A slew of news reports have discussed whether Snowden’s choice of Hong Kong as a haven of sorts was a wise one.  These reports tend to note the existence of a U.S.-Hong Kong extradition treaty and to describe the relatively smooth extradition practice that exists between those governments.  But the stories tend to overlook the fact that extradition is not the only means by which foreign states (or governments) can transfer people to the United States to stand trial.  As the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual makes clear

In mid-March, I noted a speech by Home Secretary Theresa May, in which she advanced the idea that the UK should consider withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights.  As I noted then, the European Court on Human Rights had, again, blocked the deportation of Abu Qatada to Jordan.  Qatada, who is considered by Britain to be connected to terrorism, was ordered to be allowed to remain in the UK because the Court did not credit Jordanian assurances that his trial would not be tainted by evidence secu

One of the more interesting structural constitutional questions to emerge from the post-9/11 detention litigation has been the previously under-explored relationship between the Constitution's Suspension and Due Process Clauses--and the extent to which they might do separate work with regard to the scope of judicial review in executive detention cases.

Thus, for example, in Boumediene, Justice Kennedy held that "the privilege of habeas corpus entitles the prisoner to a meaningful opp

As I discuss in my forthcoming book, International Law in the U.S. Legal System, regardless of whether customary international law has the status of self-executing federal law, it can play an important role in U.S.