PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS

SOUTH WEST AFRICA AND THE UNITED NATIONS:  AN INTERNATIONAL MANDATE IN DISPUTE.  Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973.  410 pp.

Scholarly Comment:

"Professor Slonim has written a masterly book on the immensely complicated subject of South West Africa and the United Nations. .  It is no easy matter to take the majority and minority opinions of the four Advisory Opinions and two Judgments of the [International] Court, along with all the pleadings and submissions, and interweave them with the details of action and discussion in a myriad of UN bodies over a quarter of a century.  But Professor Slonim has brilliantly succeeded in telling the tale of United Nations action on South West Africa at one level while providing a most sophisticated legal study on another level. . .  It will be an essential part of every international lawyer's library."

Rosalyn Higgins, Professor of International Law, London School of Economics
Subsequentialy, President of the International Court of Justice, The Hague
International Affairs (London) Vol. 52, No. 2 (April, 1976) pp. 298-99.

"Dr. Slonim has brought together in this work, completed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the fruits of both Australian and American legal training.  Its quality is a tribute to both traditions and to his own scholarly abilities.  I would like to think that its precise and bold confrontation of legal issues and its meticulous regard for documentation stems from [the] Australian tradition. .  Certainly the author's combination of technical legal skills with bold and wide-ranging political insights stems from the best older traditions of American international lawyers, of which the late Quincy Wright at his best was a fine exemplar. .  Even in a work of  this level of uniform lucid scholarship, the brilliant accounts of the Jurisdictional  (1962) and Merits (1966) Phases of the South West Africa Cases, brought by Ethiopia and Liberia  (pp. 167-312) and of the Namibia Advisory  Opinion, 1971 (pp. 329-44)  are outstanding.  By sheer analytical power and integrity, these pages provide an unrivalled account of the precise international law issues involved. . [T]his work will establish itself as a definitive book for students of international law and of international politics.  And it makes this book also an invaluable teaching instrument in these subjects. .  Scholars engaged in research on these various cases will find many discussions of principle which, as far as I know, are unparalleled elsewhere in the literature."

Professor Julius Stone, Challis Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law,  University of Sydney
American Journal of International Law, vol. 68 (1974), pp. 357-59.

"Slonim's study . . . . is the only up-to-date, comprehensive, scholarly study of the dispute between South Africa and the United Nations over South-West Africa.  The South-West Africa dispute has been characterized by an interaction between law and politics which makes either a 'purely legal' or 'purely political' approach unacceptable.  Herein lies the merit of Slonim's study: he has succeeded in placing both law and politics in their correct perspectives. . . .  His analysis of the contentious proceedings constitutes one of the most important scholarly contributions to the debate over the decision.  Certainly it contains the most careful and critical analysis of the pleadings and arguments in the 1960-66 proceedings yet published. . . . Slonim's study of the South-West Africa dispute may, in many respects, be likened to Quincy Wright's Mandates under the League of Nations (1930).   It is a thorough and highly scholarly work, characterized by extensive research and incisive comments, that displays a grasp of both the law and the politics of the dispute.  Many, including the reviewer, will disagree with Slonim's conclusions on the 1966 judgment, but few will disagree with the view that it is the best case that has yet been made out for that decision." 

John Dugard, Professor of International Law, University of  Witwatersrand
South African Law Journal, Vol. 90 (1973) pp. 439-42.

"Professor Slonim's study constitutes scholarship of a high order, especially in terms of international legal analysis and textual exegesis. . . A real gem and the product of a labor of love."

Richard Dale, Professor of Political Science, Southern Illinois University.
International Organization, vol. 29 (1975), pp. 536-39.

"Slonim's approach is admirably direct and clear.  There is no problem of conceptual apparatus, statistical technique, or legal language. .  There is little editorializing in the work, which is remarkable in a contemporary treatise dealing with this part of the world.  Slonim allows the record to speak for itself. .  A splendid concluding chapter provides both a compelling summary of the whole and also some hard-headed, intelligent observations."

