00:00President Donald Trump says the U.S. will run Venezuela until a safe, proper, and judicious transition can be arranged.
00:09This follows an overnight military operation which saw Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife seized from the capital, Caracas.
00:18We can now speak to Rebecca Hamilton. She's a professor of law at American University in Washington, D.C.
00:25Welcome to DW, Professor. So we just heard our correspondent mentioning there that Donald Trump has said repeatedly that Venezuela posed a threat to the United States.
00:37So are these strikes on Caracas and President Maduro's capture therefore in line with international law?
00:46Absolutely not. So there are many violations of international law that have already emerged,
00:52and there may be more that will emerge in the coming days.
00:56But the use of force against the territory or the political independence of another state is a clear violation of the UN Charter.
01:06The cornerstone of the UN Charter is Article 2.4, which is prohibiting exactly the kind of use of force that we saw in the capture of Maduro.
01:17And the claim that this was self-defense is just implausible on its face.
01:25Self-defense is meant to give countries the option to stop an armed attack against them.
01:34This is not something that the Venezuelan regime had committed or was in the midst of committing against the United States.
01:42And then we move on to, we just saw in your news report, Trump's claim that the United States will run the country of Venezuela.
01:50Again, we're talking here about the crime of aggression.
01:53You cannot, under international law, just go and take over another country, let alone loot its oil, as also seems to be part of the emerging plan.
02:06And then finally, this idea that you can haul Maduro before a U.S. court when he is a sitting head of state violates another international law rule around something called head of state immunity.
02:20So this is in many ways, there are violations of international law written all over this project.
02:27Well, I do want to ask you about that U.S. federal indictment.
02:31So prosecutors are charging Maduro, his wife, and also, in fact, his son with drug trafficking and narco-terrorism and some other charges.
02:41Does this at all give the U.S. any kind of legal basis to make these arrests in Venezuela?
02:48No, it doesn't.
02:51So this principle of head of state immunity is really important for the functioning of the global system.
03:01If we didn't have it, then it would mean that any country could ginny up an indictment against the leader of a country that it didn't like and haul it before its domestic courts, just as the U.S. has done with Maduro here.
03:15And it doesn't matter, in fact, whether or not the allegations against Maduro are correct as a factual or legal matter.
03:24As long as he is the sitting head of state, he can't be brought before a U.S. domestic court.
03:32The principle that applies to Maduro would also apply to Trump.
03:36You can imagine that there's another country in the world, let's say Iran or Cuba, that thinks President Trump has done something unlawful.
03:43And then they could issue an indictment and haul him before an Iranian court or a Cuban court.
03:49And you can see the chaos that this would bring to the international system.
03:54And that's why we have this principle of head of state immunity that protects people while they're a sitting head of state.
04:01Well, surely legal experts in the United States must be aware of this immunity for for heads of state.
04:07And yet the U.S. attorney general said that Maduro will face, as she put it, the full wrath of American justice.
04:15So what does what do U.S. prosecutors have in mind, do you think?
04:20So I'm anticipating that the Trump administration's argument is going to be that he isn't entitled to head of state immunity by perhaps trying to claim that he isn't truly the head of state.
04:35Now, that's very difficult when the U.S. itself has recognized him previously as the sitting head of state.
04:41And while, as we saw in your earlier newsreel, you have the vice president of Venezuela herself reiterating that Maduro is indeed the president.
04:53The only thing that I would say is that we could have U.S. domestic law and international law tracking differently on this issue.
05:01A court could, in the U.S., defer to the Trump administration's assertion that he is not eligible for head of state immunity.
05:12I think that would be challenged, certainly.
05:14And it's an issue that could make its way all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
05:19That was law professor Rebecca Hamilton.
05:22Many thanks indeed for sharing all of your insights with us.
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