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.
3,695 Articles
Accountability Fatigue: A Human Rights Law Problem for Armed Forces?
Brigadier-General (ret.) Ken Watkin in conversation with General (ret.) David Petraeus' remarks about human rights law and military policies.
How Dangerous—and How New—Is the Defense Department’s “Collective Self-Defense” Theory?
The Defense Department’s reliance on a broad interpretation of “collective self-defense” appears to authorize military operations further removed from congressional approval…
The 2018 Annual Report of the U.N. International Law Commission
The U.N. International Law Commission’s 2018 annual report is being debated from October 22 to 31 before the Sixth (Legal) Committee of the U.N. General Assembly. Sean Murphy,…
U.S. Military’s “Collective Self-Defense” of Non-State Partner Forces: What Does International Law Say?
Earlier this month, Senator Tim Kaine made public a letter he wrote to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis asking for clarification on the meaning of “collective self-defense of…
Letter to the Editor: How About Some Regulation of the Mercenary Industry?
Following Sarah Knuckey and Ryan Goodman’s post on U.S. mercenaries in Yemen, I’d like to provide a bit of international legal background to the urgent discussion of whether…
The New ‘Welfare Queen’: Donald Meet Ronald, Ronald Meet Donald
We do not know yet whether 2018 will be the “year of the woman” in the midterm elections, but it’s worth reflecting on one of several particularly low points for women’s…
The Saudi Playbook: Self-Investigations of Civilian Deaths in Yemen and Khashoggi
We’ve been here before. Saudi Arabia has a sordid track record of announcing formal mechanisms to look into deaths of civilians at the hands of its own officers which have then…
The U.N. Security Council’s Outsized Role in Shaping Counter Terrorism Regulation and Its Impact on Human Rights
This week, as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, I submitted my annual report to the…
U.S. Libel Case Over Russian Poisoning Takes Aim at Kremlin Propaganda
A lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan alleges defamation by two Kremlin-controlled television stations widely available in the United States concerning the infamous poisoning…
The Torture of Forcibly Separating Children from their Parents
A detailed analysis of why the family separation policy amounts to government-sanctioned torture.
What Is the Flores Agreement, and What Happens If the Trump Administration Withdraws from It?
If the Trump administration succeeds in ending a decades-old court decision governing the treatment of migrant children, it will be able to detain migrant children indefinitely…
Dispelling Some Myths About Consular Immunity and the Khashoggi Investigation
Turkey and Saudi Arabia are both parties to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). Because the alleged acts took place at a consulate rather than the Saudi embassy,…