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Re-Engaging on an ISIL AUMF

In the past few weeks, Jack Goldsmith and Matt Waxman on the one hand, and Marty Lederman on the other, have restarted a discussion about the significance of Congress’ ongoing failure to enact legislation expressly authorizing the United States’ expansive use of force against ISIL in Iraq, Syria, and now in Libya. In a piece for Time Magazine, Jack and Matt faulted the Obama Administration for failing to “return to the Congress and the American People and insist on a new authorization for this new war.” They argued that the Administration “took away every political incentive that the responsibility-shy Congress might have to debate and authorize the war” by advancing the dubious notion that the existing 2001 statute (the AUMF) (authorizing force against Al Qaeda and its associates) affords the President sufficient authority to attack ISIL as well. Responding at Just Security, Marty quite agrees (as do I) it would be better if Congress had enacted (or would enact) an ISIL-specific use of force. But Marty is skeptical there was much more President Obama could have done to secure congressional action, and also questions whether Congress’ failure to enact new authority really sets as worrisome a precedent for democratic governance or executive power as Jack and Matt think. Jack and Matt are right to point out that Obama’s legal reliance on the 2001 AUMF to justify the use of force against in Iraq, Syria and Libya is more than a little suspect. (I’ve written previously about why I think so, e.g., here.) Marty is right to doubt whether blame for Congress’ failure to act on ISIL can fairly be placed, as Jack and Matt seem to suggest, at Obama’s doorstep. But there is plenty more to the story I think both pieces miss.

Haiti Cholera Update

Today, on the opening of the GA, and in his final such speech as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon indicated that a compensation package for victims of Cholera is forthcoming. Speaking in French (original here), he expressed regret over the recent peacekeeper sexual abuse scandals and the Cholera epidemic in Haiti, and promised a package of assistance and support for...

International Law Weekend 2016

International Law Weekend, the annual conference of the American Branch of the International Law Association is fast approaching. See the following notice from ABILA: International Law Weekend 2016 Registration is now open for International Law Weekend 2016. International Law Weekend 2016 - the premiere international law event of the Fall season - will be held October 27-29, 2016, in New York City.  The...

High Commissioner for Human Rights Challenges Trump, Wilders

In case you haven't seen it, The High Commissioner for Human Rights' recent speech addressed to "populists, demagogues and political fantasists" is well worth reading.   The speech can be viewed here, and a link to the video here. As Prince Zeid says:  "The proposition of recovering a supposedly perfect past is fiction; its merchants are cheats.  Clever cheats."  ...

A Strange Idea of the Classroom as a “Safe Space”

I have admired Mark Tushnet's work since I was a law student, so I was very disappointed to read his critique of the now-notorious letter the University of Chicago sent to first-year students about "safe spaces" and "trigger warnings." Here is the bit that got Tushnet so riled up: Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called...

Weekly News Wrap: Monday, August 29, 2016

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Nigeria would let Boko Haram choose a non-profit organization as an intermediary in any talks on the release of about 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern village of Chibok in 2014, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Sunday. A landmine planted by Islamist group Boko Haram...