Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
2006
Publication Information
100 Am. Soc'y Int'l L. Proc. 44 (2006)
Abstract
International law is ready for a period of renewal in this post-post-modern era. I predict this renewal will come from reviving classical doctrines, such as the positive-law doctrine of sources, and from revisiting formalism. Such renewal will not be possible for the international law of evidence because there is no classical doctrine. Perhaps, as Charles Brower suggests, this is because of the differing civil and common law attitudes toward the rules of evidence, especially with respect to the burden of proof. It seems to me, however, that we need a law of evidence in international law, especially for the international law on the use of force. Rules regulating force need to be as clear as possible and so do the rules that support the substantive principles, such as the law of state responsibility and the law on evidence-the clearer the rules, the less discretion available to states, and the greater the chance of actually restraining the use of force in international law.
Recommended Citation
Mary E. O'Connell,
Rules of Evidence for the Use of Force in International Law's New Era,
100 Am. Soc'y Int'l L. Proc. 44 (2006).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/law_faculty_scholarship/35
Comments
Reprinted with permission of the American Society of International Law Proceedings.
THE LAWS OF FORCE AND THE TURN TO EVIDENCE
The panel was convened at 9:00 a.m., Thursday, March 30, 2006 by its chair, Dino Kritsiotis of the University of Nottingham, who introduced the panelists: Thomas Franck of New York University School of Law; Marie Jacobsson of the Foreign Ministry, Sweden; Mary Ellen O'Connell of Notre Dame Law School; and Therese O'Donnell of the University of Strathclyde.