Newell M. Stultz, Professor of African Studies, Brown University
International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 8 (1975), pp. 355-57.

"The most useful study to date on this complex issue.  It is analytical as well as descriptive. .  The book is remarkable for its systematic and lucid coverage of exceedingly complex and emotionally charged evidence. .  One of those rare pieces which is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate use."
 
Choice, October 1973, pp. 855-56.

JERUSALEM IN AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY, 1947-1997.  The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1998.   420 pp.

Scholarly Comment

"A brilliant analysis!  Congratulations on a first-rate work. .  I greatly admire the even-handedness and thoroughness of your work, and I must say that I learned a great deal about the subject from reading it.  For instance, I realized that Truman had some frictions with the State Department over policy toward Israel, but I did not know the full extent of State's defiance of his policy before, nor was I fully cognizant of Carter's behavior at Camp David.  I think your criticisms are very cogent, and your exposition of the changes, inconsistencies, and ambiguities of the US positions on Jerusalem is invaluable.  Splendid Scholarship!"

Inis L. Claude, Edward R. Stettinius Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia
Letter on file with author

"Shlomo Slonim's Jerusalem in America's Foreign Policy, 1947-1997 is not only fascinating and informative, but very timely.  The author traces U.S. policy on Jerusalem . [and] describes each successive president's position on Jerusalem as reflected in speeches, diplomatic correspondence, and UN votes, and the positions of Congress as reflected in its resolutions, in letters by members of the House and Senate to the president, and ultimately, in the Jerusalem Embassy Act. .  As Slonim demonstrates, the positions taken by U.S. presidents concerning Jerusalem have varied more than may be immediately apparent. .
The book, which is the product of years of meticulous research in American, British, Israeli, and UN archives, contains a wealth of information.  It shows the importance that Israel and the Arabs attach to every word and nuance - even the omission of a word - in statements concerning Jerusalem.  It should be read by everyone involved in the Arab-Israel negotiations and by everyone interested in their outcome."

Malvina Halberstam, Professor of International Law,
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
American Journal of International Law, vol. 94 (2000), pp. 610-14.

"The academic and diplomatic communities have in Shlomo Slonim's latest work a valuable resource for absorbing the complex background, the false starts, the tragic intractability of  Jerusalem's destiny.   For two decades, scholars of the Arab-Israeli conflict have been indebted to Mr. Slonimof the Hebrew University for his patient, painstaking scrutiny of dense archives that often defeat less focused analysis.   More ambitious than his earlier monographs, this newest study will not disappoint."

Peter Grose, Associate, International Security Program,
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Journal of American History, March 2002

An up-to-date, extremely detailed survey of America's historical and legal position on Jerusalem over the past 50 years - the culmination of years of meticulous research.   Prof. Slonim, an Australian educated in the United States, is a respected scholar and international expert on constitutional law and U.S.-Israel relations.  While Slonim has written on the subject before, this book constitutes the most comprehensive study of the American position on Jerusalem today. .  There is no better introduction to the complexities of the Jerusalem question and U.S. in general.   Despite the elaborate academic apparatus, it is a book that is accessible to anyone interested in the history of America's policies in the region.

Elyakim Rubinstein, Judge, Supreme Court of Israel
Ha-aretz, June 18, 1999

"Only by reviewing in detail the whole half century, as Slonim does with care and intelligence, does the extent of the changes [in American policy on Jerusalem] become evident."

Daniel Pipes
Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2001.

FRAMERS' CONSTRUCTION/BEARDIAN DECONSTRUCTION: ESSAYS ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN OF 1787. N.Y.: Peter Lang, 2001,   295 pp.

Scholarly Comment

"This impressive book, combining in one place so many of your path-breaking essays, firmly establishes you as one of the leading experts on the framing of the American Constitution.   I hope your publisher will see that a copy gets into the hands of every justice of the Supreme Court, for they can learn much from it.
Your work effectively demolishes the last leg of Charles A. Beard's hypothesis. (By the way, your brief historiographical introduction is quite brilliant.) .  I believe that you have finally buried the Beardian hypothesis and have brought to the front the often neglected questions relating to federal-state relations as central to the framing of the Constitution."

