International Law
International Human Rights Law
264 Articles

Preview — Hassan v. UK
Tomorrow (December 11, 2013) the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR) will hear the case of Hassan v. United Kingdom (Application No. 29750/09). The…

European Court Urged to “Break Conspiracy of Silence” on CIA Black Sites in Europe
On December 3, attorneys for two Guantánamo detainees argued before the European Court of Human Rights that Poland bears responsibility for the torture, disappearance, and unlawful…

Preventive Detention and Human Rights Law: A Way Out of Bagram or Another Dead End?
With the drawdown of US forces in Afghanistan, one of the thorniest problems involves the detention of individuals who cannot be criminally tried but nevertheless pose an acute…

Creative Ambiguity – International Law’s Distant Relationship with Peacetime Spying
In all the sound and fury over “five eye” intercept programs, commentators appear so far to have paid relatively little attention to international law. This is no simple…

More on the Rights of Others – Ben Wittes’ Failure of Imagination
Ben Wittes weighs in today on Lawfare on the side of rejecting privacy rights for anyone but U.S. citizens, aligning himself with Orin Kerr and against myself [see my previous…

Why Killing Terrorists Creates Long-Term Due Process Obligations and What Happens When these Debts Become Due
In July 2013 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found the United Kingdom in violation of its investigative obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human…

International Humanitarian Law v. International Human Rights
Note: December 19 “Early Edition” Readers – click here for John Sifton’s guest post, Torture Is Still on the Table. We apologize for the error in the link.…

We Are All Foreigners: NSA Spying and the Rights of Others
The New York Times reports today that President Obama is expected to ban eavesdropping on the phones of our allies’ presidents and prime ministers. There is no indication,…

The Charles Taylor Appeal & The Scope of Accomplice Liability
I earlier flagged the release of the Charles Taylor appeals judgment. This post deconstructs the opinion more closely in light of the Perišić precedent and also addresses the…

United States Report to the UN Human Rights Committee: Lex Specialis and Extraterritoriality
The United States was poised to present its views tomorrow to the Human Rights Committee, which monitors state parties’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil…

Reforming FISA: A Critical Look at the Wyden/Udall Proposal and Foreign Surveillance
A new bipartisan bill co-sponsored by two of the most vocal critics of the NSA does not go far enough to protect the average non-U.S. person from indiscriminate surveillance. …

Charles Taylor Verdict Today: New Standard of Liability for Aid to Rebel Forces?
The Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) today unanimously upheld the conviction and 50-year sentence of former Liberian President Charles Taylor for aiding…