By Brian Chae
French Parliament Elects to Extend National
State of Emergency for the Fifth Time
France has been in an official state of
emergency since the Paris shootings in late 2015 that left 130 people dead. Following
the Bastille Day attack in August 2016 that left another eighty-seven dead, the
French parliament voted by an overwhelming majority of 288-32 to extend the state of emergency until after the
July 2017 elections. This gives the new president an opportunity to
reassess security and extend the state of emergency if necessary. As Hollande
is not seeking re-election and Le Pen is strongly favored to win
office, another extension seems a distinct possibility. Declaring
a state of emergency is significant because it
curtails certain civil liberties and empowers the executive to respond to a
serious threat to public order. One of the most significant examples of
this includes the executive’s ability to unilaterally issue “administrative”
search warrants without judicial approval. This was seen in action when French
authorities raided a number of properties in rapid succession in search of
suspects following the Paris and Nice attacks. Another significant executive
power afforded in this situation is the power to expel certain individuals from
French territories or place them under temporary house arrest. This has great
implications for the wider European refugee crisis.
Obama Administration Releases Report on
the Legal Bases on Which Continued United States Military Operations Abroad Justified
Since the 2001
AUMF marked the legal beginning of the War on Terror, both Bush and Obama
have relied on their “powers against those . . . [they] determine” necessary in
order to prevent future terrorist attacks on the United States to wage war on
various factions on multiple continents. This
report provides a comprehensive summary of the domestic and international
legal bases for the use of force in preservation of United States national
security, consistent with respect for the sovereignty of other nations. It discusses
these rationales with respect to use of military force abroad and to detention
and applies them to particular theaters of conflict. The report does not,
however, fully address the claims of
some critics that the President is overly expansive in construing its
constitutional and international authority.
Massive Influx of Refugees Sparks Concerns
Over Western Inability to Effectively Control Crime and Terrorism
The refugee crisis continues to be an
unresolved and contentious issue among Western governments. Amid reports that
terrorist attacks in France and Belgium were linked to Islamic extremism,
domestic support for tighter border control and refugee policing has
dramatically increased. This has precipitated in the rise
of right-wing political movements in many Western
countries, such as Brexit in the United Kingdom, the election of Trump in
the United States, and the potential election of Le Pen
in France.
