Happy New Year!

Since 2011 is officially over, the Legal committee has begun reflecting over the events of this past year and has been contemplating such topics as the scope and application of universal jurisdiction in carrying out anti-terrorist operations. 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, we can still find cases of nations using the pursuit of terrorists as a justification for acting beyond the limits of their own borders; we can look, for instance, at the US's presence in Pakistan and the killing of Osama bin Laden in May 2011. 

For a source of recent news, you can look at this page from Foreign Policy magazine which has weekly updates on what they refer to as the "legal War on Terror." While not all the articles relate directly to the question of universal jurisdiction, some of them, like these two, discuss events that are very relevant to our topic. Checking this page regularly in the weeks leading up to the conference as well as looking at past posts on the page can give you a good idea of the controversy surrounding the topic. 

Some nations may use the deaths of terrorists to claim that allowing for universal jurisdiction is an effective method. Others, however, might say that the War on Terror has created collateral damage that outweighs its perceived benefits: this article examines the potential political impact the War on Terror might have had on Pakistan, a nation which claims officially that it is an ally of the United States in carrying out anti-terrorist operations, while this report looks at possible consequences of the War on Terror in a humanitarian light.

Enjoy the rest of your breaks, delegates! We would wish you good luck, but we know you don't really need it, right? :)