1) It should be no surprise that 130-odd countries took the rather technical step of of voting recognize Palestine as a “non-member” in the U.N. General Assembly. That is roughly the number of countries that already directly recognize Palestine as a state! If they have already actually recognized the state themselves, voting to extend such […]
Author Archive | Eugene Kontorovich
Israel’s Borders and International Law
This is a talk I gave this summer to a group of Jewish college students, which in broad strokes outlines the international law reasons the West Bank cannot be considered “Palestinian territory,” independent of the political or equitable merits of creating a Palestinian state there. Please watch the whole thing before commenting. Hopefully I say […]
New Book on Secession
The Right to Self-determination Under International Law “Selfistans,” Secession, and the Rule of the Great Powers, by Milena Sterio of Cleveland-Marshall (another piracy scholar, to boot). Looks interesting. Probably not timed to coincide with the American petitions…
Other Countries’ Settlements
Last month at the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa annual conference, I discussed a paper I am writing with a former student, Dana Brusca: how one determines whether a violation of Art. 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention has occurred, and what the remedy is. (My talk begins at approx. […]
Homage to Catalonia
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 26, 2012 12:50 am in Constitutional Law, International Law, Israel, Politics, Secession, Uncategorized
Voters in the Spanish province of Catalonia yesterday gave a large majority to pro-independence parties, who now command 2/3 of the seats in the regional parliament. The practical impact may be attenuated, because the secessionist movement is weakened by being spread across four parties: separatists can’t unite. Madrid vows to resist any split. Spain apparently […]
National Security Law in the News
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 25, 2012 11:51 am in Constitutional Law, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Criminal Law, Executive Branch, International Law, Military, National Security, Press, Targeted Killing
National Security Law in the News: A Guide for Journalists, Scholars, and Policymakers is a new book published by the ABA’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security and Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. Despite the title, the book should be of interest to a general audience, as it offers a concise, broad plain-language overview […]
Secession, Family Law, and Political Science
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 23, 2012 11:53 am in Constitutional Theory, International Law, Uncategorized
Discussions of secession in the U.S. are weighed down with the baggage of the Civil War. This legacy may not just burden American’s view of secession as a domestic issue, but also the general concept. The U.S. has opposed secessionist tendencies abroad, even when they were obviously salutary, such as the break-up of the USSR […]
Fatah: A Fossil
One clever-sounding argument, featured on the front page of yesterday’s New York Times, is that while Israel has a moral right to retaliate against Gaza, it would still be a strategic mistake. The Gaza campaign will cause Palestinians to rally around Hamas, weakening the more moderate Fatah in the West Bank. In other words, Israel […]
Prisoner Offshoring, or Gaolbalization
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 19, 2012 8:25 am in Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure, Eighth Amendment, Global Governance/World Government, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Uncategorized
Belgium and the Netherlands have an interesting arrangement, an example of economics and incentives working clearly in the public law field. Belgium has more convicts than it can accomodate in its prisons. Neighboring Netherlands has the opposite problem: not enough prisoners. Several years ago, it was facing having to shutter some facilities. But then the […]
The Opposite of Secession
While secession by U.S. states is often seen as the domain of kooks, America also has an accession movement – and a parallel succession movement that seems to have relatively significant support in its locality and is certainly not treated as kooky. One of the more significant, but less discussed questions in the last election […]
Introduction, and opportunities for further introductions
I have been, like Nick, a longtime reader of the Volokh Conspiracy, and am honored and delighted to enter the cabal. My scholarship focuses on constitutional and international law, and in keeping with the maxim to stick with what you (are in theory supposed to) know, my posts will likely focus on public law. The […]
Evolving International Law and Defining Offenses
By Eugene Kontorovich on May 24, 2012 11:58 am in Alien Tort Statute, Constitutional Law, International Law
The Fourth Circuit’s noteworthy decision in U.S. v. Dire is probably the first court of appeals decision in a piracy prosecution in nearly 200 years. The Fourth Circuit decision is important not only for some novel pending piracy cases, but for the Alien Tort Statute and broader questions about the interplay of U.S. and international […]
The Cross-Cutting Politics of the ATS and Universal Jurisdiction
By Eugene Kontorovich on April 6, 2012 11:45 am in Alien Tort Statute, Constitutional Law, International Human Rights Law, International Law
In discussions of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Shell and the Alien Tort Statute, many commentators suggested if the Supreme Court limits corporate liability or extraterritoriality under the ATS, it would eviscerate the statute, and be bad for human rights. More generally, limiting the ATS is thought to serve broadly conservative interests. These points are only […]
Individual Mandates for Foreigners and Indians
By Eugene Kontorovich on April 6, 2012 11:19 am in Commerce Clause, Constitutional Law, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Supreme Court
In my previous post, I argued that the broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause advocated by the government would have the absurd result, when applied to the parallel foreign commerce clause, of allowing Congress to impose mandates on foreigners with no prior contacts with the U.S. Many commentators fought the hypothetical, saying such a law […]
Can Congress Mandate the Japanese to Buy Detroit Cars? – The Commerce Clause and Foreign Commerce
By Eugene Kontorovich on April 4, 2012 3:09 pm in Alien Tort Statute, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Supreme Court
One aspect of the ACA litigation that has not received due attention is the effect of the Court’s ruling on the scope Foreign Commerce Clause. An expansive, limitless definition of the scope of “Commerce” would presumably apply to Foreign Commerce as well. If there is no limiting principle for the former, it would be hard […]