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International Law Under Time Pressure: Grading the Grenada Take-Home Examination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Detlev F. Vagts
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Extract

When momentous events take place on the international scene, there are predictable pressures on those who have reputations as international lawyers to give opinions as to the legalities. There are phone calls from reporters, perhaps even student rallies, to say nothing of inquiries from academic colleagues (especially those who ignore the field most of the time). The recent episode in Grenada gives one an opportunity to evaluate what can be done under those pressured circumstances to give an enlightening and useful judgment as to what international law has to say about such an event. As any professor knows, the time constraints of examinations make a difference in the rate at which students can analyze problems, just as there are differences in the amount of information they can dig out of the stacks when a short period is allocated to the exercise. The space limitations that are imposed on the product also make it hard to put forth a coherent and nuanced argument. The more one knows about the topic, the less easy it is to wrap up the matter neatly and certainly. Legal foundations ought to underpin or contain one’s judgments about policy, but they can do that only if there is some real finality to them. How does one grade the performance of the international law community under this test?

Type
The United States Action in Grenada
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 169 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1984

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References

1 Ephemera will not be cited in this Comment, both to protect myself and other perpetrators, and not to burden the reader.

2 Statement of the Hon. Kenneth Dam before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Nov. 2, 1983, the major portion of which is reprinted infra at p. 200.

3 See, e.g., Boyle, , International Law in Time of Crisis; From the Entebbe Raid to the Hostages Convention, 75 Nw. L. Rev. 769(1980)Google Scholar.

4 Remarks of the Representative of India in the Security Council, UN Doc. S/PV.1606, at 14–18(1971).

5 See materials collected in 2 Chayes, A., Ehrlich, T. & Lowenfeld, A., International Legal Process 1100–20 (1969)Google Scholar.

6 See D’Amato, , Israel’s Air Strike upon the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor, 77 AJIL 584 (1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. One might thus dispose of this branch of the argument without exploring such issues as the effect of the apparent failure to comply with Article 102 of the UN Charter as to registering the OECS with the UN Secretary-General, the fact that the OECS states are not parties to the Rio Pact although members of the Organization of American States, and the possible lack of compliance with OECS provisions as to voting, quorum, etc.

7 Puzzlements multiply when one purports to speak about the law of Grenada. The description in my text follows that version which I found in October and two graduate law students, acting at my request, found on November 21. On November 25 I went to check and found a new loose-leaf installment that has, in lieu of the old constitution, a series of “People’s Laws.” No. 3 states that the “Head of State shall remain her Majesty the Queen and her representative in this country shall continue to be the Governor-General who shall perform such functions as the People’s Revolutionary Government may from time to time advise.” Blaustein, & Holt, , Grenada, in 6 Constitutions of the Countries of the World (Blaustein, A. & Flanz, G. eds. 1983)Google Scholar. Note that the United States recognized the Bishop regime, which “suspended” the old constitution in 1979. One doubts whether the PRG advised Sir Paul to call the OECS. This whole piece of research gave me a feeling that George Orwell was watching over my shoulder as constitutions disappeared into a void filled with discarded Internal Revenue Service regulations. A further analytical twist: if Sir Paul is head of state, may his actions, if not obviously ultra vires, be relied upon by other states? See Legal Status of Eastern Greenland, 1933 PCIJ, ser. A/B, No. 53, at 71.

8 See 1 Hackworth, G., Digest of International Law 181 (1940)Google Scholar.

9 Henkin, L., Pugh, R., Schachter, O. & Smit, H., International Law, Cases and Materials 942–60 (1980)Google Scholar.