In a land of fairy tales and make believe

*DISCLAIMER: This post is not suitable for young children.

International law is like Santa Clause.

Everyone knows that it's not real, yet as a society we pretend it exists.

Treaties, conventions, and additional protocols are paraded around like a jolly red-suited bearded man on a Christmas float; their presence on every street corner compelling idealists to believe. People tell their children about the International Court of Justice, run by armies of elves, that can differentiate between those that have been bad or good and award lumps of coal or gifts, accordingly. A system of justice that can transcend national boundaries like reindeer can defy gravity, ensuring that every state can be held accountable. The prosecution of Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia are like an unexplained present under a tree.

But it is hard to believe that anyone (myself excepted) would work for cookies and the occasional glass of milk. And at some point every child starts to ask questions.

Why are people being held and prosecuted in Guantanamo? Why does China get to host the Olympics while oppressing people in Tibet and Taiwan and everywhere else? Why aren't the Chechens people too? Is a genocide in the Sudan too far from the North Pole? How can one man visit all those households in one night?

And in an instant, utopia is transformed into dystopia.

Yet some children continue wanting to believe in a better place. A couple extra lessons about Descartes could lead them to the conclusion that thinking about something can make it so. Or perhaps an over-zealous interpretation of The Little Engine that Could will lead them into transforming the world. However, I'll stick with Chanukah.