Tag Archives: Topic: International Law

C-FAM: European leaders pressing President Obama to fund African abortions argue that a novel interpretation of laws governing war should trump US restrictions on abortion funding. To make their case, they are elevating the views of a few experts from a different body of law—human rights.

Meir Feder of Jones Day at SCOTUS Blog: The unanimous rejection of a view so firmly established in the lower courts may seem surprising. And yet, at the risk of indulging in 20/20 hindsight, I think that rejection was close to inevitable – at least once the Court decided in Sosa that the ATS did not make all international law violations actionable, and that any cause of action would have to be created “if at all, with great caution,” in a manner akin to the creation of federal common law and implied rights of action.

WorldNetDaily: The decision from the Supremes was that the Alien Tort Statute cannot be used to challenge foreign conduct in courts inside the United States. The ruling came down in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, but attorneys for Pastor Scott Lively say it means a claim brought against him by an organization called Sexual Minorities Uganda should be dismissed.

SCOTUS Blog: Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum: What’s at stake, and for whom?

Interdependent.com: The fact that the arrest and transfer of one of the ICC’s most wanted criminals was facilitated by the United States and Rwanda—two states that are not members of the court—demonstrated both the growing influence of the court and its changing relationship with the U.S. The United States’ increasing cooperation with the court continued even more recently . . .

Religion Clause Blog: Earlier this week, the Pew Forum On Religion & Public Life released two related studies. The first, titled Applying God’s Law: Religious Courts and Mediation in the U.S. surveys the routine operation of religious courts across the United States. The second is titled State Legislation Restricting Use of Foreign or Religious Law.

Mary Langlois at LifeSiteNews: Although the lofty treaties, speeches and other goings-on at the United Nations often seem irrelevant to parents with busy lives, it is increasingly important that we pay attention to some troubling developments that could gravely effect the lives of all U.S. citizens.

Columbia Law School: Amicus Brief Argues U.S. Supreme Court Should Consider Example of Other Liberal Democracies, Which Have Determined Excluding Gay Couples From Marriage Violates Their Fundamental Rights

C-FAM: Pro-life organizations spoke at a special forum at UN headquarters this week to ask the UN General Assembly to reform treaty bodies which deviate from their mandates by pushing abortion, homosexuality and controversial sex ed programs. The UN is in the midst of a full review of the treaty bodies to identify ways to reform a system riddled with backlog, inefficiencies and abuse of authority. (also reported in LifeSiteNews)

AP: Responding to Dutch assertions that the legislation may be contrary to Russia’s international obligations, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there . . .

SCOTUS Blog: The Court’s decision in Chafin v. Chafin, issued on Tuesday, appears to qualify as one of the easy ones.  As I explained in my preview of the case in December, the case arises out of an international child custody dispute between an American father, Sgt. Jeff Chafin, and a Scottish mother, Lynne Chafin.  Under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, a parent whose child is abducted to another country can file a lawsuit in that country seeking to have the child returned to her home country, so that courts there can resolve any custody disputes.

The Supreme Court has issued a ruling in Chafin v. Chafin. SCOTUS Blog links to the opinion and provides more information here. Issue: Whether an appeal of a district court’s ruling on a Petition for Return of Children pursuant to the International Child Abduction Remedies Act and the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction becomes moot after the child at issue returns to his or her country of habitual residence . . .

Austin Ruse at C-Fam: Policy makers around the world are regularly informed by seemingly authoritative sources that “sexual orientation and gender identity” are new categories of non-discrimination in international law. What this means is that national and international laws have to change to accept the idea that homosexuality and its various permutations including transvestitism cannot be discriminated against in any way.

Charlie Savage at the NY Times: In certain respects, the current dispute is knottier and more abstract than Bush-era fights over the laws of war. But a common concern connects them: reciprocity, or the principle that a military should treat wartime prisoners the same as it wants adversaries to treat its soldiers.

The Blog of the Legal Times: A Washington federal judge today ordered the Russian government to pay $50,000 for each day officials refuse to comply with a court order calling for the return of Jewish religious texts seized in the early twentieth century.

Liberty Counsel: Today, Liberty Counsel will represent Rev. Scott Lively, an evangelical pastor who was sued by the foreign group called Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG). The suit heard by the U.S. District Court in Springfield, Massachusetts, alleges that Rev. Lively committed “crimes against humanity” in violation of “international law,” simply by sharing his Biblical views on homosexuality during a 2009 visit to Uganda.

