Unleashing the use of force

Renowned international law and human rights academic, Professor Philip Alston, delivers the Human rights day lecture - Unleashing the use of force. Part of the Research School of Asia and the Pacific's 'Distinguished Visitor' program, with the Centre for International Governance and Justice at RegNet.
Covert killings by states in the territory of other states have become a regular feature of international relations and there has been little scrutiny of their legality. This lecture will consider the challenges this practice poses for human rights and the rule of law.
The norm prohibiting the use of force across borders was one of the most important achievements of the twentieth century. Today, however, the United States and its allies are systematically promoting international legal doctrines that radically expand the circumstances under which such armed attacks can be launched. At the same time, the crucial distinction between the rules applicable to military forces and those governing intelligence operations is deliberately being blurred, almost to the point of extinction. The result is that 'special forces' increasingly carry out killings covertly in the territory of other states, and the stage is being set for a significant expansion of such practices. Despite the destructive consequences of these developments for the norms against the use of force and against extrajudicial killings, many of the 'victim' states are surprisingly passive and other western governments seem largely unconcerned about the implications for the rule of law. There is an urgent need for the international community to call a halt to these developments.
Philip Alston's teaching focuses primarily on international law and international human rights law. He co-chairs the NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. Alston received degrees in Law and in Economics in his home country (Australia) and a JSD from Berkeley. During the 1980s he taught at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and at Harvard Law School. He then became Professor of Law and Foundation Director of the Center for International and Public Law at the Australian National University, a post he held until 1995. From 1996 to 2001 he was Professor of International Law at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy, where he was also Head of Department and Co-Director of the Academy of European Law.
In the field of international law, Alston was Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of International Law from 1996 through 2007, and was previously Co-Editor of the Australian Yearbook of International Law. He was a United Nations official, working in Geneva on human rights issues from 1978 to 1984. He has worked as a consultant to the ILO, the UNDP Human Development Report, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNESCO, OECD, UNICEF, and many other inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations. Other posts he has held include Chief-of-Staff to a Cabinet Minister in Australia in the Whitlam Government (1974-75), and Discrimination Commissioner for the Australian Capital Territory for three years.