Executive Branch
Just Security’s expert authors provide analysis of the U.S. executive branch related to national security, rights, and the rule of law. Analysis and informational resources focus on the executive branch’s powers and their limits, and the actions of the president, administrative agencies, and federal officials.
4,604 Articles
How We Read a NYT Story on UN Responsibility for Peacekeepers’ Misconduct
A new Haitian cholera vaccination program. Image by UN/MINUSTAH/Logan Abassi In this post, we’re trying something attempted once before at Just Security. Below, we present an…
Shots Fired: A Reply to Gill and Watkin
Thanks to Terry Gill and Ken Watkin for their replies to my earlier post. To recall, the ICRC takes the view that the use of armed force by one State on the territory of another,…
Letter to the Editor: The Best Way to Protect Hospitals in Wartime—Enforce Existing Law
No warfighter should attack a facility that houses the infirm and those who care for them. Likewise, no able-bodied warfighter should seek protection in a medical facility, and…
Letter to the Editor: “Lines in the Sand”—A Reply to Professor Haque
I have noted with interest Professor Adil Haque’s critique of my posts (here and here) concerning the classification of armed conflicts involving non-consensual cross border…
How to Move Beyond South Africa’s Notice of Withdrawal from the ICC
International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands-Hypergio, Wiki Commons As the dust settles following South Africa’s controversial and perhaps unconstitutional announcement…
South Africa’s ICC Withdrawal: Why? And What Now?
South African President Jacob Zuma at the Sports for Peace Gala 2010 in Johannesburg-Wikimedia Commons Stunning many in the international community, South Africa announced on Friday…
Human Shields in Mosul
Daesh’s inhumanity seems to know no bounds. For its latest depravity, the group has forcibly expelled hundreds of civilians from nearby villages and forced them to serve as…
Letter to the Editor: Bombing Hospitals: Why Bad Actors—Not the Laws of War—Are to Blame
In “Military Attacks on ‘Hospital Shield: The Law Itself is Partly to Blame,” the authors address the dangers of analogizing between human shields and hospitals,…
Today’s En Banc D.C. Circuit Ruling in Al Bahlul…
163 pages later, we’re back where we started. Six of the nine judges on the en banc D.C. Circuit (with Chief Judge Garland and Judge Srinivasan not participating) voted…
Military Attacks on “Hospitals Shields”: The Law Itself is Partly to Blame
The MSF Trauma Center in Kunduz, Afghanistan, following the US airstrike on the facility in October 2015. Image by Andrew Quilty. From the war in Afghanistan and the US-backed…
More Guantánamo Mishegas (The Unlawful Detention of a US Citizen Edition)
Just when it seems like the ongoing, neverending saga that is the Guantánamo military commissions can’t get any stranger, there’s this: As Carol Rosenberg (who else)…
UK Government’s Response on Drone Strikes Policy Leaves British Parliament Wanting More
A heads-up to Just Security readers: The UK government has responded to the British Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) report on the use of drones for targeted…