I. Where does international law come from?

For background, see Nathaniel Burney, International Law. A Brief Primer, or Wikipedia: International Law

Schools of Law

• Natural Law: Hugo Grotius. On the Law of War and Peace (De Jure Belli ac Pacis). 1625. Chapter 1: On War and Right.
• American Declaration of Independence (1776). Preamble.
• Positive Law: Emerich de Vattel, The Law of Nations or the Principles of Natural Law (1758). §1-28.
• Contractual positivism: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651). Read Introduction.

Thought Paper 1: Which school of law do you prefer? Why? Cite an example from history or current events that illustrate the merits of your preferred school. Due January 25, 5PM.

Applicability and Enforcement of Law

• Pacificus (Alexander Hamilton). The National Interest vs. Abstract Moral Principles (1793).
• David Hume. Of the Balance of Power (1752).
• Blackstone. International Law is a Part of the Municipal Law of States. Snow, 1-3
• Statute of the Permanent Court of International Justice, Article 38.

Cases: Law where there is no law

• The Case of the S.S. "Lotus" (1927). Read highlighted excerpts.
• International Court of Justice. Nuclear Weapons Case (1996). Read highlighted excerpts.

Sovereignty and the Modern Nation-State

• Wikipedia: Background on the Nation-State
• Lerner and Loewe. The Little Prince (1974). Why must there be borders? In class screening.
• Background: Treaty of Westphalia. See Articles I-III
• Ernst Kantorowicz. The King's Two Bodies; A Study In Mediaeval Political Theology (1957). 2-23.
• Ernest Renan, What is a Nation (1892).
• Hallecks International Law. Definition and Character of a Sovereign State.
• Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee, also known as the League of Peace and Power, Five Nations, or Six Nations). Browse a codified version of the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations. The Great Binding Law (Gayanashagowa).
• Salvador de Madariaga. Englishmen, Frenchmen, Spaniards (1928).
• Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991, pp. 5-7.
• Vavaasseur v. Krupp, Chancery 1878. Immunities of a Foreign Sovereign.
• Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1933). Read Articles I-IX.
• United Nations Charter (1946). Articles I-II.
• U.N. General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV): Declaration on the Granting on Independence to Colonial Countries and People (1960). Read Articles 1-7.
• U.N. General Assembly Resolution 2625 (XXV): Declaration Concerning Friendly Relations (1970). Read highlighted passages.
• Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in respect of Kosovo. Summary of the Advisory Opinion. 22 July 2010

Thought Paper II: Is the sovereign nation-state an obsolete institution?

Law where there is No State

• Bartolome de las Casas. The Devastation of the Indies: a brief account (1552). New Spain, 57-68; The Coast of Pearls, 92-101.
• Pope Paul III. Sublimis Deus (1537).
• Walter D. Mignolo. Afterword: Writing and Recorded Knowledge in Colonial and Postcolonial Situations, in Writing without Words: Alternative Literacies in Mesoamerica and the Andes (1994).
• Johnson v. McIntosh (S.Ct. 1828). Justice Marshall Decision.
• Elk v. Wilkins (S.Ct. 1884).
• Island of Palmas Case (P.C.I.J 1928).

Law where there is No Land

• Derrick Walcott, "The Sea is History."
• Hugo Grotius. Mare Liberum (1604).
• Cornelius von Bynkershoek. De dominio maris dissertatio (1702). Three-mile limit.
• The Queen v. Keyn (1876). Violation of three-mile limit, and lack of jurisdiction
• The Schooner "Exchange" v. M'Faddon (1812). Ships entering friendly port are exempt from jurisdiction.
• Sir Leoline Jenkins. Charge to the Jury, 1668. Definition and character of piracy
• Piracy and Letters of Marque
• The Scotia (S.Ct. 1871). No nation can change the law of the seas.
• Convention on the High Seas (1958). Articles 1-8, 11, 14-15, 23-26.
• Convention on the Continental Shelf (1958), Articles 1-6.
• Third United Nations Conference on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III) (1992)
• William Langewiesche, The Outlaw Sea: a World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime. New York: North Point Press, 2004. Chapter 2. The Wave Makers

A Nation Becomes a State

Restatement (Third) § 211. For purposes of international law, an individual has the nationality of a state that confers it, but other states need not accept that nationality when it is not based on a genuine link between the state and the individual.

• James Scott, Seeing like a State: how Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed (1998). The Creation of Surnames, 64-71.
• Gerard Noiriel. The Identification of the Citizen: the Birth of Republican Civil Status in France, In Documenting Individual Identity (2001).
• Soviet Nationality Law. August 19, 1938.
• Aime Cesaire, Discourse on Colonialism (1950).
• The State and the Individual: Nottebohm Case (1955).

Confrontations: Going to War

Why Do We Go to War?

• Marshall Sahlins. Islands of History (1985). Chpt. 4: Captain James Cook; or The Dying God, 104-135.
• Sigmund Freud, Thoughts for the Times on War and Death (1915).
• Lev Tolstoy, Sevastopol Stories (1855-56). Sevastopol in December, 3-13.

