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Kant, Habermas And Democratic Peace, John C. Yoo, Robert J. Delahunty
Kant, Habermas And Democratic Peace, John C. Yoo, Robert J. Delahunty
John C Yoo
Philosophers of great stature rarely write about international law or international relations. When they do, their writing, though often illuminating, tends to be brief, episodic and marginal to the rest of their work. Major exceptions include the towering eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinker Immanuel Kant and the contemporary German thinker Jürgen Habermas, much of whose highly influential work is devoted to international affairs. The relationship between Kant and Habermas is an extremely close one, and few later thinkers have done as much as Habermas to demonstrate the continuing importance and relevance of Kant’s political thought for the contemporary world. Briefly stated, our …
Great Power Security, John C. Yoo, Robert J. Delahunty
Great Power Security, John C. Yoo, Robert J. Delahunty
John C Yoo
The change of administration in the US may have encouraged the belief that collective security will finally have its day. A conventional wisdom also seems to be emerging among many, if not most, academics in international law that the strengthening of the UN security system would advance international peace and security. Although the twenty-first century has brought radically different security threats from those that existed when the UN Charter was first written, many seem to believe that concentrating authority in the Security Council remains the most effective international legal process for the use of force. Resurrecting the formal UN Charter …
The 'Bush Doctrine': Can Preventive War Be Justified?, John C. Yoo, Robert J. Delahunty
The 'Bush Doctrine': Can Preventive War Be Justified?, John C. Yoo, Robert J. Delahunty
John C Yoo
We continue to live in a dangerous world. We are exposed to the risk that hostile states or terrorist groups with global reach might attack our civilian population or those of our allies using weapons of mass destruction. In such circumstances, it might seem natural for U.S. policymakers to consider preventive war as a possible tool for countering such threats. Yet in the current climate of opinion, such thinking would be controversial - in large part, no doubt, because of the continuing disputes over the normative, strategic, and legal wisdom of what has been called the “Bush Doctrine.” Preventive war, …
Force Rules, John C. Yoo
Force Rules, John C. Yoo
John C Yoo
This piece criticizes U.N. proposals to reform the international legal rules on the use of force. While they properly identify threats to international peace and security as arising outside the context of great power warfare, they make it even more difficult for nations to address these new challenges. They codify a rule that gives the Security Council complete authority over all uses of force short of national self-defense, rather than providing nations with flexibility. They expand the size of the Security Council, which will only aggravate the body's collective action troubles in authorizing force. Reform should begin by modifying the …
Beyond Formalism In Foreign Affairs: A Functional Approach To The Alien Tort Statute, John C. Yoo, Julian Ku
Beyond Formalism In Foreign Affairs: A Functional Approach To The Alien Tort Statute, John C. Yoo, Julian Ku
John C Yoo
This paper discusses the functional ability of federal courts to incorporate customary international law (CIL) through the vehicle of the Alien Tort Statute. In last Term's Sosa v. Alvarez Machain, the Supreme Court concluded that the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) is merely a jurisdictional statute, but also refused to stop the lower courts from allowing aliens to seek damages in federal court for certain international law violations. We use the Court's under-theorized conclusion as an opportunity to move beyond largely inconclusive formalist debates about the ATS's text, structure, and history. Instead, we conduct a comparative institutional analysis of the role …