Paula Schriefer of Freedom House makes a compelling argument about the central failings of the UN Human Rights Council and how they can be overcome in this piece over at Foreign Policy. It is not, as many argue, the mere presence of bad actors on the Council or the ability of those states and their friends to run the place...
Two former U.S. military commanders took on the former VP for his ongoing support of torture in this scathing op-ed in last week's Miami Herald. Generals Krulak and Hoar took this unusual step because they felt "duty-bound" to "repudiate his [Cheney's] dangerous ideas." Hat tip to Tom Ricks, who calls it "the best article I read on the 8th...
Charlie Savage has a piece in today's NY Times on the OLC's recent memo advising the State Department that it may ignore congressional constraints attached to the 2009 foreign appropriations bill that purport to prohibit U.S. diplomats from attending meetings led by officials from states designated as state sponsors of terrorism on the ground that such constraints unconstitutionally limit...
The U.S. officially took its seat at the UN Human Rights Council on Monday. Yes, it will be joining a deeply flawed institution that, under its prior form as the HR Commission included in its membership Zimbabwe and Sudan* --hardly paragons of human rights compliance. But it is better for the U.S. to be inside the institution, working to bring...
Adjudicating Europe, a new blog dedicated to EU law, has just launched. Here's how the editors describe it: EU Law, despite its expansion and maturity, has not yet developed a comparable blogsphere of its own. Languages, the vastness of its scope, or a tendency to work and discuss inside national communities, have probably influenced this lack of blogging culture among EU...
Joel Trachtman, whose book with my colleague Jeff Dunoff on Ruling the World is just out, also has a new paper on the relationship of domestic political coalitions and compliance with international law. Of course, compliance theory has taken a strong hold in international law (and international relations) scholarship of late. For the most part, however, that work has had...
Priceless. * Ed Swaine pointed out to me that the photo I posted earlier might be a fake. Thanks, Ed!...
My former colleague and current friend, John Ip, has an interesting post at Concurring Opinions discussing his reaction to the Australian Research Council's ranking of law reviews. As he notes, the original version of the list was both absurd and US-centric, awarding the Modern Law Review a B and the Cambridge Law Review a C, while giving the Connecticut Law...
(Update: See KJH's post above, particularly pointing out that the prosecutor has not formally opened an investigation, but is only "collecting information." Likewise Kevin's point that a couple of the laws of war possible violations I mention are not actually crimes under the ICC statute. Thanks, Kevin.) The Wall Street Journal reports today that the prosecutor's office of the International Criminal...
As usual, Laura Rozen (now at Politico) is on top of the latest international law news at Foggy Bottom. Columbia Law Professor Sarah Cleveland has been appointed Counselor on International Law in the office of State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh. According to an email circulated by the school's dean announcing the appointment, Cleveland will "help develop the State Department's...
The following post was written by my friend Mark Osiel (Iowa). He hopes that readers will provide him feedback on the post, so don't be shy! Also make sure to check out Mark's new book, "The End of Reciprocity: Terror, Torture, and the Law of War." It's superb. A curious feature of all the major international crimes is that, unlike domestic...
Over at Volokh, Michael Scharf and Jonathan Adler each weigh in. Plus, see the comments to the various posts here at OJ, as well as Peggy's earlier post on this subject at Prawfslawsblog. And Julian's earlier Prawfslawblog post, too. (Most of the discussion, though not all, is more narrowly focused on the question of 1L international law courses.)...
