Overlawyered » international law

International law roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:13:07 +0000

More on John Fonte’s new book Sovereignty or Submission [FrontPage interview, W. James Antle III/Washington Times, Clifford May via Israpundit, earlier here and here] U.N. Human Rights Council finds much to criticize about U.S. rights record, including inadequate attention to rights of clean water and sanitation; State Department response to “universal periodic review”;
“The President Can’t Increase Congress’s Power Simply by Signing a Treaty” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato, on Supreme Court case of U.S. v. Bond]
Another “international norms vs. American sentencing practices” showdown headed to SCOTUS? [Hans Bader]
France, Turkey restrict talk of Armenian genocide in opposite ways, and both are wrong [Walter Russell Mead]
Transnational prosecutions on an inexorable upward arc? Depends on how you count them [Jeremy Rabkin, TAI]
International law pressed into use to remake family law and gender customs [Stephen Baskerville]
“Time to Fix the European Court of Human Rights?” [Julian Ku, Opinio Juris]
“We are fighting the caste system with capitalism”: open market in India helps Dalits [NY Times]

Tags: Europe, family law, France, India, international human rights, international law, Supreme Court, Turkey

Constitutional law roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:22:14 +0000

High court tees up case on ObamaCare constitutionality, potentially one of the most significant in decades [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
“Andrew Sullivan Is Wrong About the Supreme Court and Guns” [Damon Root]
Trade groups’ advocacy: judge quashes Tillery subpoena as chilling to free association [Madison County Record]
Takings: “California’s Kafkaesque Rent Control Laws” [Richard Epstein] Things may be worse in China, though: “more than one attendee described Beijing as Kelo-on-steroids” [same]
No, the federal government can’t find authority to overstep its otherwise delimited powers by entering into treaties calling for it to do so [Shapiro]
Authors: U.S. Constitution is becoming less influential as model to foreign nations [Law/Versteeg via Zick, ConcurOp]
Fight between strip-search lawyers leaves little to imagination [Kerr]

Tags: constitutional law, eminent domain, First Amendment, guns, international law

August 10 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:34:24 +0000

Maine Supreme Court agrees that not having to show up in court might be reasonable accommodation for plaintiff claiming PTSD disability [Volokh]
Guess how much Richard Kreimer, the New Jersey homeless guy, has made in his many lawsuit settlements [Newark Star-Ledger, PoL]
Given the problems with business-method patents, you can see why banks would want to dodge them [Felix Salmon]
Contempt: “Calling the jailing of a person ‘civil’ doesn’t mean they put curtains on the cell windows.” [Greenfield]
“Class Counsel Request $90.8M In Fees In Black Farmers Case” [BLT]
Law school accreditation, recusal standards, international law among topics in new issue of Federalist Society’s ABA Watch;
Electricity-wise, EPA puts the squeeze on the juice [Andrew Grossman, Heritage; Weston Hicks, AgendaWise; Tatler]

Tags: banks, contempt, disabled rights, international law, Maine, patent law, recusals, Richard Kreimer

Only unsophisticates fear international law. Right?

Walter Olson — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:19:34 +0000

Well, no, actually, wrong, as I explain in a new Cato post taking issue with left-of-center commentator Garrett Epps.

Tags: international human rights, international law

July 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:13:46 +0000

Per New Jersey court, overly sedentary home office job can result in valid worker’s comp claim [Courier-Post, NJLRA]
Trial bar’s AAJ denies it played “direct” role in backing “Hot Coffee” [WaPo, some background]
“Cop repeatedly harasses waitresses, never disciplined. Feds defend their civil rights by . . . suing the restaurant.” [Palm Beach Post via Radley Balko]
On “unauthorized practice of law” as protective moat around profession’s interests, Britain does things differently [Gillian Hadfield via Andrew Sullivan; related, Larry Ribstein] Forthcoming book by Robert Crandall et al urges lawyer deregulation [Brookings]
“The Treaty Clause Doesn’t Give Congress Unlimited Power” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato on Golan v. Holder case headed to Supreme Court]
The small bank regulatory shakedown blues [Kevin Funnell] Why is the Department of Justice including gag orders as part of its enforcement decrees against banks on race and lending? [Investors Business Daily via PoL] “Emigrant fights back against mortgage-discrimination suits” [Fisher, Forbes] Dodd-Frank squeezing out community banks [Funnell]
“North Carolina to Seize Speeding Cars That Fail to Pull Over” [The Newspaper] “With what, a tractor beam?” [James Taranto]

Tags: AAJ, banks, constitutional law, harassment law, hot coffee, international law, mortgages, New Jersey, North Carolina, traffic laws, workers' compensation

Push for “national human rights institution” in U.S.

