Law Commons^™

The Law Of Nations As Constitutional Law, Bradford R. Clark, Anthony J. Bellia Jr.

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Courts and scholars continue to debate the status of customary international law in U.S. courts, but have paid insufficient attention to the role that such law plays in interpreting and upholding several specific provisions of the Constitution. The modern position argues that courts should treat customary international law as federal common law. The revisionist position contends that customary international law applies only to the extent that positive federal or state law has adopted it. Neither approach adequately takes account of the Constitution’s allocation of powers to the federal political branches in Articles I and II or the effect of these …

Bespoke Custom, Edward T. Swaine

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Curtis Bradley and Mitu Gulati’s stimulating article, “Withdrawing from International Custom,” argues for a view of customary international law (CIL) in which unilateral exit rights may be revitalized. This response suggests that Bradley and Gulati’s understanding of the intellectual history of CIL is contestable and that, they tend both to understate the novelty of their approach and overstate the rigidity of the views to which they react. Their tentativeness in endorsing exit options makes it difficult to assess the normative implications of their position, but their argument notably lacks a comprehensive consideration of alternative lawmaking forms.

The Ilo Convention On Freedom Of Association And Its Future In The United States, Steve Charnovitz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper addresses the status of the international law convention on freedom of association in the United States. Although the United States supported the adoption of the Convention on Freedom of Association (#87) in the International Labour Organization in 1948, the U.S. government has not ratified that Convention. Instead, the Convention has sat on the shelf in the United States Senate since 1949, the longest unratified convention on the treaty calendar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The paper analyzes the disadvantages for the United States in failing to become a party to this important treaty. The paper notes that …

Taking Care Of Treaties, Edward T. Swaine

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

There is little consensus about the scope of the President's powers to cure breaches of U.S. treaty obligations, let alone the influence of decisions by international tribunals finding the United States in breach. Such decisions do not appear to be directly effective under U.S. law. Treaties and statutes address questions of domestic authority sporadically and incompletely, and are suited to the task only if construed heroically; the President's general constitutional authority relating to foreign affairs is sometimes invoked, but its extent is uncertain and turns all too little on the underlying law at issue. Relying on either theory to cope …

Restoring (And Risking) Interest In International Law, Edward T. Swaine

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Jack Goldsmith of Harvard Law School and Eric Posner of the University of Chicago Law School articulate a comprehensive and engaging theory of state behaviors in their new book, “The Limits of International Law,” but with several internal flaws. Their book uses rational choice theory to explain how states act rationally to maximize their interests, and how, in doing so, states align themselves (sometimes) with international law. This book review argues that while Limits is a skilled and pioneering work that deserves to be taken seriously, it also suffers from tensions and over-generalizations that undermine its claims. As a result, …

Using Framework Statutes To Facilitate U.S. Treatymaking, Steve Charnovitz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This paper examines the two tracks used by the United States to negotiate and approve international treaties - (1) the traditional treaty process requiring Senate consent by a two-thirds vote and (2) the newer fast track process used for trade agreements, requiring Congressional passage of a law to approve and implement the agreement. Several historical and current examples are used such as the Treaty of Versailles and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The paper explains why the latter process is superior in many ways, and asks whether it should be applied more broadly beyond the topic of trade. Three …

Does Federalism Constrain The Treaty Power?, Edward T. Swaine

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The Supreme Court's revival of federalism casts doubt on the previously unimpeachable power of the national government to bind its states by treaty, suggesting potential subject-matter, anti-commandeering, and sovereign immunity limits that could impair U.S. obligations under vital trade and human rights treaties.

Existing scholarship treats these principles separately and considers them in originalist or other terms, without definitive result. This Article takes a different approach. By assessing all of the doctrines with equal care, but not at daunting length, it permits insight into the common issues involved in determining whether they should be extended to the treaty power. It …