In his recent post, Julian wrote that the secret U.S. military raids in Syria, Pakistan, and other countries may be (in his view) easily justifiable under U.S. law, but that the issue of legality is much harder to answer as a matter of international law - indeed, it would have to be some theory of preemptive self-defense. Expect to see denunciations...
This past September, I was a speaker at a conference on Law, Ethics and the War on Terror that was organized by Geoff Corn at the South Texas College of Law. The conference is now available as a video-stream. Part one is here and part two is here. The other panelists were incredibly impressive including senior military officials, prominent defense attorneys, and academics...
Those of us in the U.S. are off to the polls, so I thought we could try doing an open thread today for comments and suggestions to the new President, whoever that is, concerning America's foreign policy, with a particular emphasis on international law. Obviously there has been alot of talk about getting out of Iraq, putting a definitive end...
Today is Halloween in the U.S. and some kids will be going door to door dressed as norm entrepreneurs. Not that they will be dressed up as Nobel laureates (though some may...
Francis Fukuyama, one of the leading intellectual lights of American conservatism, has endorsed Barack Obama in a short essay in the (aptly titled) magazine The American Conservative: I’m voting for Barack Obama this November for a very simple reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of George W. Bush. It was bad enough that he launched an unnecessary war...
In honor of Ken, I wanted to post a quick heads-up to this post by Tom James at Futurismic, which has the excellent title "I, For One, Welcome Our New Robodog Overlords." Money quote: According to Prof Steve Wright of Leeds Metropolitan University: “What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack...
Career diplomat Nicholas Burns has an essay in Newsweek on the whole "negotiate with adversaries" kerfuffle. (Yeah, I said "kerfuffle" because that's about all it deserves.) He begins: One of the sharpest and most telling differences on foreign policy between Barack Obama and John McCain is whether the United States should talk to difficult and disreputable leaders like Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...
Last week the ICJ issued an order for provisional measures (pdf is here) in the Case Concerning Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Georgia v. Russian Federation) . This case, along with the recent referral to the ICJ for an advisory opinion on the status of Kosovo, are the latest cases arising out of...
I don't even know where to begin with this one. I'll let the BBC tell the story: Comic actor Bolek Polivka is suing former business partner Tomas Harabis over the rights to the fictitious Wallachian Kingdom. The [Czech] court must decide whether Mr Polivka is the true "king" of the fairy-tale realm...
Following up on Peter’s earlier post on the foreign policy views of Sarah Palin, I note this letter that she wrote in September 2007 to Senators Stevens and Murkowski expressing her “strong support” for the ratification of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). She also seems to advocate the use of the International Tribunal for the...
By a vote of 77 for, 6 against, and 74 abstaining, the UN General Assembly has referred to the ICJ the following question: Is the unilateral declaration of independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo in accordance with international law? The draft resolution submitted by Serbia is here. According to the BBC, the US voted against the resolution, arguing that it was...
Two weeks ago I was in Houston for a conference at South Texas College of Law organized by Geoff Corn entitled Law, Ethics and the War on Terror (more on that in another post). While there I had the pleasure of meeting Amos Guiora. As many readers of this blog probably know, Amos teaches at S.J. Quinney College of Law,...