Religion Clause Blog: In a press release yesterday, United Sikhs reported on a decision by the United Nations Human Rights Committee holding that France violated a 17-year old Sikh student’s freedom of religion protected under Art. 18 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights when it expelled him from school for wearing a keski(small turban).

AP: The U.S. and more than 20 other countries refused to ratify the accord by the 193-nation International Telecommunications Union. Here is a look at Internet restrictions and availability at selected countries and regions around the world:

The Hill: The United States said Thursday that it will not sign a United Nations telecommunications treaty that U.S. technology companies warn would disrupt governance of the Internet and open the door to online censorship.

NY Times: The Supreme Court on Wednesday struggled to decide whether it was capable of doing anything to affect the outcome of a custody dispute before the Sheriff Court in Airdrie, Scotland.

LifeNews: The treaty needed a two-thirds vote for approval and the Senate voted 61-38 to approve, which fell short of that requirement. Democrats voted for the treaty while most Republicans voted against it.

Baptist Press: The United Nations community advocates that “whenever the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people collide with religious freedom rights, religious freedom rights must give way. And we fundamentally disagree with that,” said Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Politico: Iowa has joined Texas in warning international election observers of possible criminal prosecution if they violate state laws and get near polling places on Election Day.

CNSNews: The head of an international body that will monitor the U.S. elections next month protested to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday after Texas’ attorney-general warned that any international observer who approaches a polling station in the state risks criminal prosecution.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: Today’s “globalistas” rarely expose their material interests to public debate, but rather couch their aims in terms of “universal human rights.” At first these seem noble enough, ridding the world of slavery and genocide, but the system of global governance by its nature ever expands its reach. Forty percent of the UK’s parliamentary agenda simply rubber stamped laws already set by the EU, a legislator told Fonte, and the figure was some 60-70% in Austria. The European Union is both the world’s best example of global governance, and its most powerful proponent at UN conferences.

Piero Tozzi at C-FAM: European and American pro-life academics and practitioners gathered late last month at the University of Warsaw for a conference on the “Intellectual Foundations and Legal Means for the Protection of Human Life in the Prenatal Phase.” The event was under the High Honorary Patronage of Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess of Luxemburg, the Honorary Patronage by His Highness Paul, Duke of Oldenburg, and Poland’s Minister of Justice, Dr. Jaroslaw Gowin . . . One of the themes explored involved the interplay between domestic law and constitutions protective of life and transnationalist “soft law” norms, which are often cited by abortion activists as requiring abortion liberalization. Nikolas Nikas of the Bioethics Defense Fund introduced a panel on international law which featured Jane Adolphe of Ave Maria University, Stefano Gennarini of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM, publisher of the Friday Fax) and Alliance Defending Freedom’s Piero Tozzi.

Haskell, John D. , Divine Immanence: The Evangelical Foundations of Modern Anglo-American Approaches to International Law (September 1, 2012). 11:3 Chinese Journal of International Law 429 (2012). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2155199

Christian Science Monitor: On Day 1 of its term, the US Supreme Court heard a case involving allegations by 12 Nigerians that a foreign oil firm abetted human rights abuses in Nigeria 20 years ago. Alien Tort Statute, originally aimed at allowing legal action against pirates, lies at heart of the case.

SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court opens its new Term at 10 a.m. on Monday, and starts with one hour of oral argument on the reach of a 1789 law that seeks to impose liability in U.S. courts on those who …

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: From yesterday’s Opinion Juris post by Prof. Peter Spiro, one of the leading international law scholars in the country . . . As the regime of international human rights grows thick, however, that justification should no …

Opinio Juris: It is a draft platform, but these parts of the 2012 GOP Platform are certainly interesting. It appears to have strong language in favor of “American Exceptionalism” and American sovereignty.

C-FAM: The UN is in the midst of a multi-year campaign to regularize homosexuality and other behaviors in the scheme of international law.

C-Fam Friday Fax: U.S. ratification of a UN treaty is stumbling due to a problem that has hounded the treaty since its beginning: does “sexual and reproductive health” include abortion?

Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy: I’ve blogged quite a bit about why broad bans on the use of foreign law in American courts are improper. But what about narrower limitations, such as the American Laws for American Courts proposal that has been enacted in some form in Arizona, Louisiana, and Tennessee?

