Earlier today I said that President Obama’s dismissal of a Security Council authorization as a prerequisite for intervention in Syria “marks the death knell for the long-held USG view that humanitarian i...

Lurking behind international law arguments over a possible US armed intervention in Syria without Security Council authorization are fundamental divides over the nature of international law itself.  Thes...

Marty Lederman writes in with a response to my last post: A quick, response to Jack's reading of the President's remarks in Stockholm yesterday: One should be very cautious, of course, about reading too...

I want to briefly unpack this extraordinary statement by President Obama yesterday in Sweden: [T]he truth of the matter is that under international law, Security Council resolution for self-defense or de...

President Obama has recently made the case for taking action in Syria in two very different arenas: yesterday, in a statement made prior to his meeting with Members of Congress; and today, in Stockholm, ...

So reports the New York Times on this afternoon's vote to authorize the use of military force in Syria. The vote was 10-7; the Republicans voting with a majority of the Democrats on the panel included: S...

I disagree with Peter Spiro’s take on Section 4 of the draft AUMF. Section 4 terminates the congressional authorization after 60 (or 90) days, but it does not affirmatively prohibit the President from u...

Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Gerry Connolly have put forward another draft Syria force authorization.   Here are some of the bill's key provisions, beginning with the authorization itself: SEC. 2.

The draft Senate Syria AUMF contains a narrower authorization for the use of presidential force than the one the administration proposed.  But it is in some respects still broad, and it actually enhances...

The would-be Syria AUMF---which is evidently still subject to markup in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee---can be found here.  As for key provisions, readers will be interested in the draft's secon...

There is an apparent disconnect between the White House’s strategic goals in Syria and the draft AUMF it sent to Congress last week---though negotiations in Congress appear to be addressing the issue. F...