Event Video: Boumediene and Medellin: The Supreme Court’s 2008 International Law Opinions

http://www.asil.org/asiltv/video_080701.html

July 1, 2008

The International Law Section Public International and Criminal Law Committee Litigation Section of the DC Bar in cooperation with the American Society of International Law presented a luncheon program. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2008 decisions in Medellin v. Texas and the consolidated cases Boumediene v. Bush will have an extraordinarily significant impact on the rights of criminal defendants in the United States and detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. At this program, which followed the release of the Court's final decisions of the current Term, counsel for several of the parties, including the United States, together with expert international law scholars and practitioners, discussed and debated the merits and potential ramifications of the rulings in these two key cases. The distinguished panel provided insights on the consequences of the Court's rulings on immediately affected parties, as well as predictions of the rulings longer term impact on, among other things, future U.S. treaty and diplomatic relations, the status of international tribunal decisions as U.S. law, and the interpretation and application of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 by the lower courts.