"Debating Drone Assassinations: The Rule of Law versus International Law"

NOV. 14, 2011 - 12:30 PM TO 2:00 PM

Chancellor Day Hall, NCDH 312, 3644 rue Peel Montreal H3A 1W9 Quebec Canada

A talk by Richard A. Falk, Professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University.

Abstract: The recent drone killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki in Yemen has generated a high quality debate about the international law implications of such activities.

As my title suggests, this core issue in this debate is jurisprudential, whether international law embodies the major premise of the rule of law that equals must be treated equally or rests on a hierarchical principle that some states can make rules legalizing their behavior without creating a legal precedent that can be relied upon by other states.

My argument is that the attempted legalization of drone attacks rests on the capacity of the United States to generate a legal option that is not reciprocally available to other sovereign states or to non-state political actors. Indirectly raised is the status of double standards as a pervasive characteristic of that part of international law dealing with the use of force and its consequences (UN veto; nuclear weapons; criminal accountability).

This invites consideration of what kind of law is international law.