Decisions and Revisions: Israeli Nuclear Deterrence and War With Iran
“In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute/will reverse” —T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Though much has been published about both military and legal elements of Israeli nuclear deterrence, not much has been written about the specific ways in which these core elements could conceivably intersect. [...]
This Day in History: The Law of Gobblers and Other Tasty Sides
It is Thanksgiving Day. The aroma of turkey; of dressing; candied sweet potatoes; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; freshly baked yeast rolls; giblet gravy, and of pies emanating from the kitchen fills our nostrils. Home is the place to be today. But have you ever given thought to the law of the gobbler? This Day in [...]
Israel-Hamas War Law Student Interview Series: ‘It's a time of crisis’
Editors’ note: On Oct. 7, Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on Israel, as a result of which at least 1,400 Israelis were killed and hundreds were taken hostage. In the days since, Israeli forces have launched a counter-offensive in Gaza that has taken thousands of Palestinian lives, according to local reports. As tensions continue [...]
Israel, Counter-Terrorism, and International Law: The Analytic Challenges of 'System'
“The existence of `system’ in the world is obvious to every observer of nature, no matter whom.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (1959) Whether conspicuous or obscure, terrorism generally presents itself as a systemic challenge. This means, inter alia, that seemingly singular strategic and legal matters may actually be many-sided and interrelated. Regarding legal issues, though [...]
Abstract: For Israel, core issues surrounding Iran’s still-accelerating nuclear weapons program have been strategic and political, rather than legal. Nonetheless, if Israel should ever decide that it no longer has any reasonable alternative to launching a preemptive attack against certain Iranian military/industrial targets, this defensive first-strike would need to be justified under international law. In [...]
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 [...]
International Religious Freedom Summit Fails to Mask Trump’s Scorn for Human Rights
From degrading disabled people, women, LGBT individuals, and other minorities to the forsaking of the United Nation Human Rights Council, and from separating migrant families to the coddling of authoritarians and racists, this presidency consistently ridicules human rights. It follows that the State Department’s first international conference to Advance Religious Freedom might trigger a collective [...]
Judge Kavanaugh and the Public’s Health: Existing & Emerging Challenges
President Donald Trump’s recent nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh as Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court from a list of potential candidates has ignited immediate support and criticism from conservatives and liberals respectively. An undergrad and law alum at Yale University, Judge Kavanaugh clerked for the departing Justice Anthony Kennedy, practiced law privately [...]
Here's the domestic legal news we covered this week: A judge for the Superior Court of Massachusetts ruled that Massachusetts' attorney general Maura Healey will not be barred by sovereign immunity from bringing a...
JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin G. Davis of University of Toledo College of Law discusses the effect the Supreme Court's recent decision to stay parts of President Trump's "Muslim ban" will have on vulnerable refugees...On June 26, 2017, the Supreme Court...