David Herbert Donald, Charles Warren Professor of American History and Civilization, Harvard University
Letter on file with author

"Professor Slonim, a seasoned and trenchant analytical observer of the U.S. Constitution, has provided a major contribution to investigative scholarship with his splendid tome.  His rejection of the Beardian and neo-Beardian interpretation of the basic document demonstrates that, in fine, the Framers were wise political scientists."

Henry J. Abraham, James Hart Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia 

"In this collection of essays, Professor Slonim makes a major contribution to the constitutional history of the Founding period.   His analysis of the politics of constitution-making achieves a clarity, objectivity, and documentary precision absent in recent ideologically-driven accounts."

Herman Belz, Professor of American Constitutional History,
University of Maryland, College Park

"I know of no American historian steeped as deeply and intelligently in the formation of the U.S. Constitution as S. Slonim, the distinguished Israeli scholar.  This collection of Professor Slonim's superb essays on the Founding Era confirms his status as a remarkable independent thinker.  I view this book as a must read for everyone interested in constitution-making in the United States and other nations.  Slonim's emphasis on federal-state relations as the central theme of the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 is an eye-opening, persuasive exploration of an often-ignored key to an understanding of the U.S. Constitution."

Gerald Gunther, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law,
Stanford Law School 

BOOKS EDITED

The American Experience in Historical Perspective.  (Volume in honor of bicentennial of the American Revolution)  Ramat Gan: Turtledove Press for the Hebrew University, 1979, 310 pp.

Studies in American Civilization: Scripta Hierosolymitana. (co-edited with E. Miller Budick and Arthur A. Goren) Jerusalem: Magnes Press for the Hebrew University, 1987, 368 pp.

The Constitutional Basis of Political and Social Change in the United States.(Volume in honor of bicentennial of U.S. Constitution).  N.Y.: Praeger, 1990, 375  pp.

ARTICLES AND MONOGRAPHIC STUDIES

American Constitutional Law and History

"The U.S. Constitution and the Right of Anticipatory Self-Defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter," International Lawyer, vol. 9 (1975), pp.117-20.

"Extra-Judicial Activities and the Principle of the Separation of Powers," Connecticut Bar Journal, Vol. 49 (1975), pp. 391-410.

"Congressional-Executive Agreements," Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Vol. 14 (1975), pp. 434-50.

"The Electoral College at Philadelphia: The Evolution of an Ad Hoc Congress for the Selection of a President," Journal of American History, vol. 73 (1986), pp.35-58.  Republished in Thomas E. Cronin (ed.), Inventing the American Presidency, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1989, and in Peter S. Onuf (ed.), The New American Nation, 1775-1820:The Federal Constitution ("a representative selection of the most interesting and influential journal articles on revolutionary and early national America"), N. Y.: Garland, 1992. 

Scholarly Comment

"The best account of the creation of the electoral college." 

Jack  N. Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution, N.Y. Knopf, 1996,  p. 406, n. 45.

"By far the best treatment of the Electoral College. . Slonim is particularly effective in demonstrating how the Electoral College cleverly solved a host of key problems at the time - most notably (1) enabling the small states and the slave states to extend to the presidency the disproportionate voting power they had won previously in the design of Congress, while (2) allowing the Convention to accommodate separation of powers principles." 

Bruce Ackerman and David Fontana, "Thomas Jefferson Counts Himself into the Presidency,"
Virginia Law Review, vol. 90 (2004), p. 557, n. 16.

"Beard's Historiography and the Constitutional Convention," Perspectives in American History (New Series), Charles Warren Center (Harvard University), Vol. 3 (1987), pp. 173-206.

"The Philosophy of a Dissenting Father: George Mason at the Constitutional Convention 1787," in Studies in American Civilization, Scripta Hierosolymitana . Jerusalem: Magnes, 1987,  pp. 48-62.

