Armed Conflict • International Law
Law of Armed Conflict/IHL
1,649 Articles
Secret Law, Targeting, and the Problem of Standards: A Response to Dakota Rudesill
In his recent posts and an article, Dakota Rudesill tackles the phenomenon of secret law. Dakota persuasively describes a growing body secret law, which he defines as “legal…
It’s Time to Come to Terms With Secret Law: Part I
Secret law. The words are chilling. They evoke Kafka, unaccountable government, liberty subordinated to state security – and to some ears, perhaps simply the paranoid rantings…
International Justice Day Round-Up III: Salvadoran Amnesty Law, Germany Apologizes to Namibia over Genocide, Corporate Criminality, and Colombia Ceasefire
This is Part III of an international criminal justice round-up covering ten of the top developments in the field this spring and summer. Part I is here and covers the Habré case,…
International Justice Day Round-Up II: Bemba, the Crime of Aggression, and More Justice for Chile
This is Part II of an International Justice Day Top-10 Round Up. Part I—which discussed the recent judgment against Hissène Habré in the Extraordinary African Chambers, the…
International Justice Day Round-Up I: Habre, Bashir Travel, Crimes Against Humanity in Mexico
The field of international criminal justice has witnessed a number of important developments this spring and summer—enough to merit a proverbial top-ten list. In honor of International…
Syria, J’Accuse! Syrian State Responsibility for War Crimes
So far, achieving any measure of accountability for the grave international crimes being committed in Syria has been elusive, as I’ve outlined before. A draft Security Council…
What the Chilcot Report Teaches Us About National Security Lawyering
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
A quick response to John Merriam on proportionality and military medical personnel
Thanks very much to John Merriam for his very thoughtful and insightful post responding to my concerns about the Law of War Manual‘s treatment of how the principle of proportionality…
Must Military Medical and Religious Personnel Be Accounted for in a Proportionality Analysis?
In a recent post, Marty Lederman echoed criticisms previously leveled by Oona Hathaway about the US DOD’s Law of War Manual. The thrust of their criticism is that several Manual…
Highlights From the Chilcot Report
Earlier today, the UK’s Iraq Inquiry Committee released the report of its seven year investigation into the country’s role in the Iraq War. Started in 2009 at the…
The Updated First Geneva Convention Commentary, DOD’s Law of War Manual, and a More Perfect Law of War, Part I
It is difficult to overstate the importance of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Nearly synonymous with the law of war itself, the universally ratified 1949 Conventions are not merely…
The Good and Bad in the US Government’s Civilian Casualties Announcement
The US government on Friday, July 1 released long-sought information on its views as to how many people it has killed in drone and other strikes “outside areas of active hostilities,”…