Ariel Lavinbuk, a 3L at Yale Law, has an interesting proposal on how the Supreme Court should resolve the upcoming Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case. He argues in Slate that the Court should avoid all the hard issues as to legality of military commissions under the Constitution and international treaties. Rather, they should simply hold that even if the commissions are...
Wow. It is rare for someone in your field to write something that is so obviously important about a subject that has completely escaped your attention. But I must admit that that is how Tim Wu's draft article on The World Trade Law of Internet Filtering hit me when I read it. Fresh, thoughtful, and concise. His topic is how...
We would like to welcome the newest member of the Opinio Juris team, Professor Duncan Hollis of Temple University School of Law. As many of you may remember, Duncan guest blogged with us in December. Duncan is a specialist in treaty law and has edited a new book, National Treaty Law and Practice. Other examples of his scholarship can...
On the thirtieth anniversary of the coup in Argentina that removed Isabel Peron from power, the ever-essential National Security Archives has released a series of fascinating documents detailing the massive atrocities committed by the military junta in the wake of the coup and revealing Henry Kissinger's intent to immediately support the junta despite warnings of the impending bloodshed. The...
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear two of the most important cases on the status of treaty and international law in the U.S. system in the last fifty years. On Tuesday, Scotus will consider the petition of Hamdan, an alleged Al Qaeda member who is challenging the legality of the system of military commissions under U.S. law...
Regarding the upcoming oral argument in Hamdan, the Guantanamo detainee case before the Supreme Court, the following is from CNN (citing to Newsweek): U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dismissed the idea that Guantanamo detainees have constitutional rights and called European concerns over the issue hypocritical, Newsweek magazine reported Sunday. The comments, which Newsweek said were recorded at a private appearance...
There is an interesting story in The Australian today reporting that Vladimir Putin not only plagiarized his economics thesis, "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations," from two American economists at the University of Pittsburgh, but would not have earned the Ph.D in economics he claims to have even if he had written it: A new...
There is an interesting editorial by Roger Cohen in the New York Times contending that the Abdul Rahman case shows deeper fisions between the West and Islam than we typically appreciate. Cohen highlights the fact that politicians throughout the West have condemned the threatened execution of a man for the simple act of embracing another faith. He also...
Bush's string of broken promises to the victims of Hurricane Katrina are well-documented. So this story -- wherein, when faced with a choice between politics and compassion, he once again chooses politics — comes as little surprise: Cuba's prize money from the first World Baseball Classic has become a political football in President Fidel Castro's 4-decade-old sparing match with the...
According to the BBC, the government of Nigeria has agreed to hand over former Liberian President Charles Taylor for trial. The Nigerian Government statement said: "President Olusegun Obasanjo has today, 25 March, informed President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf that the government of Liberia is free to take former President Charles Taylor into custody." The BBC further reports that: Mr Taylor is accused of selling...
Check out this useful Foreign Affairs essay on the tricky problem of how to regulate the Internet as more and more countries have a stake in how the Internet develops and evolves. I think the burden rests on foreign critics who want to alter the existing system. Fears of U.S. "unilateralism" strike me as overblown in this context...
A couple of weeks ago, I discussed the ICTR's acquittal of Andre Ntagerura and Emmanuel Bagambiki, two high-ranking Rwandan officials charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. Rwanda has now announced that it intends to prosecute Bagambiki, the former governor of Cyangugu, for crimes against humanity involving rape and sexual violence — charges that were not part of...
