From Siobhan Gorman (of the Wall Street Journal's national security team) a nicely done retrospective on the rise of the drones as part of strategy, technology, law, ethics and philosophy. It's a reasonably short piece, quotes the Very Great Bobby Chesney, and gives a good sense of the history of how it came about, linking policy and strategy, all in...
As part of an series of "mea culpa" posts by various post 9/11 players over at the Lawfare blog, Jack Goldsmith recounts how his views on lawyering within the government's national security complex have changed, from skepticism to acceptance. On the use of law by those seeking to constrain the government's discretion from the outside: I started the decade in ...
Where Gaddafi should be tried -- if and when he is captured -- has become quite the hot-button issue recently. Personally, I'm with David Kaye: he should be tried by the ICC, but the trial should be held in Libya. I'm also not opposed to Libya asserting its right under the ICC's complementarity regime to try Gaddafi domestically, although I'm...
My bad for not mentioning this some time ago, but tomorrow, Thursday, 12 noon, we at Washington College of Law, American University, will have Michael Leiter, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as keynote speaker. He will be followed by a panel that will include myself and my colleague Steve Vladeck — but more important than either Steve or...
Since neither state has accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ, I am curious how this report could possible be accurate: A senior Iranian diplomat said that Tehran has filed a lawsuit against Russia after the latter backed out of delivering anti-aircraft S-300 missile system to the Islamic Republic, Tehran's Fars news agency reported on Tuesday. Iran's Ambassador to Russia Seyed Mahmoud...
Please forgive the recent interruption to my guest blogging tenure. I currently live in New Jersey. We sought refuge from Hurricane Irene in a cabin in the Adirondacks – sans internet access. Interesting times. Earlier this summer, Opinio Juris hosted an excellent discussion of an important new book, International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court, a well-edited collection of essays about...
Against my better judgment, I read the 11th Circuit's opinion in Mamani v. Berzain, the Bolivian ATS case. I say against my better judgment because reading American judges on international law is kind of like listening to Kevin Costner play Robin Hood -- you vaguely recognize the referent, but it is still painful to the ear. It's bad enough that...
The Globe & Mail has a blockbuster report today concerning China's willingness to supply weapons to Gaddafi's regime during the rebellion: China offered huge stockpiles of weapons to Colonel Moammar Gadhafi during the final months of his regime, according to papers that describe secret talks about shipments via Algeria and South Africa. Documents obtained by The Globe and Mail...
In her typically graceful and accessible style, Prof. Anne-Marie Slaughter has a series of posts at The Atlantic defending a redefinition of state sovereignty under international law (especially in the wake of Libya). A taste of her thoughts can be seen in this graph. So it is international law itself -- or rather the governments that bring it into being --...
Turkey-Israel relations have hit a new low after the release of the U.N. Report on the Flotilla. Actually, Turkey seems to be the one most angry with the report, and it is taking it out on Israel, by demanding an apology and expelling Israel's ambassador. Turkish bluster also seems to have manifested itself in an empty, meaningless threat to take...
That's the most disturbing line from another invaluable WikiLeaks cable about Israel and the Palestinians. As the cable makes clear, Israel is willing to use force -- of the non-lethal variety, fortunately -- to disrupt even completely peaceful protest against its policies: US government officials have been well aware of Israel's harsh methods of dealing with peaceful protests in the occupied...
A February 2010 cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv to the State Department concerning a discussion with the IDF's Military Advocate General about the Palestinian Authority's request for the ICC to investigate Operation Cast Lead contains the following remarkable paragraph (emphasis added): Summary: IDF Military Advocate General Mandelblit updated the Ambassador on February 17 on the progress of investigations...
