Law Commons^™

The Lessons Of 9/11 For October 7, Mary Ellen O'Connell

NDLS in the News

October 7 is being called Israel’s 9/11. The comparison is apt for the lessons that can be learned as to the legality of launching a ground offensive to respond to terrorism.

Twenty Years Of Drone Attacks, Mary Ellen O'Connell

NDLS in the News

On November 2, 2002, the United States conducted its first targeted killings using a drone. CIA agents based in Djibouti launched the drone’s two Hellfire missiles at a vehicle traveling in rural Yemen, killing six...

The Killing Of Soleimani And International Law, Mary Ellen O'Connell

NDLS in the News

On 3 January, missiles launched from a United States Reaper drone struck two vehicles leaving Baghdad’s international airport. At least seven people died in the attack, including the commander of Iran’s Quds force, General Qassem Soleimani. On 5 January, Iranian Major General Hossein Dehghan, reported to be the military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, gave an exclusive interview to CNN and said Iran “would retaliate directly against US ‘military sites.’”

Drone Attacks On Saudi Aramco Oil Installations, Mary Ellen O'Connell

NDLS in the News

Half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production has been stopped by air attacks involving drones and possibly cruise missiles on 14 September 2019. Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed responsibility. United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has asserted by tweet that Iran is responsible because there is “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen” and Iran is behind “100” attacks on Saudi Arabia. The U.S. has since released satellite imagery showing immense smoke clouds. Unnamed American officials say 19 sites were struck. According to the BBC, on 16 September, ‘UK, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was not …

The Internationalists: How A Radical Plan To Outlaw War Remade The World, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Mary Ellen O'Connell researches and writes in the areas of international law and the use of force and international legal theory. She provides a thorough review of The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World, Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2017), wherein the authors investigate the investigate the history, nature, and impact of the international legal prohibition on the use of force, focusing on the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

Why Federal Courts Apply The Law Of Nations Even Though It Is Not The Supreme Law Of The Land, Anthony J. Bellia, Bradford R. Clark

Journal Articles

We are grateful to the judges and scholars who participated in this Symposium examining our book, The Law of Nations and the United States Constitution. One of our goals in writing this book was to reinvigorate and advance the debate over the role of customary international law in U.S. courts. The papers in this Symposium advance this debate by deepening understandings of how the Constitution interacts with customary international law. Our goal in this Article is to address two questions raised by this Symposium that go to the heart of the status of the law of nations under the Constitution. …

21st Century Arms Control Challenges: Drones, Cyber Weapons, Killer Robots, And Wmds, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The world faces tough arms control challenges from preventing the development and use of weapons of mass destruction to regulating the new weapons of the computer revolution. This article considers what works in arms control. Using military force in violation of international law to destroy nuclear facilities, to stop weapons shipments, or to punish the use of prohibited weapons typically fails. Diplomacy paired with lawful counter-measures has the superior track record. Reviving the art of diplomacy and re-committing to authentic international law will pay dividends in peace and security.

The Prohibition Of The Use Of Force, Mary O'Connell

Book Chapters

This chapter concerns the central international legal rule against violence: Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter. Article 2(4) generally prohibits the use of force by states. It is a treaty rule that is also widely regarded as a rule of customary international law and, indeed, in certain respects, as a peremptory rule or rule of jus cogens. Article 2(4) was adopted along with the rest of the Charter in 1945 after the catastrophe of the Second World War in which an estimated 60 million people died. Despite its relatively recent adoption, Article 2(4) has ancient roots, dating back …

Historical Development And Legal Basis, Mary O'Connell

Book Chapters

Although the subject of this Handbook is the law applicable to the conduct of hostilities that applies once a party has entered into armed conflict (the jus in bello), that law cannot be properly understood without some examination of the separate body of rules which determines when resort to armed force is permissible (the jus ad bellum). The jus ad bellum has ancient origins but current law is founded on Article 2(4) and Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

The Choice Of Law Against Terrorism, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The Obama administration has continued to apply the wartime paradigm first developed by the Bush administration after 9/11 to respond to terrorism. In cases of trials before military commissions, indefinite detention, and targeted killing, the U.S. has continued to claim wartime privileges even with respect to persons and situations far from any battlefield. This article argues that both administrations have made a basic error in the choice of law. Wartime privileges may be claimed when armed conflict conditions prevail as defined by international law. These privileges are not triggered by declarations or policy preferences.

