Here is the U.S. Govt description of the recent deal where North Korea sort of agreed to give up its nuclear weapons program. Who knows if this deal will stick? But one thing to keep in mind from an international lawyer point of view: the agreement has some chance of success, precisely because it is probably not a treaty or...
Over at Slate, Julian Mortenson has submitted a series of dispatches from the Slobadan Milosevic trial at the ICTY which offer an up-close-and-personal angle on the 3-plus-years old prosecution of the notorious Serb leader on a series of war crimes charges. International prosecution has an important part to play in accountability for past crimes, for creating a forum for victims...
Ann Althouse has a reasonable view of citation to foreign law in constitutional cases in her op-ed in today's NYTimes. It's easy to agree with someone who shares one's own views....
Here is a sympathetic profile in the WSJ of newly-installed U.N. Ambassador John Bolton's activities during the latest U.N. reform effort. Perhaps I am wrong when I argued here that U.N. ambassadors, and ambassadors in general don't matter very much. But then again, this profile doesn't really suggest Bolton has been able to do very much, one way or the...
Today I will be participating in an "online symposium" hosted here by the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty (my opening statement is here). Four leading scholars (or three depending on whether I can call myself "leading"), will blog about Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a case involving a challenge to the legality of President Bush's military commissions (which I...
As I noted previously, a recent poll showed that many Europeans had a more favorable view of China than the United States, a somewhat surprising (and disturbing) result. A recent poll of the U.S. public shows no such friendliness toward China - quite the opposite. As the WSJ reports:Nearly three-quarters of Americans now view Britain as an ally -- far...
Listening to the Roberts hearing is amusing for a few minutes, but only the true Supreme Court geeks can stand it for more than an hour. Luckily, in the age of the internet, we can skip the hearings and simply go straight to the transcript portions that interest us. So here goes: Senator Feinstein of California asked Judge...
In an earlier post I had on UN reform, I noted that the US is losing public relations points for not agreeing to target 0.7% of GDP (as opposed to the current 0.16%) towards overseas development assistance. George Morris commented:This argument is a total red-herring. While these "poorer" countries may, in theory, give more as a percentage of overall GDP,...
I am back on the blog and wanted to post this exchange between Roberts and Senator Kyl (R. Ariz.) at today's hearing of Judge Roberts. (For background on the contours of the debate, see Jeff Toobin's New Yorker piece (via Scotusblog) on Justice Kennedy's "cosmopolitanism" and the use of foreign law). KYL: It's an American Constitution, not a European...
I think Julian might be reading more into my post than what was written. I never said (nor even meant to imply that) the US position is unreasonable. To the contrary, I think its attempted reform of the Human Rights Commission is a good idea. I noted that that reform effort was being blocked by China, Russia, and a host...
Following up on Chris' post on the opening of the UN General Assembly this week and the U.N. reform agenda, it might be useful to check out some defenses of what the U.S. is seeking in the UN Reform process in the WSJ here and in the NYT here. The U.S. positions seem fairly reasonable, but I leave to Chris...
It seems like everyone wants the UN to change, to evolve, to reform. The trick is getting consensus on what such reform should look like. World leaders will have their chance this week to hammer something out at the plenary meeting of heads of state marking the 60thanniversary of the UN. (See also the State Department site on...
