At SCOTUSblog, Lyle Denniston has an interesting post on an effort by lawyers who represented Fred Korematsu and other victims of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II to persuade the Obama administration to advocate the overruling of Korematsu v. United States, the notorious 1944 Supreme Court decision that upheld the forcible internment of […]
Archive | War and Armed Conflict
New Paper on International Criminal Court’s Jurisdiction over Israeli Settlements
By Eugene Kontorovich on December 1, 2013 3:00 pm in Global Governance/World Government, International Law, Israel, National Security, War and Armed Conflict
My paper, Israel/Palestine — The ICC’s Uncharted Territory, has just been published in the Journal of International Criminal Justice. It explains that the International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction over the oft-threatened and much-discussed Palestinian referral of Israeli settlements, despite the General Assembly’s recognition of Palestine as a non-member state. In brief, the relevant […]
Verse for Sunday: “U.S. 1946 Kings X”
Having invented a new Holocaust, And been the first with it to win a war, How they make haste to cry with fingers crossed, King’s X–no fairs to use it anymore! –Robert Frost, Complete Poems (1949)
China Asserts Air Defense Identification Zone Around Disputed Pacific Islands
By Kenneth Anderson on November 27, 2013 7:33 pm in International Law, Uncategorized, War and Armed Conflict
Julian Ku at Opinio Juris notes that while much of the foreign policy community is focused on the Iran deal, China has undertaken a significant political escalation of its dispute with Japan over the Senkaku (or Daioyu) Islands, by invoking a so-called Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) around the disputed islands. The Wall Street Journal […]
Does Nigeria Share Responsibility for Pirate Attack on US Sailors?
By Eugene Kontorovich on October 24, 2013 10:24 am in International Law, National Security, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Two Americans have been kidnapped off an oil supply vessel off of Nigeria by local pirates, according to breaking new accounts. Nigeria, like many nations, has been making it difficult for private security contractors to work off its shores. For example, it has recently arrested 15 Russian sailors from a ship operated by a security […]
A “Libertarian” Case for Conscription?
There are a number of standard arguments for military conscription. But Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry’s recent essay for Cato Unbound is unusual for claiming that conscription can be justified on libertarian grounds. With the possible exception of strict pacifism, it’s difficult to imagine an ideology more antithetical to conscription than libertarianism. As it turns out, most of […]
Congress’ Options on the Syria AUMF in Light of the Russian Offer to Transfer Assad’s Chemical Weapons to International Control
The Russian government and the Assad regime recently offered to transfer Syria’s chemical weapons to “international” control, in exchange for the US and its allies foregoing a military strike on Assad’s forces. Obviously, the offer raises many issues, including whether Russia’s and Assad’s assurances can be trusted and effectively verified. In this post, I only […]
The Nature of the Syrian Rebels and the Case for Intervention in Syria
I have previously suggested that the case for military intervention in Syria depends in large part on the nature of the rebels fighting to overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad. If the rebels are primarily radical Islamists who would establish a government as oppressive and anti-American as Assad’s, it would be both foolish and immoral […]
Rep. Charles Rangel Cites Possible Intervention in Syria as a Justification for his Call for Reinstating the Draft
Democratic Representative Charles Rangel cites the possibility of intervention in Syria as a justification for reinstating the draft, a cause he has long advocated: America seems increasingly inclined to engage in a new military conflict every few years, faced with a new populace to defend, a new democracy to design, and a new dictator to […]
Does it Matter if US Intervention in Syria Violates the UN Charter?
Most international law experts agree that a US military intervention in Syria would violate the United Nations charter, which forbids the use of force against another state except in self-defense or when authorized by a UN Security Council Resolution. In this case, the Assad regime has not attacked the United States, and there is no […]
A Hands-Tied Presidency?
By Jonathan H. Adler on September 8, 2013 9:26 am in Executive Branch, Separation of Powers, War and Armed Conflict
In an essay for the NYT Sam Tanenhaus argues that President Obama “holds office at a time when the presidency itself has ceded much of its power and authority to Congress.” No, really. This is what he says. It is, frankly, a rather bizarre claim. As a great deal of academic work has documented (including an […]
Will Obama Order Military Intervention in Syria Even if Congress Refuses to Authorize it?
Although President Obama has asked Congress to authorize the use of military force against Syria, he and other administration officials continue to insist that he has the power to order a strike even if Congress refuses his request. In my view, anything more than an extremely limited operation requires congressional authorization under the Constitution. But […]
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Passes Syria AUMF
By a 10-7 vote, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed an authorization for the use of military force in Syria today. The AUMF adopted by the committee appears to be similar to the draft I discussed in this post (though I have not yet seen the final text). However, the nonbinding Statement of Policy section […]
Thoughts on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Narrow Version of the Syria AUMF
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has drawn up its own version of a resolution authorizing the use of military force in Syria, which imposes significantly tighter constraints on the president than the administration version. Here is the key language [SEE IMPORTANT UPDATES BELOW]: SECTION 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES. (a) AUTHORIZATION-The […]
Syria and the Morality of Humanitarian Intervention
Legal scholar Fernando Teson, a leading academic expert on humanitarian intervention has an interesting post on why the humanitarian case for intervening in Syria is weak. Like Fernando, I’m not opposed to such intervention on principle. But it can only be justified if there is a high probability of improving the situation in the targeted […]