On February 26, the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Center for Human Rights issued a white paper on the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which concludes that “the proposed ATT is consistent with the Second Amendment.” This conclusion neglects important facts about the treaty and the processes surrounding it, which we …
Airstrikes carried out by U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles (commonly referred to as drones) have been criticized for several years by international human rights activists, including certain “special rapporteurs” operating out of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. One such special rapporteur, Ben Emmerson of the United Kingdom, has …
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 …
Today at 2:15 the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will hold a confirmation hearing for State Department Legal Adviser nominee Harold Koh. While Koh has an impeccable academic resume, his opinions opinions regarding the role that rulings of foreign courts should play within the U.S. legal system raise serious national …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The Washington Independent‘s David Weigel has a very fair piece on conservative efforts to educate the public about State Department legal advisor nominee Harold Koh’s “transnationalist” legal beliefs. Weigel quotes National Review’s Ed Whelan: “What judicial transnationalism is really all about is depriving American citizens of their powers of representative …
