The Legal Research Society

It is becoming increasingly likely that the major candidates in the United States general election will be Senator Obama (D) and Senator McCain (R). The two Senators appear to view the status of nations in fundamentally different ways. Senator McCain supports the establishment of a League of Democracies ( Derek analyses the proposal here ). McCain's proposal envisions a League of Democracies that will not replace the United Nations, but that could act without its approval. While the idealism of the suggestion cannot be questioned, a League of Democracies hints at the creation of first-class and second-class States, with the former class assuming authority that international law does not afford it to date. This is in contrast with Senator Obama’s much-debated suggestion that he would meet with foreign leaders whether they are friends or foes of the United States, and whether they are friends or foes of ‘freedom’. I may be reading too much into this, but the way I see it the...

Over at Opinio Juris , Julian Ku points out a very interesting idea John McCain discussed yesterday about a "League of Democracies": We should go further and start bringing democratic peoples and nations from around the world into one common organization, a worldwide League of Democracies. This would not be like the universal-membership and failed League of Nations' of Woodrow Wilson but much more like what Theodore Roosevelt envisioned: like-minded nations working together in the cause of peace. The new League of Democracies would form the core of an international order of peace based on freedom. It could act where the UN fails to act, to relieve human suffering in places like Darfur. It could join to fight the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa and fashion better policies to confront the crisis of our environment. It could provide unimpeded market access to t hose who share the values of economic and political freedom, an advantage no state-based system could attain. ...