"The Constitution and the Rise of an Ideological Court in a Nonideological Polity," in S. Slonim (ed.), The Constitutional Bases of Political and Social Change in the United States. N.Y.: Praeger, 1990, pp. 3-11.

"The Electoral College," in Leonard W. Levy and Louis Fisher (eds.), Encyclopedia of the American Presidency.  N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1994,, pp. 542-47.

"Lodge-Gossett Plan," in Leonard W. Levy and Louis Fisher (eds.), Encyclopedia of the American Presidency.  N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1994, pp. 975-76.

"Motives at Philadelphia, 1787: Gordon Wood's Neo-Beardian Thesis Reexamined," Law and History Review, Vol. 16 (1998), pp. 527-52.

"Rejoinder to Gordon Wood's Comment on Shlomo Slonim, `Motives at Philadelphia, 1787: Gordon Wood's Neo-Beardian Thesis Reexamined,'" Law and History Review, Vol. 16 (Fall 1998), pp. 563-66.

"Securing States' Interests at the 1787 Constitutional Convention: A Reassessment," Studies in American Political Development, Vol. 14 (Spring 2000), pp. 1-19.

"The Founders' Fears of Foreign Influence," Mid-America: An Historical Review, Vol. 81 (1999), pp. 125-46.

"The Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights," Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 20 (2003), pp. 151-61.

"Federalist #78 and Brutus' Neglected Thesis on Judicial Supremacy," Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 23 (2006), pp. 7-31.

"The Jerusalem Issue: Between President, Congress and the Courts," in Eytan Gilboa and Efraim Inbar (eds.), US-Israeli Relations in a New Era, London & N.Y.: Routledge, 2009, pp. 158-69.

American Foreign Policy

U.S.-Israeli Relations, 1967-1973: A Study in the Convergence and Divergence of Interests.  Jerusalem Papers on Peace Problems No. 8.  Jerusalem: Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, 1974.  49 pp.

"The United States and the Support of 'Freedom-Loving' Peoples: Philadelphia 1776 to Helsinki 1975" (co-authored with M. Pomerance), in S. Slonim (ed.), The American Experience in Historical Perspective (1979), pp. 197-220.

"The 1948 American Embargo on Arms to Palestine," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 94 (1979), pp. 494-514.

"President Truman, the State Department, and the Palestine Question," Wiener Library Bulletin, Vol. 34 (1981), pp. 15-29.

"President Truman and the Bureaucracy: The Palestine Question as a Case Study," in Allen Weinstein and Moshe Maoz (eds.), Truman and the American Commitment to Israel.  Jerusalem: Magnes, 1981, pp. 122-51.

"The Origins of the 1950 Tripartite Declaration on the Middle East," Middle Eastern Studies (London), Vol. 23 (1987), pp. 135-49.

"United States Policy on Jerusalem, 1948," Catholic University Law Review, Vol. 45 (1996), pp. 501-509.

International Law and Relations

"The Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on Certain Expenses of the United Nations: A Critical Analysis," Howard Law Journal, Vol. 10 (1964), pp. 227-64.

"The Right of Innocent Passage and the 1958 Geneva Conference on the Law of the Sea," Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Vol. 5 (1966), pp. 96-127.

"The Origins of the South West Africa Dispute: The Versailles Peace Conference and the Creation of the Mandates System," Canadian Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 6 (1968), pp. 115-43.

"The United States and the Status of Jerusalem, 1947-1984," Israel Law Review, Vol. 19 (1984), pp. 179-252.

"Israeli Policy on Jerusalem at the United Nations, 1948," Middle Eastern Studies (London), Vol. 30 (1994), pp. 579-96.

"Changes in the Attitude of the Vatican on the Issue of Jerusalem," in Nahum Rackover, (ed.), Jerusalem: City of Law and Justice.  Jerusalem: Library of Jewish Law, 1998, pp. 85-100.

SHORTER ARTICLES AND BOOK REVIEWS

"Balance and Imbalance in America's Middle East Policy," Midstream, June 1969, pp. 11-17.

