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35 Yale J. Int'l L. Online 4 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/yejloillwo35 and id is 1 raw text is: Essay Practicing International Law in the Obama Administration Harold Hongju Koht & Aaron Zelinskyt I. INTRODUCTION Over the past half-century, the Office of the Legal Adviser in the U.S. Department of State has grown significantly in size and scope. During that time, a handful of articles have described the work of the Legal Adviser.' This Essay builds upon those accounts by describing the role of the Legal Adviser in the still-young Obama Administration. The United States currently faces a defining moment for its relationship with international law, as we stand at the cusp of what President Obama has called a new era of engagement.2 The defining image of this new world is not a world divided by a Berlin Wall, but a globe connected by the World Wide Web. As America resumes its leadership role on the world stage, renewed respect for international law and institutions will be crucial to achieving our goals of peace, justice, and prosperity. In this new era, the t The Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State; Martin R. Flug '55 Professor of International Law, Yale Law School (on leave). All views expressed herein are solely those of the authors and not necessarily those of the United States, the Office of the Legal Adviser, or the Department of State. t t Yale Law School, Class of 2010; summer intern, Office of the Legal Adviser, 2009. 1. See, e.g., Richard B. Bilder, The Office of the Legal Adviser: The State Department Lawyer and Foreign Affairs, 56 AM. J. INT'L L. 633 (1962); Ashley Deeks, Inside L: Some Thoughts on the Office of the Legal Adviser, 2 CHI. J. INT'L L. 503 (2001); Ernest A. Gross, Operation of the Legal Adviser's Office, 43 AM. J. INT'L L. 122 (1949); Current Development, The Role of the Legal Adviser of the Department of State, 85 AM. J. INT'L L. 358 (1991); L.H. Woolsey, The Legal Adviser of the Department of State, 26 AM. J. INT'L L. 124 (1932). 2. Barack Obama, President of the U.S., Remarks by the President to the United Nations General Assembly (Sept. 23, 2009), available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/thepressoffice/ Remarks-by-the-President-to-the-United-Nations- General-Assembly.