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.
4,623 Articles
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…
Mass Hacks of Private Email Aren’t Whistleblowing, They are at Odds With It
The Exxon Valdez after leaking more than 10 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in March, 1989. Image via NOAA/Wikimedia The world of 2016 is one where…
International Armed Conflict in Syria and the (Lack of) Official Immunity for War Crimes
Last week, I wrote two posts at Just Security (here and here) on one of the legal consequences that would follow if the situation in Syria is an “international armed conflict”…
What Law Applies to the Resort to Force Against Non-State Actors? Filling the Void of “Internal Jus Ad Bellum”
What international legal rules determine when the U.S. government can resort to force against a non-state armed group such as the Khorasan Group, if that organization plans an…
Turkey’s US-Backed Operation in Syria Has Created an International Armed Conflict
Defense Secretary Ash Carter meets with Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Işik during a U.N. Peacekeeping Ministerial meeting at Lancaster House in London, Sept. 8, 2016. DoD photo…
The Terminology of War and the Consequences for Executive Power
Just Security has hosted a number of interesting exchanges over the last week concerning the international and political implications of identifying the existence of an armed conflict.…