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The Question Of International Law
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Mark Kleiman asks: "Who's going to prosecute the torture cases?" He parries Posner: Volokh Conspirator Eric Posner says that since the other parties to the Convention Against Torture are unlikely to do anything to enforce its provisions, Holder has full discretion to decline prosecution on political or policy grounds. But a duly ratified treaty is the law of the land, and Holder is sworn to uphold the law. Could he get away with not prosecuting, in the face of enough evidence to convict? Sure. But he'd be violating his oath of office. ...
More on Section 7 of the Torture Convention.
The Volokh Conspiracy —
Mark Kleiman rebuts an argument of mine: Eric Posner says that since the other parties to the Convention Against Torture are unlikely to do anything to enforce its provisions, Holder has full discretion to decline prosecution on political or policy grounds. But a duly ratified treaty is the law of the land, and Holder is sworn to uphold the law. Could he get away with not prosecuting, in the face of enough evidence to convict? Sure. But he'd be violating his oath of office. Andrew Sullivan chimes in : “And unlike under the Bush administration, that is no longer actively encouraged.” There are two problems with this argument. First, if my premise is accepted, that a ...
Will the torturers get away with it?
The Reality-Based Community —
[image] Will the torturers get away with it? Volokh Conspirator and U of C law professor Eric Posner has put up a series of posts predicting that the Bush Administration torture crew will escape prosecution, both domestically and internationally. The latest in the series replies to my earlier post arguing that the Convention Against Torture imposes a legal obligation on the U.S. Attorney General not to waive torture prosecutions on grounds of politics or policy (as opposed to grounds of possible innocence or lack of evidence). Posner replies that, because a Senate reservation made the CAT non-self-executing, Holder is under no legal obligation to ...
