EJIL:Talk! Discussion on the Use of Force

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be hosting a discussion of articles in the latest issue of the European Journal of International Law. As readers will know, this year marks the 20th Anniversary of EJIL and each issue of the journal includes a symposium on selected areas of international law. In the latest issue (issue 2), there is a symposium on the Use of Force.  EJIL:Talk! will host an online discussion of three articles in that symposium. Next week we will discuss Christian Tams’ article “The Use of Force Against Terrorists”. We will then host discussions of Ken Anderson’s piece “The Rise of International Criminal Law: Intended and Unintended Consequences” and Dino Kritsiotis’ article: “Close Encounters of a Sovereign Kind”. All of these articles will be freely available on EJIL.org and on the OUP EJIL site.

Professor Joseph Weiler’s editorial for this issue of EJIL points out that:

Dino Kritsiotis of the University of Nottingham and Ken Anderson from American University in Washington DC may have taken on classical topics – but fasten your seat belts and prepare yourself to be challenged. Christian Tams from Glasgow and Tullio Treves of Milan (who serves, too, as Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) deal with the less classical: the use of force in fi ghting terrorists and pirates respectively. Keep those seatbelts fastened. We were not interested in the ‘ Law as it Stands ‘ style pieces. These are all pieces with a view, with a thesis. We expect some disagreement.

EJIL:Talk! is precisely the forum where we expect some of that disagreement to emerge and different points of view to be thrashed out. Commentators on the EJIL pieces will include Kimberley Trapp (University of Cambridge), Gerry Simpson (the London School of Economics and the University of Melbourne), Brad Roth (Wayne State University) and Nikolas Stürchler (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland and author of The Threat of Force in International Law).

As always readers are invited to participate in this discussion by posting comments.