W. Michael Reisman – författare

Covert activity has always been a significant element of international politics. When it has served their interests, governments have secretly disseminated propaganda in other countries, manipulated foreign economies, and abetted coups against their adversaries. What are the circumstances, if any, in which it is lawful, under international law or United States law, to resort to covert action either directly or through local proxies? When is it right to do so?  This book is the first to assess the lawfulness of covert action under United States and international law and to face candidly the implications for democratic states that covert operations pose. Michael Reisman and James E. Baker identify different types of covert actions, discussing a variety of cases that include the Trujillo assassination in 1961, the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, and the raid on Libya in 1986. After explaining the complex operations of the international legal system, they explore trends in decision making and the conditions that accounted for them—whether the covert operations were proactive, defensive, or reactive. They examine in detail the procedures followed in the United States to authorize and oversee covert activity and propose guidelines for political leaders who may contemplate using covert techniques. An appendix reviews twenty years of allegations of covert aggression brought to the attention of the United Nations Security Council.

Even in our most casual encounters with strangers—when we are looking at each other, talking, or standing in line—legal systems with elaborate codes, authorized exceptions, and procedures for sanctioning deviance operate with a remarkable degree of success. In this pathbreaking book, Michael Reisman describes how law is an integral and indispensable part of every social interaction. The private sphere or civic order that the liberal state is committed to preserving and in which it tries to refrain from legislating, says Reisman, is not a legal vacuum but the zone of microlaw—some of it just, some unsatisfactory, and some tyrannical. Interweaving numerous real-life examples with a detailed review of the scientific literature of many disciplines, Reisman shows the extent to which microlegal systems function in our own lives. More important, he draws on the criteria of ethics and legal philosophy to demonstrate that, paradoxically, efforts to improve microlaw may threaten the very autonomy of the private sphere that is central to the liberal state.

What law "counts" in international politics? Does any? How are effective international norms established? This provocative book introduces a new way of looking at these questions. It shows that many international standards of acceptable conduct derive far less from adjudications, statutes, or treaties and far more from what is found to be acceptable in the conflicts that we today call international incidents. The contributors demonstrate how law that counts has been developed, modified, and terminated in a variety of dramatic international incidents: the Cosmos 954 satellite accident, the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the Harrods bombing, the Argentine invasion of the Falklands/Las Malvinas, the incursions of foreign submarines into Swedish waters, the Soviet gas pipeline problem, the situation in Lebanon, and the Gulf of Sidra incident. This volume is a first, experimental effort at establishing a format for a new and more relevant kind of international political and legal analysis. Originally published in 1988.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Art of the Possible takes a hard look at the present play of forces in the Middle East. In full awareness of the historical, political, social, and psychological dimensions of the enmities of the region--and its most critical flashpoint, the Arab- Israeli conflict--it seeks realistic answers to the question "What can be done?" For each of the immediate foci of conflict, the author develops and proposes a workable plan: for the Sinai Peninsula, the establishment of a Sinai Development Trust; for the West Bank of the Jordan River, the creation of a Palestinian state; for the Golan Heights, the foundation of a Druze trust territory; and for the city of Jerusalem, the drafting and adoption of an international statute. Emphasizing the need for "unfettered investigation of new political techniques and legal institutions," Professor Reisman exemplifies in this eloquent essay the kind of innovative thinking that alone can create the conditions for a lasting peace in this troubled part of the world. Originally published in 1970.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

