jollyroger's picture

    National sovereignty is dead--get over it. (Also, amend the UN Charter...)

    Charlie Pierce, (not for the first time) is consumed with iration.  The cause of his irritation: the threat by Inifinito Gold (love that name...) to sue the Country of Costa Rica for $1 Billion (U.S.).

     

    Infinito is aggrieved to the point of litigation by Costa Rican objections to consuming the cyanide byproducts of its open pit mining operation.

     

    We have grown accustomed to witnessing the impact upon local jurisdictional issues by the treaty obligations comprising the WTO rule making authority, the Nafta, Cafta, (Grafta), and associated "free trade" deals, etc.

     

    On a different front, the freedom  previously accorded national governments to bomb, poison, gas, incinerate, or otherwise liquidate  their troublesome citizens is under siege by various doctrines, including Responsibility To Protect, universal Human Rights Violation Jurisdiction, and the slowly growing areas of competence accorded the International Criminal Court.

     

    While we ought  perhaps to emulate Patrick Swayze, and prepare to defend our golf courses before the black helicopters dust them with herbicide precedent to the erection of low cost housing, maybe it would behoove us to embrace the migration upward of sovereignty that has been the mark of human progress as we transitioned from clan to tribe to feudal enclave, etc.

     

    That said, the UN Charter needs a few changes--notably to make the Security Council subservient to the General Assembly (gee, where have I heard that name before...?) and maybe to make votes in the GA proportional to population--Hello, China and India!.

     

    I, for one, welcome the coming hegemony of our benevolent international overlords.

     

    Also, I hate golf.

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