Can Hamdi waive citizenship?

[Marty Lederman]

Unless I missed something fairly momentous (always a possibility), the
SCOTUS did not hold that the Third Geneva Convention applied to Hamdi.  The
governing SOC plurality opinion used Geneva to identify the "laws of war,"
which it in turn assumed were a guide to the meaning of Congress's
Authorization for the Use of Military Force.  But it did not address the
Administration's claim that Hamdi was not entitled to Geneva's protections.
Souter, in his concurrence, did address the argument, but expressly declined
to express any view on "[w]hether, or to what degree, the Government is in
fact violating the Geneva Convention and is thus acting outside the
customary usages of war."

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Francisco Martin" <ricenter at igc.org>
To: <conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu>
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 11:24 AM
Subject: RE: Fwd from Michael Froomkin re: Can Hamdi waiver citizenship?


> The Third Geneva Convention (which SCOTUS held applied to Hamdi) states
> that a PoW cannot renounce his/her rights protected by the GC3 (art. 7),
> and such rights include the retention of "full civil capacity which [s/he]
> enjoyed at the time of their capture" (art. 14).
>
> Francisco Forrest Martin
> President
> Rights International, The Center for International Human Rights Law, Inc.
>
>