Law Commons^™

Spreading Democracy Everywhere But Here: The Unlikely Prospect Of Foreign National Defendants Asserting Treaty Violations In American Courts After Sanchez-Llamas V. Oregon And Medellin V. Dretke, Miriam F. Miquelon-Weismann

University of Massachusetts Law Review

To squarely address this decisional quagmire, this article examines the binding effect of ICJ orders, entered pursuant to its compulsory jurisdiction, on American courts; earlier decisions of the Supreme Court penalizing foreign nationals for failing to timely raise individual treaty claims; the effect on treaty enforcement in domestic courts after the executive branch’s recent foreign policy decision to withdraw from compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; the current policy disputes dividing the United States and the ICJ; and, the national interest, or lack thereof, in treaty compliance. The article concludes that the government’s current claim that a “long standing presumption” exists to prevent …