Court Opinion

ID: 9613106
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:14:14.343497+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:25.239397
License: Public Domain

NEWMAN, J., Concurring.
A casual reader might infer that our holding perhaps affects current concern regarding international terrorism. But would that be a fair reading of the Chief Justice’s opinion? I think not, and thus I concur (except that I would rely solely on the California Constitution).1
“The difference between domestic terror activity and international terror-violence should be noted .. .. ” (Friedlander, Terrorism and In*389ternational Law: What Is Being Done? (1977) 8 Rut.-Cam.L.J. 383, 384.) Our court in this case does not fault the juridical use of the word “terrorism,” and the century-old concept of “political offense” is not being challenged. (Cf. Rep. of United Nations Gen. Assem. ad hoc Committee on Internat. Terrorism (1973) 28 U.N. GAOR, Supp. 28, Doc. No. A/9028, p. 11 (“Work of the Sub-Committee of the Whole on the Definition of International Terrorism”); Dugard, Towards the Definition of International Terrorism (1973-1974) 67 Am.J.Int.L., Proc. 94: “[Sjtates had accepted the principle of nonextradition in the case of political offenders by the middle of the 19th century”; further (p. 95), in the 1937 Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Terrorism “Western powers retained their discretion to grant asylum to the political offender" (italics added); Bassiouni & Derby, Final Report on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court for the Implementation of ... Relevant International Instruments (1981) 9 Hofstra L.Rev. 523, 590: “The ‘political offense exception’ is excluded from all international crimes herein”; cf. Friedlander, supra, at p. 383: “[Tjhere is still no acceptable legal definition of terrorism. Perhaps there need not be, if one deals with terrorism essentially as a criminal act.” But see, e.g., 22 U.S.C. §§ 286e-11, 2753(f)(1), and 2371(a) (“international terrorism” affects U.S. aid to other countries).

This case is unlike Sei Fujii v. State of California (1952) 38 Cal.2d 718 [242 P.2d 617]. The dicta there regarding the United Nations Charter were discussed recently in Oliver, The Treaty Power and National Foreign Policy as Vehicles for the Enforcement of Human Rights in the United States (1981) 9 Hofstra L.Rev. 411, 413-418; and see The Fujii Era and Beyond in Lillich & Newman, International Human Rights: Problems of Law and Policy (1979) pages 53-122.