In a recent speech, Justice Stevens made an interesting point about the question of whether U.S. judges should consider foreign law when interpreting the United States Constitution:

  Judges in this country are right to consider the practices in other countries, [Stevens contended].
  "If we expect them to listen to us, we should at least be willing to listen to what they have to say to us," he said.

  I wonder, who exactly is "us"? And who said that "we" are expecting other countries — and by other countries, I gather Stevens means the judges of other countries — to listen to "us"? I'm intrigued. The Supreme Court's website has not posted the full text of the speech, and it's hard to tell exactly what Stevens had in mind from this snippet alone. But it's interesting to ponder the possibility that Stevens may be concerned with whether foreign judges are following his decisions in their own countries — and that he may think it appropriate to cite foreign law to increase the U.S. Supreme Court's influence (and, by extension, his own) abroad.

  Thanks to ACSBlog for the link.