Posted by Orin Kerr:
Do We Expect Foreign Judges to Follow the U.S. Supreme Court?:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_05_22-2005_05_28.shtml#1116973174
In a [1]recent speech, Justice Stevens made an interesting point about
the question of whether U.S. judges should consider foreign law when
interpreting the United States Constitution:
Judges in this country are right to consider the practices in
other countries, [Stevens contended].
"If we expect them to listen to us, we should at least be willing
to listen to what they have to say to us," he said.
I wonder, who exactly is "us"? And who said that "we" are expecting
other countries -- and by other countries, I gather Stevens means the
judges of other countries -- to listen to "us"? I'm intrigued. The
[2]Supreme Court's website has not posted the full text speech, so its
hard to tell exactly what Stevens had in mind from this snippet alone.
But it's interesting to ponder the possibility that Stevens may be
concerned with whether foreign judges are following his decisions in
their own countries -- and that he may think it appropriate to cite
foreign law to increase the U.S. Supreme Court's influence (and, by
extension, his own) abroad.
Thanks to [3]ACSBlog for the link.
References
1.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050524/NEWS06/505240391
2. http://www.supremecourtus.gov/publicinfo/speeches/speeches.html
3.
http://www.acsblog.org/international-affairs-1377-justice-stevens-considering-international-decisions-is-a-responsible-practice.html
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