self-described "ageing member of the bourgeoisie." A friend at the FCO, aware that I am...
