Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published on Just Security. My first post for Just Security explained why, despite some bungled politics, President Obama’s proposed military action in Syria could have been lawful under U.S. domestic law. This post discusses why President Obama did not violate international law by threatening to use force in Syria in the face of a persistent Russian veto, and how the Syria crisis might best evolve from here. Obviously, we cannot fully evaluate the lawfulness of any state’s use of force until we know the precise factual circumstances under which it chooses to take action. But let’s start by distinguishing the legal question—is the option of military force available under domestic or international law?—from the policy question: would it be wise to use military force in Syria for the limited purpose of discouraging a repeat use of chemical weapons? No one denies that the policy question presents a vexing judgment call, even if the intended use were very limited and even if a decision-maker like President Obama had far more information…
Symposia
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Syria and the Law of Humanitarian Intervention (Part I: Political Miscues and U.S. Law)
Harold Hongju Koh is Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School and was Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State from 2009 to 2013. Editor's Note: This piece was originally published on Just Security, a new blog with a fantastic team of editors and contributors who will be well…
Event: Symposium on Unilateral Sanctions
The Hague Center for Law and Arbitration and the Doshisha University Graduate School of Global Studies announce a Symposium on Unilateral Sanctions and International Law: Views on Legitimacy and Consequences, 11 July 2013 at the Asser Institute in The Hague. Details here.
Symposium on ExtraTerritorial Jurisdiction
One of the topics that will be taught in any basic course on public international law is “Jurisdiction”. By this is meant the jurisdiction of States and as Rosalyn Higgins explains in her book Problems and Process: International Law and How We Use It, questions of State jurisdiction are questions relating to allocation of competence. The question is…
The Constitutionalization of International Law
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be hosting an online symposium discussing the recent book by Jan Klabbers, Anne Peters and Geir Ulfstein, The Constitutionalization of International Law (OUP, 2009). This is one of series of recent books examining constitutionalism at the international level. Readers will remember that we held a discussion of another…
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