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.
4,713 Articles
Text of the Schiff-Cole Letter Requesting House Vote on an ISIL-Specific AUMF
Below is the text of the draft letter being circulated to House members by Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.) urging House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to hold…
The Power of Rhetoric in the Civilian-Military Divide
On April 10, Stephen Preston, General Counsel for the Defense Department, spoke at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law. He ended his remarks on the…
U.S. Policy on the ICC Crime of Aggression Announced
At the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law earlier this month, Professor Michael J. Matheson of George Washington University Law School chaired a fascinating…
Harold Koh and the Battle of the Dueling Petitions
Last month NYU students and others sent a petition to the Dean of Law and the President of NYU calling Harold Koh’s “presence at NYU Law and, in particular, as a professor…
Rethinking How We Wage the Forever War
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
The Complexity of Addressing Sexual Violence Experienced by Guantanamo Bay Detainees
The Senate Torture Report enabled deeper understanding of the depth and range of violence experienced at CIA black sites by male detainees who later ended up at Guantanamo Bay,…
More on Flawed Research and Flawed Counterterrorism Policies
I want to concur with the thoughtful views articulated by Michael German last week addressing terrorism and counterterrorism research. Having spent twenty years working and researching…
Killing a Cleric: Many More Questions Than Answers
Yesterday, Ryan wrote about the killing, presumably by US drone, of Ibrahim al-Rubaysan, an alleged leading cleric of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Ryan presumes that…
Drone Strike Kills al-Qaeda Cleric in Yemen—But are clerics lawful military targets?
A U.S. drone strike has reportedly killed a leading cleric of al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen. A religious theologian, Ibrahim al-Rubaysh had risen to the level of top cleric or Mufti…
Actual text (!) of the Corker/Cardin Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015
Perhaps you’ve read a few–even a few dozen–stories describing the negotiated compromise legislation that passed unanimously out of the Senate Foreign Relations…
The Targeted Killing That Wasn’t: What We Can Learn From the Case of Mohanad Mahmoud al-Farekh
A 2009 US Air Force photo titled “Ready to hunt” shows an armed MQ-9 Reaper drone taxiing in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Almost two weeks ago, we learned from the Washington…
No Asking and No Telling – A Quick Thought on Stephen Preston’s Speech at ASIL
As Marty Lederman and Jennifer Daskel have already noted, the Department of Defense’s General Counsel Stephen Preston gave an extensive and lengthy keynote speech on Friday last at…