Ryan Scoville – Page 2 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Congratulations to the Jessup Moot Court Team

Post author:Ryan Scoville
Post published:February 7, 2016
Post category:Marquette Law School Public

A group of Marquette students just finished an extremely successful weekend at the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which took place in Chicago and featured schools from across the midwest. The team of Matt Ackmann, Joel Chappelle, Solomon Gatton, and Colin Stephenson finished preliminary rounds ranked third out of twenty teams, advanced to quarterfinals, and received a trophy for writing the fourth-best briefs. In addition, out of eighty individual competitors, Colin and Joel received awards for being the fifth- and seventh-best speakers, respectively. Having watched a couple of their rounds, I can attest that they did a fantastic job.

Thanks to the efforts of these students, Megan O’Brien, and various alumni, Marquette has now placed teams in regional quarterfinals two years in a row. We look forward to extending this record of success in the coming years.

New Article on Federal Courts and Customary International Law

Post author:Ryan Scoville
Post published:September 21, 2015
Post category:Federal Civil Litigation Federal Law & Legal System International Law & Diplomacy Public

I just posted a draft of a new article that studies citations in published judicial opinions to evaluate how federal courts go about ascertaining customary international law. For those interested, it’s forthcoming in the Iowa Law Review and available here.

Special thanks to Alex DeGuire and Ami Regele for excellent research assistance.

Legislative Diplomacy After Zivotofsky

Post author:Ryan Scoville
Post published:June 15, 2015
Post category:Constitutional Law International Law & Diplomacy Public

The Supreme Court’s decision in Zivotofsky v. Kerry held that Congress violated the separation of powers by enacting a statute that purported to compel the President to issue statements that contradict his policy of strict neutrality on the status of Jerusalem. In a recent post, I analyzed a disagreement between the majority and the dissent on the significance of foreign perceptions of U.S. law. I’ve now written a second post on the case, this time exploring Zivotofsky‘s implications for the constitutionality of diplomatic communications between Congress and foreign governments. It’s available over at Lawfare.