Proposed Seminar
Since the Founding, the U.S. Supreme Court has been using the law of nations to resolve disputes and declare what the law requires. This course will interrogate the relationship between the law of nations and domestic law through the lens of Supreme Court decisions on a range of subjects from the Early Republic to the 2020s.
The course will begin by introducing essential questions about what the law of nations—or, to use its Latin name, the ius gentium—is. What is the origin of the law of nations? How was its relationship to natural law and domestic law understood over time? Is it the same thing as what we call “international law” today? The majority of the semester will then examine a sample of cases at the U.S. Supreme Court where the law of nations has played a leading role. These cases will cover a wide variety of subject areas—from foreign sovereign immunity (Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon), to Federal Indian Law (Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia), slavery (The Amistad and Dred Scott v. Sandford), personal jurisdiction (Pennoyer v. Neff), war prize (Paquete Habana), habeas corpus (Ex parte Quirin), act of state doctrine (Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Sabbatino), and extraterritorial human rights violations (Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and Nestlé USA v. Doe).
Grading will be based on a combination of regular participation and a final paper. The final paper should be on a topic related to the interplay between the law of nations and U.S. law. Students will be expected to present a brief overview of their project in one of the last class meetings, provide feedback on other students’ projects, and submit their finished paper at the end of term.