Honduras: Coup D’Etat In Constitutional Clothing?, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Legal confusion has clouded the recent de facto change of government in Honduras. Some of this arises from the passionate political debate over President Manuel Zelaya and his de facto removal. Without entering that debate, this analysis addresses only questions of international law and related questions of law.

Despite the condemnation of the coup d’état by the United Nations, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the OAS, and by many governments including the United States, and despite suspension of Honduras from receipt of U.S. and European aid, and from participation in the OAS, diplomatic efforts to return President Zelaya …

Preserving The Peace: The Continuing Ban On War Between States, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The history of international law is, in large part, about the development of restraints on states' right to resort to force in dealing with external conflicts. Today, states may use force only in self-defense to an armed attack or with Security Council authorization. Even in these cases, states may use force only as a last resort, and then only if doing so will not disproportionately harm civilians, their property, or the natural environment. These rules restricting force are found in treaties (especially the United Nations Charter), customary international law, and the general principles of international law. In other words, the …

Defending Human Rights In The "War" Against Terror, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

Safeguarding human rights in our "war" against terrorism is both the right and the smart thing to do. It is right because human rights embody our fundamental values as Americans and as Christians. Our Constitution stands for freedom; our Creator teaches us to respect the God-given dignity of each human soul. Christians are called to cherish human dignity, not only of innocents, and not only of captives in war whose status as combatant or civilian may be uncertain, but also of cardinal sinners, the terrorists themselves. Christ Jesus teaches us to hate the sin, but somehow to bring ourselves to …

Washington's "War Against Terrorism" And Human Rights: The View From Abroad, Douglass Cassel

Journal Articles

"When it comes to human rights, there is no greater leader than the United States of America," White House spokesman Scott McClellan has said.

The view from abroad is less kind. A recent resolution of the European Parliament, for example, "condemns" our government's treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo. It urges Washington to guarantee all prisoners "minimum human rights in accordance with international human rights law and fair trial procedures" and to "immediately clarify the situation of the prisoners." European objections run so deep that a New York Times account finds a "high level of anger in Europe at reports that …

The End Of Legitimacy, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

IRAQ: ONE YEAR LATER

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS by Mary Ellen O'Connell, 261

THE USE OF FORCE IN IRAQ: ILLEGAL AND ILLEGITIMATE by Anne-Marie Slaughter, 262-63

THE IRAQ WAR AND THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW by Richard Falk, 263-66

THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE UN AFTER IRAQ by Thomas M Franck, 266-69

THE END OF LEGITIMACY by Mary Ellen O'Connell, 269-70

THE PROBLEMS OF LEGITIMACY-SPEAK by James Crawford, 271-73

The Legal Case Against The Global War On Terror, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

In the first confusing days after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, President George W. Bush declared a war on terror. Many of us heard this declaration as stirring rhetoric to rally the nation. We understood it as a declaration that the President would direct a strong response against those responsible. We had heard this sort of rhetoric before when the nation faced powerful challenges-from illegal drugs and chronic poverty. Many of us understood President Bush's declaration of war to refer once again to the determined, persistent struggle to overcome a social blight-this time terrorism. We did …

To Kill Or Capture Suspects In The Global War On Terror, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Presents a speech by law professor Mary Ellen O'Connell, delivered at the Case Western Reserve School of Law's War Crimes Research Symposium, February 28, 2003. Legal implications of pursuing terror suspects using military action by the U.S. government; Components of armed conflict; Analysis of the United States' involvement in the internal armed conflict in the Philippines.

