Search: crossing lines
05 Sep Stephen Walt’s Advice to Would-be Foreign Policy Wonks: Study International Law!
...suspicion that international law is a pretty weak instrument, especially when dealing with great powers. Nonetheless, states and other international actors use international law all of the time, and they certainly invoke it to try advance their own particular interests. So it’s good to have some idea what international law is, how it works, and what it can and cannot do. One of the challenges for IR students is that not all political science departments offer international law on a regular basis. Crossing campus to take international law at the...27 Aug Dear News Agencies of the World: China Did NOT Breach Taiwan’s Airspace, Just Its ADIZ
...do not usually claim the right to exclude other nations’ aircraft from their ADIZ, as if it was sovereign territory. (For a recent discussion of the legal issues in ADIZ declarations, see here). Now, since China has usually been careful to avoid crossing into Taiwan’s ADIZ (or at least parts of Taiwan’s ADIZ), its decision to do so now is interesting and significant. But it is not a territorial incursion and it is not (technically) breaching “Taiwan’s airspace”. So news agencies should be careful not to report it as such....08 Dec Why the U.S. is Not Invoking International Law to Oppose China’s ADIZ
...since the U.S. does not recognize Japanese sovereignty over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, why should it complain when China draws an ADIZ intended to protect airspace over those islands? This wrinkle in the U.S. position also explains Japan’s harsher reaction to the Chinese ADIZ. To Japan, China is literally demanding Japanese airlines report to its military before crossing airspace into or near Japan’s own national airspace. It would be like China demanding information from US airlines flying between San Francisco and Hawaii (Congress would explode with indignation). But from the U.S....09 Apr What’s the Status of the US-Canada Boundary after Medellin?
...legal authority for enforcing the boundary line at all? Is there some statute out there that authorizes the Executive Branch to maintain the boundary line where it is and keep folks from crossing it, moving it, or building much larger obstructions than a 3 foot retaining wall? If not, could Medellin have the unintended consequence of wiping out our border with Canada until Congress legislates it? Now, I’d assume that the courts would not go so far, even if that’s the direction Medellin clearly points. For example, I’d expect that,...06 Jun Spain “Blockades” Gibraltar to Prevent Escape of U.S. Treasure Ships
In its relentless quest to recover the underseas treasure recently found by a Florida-based company, the Spanish government has instructed its Navy, pursuant to a court order, to detain to U.S. ships belonging to that company. Those ships are currently in Gibraltar, but apparently, they will be boarded and seized as soon as they leave Gibraltar and enter Spanish waters. I’m a little fuzzy on the geography here (maybe the attached map helps?), but assuming that crossing Spanish waters is necessary to leave Gibraltar, the two U.S. ships are out...11 Jul A Canal Runs Through It
...feet apart with hazard signs in English and Spanish (apparently not every canal-crossing large mammal is bilingual). But ladders won’t cut it, plaintiffs argue, and many more deer will drown if they are forced to climb canal ladders rather than traverse escape ridges. That argument works, right? No. Why not? Well, the problem is there are no large American mammals trying to cross the All American Canal! The court concluded that following a year of deer tracking and aerial surveillance there was no sign of deer in the area in...25 Aug 20 Things About Americans and the World
...patriotism seem to be universal values. I remember trying to cross the street once in Palau, one of the smallest countries in the world, and a high school kid came up to me and said, “This is how we cross the street in PALAU!” Even crossing the street became an act to tell me about his pride in his country. People involved in making foreign policy should be very aware of this. 13) America and Canada share a common culture. This may irk Canadians, but we really do share a...15 Feb Luban on the Ethical Implications of the Torture Memos
...that no one has ever been disciplined for this kind ethical line-crossing when it comes to “candid advice-giving.” And, at least as regards the Geneva Conventions question, the client (President Bush, through his counsel, Alberto Gonzales) had access to the alternative view put forth by State. It nonetheless is an important discussion of slippery slope of ends-based advocacy, one which bears discussion with our students. No doubt, there are strong views on where the ethical line is appropriately drawn. To promote open discussion of this issue, ASIL has placed it...25 May A Breath of Fresh Air as the Supreme Court of Malawi Breaks Rank with Its Own Precedent and Peers in Southern Africa: Part 1
...prescriptions of the law; the focus being on maximizing the numbers by whatever means, without complying with the law.” In my view, the Supreme Court of Malawi’s departure from the quantitative approach is a welcome development because, it places the need to comply with electoral rules at the center of election management and litigation. In 2015, SADC Member States adopted a set of electoral principles and guidelines known as SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. These principles enjoin SADC Member states to ensure that they conduct regular, free and...