Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
06 Sep Syria Insta-Symposium: The Significance of Chemical Weapons Use Under International Law
[Krista Nelson, PhD, JD, is a recent graduate of Yale Law School] The Obama administration’s advance toward air strikes stems from the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons, but under international law does it matter if civilians are being killed with chemical weapons rather than conventional means? And how does the prohibition on chemical weapons interact with international law on the resort to force? From the law of armed conflict (LOAC) perspective, the use of chemical weapons in Syria was not a game-changer. LOAC is concerned with harm to...02 Sep Syria Insta-Symposium: Stephanie Carvin–A Legal Debate Devoid of Consequences (or Bringing Practical Judgment Back In)
[Stephanie Carvin is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. She is the author of “Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo” (Hurst/Columbia 2010) and co-author of the forthcoming “Between Annihilation and Restraint: Law, Science Liberalism and the American Way of Warfare” (Cambridge University Press) with MJ Williams.] I have a number of concerns over the Syrian intervention debate as it has played out over the last two weeks. First, there seems to be a very real and frequent...31 Aug Syria Insta-Symposium: John Quigley on Intervention
...war in a serious and egregious manner and we will use armed force as a retaliatory, punitive, sanction response) has no traction in international law or, for the President, in constitutional law. However, the matter is more complex, given the ongoing belligerency in Syria and significant outside recognition of the opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, their probable consent to use of force, etc. (see responses to posts below). Yet, to make a justifiable claim under international law and, therefore, constitutional law, the Obama Administration should shift...01 Sep Syria Insta-Symposium: The President’s Wise Decision
...the ground. One could go on. For now, the point is twofold: (1) There’ve been plenty of past U.S. interventions on unilateral presidential authority that have not gone well, for the United States or the global system. (2) There are plenty of reasons to fear this is one of those instances that also will not go well – such that it makes it at a minimum worth debating in a full and democratic way (i.e. with Congress), whether or not force in Syria is the right next step to take....31 Aug Syria Insta-Symposium: Obama’s Constitutional Surrender?
President Obama’s decision to seek authorization for military intervention in Syria is a watershed in the modern history of war powers. At no point in the last half century at least has a president requested advance congressional authorization for anything less than the full-scale use of force. Foreign Policy’s David Rothkopf gets it exactly right: Whatever happens with regard to Syria, the larger consequence of the president’s action will resonate for years. The president has made it highly unlikely that at any time during the remainder of his term he...01 Sep Syria Insta-Symposium: Did Obama Consult His Lawyers Before War Powers About-Face?
The Roofer I understand that Obama had previously claimed (in 2007) that Congress should be consulted before going to war. Did he suddenly remember he had said this or was it the failure of Cameron in the UK to get support for a strike on Syria through the British parliament? brad I don't understand what you think the lawyers would have told him. Even if formal approval isn't legally required*, surely there are no constitutional or statutory provisions violated by the President's course of action. At worst it transgresses an...02 Sep Syria Insta-Symposium: Ezequiel Heffes and Brian E. Frenkel–The Decision-Making Process of the R2P Doctrine: Towards New (Old) Paths in the Use of Force in International Law
...their development and change and possible death”. This means that the foresaid prohibition could change without necessarily loosing its strength, and R2P and humanitarian intervention could be allowed only with the States’ consent. From a theoretical perspective this seems difficult, but not impossible. Higgins’s theory is certainly susceptible to objections. Roland Portmann for instance affirms that there is a confirmed tendency today that supports the idea of having general rules of international law. Even though this could be taken into account, new paradigms shall be explored including other notions of...12 Sep Mike Lewis Is Wrong About the Nature of Self-Defence
against the government of Iraq and that government has consented to U.S. participation in legitimate measures of self-defense (per U.N. 51). Benjamin Davis Jordan, On the Russian point, if Syria considers ISIS's taking territory and fighting in Syria as an armed attack, it could take the view that Syria's Article 51 self-defense right was triggered. If the Russians now come ( say Russian bombers come in) in with consent of Syria then those internationalizing factors would make the Syria/ISIS going East across Syria an IAC also along with the Iraq...12 Apr The Coming Attack on Syria Will Be Unlawful
is using force on Syrian territory with the consent of the Syrian government. The US is not. To justify its use of force in Syria, therefore, the US would have to be acting in self-defence. If it was not acting in self-defence, it would be violating the jus cogens prohibition of the use of force that is enshrined in Art. 2(4) of the UN Charter. With regard to its use of force in Syria against ISIS and other terrorist groups, the US at least has a plausible claim to individual...
17 Jul State Responsibility for Acts of Torture: Netherlands/Canada v Syria at the International Court of Justice
[Veronica Bellintani is an international law expert and Senior Legal Officer at the Syrian Legal Development Programme.] [Mouhanad Sharabati is a Syrian lawyer and Legal Officer at the Syrian Legal Development Programme.] On June 8, 2023, Canada and the Netherlands (the applicants) jointly filed an application at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to initiate proceedings in their names against the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria). The application concerns Syria’s international responsibility for its “gross and systematic failure” to fulfil its obligations to prohibit torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman,...