Presidential Elections in the US: Where Do the Respective Candidates Stand on International Law Issues?

Ever wondered about where your favorite presidential candidate stands on issues of international law? The American Society of International Law (ASIL) may have the answer. In its web-initiative International Law 2008, ASIL presents Presidential candidates' policy statements on international law topics, publishes the answers of some candidates to ASIL's candidate surveys (interestingly, though, only Democratic candidates seem to have answered the surveys), and provides some comments by ASIL Executive Council members on the question of the most important international policy issue that will face the next U.S. administration. Even as a foreigner, I find this website extremely useful.

In particular, as a strong proponent of the International Criminal Court (ICC), I found it especially interesting how candidates responded to the question what the U.S. policy towards the ICC should be. While the two leading Democratic candidates, Clinton and Obama, recognized the important role the ICC has played so far, they did not provide a clear answer whether the United States should sign the Rome Statute establishing the ICC or not. The other (former) Democratic candidates who submitted answers, Edwards and Kucinich, explicitly argued for a United States membership of the ICC. It would be interesting to know how the Republican candidates would answer this question...