Declining influence

And while we're on the topic of declining influence, the New York Times has an interesting piece on the declining influence of the US Supreme Court in international jurisprudence. Once upon a time, you couldn't read a court decision on constitutional or human rights issues without tripping over a US Supreme Court judgement. Now, non-US courts prefer to cite the European Court of Human Rights, the Canadian Supreme Court, or even the South Africans. Why? Two reasons. Firstly, because thanks to the war on terror and the US government's adoption of torture, no-one likes the US anymore. But more importantly, there's the US's own reluctance to cite decisions from other courts (something which some US commentators seem to equate with treason). The US has basically isolated itself from the international legal conversation through its arrogant exceptionalist stance. And their judiciary is poorer for it...