Search: self-defense
31 Dec President’s Signing Statement on National Defense Authorization Act
...the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.” I have signed the Act chiefly because it authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, crucial services for service members and their families, and vital national security programs that must be renewed. In hundreds of separate sections totaling over 500 pages, the Act also contains critical Administration initiatives to control the spiraling health care costs of the Department of Defense (DoD), to develop counterterrorism initiatives abroad, to build the security capacity of key partners, to...08 Oct Guest Post: On ‘Humanitarian Intervention’, ‘Lawmaking’ Moments and What the ‘Law Ought to Be’–Counseling Caution Against a New ‘Affirmative Defense to Art. 2 (4)’ After Syria
...of chemical weapons. Koh argues in favor of a new ‘affirmative defense to Article 2 (4)’ of the United Nations Charter which would allow the ‘lawful threat of limited military intervention’ to counter ‘a deliberate large-scale chemical weapons attack’. He regards Syria as a ‘lawmaking moment’ that should be used to clarify ‘the contours of an emerging exception to a rigid rule’. This argument is based on a number of claims and assumptions that merit reconsideration. One may easily concur that the law on the use of force contains ‘grey...16 Apr Defense Perspectives on Law and Politics in International Criminal Trials
...of an overlooked, but important, participant in these trials—the defense attorney. Through personal interviews, scholarly articles, and case law, I analyze the attorneys’ motivations, strategies, and tactics in representing defendants at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In particular, I ask whether defense attorneys believe that international criminal trials serve primarily adjudicative or primarily political purposes. The survey finds that defense attorneys believe that these trials are much farther from being constructed primarily to satisfy political purposes and much nearer to...06 Jul International Issues and Domestic Criminal Defense: A Guide For Practitioners
One of the ways to heighten student and faculty interest in international, comparative and cross-cultural legal issues is to examine those issues through the lens of traditional domestic topics. Nothing seems more “local” than criminal defense. The newly published Second Edition of “Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense,” edited by Linda Friedman Ramirez, an attorney in Florida, should put that assumption of locality to rest. The book is an off-the-shelf guide for practitioners, which the publisher describes as follows: Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense is an indispensable book for the criminal...02 Mar Russia’s Intervention in Ukraine: Legal Rhetoric and Military Tactics
...think anything that has occurred in Ukraine rises to the point of Russia have a claim to Article 51 self-defense, but at this point, this isn’t about adjudicating claims, the Russian strategy is about misdirection and wrapping what it does do in a mantle of (seeming) legality. Well, not so much a mantle as a fig leaf. Consequently, given the centrality of the norm of non-intervention, the self-defense argument sounds weak to my ears. But consider how the situation in Ukraine is being reported by the Russian-government funded news source,...05 Jun Targeted Killings Symposium: Richard Meyer Comments on Col. Maxwell’s “Rebutting the Civilian Presumption: Playing Whack-A-Mole Without a Mallet?”
JordanPaust Response... If the law of war paradigm does not apply, one is not locked into a law enforcement paradigm because there might also be a right of self-defense under UN art. 51 == the self-defense paradigm. Since the U.S. cannot be in an armed conflict with al Qaeda as such, this is an important point. My article on self-defense targetings made these points. Further, there have been influences of jus ad and jus in vis a vis each other and since similar general principles pertain (reasonable necessity, distinction, proportionality),...18 Mar Oral Argument in Heller and the English Roots of the Second Amendment
their defense suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law.” Now do you think the term “suitable to their conditions” limited the number of people who had access to arms for self-defense? MR. GURA: It was in England, but that was criticized by the framers. St. George Tucker’s edition of Blackstone – JUSTICE STEVENS: So you think that the Second Amendment is a departure from the provision in the Declaration of Rights in England? MR. GURA: It’s quite clearly an expansion upon it. JUSTICE STEVENS: So that’s not really...02 Mar What Are the Best Legal Arguments For and Against Military Intervention in Libya?
Int'l L.J. 533, 545-47 (2002). How about collective self-defense at the request of a new regime in parts of Libya and/or self-determination assistance? See id. at 547-48. Jordan Response... of course, I meant "Arab" League -- can't always type correctly Kenneth Response... See resolution 688 (1991) and following no-fly zone over Iraq to protect Kurds and Southern Iraq against Saddam Hussein, because of ensuing humanitarian situation. Perhaps no firm legal basis, but considered legitimate with some legal backing. Jordan Response... Yes, that was an implied authorization for the no fly...
23 Dec The Illegality of the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza: What the International Court of Justice Will Have to Determine in its Advisory Opinion for the United Nations General Assembly
...Israel had a right of self-defence in 1967 that justified, legally, the introduction of the occupation then, this justification has not persisted, nor has an alternative legal justification arisen. There has been no actual or imminent armed attack justifying, as necessary and proportionate, the occupation as a means of self-defence. And the doctrine of preventative self-defence, justifying the occupation as a means of stopping a threat from emerging, has no basis in international law. Neither United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, nor the so-called Oslo Accords, provide an alternative legal...