Between 1998 and 2000, I worked in Somalia for the UN Development Program. This experience very much informs my view on how international system deals (or does not) with state failure. As it is known, Somalia has been without a functioning government for the past 20 years. And Somalia is often referred to as the main example of State failure. In...
State failure is an almost intractably thorny question for international law. Its intractability is both practical and conceptual. It is practical because state failure – defined by Giorgetti as ‘the prolonged implosion of governmental structures and the ensuring incapacity of the government to provide political goods to its internal and external constituencies’ – poses tremendous political, social and humanitarian challenges...
Failed and failing states are relatively new phenomenons that have not yet been recorded in the international law radar screen. However, the rise of piracy off the coast of Somalia, and increased instances of terrorism and international organized crime underline their relevance in the international legal system. In my book, A Principled Approach to State Failure: International Community Actions in Emergency...
We are very pleased to host from today through Friday an online symposium considering Chiara Giorgetti's book A Principled Approach to State Failure: International Community Actions in Emergency Situations (Brill 2010). Dr. Giorgetti, an attorney at White and Case and an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law Center, will be with us for the rest of the week, discussing various of themes from her...
Steve Vladeck has been having a fascinating debate with Ben Wittes and Bobby Chesney about the merits -- or lack thereof -- of Sen. Lindsey Graham's proposed "Terrorist Detention Review Reform Act," which Wittes and Chesney support and Steve opposes. Steve doesn't need my help in the debate, which I think he's clearly winning. But I couldn't let one point...
[I posted this about the same time that Ken posted his discussion of the same case below, which is definitely worth reading. Please forgive any repetitions. But we are both on the same page.] In a blockbuster opinion that could spell the end of the vast bulk of Alien Tort Statute litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit...
I have received a significant amount of feedback on my previous post on apportioning responsibility for international violations and therefore I wanted to do a couple of follow up posts on the subject. As Judge Simma indicated in his Separate Opinion in the Oil Platforms case, there arguably is a general principle of international law that joint tortfeasors are...
I've got a new draft article on cyberthreats (you can download it at SSRN here). I'd planned to wait before blogging about it, but events have overtaken my plans since Orin Kerr and Dave Hoffman are already discussing my ideas over at Concurring Opinions. So, let me offer some responses to their questions here, and in the process explain (a) why some...
I have no idea why Ken posted his thoughts on the Washington Post editorial only at Volokh Conspiracy, but I wanted to respond to his post, because I think it is based on a critical misapprehension of the laws of war. Here are the relevant paragraphs (my emphasis): [G]oing to the geographic definition of war as a legal concept. This idea...
Ben Wittes calls attention today to a Washington Post editorial defending the targeted killing of American citizens like Al-Aulaqi: [W]hen a target is hiding in a lawless state or in one which refuses to cooperate in his apprehension, other alternatives must be considered, including targeted strikes. The decision to target an American must be a last resort, used...
Via BLDGBLOG and Pruned (1, 2), here are two suggestions that are not so much literal proposals but rather thought experiments, each meant to prod the viewer. (And a third one from me.) The first is one of the winners of SeaChange 2030+, an "ideas competition" sponsored by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects with the goal of addressing the effects of...
Julian noted a couple of days ago that the ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights have challenged the Obama administration's "asserted authority to carry out ‘targeted killings’ of U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism far from any field of armed conflict.” The lawsuit claims, inter alia, that such killings violate the due-process rights of the targeted citizens. As Anthony Romero...
