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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Future Of The Law Of Armed Conflict: Ostriches, Butterflies, And Nanobots , Eric Talbot Jensen
The Future Of The Law Of Armed Conflict: Ostriches, Butterflies, And Nanobots , Eric Talbot Jensen
Michigan Journal of International Law
The historical fact that the law of armed conflict (LOAC) has always lagged behind current methods of warfare does not mean that it always must. This Article will argue that the underlying assumption that law must be reactive is not an intrinsic reality inherent in effective armed conflict governance. Rather, just as military practitioners work steadily to predict new threats and defend against them, LOAC practitioners need to focus on the future of armed conflict and attempt to be proactive in evolving the law to meet future needs.
Asat-Isfaction: Customary International Law And The Regulation Of Anti-Satellite Weapons, David A. Koplow
Asat-Isfaction: Customary International Law And The Regulation Of Anti-Satellite Weapons, David A. Koplow
Michigan Journal of International Law
The argument in this Article proceeds through several steps. As background, Part I outlines the current and projected future human uses of outer space, emphasizing the plethora of civilian and military applications that now rely on satellites. The United States, especially, but other countries, too, are coming to depend on multiple space assets for the performance of a wide array of vital functions; the investment is huge, diverse, and growing, despite the costs and natural perils of operating in the harsh exoatmospheric environment.
The Use Of Force Against States That Might Have Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Matthew C. Waxman
The Use Of Force Against States That Might Have Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Matthew C. Waxman
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article argues that the most difficult future crises for which this legal debate is most consequential will not resemble those described by Prime Minister Thatcher or Director ElBaradei. Rather, in confronting potentially hostile and aggressive states believed to pose a WMD threat, decisionmakers contemplating the use of force will face an intelligence picture that is open to reasonable debate (contra Thatcher) and irresolvable to high levels of certainty (contra ElBaradei). This paper examines how competing legal approaches deal with this epistemic problem.
Dionysian Disarmament: Security Coucil Wmd Coercive Disarmament Measures And Their Legal Implication, James D. Fry
Dionysian Disarmament: Security Coucil Wmd Coercive Disarmament Measures And Their Legal Implication, James D. Fry
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article provides the first comprehensive legal analysis of the Security Council's coercive disarmament and arms control measures involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In the process of providing this legal analysis, it presents a fresh perspective on a variety of widely held beliefs about disarmament and arms control law, as well as about U.N. law.
Averting Catastrophe: Why The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Is Losing Its Deterrence Capacity And How To Restore It, Orde F. Kittrie
Averting Catastrophe: Why The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Is Losing Its Deterrence Capacity And How To Restore It, Orde F. Kittrie
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article analyzes from a legal perspective the responses of the international community, and especially the Security Council, to the examples of nuclear proliferation outlined in this Article and the impact of those responses on the vitality of the nuclear nonproliferation regime. In doing so, the Article identifies and focuses on two key, interrelated themes. The first theme is the effect on these responses of the NPT's remarkably weak mechanisms for detecting violations of NPT obligations. The second theme is the frequent strong reluctance of the international community, including the Security Council, to impose serious sanctions for proliferation activity when …
Civil Aircraft As Weapons Of Large-Scale Destruction: Countermeasures, Article 3bis Of The Chicago Convention, And The Newly Adopted German "Luftsicherheitsgesetz", Robin Geiß
Michigan Journal of International Law
It is thus the aim of this Article to map out the international legal framework relevant for designing countermeasures against nonstate actors who convert civil aircraft into weapons of destruction. As a first step, this Article sketches out the applicable rules relating to international civil aviation security and highlights the dichotomy between nonstate actor threats and interstate threats at the base of these rules. As will be seen below, nonstate actors abusing civil aircraft as weapons of destruction is a new challenge not only in terms of destructive quality but also in a legal sense, in that the question of …
Preemptive Strategies In International Law, Michael N. Schmitt
Preemptive Strategies In International Law, Michael N. Schmitt
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article explores the appropriateness of preemptive strategies in international law. Are preemptive actions approved by the international community lawful? Can States act unilaterally or in a coalition of the willing to preempt terrorism, the development and transfer of WMD, or other threats? If so, under what circumstances and based on what quantum and quality of evidence? When can preemptive actions be taken against non-State actors such as terrorists who are based in other States?
The New Chemical Weapons Convention And Export Controls: Towards Greater Multilateralism, Urs A. Cipolat
The New Chemical Weapons Convention And Export Controls: Towards Greater Multilateralism, Urs A. Cipolat
Michigan Journal of International Law
The article is structured in five parts. Section I gives an overview of the history of the CWC. Section II focuses on the CWC' s material scope. This discussion is important in order to determine the items that will fall under an eventual export control obligation. Section III presents the main obligations under the CWC, while Section IV deals exclusively with the specific obligations pertaining to export controls. The implementation of these specific obligations-which, for the purposes of this article, are referred to as transfer rules-is the focus of Section V.
