Worth Reading On Syria
A few items that are in my opinion worth a read:
Opinio Juris is having an insta-symposium on Syria. I recommend in particular Marty Lederman’s two posts on the relevance of the U.N.
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A few items that are in my opinion worth a read:
Opinio Juris is having an insta-symposium on Syria. I recommend in particular Marty Lederman’s two posts on the relevance of the U.N. Charter to the coming authorization debate in Congress. (Largely overlooked in the President’s speech on Saturday was his back-of-the hand dismissal of the Charter: “I’m comfortable going forward without the approval of a United Nations Security Council that, so far, has been completely paralyzed and unwilling to hold Assad accountable.” The President did not say how this view squared with his Nobel Prize speech claim that “all nations – strong and weak alike – must adhere to standards that govern the use of force.”)
Philip Bobbitt has another interesting piece, this time in the FP, on the intersection of law and strategy in the Syria matter. Also interesting in the FP are Daniel Byman’s advice to Congress, Charli Carpenter’s piece on why a Syria strike would not be a humanitarian intervention, and a story by Shane Harris and Matthew Aid about American support for Saddam Hussein’s nerve gas attacks in Iran in 1998. And indeed there are many more good and relevant pieces at FP.
Jack Goldsmith is the Learned Hand Professor at Harvard Law School, co-founder of Lawfare, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Before coming to Harvard, Professor Goldsmith served as Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel from 2003-2004, and Special Counsel to the Department of Defense from 2002-2003.
