The Crime of Aggression: The Quest for Justice in an Age of Drones, Cyberattacks, Insurgents, and Autocrats (Princeton UP, June 2019).

Welcome by Alessandra Harkness and Patricia Tabascio, International Law Students Association (~2-3 minutes)

Introductory remarks by Professor Nicolas Lamp (~5 minutes)

Talk by Noah Weisbord (~25 minutes)

Commentary and discussion between Professors Noah Weisbord, Darryl Robinson and Ardi Imseis, including interventions by the audience (~30 minutes)

The power to try leaders for unjust war holds untold promise for the international order, but also great risk. On July 17, 2018, starting an unjust war became a prosecutable international crime alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Instead of collective state responsibility, our leaders are now personally subject to indictment for crimes of aggression, from invasions and preemptions to drone strikes and cyberattacks. Noah Weisbord, author of The Crime of Aggression: The Quest for Justice in an Age of Drones, Cyberattacks, Insurgents, and Autocrats (Princeton UP, June 2019), will provide a behind-the-scenes account of the dramatic legal fight to hold leaders personally responsible for aggressive war. He will shed light on the motivations of the prosecutors, diplomats, and military strategists who championed the fledgling prohibition on unjust war—and those who tried to sink it. Weisbord will argue that in an age of drones, cyberattacks, insurgents, and autocrats, leadership responsibility for illegal war is more crucial than ever.

Praise for The Crime of Aggression: The Quest for Justice in an Age of Drones, Cyberattacks, Insurgents, and Autocrats (Princeton UP, June 2019):

“A book of singular importance, intelligence, and insight, on a subject of enduring significance.”—Philippe Sands, author of East West Street: On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes against Humanity”

"Noah Weisbord has written as masterful an account of the century of legal toil dedicated to corralling the human urge to wage war as has yet found two covers . . . . Weisbord’s work is that rarest of writings on legal matters: a kind of Decameron, a thoughtfully interconnected set of what might well be abstruse concepts, but told as a series of parables, aperçus, and case studies."—Brendan Howley, Literary Review of Canada

“A highly informative, beautifully written, compelling account of what the activation of the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over the crime of aggression means in a world of evolving technologies and new paradigms of war making."—Donald M. Ferencz, Middlesex University School of Law and University of Oxford