Federal appeals court rules treaty does not give individual prisoners cause of action News
Federal appeals court rules treaty does not give individual prisoners cause of action

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled Monday that foreign prisoners do not have a cause of action under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations [PDF text] if police do not inform the inmate of their right under the treaty to call the inmate's home country embassy following arrest. Finding that the Vienna Convention is applicable only to sovereign nations, and not individuals, the court wrote [opinion, PDF]:

Article 36 [of the convention] does not create judicially enforceable rights. Article 36 confers legal rights and obligations on States in order to facilitate and promote consular functions. Consular functions include protecting the interests of detained nationals, and for that purpose detainees have the right (if they want) for the consular post to be notified of their situation. In this sense, detained foreign nationals benefit from Article 36’s provisions. But the right to protect nationals belongs to States party to the Convention; no private right is unambiguously conferred on individual detainees.

Attorneys for the inmate plaintiffs indicated that they plan on filing an appeal with the US Supreme Court, saying that other federal jurisdictions have held that the convention does indeed provide such an enforceable right to individuals.

Last year, a Texas state court held [JURIST report] that President Bush "exceeded his constitutional authority" by mandating that US courts follow a March 2005 International Court of Justice (ICJ) decision giving individuals rights under the Vienna Convention and saying that the US was obligated to grant review and reconsideration of their convictions and sentences to the ICJ. The plaintiff in the case, Jose Ernesto Medellin [ASIL case backgrounder], filed a habeas corpus petition arguing that the US had breached his right to contact the Mexican consulate for legal assistance under Article 36. The Texas case will be considered by the US Supreme Court [JURIST report] in its upcoming October 2007 Term; oral arguments are currently scheduled for October 10. The North County Times has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.