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Search: Syria Insta-Symposium

04 Jun

[ Jens David Ohlin is an Associate Professor of Law at Cornell Law School; he blogs at LieberCode .] This post is part of the Targeted Killings Book Symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. In his comments to my chapter “Targeting Co-Belligerents,” Craig Martin asks a very pertinent question: Is the US really in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda? Or, more abstractly, can a state ever be in an armed conflict with a non-state terrorist organization? Martin is correct to assume that...
04.06.12 | |

23 Jun

...a preventative climate case against a corporate actor. Given the ubiquity of tort law, the international press, including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the New York Times inquired about possible ripple effects of the Shell judgement. A case analogous to the Shell case was filed in France against the oil and gas group Total. This case is of particular interest to this blog symposium since it relies on the first mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, the French Duty of Vigilance Law, as well as...
23.06.21 | |

20 May

[Gabor Rona is Visiting Professor of Law and Director of the Law and Armed Conflict Project at Cardozo Law School. This post is part of our Punishing Atrocities Symposium.] If like me, you have always believed that the arc of the universe does, indeed, to paraphrase the 19th Century Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker, bend toward international justice, this may be a good time to ask, “Really?” What with: the rising planetary tide of xenophobia and authoritarian rule, the seemingly increasing inability of an increasingly anachronistic UN Security Council...
20.05.19 | |

03 Aug

...and of compliance as complementarity’s principal mission. Ten years later, the picture that has emerged is far from what I – and perhaps many ICC supporters – had thought. But this is a necessary reckoning: it is an invitation to think differently about what the ICC can do, what we can fairly ask of it, and its role in an international and political landscape that remains in enormous flux. I am delighted that the contributions to this symposium are an opportunity for continued reflection on these critical and complicated issues....
03.08.20 | |

31 Oct

alone from the U.S. could not have done this. Now UN member States are required to assist in the investigation. If Syria persists in stonewalling, then UN member States may soon be required to have sanctions against Syria. But still, isn’t this less direct than the U.S. going in and trying a little regime change? Well, yes, but the point is that what sometimes seems to be the most direct method (hey guys, let’s topple a government!) can be the least effective. Rather, here we see the role of consensus...
31.10.05 | |

22 Sep

Martin Lederman Thanks very much for that very thoughtful response, Deborah. I agree with almost all of it. As to the value of requiring a congressional vote, I tend to think the principal reason for that constitutional requirement is to prevent a President from making a horrible decision unilaterally, when unable to convince one or both houses, or the people, of its wisdom. Syria 2013 is a fine example of where the constitutional condition made a world of difference; regardless of whether one thinks the U.S. should have attacked Syria,...
22.09.16 | |

20 Apr

the real threat. And the US has done absolutely nothing to protect Syrians from conventional weapons — it has simply funnelled even more into the country to support various rebel groups (including some that are allied with al-Qaeda) in their struggle against Assad. The US cares about protecting its own interests in Syria, such as preventing chemical weapons from being used against Americans. (The real message of the completely ineffectual attack.) It does not care about the lives of ordinary Syrians, as the ever mounting death-toll indicates. But let’s put...
20.04.17 | |

10 Feb

Matters in Syria are going from bad to worse. I am sure this won’t do any harm, but it is not going to help either. It will simply give the illusion that the international community is dong something about Syria. Syrian officials suspected of committing or ordering crimes against humanity should face prosecution in the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations human rights office said on Friday. “We believe, and we’ve said it and we’ll keep repeating it, that the case of Syria belongs in the International Criminal Court....
10.02.12 | |

17 Sep

...the decolonization context. Second, the right to self-determination in most instances authorizes a people to exercise its right to internal self-determination, which is typically reflected in a right to form a regional government and/or have other cultural, linguistic, and religious rights respected by the mother state. The right to self-determination, outside of the decolonization context, may lead to the secessionist type of external self-determination only in extreme instances where the mother state chooses to completely disrespect the people’s right to internal self-determination. According to the Canadian Supreme Court in the...
17.09.14 | |

23 Apr

[William S. Dodge is Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Research at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. From August 2011 to July 2012, he served as Counselor on International Law to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State, where he worked on the amicus briefs filed by the United States in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the State Department or of the United States.] My...
23.04.13 | |

03 Jun

[Prof. Beth Stephens of Rutgers Law School at Camden has litigated and written widely on related issues. Additionally, she served a counsel for one of the (victorious) respondents in the Samantar case. We are of course honored that she is able to share her views with us. Again, a reminder that “Related Posts” will send you to a collection of all of the posts on this topic.] The Supreme Court decision in Samantar v. Yousuf put to rest to a line of Circuit court decisions that has...
03.06.10 | |

06 Mar

...(despite the fact that some textwriters use the wrong test for imputation re: self-defense). Aurel Sari Jordan, thanks for the comments. I don't think that the limitation 'in contravention of the Charter' adds much for our purposes. The point of that qualification is simply to recognize that there could be instances where the first use of armed force does not qualify as an act of aggression because it is in accordance with the Charter, as in the case of force used or authorized by the Security Council. Since aggression is...
06.03.14 | |