A look at the legislative history does not support the notion of a subjective, political exemption for politically-motivated pirates. Kevin Jon Heller’s argument that political motives are excluded from piracy rests less on the Law of the Sea Treaty itself than on its intellectual predecessors, the League of Nations Report of 1927 and the Harvard […]
Archive | February, 2013
Hawaii and New Mexico Legislatures Consider Bills to Decriminalize Marijuana Possession
Committees in the Hawaii and New Mexico state legislatures recently approved bills that would decriminalize the possession of marijuana [HT: Tom Angell of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition]. Unfortunately, the bills would only decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Nonetheless, they would be a major change from the status quo. If the laws are enacted, […]
Broadway musicals and physics
In my copious spare time, I occasionally amuse myself by doing some physics problems (out of this book). Sometimes a problem expresses a time in years, and since it’s usually a good idea to convert times into seconds, one sometimes has to figure out how many seconds there are in a (365-day) year. Fortunately, someone […]
Canadian Supreme Court Upholds Prohibitions on Speech that “Tends to Expose” Groups “to Hatred” Based on Their Sexual Orientation
I haven’t posted much in the last few days, because I’ve been working on yet another cert petition. (“[T]he burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire.”) But I thought I’d pass along a link to a post on this subject by Prof. Howard Friedman (Religion Clause).
What the Definition of Piracy Means for UNCLOS & ATS
By Eugene Kontorovich on February 28, 2013 1:05 pm in Alien Tort Statute, Criminal Law, International Law, Terrorism, War and Armed Conflict
Judge Kozinski has gotten considerable criticism from liberals for ruling that Sea Shepherd is involved in piracy under international law. A subsequent post will provide additional support for the decision on the merits. Here, I’d like to look at the big picture and suggest that liberals should be thanking Kozinski: a contrary ruling would have […]
Now You Can Be a Cardinal Too
Yep, Josh Blackman has created a FantasyPope game. Make your predictions. To the winner goes… eternal salvation?
Paul Campos Ends Law School Scam
Paul Campos has posted a farewell post at his “Inside the Law School Scam” blog. UPDATE: Comments from Paul Horowitz and Brian Leiter.
Regulatory Takings and “Lochnerism”: An Observation
By Jonathan H. Adler on February 28, 2013 9:08 am in Due Process Clause Property Rights, Property Rights, Regulatory Takings, Uncategorized
It is often argued that regulatory takings doctrine is a form of “Lochnerism” and a revival of “substantive due process” constraints on economic regulation. So, for instance, in his Dolan v. Tigard dissent, Justice Stevens traces the history of the doctrine to the Lochner period and finds the roots of regulatory takings doctrine in late-19th century substantive due […]
Speaking in Greenville, S.C. on Thursday
For those of you who are in Greenville, S.C., I’m speaking to the lawyers’ Federalist Society chapter on Minneci v. Pollard and constitutional torts at noon tomorrow (Thursday) at the Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC offices.
Yes, Sea Shepherd Engages in Piracy Under International Law
The Ninth Circuit was right to reverse the district court in the Sea Shepherd Case. The district court erroneously read “private ends” as excluding political ends like saving the whales. But the “private ends” requirement has never been understood to inject a subjective element to the piracy inquiry. It does not turn on whether the […]
The Sea Shepherd Decision: Sailing Ahead of Kiobel
The Ninth Circuit’s reversal of a district court decision ruling that actions by Sea Shepherd against Japanese whaling vessels could not constitute piracy because they did not satisfy the “private ends” requirement is obviously correct. (Institute of Cetacean Research v. Sea Shepard Conservation Society.) The district court’s analysis always struck me as strange and disconnected […]
Whale Wars Update: Ninth Circuit Calls Sea Shepherd Actions “Piracy”
Here is the opening of Judge Kozinski’s opinion, reversing a lower court ruling and issuing a preliminary injunction in an Alien Tort Statute suit against the Sea Shepherd’s attempts to interfere with Japanese whaling vessels on the high seas: You don’t need a peg leg or an eye patch. When you ram ships; hurl glass […]
Eminent domain and the antitrust state action doctrine
Speaking of the antitrust state action doctrine (see my previous posting here and my major blog post here), Scott Weese recently published an article called Eminent Need: Proposing a Market Participant Exception for Municipal Parker Immunity in the Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal. Here’s his abstract: A township is using its eminent domain […]
Oral Argument Transcript in Maryland v. King, the DNA Collection Case
The transcript of today’s argument is available here. I have a class shortly, but I hope to post some comments on the argument later today. (Ideally I would have attended the argument and would be able to post comments from first-hand observation, but given the day job I’ll have to stick with the transcript.)
My New Afterword: The Libertarian Middle Way
I just uploaded to SSRN a paper, The Libertarian Middle Way, that will be the Afterword to a symposium on “Libertarianism and the Law” to be published in the Chapman Law Review. Abstract: Libertarianism is sometimes portrayed as radical and even extreme. In this Aferword, I explain why libertarianism, though it may be radical, is far from […]