Faculty Commentary

The United States is Israel’s largest supplier of arms. Now, a United Nations committee is investigating whether its transfers of bombs, fighter jets and other weapons violate international law. On May 12, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD Committee) launched a formal inquiry into arms exports by both the United States [...]

Demographic decline, once dismissed as a niche obsession of “pronatalists” on the right, has increasingly gained mainstream media and scholarly attention in the United States. In this way the US is somewhat behind the curve; falling birthrates have long obsessed policymakers abroad, particularly in East Asia and Europe. Nevertheless, in popular US discourse, demographic decline [...]

Thinking about writing a legal commentary on the threats to naturalized and birthright citizens in the United States, it unexpectedly occurred to me to question Grok, the large language model (LLM) Elon Musk developed after the success of ChatGPT. Having taught law for decades using the Socratic method, I was curious how Grok would handle [...]

The ongoing humanitarian and political crises in Syria encapsulate decades of repression, violence, and civil unrest. After over fifty years of authoritarian rule, culminating in the brutal civil war, the call for justice has gained paramount significance among the Syrian populace. Justice is not a mere legalistic necessity; it is a foundation upon which lasting [...]

Too often we tend to think that the Declaration of Independence was a creature which sprang to life between June 7, 1776, when Richard Henry Lee of Virginia introduced his resolution calling for independence and Mr. Jefferson’s magnum opus which was voted on three weeks later. History teaches that the march towards independence was a [...]

The recent federal district court ruling striking down the Trump administration’s executive order targeting the law firm Susman Godfrey is the fourth similar ruling in response to orders punishing firms that took on clients and causes adverse to Trump’s interests. Now, each of the four firms that chose to file challenges in court has prevailed, [...]

The international order today is no longer shaped by classical geopolitics defined by territorial boundaries, military alliances, and traditional warfare. Instead, global power is increasingly exercised through what can be described as networked geopolitics. In this emerging paradigm, influence flows across interconnected systems of information, infrastructure, ideology, finance, and digital communication. Power now resides in [...]

US-Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites raise serious questions of international law under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT, or Treaty). While these attacks may be evaluated under the UN Charter and other international treaties, customary laws, and principles, this commentary focuses on their implications for the NPT regime, which serves as a cornerstone of global [...]

In the fragmented landscape of modern warfare, civilian populations have emerged as the silent victims of aggressive militarized conflicts. As violence escalates in Ukraine and Gaza, and amid the simmering tensions between Israel and Iran, we find ourselves confronting a grim reality: the deliberate targeting of civilians has become an alarming new norm. This is [...]

The role of judge advocates in the armed forces is a critical one, particularly in times of tension and unrest within the United States, such as the current demonstrations in Los Angeles regarding immigration policy. Sworn to uphold the Constitution and provide legal guidance to military commanders, judge advocates find themselves in a precarious position [...]