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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   33259 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 20, 2023

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The international law here is in fact trickier than appears at first blush. There are legal arguments on both sides. Add in that international law itself is somewhat underdetermined I think it’s probably wise to adjudicate the conflict aside from int law.

law gets messy and there are legal arguments on both sides of most issues, even ones which have broad consensus like many of the issues which were being discussed at the Camp David Summit, including ones with holdings from the international court of justice

you can simply assert they don't matter, and that's fine, but that's a different argument

No. I’m saying that international law is different compared to most law. There is no final arbiter. Hell, the ICJ isn’t even respect by major countries including the US. Moreover, international law is so custom based and a lot of these customs are still relatively young and not litigated.

This is to say that when dealing with a very underdeveloped customary law legal arguments appear weak to me.

you can say these things are little more than letters to santa without enforcement (motte), which is true for any "law," but the law's application to many of these topics isn't tricky or complicated (bailey), especially those ones which went before the ICJ, and many of the customs in the law were incorporated from international agreements and principles far older

That would be the same ICJ that has no jurisdiction over Americans, as the US is not a party to the Rome Statute.

so what?

the rome statute has to do with the criminal court

Yeah, I accidentally crossed up the ICJ and the ICC, though as it happens, the US has some issues with both. One of the difficulties with the ICJ is that it can't really bind permanent members of the UNSC, since they can just veto enforcement of its rulings.

they can't really do anything because they have no inherent way to enforce their holdings

but those holdings and explanations exist nonetheless and make a strong argument that "international law" isn't complicated/fuzzy with equal arguments on both sides on a variety of issues in the Israel-Palestine conflict

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