Posner has faith that the Obama administration is more than up to the task of addressing these challenges. "The world is watching for what we are going to do," Posner said in 2008.

Torture and Guantanamo Bay

Posner has been a ferocious critic of the George W. Bush administration's policies in Guantanamo Bay. He called the military commissions conducted there "a failure" and was especially critical of the administration's willingness to hold suspects indefinitely without offering a trial or other opportunities to defend themselves.

But Posner is optimistic that the Obama administration will address many of these challenges. "I believe that over time we will successfully correct our course in this country, and discard elements of the "new normal" that are inconsistent with our core values, our history, and our national interest," he told Law Crossing web site.

Posner has long called on U.S. citizens to publicly oppose torture and enhanced interrogation. "It is up to the American people to keep the pressure on all of our current and future elected officials to demand an end to torture and abuse," he wrote in the New York Times in April 2008. "Human rights and national security are mutually reinforcing, and that resort to torture and cruel treatment is wrong and counterproductive."

International Criminal Court

Posner has long advocated U.S. membership in the I.C.C., an international tribunal where criminals who violate international human-rights standards could be tried. The Bush administration opposed the court because it didn't believe it offered enough protection against politically-motivated prosecution. But Obama has said he supports the I.C.C., though the administration has been mum on whether the U.S. will join it.

Freedom of Information

Since 2007, Posner has been working on a project to protect the right to free expression in the age of the Internet. To that end, he helped draft his group's "Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy," which outlined how online companies can comply with international human-rights law. Signatories include Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo, along with academics, human rights advocates and investors.

The initiative was a response to increased pressure from various governments to comply with content limits and to disclose particular information. Some countries (such as China) have required companies like Google to limit what search results can be accessed by their citizens. In another instance, Chinese officials convinced Yahoo! to turn over email records of a blogger, who was later arrested.

The principles outline the specific obligations of technology companies, including a responsibility to evaluate government requests to censor against the international human-rights framework; assessing human-rights risks when entering new markets or introducing new products; and providing whistle-blowing mechanisms through which violations of human rights can be reported.

The initiative has been criticized by some as toothless. "I'm sure all these dudes don't need me to tell them that in the countries that we're talking about (China, we're looking at you), the right to privacy and freedom of expression is restricted," Salon's Cyrus Farivar wrote in November 2008. "It doesn't matter whether it ought to be or not, the fact of the matter is that, well, it is."

Posner has reiterated his commitment to developing an enforceable and democratic system for regulating cyberspace. "The public must have confidence that participating companies are taking necessary measures to challenge unwarranted government interference," he said in 2008.

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