Walter Olson — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:04:20 +0000

James P. Kelly III offers some reasons for skepticism [Federalist Society Engage; note especially discussion of "economic rights" on pp. 64 et seq.] And from the “when we say it, it’s alarmism” file: “The Regulatory Turn in International Law” [Jacob Katz Cogan, HILJ/Opinio Juris]

Tags: international human rights, international law

International human rights law roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:52:21 +0000

Recent clips on a subject treated in much more detail in Schools for Misrule:

Claim: Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s reforms to public sector labor law violate international human rights [HRW, Mirer/Cohn, FoxBusiness (views of Marquette lawprof Paul Secunda)] Related: UAW threatens charges against automakers [ShopFloor]
Per some advocates, “right to health” has emerged as an “established international legal precept” even if it is “still to be fully embraced in the United States” [Friedman/Adashi, JAMA]
GWB at risk of arrest if he visits Europe? Or are some of his enemies just posturing? “Bush trip to Switzerland called off amid threats of protests, legal action” [Atlantic Wire, WaPo, Daily Dish and more, Frum Forum, more and yet more]
Oh, good grief: Tennessee solon “proposes law to make following Shariah law a felony” [Tennesseean] More states prepare to join unsound “ban all recogition of international law” movement [Ku, OJ] Background: Volokh.
For those interested in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recently given a favorable nod by the Obama administration, a copy of the text is available here [CWB]
“Conceptualizing Accountability in International Law and Institutions” [Anderson, OJ]
Human rights initiative in UK: “Rapists and killers demand right to benefits” [Telegraph] European Court of Human Rights, Human Rights Acts “merely pretexts for judicial activism, argues Alasdair Palmer” [Telegraph]
Claim: U.S. is odd-country-out in international law. Reality check please [Bradford, Posner et al, OJ]
Opponents charge trying Pennsylvania 13 year old for murder as adult could violate international law [AI]

Tags: George W. Bush, Indian tribes, international human rights, international law, labor unions, medical, Tennessee, United Nations, Wisconsin

December 4 roundup

Walter Olson — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 05:17:29 +0000

Will they get group discounts on lawyers? Groupon vs. MobGob patent brawl [TechCrunch]
Why American courts should sometimes recognize Islamic law [series of Eugene Volokh posts]
No, it’s not a “public health issue”: “The Case Against Motorcycle Helmet Laws” [Steve Chapman, syndicated/RCP]
Failed system of justice on some Indian reservations [McClelland, Mother Jones]
Ten years ago: Morgan Lewis & Bockius handed mlb.com domain over to its client Major League Baseball [Ross Davies, SSRN]
City of Boston adds insult to injury after employee runs into building [TJIC, Popehat]
Citing fans’ drug use, feds seek forfeiture of farm used for Grateful Dead tribute concerts [Greenfield]
Johann Sebastian Bach, serial copyright violator [Cavanaugh, Reason]

Tags: baseball, Boston, copyright, forfeiture, Indian tribes, international law, music and musicians, patent litigation, public health

International human rights roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 12:49:55 +0000

Developments in an emerging area of law much explored in my forthcoming book:

“Developing Countries Could Sue for Climate Action — Study” [NYT/ClimateWire] “Do We Need Global Governance To Combat Global Warming?” [Ilya Somin/Volokh]
From UN and oddly uncontroversial Human Rights Watch, pressure on U.S. to alter labor law in union-friendly direction [ShopFloor, Chamber Post]
Recent academic conferences: “2009 National Forum on the Human Right to Housing” [Nov. 2009, Georgetown Law] “International and Comparative Law Review Symposium on the significance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” [Loyola L.A., Mar. 2010]
At whose expense? “UN General Assembly Invents a Right to Water and Sanitation” [GGW, BoingBoing]
Again, some survivors of U.S.S. Cole attack on U.S. military personnel sue government of Sudan [Jay Nordlinger/NRO "Corner", related paper by Elizabeth Bahr, George Mason]
Copying liberals’ homework, some anti-abortionists claim mantle of international human rights for their cause [NRO "Bench Memos," approvingly, via Ku/OJ]
“An Eminently Sound Approach to (Supposed) International Human Rights Norms, from the 9th Circuit” [Volokh]
What Keynes knew: after 92 years, Germany finally pays off the last Versailles reparations [Marian Tupy, Cato at Liberty]

Tags: climate change, international human rights, international law, labor unions, Ninth Circuit, Schools for Misrule, United Nations

August 31 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:28:56 +0000

Well, that solves that problem: International Criminal Court outlaws “aggression” [Jeremy Rabkin, Weekly Standard] One contrasting view [David Bosco, Foreign Policy]
“Attorney holds banks up to liability in ATM robberies” [Baldas, NLJ; Ted at PoL]
New report: litigation costs to California public schools run high [California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, PDF]
“Plaintiffs Object to Deal in Anorexia Suit Claiming School Didn’t Prevent Fat Taunts” [ABA Journal]
Attention government contractors: “Your customer wants to see how much you make” [Hodak Value]
New Jersey med-mal reform advocates rally after state high court guts certificate-of-merit law [NJLRA, more]
SEPTA, the Philadelphia transit authority, files trademark action against personal injury law firm [Kennerly]
Chemicals devastating lobsters in the Northeast? Maybe not [Logomasini, CEI]

Tags: banks, bullying, California, international law, medical malpractice, New Jersey, Philadelphia, schools, third party liability for crime, trademarks, transit

Overlawyered » international law

International law roundup

Related posts

Constitutional law roundup

Related posts

August 10 roundup

Related posts

Only unsophisticates fear international law. Right?

Related posts

July 18 roundup

Related posts

Push for “national human rights institution” in U.S.

Related posts

International human rights law roundup

Related posts

December 4 roundup

Related posts

International human rights roundup

Related posts

August 31 roundup

Related posts