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  • And Then What, Dean Koh?

    Today’s confirmation hearing for Harold Koh, President Obama’s nominee as Legal Adviser for the State Department, is an important hurdle, but it’s not the last one. As a transnationalist, Koh is not normally respectful of the Senate’s “advice and consent” role in making treaties. The full Senate can therefore be … More

    What Happens When the First Amendment Meets Criminalization of Speech?

    As we pointed out on Monday, State Department Legal Advisor nominee Harold Koh’s praise for the “Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials” is misguided in several respects. One of these is that the Convention requires all signatories to criminalize … More

    Harold Koh on International Norms and “Skeptical” Nation-States

    The Administration’s nominee for Legal Adviser to the State Department, Harold Koh, has explained – in his 1998 Frankel Lecture, later published in the Houston Law Review – that one of the Adviser’s roles is to “help maintain . . . habitual compliance with internalized international norms.” He has also … More

    Harold Koh’s Misguided Praise for the Inter-American Convention

    Last week, during his visit to Mexico, administration officials confirmed that Pres. Obama will push the U.S. Senate to ratify the “Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials.” The Clinton administration signed the treaty after the Organization of American States … More

    Should the U.S. Be the Bloodhound of Tyrants?

    Yesterday, during his visit to Mexico, senior administration officials confirmed that President Obama will push the U.S. Senate to ratify the “Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials.” The Clinton administration signed the treaty, better known by its Spanish acronym … More

    Need A Government Grant? We’ll Spy On You To Find Out!

    A wonderful story from Britain illustrates all the problems with the over-active, snooping state. First, the facts. The Broadland District Council in Norfolk hired a plane equipped with a thermal imaging system to fly over local towns at night to spot the ‘hottest’ buildings. Initially, the plane was only going … More

    What Didn’t Get Done, or Said, at the G-20 Summit

    Unraveling the meaning of the G-20 summit will be the work of months, if not years. Many of the announced measures are vague, and the ones that are less vague are not encouraging. The promise to continue “expansionary policies for as long as needed” is an open-ended invitation to tax, … More

    Once Again, America and Britain Take the Lead in Afghanistan

    The war against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is the direct result of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Those attacks resulted in NATO invoking Article 5 of its Charter, and thus calling upon all NATO members to contribute to the defense of the United States. The war – for … More

    Bad News (Mostly) From Britain

    The G-20 summit communiqué has been released. As we predicted, it has something for everyone, though rather more for the Europeans than the Americans, and even less for the Chinese. And there are constructive points in it, though whether they will amount to much remains to be seen. But by … More

    The Circus Comes to Town

    The G-20 summit has finally begun. For the security forces in London, it can hardly end soon enough. Protests on Wednesday resulted in 88 arrests, the trashing of a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland by activists, and the death by heart attack of a man on his way … More