Untitled Document

Public International Law Spring 2006
Questions, Discussion & Supplemental Materials
As of Janaury 8, 2006

The Nature of International Law

Handout on the Lotus case and the Nature of International Law

What is Law?
A Cartoon from the New Yorker

In the following address, I considered with others the question of whether international law matters. Sometimes academics have defended international law by saying something banal -- in my view -- - such as "international law matters because without it your letter would not reach Europe." The following comments reflects my belief that in fact it can matter in the hard cases. Does International Law Matter, in Proceedings, 98th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law 311-314 (2004). pdf version

Other Voices on the Whether, When and How International Law Matters
Richard Falk, Why International Law Matters (unpublished 2003) word document version .

The Nature of International Organization

In introducing international organizations and the United Nations, I find it helpful for you to simply know what they look like orgnaizationally. Here is a sample organizational chart for the United Nations from January 2002 - pfd document.

The evolution of the Human Rights Commission to the Human Rights Council in 2005-2006 is particularly instructive. Membership on the Human Rights Commission is a matter of regional rotation. In 2002, the US was not voted on to the Commission, where it had been a member since its establsihment. (See clipping from 2002) Morevoer, the Commission has been criticized when the regional member is a country such as Libya or Cuba.The Human Rights Council championed by the US this past year is intended to address that situation. (But see clipping from 2006). The noteworthy aspect is that membership is a very difficult issue -- there is desire to have universal membership but at the same time -- depending on the criteria -- some states are more deserving than others. Sometimes this is solved by weighed voting or vetoes -- some states count more than others. A different issue is that these questions matter politically so the rules of the game are not only hard fought but often not easy to change -- that is, international organizations can be purposely difficult to change.

Pass on the following for the time being -- we'll hit this later. The Reparations Advisory Opinion and learning more about "Diplomatic Protection"
See 1998 ILC Report by Bennouna

The Sources of International Law

The Paquette Habana
An Image -- The San Francisco Evening Bulletin and the Spanish American War -- "Remember the Maine"

The North Sea Continental Shelf Cases
A variety of maps and diagrams are available to assist your reading of the case:

Schematic of Continental Shelf
ICJ Diagram of Methods
ICJ Map 1
ICJ Map 2
ICJ Map 3
Map of Result
Map of North Sea Delimitation Stakes "Western Europe's Klondike"

What is a State -- Statehood, Recognition, and Succession

An interesting case tying together both statehood, questions of recognition and the linkage of domestic questions either to the existence of a "treaty" or of a foreign state is New York Chinese TV Programs v. U.E. Enterprises, 954 F.2d 847 (2nd Cir. 1992 ). word document version

What if a state falls into confusion? What if it becomes what political scientists loosely term a "failed state." In 2002, legal advisors in the Bush Administration argued that Afghanistan was a failed state, it was therefore no longer a "state," and therefore it was not a party to the Geneva Conventions becuase only states can be parties. I discuss and criticize this position in If Afghanistan has Failed, Then Afghanistan is Dead: ‘ Failed States’ and the Inappropriate Substitution of Legal Conclusion for Political Description, in The Torture Debate in America 214-222 (Cambridge University Press, Karen J. Greenberg, ed., 2005). pdf version.