Tag Archives: international law

Trump is often called an isolationist, but he is as interventionist as his predecessors. His strategy is simply to rely more heavily on US economic power than military might to coerce adversaries, which creates its own kind of cruelty and destabilization – and embodies its own brand of illegality.... Project Syndicate America’s Economic Blockades and International Law Jeffrey D. Sachs | Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia...

Russian embassy alarmed by London’s plans to shift focus of UK special forces.The embassy said the plan, if implemented, is likely to constitute a breach of the UN Charter. The Russian embassy in London said it was alarmed by media reports about the Defense Ministry’s plans to shift the focus of its special forces to " dangerous international behavior" by other states, including Russia. "Such reports are alarming. Of course, it’s hard for us to say how reliable this information is and how...

The curse of oil and Dutch disease used to force compliance. [Mark] Weisbrot and [Jeffrey]Sachs say that these sanctions “would fit the definition of collective punishment,” as laid out in the Hague Convention (1899) and in the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949). The United States is a signatory of both of these frameworks. “Collective penalties,” says the Fourth Geneva Convention, “are prohibited.” Tens of thousands of Venezuelans are dead. Tens of thousands more are under threat of death....

When I was in the FCO, the rule on recognition was very plain and very openly stated – the UK recognised the government which had “effective control of the territory”, whatever the attributes of that government. This is a very well established principle of international law. There were very rare exceptions involving continuing to support ousted governments. The pre-1939 Polish government in exile was the most obvious example, though once Nazism was defeated Britain moved to recognise the...

Titled Declarations of Dependence: Money, Aesthetics, and the Politics of Care (University of Nebraska Press, July 2018) my recent book develops the insights of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) for critical theory and aesthetics. While the modern Liberal imagination treats money as a finite, private and decentralized exchange instrument that seems incapable of serving all, MMT’s state or “chartalist” approach to political economy insists that money is an inalienable public utility that can...

The lessons from last weekend’s strike on Syria by the United States of America and two of its allies do not bode well for the future of democracy or the future of peace, says Inder Comar.  More warnings than lessons. "It can't happen here." Consortium NewsFour Lessons From the Strike on Syria Inder ComarRelatedAre most Americans "good Americans" like the "good Germans" that not only did not oppose Hitler but elected him and stood by him when he later made war illegally and aggressively...

The single most important thing that happened Friday night when the US military on President Trump’s orders launched a wave of over 100 cruise missiles against Syria was that once again the US violated the most profound international law of war: initiating a war of aggression against a nation that posed no threat, imminent or otherwise, to the US or its allies. Called a “Crime against Peace,” this violation (whose perpetrators, under the precedent set in the Nuremberg Trials that followed...

Theresa May has issued a long legal justification for UK participation in an attack on a sovereign state. This is so flawed as to be totally worthless. It specifically claims as customary international law practices which are rejected by a large majority of states and therefore cannot be customary international law. It is therefore secondary and of no consequence that the facts and interpretations the argument cites in this particular case are erroneous, but it so happens they are indeed...

Remember the legal controversy over the legality of "enhanced interrogation," "extraordinary rendition," and assassination. Now, it's illegal aggression. The US power elite does what it wants because it can. Who is going to hold American officials to account? This is what is at stake in the debate over attacking Syria. If you don’t think attacking the Syrian government is illegal, you are reduced to buying into the anti-constitutional nonsense of John Yoo and others like him. If you...

In this statement released Wednesday, a group of international law experts warn that a U.S. military strike on Syria would be illegal if not in self-defense or with U.N. Security Council authorization. Illegal aggression, torture, assassination? Meh. (Who's going to do anything about it, tell me?) Consortium NewsInternational Lawyers: Strike Against Syria Would Be Illegal