Noah Feldman And The Doctrines On International Law



Baby faced Big Thinker Noah Feldman -- he was all the rage as the intellectual "It" boy at the Aspen Institute in 2005 -- was on NPR's The Takeaway this morning speaking about his latest think piece in next Sunday's NYTimes magazine (not online yet) on the increasingly crucial arena of international law. There are two schools: 1) those who believe in international law for all, and 2) those who believe that the United States should look out for it's citizenry first before a level use of international law. How does the Supreme Court view these two views -- liberal and conservative -- of international law?

"You have four relatively reliable liberals ... four reliable conservatives ... and in the middle you have Justice Kennedy," Feldman told John Hockenberry. What about the Geneva Convention? "In practice the debate (within the Supreme Court)has been 'Do we apply the Geneva Convention (particularly in the Guantanamo case)?'"

Has there ever been a period in U.S. history when international law has been an issue with the Supreme Court? "In 1898 when (the United States) were thinking of becoming an international global power ... and when we acquired Puerto Rico and Guam .." Once again with the Roosevelts, this time Teddy.