I’d like to call attention to comments by Ben Wittes over at Lawfare regarding two recent New York Times editorials. Both editorials essentially deal with issues of accountability in armed conflict. One voiced (understandable) skepticism regarding government claims that the CIA’s drone programs have caused no civilian deaths in the past year or so. The other commented on a Seventh...
First and foremost, I express my sincere appreciation to all of the Opinio Juris contributors (as well as special thanks to Peggy for the generous introduction). Their hard work and keen intellects have made this site one of the preeminent public forums for discussing international legal issues and related matters. Though I have been an active commenter and occasional guest...
Opinio Juris is pleased to welcome for an extended guest-blogging stint our friend and frequent contributor, John Dehn. John holds the rank of Major in the U.S. Army and currently serves as Senior Fellow at the Center for the Rule of Law at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. John has taught international law, constitutional law and military law...
Friend of Opinio Juris and current President of the American Branch of the International Law Association, Ruth Wedgwood, passes along the following announcement for teaching opportunities at the Nanjing campus of Johns Hopkins SAIS. They are looking for visitors in political science, economics, and international law: The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) invites applications for one-year...
The Transatlantic Academy is seeking young legal scholars to submit proposals for its 2012-2013 fellowship program. This looks like a great opportunity to partner with scholars in political science and economics in areas affecting the transatlantic relationship. Note next year's theme is a broad view of the "Western Liberal Order": The Transatlantic Academy is seeking candidates to serve as resident Fellows...
Ruti Teitel is Ernst Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School and Visiting Professor, London School of Economics. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Humanity’s Law (Oxford University Press Sept. 2011). For many Egyptians, Hosni Mubarak’s trial is no mere consequence of Egypt’s revolution but the fulfillment of its promise. In the Arab Spring, accountability for...
Last week, we were pleased to host a great discussion of the book International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court. This week, I'm pleased to announce that one of its editors -- Bill Dodge -- is taking a leave from his faculty post at Hastings to become the newest Counselor in International Law to the State Department Legal Adviser, Harold...
Though it produced hardly a ripple in the news (given all the other drama on Capitol Hill this week), Senator Leahy held a hearing yesterday on the legislation he has introduced to enforce the notification provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) at the state level. The webcast of the hearing, aptly titled "Fulfilling our Treaty Obligations and...
Ken Anderson, Jeremy Rabkin, and Jenny Martinez expand in various ways on the concern about constructing a grand narrative introduced on Monday by Harlan Cohen. Anderson discusses a number of questions that might have been used to frame the narrative: legitimacy, the use of international law as a sword or a shield, sovereignty versus internationalism, authority and deference, hegemony, and...
I would like to thank Opinio Juris for hosting this book discussion, and I would like to thank the several contributors for their insightful and provocative posts. This post responds specifically to Andrew Kent's skeptical reaction to David Golove's claim that the judiciary had an active role in policing executive branch compliance with the laws of war. I believe that...
The joy of this project was making the kind of discovery Roger Alford recounts in his post. Alford’s chapter on international law as interpretive tool from 1901 to 1945 discusses, among other things, the Supreme Court’s various approaches to the extraterritorial reach of statutes during that period. Among these approaches was the government purpose test of Unites States v. Bowman...
One of the most intriguing and admirable aspects of this book is that the editors have included within it a scathing critique of the project as a whole. In Chapter 5, “A Social History of International Law: A Historical Commentary, 1861-1900,” John Fabian Witt comments on three preceding chapters on the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence during that period. ...
