Armed Conflict • International Law
Law of Armed Conflict/IHL
1,649 Articles
Aggression, Armed Conflict, and the Right to Life: Does UN Human Rights Committee Get it Right?
Is it possible to respect the human right to life in the context of war? Or does war, by its very nature, involve the arbitrary deprivation of life? Last month, the United Nations…
No, the U.S. Is Not Bombing ISIS Prisons on Some Theory Prison Labor Contributes to ISIS’s Economy
A recent post at Lawfare—titled “The Al-Mayadeen Prison Bombing and the Problem of War-Sustaining Targets”—suggests that the U.S. military may have struck a prison in Syria…
The National Security Law Podcast: Military Commissions, Military Officers in the Cabinet, the Laws of War, and More
This week’s episode certainly has a military theme. Professors Chesney and Vladeck start off with a surprisingly (or is it disturbingly?) lengthy discussion of the writ…
Lessons From Mosul: How to Reduce Civilian Harm in Urban Warfare
Fighting in densely populated areas poses a number of significant challenges to forces trying to adhere to the rules that govern warfare. Even assuming that international humanitarian…
State Dept. Office of Global Criminal Justice on the Chopping Block–Time to Save It
Word out of Washington is that the Trump Administration has started to restructure the State Department and particularly the Under-Secretariat for Civilian Security, Democracy…
Letter to the Editor: There Is Much More to a Civilian Casualty Investigation than Eyewitness Accounts
I applaud and agree with Sarah Knuckey’s, Ole Solvang’s, Jonathan Horowitz’s and Radhya Almutawakel’s recent post (“Pentagon Admits Major Investigation Flaw: imeshey…
Hidden from the Public: The United Kingdom’s Drone Warfare
The use of armed drones by the United States, both within the conflict zones of Iraq and Syria, and further afield in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, continues to be characterized…
Fragmented Wars: International Law and Multi-Territorial Conflict Against Non-State Armed Groups
The legal issues surrounding military operations against non-State armed groups abroad are continuing to generate policy and legal debates. In an article just published in International…
US-UAE Partnership and Alleged Torture: Recommended Next Steps for the Administration and Congress
An important foreign military partner in our armed conflict against al-Qaida in Yemen—the United Arab Emirates—has faced a series of allegations that it is engaged in systematic…
International Cyber Law Politicized: The UN GGE’s Failure to Advance Cyber Norms
On June 23, after years of slow yet meaningful progress in developing State consensus regarding the application of international law norms to cyberspace, the UN Group of Governmental…
Pentagon Admits Major Investigation Flaw: They Rarely Talk to Air Strike Witnesses or Victims
In a transcript of a Pentagon Press Briefing, released this week by Airwars, Central Command’s Deputy Director for Operations made a striking admission about U.S. investigations…
Safe Zones – Only Ever a Temporary Fix When Nothing Else Is Available
Fleeing a conflict zone is dangerous. The route to safety, to a country where a refugee can obtain protection, can be deadly. Over 3,700 people died trying cross the Mediterranean…