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Search: self-defense

19 Sep

NSA Warrantless Eavesdropping until the NYT disclosed the program's existence. Moreover, far from being consistent in its defense of its legal justification, the justification has changed from AUMF to article II as the AUMF argument was exposed in all it's weakness by subsequent court decisions. Finally, when given the opportunity to present any of its shifting legal defenses for the program in a court of law, the administration instead has attempted to hide behind standing and states secrets argument. That is, it has expressly avoided subjecting its weak legal arguments...
19.09.06 | |

10 Oct

...Without letting some rope out we will hang the defense department and make them powerless to do their jobs to protect this country. Tobias Thienel If the quote from Gen. Cartwright is a fair representation of the strategy for cyberwar, then (a) he is probably right that it is not a good strategy, but (b) it is in no way mandated by international law. Even classical, reactive self-defense (that is to say, the kind of self-defense that is neither anticipatory nor preventive) allows for a reaction to an armed attack...
10.10.11 | |

17 Mar

Steve Paterno On my provocative comments on the genocide debate, I have seen everyone came in defense of Alex De Waal and faulting me. Well, I may accept where I am at fault, but I am also compelled to clarify my position further. In this discussions, what I have seen are three major issues: (1) whether the atrocities in Darfur constitutes genocide, (2) if the case of genocide can be presentable in court, (3) and should someone be held accountable for the atrocities committed in Darfur, especially if that someone...
17.03.09 | |

21 Sep

...U.S. territory is attacked). In the U.S. -Philippines Defense treaty, the area covered by the treaty is “the metropolitan territory of either of the Parties.” The Korea Treaty does have similar language “administrative control” language, although I am assuming it does so in order to exclude North Korea. So the U.S. is basically on the hook for a defense of the Senkaku/Diaoyu. And what’s worse, Japan doesn’t have to help the U.S. at all in defending its own territory. Looks like the Japanese got themselves a nice little deal here....
21.09.12 | |

25 Mar

Diane Marie Amann See IntLawGrrls tomorrow, Ken. Happy to help, Diane Kenneth Anderson thnxs! John C. Dehn Ken, I noted one time that he used the terms armed conflict and self defense in the alternative. In every other case self defense was related to the existence of armed conflict, with the latter providing the legal authority for the administration's approach. Is it your position that the use of force in national self defense can sometimes be accomplished without the constraints of the laws of war? Do you see this as...
25.03.10 | |

25 Feb

...the pun) interpretation of the relevant Security Council resolutions in the article. I'd simply add that Yoo's argument that the right of anticipatory self-defense justified the Iraq war is even less persuasive. Yoo spends four pages defending the existence of that right (something few international lawyers would doubt, at least in theory), then concludes that the right justified the Iraq war in two sentences. Here they are, reproduced in full: "Applying the reformulated test for using force in anticipatory self-defense to the potential use offorce against Iraq reveals that the...
25.02.05 | |

31 Aug

...as a NATO coalition (as occurred with Kosovo) lends greater legitimacy (although even that is technically not sufficient under a strict reading of the U.N. Charter). But when a broad coalition or regional actor is unavailable, does that mean that countries must stand by and let mass atrocities, such as the use of chemical weapons (a necessarily indiscriminate weapon), occur? The answer is arguably no. While the U.N. Charter only clearly permits intervention in two scenarios: U.N. Security Council authorized action and article 51 individual or collective self-defense, the Charter...
31.08.13 | |

11 Nov

...unilateral secession by California is authorized by the international law right of self-determination. This is a much more difficult point to analyze, but I think that neither California nor Oregon would qualify to exercise this murky international law right, at least with respect to seceding. The Canada Supreme Court’s decision in the Quebec case is probably most on point here. A state whose government represents the whole of the people or peoples resident within its territory, on a basis of equality and without discrimination, and respects the principles of self-determination...
11.11.16 | |

21 Aug

The WSJ has an article on the U.S. Defense Department’s push for a criminal prosecution of Wikileaks for releasing U.S. government documents on the Afghanistan war. Several officials said the Defense and Justice departments were now exploring legal options for prosecuting Mr. Assange and others involved on grounds they encouraged the theft of government property. Bringing a case against WikiLeaks would be controversial and complicated, and would expose the Obama administration to criticism for pursuing not just government leakers, but organizations that disseminate their information. I agree it would be...
21.08.10 | |

02 Mar

Benjamin Davis These are the three hypos that are presented to support the idea of a humanitarian necessity defense and the question is why the strict rule of IHL on these things. Here are a couple of thoughts. 1. approach a neighbor of a suspected Palestinian militant and request the neighbor to urge the suspect to surrender quietly to the security forces. What if the neighbor says no? Do the security forces say "Thank you and have a nice day."? The neighbor is presumably a civilian who does not want...
02.03.10 | |

14 Mar

...as well as direct threats by the latter to impose their order on the whole territory of Ukraine.” I am pretty surprised that Russia is endorsing this expansive view of self-determination, which I think could be fairly invoked by certain parts of Russia itself (Hello, Chechnya!). But I suppose the dispute here with the West could be understood as factual rather than legal. Most scholars would accept the idea that self-determination is appropriate in certain exceptional circumstances, such as decolonization or when facing the threat of genocide or other mass...
14.03.14 | |

10 Jun

...to be already published (e.g., publishing in Harv. Int'l L.J. on-line). Alec Stone Sweet I do not see the dilemma. Most good papers are mounted on SSRN or Selected Works and widely circulated before submission to peer review, and they will have been read much more than most blog entries. Bloggers might have delusions of grandeur, but a blog is not a journal. I don't see how self-posting anything on-line should preclude the latter's publication if it meets the journal's standards. Kevin Jon Heller "I don’t see how self-posting anything...
10.06.12 | |