Americans love to pretend that the Constitution is a legal document. Of course, it’s nothing of the sort. At best, it’s a restatement of an imaginary common ideology, a Rorschach card onto which we project our vision of the ideal legal order. The Constitution enables us to resolve political problems by magically transforming them into [...]
Search Results for: Tim Zubizarreta
Suppose someone posts a message on social media suggesting he might shoot up a movie theatre, and punctuates the point with a photo in which he is holding an AK-47-style rifle. Can the government temporarily confiscate the person’s firearms, in order to ensure that he does not pose a threat to himself or members of [...]
Impeachment has always been a combustible mix of constitutional law and constitutional politics, but the way in which impeachment integrates law and politics has evolved from the framing of the Constitution to the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth century and may be further evolving at present. The framers designed an impeachment system that would [...]
Everything old is new again, and court-packing is no exception. In 1937, faced with a conservative Supreme Court that consistently invalidated his New Deal legislation, President Roosevelt announced a plan to increase the size of the court and add justices who would rule in his favor. It was a bridge too far. While Roosevelt’s plan [...]
Rethinking Justice in Transitional Justice in the Muslim World: Any Role of Sharie‘a Law
Rule of Law and Transitional Justice: A New Islamic Discipline “The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree): but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah . . . But indeed, if any show patience and forgive, that would truly be an exercise of courageous [...]
China is exerting an enormous amount of power and influence over American companies even to the point of potentially enforcing its own laws. This has been a slow and largely secretive expansion over a period of years. It is a circumstance modern law has not foreseen and seems largely ill-equipped to deal with. Let’s start [...]
Consideration of blockchain legislation is a growing trend amongst state legislatures. Blockchain, which is essentially a more secure form of internet, has been expanding into new markets. This has increasingly caught the attention of legislators, who hope to capitalize on the potential economic gains by allowing for the implementation of the technology within the state. [...]
US President Donald Trump’s expanding crises with both North Korea and Iran, and his apparent willingness to withdraw from a second US-Russia nuclear arms control treaty, are just some currently prominent examples of a longer standing problem with world politics and international law. This problem is the continuing US inclination to base American national security [...]
According to recent reporting, “the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday heard complaints from Ukraine about Russian involvement in the military coup and subsequent Russian annexation of Crimea. From Feburary 27, 2014, Russia has exercised control over the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Ukraine alleges that there was a practice of killing Ukrainian military and [...]
An American War with Iran: Legal and Strategic Implications for Israel
In apparent response to US President Donald Trump’s unilateral American withdrawal from the July 2015 Iran Pact (JCPOA), the Islamic Republic has seemingly reinvigorated its active nuclear program. In turn, this has led to a more-or-less continuing cycle of threat and counter-threat between the two adversarial countries, and has been reinforced by both US Secretary [...]