Challenges of Voter Recounts

The challenges of recounts are numerous, the most difficult being discerning voter intent. Since our voting system is far from perfect, close elections expose the difficulties that our system has tallying correct votes and the problems with voter education on how to vote correctly. Political futures are decided by officials deciding how much of a mark constitutes an indication of preference. While this is not the "hanging" or "pregnant" chads of the 2000 Florida recount, Minnesota has a difficult task in front of it. See, e.g. some of the ballots being challenged in the Coleman/Franken Senate recount in this article here.

United Nations Day 2008

Today marks United Nations Day. It celebrates the 63rd anniversary of the entry into force of the United Nations Charter. The UN has seen its relevance and importance ebb and flow throughout the last several decades and has endured significant challenges. Today, though the need for reform is vital for its future success, a significant role for the UN in international affairs and international law is certain. The recent legal and security developments have reinforced the need for multilateral and collective action. The problems are too large for one state to do alone. Some prominent legal thinkers and political leaders, including Sen. John McCain, have favored the formation of an alternative "League of Democracies." However, this cannot sufficiently replace what the UN can do. The fact that serious conflicts, such as Russia and Georgia and Serbia and Kosovo, are now going through UN mechanisms, shows that the influence of the UN cannot be discounted.

Why I Do Election Work

On Tuesday, I started a two-week, full-time position with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law as the DC National Hotline Manager for the upcoming U.S. Presidential Election. I held this position four years ago during the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. During that time, I sometimes worked twenty hour days, but I discovered each day, the importance of my job in protecting the right to vote. As a result, this year I decided to take time off from my work at the American Society of International Law to volunteer two weeks to the Lawyers' Committee.

Some friends have expressed surprise that I would spend two weeks leave volunteering for the election in a bipartisan non-profit. However, this recent article from Time Magazine captures the essence of why I do what I do. Many things can go wrong on election day, and I am there to insure they don't.

EU & US Support Kosovo's Developing Democracy

Today, the Agreement on the Participation of the United States of America in the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo entered into force. This marks the first time that the US will participate in a civilian European Security and Defense Policy mission. While the US has been active in rule of law promotion and newly-democratic state stabilization throughout the world, this effort is significant because of its joint US-EU nature and its further support to enable the success of struggling Kosovo.

ASIL's Annual Meeting

Today began ASIL’s 102nd annual meeting, one of the largest gatherings every year on the topic of international law. With 2008 being an election year not only in the U.S., but in other world powers such as Canada and Russia too, the theme is appropriately "The Politics of International Law". The theme recognizes that international law does not operate in a bubble, but is subject to political influences and may not stand separately from politics at all. Many of the sources of international law (the ICC, the Security Council, the ICJ, and the WTO) are too often subject to political and foreign policy, which leads to questions regarding the efficacy and legitimacy of international law. These questions are important, especially as international law impacts larger aspects of daily life and national sovereignty. What the proper role of politics is in international law is a struggle that will not be resolved any time soon.

This Annual meeting will be only my second one as an ASIL’s Deputy Director of Programs and will mark the first time I will be actively involved in the annual meeting’s operations.