Tod Lindberg, editor of the Hoover Institution’s Policy Review, reports in the Weekly Standard on a blunt message delivered by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC [corrected]) at a discussion meeting of senior transatlantic policy makers, the Halifax International Security Forum. It’s not a forum that would attract a lot of attention, but the attendees are very […]
Archive | International Law
Where Jus in Bello and Jus ad Bellum Come Together, or, ‘This Time of Damned Algebra’
By Kenneth Anderson on November 10, 2010 7:24 pm in International Human Rights Law, International Law, War and Armed Conflict
I’m at Penn Station, waiting for the train from New York City back to DC, happy but slightly dazed after the intense three day conference in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Michael Walzer’s Just and Unjust Wars that I mentioned in an earlier post. My thanks and congratulations to Gabby Blum, Ian Scobbie, and […]
Obama Endorses India for Permanent Security Council Seat, and a Note on Disaggregation of the State and the Globalized New Class
By Kenneth Anderson on November 8, 2010 10:44 am in Global Governance/World Government, International Law, New Class
News services report that President Obama, speaking to the Indian Parliament, has endorsed India receiving a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. The AP story adds that this was the biggest applause line in the speech, fully consonant with the rise of Indian nationalism within India, and its rapidly increasing sense of importance in […]
Targeted Killing and Drone Warfare Debate between Mary Ellen O’Connell and Benjamin Wittes
By Kenneth Anderson on October 26, 2010 1:46 pm in Afghanistan, International Law, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Interest in targeted killing and drone warfare is not letting up in intensity – at least to judge by the pace of events on the topic. Right on top of my debate with Notre Dame’s Mary Ellen O’Connell on this at Washington University two weeks ago, Professor O’Connell and the Brookings Institution’s (and Hoover Institution’s) […]
NGO Accountability and Legitimacy at Brooklyn Law School
I was privileged yesterday to take part in an exciting conference in New York yesterday at Brooklyn Law School, Governing Civil Society: NGO Accountability, Legitimacy and Influence. Congratulations to Professors Claire R. Kelly and Dana Brakman Reiser at BLS for putting it together. I was on one of the panels at this one day session […]
Self Defense and Non-International Armed Conflict in Drone Warfare
By Kenneth Anderson on October 22, 2010 6:31 am in Afghanistan, International Law, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict
Over the past year, I’ve been spending much time on the questions of drone warfare and the legal issues raised – many talks, panel discussions, debates, and so on. In the course of those discussions, as well as discussions with many experts one-on-one, I’ve wanted both to clarify a couple of my views and acknowledge […]
A Tribute to Louis Henkin from Harold Koh
By Kenneth Anderson on October 15, 2010 11:07 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law
The great international law scholar Louis Henkin passed away two days ago; for many decades he taught at Columbia Law School, which released a note from the dean on Professor Henkin’s passing. Over at Opinio Juris, Harold Koh, currently Legal Adviser to the State Department, has a lovely tribute to him. I have come not […]
Congratulations to Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain
Congratulations to Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the 9th Circuit, who has been named chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on International Judicial Relations by Chief Justice Roberts. It is a three-year term, and Judge O’Scannlain is a terrific choice to chair it. The 9th Circuit announcement notes that the Committee was formed in 1993 to […]
Agency Failure, Legal Liability and Jurisdiction, and International Organizations
On occasion, I have lamented what I perceive as the lack of due attention in the scholarly literature to the actual circumstances of international organizations, starting with the UN. One of those fundamental issues concerns accountability, in the special sense that there is no obvious judicial forum for reviewing actions even of individuals alleged to […]
Global Governance Conference at American University
The American University School of International Service (not my law school, but SIS) is holding a conference on global governance on Friday-Saturday, September 24-25, at the spanking new and quite lovely new SIS building at AU. It’s a great line-up of speakers and panelists; kudos to the organizers. One of the convenors is David Bosco, […]
Samuel Moyn on the History of the Human Rights Movement
By Kenneth Anderson on September 10, 2010 1:22 pm in International Human Rights Law, International Law
Columbia University historian Samuel Moyn has a new book out, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Harvard/Belknap). I haven’t read it – but I have ordered it from Amazon! – and I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I’ve read it. However, it received a positive (and quite interesting in its […]
More Piracy Blogging at Opinio Juris
Chief Conspirator Eugene mentioned the dismissal of the piracy case (US v Said) in US district court yesterday, along with some important initial commentary by piracy law expert (i.e., universal jurisdiction law expert) Eugene Kontorovich. Over at the international law blog Opinio Juris, Julian Ku and David Glazier comment further. Like Eugene, they think the […]
Today Is 61st Anniversary of the Geneva Conventions of 1949
By Kenneth Anderson on August 12, 2010 7:32 pm in International Law, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
John Bellinger, former legal adviser to the State Department, reflects on the meaning of the Geneva Conventions today, in a post at Foreign Policy. Today, 12 August, is the 61st anniversary of the signing of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the international treaties designed to protect soldiers and civilians during armed conflicts. The treaties became […]
The International Court of Justice Sort of Rules for Kosovo
The International Court of Justice was asked for an advisory opinion on the question of Kosovo’s secession declaration. The request came from the General Assembly, as drafted by Serbia, and the framing of the question is partly why I title the post “sort of” rules for Kosovo. The question was framed as whether the secession […]
The UN’s “Programme of Action” on Small Arms
Here’s a short new paper, written by the Heritage Foundation’s Theodore Bromund and me: As the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty Process Begins, U.N.’s “Programme of Action” on Small Arms Shows Its Dangers.