Nigel D. White, The Cuban Embargo under International Law: El Bloqueo, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2015, 208 pp, hb £95.00, pb £34.99.
| Author | Therese O'Donnell |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2230.12259 |
| Published date | 01 March 2017 |
| Date | 01 March 2017 |
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REVIEWS
Nigel D. White,The Cuban Embargo under International Law: El Bloqueo,
Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2015, 208 pp, hb £95.00, pb £34.99.
The focus of Professor White’s timely book The Cuban Embargo under Inter-
national Law: El Bloqueo is the unilaterally imposed US embargo on Cuba. In
it he offers a thorough analysis of El Bloqueo and its effects, and the result-
ing compatibility or otherwise with international law. However, as the author
makes clear, this is less a study of the embargo in its own terms than a broad
analysis of what the embargo reveals about international law. Although illumi-
nating, it is not always a pretty story. The book highlights how international
law operated to enable and facilitate a problematic sanctions programme. In its
consideration of substantive rules (notably regarding use of force, sovereignty,
self-determination, human rights, trade and investment) the book also reveals
the pointlessness and obscuring effects of fragmented or compartmentalised
international law: for example certain legal rules on self-help enabled a pro-
gramme which impacted the Cuban economy and compromised the human
rights of ordinary Cubans including their access to medicines and utilities.
Despite White’s even-handed treatment of the subject matter, there remains a
strong impression that the US sanctions programme reflected the power im-
balances which ebb and flow in international law and in this case embodied
the punishment of an ingrate terr itory. Indeed by returning to the (now of-
ten overlooked) Bay of Pigs incident, its significance as an event not just for
Cuba, but in assisting an understanding of ideologically-driven interventions
(and indeed US imperialist inclinations) is also revealed. In a more compara-
tive frame, the reader cannot help but be conscious of the parallel ‘Vietnam
context’ during key points in the Cuban story. This gives considerable pause
for thought, especially when it comes to reflecting on the author’s critique
of the application of notions of regime change and the operation of interna-
tional humanitarian law. The book certainly prompts us to re-think issues of
self-help and self-defence in international law and how their invocation can
often be ironically self-destructive. White’s exposition of the law of counter-
measures is extremely helpful and it does appear that there is no better context
for its illustration than the sixty years of US practice towards Cuba. The book
also illustrates the problems regarding the unilateral enforcement of interna-
tional law by individual states.
As the embargo continued through the decades, garnering increasing crit-
icis m, a des ire to move away from the u nila tera list , coerc ive appro ach be came
clear. This need for legitimation via more traditional and legal formal processes
resulted in the Helms-Burton Act. As White observes, this legislation ostensi-
bly de-internationalised the embargo and transformed it from a mainstay of US
foreign policy into a domestic issue. This was a key moment for international
lawyers. Did such domestication mean that subsequent US practice cannot be
C2017 The Author.The Moder n Law Review C2017 The Modern Law Review Limited. (2017) 80(2) MLR 370–377
Published by John Wiley& Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
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