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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Ten National Security Oversight Issues to Watch in 2016
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…
What explains the three-year delay on the Slahi habeas petition?
As Ben Wittes notes over at Lawfare, last week Judge Royce Lamberth denied a motion by habeas petitioner Mohamedou Ould Slahi to require the Department of Defense to expedite…
Why the US Should Cooperate With Investigations Into the Hospital Bombing
On December 12, the United Nations released a “special report” on human rights abuses and international humanitarian law violations that recently occurred in Kunduz, Afghanistan.…
War: What Is It Good For? — Revisiting Strategic Questions Congress Should Ask in Debating an ISIL AUMF
As I revisited the series of 20 questions I recommended Congress consider in September 2014 regarding US strategy to combat the threat posed by ISIL, I remembered the advice an…
House Demolitions 2.0
As violence erupted in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories over the past several months, the Israeli government has returned to one of its most controversial practices…
The New African Commission General Comment on the Right to Life Is an Important Step Forward
During its final session of 2015 last month, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted a General Comment on the right to life under the African Charter. General…
The Worst of the Worst? What al-Shamiri’s Case Tells Us About Gitmo Detainees
Earlier this month, the US government revealed that Guantánamo detainee Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri was a low-level fighter, not the al-Qaeda courier and trainer the government…
Human Shields: The Dialogue Continues
As avid readers of Just Security may recall, last summer Professor Adil Ahmad Haque and I engaged in an animated discussion about the new Defense Department Law of War Manual’s…
War-Sustaining Activities and Direct Participation in the DOD Law of War Manual
In a recent post on Lawfare, Butch Bracknell discussed the use of leaflets by the United States to warn truck drivers transporting oil for ISIL of an impending attack. Bracknell…
Don’t Forget the Other Legal Issues in the 9/11 Trial
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…
Military Commissions and Fairness
My friend Marty Lederman provides a lot of fascinating commentary about the en banc rehearing in the Al-Bahlul case (here and here). I’d like to focus on just part of Marty’s…
The Schiff AUMF: It’s even better than that
I heartily concur in the praise that Jen and Steve, and Jack Goldsmith, have heaped upon the new draft AUMF proposed by Representative Adam Schiff. Indeed, my enthusiasm for…