In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

20 May

Silence from the White House today on how to rationalize continuing participation in Libya operations notwithstanding the expiration of the WPR's 60-day-clock.  I think this is a relatively gutsy move on the Obama Administration's part.  Why go on pretending that section 5(b) of the Resolution poses any constraint on presidential discretion? Unlike his predecessors (Bill Clinton in particular, with his pretty...

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19 May

[Harold Hongju Koh is the Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State.] I write in response to those who have raised questions regarding the lawfulness of the recent United States operation against Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. United States officials have recounted the facts of that well-publicized incident, most recently in the interview of President Obama on CBS News 60 Minutes...

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18 May

Jean d’Aspremont’s supremely kind comments on my article require little response other than an expression of appreciation. Jean’s knowledge in this field is second to none, and the differences in our perceptions of these topics are minute. But it is, perhaps, worth clarifying my position on the recognition of coup regimes and the question of a democratic entitlement in international...

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18 May

[Jean d’Aspremont is Associate Professor of International Law and Senior Research Fellow of the Amsterdam Center for International Law at the University of Amsterdam] Brad Roth’s timely and insightful article entitled ‘Secessions, Coups and the International Rule of Law: Assessing the Decline of the Effective Control Doctrine’ published in the Melbourne Journal of International Law deserves the greatest attention. Twelve years...

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18 May

[Brad Roth is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Law at Wayne State University] The effective control doctrine that, in different forms, has governed the recognition of states and governments is unappealing at its core.  Based on the principle of non-interference in civil strife within established international borders, the doctrine’s essential logic is that, with regard to internal efforts to...

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17 May

Many thanks to Duncan for his great post on Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s (DSK) potential immunity, and for inviting me to follow up. My short answer: status-based immunity (often referred to as “diplomatic immunity”) is not available. Conduct-based immunity (also called “official acts” or “functional” immunity) is not available either. Here’s why. The only type of immunity that would benefit DSK would be...

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17 May

Can arguments for preemptive self defence under international law be regarded as a mirroring of feminist arguments for justified self-defence in cases of homicide by individuals who have experienced long-term domestic violence? This is one of the questions Dianne Otto raises in response to my MJIL article, ‘Feminist Reflections on the ‘End’ of the War on Terror’. In the article...

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17 May

[Dianne Otto is a Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne, where she directs the programme on International Human Rights Law] Two of the challenging questions that Gina Heathcote asks in her wonderfully provocative article are: What is a ‘feminist’ approach to the regulation of the ‘use of force’ in international law? What light is thrown onto this question by...

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16 May

As a general matter, we agree with Professor Weber’s comments, especially in relation to development and climate change. While we have not in this article focused on developmental aspects of the global financial architecture, in fact, we both view this as the fundamental goal.[1] Development however is not a simple objective and no single set of solutions to the development...

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