Maduro Capture Operation and the President’s Duty to Faithfully Execute U.N. Charter
Just Security••world
Key Points:
- The Trump administration’s operation to abduct Nicolás Maduro relied on a controversial 1989 DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo by then-Assistant Attorney General Bill Barr, which claimed the President could disregard the U.N. Charter’s prohibition on the use of force as a matter of domestic law.
- The Barr memo conflated the concepts of “non-self-executing” treaty provisions (not enforceable in courts without legislation) with treaty provisions not legally binding on the Executive, a fundamental legal error contradicted by established legal scholarship and subsequent DOJ practice.
- Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter, which prohibits the use of force against other states, is widely recognized by experts, courts, and historical sources as binding
