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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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3,521 Articles
Potesters lie on the ground in front of a line of police cars in the position that George Floyd was in when he died. June 6, 2020 - Los Angeles, United States

International Standards Regarding the Handling of Demonstrations

Just as much as nauseating scenes of excessive use of force by the police captured by media and citizens’ smartphones fly in the face of the protections that should be afforded…
Police advance on demonstrators who are protesting the killing of George Floyd on May 30, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are dressed in riot gear and carry very large batons. A large cloud of tear gas can be seen behind the police.

New Complicity Charges Filed in the Killing of George Floyd

UPDATED As millions of people take to the streets demanding racial justice, accountability for police violence, and the demilitarization of the police, the case against the ex-police…
UNIFIL soldiers stand in a field with a UN flag as they watch an Israeli army complete routine maneuvers (Israeli army not shown).

National Security at the United Nations This Week (May 29-June 5)

(Editor’s Note: This is the latest in Just Security’s weekly series keeping readers up to date on developments at the United Nations at the intersection of national security,…
Pompeo

Pompeo’s Personal Stake in the International Criminal Court’s Afghan Investigation

It is no secret that the Trump administration, in general, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, specifically, are hostile toward the International Criminal Court (ICC), particularly…
The guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf (CG 72) fires a close-in weapons system during a live-fire exercise, April 27, 2020.

On Iranian Gunboats: Beware Conflating American and Mainstream Views of the Law

In a recent essay in Just Security entitled “Iranian Gunboat Harassment and the Rules of Engagement,” Michael Schmitt and Durward Johnson explore important questions raised…
Trafficked children are arrested and sit on the floor of a detention facility in the Ivory Coast.

Trump Administration Reverses Position on Corporate Liability Under Alien Tort Statute

In a brief filed last week, the Trump administration reversed its position on corporate liability under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), urging the Supreme Court to grant certiorari…
Trump, trailed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (R) and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (2nd R), walks to the Rose Garden to make a statement about U.S. relations with China at the White House May 29, 2020.

Trump’s Empty “Withdrawal” from the World Health Organization

WHO withdrawal can't take legal effect until mid-2021 per federal law. That plus other formidable legal obstacles may yet stand in Trump's way.
Press Briefing by Ms. E. Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance

A Conversation With U.N. Special Rapporteur E. Tendayi Achiume: COVID-19, Racism, and Xenophobia

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of Just Security‘s United Nations Special Rapporteurs on #COVID-19 series, in which mandate holders offer their views on pressing…
Members of the Bavarian police and the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, intercept a vehicle and pin a man to the ground at a checkpoint during a demonstration as part of the GETEX anti-terror exercises during a media event on March 9, 2017 in Murnau, Germany.

The Terrorist as a “Potentially Dangerous Person”: The German Counterterrorism Regime

The attack on Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz in December 2016 was arguably Germany’s 9/11. While German anti-terrorism law previously was influenced “only” by international…
The entrance near the new courtroom at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Jurisdiction at Guantanamo: The Case of Long-Term Complicity

The commission should stop asking whether the acts of facilitation occurred during an armed conflict. Rather, the commission should be asking whether the defendants facilitated…
Syrian defendants Anwar Raslan (L), 57, and Eyad al-Gharib (R), 43, wait in the courtroom before the start of an unprecedented trial on state-sponsored torture in Syria, on April 23, 2020 at court in Koblenz, western Germany.

What Counts as State Practice? The Koblenz Trial and Functional Immunity

The Prosecutor, by commencing proceedings against Raslan and Al Gharib, along with in other cases where arrest warrants against Syrian State officials were issued, has already…
The 73rd anniversary memorial service for the atomic bomb victims at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on August 6, 2018.

Nuclear Arms Control, or a New Arms Race? Trump Seems Bent on the Latter.

More ambitious talks with the Russians and Chinese are a laudable goal. But they can be pursued smartly and without unnecessarily high risk.
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