Stockton Legal Perspectives: Prof. James Kraska, Chair, Stockton Center for International Law

This is the sixth annual Alexander C. Cushing International Law Conference and we're focused on multi-domain operations and international law. The importance of the conference is that we bring together officials and stakeholders and scholars from throughout the world to better understand and shape and influence how international law affects military operations. The value for this is that we are normative leaders in shaping thoughts among scholars and officials but we also have a more fundamental purpose which is to synchronize legal understanding among allied and partner nation forces. So we have officials here from the Korean Naval War College, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Command and Staff College, and other partners such as India and NATO nations. One of our enduring messages is that the rule of law is under stress in the international system. It's being challenged by China and Russia and other actors and so we hope to continue to develop and progressively strengthen the rule of law in the international system and the global domain. And we also would like to ensure that the rules that apply during peacetime are clearly understood and that strengthens deterrence. And in the event of armed conflict we want our allies and partners to be synchronized with our efforts as well and have a shared understanding of the rules.