... 1907 (100 years ago today), 44 states came together at the Hague for the Second International Peace Conference, convened by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (left) at the urging of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Among the issues to be discussed at the conference, which would continue through October 15, was establishment of a mechanism for peaceful settlement of disputes.... 1992 (15 years ago today), the U.S. Supreme Court held in United States v. Alvarez-Machain that the fact that U.S. law enforcement agents had effected the U.S. court appearance of a Mexican physician by means of a cross-border kidnapping did not bar his pr
osecution on federal criminal charges. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for a majority that because the U.S.-Mexico extradition treaty did not forbid forcible abduction, it did not prohibit it, and, moreover, that the method of securing presence at trial did not offend constitutional due process. Dissenting on both scores, Justice John Paul Stevens also argued that the act was contrary to international law. The case drew formal objections not only from Mexico, but also from the United States' neighbor to the north, Canada.
