U.N. Sec. Gen. Seeks Quick Ratification of Climate Accord

This article in The New York Times describes how U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is making a huge effort to have the Paris Climate Change Accord ratified before a new president can be inaugurated in the U.S. Note the timelines for ratification, and the conditions precedent to the Accord coming into force, discussed in the article. Why is it that the next president would be bound for at least 4 years if the Accord comes into force by January?

Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act and Sovereign Immunity

We will come to the issue of sovereign immunity in a few weeks. But this last Friday Congress passed a piece of legislation that would allow families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue the government of Saudi Arabia in U.S. Courts. A Washington Post account of the legislation is here. This in effect eliminates the sovereign immunity of states in U.S. courts if certain conditions are met. The legislation has been opposed by the White House, many policy makers and most international law scholars, as the legislation will place the U.S. offside the international law principles on sovereign immunity, and will likely result in other countries doing likewise to allow law suits against the U.S. government. An example of the arguments against it can be found in Just Security post this weekend here.

What do you think? We will revisit the issue once we have examined the doctrine of sovereign immunity, and we can discuss then whether your views have changed.

U.S. and China Commit to Paris Climate Agreement

This last weekend the United States and China came together to adopt the Paris Climate Agreement, as reported in The New York Times in this article. But what does that mean? Is the Paris Climate Agreement a treaty? How would you know? And if it is, what exactly was the meaning of the announcement? Did the U.S. and China become parties to the treaty with this so-called "adoption"?