David Kaye and K. Russell LaMotte (along with illustrator Peter Hoey) argue in a recent NY Times op-ed that one way the new Congress can attempt to gain back some of the international good-will that the U.S. has lost is to approve some of the many treaties that have been submitted by a President but are currently languishing. They explain:The...
Gary Lawson and Guy Seidman have just published an interesting article, The Jeffersonian Treaty Clause, in the University of Illinois Law Review. In a direct, originalist challenge to Missouri v. Holland, the article argues that the treaty power is limited by inherent structural limitations on executive power. Here is the abstract: The Treaty Clause of the federal Constitution declares that...
Does the fate of the Doha Round negotiations keep you up at night? Are you worried about the future of global free trade? Well, this online chat with WTO Director General Pascal Lamy is going is for you. Lamy will be chatting with.. pretty much anyone in the world who signs up (that is to say, the first 500 folks...
Speaking of revised government tests, the foreign service exam and the general criteria for selection are getting an overhaul as a result of a look from McKinsey. The new process will allow for consideration of factors beyond test scores (to take references and international experience into consideration, for instance). The exam itself doesn't sound like it'll get changed...
Last week, Julian criticized Hamdan for its failure "to defer to the executive's reasonable interpretations of the relevant statutes, treaties, and customary international law of war." Julian's use of the term "reasonable" implies that, at least in principle, the executive could offer an unreasonable interpretation of a statute, treaty, or customary rule — one that, accordingly, would not require...
Ordinary citizens greet the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, as "Helen." ...
Although evidence that Bush and Blair lied about Saddam's WMD capabilities has been accumulating for the past couple of years, this latest revelation is still shocking:In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He...
The Iraqi government's assault on the independence and objectivity of the IHT continues. The trial court was its first target: not only did Iraqi President Jalal Talabani tell reporters on the eve of the Dujail trial that Saddam had signed a written confession and "deserve[d] to be executed 20 times a day for his crimes against humanity," high-ranking officials...
Here is the text of the speech by new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. There are a few good lines from the speech, such as the following: Member States need a dynamic and courageous Secretariat, not one that is passive and risk-averse. The time has come for a new day in relations between the Secretariat and Member States. The...
The D.C. District Court recently issued a very thoughtful opinion in the recent case of Agudas Chasidei Chabad of United States v. Russian Federation. The case concerns claims by the Jewish organization Chabad that Russia had expropriated an invaluable collection of Jewish religious books and manuscripts maintained since 1775 from the first Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman, (pictured at left)...
Israel's High Court of Justice has issued a ruling finding that Israeli military forces may engage in "targeted killings" of Palestinian terrorists consistent with the customary international law of war. A useful discussion of the background of this case can be found here. An English version of the decision can be found here. The decision is a long and...
Ethiopia's former dictator, Mengistu Haile Marian, has been convicted in absentia of genocide following a 12-year trial involving 72 defendants. All but one were found guilty; 34 defendants were present in court, while 25 were tried in absentia. Sentencing, which will almost certainly result in a death sentence for Mengistu, is set for December 28. Regardless, the exercise...
