After eight years of narrow-minded cowboy-styled posturing against the rest of the world, the United States, I think, is returning to the tradition of internationalism. George W. Bush argued that Sept.11th had made the US immune to those international laws which it saw as hampering its "war on terror": the Geneva Conventions, the 1984 Convention Against Torture, international Cold War-era laws dealing with arms race, among others. The effects of this paradigm shift have been devastating for both, the US and the world: the image of the US had completely diminished in the eyes of most; rights of US' detainees (some of whom who were indeed terrorists, and some who were innocent) violated; the images of naked human pyramids from Abu Ghraib prison, the photograph of an American soldier draping the statue of Saddam Hussein with the American flag. All of these images portrayed an America which had become drunk with hubris, ignorant (and apathetic) towards the needs and interests of the world, and consumed with the Crusade-inspiring prosylitizing mission of "bringing democracy to the Middle East."
No more. The election of Barack Obama has already done amazingly positive things for our country and the rest of the world. The US no longer tortures. The CIA no longer has "black sites," as the new CIA director Leon Panetta declared the other day. Our Justice Department is run not by President's cronies whose purpose is to draft memos that would support policies that the administration had already decided upon, but instead, an Attorney General who is so intellectually and morally honest as to drop an entire multi-million dollar investigation against a leading Republican Senator (Ted Stevens) due to prosecution's misconduct.
Most importantly for our long-term health, the US is returning to the international law community. Obama has signaled the US' intention to re-join the UN Human Rights Committee, which the Bush administration boycotted, he has reimposed Geneva Convention rules on our treatment of detainees, and re-instituted the Army Field Manual as the blueprint for interrogations, and has signaled a significant shift away from bullying to the respect of other nations' sovereignty (in the case of Iran). Finally, the US is not only NOT boycotting the world's efforts to fight global warming, but it is LEADING the diplomatic orchestra to set up a new post-Kyoto treaty in the upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen.
Our re-discovered respect for the international community of nations is having immensely positive ramifications here at home. The US courts are moving in the direction of many European courts in signaling a more activist and progressive tone. Previously restricted to the more liberal coasts of the US, even the courts in America's mid-Western heartland are following the wind change: the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, triggering a legalization of gay marriage in this state. Sensing the shift in the country's collective mood, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg, one of the most liberal justices on our court, openly said in Ohio that she disagreed with the more conservative Justices (Roberts, Scalia, and Alito) when it came to the influence of foreign law on our law. The US Supreme Court should cite decisions of foreign judges when issuing opinions since the US belongs to the larger legal community of the world. If we ignore the international law, then our law will not get cited at all in foreign jurisprudence. Significantly, she cited the recent Israeli Supreme Court's decision, banning the IDF from torturing its prisoners. "Why shouldn't I cite this decision," Justice Ginsburg stated.
The rule of international law is back and we are all better off for it!
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2 comments:
Justice Ginsberg has enough sense to take a very measured hand when incorporating international law into our own systems. I wonder, however, do other courts sight our own decision? I would hope they would and do. As far as international policy is concerned, however, I think it might be a thinner venner than you wish it to be.
Lepus. Our judicial system has actually influenced many systems through the world and in fact, Justice Ginbsurg mentions in the same speech that many countries in the world have established Supreme Courts according to our model and thus use many cases of our jurisprudence in order to set precedence. In terms of our international policy while I am not naive to think that Obama will adopt all international legal standards (or prosecute former Bush officials for war crimes), I do think his shift is substantial and will result in many substantive things, such as a new robust climate treaty.
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