Can There Be International Law?

God help me, I do love the law. When Mr. Cancer came for me, I resigned my judgeship and made my license inactive, so I can no longer practice in any court. The federal courts to which I’m admitted require that I be in good standing with some state Bar. My point is that I’m sitting in the cheap seats now.

For international law, I’ve always been in the cheap seats. I can only recall two things I did as a judge that even touched the law of nations, both involving immigration, unless you count an undergraduate escapade smuggling anti-apartheid literature into the Republic of South Africa. I rationalized that “crime” not by pointing at the evil of apartheid but rather on my naked opinion that a free press is a universal right held by all people wherever they are and it’s one of a number of human rights that are sufficient to overcome Westphalian sovereignty.

“We hold these truths to self-evident…inalienable rights….” Give Tom Jefferson a break. Anybody who uses grand words like those is bound to be out over his skis. It was aspirational language when written and it remains aspirational language today.

I had more respect for that language than I had for the sovereignty of the Republic of South Africa.

Or the state of Texas. Within a year of my arrival in Austin, the City Council had shut down parade permits for anti-war demonstrations. The permits had been routine until some speakers claiming to represent mainstream veterans’ organizations spoke in opposition, claiming that those of…