In The News

Arizona Republic: Plans to Cut US Family-Based Immigration

Daniel González September 7, 2018
As candidate, Donald Trump rejected conventional wisdom that immigration strengthens the United States and promised limits. Harsh policies targeting and separating families have followed. In the spring, US agents stopped asylum seekers at the border, separating children from parents, without explanation or a system for reunification. The courts blocked that policy, but more than 400 children are...

New York Times: Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

September 6, 2018
The United States is in democratic crisis with chaos in the White House and ongoing questions about the president’s capabilities. The New York Times took the extraordinary step of publishing an anonymous opinion essay said to be written by a senior official in the Trump administration, among the many “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations…. But...

Financial Times: The Fatal Attraction of a No-Deal Brexit

Gideon Rachman August 28, 2018
Great Britain’s deadline for arranging a deal with the European Union is March 29 and analysts anticipate disruptions including shortages of certain foods and supplies as well as new tariffs and confusion over regulations. Gideon Rachman describes three groups for the Financial Times: Hardliners relishing the notion of self-reliance regardless of costs, Remainers hoping for chaos that prompts...

Lawfare: RIP Federal Common Law of Foreign Relations?

Ingrid Wuerth August 19, 2018
Common law is developed by precedents rather than specific statutes. Ingrid Wuerth notes for Lawfare that the federal common law of foreign relations is a shrinking field with court interpretations undergoing revisions over the years. “The field was built in part on the claim that customary international law is federal common law and in part on the claim that federal judges should displace state...

The Diplomat: South China Sea Code of Conduct

Carl Thayer August 2, 2018
ASEAN foreign ministers and China have developed a draft negotiating text for code of conduct in the South China Sea. Singapore, as chairman of ASEAN for the upcoming year, led the effort. The draft will be the basis of future negotiations. Those negotiations have been underway since 1995. Points of disagreements since 2000 include geographic scope and construction restrictions. Carl Thayer,...

The Washington Post: Jewish or Democratic?

Ruth Eglash July 23, 2018
The Israeli parliament's approval of a legislation on the nation's identiy is sparking controversy “over the foundations of democracy in the country and what it means to be Israeli, with critics saying it will deny equal rights to non-Jewish citizens.” Proposed by members of the ruling right-wing Likud party, the bill identifies Israel as the “national home for the Jewish people.” The...

Jurist: The US Abandons Legal Obligations in Syria

Louis René Beres July 18, 2018
Donald Trump undermined numerous US commitments, institutions, policies and values in his summit with Vladimir Putin. The rest of the world has long depended on the United States to uphold human rights, justice and other values. Syrians – under attack by extremists and Russian intervention – are vulnerable. Millions of Syrians have been displaced and thousands killed, some with chemical weapons....