"Egypt, Algeria, and the Libyan Revolution," The World Today, (Chatham House) March 1970, pp. 125-30.

"The United States, the Indian-Pakistani War, and the Middle East," Midstream, March 1972, pp. 3-7.

"Egypt's Conflict of Alliances," The World Today, (Chatham House) March 1972, pp. 124-32.

Review of John Dugard (ed.), The South West Africe/Namibia Dispute, American Journal of International Law, Vol. 68 (1974), pp. 784-85.

"American-Egyptian Rapprochement," The World Today, (Chatham House) February 1975. pp. 47-57.

"The Suez Canal and the U.S.-Soviet Confrontation in the Yom Kippur War," United States Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1975, pp. 37-41.

"Sadat's American Strategy," Midstream, July/August 1977, pp. 27-31.

"Israel, the Powers, and the New Scramble for Africa," Midstream, November 1977, pp. 30-35.

"Israel, the United States, and China," Midstream, June/July 1979, pp. 20-25.

Review of Nadav Safran, Israel: The Embattled Ally, Jewish Journal of Sociology, Vol. 32 (1980), pp. 205-09.

Review of Haim Shaked and Itamar Rabinovich (eds.), The Middle East and the United States: Perceptions and Policies, Jerusalem Journal of International Relations, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1982), pp. 112-17.

Review article: Eliahu Elath, The Struggle  for Statehood;  Zvi Ganin, Truman, American Jewry and Israel; Amitzur Ilan, America, Britain and Palestine; Evan M. Wilson, How the United States Came to Recognize Israel, Jerusalem Journal of International Relations, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1982-83), pp. 92-101.

Review of Julius Stone, Israel and Palestine: Assault on the Law of Nations, Jerusalem Journal of International Relations, Vol. 6, No. 4 (1982-83), pp. 108-12.

Review of Michael Cohen, Palestine and the Great Powers, 1945-1948, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 2 (1986), pp. 315-19.

Review of Alan Bullock, Ernest Bevin: Foreign Secretary, 1945-1951; and Wm. Roger Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States and Post-War Imperialism, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 3 (1987), pp. 250-53.

Review of Steven L. Spiegel, The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict: Making America's Middle East Policy from Truman to Reagan, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 3 (1987), pp. 322-23.

Review of Ronald W. Zweig, Britain and Palestine During the Second World War, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 4 (1988), pp. 419-23.

Review of Wm. Roger Louis and Robert W. Stookey (eds.), The End of the Palestine Mandate; and Martin Jones, Failure in Palestine: British and United States Policy after the Second World War, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 5 (1989), pp. 369-72.

Review of Benjamin M. Joseph, Besieged Bedfellows, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 104 (1989-90), pp. 729-30.

Review Article: "The New Historians and the Establishment of Israel," Review of Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Problem, 1947-1949; Ilan Pappe, Britain and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1948-1951; Avi Shlaim, Collusion Across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 7 (1991), pp. 306-16.

Review of Samuel J. Roberts, Party and Policy in Israel: The Battle between Hawks and Doves, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 106 (1991-92), pp. 736-37.

Review of Steven Z. Freiberger, Dawn over the Suez: The Rise of American Power in the Middle East, 1953-1957, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 10 (1994), pp. 404-06.

Review of Amitzur Ilan, Bernadotte in Palestine, 1948: A Study in Contemporary Humanitarian Knight-Errantry, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 10 (1994), pp. 411-14.

Review of Tadahisa Kuroda, The Origins of the Twelfth Amendment: The Electoral College in the Early Republic, 1787-1804, William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 52 (1995), pp. 753-55.

Review of Chanan Reich, Australia and Israel: An Ambiguous Relationship, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Vol. 20 (2004), pp. 388-90.

Review of Isaiah Friedman, Palestine: A Twice-Promised Land? Vol. 1: The British, the Arabs, and Zionism, Israel Affairs (London), Vol. 11 (2005), pp. 567-69.