Although the dust is far from settled in Georgia, and indeed I am getting firsthand reports of ongoing Russian troop movements, we will soon have to begin taking a serious look at the international law implications of this military action, and ask some tough questions about 1) the status of Russia’s “peacekeeping” mission and their range of duty, 2) the legal status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia pre- and post-conflict, and 3) the legal basis for the deployment of Russian troops into Georgian sovereign territory. Eventually I’d like to address all these questions, but tonight, let’s just start with the status of the Russian peacekeepers.