September 20, 2023
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
Re: “How to Make Russia Pay for Invading Ukraine” (Column by Bret Stephens, September 20, 2023)
To the Editor:
Confiscating $300 billion in Russian central bank assets under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA) would mock the rule of law and a rule-based international order. IEPPA expressly confines the President’s power to confiscate to cases “when the United States is engaged in hostilities or has been attacked by a foreign country or foreign nationals.” Neither Congress nor the President has declared war nor maintained the United States is engaged in hostilities against Russia.
Further, the United States lacks standing to argue that Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty justifies otherwise illegal countermeasures. President Vladmir Putin simply followed the examples of the Untied States in violating Iraq’s sovereignty in 2003 and Libya’s sovereignty in 2011. In a nutshell, Bret Stephens, the Renew Democracy Initiative, and celebrated law professor Larry Tribe are borrowing a page from George Orwell’s Animal Farm to justify a dual system of international law: all nations are equal, but some nations are more equal than others.
Sincerely,
Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan and author of American Empire Before The Fall
300 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20001
Phone: 202-465-8728; 703-963-4968
Email: bruce@feinpoints.com