One year ago, I wrote a small booklet, "The Evil Dictator's Guide to Genocide: Deliberate Infectious Disease Spread," to accompany a presentation I gave on possible criminal culpability for intentional infectious disease spread. "The Evil Dictator's Guide to Genocide" provides Machiavellian guidance on the benefits, risks, and possible legal consequences of using infectious diseases as weapons against targeted or vulnerable populations. The recent swine flu outbreak, along with my post yesterday discussing the lack of the World Health Organization's enforcement authority, reminded me again of the ease by which an evil leader could take advantage of this latest disease outbreak. Back by popular demand, you can download a copy of the booklet for free. Circulation to evil dictators is prohibited by law. More

On Saturday, the World Health Organization declared the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States to constitute a "public health emergency of international concern" under the International Health Regulations, a legally binding international instrument on disease prevention, surveillance, control, and response adopted by 194 countries. Countries with confirmed cases of swine flu are asked to report all probable and confirmed cases and deaths to WHO on a daily basis. WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan also called upon all countries to intensify their surveillance and detection of unusual influenza-like outbreaks and cases of severe pneumonia. This discussion explores the International Health Regulations, its provisions for infectious disease containment, what constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, and the scope of enforcement authority to thwart a global pandemic. More

The 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) took place 25-28 March 2009 at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C. This year's theme, "International Law as Law," focused largely on state responsibility, including R2P, domestic enforcement of international tribunal decisions, treaty ratification and compliance, nuclear nonproliferation, law of the sea, and the role of human rights. Special interest sessions addressed feminism, the global financial crisis, intellectual property rights in China, the future for Guantanamo detainees, legal empowerment of the poor, whaling, and the 2005 Hague Convention on Choice-of-Court Agreements. The following are highlights and event summaries from the plenary, special, and a few of the 30+ regular sessions. More

During the past week, three of the five permanent members on the UN Security Council publicly called for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe to step down from office. The United States, France, and the United Kingdom point to the continued violence, the regime's repressive policies against opponents and the media, its failed economic management, and the worsening cholera and humanitarian disasters. On Sunday, Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga recommended an immediate authorization of African Union or UN troops by the African Union and the UN Security Council acting under its Chapter VII powers and the investigation of President Mugabe for crimes against humanity. China and Russia, however, are leery of the potential precedent should the UN Security Council authorize coercive intervention in Zimbabwe's sovereign domestic affairs. The government of Zimbabwe, meanwhile, contends that the cholera outbreak is the direct consequence of international sanctions and that the major powers are using the outbreak as political smoke screen to "mask their itch for aggression." This post discusses whether there is legal authority under international law for the international community to respond through the UN Security Council to a public health emergency, in the absence of state consent, when a state fails to protect its citizens or the people of other states during an infectious outbreak. More

Last week, Laurent Nkunda's armed militias in war-torn eastern Congo raided, seized, and deliberately destroyed and burned refugee camps located north of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu. His strategic political goal was to spark a crisis and to bring about the conditions to demand direct negotiations with the Congolese government. Two days ago, a UN aid convoy, protected by UN peacekeepers, reached the camps and confirmed that several camps were completely destroyed and their 50,000 occupants missing. With UN officials warning that the eastern Congo is on the brink of a "humanitarian catastrophe," possibly more civilians will die from disease and starvation than bullets and physical violence. As UN officials and international leaders contend with the pros and cons of the strategic political and military options under international law to respond to rebel-led attacks on UN peacekeepers and civilians, this blog considers whether the international community can consider retributive justice through international criminal prosecution under the Rome Statute for deliberate acts leading to the starvation of civilians and explores proposals to amend the Rome Statute to strengthen food security protections for civilians. More