An International Farce: The Sad Case of the PLO Mission

Abstract

At the end of one of his great farces, Shakespeare's King of France assures us that "[a]ll is well ended, if this suit be won."l But lawyers know that the ways in which outcomes are achieved may themselves have precedential effects on future procedures. Even a tolerable outcome in a particular case may yield long-term consequences that bedevil efforts at public order. This possibility is the detritus of the PLO Mission affair. All may have ended well. Before we congratulate ourselves on the operation ofjustice, however, we should reflect on all the lamentable behavior that precipitated the crisis and on all the ill-considered actions that helped to resolve it.