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Full-Text Articles in Law
How Precipitous A Decline? U.S.-Iranian Relations And The Transition From American Primacy, Hillary Mann Leverett
How Precipitous A Decline? U.S.-Iranian Relations And The Transition From American Primacy, Hillary Mann Leverett
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
This essay is grounded in two basic propositions. The first is that the greatest strategic challenge facing the United States is extricating its foreign policy from a well-worn but deeply counterproductive quest for hegemonic dominance in critical areas of the world, especially the Middle East. The second is that Washington’s handling of its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran constitutes a crucial test of America’s capacity to put its foreign policy on a more productive and realistic trajectory. Since the Islamic Republic’s founding in 1979, Washington has refused to understand and accept the basic model underlying its political order—the …
The Prohibition On The Use Of Force For Arms Control: The Case Of Iran’S Nuclear Program, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Reyam El Molla
The Prohibition On The Use Of Force For Arms Control: The Case Of Iran’S Nuclear Program, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Reyam El Molla
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
International law does not permit the use of military force against Iran to attempt to end its nuclear program. The resort to military force in international relations is covered first and foremost by Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter. Article 2(4) is a general prohibition on resort to force that includes resort to military force for arms control, including nuclear weapons control. The Charter has two express but limited exceptions to the ban on military force. A state that is the victim of a significant armed attack may use force in necessary and proportional self-defense; the United Nations Security …
Caroline Revisited: An Imagined Exchange Between John Kerry And Mohammad Javad Zarif, James W. Houck
Caroline Revisited: An Imagined Exchange Between John Kerry And Mohammad Javad Zarif, James W. Houck
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
In 1837, sailors of Great Britain's Royal Navy sank the American ship the Caroline over Niagra Falls. Great Britain justified the incident the preemptive strike as an act of self-defense. Diplomats of the two nations negotiated a legal framework to guide future preemptive uses of force. In the face of twenty-first century nuclear weapons, however, the Caroline framework seems outdated and impractical. To date, Iran continues to develop their nuclear program, while refusing international inspectors full access to their centrifuges. The United States is committed to keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iran's hands. The United States and Iran …
Iran's Nuclear Program And International Law, Daniel H. Joyner
Iran's Nuclear Program And International Law, Daniel H. Joyner
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
In this article, Professor Daniel Joyner analyzes the legal arguments on both sides of the Iran nuclear issue. The article address what the sides regard as the relevant sources of international nuclear law, and their respective interpretations of these sources law. Professor Joyner argues that Iran’s case illustrates warped and incorrect legal interpretations of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and other sources of law, and a prejudicial and inconsistent application of the law by the West and by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The article posits that this warped interpretation of NPT obligations has led to a bleak future for the …
Npt: A Pillar Of Global Governance, Richard Butler
Npt: A Pillar Of Global Governance, Richard Butler
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
The NPT is regarded as the cornerstone of nuclear arms control. It is the sole, widely agreed commitment in international law, to a world free of nuclear weapons. This fact and its operational mechanisms, establish NPT as a pillar of global governance. Any breakout from it, such as the development of nuclear weapons by Iran, a non-nuclear weapons state party to NPT, would jeopardize the future of the treaty and deeply harm the structure of contemporary global governance. If it chooses to do so, Iran cannot be prevented from taking such action by threatening it with the use of force, …
The Iranian Nuclear Issue, The End Of The American Century, And The Future Of International Order, Flynt L. Leverett
The Iranian Nuclear Issue, The End Of The American Century, And The Future Of International Order, Flynt L. Leverett
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
How the U.S.-Iranian competition for influence in the Middle East plays out will have profound consequences not just for the Middle East, but also for the legal frameworks, rules-based regimes, and mechanisms of global governance that shape international order in the 21st century. This is particularly true with regard to U.S.-Iranian disagreements over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities. Strategic competition between America and Iran and its implications for international order play out against a backdrop of the progressive diminution of U.S. leadership in world affairs. Relative decline challenges the United States to share the prerogatives of global governance, especially …
Foreword, Amy C. Gaudion
Foreword, Amy C. Gaudion
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
No abstract provided.
Rules Of Evidence For The Use Of Force In International Law's New Era, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Rules Of Evidence For The Use Of Force In International Law's New Era, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Mary Ellen O'Connell
No abstract provided.
American Exceptionalism And The International Law Of Self-Defense, Mary Ellen O'Connell
American Exceptionalism And The International Law Of Self-Defense, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Mary Ellen O'Connell
No abstract provided.
What Is Agression?: Comparing The Jus Ad Bellum And The Icc Statute, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Mirakmal Niyazmatov
What Is Agression?: Comparing The Jus Ad Bellum And The Icc Statute, Mary Ellen O'Connell, Mirakmal Niyazmatov
Mary Ellen O'Connell
Under the international law on resort to force, the jus ad bellum, any serious violation of the United Nations Charter prohibition on the use of force amounts to aggression. Despite a close connection for over a century between the prohibition on aggression by states and the crime of aggression for which individuals may be held accountable, delegates to the 2010 International Criminal Court Review Conference in Kampala, Uganda felt compelled to bifurcate the two prohibitions and reach a compromise. Today, the ICC Statute contains a detailed provision on the crime of aggression, but with a byzantine procedure for entry into …
Regulating The Use Of Force In The 21st Century: The Continuing Importance Of State Autonomy, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Regulating The Use Of Force In The 21st Century: The Continuing Importance Of State Autonomy, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Mary Ellen O'Connell
No abstract provided.
Preserving The Peace: The Continuing Ban On War Between States, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Preserving The Peace: The Continuing Ban On War Between States, Mary Ellen O'Connell
Mary Ellen O'Connell
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 …
Terrorism, Territorial Sovereignty, And The Forcible Apprehension Of International Criminals Abroad, Jimmy Gurule
Terrorism, Territorial Sovereignty, And The Forcible Apprehension Of International Criminals Abroad, Jimmy Gurule
Jimmy Gurule
No abstract provided.
Introduction And Postscript: Partial Progress On Un Reform, Douglass Cassel
Introduction And Postscript: Partial Progress On Un Reform, Douglass Cassel
Douglass Cassel
No abstract provided.
Self-Defense Against Terrorists: The Meaning Of Armed Attack, Steven Ratner
Self-Defense Against Terrorists: The Meaning Of Armed Attack, Steven Ratner
Book Chapters
The last decade has witnessed increased recourse by states to military force to respond to terrorist attacks on their soil that have originated from abroad. A number of states -- including the United States -- have justified these military actions as lawful self-defense in response to an armed attack, as permitted under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. These claims raise multiple interpretive questions about the meaning of "armed attack" under Article 51 and of the various options that are allowed in response to one. This essay explores the contemporary understanding of an "armed attack" in terms of an …