George P. Fletcher
George P. Fletcher is Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia University. His latest book is Romantics at War: Glory and Guilt in the Age of Terrorism.
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2007-01-30
| Nowadays, words are often seen as a source of instability. The violent reactions last year to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper saw a confused Western response, with governments tripping over their tongues trying to explain what the media should and should not be allowed to do in the name of political satire. Then Iran trumped the West by sponsoring a conference of Holocaust deniers, a form of speech punished as criminal almost everywhere in Europe. ... read |
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2006-08-11
| As the war in Lebanon continues, the term “disproportionate force” is being bandied about as if some crystal clear principle of international law lay behind it, telling us when force is disproportionate and why it is illegal. But civilian deaths as a result of military combat are not enough to say that “disproportionate force” has been used. Nor has that standard, whatever it is, been met if more children die on one side than the other. So what, then, does “disproportionate force” mean, and what is its place in the law of war? ... read |
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2006-07-07
| The “war on terror” has forced democracies to grapple with the extent to which they can afford to protect the civil rights and liberties of both their citizens and foreigners. The debate has been most intense in the United States, where the refrain that the Constitution is not a “suicide pact” and that national security can justify extraordinary measures is heard repeatedly. Some measures – unauthorized searches of bank records and wiretapping of telephone calls – compromise the liberty of all. Others – most notoriously, the confinement of roughly 450 alleged Muslim fighters in Guantánamo Bay – impinge on people thought to be the enemy. ... read |
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2006-03-15
| Trials of war criminals were once serious business. Recall the photographs of Herman Goering and Rudolf Hess sitting glumly in the dock at Nuremberg. Some Nazi leaders were even hanged after relatively short but fair trials. ... read |
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2005-07-13
| Every age has its enemies. In the mid-20th century, Fascists were the evildoers. After WWII, Communists became civilization’s public enemies. The bombings across London of July 7th have shown that terrorists remain today’s designated masters of evil.... read |
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2004-05-21
| Whenever governments lose moral authority, as when their police seize evidence in violation of the Constitution, their case for conviction suffers. As the late US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, government must remain the "omnipresent teacher" of our highest ideals. In the Abu Ghraib scandal, the army and the Bush administration have hardly been good teachers, and the public and the media have also been complicit. How, then, can the collectively guilty bring charges and single out some suspects as individually guilty? ... read |
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2004-02-25
| The International Court of Justice has completed its hearings on the legality of the barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank. This is an isolated question among many larger issues that await a negotiated peace agreement. ... read |
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2003-10-16
| Every age has its enemies. In the mid-20th century, Fascists were the evildoers. After WWII, Communists became civilization's nemesis. Now terrorists have become the designated masters of malevolence. The word "terrorism" appears in law books and legislation around the world. Various civil sanctions apply to "terrorist organizations," and it can be a crime to assist one. ... read |
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2002-10-22
| If patriotism is, as Samuel Johnson suggested, the last refuge of a scoundrel, then self-defense is the last refuge of an aggressor. The justification of self-defense comes readily to the lips of both paranoids and those who reasonably wish to defend themselves against imminent attack. The argument for America's putative invasion of Iraq is, of course, self-defense, that is, the need to shield itself and its allies against Saddam Hussein's possible use of weapons of mass destruction. ... read |
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The Boundaries of Anti-Semitism
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George P. Fletcher 
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Anti-Semitism nowadays is more subtle than spray-painting swastikas and other acts of vandalism. Hundreds of European scholars are circulating a petition calling for a boycott of Israeli institutions; other academics want the EU to deny grants to Israeli universities and scientific institutions. One British academic fired an Israeli colleague because she loathes the state of Israel. So, what is new about today's anti-Semitism, asks George Fletcher? ... read
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2005-07-13
| Every age has its enemies. In the mid-20th century, Fascists were the evildoers. After WWII, Communists became civilization’s public enemies. The bombings across London of July 7th have shown that terrorists remain today’s designated masters of evil.... read |
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2006-03-15
| Trials of war criminals were once serious business. Recall the photographs of Herman Goering and Rudolf Hess sitting glumly in the dock at Nuremberg. Some Nazi leaders were even hanged after relatively short but fair trials. ... read |
-
2006-08-11
| As the war in Lebanon continues, the term “disproportionate force” is being bandied about as if some crystal clear principle of international law lay behind it, telling us when force is disproportionate and why it is illegal. But civilian deaths as a result of military combat are not enough to say that “disproportionate force” has been used. Nor has that standard, whatever it is, been met if more children die on one side than the other. So what, then, does “disproportionate force” mean, and what is its place in the law of war? ... read |
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2006-07-07
| The “war on terror” has forced democracies to grapple with the extent to which they can afford to protect the civil rights and liberties of both their citizens and foreigners. The debate has been most intense in the United States, where the refrain that the Constitution is not a “suicide pact” and that national security can justify extraordinary measures is heard repeatedly. Some measures – unauthorized searches of bank records and wiretapping of telephone calls – compromise the liberty of all. Others – most notoriously, the confinement of roughly 450 alleged Muslim fighters in Guantánamo Bay – impinge on people thought to be the enemy. ... read |
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2004-05-21
| Whenever governments lose moral authority, as when their police seize evidence in violation of the Constitution, their case for conviction suffers. As the late US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, government must remain the "omnipresent teacher" of our highest ideals. In the Abu Ghraib scandal, the army and the Bush administration have hardly been good teachers, and the public and the media have also been complicit. How, then, can the collectively guilty bring charges and single out some suspects as individually guilty? ... read |
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2007-01-30
| Nowadays, words are often seen as a source of instability. The violent reactions last year to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper saw a confused Western response, with governments tripping over their tongues trying to explain what the media should and should not be allowed to do in the name of political satire. Then Iran trumped the West by sponsoring a conference of Holocaust deniers, a form of speech punished as criminal almost everywhere in Europe. ... read |
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2004-02-25
| The International Court of Justice has completed its hearings on the legality of the barrier Israel is building in the occupied West Bank. This is an isolated question among many larger issues that await a negotiated peace agreement. ... read |
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2002-01-02
| To paraphrase a famous line from Tolstoy, those loyal to their country are faithful in the same way. They fight in armies, pay their taxes, and vote in elections. Among the disloyal, however, each becomes a traitor in his own way. ... read |
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2003-10-16
| Every age has its enemies. In the mid-20th century, Fascists were the evildoers. After WWII, Communists became civilization's nemesis. Now terrorists have become the designated masters of malevolence. The word "terrorism" appears in law books and legislation around the world. Various civil sanctions apply to "terrorist organizations," and it can be a crime to assist one. ... read |
