International Law This Week!

As mentioned in class, there are many issues and incidents in the news this week that raise international law issues. We already discussed the air strikes on Saudi oil fields, though that issue continues to dominate the news. You can read legal analysis of the issues on the international law blogs listed in the right margin here.

Next up is discussion of announcements last week of a further tightening of American asylum rules. Asylum is the term used in municipal (domestic) law for the granting of refugee status - an issue that is governed by international human rights law, and in particular the 1951 International Refugee Convention. An article in The New York Times last week examined the new American policy, as compared to the policies of other countries, and under one heading specifically asked the question: "Does the Trump Plan Violate International Law?" You may be interested in keeping this question in mind when we get to human rights later in the course.

Another item, which I referred to in our last class, involves a hearing in Spain in response to a request by the United States to extradite the former head of Venezuelan intelligence services, to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking among other things. Extradition is typically governed by bilateral treaties - the reason bad guys in movies frequently talk about escaping to Brazil, and the reason Edward Snowden is in Russia, is that those countries do not have extradition treaties with the United States. Extradition treaties typically require that the crime for which the accused is sought in the other country, would also be a crime in the state being asked to extradite him - and there are typically exceptions for political crimes or conduct that is politically motivated. Here, The New York Times reported this week that the Spanish court denied the American extradition request because the court believed the request itself was politically motivated. We will also soon look at questions about the effort of some countries to apply their law extra-terrestrially. What would be the justification for the United States to exercise criminal jurisdiction over a Venezuelan for crimes committed outside of the United States?

Finally, next week is not only the week in which national leaders descend on New York City to attend the UN General Assembly, but Monday, September 23 is also the beginning of a UN Climate Summit. Here is a short essay in The Guardian assessing the summit given that the US will be largely absent. We will spend the last week of the course examining climate change law - it will be the defining crisis of our times, and the collective action problems that characterize our response is the greatest challenge for the international community.