Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
27 Oct Testing the Limits of International Law: Symposium at Univ. of Georgia, Oct. 28-29
Peter Spiro and Dan Bodansky at the University of Georgia Law School are hosting a symposium this weekend to discuss and critique Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner’s informative and provocative book, The Limits of International Law. I discussed the book’s central thesis — that international law is merely a reflection of states acting rationally to pursue their interests in relation with other states — in an earlier post. In addition to Goldsmith and Posner, papers are being presented by Philippe Sands (London), David Golove (NYU), Kal Raustiala (UCLA), Andrew Guzman...
15 Oct International Organizations Accountability Symposium: Reputation and Accountability
...very well. In my symposium contribution, which draws on my other work on reputation as a disciplinarian of international organizations, I seek to explain why. In this post, I focus on two key elements. First, reputation will function as a less effective disciplinarian when the facts are murky. This feature of reputation creates a troubling incentive: organizations may be tempted to preserve good reputations by preventing the release of damaging information. The more control that organizations have over the release of damaging information, the greater their capacity to protect their...27 Oct "Outsourcing Authority": Symposium at Albany Law School
Albany Law Review sponsored a symposium today on the topic of “Outsourcing Authority: Citation to Foreign Court Precedent in Domestic Jurisprudence.” It included a number of speakers, including Ken Kersch, Susan Karamanian, John McGinnis, John Baker, Mark Tushnet and yours truly. Wonderful debate about Roper v. Simmons, Lawrence v. Texas, Charming Betsy and the general trend toward citation of foreign and international authority. The most revealing comment came from Mark Tushnet on the subject of constitutional comparativism. He said, “If contemporary U.S. liberals have gotten off the rails they should...
12 Apr ICC Prosecutor Symposium: The Search for the New Prosecutor is Too Narrow in Scope
[ William Schabas is a Professor of international law at Middlesex University London and Professor of international criminal law and human rights at Leiden University. Have a look at Justice in Conflict for a symposium post from Douglas Guilfoyle.] Article 42(3) of the Rome Statute specifies that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court shall ‘be highly competent in and have extensive practical experience in the prosecution or trial of criminal cases’. Perusal of the travaux préparatoires suggests that this was a manifestation of some of the over-engineering of the...
26 Apr Symposium on Boyd van Dijk’s Preparing for War: The Geneva Conventions and the Future of International Humanitarian Law
So far, the 2020s have been a great decade for books on the history of international humanitarian law. 2020 saw the publication of Giovani Mantilla’s exceptional Lawmaking Under Pressure , on the history of Common Article 3; 2021 gave us Samuel Moyn’s Humane , a powerful critique on the idea that war can be humanised; and now 2022 starts off with Boyd van Dijk’s Preparing for War . I am extremely happy that we are showcasing his book in this symposium, as I am convinced it is an immediate must-read...27 Sep HILJ Symposium: A Pragmatist’s Response to ‘The Democratic Coup d’Etat’
[William Partlett is an Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School and a Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.] 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. The Democratic Coup d’Etat is an important article. First, and most obviously, this Article carries significant policy implications. The political transformations sweeping the Middle East and North Africa – known as the “Arab Spring” – have presented a wide range of conceptual challenges to policymakers and political...19 Jan International Law as Behavior Symposium: TIME’S UP – Deadlines as Behavior in International Law
...take one prominent example, the Convention requires parties to complete destruction of their chemical weapons within ten years of the Convention’s entry into force – with the possibility of an additional extension of up to five years. The United States and Russia have overshot this deadline and are therefore in violation of their obligations. Finally, deadlines feature in the work of the international organization created by the Chemical Weapons Convention (the OPCW), as with its recent use of deadlines in relation to Syria. As this example suggests, deadlines can prove...
25 Apr Symposium on Boyd van Dijk’s Preparing for War: Introduction
Over the coming five days, we are happy to host a book symposium on Boyd van Dijk’s new book, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions, published by Oxford University Press. In addition to comments from van Dijk himself, we have the honor to hear from this list of renowned scholars and practitioners: Eyal Benvenisti, Andrew Clapham, Doreen Lustig, Katharine Fortin, Karin Loevy and Alonso Gurmendi. From the publisher: “The 1949 Geneva Conventions are the most important rules for armed conflict ever formulated. To this day they continue...08 Dec Symposium on Ruti Teitel’s “Transitional Justice and Judicial Activism: A Right to Accountability?”
This week it is our pleasure to host a symposium on Professor Ruti Teitel’s article Transitional Justice and Judicial Activism: A Right to Accountability? (.pdf). After an initial post by Professor Tetitel, we will have comments by Dinah PoKempner of Human Rights Watch, Professor Cesare Romano of Loyola, and Professor Chandra Sriram of the University of East London. We are looking forward to the discussion!...