In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

27 Sep

The opportunity to guest blog on Opinio Juris is most appreciated. It is almost like having the ASIL Presidency forum all over again.  My first topic emerges from a conference hosted by the Canadian-based Institute for Sustainable Development in Barcelona in July 2010. The Institute invited a number of practitioners and scholars to address the topics of transparency and independence in...

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26 Sep

I'm delighted to introduce José Enrique Alvarez as our guest blogger for the next few days.  Professor Alvarez is the Herbert and Rose Rubin Professor of International Law at NYU Law School, and serves as a special adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on a pro bono basis.   He is also a past President of the American Society...

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26 Sep

I am struck by the remarkable number of legal fictions salted throughout our discussion of failed states. All states, of course, are fictions. But the fictional norms of statehood carry with them a series of assumptions of how states will function and how they can be persuaded or compelled to act. Thus, as Chiara discusses at length, the requirement that...

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26 Sep

Congratulations to David Bosco and the rest of the folks at American University's School of International Service on the conference over the last couple of days on the future of global governance.  I took part on a panel on how to globally govern for which my advice, readers will not be surprised to learn, was very little if at all. That...

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25 Sep

The Obama administration recently filed its motion to dismiss the ACLU/CCR lawsuit that seeks to enjoin the government from using lethal force against Anwar al-Aulaqi.  Predictably, the motion relies on a potpourri of reasons why no court should ever review the lawfulness of Obama's determination that an American citizen abroad should be summarily executed, including everyone's favorite "state secrets" privilege. ...

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25 Sep

Bobby Chesney has graciously responded at Lawfare to my post about detention in non-international armed confilct (NIAC). Unfortunately, I think Chesney's response not only misconstrues what Steve Vladeck and I have been arguing, but also demonstrates some important misconceptions about IHL. To begin with, we need to understand exactly what we are arguing about. As Steve pointed out in one of...

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25 Sep

In the last couple of days I explained why I argue that State failure is a problematic phenomenon of contemporary international society which could endanger domestic population and the international community. State failure is the prolonged implosion of governmental structures and the ensuing incapacity of the government to provide political goods to both internal and external actors. At the same time,...

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25 Sep

One way to build political coalitions for greater use of international law in the U.S. would be to use international law to advance political goals of folks who would otherwise be suspicious of international law.  So I wonder if there is some reason to think liberal internationalists would be willing to embrace the argument made in a recent book by...

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24 Sep

My earlier post on Somalia received some interesting comments which I would like to develop further. First, framing state failure as a continuum is important because where a state stands in this continuum (i.e. its ability to react to international security emergencies that occur in its territory) informs decision makers on what (and if) actions are required by the international community....

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24 Sep

Here is the letter of the EU Ambassador to the US to Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell protesting the (then) imminent execution of Teresa Lewis, among other international voices attempting to win commutation for the convicted killer.  Obviously the effort failed.  I'm not sure that there has been any episode in which one can establish a causal link between such international...

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24 Sep

My apologies for this late entry in the discussion of state failure. I’d like to address what I see as the central legal paradox that Chiara raises in her fascinating new book. That is the disjunction between the criteria for creating states and the criteria governing their extinction. Chiara demonstrates that many failed states might well be ineligible for statehood...

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