World Net Daily: Now, Sen. Jim DeMint,R-S.C., says another U.N. treaty that threatens American sovereignty has been put back on the table by foreign diplomats and their internationalist allies in the federal government. It’s called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Disabled, which calls for government agents to supersede the authority of parents of disabled children and even covers abortion.

SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court on Monday added one new case to its decision docket for the new Term, a test of federal court power to resolve issues under the Hague Convention on abduction of children to a foreign country. The case is Chafin v. Chafin (docket 11-1347). The specific question is whether an appeal in a Hague case becomes moot if the child involved has returned to his or her home country.

Turtle Bay and Beyond: Last year a resolution was passed the by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva requesting a study on the relation of “universal traditional values” and human rights. The study was to be prepared by the Advisory Committee of the HRC. In February a first draft of the study, by the Russian expert on the committee Vladimir Kartashkin, was discussed by the advisory committee.

Christian Science Monitor: For all its noble intentions, the ICC is a political creature, the Rome Treaty is the product of intense negotiation and compromise. First and foremost, the court and its legacy are closely tied to the politics of the preeminent organization charged with safeguarding international peace and security: the United Nations Security Council.

C-FAM: The US Senate may vote this week on ratification of the latest UN human rights treaty, this one on people with disabilities. Does it really matter whether the US ratifies such treaties? A new book published by a long-time Washington DC scholar says it matters a great deal. John Fonte of the Hudson Institute argues that each treaty saps the very lifeblood of democratic nations by arming a legion of advocates who would replace popular sovereignty with global governance.

AP: A bipartisan group of 51 senators on Thursday threatened to oppose a global treaty regulating international weapons trade if it falls short in protecting the constitutional right to bear arms.

The Hill: Three Republicans helped pass the United Nations treaty on people with disabilities out of committee on Thursday despite concerns over abortion. Sens. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) joined the 10 Democrats . . .

ACLU: The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) today filed a lawsuit charging that senior CIA and military officials violated the Constitution and international law when they authorized and directed drone strikes that resulted in the deaths of three U.S. citizens, including a 16-year-old boy, in Yemen last year.

The Hill: Opponents have locked in enough votes to block Senate ratification of the controversial Law of the Sea treaty championed by White House and the Pentagon.

HSLDA on the Christian Newswire: Parental rights will be eviscerated by the mandatory application of the ‘best interest of the child’ standard,” said Farris. “If parents think that private education is best for their child, the CRPD gives the government the authority and the legal duty to override that judgment and keep the child in the government-approved program that the officials think is best for the child.”

AP: Russia’s parliament on Tuesday ratified a long-awaited agreement with the United States . . .

The Hill: Some 130 lawmakers sent President Obama a letter on Monday expressing their opposition to a pending arms trade treaty if it impinges on gun rights and U.S. sovereignty in any way.

Liberty Counsel: Liberty Counsel has filed a 109-page motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Sexual Minorities Uganda (“SMUG”) against Rev. Scott Lively, a United States citizen, in a United States district court. In the suit, SMUG alleges that Rev. Lively committed “crimes against humanity” in violation of “international law,” simply by sharing his Biblical views on homosexuality during a 2009 visit to Uganda. “There are at least nine independent grounds that require a dismissal of this lawsuit,” Liberty Counsel told the court in its written legal argument.

Findlaw: That’s what led to a three-day conference in Beijing from May 28 to 30. The United States-China Intellectual Property Adjudication Conference was held at Renmin University in Beijing and had over 1,200 attendees, including business leaders, government officials and jurists.

PressTV: “The authority the United States claims today could be used tomorrow by nations with fair less respect for the right to life in particular and human rights in general,” ACLU National Security Project Director Hina Shamsi warned. Shamsi said the U.S. had failed to establish any legal justification for the killings.

Donald Rumsfeld at the Wall Street Journal (via Google): The Law of the Sea Treaty is as harmful today as it was when Reagan and Thatcher first opposed it in 1982 . . . When I met with Mrs. Thatcher in 1982, her conclusion on the treaty was unforgettable: “What this treaty proposes is nothing less than the international nationalization of roughly two-thirds of the Earth’s surface.” Then, referring to her battles dismantling Britain’s state-owned mining and utility companies, she added, “And you know how I feel about nationalization. Tell Ronnie I’m with him.”

NCPA Policy Digest: This general principle, that government is better when it is closer to the people, now faces a movement without precedent in scale: the movement for the globalization of taxation.

The Hill: The Defense Department is looking for a little help from its friends overseas as the Pentagon and White House try to break Senate opposition to an international treaty on maritime law.

Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Baker Iii, Colin Powell And Condoleezza Rice at the Wall Street Journal: The Convention of the Law of the Sea is again under consideration by the U.S. Senate. If the U.S. finally becomes party to this treaty, it will be a boon for our national security and economic interests. U.S. accession will codify our maritime rights and give us new tools to advance national interests.

Washington Post: For example, Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) raised the prospect that “under this treaty, any country could sue the United States in the International Tribunal Law of the Sea, not in the U.S. courts, or take the U.S. before binding arbitration,” under provisions designed to “reduce and control pollution of the maritime environment.”

The Hill: The House Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on Communications and Technology scheduled a hearing for next Thursday to examine international proposals to regulate the Internet.

NY Times: So long has the “Law of the Sea” treaty been stalled on Capitol Hill that its opponents — a handful of conservative Republicans who view it as an infringement on American sovereignty — have taken to calling it “LOST, ” an uncharitable, if apt, acronym.

AP: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the nation’s top military leaders pleaded Wednesday for Senate approval of a long-spurned high seas treaty, arguing that the pact will boost U.S. national security and create much-needed American jobs.

Waldron, Jeremy, What is Natural Law Like? (May 17, 2012). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2061672

Austin Ruse and Stefano Gennarini at C-FAM: And it is true that while family planning is mentioned in three hard law treaties, it is not defined as including contraception. Does it follow that we have nothing to fear from these phrases and that we should in fact embrace them?

Human Events: After regaling a group of environmentalists last week on military initiatives to pursue biofuels and prepare for climate change, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta advanced another tenet of a far-left military agenda Wednesday when he appeared at a forum to push for ratification of the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty. The treaty would create an international regime of law to dictate actions and activities on and in the oceans

C-Fam: In a surprising ruling, the Supreme Court of Argentina has declared abortion is a woman’s right in case of rape under international law.

Liberty Counsel has agreed to represent Rev. Scott Lively, an evangelical pastor who was sued in a Massachusetts federal court by a foreign group called Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG).

Argentinosalertos.org (Google translation from Spanish): The Supreme Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday March 13 unanimously that abortions in women who are raped are not punishable. You can get an abortion without judicial authorization. Women only need to complete an affidavit attesting to the violation for doctors performing the abortion ” in a fast, accessible and safe . . . Institutions and relating to be presented in individual amicus curiae applying to reverse the judgment of the superior court of chubut . . . Alliance Defense Fund . . .

No one should use a terrible tragedy to further a purely political agenda about putting innocent children to death.

Breitbart has posted video of the exchange between Secretary of Defense Penetta and Sen. Jeff Sessions.

Robert C. Koons at Public Discourse: It would be wrong for the United States to engage at this time in an attack on Iran or to participate substantially in an Israeli action.

Christian Newswire: Ave Maria School of Law (AMSL) announced today that the inaugural issue of the International Law Journal has been published.

Noah Feldman at Bloomberg: Today, however, such advice is treated as a national scandal. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spent the last two weeks in hot water for telling an Egyptian TV interviewer that Egypt might do better to emulate the up-to-date South African constitution rather than our 223-year-old model.

Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy: Conservative columnist Jeff Jacoby has a good article today on the somewhat overwrought criticism of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for saying, in Cairo, that the US Constitution is not a good model for other countries in 2012. As Jacoby points out, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia recently actually said that “[t]he bill of rights of the former ‘evil empire,’ the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was much better than ours,” without raising any such hackles.

If you happen to be around Charlottesville tomorrow, Friday, February 10, you might want to come over to a symposium on how to resolve conflicting legal norms in US and foreign courts . . .

News from The Associated Press: British judges Wednesday gave the government four weeks to obtain the release of a Pakistani man held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan – a ruling that could make for prickly discussions between Britain and the U.S.

Allain, Jean, Acculturation Through the Middle Ages: The Islamic Law of Nations and its Place in the History of International Law (October 10, 2011). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1941775

LifeSiteNews.com: Speakers included HLI President Fr. Shenan Bouquet, Brazilian pro-life activists Fr. Paulo Ricardo de Azevedo and Fr. Lodi da Cruz, Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Piero Tozzi, Ecuador’s Fr. Juan Carlos Chavez, and LifeSiteNews’ Latin America Correspondent Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, among many others. It was organized by Felipe Nery, director of the St. Benedict School at the same monastery.

Turtle Bay and Beyond – International Law, Policy, and Institutions has embedded the video.