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.
3,511 Articles
National Security This Week at the United Nations (Dec 11 – Dec 18)
Equitable Distribution of Vaccines an “Acid Test” On Dec. 16, the President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Munir Akram said the equitable distribution…
“Strategic Silence” and State-Sponsored Hacking: The US Gov’t and SolarWinds
The absence to date of executive branch attribution and condemnation of the SolarWinds intrusions may be strategic silence—a tactic employed in the immediate aftermath of past…
Are Blanket Pardons Constitutional? A Reply to Bowman
If news reports are to be believed, President Trump is considering issuing blanket pardons (“for any and all offenses”) to many of his family-members and associates. In an…
A Roadmap for Reform: How the Biden Administration Can Revitalize the Office of Legal Counsel
As President-Elect Joe Biden announces his picks for cabinet positions, the Nation’s focus has increasingly turned to the challenges facing the incoming administration. One such…
Beyond the ICC: Repositioning the Core of International Accountability
For the survivors of atrocities, justice may mean something very different from the remote procedures of the ICC. How can international systems of accountability center local justice?
The Definition of Aggression and Self-Defense
Exactly forty-six years ago, on December 14, 1974, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, by consensus, the Definition of Aggression, “the most serious and dangerous form…
The Constitutionality of Non-Specific Pardons
What the Framers' understanding and subsequent presidential practice tell us.
Biden Must Stick to His Pledge to End US Support for the Yemen War
The war in Yemen is a global mark of shame, and the resulting humanitarian disaster threatens the lives of 24 million people.
National Security Last Week at the United Nations (Dec 4 – Dec 11)
Ethiopia’s Forces Fire On, Detain U.N. Personnel; UNHCR Voices Alarm Ethiopia’s security forces shot at and detained U.N. staffers as they tried to reach part of the embattled…
Nestlé & Cargill v. Doe Series: Judicial Activism, Corporate Exceptionalism, and the Puzzlement of Nestlé v. Doe
Congress has amended the Alien Tort Statute only three times. Yet judicial interpretation has significantly limited the statute's reach through "shadow amendments" to the text.…
COVID-19 and International Law Series: Reforming the World Health Organization
[Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series, COVID and International Law. All articles in the series can be found here.] The World Health Organization…
Polish Government’s Attacks on Rule of Law Violate Not Only EU Norms but International Law
The repeated violations of fundamental rights and principles corrode the very foundations of the democracy Poland fought so hard to win.