Armed Conflict
Law of Armed Conflict/IHL
1,632 Articles
Charles Taylor Verdict Today: New Standard of Liability for Aid to Rebel Forces?
The Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) today unanimously upheld the conviction and 50-year sentence of former Liberian President Charles Taylor for aiding…
Resolving Cyber-Related Ambiguities in the Law of War: A Reaction to Jensen
Many thanks to Eric Jensen for his excellent post on cyber issues, the use of force, and international law. The increasing number and sophistication of cyber attacks threatening…
Unprivileged Does Not Mean Prohibited
In his latest post, Ryan takes issue with those who argue that it would violate international law for a state civilian agency, such as the CIA, to use force in an armed conflict. …
Resolving Cyber Issues Sets the State for Future Weapons
[A note from Ryan Goodman: On Monday, Professor Michael Schmitt helped launch Just Security with a Guest Post on the law of cyber conflict. Professor Eric Talbot Jensen accepted…
Syria and the Law of Humanitarian Intervention (Part I: Political Miscues and U.S. Law)
Crises are lived forward but understood backwards. While it is still too early to know how the Syria crisis of 2013 will end, we can start evaluating what precedents of law and…
Good Reasons May Exist to Close CIA Drone Program—But Claim that CIA Agents are “Unprivileged Belligerents” is Not One of Them
Senator John McCain has vowed to accelerate the effort to transition control of drone operations from the CIA to the Pentagon, and he will likely have support from top Senate Democrats.…
On Syria, The System Worked
President Barack Obama’s critics have been virtually unanimous in their condemnation of his decision to ask Congress for authorization to use military force against Syria. …
Just War in Syria and the U.S. Intervention Syllogism
First, I would just like to note that I am honored to be a part of the founding team of the Just Security blog and look forward to engaging with colleagues and readers throughout…
First Drone Strike Victims Planning to Visit US: Will the US Keep Its Transparency Promises?
Next week – for the first time in the history of the US “targeted killing” drone program – alleged survivors of a drone strike and the family members of a deceased victim…
EU Law Meets a U.S. Army Deserter
A German Court considering the appeal of a U.S. soldier Andre Shepherd who sought asylum in Germany after deserting his Iraq bound unit in 2007, has made a preliminary reference…
The U.S.-Russia Agreement on Syrian Chemical Weapons: More Questions Than Answers
The Framework Agreement negotiated by the United States and the Russian Federation to bring Syria’s chemical weapons under international control seems like an elegant way out…
The ICC as the Sword of Damocles
The destruction of the chemical weapons would not be enough. An unexplored option exists to help resolve the situation in Syria: the Security Council could refer the Syrian situation…