Election Interference

'Jens David Ohlin has written a terrific, highly policy-relevant book about the extraordinary harm of election interference. Against the background of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, Ohlin skillfully unpacks the logic of foreign electioneering, explicating in fascinating detail how, and when, foreign electioneering matters, and why it is deserving of international legal reprobation. An essential primer on a pernicious form of lawfare, Election Interference is a pioneering book.' Jens Meierhenrich, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and the author of Lawfare: A Genealogy 'This extraordinary book confronts the greatest menace to democracy in our digitally networked age: the rise of international election interference. With unparalleled lucidity, Jens Ohlin explains how foreign meddling in elections violates international law, and he prescribes sensible reforms to safeguard democratic institutions without compromising cherished civil liberties. This bravura performance will dazzle international legal theorists and should be required reading for policymakers in the United States and around the world.' Evan J. Criddle, Ernest W. Goodrich Professor of Law, William & Mary Law School 'We are only beginning as international lawyers to assess the toxicity of election interference. With a knack for intrigue and a keen sense of the limitlessness of cyberspace, Jens Ohlin deftly takes readers through some of the normative dilemmas. In the process, he wrong-foots the discipline's instinct to invoke sovereignty by suggesting the much more challenging possibility that what is at stake is really a violation of the right to self-determination. He thus manages the double feat of both informing our thinking about one of the central challenges of the day and breathing new normative life into a dusty old pillar of international law. A true invitation to use international legal crises to reinvent what it means to do international law!' Frederic Megret, Professor of Law and William Dawson Scholar, McGill University