Footprints Of Death: Cluster Bombs As Indiscriminate Weapons Under International Humanitarian Law, Virgil Wiebe
Footprints Of Death: Cluster Bombs As Indiscriminate Weapons Under International Humanitarian Law, Virgil Wiebe
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Article applies these principles of discrimination to the real, rather than idealized, use and characteristics of cluster bombs. Briefly stated, these principles call upon parties to an armed conflict to distinguish between civilians and combatants and to weigh the military advantages of a particular weapon or type of attack against the harm it will do to civilians and civilian objects. This Article also considers briefly the global problem of cluster munitions and examines fundamental components of the discrimination principle as they apply to cluster bombs. As three specific case studies, it analyzes the use of cluster bombs by breakaway …
Clear And Present Danger: Enforcing The International Ban On Biological And Chemical Weapons Through Sanctions, Use Of Force, And Criminalization, Michael P. Scharf
Clear And Present Danger: Enforcing The International Ban On Biological And Chemical Weapons Through Sanctions, Use Of Force, And Criminalization, Michael P. Scharf
Michigan Journal of International Law
Currently there are two means of enforcing the international prohibition of chemical and biological weapons. First, the international community can induce compliance through imposition of sanctions, such as trade embargoes, freezing of assets and diplomatic isolation. Second, when sanctions fail, States can individually or collectively respond to the threat of chemical or biological weapons by using military force. After exploring the potential strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, this article examines the desirability of supplementing them with a third approach based on the criminal prosecution of persons responsible for the production, stockpiling, transfer, or use of chemical and biological weapons.
The Potential Contribution Of The Chemical Weapons Convention To Combatting Terrorism, Cecil Hunt
The Potential Contribution Of The Chemical Weapons Convention To Combatting Terrorism, Cecil Hunt
Michigan Journal of International Law
This paper includes an identification and brief assessment of features of the CWC that could be helpful in dealing with the danger of use of chemical weapons in terrorist activity. They are presented under six headings which should be viewed as theses. For some of these theses this paper can offer little support, but points, instead, to missed opportunities and to the need for further efforts.
The Passive Virtues And The World Court: Pro-Dialogic Abstentation By The International Court Of Justice, Antonio F. Perez
The Passive Virtues And The World Court: Pro-Dialogic Abstentation By The International Court Of Justice, Antonio F. Perez
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article will describe how the World Court has abstained in a way that not only expresses its commitment to principled government but also implements a coordinate, participation-inducing agenda. The article argues that the most recent jurisprudence of the ICJ manifests an acceleration of this tendency in response not only to the need to conserve judicial resources in light of the increased use of the Court by States, but also, and more significantly, to the enhanced law-making activity of the political organs of the U.N.
Advancing The Law Of Weapons Control - Comparative Approaches To Strengthen Nuclear Non-Proliferation, David S. Gualtieri, Barry Kellman, Kenneth E. Apt, Edward A. Tanzman
Advancing The Law Of Weapons Control - Comparative Approaches To Strengthen Nuclear Non-Proliferation, David S. Gualtieri, Barry Kellman, Kenneth E. Apt, Edward A. Tanzman
Michigan Journal of International Law
This article analyzes in-depth the SAGSI recommendation that more effective safeguards draw upon "the elements (including the managed access provisions) contained in Part X of the Verification Annex to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.” SAGSI found that the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) offers approaches for verification and investigation that may be adaptable to the NPT.
A Memorial For Bosnia: Framework Of Legal Arguments Concerning The Lawfulness Of The Maintenance Of The United Nations Security Council's Arms Embargo On Bosnia And Herzegovina, Craig Scott, Abid Qureshi, Jasminka Kalajdzic, Francis Chang, Paul Michell, Peter Copeland
A Memorial For Bosnia: Framework Of Legal Arguments Concerning The Lawfulness Of The Maintenance Of The United Nations Security Council's Arms Embargo On Bosnia And Herzegovina, Craig Scott, Abid Qureshi, Jasminka Kalajdzic, Francis Chang, Paul Michell, Peter Copeland
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Memorial seeks to present a framework of legal arguments with respect to the validity and legal effects of an arms embargo imposed by United Nations Security Council Resolution 713 in September 1991 on the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia), before its dissolution, and since treated as being in force with respect to the new states that have succeeded Yugoslavia. More particularly, the Memorial addresses the legality of maintaining (or, at least, having maintained during the crucial time period) the arms embargo in force, either de jure or de facto, against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnia) …
Law And Alternative Security, Burns H. Weston
Law And Alternative Security, Burns H. Weston
Michigan Journal of International Law
Rightly or wrongly, nuclear weapons are regarded, in their threat role at least, as effective guardians of national security. Yet nothing is more menacing to the survival of our planet than the credibly communicated threat to use nuclear weapons if and when sufficiently provoked. Ergo, to escape the mind-boggling risks posed by nuclear deterrence, thinking about how to ensure world security without relying upon nuclear weapons, either extensively or at all, is as much a political as it is a moral imperative- in truth, a matter of physical survival. Without an effective alternative to nuclear deterrence, there is no …
Proposals To Establish A Nordic Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, Bengt Broms
Proposals To Establish A Nordic Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, Bengt Broms
Michigan Journal of International Law
Today, after a long silence, the Nordic States are again investigating the idea of establishing a Nordic nuclear-weapon-free zone. The renewed exchange of views is no doubt partly related to the continuing development of nuclear weapons and partly to the fear that even in circumstances where nuclear weapons would not be used against the Nordic States they present a threat to the region should major war break out. This fear was mentioned by Dr. Urho Kekkonen, the President of the Republic of Finland, in an address he delivered at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm on May 8, …
Interpreting The Withdrawal Clause In Arms Control Treaties, Cindy A. Cohn
Interpreting The Withdrawal Clause In Arms Control Treaties, Cindy A. Cohn
Michigan Journal of International Law
This Note argues that although a danger to future arms control may exist, a treaty clause must be susceptible to interpretation and boundaries of use which are in harmony with general international law principles. As Professor Schwelb has stated: "[I]t cannot have been… the intention of the parties to throw the principle of pacta sunt servanda overboard in favor of the anarchic idea of the unfettered right of a sovereign state to free itself unilaterally from a treaty obligation." Although Schwelb admits that the Clause itself is subject to "auto-interpretation" by the states parties to the treaty, he adds that …