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I agree with Jack's analysis of the UK statement.
I would add that the British legal position is not new. The British relied on the doctrine of humanitarian intervention for their participation in the...
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Here is the UK’s statement on “the legality of military action in Syria following the chemical weapons attack in Eastern Damascus on 21 August 2013.” It maintains that “[i]f action in the Security Counc...
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Big news from the Department of Defense this morning: two detainees have been transferred from the Guantanamo detention facility to the government of Algeria.
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As I noted in an earlier post, the newly emerging uses of multi-lateral military force for humanitarian intervention -- such as to respond to states that gas their own citizens -- raise profound issues a...
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I'm leaving the Syria war powers discussion to those around here who actually know something about the subject, but I had one glancingly-related thought. If you're trying to decide the legality of a reso...
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Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro argue in the WP that military force in Syria absent Security Council authorization would violate the U.N. Charter, and they sketch alternatives to intervention. I agree ...
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Lawfare readers already know Laura Dean, author of the Cairo Diary we have been running the past few months. I met Laura a few years ago, when she was a Senate staffer and a close mutual friend brought ...
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You can find today's letter here.
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A review of Edward Snowden's 2011 background check reveals that it was, according to the Wall Street Journal's Brent Kendall and Dion Nissenbaum, "so inadequate that too few people were interviewed and p...
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Many thanks to everyone who expressed concern, offered assistance, and donated funds to help us resolve our recent technical problems. I'm pleased---and very relieved---to announce that as of yesterday, ...
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No, I'm not talking about the Syrian Electronic Army's likely take down of the New York Times website yesterday -- though that is probably what you were thinking and also probably the only one you've rea...
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I have a pretty broad view of presidential power to use military force abroad without congressional authorization. On that view, which is close to the past views of the Office of Legal Counsel, the plan...
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For anyone interested, I’ve posted to SSRN my draft article, forthcoming in the Yale Law Journal, titled “The Constitutional Power to Threaten War.” I’m pasting below the introduction, and I plan to pos...
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Jack's and Ashley’s analyses have covered the waterfront, so far as concerns the Kosovo precedent’s meaning (legal, moral and so forth) for a possible Syria intervention.
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At the top of our agenda today: reaction to Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks yesterday putting the world on notice the that the U.S. believes the Assad regime has deployed chemical weapons on its ...
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George Friedman of Stratfor has an essay entitled Obama’s Bluff that has what I think is the best analysis of the problems the USG faces if Syria has crossed the President's red line. The whole thing is...
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As the United States apparently prepares to intervene militarily in Syria, it is perhaps worth noting that, in his less-than-coherent confirmation hearings, Secretary of State Kerry said: “I think a U.N....
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The potential use of military force in Syria and its past use in Kosovo -- despite the likely "illegality" under international law and the U.N. Charter -- raise important general questions about the mode...
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Let's begin with the alleged chemical weapons attack east of Damascus last week that prompted a slew of calls for an investigation from the international community---even from Syria's stalwart ally, Russ...
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