A California legal development from last year that I missed, in Cal. Code Civil Proc. §§ 1716-1717, amending California’s version of the Uniform Foreign-Country Money Judgments Recognition Act: 1716. … (c) A court of this state is not required to recognize a foreign-country judgment if … (9) The judgment includes recovery for a claim of […]
Archive | International Law
How Many Global Deaths from Arms?
That’s the title of a new article which I have just submitted en masse to law reviews. [Note: the full text hasn’t yet appeared on SSRN. So here’s a link to the full text via Berkeley Electronic Press.] Here’s the abstract: Currently, the United Nations is drafting an Arms Trade Treaty to impose strict controls on […]
Assassination, Self-Defense, and the Koh Speech
By Kenneth Anderson on March 28, 2010 5:30 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
(Note: I started composing draft posts about Harold Koh’s important ASIL speech, particularly its discussion of drones and targeted killing, and concluded it would be better not to do a post that would turn into an online article, but instead some shorter posts on particular issues, even if they are somewhat random.) Toward the end […]
Drone Warfare Subcommittee Testimony, Up at SSRN
By Kenneth Anderson on March 27, 2010 2:45 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
After getting a number of email requests for this testimony, I’ve posted it up for convenience at SSRN, although it is also available through the hearing page as well. I submitted along with it my earlier Weekly Standard article, Predators Over Pakistan. As I have said here earlier, however, this hearing on March 23 came […]
Outrageous Treaty Nonsense, or The Copyright Tail Wagging the Internet Dog
I’ve been remiss, as the VC’s (sort-of) copyright/Internet law guy, in not commenting previously about a truly outrageous bit of executive branch over-reaching on Hollywood’s behalf. I am referring to the ongoing negotiations about ACTA, the multilateral “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.” [See Jonathan Adler’s posting earlier today about ACTA here] The US Trade Representative’s office has […]
Is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Unconstitutional?
By Jonathan H. Adler on March 26, 2010 2:39 pm in Copyright, Executive Branch, International Law, Internet
Harvard’s Jack Goldsmith and Lawrence Lessig have an interesting op-ed in today’s Washington Post arguing that it woudl be constitutionally dubious for President Obama to adopt the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) as an executive agreement. Here’s a taste: The president has no independent constitutional authority over intellectual property or communications policy, and there is no […]
Iran and the Shortcomings of International Human Rights Law
Hadi Ghaemi and Aaron Rhodes of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to take a stand against the blatant repression undertaken by the Iranian government. But they acknowledge that so far the UN has done more to support the Iranian government than its victims: The new […]
Defining Aggression for the International Criminal Court
Over at Opinio Juris, an interesting exchange on the question of defining the crime of aggression as part of the International Criminal Court statute. Professor Michael Glennon discusses his Yale Journal of International Law article, The Blank-Prose Crime of Aggression, and Carrie McDougall, Larry Johnson, and Anthony Arend respond. I broadly agree with Professor Glennon, […]
Predators over Pakistan, My New Weekly Standard Essay
By Kenneth Anderson on February 28, 2010 3:47 pm in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Well, “polemic” is probably closer to it. Regular readers have been hearing about this piece for a while, and I have posted various arguments from it (concerning targeted killing and Predator drones and the CIA and armed conflict and self-defense, and my general concern that the Obama administration has embraced a policy that its lawyers […]
Harold Koh Discussion with John Bellinger on International Law and the Obama Administration
By Kenneth Anderson on February 19, 2010 10:12 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism, War on Terror
Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the State Department, held an informal public discussion a couple of days ago with his predecessor from the Bush administration, John Bellinger. This was an American Society of International Law event, held at John’s law firm, Arnold & Porter, and moderated by my old friend and ASIL’s Treasurer, Nancy Perkins. […]
John Bellinger on International Law in Bush Second Term and Obama Administration
John Bellinger, former Legal Adviser to the State Department, has an interesting op ed in the New York Times (February 14, 2010), comparing ways in which the Obama administration’s international law positions largely continue the second Bush term positions. As my Opinio Juris colleague Julian Ku observes, “The shape of U.S. foreign policy, and its policy […]
U.S. Still Won’t Join International Criminal Court
Via Julian Ku at Opinio Juris comes news that the Obama Administration has no plans to submit the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to the Senate for ratificaiton. Prof. Ku comments: This is not exactly a surprise, but it shows just how far the U.S. is from the Rome Statute. If President […]
Contracting Around the Security Council, and the International Criminal Court Review Conference
By Kenneth Anderson on January 29, 2010 2:02 pm in Global Governance/World Government, International Law
The United States did not join the International Criminal Court, despite Bill Clinton’s 11th hour signature (followed by the Bush administration’s controversial 1st hour “de-signing”). The ICC now reaches the moment, as is usual in treaties of this kind, to convene a ten year review conference, with an eye to making changes and seeing how […]
Bruce Bawer on the Muhammad Cartoon Attack
By Kenneth Anderson on January 6, 2010 10:30 am in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, International Law, Mohammed Cartoons
Follow up to Eugene’s post on the Muhammad Cartoon attack … see Bruce Bawer’s article in City Journal, “While Europe Sneered.” And although I received a comp copy of the Voltaire Project printing of the cartoons, I have ordered a paid copy and have requested that my school’s library order the book. Please consider doing […]
The Al Bihani Case and the Domestic Application of International Law
Today’s important D.C. Circuit decision in Al Bihani v. Obama held that international law does not in any way constrain the president in the exercise of his executive authority under the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force that gave him the power to wage war against al Qaeda and its allies. I am […]