Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

24 May Islamic Law and Progressive Politics

...Wahid thinks the best response is better jurisprudence Filali-Ansary thinks the best response is better politics. There is a middle ground. Wahid suggests that outside the four corners of the Qur’an Islamic law is highly indeterminate and largely reflects past or present political choices. Perhaps both authors would be satisfied with an interpretive approach that opened up space for political discourse by emphasizing ambiguity and narrowing the reach of Islamic law to its clearest applications. Such an approach would deny clear legal support to progressives and their opponents alike, leaving...

31 Jan Competition and Control in International Adjudication: A Response

Catherine Rogers Both Jacob Cogan’s interesting essay, and Larry Helfer’s thoughtful response, address issues of competition and control in international adjudication, focusing on public international law tribunals. While these are an essential part of the story, there are other tribunals and cases that rightly fit in the general category of “international adjudication,” including international arbitral tribunals and national courts. As an initial matter, under virtually any definition, most notably Lon Fuller’s classic formulation, arbitration constitutes a form of adjudication. While ostensibly private, even when States are not parties, international arbitration...

04 Sep The Utility of International Law Courses — A Response to Posner

...law in any year unless you want to work as a lawyer in the State Department or certain obscure precincts of the Justice Department, hope to work for an international organization such as the United Nations or an international NGO with a legal agenda such as Human Rights Watch, or have an academic or intellectual interest in international law and international relations. If you are in any of these categories, wait till your second year. For most law students, who aspire to work in regular law firms, or in prosecutor’s...

02 Aug Opinio Juris Symposium: Thoughts in Response to Professors Spiro and Ku

Peter Spiro Mike, Thanks for the response. All points well taken. I don't for a minute mean to imply that this isn't a worthwhile project. The fact that others clearly see value in historical textualism alone makes your book an important one, and it's interesting history to boot. Nor would I argue that text and its historical meaning is completely irrelevant in confronting contemporary controversies. But I would discount it pretty steeply. Only where founding materials work to establish a norm's pedigree do I think it serves much purpose. Any...

02 Mar Medellin: A Response to Comments

Andreas Paulus Julian, Thanks for your response, which I think is very helpful to clearly understand what the debate is about. But there is one point that troubles me in your argument: You argue in favour of dualism (and for the control of the executive branch over international law - government by men, not law, in that sphere), but the Constitution has decided otherwise. That is what Article VI is about. Of course, later case law has it that a treaty must be self-executing, and that makes perfect sense as...

16 Mar International Law "Must Reads"

of the Modern Position, 110 Harv. L. Rev. 815 (1997). In response to this line of criticism, see, among other responses,Harold Hongju Koh, Is International Law Really State Law?, 111 Harv. L. Rev 1824 (1998). Martii Koskenniemi, From Apology to Utopia (1989). This book is the antecedent to The Gentle Civilizer of Nations, which I mentioned above. It is a more theoretical discussion of the need of international lawyers to not be overly-technical but rather to use social theory to assess the “deep structure” of international legal discourse. As with...