What law "counts" in international politics? Does any? How are effective international norms established? This provocative book introduces a new way of looking at these questions. It shows that many international standards of acceptable conduct derive far less from adjudications, statutes, or treaties and far more from what is found to be acceptable in the conflicts that we today call international incidents. The contributors demonstrate how law that counts has been developed, modified, and terminated in a variety of dramatic international incidents: the Cosmos 954 satellite accident, the downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the Harrods bombing, the Argentine invasion of the Falklands/Las Malvinas, the incursions of foreign submarines into Swedish waters, the Soviet gas pipeline problem, the situation in Lebanon, and the Gulf of Sidra incident. This volume is a first, experimental effort at establishing a format for a new and more relevant kind of international political and legal analysis. Originally published in 1988.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Art of the Possible takes a hard look at the present play of forces in the Middle East. In full awareness of the historical, political, social, and psychological dimensions of the enmities of the region--and its most critical flashpoint, the Arab- Israeli conflict--it seeks realistic answers to the question "What can be done?" For each of the immediate foci of conflict, the author develops and proposes a workable plan: for the Sinai Peninsula, the establishment of a Sinai Development Trust; for the West Bank of the Jordan River, the creation of a Palestinian state; for the Golan Heights, the foundation of a Druze trust territory; and for the city of Jerusalem, the drafting and adoption of an international statute. Emphasizing the need for "unfettered investigation of new political techniques and legal institutions," Professor Reisman exemplifies in this eloquent essay the kind of innovative thinking that alone can create the conditions for a lasting peace in this troubled part of the world. Originally published in 1970.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Domestic lawyers are, above all, officers of the court. By contrast, the public international lawyer representing states before international tribunals is torn between loyalties to the state and loyalties to international law. As the stakes increase for the state concerned, the tension between these loyalties can become acute and lead to practices that would be condemned in developed national legal systems but have hitherto been ignored by international tribunals in international legal scholarship. They are the 'dirty stories' of international law. This detailed and contextually sensitive presentation of eight important cases before a variety of public international tribunals dissects some of the reasons for the resort to fraudulent evidence in international litigation and the profession's baffling reaction. Fraudulent evidence is resorted to out of greed, moral mediocrity or inherent dishonesty. In public international litigation, by contrast, the reasons are often more complex, with roots in the dynamics of international politics.

Domestic lawyers are, above all, officers of the court. By contrast, the public international lawyer representing states before international tribunals is torn between loyalties to the state and loyalties to international law. As the stakes increase for the state concerned, the tension between these loyalties can become acute and lead to practices that would be condemned in developed national legal systems but have hitherto been ignored by international tribunals in international legal scholarship. They are the 'dirty stories' of international law. This detailed and contextually sensitive presentation of eight important cases before a variety of public international tribunals dissects some of the reasons for the resort to fraudulent evidence in international litigation and the profession's baffling reaction. Fraudulent evidence is resorted to out of greed, moral mediocrity or inherent dishonesty. In public international litigation, by contrast, the reasons are often more complex, with roots in the dynamics of international politics.

The practice of extending the boundary of the sea or baseline has removed sections of the ocean from international use. This book examines the genesis of the straight baseline in international law and the forces that exploited it as a technique of maritime expansion not boundary delimitation.

During most of human history, war was a basic instrument of statecraft, considered, for the most part, a lawful, honorable, ennobling, and even romantic pursuit. By contrast, peacemaking remained a marginal and indeed incongruous interstate activity. A war would end when the belligerents ended it.The experience of the twentieth century’s two world wars has changed, at least, the official view. The introduction of ever more destructive weapons, the drastic escalation of civilian deaths, and the economic and environmental devastation that modern war brought combined to forge an international legal impulse to stop, if not prevent, wars, resolve ongoing conflicts, and build peace.Yet stopping a war, though a useful, if not indispensable, step toward making peace, does not lead ineluctably to peace. Nor does the international community’s interposition of “peacekeepers”; their title notwithstanding, peacekeepers only try to keep a stopped war stopped. Making peace is a separate operation, often applying some parts of the same armamentarium but in very different ways.International efforts at stopping wars and making peace, in the era in which such initiatives have become lawful and virtuous, have proved remarkably unsuccessful. Yet the proliferation of ever more destructive weapons, the growing sense of insecurity and expectation of violence, the increasing difficulty of containing wars within a single arena, the threat of breakdown of order, with the prospect of epidemics and mass migration, all work to intensify the demand to stop wars and to make peace.This volume explores these issues by analyzing the theoretical literature on stopping wars and making peace and its application to a number of concrete cases, including the Falklands, Nagorno Karabakh, Rwanda, Malaya, Thailand, and Mozambique. Each case examines one conflict and the efforts undertaken to stop it and transform it into a peace system. The case studies draw general lessons from the incidents studied, extracting guidelines and principles that might serve those called upon to stop wars and make peace and offering a number of instructive points.

This rich volume is an homage to the significant impact Professor Siegfried Wiessner has had on scholarship and practice in many areas of international and domestic law. Reflecting the depth and breadth of his writings, it is a collection of thought-provoking, original essays, exploring topics as diverse as theory about law, human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, the rule of law, constitutional law, the rights of migrants, international investment law and arbitration, space law, the use of force, and many more, all integrated by the problem- and policy-oriented framework of what has come to be known as the New Haven School. Its title "e;Human Flourishing: The End of Law"e; reflects the conviction that the purpose of law ought to be to allow humans to achieve their full potential - to thrive and develop, both materially and spiritually, under the law. The volume contributes to a vision of the law as a public order in which the common interest is clarified and implemented peacefully, and offers a source of inspiration for scholars and practitioners working towards such an order of human dignity. .