It is well known that Judge John Roberts served as a law clerk to the late Chief Justice Rehnquist, whom Roberts is quite likely to succeed. But less attention has been paid to the actual cases Roberts may have worked on as a law clerk for Rehnquist, even less attention to the cases that Rehnquist worked on when he was...
The Volcker Committee has delivered its report on the oil-for-food scandal at the UN. See also the BBC report about it here.Although it finds no direct wrongdoing by Kofi Annan, the Commission puts at his feet the responsibility for the Oil-for-Food Program being inadequately managed and going awry. We’ve already written much on the various allegations and preliminary findings....
Apropos of my post last week, U.S. Secretary of State Rice has made a point of publicly thanking foreign countries for their contributions to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Here is an excerpt from her news conference:. . we have, in fact, had offers from more than 70 countries around the world. We are now putting those offers to good...
To the surprise of none and the concern of many, a recent report finds that Asia has overtaken the Middle East as the developing world’s leading market for arms. China, India, Taiwan, Pakistan, and South Korea are among the developing world’s top ten arms importers. And, while China has been the developing world’s top importer from 2001 and into 2004,...
The Washington Post has a curious article today detailing Judge Roberts' doubts (but ultimate support) for U.S. ratification of the Convention Against Genocide during the Reagan Administration. The description of the memo is more evidence that, at least with respect to Judge Roberts' views on international law, Judge Roberts' opponents have very little to criticize. The memo simply noted that...
The Katrina disaster is far worse than most Americans could have expected. I've spent a fair amount of time in New Orleans and I remember people telling me that New Orleans in particular is vulnerable to hurricanes, but I never took it seriously. The pictures and stories coming out of the Gulf Coast are horrifying, and to many Americans,...
David Glazier at Intel Dump has provided this analysis of the new military commission rules here. Most of his criticisms seem fairly plausible, although I wonder about one particular claim he makes:There is an extensive body of WWII era precedent that establishes that the failure to provide a trial measuring up to customary international due process standards is in...
The Pentagon released new rules today governing procedures in military commission trials (the USA Today account is here and the WSJ account is here). Note that these rules will not directly affect the consideration of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (the case I discussed here involving Osama Bin Laden's driver) because the petitioner there is challenging the legality of the military commissions...
By many measures, the U.S. relationship with Canada is its most important. After all, Canada is its most important trading partner and shares the longest border with the U.S. Yet how to explain the continuing recent war of words between the U.S. and Canada. After new U.S. ambassador to Canada David Wilkins chided the Canadian government for "emotional outburts"...
The NYTimes carries this article today on the dissolution of the venerable Coudert Brothers, arguably the first truly international law firm. While Coudert managed to maintain some of its prestige, it has been falling farther and farther behind on profits during the last decade or so. Its dissolution comes as no surprise....
The BBC is reporting that China has ratified the World Health Organization's Framework Convention onTobacco Control. This make China the 78th party to the FCTC according to the WHO website (contrary to the BBC's report).This treaty is an easy treaty to ratify for most countries, because it doesn't really require them to do anything that they don't want. In this...
The final draft of the permanent Iraqi Constitution can be found here. The lack of support from Sunni representatives and the Constitution's subordination of any law to "the undisputed rules of Islam" is certainly the big news.It is also interesting to note, however, that the new Constitution cuts back substantially from the internationalist commitments of the interim Constitution. As I...
