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.
3,500 Articles
It’s All About the Associated Forces
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quietly joined the battle over authorizing the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant last week. To the surprise of many given…
Is the US Allowed to Control a Syrian Airfield?
Reports have recently emerged that the US is in control of an airfield in Syria. The details are a bit sketchy and it’s hard to determine their veracity. For their part, US officials…
The European Court of Human Rights Constrains Mass Surveillance (Again)
In a decision that may someday be considered the penultimate nail in the coffin that European courts have been building for mass surveillance, the European Court of Human Rights…
International Justice Year-in-Review: Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards (Part 2)
Editor’s Note: We asked editors Beth Van Schaack and Alex Whiting to do a roundup of the top international criminal justice stories from 2015 and what readers should keep an…
International Justice Year-in-Review: Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards (Part 1)
Editor’s Note: We asked editors Beth Van Schaack and Alex Whiting to do a roundup of the top international criminal justice stories from 2015 and what readers should keep an…
Latest Guantánamo Transfers May Signal Change in Approach
Politicians and pundits are still fighting over whether President Obama should, can, or will close the Guantánamo Bay detention center before he leaves office. For his part,…
ISIS in the United States: Which Legal Regime Applies?
Consider the following hypothetical: It is 10:00pm in Times Square, New York City. The “city that never sleeps” is bustling with tourists, Broadway shows, street performers,…
“Your Account May Have Been Targeted by State-Sponsored Actors”: Attribution and Evidence of State-Sponsored Cyberattacks
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
Was the Cyber Attack on a Dam in New York an Armed Attack?
Concerns about the vulnerability of infrastructure to cyber attacks were highlighted in two recent news articles. Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2013, Iranian…
Let’s Start Calling Combat Combat
On Tuesday, a Special Forces soldier died and two others were injured in a skirmish with Taliban fighters near Marjah in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. Al Asad air…
The Irresponsible Institutional Politics of an “Election Year”
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
Closing GTMO: “Why wasn’t there a clearly delineated strategy?”
It’s not even the most glaring error in Dina Temple-Raston’s review of Charlie Savage’s Power Wars, but this passage sure does stand out: While the issue of closing…