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Full-Text Articles in Law
Exoatmospheric Plowshares: Using A Nuclear Explosive Device For Planetary Defense Against An Incoming Asteroid, David A. Koplow
Exoatmospheric Plowshares: Using A Nuclear Explosive Device For Planetary Defense Against An Incoming Asteroid, David A. Koplow
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
What should be done if we suddenly discover a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth? The consequences of an impact could be enormous—scientists believe that such a strike 60 million years ago led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, and something of similar magnitude could happen again. Although no such extraterrestrial threat now looms on the horizon, astronomers concede that they cannot detect all the potentially hazardous “near-Earth objects,” and even more striking, they acknowledge that if such a danger were discerned, there is currently no proven capability for diverting or destroying it.
One possible response to this …
Humanitarian Intervention: Evolving Norms, Fragmenting Consensus (Remarks), Rosa Brooks
Humanitarian Intervention: Evolving Norms, Fragmenting Consensus (Remarks), Rosa Brooks
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Traditionally, the evolution of customary international law was understood as a gradual process: in some idealized model, we might see first a few states, and then a few more, implicitly agreeing to follow a practice, and then we would gradually begin to see additional states doing the same thing. We would also gradually accumulate evidence that these various states are acting in such a way because they consider themselves legally bound to do so. Then, over time, we’ll see more and more states following suit both in word and deed, until at some point we can say with a great …
Libya: A Multilateral Constitutional Moment?, Catherine Powell
Libya: A Multilateral Constitutional Moment?, Catherine Powell
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
The Libya intervention of 2011 marked the first time that the UN Security Council invoked the “responsibility to protect” principle (RtoP) to authorize use of force by UN member states. In this comment the author argues that the Security Council’s invocation of RtoP in the midst of the Libyan crisis significantly deepens the broader, ongoing transformation in the international law system’s approach to sovereignty and civilian protection. This transformation away from the traditional Westphalian notion of sovereignty has been unfolding for decades, but the Libyan case represents a further normative shift from sovereignty as a right to sovereignty as a …
Paradigm Shifts In International Justice And The Duty To Protect; In Search Of An Action Principle, Patrick J. Glen
Paradigm Shifts In International Justice And The Duty To Protect; In Search Of An Action Principle, Patrick J. Glen
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
This article places the emerging “responsibility to protect” within the historical development of international human rights and criminal law, while also attempting to more fully theorize the responsibility to ensure that it can be a basis for action in the face of a state’s commission of atrocities against its citizens. The main point of departure concerns the issue of “right authority” at that point in time when a coercive intervention is justified. Rather than rely solely on the Security Council in these situations, this article contends that unilateral and multilateral action must be countenanced by a fully theorized “responsibility to …