1. This THREAD has everything.

Jus cogens.

Hans Kelsen.

The Israel-Egypt conflict.

The right of self-defense and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

Buckle. Up. 🧵

2. On August 1, 1951, the UN Security Council met to discuss "Restrictions imposed by Egypt on the passage of ships through the Suez Canal" bound for Israel.
3. Mahmoud Fawzi, Egypt's UN representative, claimed that a state of war still existed between Egypt and Israel, despite their 1949 General Armistice Agreement, and that Egypt retained its belligerent right to visit and search neutral vessels for war materials.
4. Fawzi grounded this right in "the right of self-preservation and self-defence, which ... transcends all other rights," and even hinted that Article 51 of the UN Charter may not limit the right of self-defense.
5. And then ...

... it happened.

Fawzi quoted Hans Kelsen ...

... suggesting that the right of self-defense was ...

jus cogens.

A peremptory norm of general international law that "cannot be affected by any treaty," not even the Charter.
6. THIS WAS THE FIRST MENTION OF JUS COGENS IN THE SECURITY COUNCIL EVER.***

*99% sure about this.

**Today, self-defense is not widely considered jus cogens.
7. Sir Gladwyn Jebb, the U.K. representative, replied that Article 51 acknowledges a right to defend against "unprovoked aggression."

But Egypt was not "even" under any imminent threat of attack from Israel.

So Egypt could not exercise belligerent rights over neutral shipping.
(Sidenote: Gladwyn Jebb was Acting UN Secretary-General from October 1945 to February 1946, until the appointment of the first Secretary-General, Trygve Lie).
8. Exactly one month later, Security Council Resolution 95 adopted the U.K. position and called upon Egypt to end its restrictions.
9. The following year, Fawzi was appointed Ambassador ... to the United Kingdom.

He later became Foreign Minister under Nasser, then Prime Minister and Vice President under Sadat.
10. In 1952, Hans Kelsen published Principles of International Law.

He did not mention Fawzi's speech.
11. Kelsen wrote that the Charter "must stipulate" the right of self-defense, and "restricts" the right to cases of armed attack, before the Security Council intervenes.

That doesn't sound like a rule that "cannot be affected by any treaty."
12. Later, Kelsen wrote that "it can hardly be denied" that States *may* renounce the right to protect their own citizens. But this may be a typo.
13. Now look at the footnote.

Hans Kelsen, legendary positivist, cites Vattel for the claim that States cannot contract out of the "necessary law of nations" ... which is an application of *natural law*. What?
14. By the way, Kelsen also wrote that the UN Charter may have "repealed" the law of neutrality among its members, and that the Charter may constitute general international law even though it's not universally ratified.
15. As for Egypt, it insisted throughout the drafting of the Definition of Aggression that there is no right of self-defense outside of Article 51. (1968, 1972)
(For more on the Definition of Aggression, see https://t.co/5HXUrP4K9s)
16. So either self-defense was never jus cogens, or it was and article 51 codified it, or it was but the Charter modified it ... because the Charter is jus cogens.

And the Charter can only be jus cogens if it's general international law ... just as Hans Kelsen suggested. #Legend
17. Or, maybe, by 1968, Egypt had a political motive to wrap itself in the Charter. Who can say?
18. Anyway, this has been your sip of jus cogens for the day.

Stay safe. Be kind.

More from For later read

1. The death of Silicon Valley, a thread

How did Silicon Valley die? It was killed by the internet. I will explain.

Yesterday, my friend IRL asked me "Where are good old days when techies were


2. In the "good old days" Silicon Valley was about understanding technology. Silicon, to be precise. These were people who had to understand quantum mechanics, who had to build the near-miraculous devices that we now take for granted, and they had to work

3. Now, I love libertarians, and I share much of their political philosophy. But you have to be socially naive to believe that it has a chance in a real society. In those days, Silicon Valley was not a real society. It was populated by people who understood quantum mechanics

4. Then came the microcomputer revolution. It was created by people who understood how to build computers. One borderline case was Steve Jobs. People claimed that Jobs was surrounded by a "reality distortion field" - that's how good he was at understanding people, not things

5. Still, the heroes of Silicon Valley were the engineers. The people who knew how to build things. Steve Jobs, for all his understanding of people, also had quite a good understanding of technology. He had a libertarian vibe, and so did Silicon Valley
I shared this on my FB page and asked, can ya really blame him?

I was half kidding. I also assumed someone would think of what I did pretty quickly and waiting for the comment to mention what I assumed was obvious.

The timing. I was sure someone else had thought of it.


But no one did. 20+ comments in people discussed the morality or bad sense or libertarian perspectives. Someone even said I’m thinking about doing that. No one said what I thought was obvious. Have you thought of it? Is it obvious to you?

Here’s a clue...recognize it?


How about this?


The author discusses it with Mike Wallace in 1958

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The UN just voted to condemn Israel 9 times, and the rest of the world 0.

View the resolutions and voting results here:

The resolution titled "The occupied Syrian Golan," which condemns Israel for "repressive measures" against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, was adopted by a vote of 151 - 2 - 14.

Israel and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/HoO7oz0dwr


The resolution titled "Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people..." was adopted by a vote of 153 - 6 - 9.

Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No' https://t.co/1Ntpi7Vqab


The resolution titled "Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan" was adopted by a vote of 153 – 5 – 10.

Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/REumYgyRuF


The resolution titled "Applicability of the Geneva Convention... to the
Occupied Palestinian Territory..." was adopted by a vote of 154 - 5 - 8.

Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the U.S. voted 'No'
https://t.co/xDAeS9K1kW
IMPORTANCE, ADVANTAGES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF BHAGWAT PURAN

It was Ved Vyas who edited the eighteen thousand shlokas of Bhagwat. This book destroys all your sins. It has twelve parts which are like kalpvraksh.

In the first skandh, the importance of Vedvyas


and characters of Pandavas are described by the dialogues between Suutji and Shaunakji. Then there is the story of Parikshit.
Next there is a Brahm Narad dialogue describing the avtaar of Bhagwan. Then the characteristics of Puraan are mentioned.

It also discusses the evolution of universe.(
https://t.co/2aK1AZSC79 )

Next is the portrayal of Vidur and his dialogue with Maitreyji. Then there is a mention of Creation of universe by Brahma and the preachings of Sankhya by Kapil Muni.


In the next section we find the portrayal of Sati, Dhruv, Pruthu, and the story of ancient King, Bahirshi.
In the next section we find the character of King Priyavrat and his sons, different types of loks in this universe, and description of Narak. ( https://t.co/gmDTkLktKS )


In the sixth part we find the portrayal of Ajaamil ( https://t.co/LdVSSNspa2 ), Daksh and the birth of Marudgans( https://t.co/tecNidVckj )

In the seventh section we find the story of Prahlad and the description of Varnashram dharma. This section is based on karma vaasna.