Irwin Law wishes to congratulate Craig Forcese for being selected by the American Society of International Law (ASIL) as a recipient of the Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship for his book Destroying the Caroline: The Frontier Raid that Reshaped the Right to War (Irwin Law Inc, 2018).
In their report, the ASIL Committee wrote:
“At 369 pages, Forcese’s book is a comprehensive and engaging account of how a 19th century military action along the United States-Canada border came to inform today’s international legal doctrines on the use of military force against non-state actors, and when anticipatory self-defense claims can be used as a pretext for war. The Caroline was a steamboat used to transport insurgents during the 1837 rebellion in Upper Canada. A Canadian militia attacked and sunk the steamboat in the United States waters. The diplomatic settlement that followed helped solidify the international legal principle of the inherent right to self-defense. By retelling this centuries’ old narrative, Forcese opines on what the Caroline case’s understanding of the right to war and the right to self-defense mean for today’s battles and drone strikes, noting how far we’ve come or strayed from the original meaning of the Caroline settlement.”
Craig Forcese is the author or coauthor of numerous books on Canadian law and public international law, including:
- False Security: The Radicalization of Canadian Anti-terrorism (with Kent Roach)
- International Law: Doctrine, Practice, and Theory (2d ed, with John H Currie, Joanna Harrington, and Valerie Oosterveld)
- The Laws of Government: The Legal Foundations of Canadian Democracy (2d ed, with Aaron Freeman)
- The Human Rights of Anti-Terrorism (with Nicole LaViolette)
- National Security Law: Canadian Practice in International Perspective
Once again, Irwin Law would like to congratulate Craig Forcese on this wonderful achievement.