Digest of United States Practice in International Law, 2009

Co-published by Oxford University Press and the International Law Institute, and prepared by the Office of the Legal Adviser at the Department of State, the Digest of United States Practice in International Law presents an annual compilation of documents and commentary highlighting significant developments in public and private international law, and is an invaluable resource for practitioners and scholars in the field.

Each edition compiles excerpts from documents such as treaties, diplomatic notes and correspondence, legal opinion letters, judicial decisions, Senate committee reports and press releases. Each document is selected by members of the Legal Adviser's Office of the U.S. Department of State, based on their judgments about the significance of the issues, their potential relevance to future situations, and their likely interest to scholars and practitioners. In almost every case, the commentary to each excerpt is accompanied by a citation to the full text.

Featured in the 2009 Digest are excerpts from and discussion of numerous documents relating to issues of current interest, including the following:

* Final Rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services eliminating ban on people with HIV from entering the United States, 74 Fed. Reg. 56,547 (Nov. 2, 2009) (Chapter 1, Nationality, Citizenship, and Immigration)
* U.S. federal court decisions involving First Amendment challenges to district court decisions upholding denials of visas to individuals accused of having contributed funds to terrorist organizations (e.g., the Second Circuit vacated and remanded a district court's decision upholding the denial of a visa to Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan (American Academy v. Napolitano, 573 F.3d 115 (2d Cir. 2009)) (Chapter 1, Nationality, Citizenship, and Immigration)
* U.S. motion to dismiss petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a Mexican national who claimed that he would be tortured if extradited to Mexico to face homicide charges (Saldana v. United States, No. 2:09-cv-02786-JPM-cgc (W.D. Tenn. 2009)) (Chapter 3, International Criminal Law)
* Eleventh Circuit affirmation of district court's 2008 decision denying writ of habeas corpus to former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to prevent his extradition to France (Noriega v. Pastrana, 564 F.3d 1290 (11th Cir. 2009)) (Chapter 3, International Criminal Law)
* U.S. grant of two petitions for certiorari in a case challenging constitutionality of the provisions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214, that make it a criminal offense for any person within the United States or subject to U.S. jurisdiction "knowingly" to provide "material support or resources" to a designated foreign terrorist organization ("FTO") (Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 130 S. Ct. 534 (2009); Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder, 130 S. Ct. 534 (2009)) (Chapter 3, International Criminal Law)
* Statement of Secretary of State Hillary Rodha...