International Law

Just Security offers expert analysis of international law and its role in addressing global challenges. Our coverage includes litigation in international and regional tribunals, the process of international law-making, analysis of compliance and accountability for international law violations–including international criminal justice, and challenges to the international legal order.

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President of Republika Srpska Zeljka Cvijanovic (C) and, to her right, Milorad Dodik, Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, smile during a parade showcasing the entity's police force marking the "Day of Republic Srpska", in Banja Luka, on January 9, 2022. Muslims in Bosnia oppose the event as it marks the creation of a "Serb republic" in Bosnia on January 9, 1992, three months ahead of an ethnic war that claimed 100,000 lives and displaced more than two million people.  (Photo by ELVIS BARUKCIC/AFP via Getty Images)

EU-US Plan for Bosnia Risks Undermining New Sanctions and Bolstering Putin

Electoral deal also offers state land and backtracks on genocide denial, threatening territorial integrity, justice, and peace.
A physical therapy room for older detainees is seen at the US Guantanamo Naval Base on October 16, 2018, in Guantanamo Base, Cuba. - The Guantanamo prison, which houses detainees accused of participating in the 9/11 attacks, is to remain open for at least 25 years, said US Navy Admiral John Ring, commander of the base. (Photo by Sylvie LANTEAUME / AFP) (Photo credit should read SYLVIE LANTEAUME/AFP via Getty Images)

A Rare Public Wake-Up Call from the ICRC on Guantanamo Transfers

An exceedingly rare public statement by the ICRC calls on the Biden administration to get serious about Guantanamo transfers.

When Corruption Has No Money Trail: Sanctions Overlook Crucial Cases

Guatemala’s last anti-corruption stewards are being forced out, a trend that should raise as many alarms as traditional bribery and graft.

For Sudan’s Democratic Imperative, the US and Others Must Intensify Support

How to curb the coup leaders and decisively support the people showing nonviolent dedication to freedom and democracy.
The defendant, former Syrian intelligence officer Anwar Raslan, 58 years old, stands in a courtroom on his day to be sentenced. He has his covid protection mask off and wears a green jacket and cream colored jersey. He stands next to two individuals in dark blue suits.. In the front of the image is the back of a officer with the word "Justice" on a bulletproof vest.
Dozens of soldiers in camouflage fatigues arrive arrive at the airport in Wunstorf, northern Germany on August 27, 2021 at the end of a military evacuation operation to fly out German nationals, local workers and other people at risk from Kabul, Afghanistan. Several large military planes have landed where civilians are disembarking down the stairs from the aircraft.

Evacuating Nationals – A Noteworthy New Element of German Practice and Opinio Juris

The evacuation from Afghanistan may have helped set or solidify international legal rules on use of military force to rescue nationals - the German example.
Image: Left - MONROVIA, LIBERIA – AUGUST 6, 2003: Hundreds of shell casings litter the ground in Monrovia, Liberia, as negotiators try to reach a ceasefire in the country’s brutal civil war. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images) Right - Syrian defendant Anwar R., 57, arrives at court for an unprecedented trial on state-sponsored torture in Syria, on April 23, 2020 at court in Koblenz, western Germany. Prime suspect Anwar R., an alleged former colonel in Syrian state security, stands accused of carrying out crimes against humanity while in charge of the Al-Khatib detention centre in Damascus between April 29, 2011 and September 7, 2012. (Photo by Thomas Lohnes / various sources / AFP). EDITORS NOTE: According to court's ruling, the face of the defendant must be made unrecognizable 

From Syria Torture Trial to Liberian Massacre Case – A Plea for Bolstering Witness Protections in Human Rights Litigation

Witness testimony was key in reaching today's conviction of a former Syrian intelligence official for crimes against humanity. But the testimony placed witnesses and victims at…
Russia's Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft carrying the members of the International Space Station (ISS) expedition 60/61, NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency), blasts off to the ISS from the launch pad at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 20, 2019.

The Russian ASAT Test Caps a Bad Year for the Due Regard Principle in Space

It's time for States to take positions on their treaty obligation to act with "due regard" to the interests of others in outer space.

Cutting Edge Issues in Year 20 of the Guantánamo Habeas Litigation

After 20 years of Guantánamo litigation, legal questions around detention authority and due process still remain.
Two tall greyscale rectangles cast dark shadows representing the Twin Towers. Text reads, “How Perpetual War Has Changed Us: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11”

There Is a Way to Close Guantanamo

An outline of steps to end the policy of law of war detention, close Guantanamo, and end one of the grimmest chapters of the endless war era.
People in orange jumpsuits and black hoods walk in a single-file line in front of US Capitol building

Defending the Rule of Law Requires Ending Guantanamo Detention

After 20 years, continued Guantanamo detention is unjustifiable.
Image: A picture taken on September 27, 2018, a bird resting on Israel's controversial separation barrier on the outskirts of East Jerusalem on September 27, 2018 - (Photo credit should read AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

The International Community and Israel: Giving Permission to a Permanent Occupation        

UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories reflects on 50+ years of international inaction on the Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine.
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