General

Weekday News Wrap: Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Japanese military's forced prostitution of Asian women before and during World War II was necessary to "maintain discipline" in the ranks and provide rest for soldiers, an outspoken nationalist mayor has said. Russia has ordered the expulsion of an alleged CIA agent working undercover at the US embassy who was discovered with a large stash of money trying to recruit a Russian...

Bangladesh Factory Safety Accord: Watershed Innovation in Global Governance?

Here's the text of the agreement described in reports in the NY Times and elsewhere today. It's the most significant institutional response to the massive loss of life (now above a thousand dead) in the April Bangladesh factory collapse. This may be a signal episode in the continuing evolution of global corporate regulation. Formally styled as the "Accord on Fire and Building...

Weekday News Wrap: Tuesday, May 14, 2013

UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk urged Israel to stop construction of a highway that would cut off the local roads of Palestinian community Beit Safafa. A Swiss court is trying Belgians and Czechs in one of the biggest money laundering scandals dating back to central Europe's post-communist privatization boom. Major U.S. retailers including Gap Inc. declined to endorse an accord on Bangladesh building and fire...

Weekday News Wrap: Monday, May 13, 2013

Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty of genocide, torture and rape of 1,771 indigenous Ixil Mayans during his rule in 1982-1983. Bangladeshi authorities have arrested Jamaat-e-Islami party leader AKM Yusuf on charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Taiwan's government has issued a 72-hour ultimatum to the Philippines' government, demanding an apology over the...

Weekend Roundup: May 4-10, 2013

This week on Opinio Juris, the discussion of Kiobel continued with guest posts by Jordan Wells asking whether corporate liability is jurisdictional, and Anthony Colangelo arguing that Kiobel actually contradicts Morrison - the case on which it is supposedly based. Kevin asked whether the Al Shimari  v. CACI case could be a model for post-Kiobel ATS cases. We also returned to last week's discussion of the...

2013 ASIL Research Forum

I am delighted to announce that Tim Meyer and I will be co-chairing the 2013 ASIL Research forum.   I hope many of our readers will send in abstracts for this terrific conference.  The deadline for proposals is June 14.  Here is the call: The American Society of International Law calls for submissions of scholarly paper proposals for the ASIL Research...

Kiobel Insta-Symposium: Kiobel Contradicts Morrison

[Anthony J. Colangelo is Associate Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law.] I explained in a previous post why I think extending the presumption against extraterritoriality to causes of action crafted by forum law is strange. But there may be another (bigger?) problem with Kiobel’s application of the presumption to the Alien Tort Statute—namely, it appears to contradict Morrison v. National Australia Bank—the very case on which Kiobel overwhelmingly relies for both its reasoning and its result. As readers will recall, Morrison applied the presumption against extraterritoriality to the principal antifraud provision of the Securities Exchange Act. As the Court in Kiobel itself, as well as many commentators (myself included) have observed, the presumption against extraterritoriality has traditionally applied only to what are generally referred to as “conduct-regulating” rules. These are rules that govern primary conduct and are easily classified under the category of jurisdiction to prescribe or prescriptive jurisdiction. Yet as the Court in Kiobel also explained, the ATS “does not directly regulate conduct or afford relief. It instead allows federal courts to recognize certain causes of action based on sufficiently definite norms of international law.” Indeed the Court framed the relevant question under the ATS as “whether the court has authority to recognize a cause of action under U.S. law to enforce a norm of international law.” In short, the conduct-regulating rule under the statute comes from international law. And since international law applies everywhere, the presumption against extraterritoriality has no application to conduct-regulating rules of decision under the ATS. The Court appeared to accept this view, noted that the ATS was “strictly jurisdictional,” and then decided to apply the presumption anyway. In so doing, the Court explained that “to rebut the presumption, the ATS would need to evince a clear indication of extraterritoriality,” which the ATS failed to do. Here’s the problem.  

Weekday News Wrap: Thursday, May 9, 2013

Another clothing factory has caught fire in Bangladesh, killing eight; this news comes after a recent factory collapse with a death toll now over 900, with both tragedies putting international safety standards in the spotlight.  In other Bangladesh news, the war crimes tribunal is poised to hand down its fourth verdict today over a senior member of the Jamaat-e-Islami political party;...

Harold Koh’s Speech at the Oxford Union

Former State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh spoke yesterday at the Oxford Union. His speech, "How to End the Forever War?" (link to .pdf) is a reflection on the Obama Administration's  foreign policy, in particular in regards to the rule of law.  It is also a talk set to contrast the Obama Administration's approach to international law and foreign policy...

Weekday News Wrap: Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Internet communications companies have reported that Syria has been cut off of "internet communication with the rest of the world." The World Trade Organization has a new Director General: Roberto Azevedo. The ICC postponed Kenyan Vice President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang's trial as the Prosecutor is seeking to add five witnesses and the Defense has requested to vacate the...