Search: self-defense
06 Feb Bobby Chesney on Targeting Al-Awlaki
...conflict characterization over the naked self-defense characterization, is on firm ground. It would in my view be on firm ground either way. However, I remain fully committed to the view that self-defense as an independent category remains available as a legal rationale, and that it will be necessary and appropriate in future circumstances. With respect to pure human rights law, outside of armed conflict law, I would emphasize a couple of things. One is that I am not especially convinced that the international human rights law of extrajudicial execution is...17 Jan New Article About the (Il)Legality of a Bloody Nose Strike Against North Korea
...the intentional launch of an unarmed ballistic missile into Japan’s territorial waters. The article itself is divided into three sections. Section 2 asks whether either North Korean provocation would qualify as an “armed attack,” the necessary precondition of individual or collective self-defense. Section 3 analyzes what would be required for the U.S. to justify a BNS as the collective self-defense of Japan. And Section 4 discusses whether the U.S. could justify a BNS as its own individual self-defense. The article is based on a presentation I gave last February at...12 Apr Self-Publishing Legal Scholarship
I read with great interest Professor Bainbridge’s post a few weeks ago about self-publishing legal scholarship. The discussion Bainbridge linked to in that post by Joe Konrath and Barry Eisler about self-publishing (and expanded upon here) is even more interesting. (Eugene Volokh’s posts from 2009 are also quite useful.) Self-publishing of fiction appears to be the wave of the future. On the other hand, self-publishing non-fiction works, including academic scholarship, is just now on the horizon. SSRN is the first great wave of self-publishing legal scholarship, but it complements rather...16 Feb The Modern Doctrine(s) of Non-Self-Executing Treaties
the 1990s. This doctrine is essentially the same as the private right of action doctrine, but it also prohibits a private litigant from invoking a non-self-executing treaty as a defense. The fourth and final modern version of the doctrine is the no judicial enforcement doctrine. Its origins can be traced to the Medellin decision rendered by the Supreme Court in 2008. This doctrine posits that non-self-executing treaties are the Law of the Land for purposes of the Supremacy Clause but that judges are powerless to enforce them irrespective of whether...15 Nov Genocide and Battlestar Galactica
...science-fiction shows before it, BSG concerns itself with the porous membrane between humanity and barbarism. Unlike most of its predecessors, however, it has the benefit of an open-ended, real-life war as its backdrop, making its lessons about barbarism unavoidably resonant. This year, BSG is going many steps further. Season 2 ended with the Cylon invasion of the new, dusty, human homeworld, New Caprica, and the self-serving capitulation of President Gaius Baltar. The invasion forced the Galactica into space—meaning humanity is without its defenses and possibly without hope. Season 3 finds...14 Mar Acquitted British Soldiers and the Defense of Superior Orders
H Lime Kevin, Good post, but I have to disagree with your ultimate conclusion. The burden under the U.S. system is that the prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defense didn't exist. In a case like this where the prosecution's own witnesses (before the defense case even began) supplied the defense, I have to assume that the prosecution didn't do enough to rebut that defense, in the form of some proof that a reasonable person would have known the actions violated the Geneva Conventions or other...02 Apr Kosovo, South Ossetia, and Crimea: the Legal Rhetoric of Intervention, Recognition, and Annexation
Jordan Setting forth a "conception of international law to serve its foreign policy needs" and that is not one that is "generally accepted"? How shocking. Perhaps Russia might consider using the Obama doctrine on self-defense, claiming (contrary to the text of UN art. 51 and generally accpeted meaning) that a state can engage in use of force in self-defense if there is merely an "imminent threat" of an armed attack, i.e., that there is not even a present threat, merely an alleged imminent threat (and not that the laughable Bush...31 Dec Legality Is Not Morality
because the point about killing innocents is easily shown to be a red herring from jus ad bellum point of view since the drone program is obviously understood, and understood plausibly, as a form of self defense against an ongoing threat by al Qaeda given AQ's relentless series of attacks against American homeland ( the printer cartridge bombs, 2 underwear bombers et ). In other words there is a strong moral case that the drone program against alQaeda is justified because it is a genuine case of self defense. So,...
27 Aug The New Caledonia (Kanaky) Crisis says Something about Remaining Non-self-governing Territories
...role of foreign powers in the equation. This short post will nevertheless only focus on an international law perspective, and will try to underline what this crisis says about non-self-governing territories: despite lots of singularities, the Caledonian destiny is also relevant to assess in some ways the actuality of non-self-governing territories international regime. Administering Powers’ Vision vs. United Nations’ One The current situation of New Caledonia (Kanaky) is symptomatic of the ever-widening gap between, on one hand, the UN perspective on decolonization and the legal regime described in Chapter XI...