The Claims Resolution Tribunal And Holocaust Claims Against Swiss Banks, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

This article discusses the legal challenges for implementing settlements for Holocaust reparation claims to Swiss bank accounts. It specifically discusses the activities related to the settlement of these claims undertaken by the Independent Committtee of Eminent Persons (Volcker Commission). The article's first section presents historical information about Holocaust claims against Swiss banks. Specifically, it attempts to answer the question of why it has taken so long for Holocaust reparation claims against Swiss banks to be processed. The author blames this delay primarily on the obfuscation by the Swiss banks and the inattention of the Swiss government[,] which is indicated by …

Lawful Self-Defense To Terrorism, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

On October 7,2001, the United States and the United Kingdom launched operation Enduring Freedom. Enduring Freedom was a massive aerial and land operation on the territory of Afghanistan in response to the September 11 terror attacks on the United States. The two governments justified Enduring Freedom as an exercise of lawful self-defense. This article examines the elements of self-defense, applying them to Enduring Freedom. At the outset, Enduring Freedom did indeed meet the conditions of lawful self-defense, but later stages of the operation may have gone beyond the bounds of proportionality. The article also looks at the alternatives to self-defense …

American Exceptionalism And The International Law Of Self-Defense, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Following the September 11th attacks in the United States (U.S.), one could make a case for America's use of force in Afghanistan as a lawful exercise of the right of self-defense. But the proposals to invade Iraq following September 11th cannot be so defended. Those proposals did not concern defending the basic security of the U.S. in the sense that basic security defense is currently understood in the international community. They concerned, rather, defense of a more expansive concept of security, a concept wherein the U.S. need not tolerate antagonistic regimes with the potential to harm U.S. interests. The invasion …

On War As Hell, Roger P. Alford

Journal Articles

This article addresses the question of the proper international standard for war reparations. War reparations are especially hard on the credibility and efficacy of international law. Wars are hard because the suffering is so great and reparations so onerous that often there is no mutuality of interest between the victorious governments and their own constituent victims. Wars force victorious States to make hard choices between looking backward to repair the harm caused to constituent victims and looking forward to a relationship with a potential strong and strategic ally. Just as the conduct of war, in its great features, is...policy itself, …

Elihu Root And Crisis Prevention, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Elihu Root pursued two themes relevant to international law and crisis. He believed firmly in the value of arbitration and adjudication to prevent crisis. He also worked toward the codification and greater specificity of international law so that judges and arbitrators would have more law available to apply in aid of crisis prevention. When crisis had not been prevented, as in the case of World War I, Root did not in fact believe international law-either process or substance-had much to offer. In his view, the Kaiser started World War I because he was bent on hegemony. Arbitration would not stop …

Terrorism, Territorial Sovereignty, And The Forcible Apprehension Of International Criminals Abroad, Jimmy Gurule

Journal Articles

Examines current international law governing use of force extraterritorially; in light of the Alvarez-Machain case in which a Mexican national suspected of murder was forcibly extradited to stand trial in the US.

Continuing Limits On Un Intervention In Civil War, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Can the United Nations (UN or Organization) send military forces into civil war without the consent of the parties to the conflict? To date, it never has, but with the end of the Cold War, the Organization is in a position to think again about its proper role in civil war. During the past year, the Security Council has had requests to intervene in the civil wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Somalia. So far, the UN has sent troops to Iraq and Yugoslavia but only after getting the consent of all parties.

The Security Council's recent decisions conform with the …

On Clandestine Warfare, Robert E. Rodes

Journal Articles

Common moral judgments on many types of clandestine warfare, referred to by some as terrorism, seem to be more nuanced and less severe than our current legal judgments. This paper begins by offering a detailed typology of clandestine operations and measures to combat them, a few general reflections on the laws of war, and a critique of those laws as they now stand. It then proposes a substantial revision of the laws which govern clandestine warfare based on four basic principles of the laws and the morality of just war: the independence of jus in bello from the jus ad …

Military Action In Labor Disputes, William Burns Lawless

Journal Articles

Generally, we may say that the executive power to initiate military action is commensurate with the emergency. If the situation is grave, the civil courts may be closed and a military commission appointed by the governor to substitute for the judiciary. In all events the power is potentially a vast one. Discriminate, ly applied it bargains a temporary suspension of rights for a restoration of law and order.

Constitutional Law - War Powers Of Congress (Validity Of Conscription Act), Francis Joseph Vurpillat

Journal Articles

This paper was read before The Round Table of South Bend, Indiana, and before the classes in constitutional law prior to the rendition of the decision by the United States Supreme Court, sustaining the Conscription Act. The paper is here presented in its original form, by request, on account of its controversial character and legal-brief style, the subject-matter of constitutional law and war powers being ever new to students of the law.