Peter Spiro at OJ, and David Rothkopf of FP whom he cites, both say that President Obama’s request for congressional authorization for Syria will allow Congress to hamstring future Presidents from using ...

My Brookings colleague Bruce Riedel, who directs the institution's Intelligence Project following a 30-year career in the CIA, writes in with the following comments on President Obama's speech this after...

I have been hard on the President – on this blog last week, and today in the NYT – for what just about everyone (except Philip Bobbitt) thought was going to be his strike in Syria without congressional a...

President Obama has just declared his decision to launch military strikes against Syria, after seeking approval for Congress, in order to hold the Syrian government accountable for its recent chemical we...

Philip Bobbitt has an interesting piece from yesterday that compares the different British and American outlooks on confrontation with Syria, and recommends a course of action in Washington.  He notes th...

As Wells noted, the British Parliament rejected a motion of support for British participation in military strikes against Syria in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons against its citizens.  H...

As long as we are covering the waterfront when it comes to the legal questions raised by the prospect of using force in Syria, we should say something about the role of the War Powers Resolution.  After ...

A few years ago I wrote a Council on Foreign Relations report titled Intervention to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities: International Norms and U.S.

The situation in Syria being fluid, and our writers having authored a good number of posts on the subject, I thought it might be useful to compile the blog's work on legal issues, international and domes...

Dapo Akande has a pithy analysis of the legality of humanitarian intervention at EJIL: Talk!  Akande notes that “there is very little State support for the view that international law permits States to u...

I agree with Jack's analysis of the UK statement. I would add that the British legal position is not new.   The British relied on the doctrine of humanitarian intervention for their participation in the...

Here is the UK’s statement on “the legality of military action in Syria following the chemical weapons attack in Eastern Damascus on 21 August 2013.”  It maintains that “[i]f action in the Security Counc...