Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
War, Responsibility, And The Age Of Terrorism, John C. Yoo
War, Responsibility, And The Age Of Terrorism, John C. Yoo
John C Yoo
This Article questions the widely-held view, expressed most clearly by John Hart Ely's War and Responsibility, that Congress must provide ex ante approval for all uses of force. It critiques Ely's approach, both his method of constitutional interpretation and his substantive goals for the war-making process. It proposes a different vision for war powers that provides more flexibility to the political branches. It then argues that a Congress-first process does not produce its desired substantive outcomes, and questions whether the costs and benefits of different war-making processes are sufficiently clear to cement one into place as a matter of constitutional …
Beyond Formalism In Foreign Affairs: A Functional Approach To The Alien Tort Statute, John C. Yoo, Julian Ku
Beyond Formalism In Foreign Affairs: A Functional Approach To The Alien Tort Statute, John C. Yoo, Julian Ku
John C Yoo
This paper discusses the functional ability of federal courts to incorporate customary international law (CIL) through the vehicle of the Alien Tort Statute. In last Term's Sosa v. Alvarez Machain, the Supreme Court concluded that the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) is merely a jurisdictional statute, but also refused to stop the lower courts from allowing aliens to seek damages in federal court for certain international law violations. We use the Court's under-theorized conclusion as an opportunity to move beyond largely inconclusive formalist debates about the ATS's text, structure, and history. Instead, we conduct a comparative institutional analysis of the role …