Patrick O'Brian Discussion Forum

There you go again, to quote a conservative icon.

The Last of the True French Short Bastards
ewadams@designersnotebook.com

Why is World Court in quotation marks? That's its nickname. (In fact there are different institutions which have that nickname; the International Court of Justice is the best-known.) Nations have ceded to it the authority to render judgments upon the interpretation of treaties, among other functions. It's a civilized alternative to war, just as civil courts that render judgments upon the interpretation of contracts offer a civilized alternative to fistfights. It exists. It does good work. Nations appreciate it, or they wouldn't have set it up.

I don't know of anybody who thinks that there is an authority "over" the nations as a national government is over its citizens; anybody who thinks that of the UN is ignorant of the structure and function of the UN.

When I was a kid I used to see bumper stickers that said "US OUT OF THE UN" and I thought (and still think) those drivers were insane. The US founded the UN for very good reasons, and it has saved countless lives since then; for the US to leave would be disastrous. However, if they are ignorant enough to believe that the UN is somehow "over" the US, that would explain it.

You can believe in the sovereignty of nations all you like, but the concept is a flexible one, and I would claim that it hasn't existed in absolute form in the West for centuries.

Sun Nov 1

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