Author Archive | Eric Posner

  A comment to my reply post made me realize that I accidentally omitted the following paragraph in that post.  A number of responses to my third post on executive primacy and domestic law argued that in fact in domestic affairs the executive is not unbound. These responses noted some recent examples where President Obama’s […]

 In this, my last post on The Executive Unbound, I had intended to respond to as many comments as I could, but it turns out that there is a single theme of many of the comments, and I will focus on it with apologies to others whom I neglect. Before I continue, let me thank […]

 In my previous two posts, I discussed the executive’s prerogatives with respect to foreign policy and military intervention—hot topics today. But until recently, the hot topic was the Obama administration’s aggressive domestic policy, which culminated in the Dodd-Frank Act and the health care law. Skeptics of the thesis of executive primacy could point to these […]

In my last post, I quoted Andrew Sullivan’s provocative claim that “Obama has now taken [the imperial presidency] to a greater height than even Bush.” Could that claim be right? I assume that Sullivan means that not even Bush went to war without congressional authorization, whereas Obama has shown himself willing to do so, but […]

 Congress’ reaction to President Obama’s decision to launch a military intervention in Libya has been supine even by Congress’ usual standards. Congress vigorously debated and refused to authorize President Clinton’s military intervention in Kosovo in 1999 (Clinton intervened anyway). Congress debated and authorized the attacks on Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. Yet Congress […]

I’m signing off from the Volokh Conspiracy so that I will have time to pursue other projects.  Thanks to Eugene for inviting me to blog with him, to the rest of the gang for putting up with me, and to readers for their frequently interesting and only occasionally uncharitable and very rarely egregious and defamatory comments.  […]

The Book is a new online venture founded by Leon Wieseltier, the longtime editor of the literary section of the New Republic.  The New Republic has always been the top place for book reviews in my opinion—less ideologically predictable than the New York Review of Books and the London Review of Books, less eccentric than TLS, and […]

This piece by Mark Lynas is well worth reading. To those who would blame Obama and rich countries in general, know this: it was China’s representative who insisted that industrialised country targets, previously agreed as an 80% cut by 2050, be taken out of the deal. “Why can’t we even mention our own targets?” demanded […]

Jonathan notes that the health care bill includes certain “entrenchment” provisions, and asks, “can the current Senate bind future Senates in this way?”  If I understand the bill correctly, it creates an independent board that recommends ways to limit Medicare payments.  These recommendations go to the president, who in turn is supposed to submit them […]

The most tangible outcome of the climate agreement announced here Friday turned out to be cash…. But money in notable quantities should, in principle, start flowing next year…. The accord calls for the establishment of the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund to support immediate action to help curb emissions and to help communities adapt to the […]

The original goal of Copenhagen was a 192-country treaty that committed all nations to reduce carbon emissions.  The much-scaled down goal that emerged in the weeks before the delegates arrived was a “political agreement” (not a treaty) that expressed a global consensus on the importance of reducing emissions.  What we finally got was a political […]