How to Stop War (jus ad bellum)

• Canadian Bacon (1995). Director: Michael Moore. Clip shown in class.
• Emmanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace (1795)
• U.N. Charter, Chapter VII
• The "Caroline" (1837).
• Richard Henry Dana. Recognition of Belligerency (1866).
• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928). General Treaty for the Renunciation of War. Articles I-III.
• Resolution on the Definition of Aggression. G.A. Res. 3314 (XXIX) (1974).
• Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (I.C.J. 1986). Read highlighted excerpts
• Legal Basis for Use of Force Against Iraq, 10 Downing Street.

How to Control War (jus in bello)

• Excerpts from the Hague Law and Geneva Law.

Crossing Borders: Subject to a Foreign Law

• Restatement (Third), §402-404. Bases of International Jurisdiction.
• The "Creole" (1841). Slaver ship does not fall under port jurisdiction.
• United States v. Rauscher (S.Ct. 1875). Extradition of fugitives.
• Matter of Izatula (B.I.A. 1990). What is the difference between persecution and prosecution by a foreign government?
• Filartiga v. Pena-Irala (2nd Circ. 1980). Read highlighted excerpts.
• Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 17 July 1998. Part 2: Jurisdiction, Admissibility and Applicable Law, Articles 5-17.
• Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969). Articles 11-12, 18-21.
• ICC vs. Sudan: The Complexities Behind the al-Bashir Case, Der Spiegel International, May 3, 2009

Crossing Borders: Immigration, Asylum, Flight

• Mississippi Masala (1991).  Film clip.
• Cockburn on Nationality (1869).
• MacDonald's Case (1745).
• Ex parte Chan San Hee. Circuit Court, Oregon, 1888.
• Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951). Article 1-3, 12. 15-17, 31-34. See in particular 1(A)(2).
• Protocol I relating to the Status of Refugees (1967). Article 1.
• Environmental Refugees Unable to Return Home, NYT, January 3, 2010. See also: International Organization for Migration, Migration and Climate Change, No. 31 (2008), Executive Summary, pp. 9-10; and Box 1, pp. 13-15.

Global Law

• Wikipedia: World Government (Background)
• Woodrow Wilson. Essential Terms of Peace in Europe (1917).
• Winston Churchill, How to Stop War (1936).
• Reinhold Niebuhr. The Myth of World Government (1946).
• United Nations Charter (1945). Preamble, Articles 1-6.
• Frederic L. Kirgis, Jr., "The Security Council's First Fifty Years." American Journal of International Law 89, 3 (1995): 520-539.
• Kofi Annan, "In Larger Freedom": Decision Time at the UN. ForeignAffairs, May/June 2005.

Regional Treaties: Sharing Sovereignty

• Winston Churchill, The United States of Europe (1946). Link to the speech.
• Regional treaties: The Atlantic Defense Treaty (1949).
• Statute of the Council of Europe (1949).
• Proposed European Constitution (2005)

When Does Their Business Become Ours? Human Rights

• Lord Byron in Greece: The Isles of Greece (1823).
• William E. Gladstone. Bulgarian Horrors and Russia in Turkistan (1876).
• Vladimir Lenin. Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917).
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
• George F. Kennan. Foreign Aid in the Framework of National Policy (1950).
• Julius Nyerere, On the Boycott of South Africa. [Letter to the editor of Africa South, October-December 1959].
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), (1966). Articles 1-10, 28. 40-43.
• International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. G.A. Res. 3068 (XXVIII) 30 November 1973. Preamble, Articles I-III, VI, VIII, XI.
• Sullivan Principles (1977)
• Louis Henkin, Kosovo and the Law of 'Humanitarian Intervention'. American Journal of International Law 93 (1999): 824-828.

A Code of Conduct for Trade

• Indiana Jones. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). In class viewing of clip.
• The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947, as amended through 1966). Articles I.1, VI.1, VII, XI, XVI, XX.
• Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Including Trade in Counterfeit Goods (TRIPS, 1994). See summary.
• The ONION: Sun Microsystems sues Indonesia over Rights to Java.
• Convention on Biodiversity (1992). Articles I-III. (1992). Articles I-III. For background see Wikipedia: Convention on Biological Diversity, esp. "Parties."
• Commercialization of traditional medicines: Bioprospecting or biopiracy? (Wikipedia)

Codes of Conduct for the Environment

• Trail Smelter Case (1941).
• The Chernobyl Disaster (1986). Particular attention to International spread of radioactivity.
• The Turtle-Dolphin Case (GATT, 1991). Summary.
• WTO Shrimp Turtle Case (1998). Summary. Review GATT, Article XX (follow link in text).
• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992). See in particular Articles 1-3, 6-7, 9, 12, 15, 18
• Kyoto Protocol (1997). Articles 6, 12, 17. For background, see Wikipedia: Kyoto Protocol.

Optional: What's Wrong with the WTO? Critique of WTO environmental decisions

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