Scott R. Anderson is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a Senior Fellow in the National Security Law Program at Columbia Law School. He previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State and as the legal advisor for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq.
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In this post, we provide a road map to the core legal issues that U.S. policymakers need to consider as they weigh whether and how to move forward with seizing any frozen Russia-related assets.
The United States and its allies are imposing unprecedented sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. But their effects may be felt far beyond Russia’s borders.
The reactions reflect how the world sees Russia’s actions, a perception that is relevant to both international law and policy surrounding Ukraine moving forward.
The Biden administration has a controversial new plan for Afghanistan’s besieged central bank assets. But it doesn’t do what critics think it does.
The indictment sets out the most serious criminal charge yet used against any of the Capitol rioters, but it also shows the limits of the criminal law in responding to Jan. 6.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has held that the 2019 Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act (“PSJVTA”)—successor to the 2018 Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act—cannot subject the Palestinian Authority or Palestine Liberation Organization to the personal jurisdiction of federal courts for the purposes of terrorism-related civil liability, as the means by which it purports to secure their consent to such jurisdiction are in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
The oral argument took hours. The result is not hard to predict.