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Search: jens iverson

07 Mar

This fortnight on Opinio Juris, Kristen discussed the Elders Proposal for Strengthening the UN and its proposals to change the selection process for the position of the Secretary-General Jens pointed out how the end of an armed conflict can be as legally complex as its start, and wrote about the proposed CIA reorganisation. Patryk Labuda contributed a guest post on hybrid justice in Africa Julian asked whether Japan will embrace the ‘illegal but legitimate view of the UN Charter’s limits on the use of force. He also wondered whether the...
07.03.15 | |

06 Mar

Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times says that John Brennan has proposed a major reorganization of the CIA that will, to a large extent, break down the deep bureaucratic divide between agency analysts and clandestine operatives. Historically, analysts engage in research and, as their name suggests, intelligence analysis. Some of that was obscure and abstract–for example writing reports on the political situation in a country and the likelihood that a particular head of state might be deposed. But other aspects of that research might be of more...
06.03.15 | |

28 Sep

...update, or repeal the 2001 AUMF and to clarify the basis for its action against ISIL and other terrorist groups that did not take part in the September 11th attacks – and in many cases did not even exist at the time of the attacks. See for instance Jens David Ohlin here, Deborah Pearlstein here, Peter Spiro here, Jack Goldsmith here, and Jennifer Daskal here. While both Sales and Daskal expressed concerned with the current legal framework dealing with terrorist threats in the United States, their opinion differed as to...
28.09.14 | |

23 Sep

I agree with Jens’ excellent post on the importance of the “unwilling or unable” standard to the US justification for legal strikes on non-state actors in Syria. I agree this action may reveal state practice supporting (or rejecting) this legal justification. I am curious whether the UK, France, or other states that may be participating in Syria strikes will embrace this theory. (I already know the Russians have roundly rejected this US justification). I also wonder whether this legal justification will weaken, as a policy matter, the ability of the...
23.09.14 | |

19 Mar

...response from Lori Damrosch. After that we will discuss James Stewart’s exciting article on “the end of modes of liability for international crimes”. After a presentation of the article, comments from Darryl Robinson, Thomas Weigend and Jens Ohlin will be published, followed each by an answer by the author. I hope you enjoy this first online symposium and would like to take this opportunity to thank all the authors who have kindly accepted to contribute to it, thus allowing it to reach the level of quality it deserved. I also...
19.03.12 | |

24 Jul

...Colonel David Wallace on the combatant status of “little green men,” Geoff Corn on regulating non-international armed conflicts after Tadic, and Opinio Juris’s Jens Ohlin on legitimate self-defense. I was also one of the workshop participants and my paper, Law, Rhetoric, Strategy: Russia and Self-Determination Before and After Crimea, considers how and why Russia has used international legal arguments concerning self-determination in relation to its intervention in Ukraine. I address the question “of what use is legal rhetoric in the midst of politico-military conflict” by reviewing the laws of self-determination...
24.07.15 | |

07 Aug

Today, the American Psychological Association formally voted to end their enrollment in national security interrogations. This would seem to finally put an end to the organization’s involvement in post-9/11 torture against security detainees. The vote comes on the heels of the Hoffman Report, which was prepared by attorney David Hoffman of Sidley Austin LLP. Hoffman was hired by the APA to perform an internal investigation of the organization’s role in post-9/11 security interrogations that involved torture. The results of the report were damning. It was already common knowledge...
07.08.15 | |

22 Oct

...in cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, international arbitral tribunals, WTO and NAFTA Dispute Settlement Panels as well as cases in England and the United States of America. There are four scholars who write in my areas that I am afraid to disagree with — because when we do disagree, odds are that they are right and I am wrong. The first three are Marko Milanovic, Steve Vladeck, and my co-blogger Jens Ohlin. The fourth is Dapo. He is, quite...
22.10.14 | |

04 Jun

...to use the least harmful means possible against enemy belligerents exists has been the subject of much debate on this blog (1, 2, 3) and at Lawfare (see, for example, this) and Jens Ohlin has also explored similar issues in his scholarship on the duty to capture. I want to give readers a “heads-up” that Geoff Corn, Laurie Blank, Christopher Jenks, and Eric Talbot Jensen, who participated in the Lawfare discussion of Ryan’s piece (go to this link for a list that includes their posts, or go directly to their...
04.06.13 | |

19 Oct

Right now, the Ebola virus is spreading across the Africa, and the ability of the most affected states – Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea – to stop and contain the virus is very much in doubt. Although only a few cases have been reported in the United States and Europe, it is clear that it will be impossible to completely avoid disease transmission here. Furthermore, it is also clear that the healthcare systems of Spain and the United States have been incapable of correctly handling cases so as...
19.10.14 | |

27 Feb

...enough, however, even two of the architects of what Jens David Ohlin described as an “Assault on International Law” and proponents of far-reaching executive powers, namely John Yoo or Eric Posner, have publicly stated that they are concerned because of Trump (I wonder whether Ohlin is currently contemplating a follow-up book). Hegel and international law as “external public law” Trump’s “America First”-policy, coupled with him openly questioning fundamental principles of international law seems to be based quasi-absolute understanding of sovereignty, where obligations of all sorts are often viewed as obstacles...
27.02.17 | |

18 Oct

This fortnight on Opinio Juris, Jens discussed how to get Quirin right when Quirin was wrong. Kevin asked for sources backing the US position on self-defence against non-state actors, while Kristen gave an overview of the legal issues up for debate at the General Assembly this fall. Julian expressed doubts about the strength of Greece’s legal arguments for the return of the Elgin Marbles. We also had a range of guest posts, with Başak Çalı commenting on the Tory attack on the European Human Rights system, and Oliver Windridge discussing...
18.10.14 | |