Courts & Litigation
Just Security’s expert authors offer analysis and informational resources on key litigation impacting national security, rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Our content spans domestic and international litigation, from cases at the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and other international and regional tribunals, to those in U.S. courts involving executive branch actions, transnational litigation, and more.
2,859 Articles
A Mixed Chamber for Syria: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
As we have discussed in a prior post and in the press, the international community must think creatively about how to build an accountability mechanism for Syria that does not—at…
Declassification of the CIA interrogation program: Developments on three fronts
Last month I published a post setting forth the state of play regarding the declassification and disclosure of the executive summary, and findings and conclusions, of the Senate…
Options for Accountability in Syria
The Security Council is poised today to vote on a resolution referring the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC). This would be the third such referral following…
Lavabit’s Owner Goes Public: His Legal Ordeal Makes For Bad Law
I’ve written several times here about the Department of Justice’s efforts to force secure email provider Lavabit to turn over its encryption keys. The DOJ wanted transactional…
Judge Bates and FISA Reform
Over at Lawfare, I have a short post on the terribly weak provisions with regard to a “special advocate” to argue before the FISA Court in the Manager’s Amendment…
Secret Courts and the Policy of “Neither Confirm Nor Deny”
On May 2, the English Court of Appeal gave judgment in (1) Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed (2) CF v Secretary of State for the Home Department. The case is the latest development in the…
United States War Crimes Statute & Sri Lanka
Ryan Goodman’s post on Sri Lanka calls for the prosecution under U.S. law of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In prior posts, we’ve discussed the way in which international crimes (including…
The Limits of the Logic that the Power to Kill includes the Power to Detain
I will soon have a longer post on the UK High Court judgment in Mohammed v. Ministry of Defense, but here I want to consider a specific argument that implicates the authority of…
Serdar Mohammed: A View onto U.S. Detentions
[Editor’s Note: This post is part of a“mini forum” hosted by Just Security that analyzes different elements of the judgment in Serdar Mohammed v. Secretary of State for…
The “Culture of Misinformation” and the Government’s Representations to the Supreme Court in Clapper
In yesterday’s New York Times, Charlie Savage had a new installment in his series about the government’s representations (and misrepresentations) in Clapper v. Amnesty, a…
Backgrounder: Preliminary Examination into Abuses by United Kingdom Personnel in Iraq
As we reported earlier, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor has reopened the preliminary examination into crimes committed by United Kingdom personnel in Iraq from 2003-2008 during…
Assessing Serdar Mohammed through the Prism of Derogation and Detention
Last week the High Court of England and Wales, per Mr Justice Leggatt, delivered a comprehensive judgment in Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence [2014] EWHC 1369 (QB). The case…