Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

Cross-posted at Balkinization If, as I argued earlier this week, the 2001 AUMF passed by Congress cannot be read to authorize the growing set of U.S. military actions against Syrian and Iranian forces in Syria, does the President’s Article II power standing alone support these strikes? The best articulated argument I’ve seen that the President has the Article II power to attack Syrian aircraft (or Iranian drones or any non-ISIS force in Syria) in the interest of defending U.S.-allied Syrian government rebels goes something like this. The President surely has...

...Al Qaeda’s authority over both ISIS and its rival Islamist group Al Nusra, neither group has been a model of compliance. In a videotaped aired by Al Jazeera two months ago, Zawahiri blamed the leaders of both groups for acting without the knowledge of the central al-Qaeda leadership, and ordered the re-organization of jihadist efforts in Syria and Iraq by abolishing ISIS and giving Al Nusra sole responsibility for Syria. ISIS, however, has shown no sign of curtailing its Syrian operations. Indeed, Foreign Policy separately reports that ISIS arrested, and...

...conference: Open-source investigations—including methods such as geo-location, satellite imagery analysis, and social media verification—have proven to be powerful tools for driving accountability in both human rights and environmental justice. In Syria, Bellingcat used geo-location, satellite imagery, and social media analysis to verify the use of chemical weapons in places like Khan Shaykhun and Douma. Similarly, Airwars exposed the extent of civilian casualties caused by the US-led coalition’s airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, leading the coalition to acknowledge over 1,400 civilian deaths and adopt greater transparency measures. During the...

...the way there were carried out, even where they vary significantly in the details; the separation of men and women, the subsequent fast killings of men and boys, and systematic sexual violence against women and girls. In 2016, in its analysis of the Yazidi genocide, “They Came to Destroy,” the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (“Syria COI”) found that “ISIS fighters systematically rape Yazidi women and girls as young as nine.” In 2018, in its analysis of the Rohingya genocide, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission...

[Ozan Varol is Assistant Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School.] This post is part of the Harvard International Law Journal Volume 53(2) symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. I would like to thank David Landau, William Partlett, Brad Roth, and Joel Colón-Ríos for their kind words and insightful comments about my article, The Democratic Coup d’Etat, 53 Harv. Int’l L.J. 291 (2012). These scholars have been instrumental in enhancing our knowledge of constitutional transitions, and I very much appreciate...

...actors remain in force for all states, guided by precaution and intergenerational equity (paras. 155, 240, 403). Accordingly, the Advisory Opinion shifts climate action from policy discretion to enforceable commitments that courts and tribunals can invoke across environmental law, human rights law, and the law of the sea. Looking Forward: The Symposium’s Contributions The Court has spoken with a clear, unanimous voice on one of the defining challenges of our time. Now begins the crucial work of translating these legal pronouncements into the concrete actions necessary to address the climate...

[Craig Martin is a Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law, and is the Co-Director of the International and Comparative Law Center of Washburn Law.] Over the next few days Opinio Juris will be conducting a virtual symposium to discuss Professor Harold Hongju Koh’s article The Trump Administration and International Law. The article was published in a special Symposium Issue of the Washburn Law Journal, which also includes articles by David Sloss, Peggy McGuiness, and Clare Frances Moran, responding to or picking up on the themes of Harold’s...

[This post is part of the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics , Vol. 47, No. 4, symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below.] We are proud to partner once again with Opinio Juris to present an online symposium discussing a thought-provoking issue of international significance. This year, we highlight Professor Rachel Lopez’s The (Re)collection of Memory after Mass Atrocity and the Dilemma for Transitional Justice, which was recently published in Volume 47, Number 4, of the NYU Journal of International Law...

not be able to read along or participate. Thus, after talking it over with a few of my co-bloggers, we’re postponing the symposium for 1 week. So, instead of tomorrow, we’ll start next Thursday (Nov. 8) and run the symposium thru the following Monday (Nov. 12). So tune in next Thursday when we’ll begin a conversation on various questions of treaty law and practice, including (a) reservations; (b) dynamic and evolutionary treaty interpretation; (c) the new functions treaties perform; and (d) the role of new actors in the treaty-making process....

I’m extraordinarily pleased to be able to announce that today marks the start of the Opinio Juris symposium on my recently-edited volume, The Oxford Guide to Treaties (you can buy your copy here and there’s even a discount for Opinio Juris readers!). The Oxford Guide provides a current and comprehensive guide to treaty law and practice. It does this in two parts. First, it presents 25 chapters written by the world’s leading treaty-experts, exploring the world of treaties in five areas: (i) what a treaty is and who can make...

[Jenia Iontcheva Turner is a Professor at SMU Dedman School of Law.] This post is part of the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics Vol. 45, No. 1 symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. Many thanks to Opinio Juris and the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics for hosting the symposium and to Margaret deGuzman, Alex Whiting, Sonja Starr, James Stewart, and Kevin Heller for agreeing to read and comment on my article. I would like to use this opportunity...

...of Opinio Juris’ very pertinent symposium about the role of international law in responding to the crisis. One sub-question that may not come immediately to our minds is the relevance, if any, of international criminal law (ICL) and international criminal justice vis-à-vis pandemics like the COVID-19 one. Are notions of individual accountability and of criminal conduct relevant in this particular context?  Is there a role for international criminal justice in the prevention of, and response to public health emergencies of this kind? Many will advance a negative answer to these...