Law and Strategy after Afghanistan: The United States, Israel and Iran
Abstract: Following US withdrawal from Afghanistan, America’s security focus will turn more expressly to Iran. The core problem with America’s Afghanistan withdrawal was not one of timing or tactics, but of original misconception. In essence, the “Afghanistan Problem” stemmed from an initially underestimated and misunderstood military operation. Looking ahead, Afghanistan’s incoherent conclusion means, inter alia, [...]
In Tunisia, President’s Power Grab and an Absent Constitutional Court
President Qaies Saied of Tunisia claimed he was acting constitutionally when he arrogated broad powers for himself on July 25, after months of stalemate among Tunisia’s governing institutions and amid a deepening Covid-19 crisis. The constitutional provision he invoked states that after 30 days, the Constitutional Court, upon a request from the Parliament, is to [...]
Israel versus Hamas: Proportionality, Perfidy and the Law of War
“It must not be forgotten that it is perhaps more dangerous for a nation to allow itself to be conquered intellectually than by arms.” -Guillaume Apollinaire, The New Spirit and the Poets (1917) Whenever Israel finds itself in the midst of major conflict with Hamas, each side seeks to defend itself in military and legal [...]
Civil rights groups call EU online terrorist law a risk to fundamental rights
Dozens of human rights associations including Amnesty International, Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and Human Rights Watch have released a letter strongly resisting the adoption of a proposed EU Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online (the Proposed Regulation). Initial EU actions combating terrorism began in 2013 with [...]
On January 13, 2021, the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility published ABA Opinion 496, “Responding to Online Criticism,” which delineates the ethical restrictions imposed on lawyers who wish to respond to unflattering online reviews. Recognizing the need to adapt to a changing world increasingly characterized by online interactions, the [...]
I. Introduction Much of U.S. governance is held together by goodwill, unwritten norms, and the ideals that “that would never happen” and “no one would ever do that.” Every hope of continued reliance on these norms was “shattered” on January 6, 2021, when armed insurrectionists invaded the U.S. Capitol. Under the direction of the President, [...]
In the present confirmation hearings, I would like someone to ask Judge Barrett a question left unanswered by Justice Scalia, her mentor: 1. What influence does the fact that many of the founders and framers were slave owners have on your originalist views? And then I would like to ask a follow-up: 2. What is [...]
From Criticism to Contempt: Twitter and Free Speech in India
Justice H.R. Khanna from the Supreme Court of India once observed ‘Judges should not silence criticism with threat of Contempt of Court but should remove the weakness and drawback that crept into the judicial system.’ Administration of justice and upholding the majesty of law is undoubtedly a herculean task but not a cloistered virtue. Recently, [...]
There Is No Ascertainable Proof that the Bar Exam and the MPRE Protect the Public
An August 5, 2020 webinar organized by the University of Miami received a great deal of attention for remarks made by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) president Judith Gunderson suggesting that NCBE critics might encounter difficulties with their character and fitness evaluations. I was equally struck, though, by a remark made later in [...]
On July 15, 2020, the New Jersey Supreme Court released an Order declaring that the Bar Exam would be administered online. This would be the first time the NJ Bar exam was ever administered online. The move to online seems like a good idea amid a global pandemic killing Americans at an exorbitant rate; however, [...]
