I couldn't resist posting this rather scary video of a girl swallowed by a sidewalk sinkhole in Xi'an China. Sure, this doesn't mean China won't be a key and influential power in world affairs. But it does remind us that China is not exactly the inevitable global juggernaut it is sometimes portrayed as. This is actually not the first time...
My earlier post on executive power generated some good, thoughtful comments. I wanted to highlight Charlie Savage’s in particular (he’s the author of the New York Times article I’d mentioned, please see his comment in the section below), and take a moment to offer a few thoughts in response. Charlie’s concerns are basically twofold. The first is that I’m...
Charlie Savage’s odd article in yesterday’s New York Times prompted another exchange in the ongoing conversation about whether the Obama Administration’s assertions of executive power can be meaningfully distinguished from those of George W. Bush. Savage’s article is headlined in such a way, and otherwise seems to suggest that Obama’s recent reliance on executive orders to accomplish various policy changes...
South Sudan has recognized a market bombing allegedly carried out by Sudan as an "act of war." Meanwhile, Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir has ruled out peace talks that have been urged by the UN with its neigbor to the south, with plans to only recognize the language of "guns and bullets" instead. The ECHR Blog has a roundup of the outcomes from last weekend's Brighton Conference on...
I've got an op-ed in the NY Times today on the SB 1070 case, the title of which might have been "Let Arizona Law Die a Natural Death." In 750 words there wasn't room to engage the key doctrinal foreign relations elements of the case. This is central to the Obama Administration's case against the law: Immigration inherently implicates foreign...
Our own Peter Spiro has penned an op-ed in the NY Times about the upcoming arguments at the Supreme Court about Arizona's controversial immigration bill, SB-1070. Peter has posted on OJ about it here. Territorial disputes between China and Taiwan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei may escalate based on Chinese development firms jockeying for position in the disputed islands. Despite tensions, China has lauded...
Last week, the good folks at the American Enterprise Institute and the Federalist Society hosted a book roundtable on Taming Globalization. In addition to John Yoo and myself, we were joined in a very lively discussion by Prof. Martin Flaherty of Fordham and Prof. Jeremy Rabkin of George Mason (with Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post as moderator). While John...
One of the most popular arguments made against the Second Circuit's interpretation of the Alien Tort Statute in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell is essentially a policy argument: How could it be possible for Congress to have intended to allow corporations to immune from claims of serious international law violations while at the same time allowing individuals to be liable? This...
The Supreme Court hears arguments in the Arizona SB 1070 case on Wednesday. I'll have some things to say on the merits over the next couple of days, but first a lament: why did the Court feel like it had to take the case in the first place? It could have waited. There are a bunch of cases making their way...
This is our third installment of this new feature, last week's announcements can be found here. If you are organizing a conference or other event and would like to see the call for papers or the program announced on Opinio Juris please contact us. Calls for Papers The Helsinki Summer Seminar on International Law is planned for August 21-30, 2012 in Helsinki, Finland. The theme...
Continuing on last week’s discussion of the CIA’s General Counsel Speech, Ken Anderson posted about Daniel Klaidman’s guest post on Lawfare discussing the genesis of this speech. Another speech attracting attention was Deborah Pearlstein's discussion of a dinner talk by General Michael Haydn, CIA Director under George W. Bush, on interrogation and common article 3. If you’re losing track of...
I don't actually mean to express an editorial view here - my views on the role of social media, I've decided, are too mixed up for me to write a coherent post. But I did think this was funny. Thanks to my friend and colleague Juan Mendez and his ...
