The Emerging Law of 21st Century War

Abstract

I am honored to deliver this Lecture in honor of Randolph W. Thrower, a lawyer of great distinction and integrity. It is also my pleasure to open this important symposium on redefined national security threats. This symposium explores the tensions, complementarities, and legal implications of three rapidly evolving areas of national security: cybersecurity, new technologies, and crossborder security. I propose to talk today about the "umbrella issue" that spans all of these topics: the emerging law of twenty-first century war. I bring to this discussion four different perspectives: thirty-five years as an international law professor, twenty years as a human rights lawyer, ten years in the U.S. government, and five years as a law school dean. In each of these roles, I have focused on the process and substance of transnational law, what I will call in shorthand "transnational legal process" and "transnational legal substance." By "transnational legal process," I mean the complex process of interaction, interpretation, and norm-internalization by which transnational law is made in the twenty-first century. By "transnational legal substance," I mean the substantive law that emerges from that complex interactive process.