General

Thanks to Kevin Govern and Duncan Hollis for providing the two previous posts (here and here) in this book symposium on Cyber War: Law and Ethics for Virtual Conflicts. In my post, I want to explore the difficulties arising from causal investigations in cyber attacks. Everyone knows that the increasing threat of cyber attacks will place immense pressure on the operational capacities for...

If you haven’t seen it yet, the US recently filed its amicus brief in the Haiti Cholera appeal - it is available here: Haiti US amicus 2nd Circ. Predictably, the brief makes the case for absolute external UN immunity, and advances largely the same arguments put forward in prior filings. And yet, there are a number of powerful counterarguments to the position...

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Three blasts struck the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a military spokesman said on Sunday, a day after a new audio message purportedly from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau accused the army of lying about successes against the militants. More than 1,500 people have been quarantined in Sierra...

I want to thank Alexandre Skander Galand for his interesting post last week on the continuing controversy over President al-Bashir's non-arrest during his recent visit to South Africa. The post reignited a long-standing debate in the comments section. My own views are too long for posting in the comments section. I write now to expand a bit on my previous arguments regarding the role...

I thank Professors Ackerman and Golove for taking the time to respond to my earlier post on whether a future President could unilaterally withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Deal.  But I remain unconvinced by the claims they made in their original Atlantic essay that a future President's unilateral withdrawal from the Iran Deal would be "lawless". Here's why I still think they...

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is hosting its Annual International Open Day on Sunday, 20 September, at the ICTY Main Building in The Hague as part of The Hague International Day. At the Open Day, there will be opportunities to interact with ICTY Judges and other key staff members, view documentaries produced by the ICTY Outreach...

My colleagues at the Diplomacy School have just alerted me to an interesting new opportunity.  All who are interested should apply.  Here is the job ad: The School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in international human rights law to commence in the 2016-2017 academic year. Applicants must possess a...

A few months ago, I participated as a senior faculty member at the Fourth Annual Junior Faculty Forum for International Law in Florence, Italy. It was a fantastic workshop, and the papers presented by the junior faculty were uniformly excellent, including the one by Maria Varaki to which I responded. So I encourage all young scholars to submit abstracts for the Fifth...

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa At least nine people were killed in two bomb attacks on Sunday in the northern Cameroon town of Kolofata, according to local officials, in what appeared to be the latest attack by the Boko Haram Islamist militant group from nearby Nigeria. Unidentified attackers ambushed a police post in...

Professors Bruce Ackerman and David Golove argue in this Atlantic essay that the next President cannot withdraw from the Iran agreement because it is a "congressionally authorized executive agreement." They argue that Senator Marco Rubio's pledge to terminate the Iran Deal on day one "would destroy the binding character of America’s commitments to the IMF, the World Bank, NAFTA, and the World...