[opiniojuris] Julian Ku: More Bravery from Bellinger: Articulating an American Approach to International Law

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Posted by Julian Ku:
More Bravery from Bellinger: Articulating an American Approach to International Law
http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1181193385.shtml


   Readers of this blog know that the top legal adviser at the U.S. State
   Department, John Bellinger, is not afraid to take on critics of the
   U.S. government's treatment of international law. He did so on this
   blog a few months ago. Yesterday, he went into the "capital" of
   international law, the Hague, [1]to defend the U.S. administration's
   approach to international law from its many critics. It's a bit long,
   but well worth a full-read. Here is his roadmap:
   . . .I will demonstrate that our approach to international law - how
   and why we assume international obligations, how we implement those we
   have assumed, and how international law binds us in our domestic
   system - all reinforce our commitment to international law. In the
   course of the evening, a few themes should emerge. One is that a
   reliance on sound bites and short-hand can give the deeply misleading
   impression that we are not committed to international law. A second
   is, in fact, deeply ironic: that the very seriousness with which we
   approach international law is sometimes mischaracterized as
   obstructionism or worse. A third is that some of the most vehement
   attacks of our behavior - although couched as legal criticism - are in
   fact differences on policy. A fourth and related theme is that our
   critics often assert the law as they wish it were, rather than as it
   actually exists today. This leads to claims that we violate
   international law - when we have simply not reached the result or
   interpretation that these critics prefer. 

References

   1. http://www.state.gov/s/l/rls/86123.htm