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.
3,737 Articles
The Right to Life as the Jus ad Bellum of Non-International Armed Conflict (A Reply to Lieblich)
An important question raised in a recent post in Just Security is what law governs when a state can resort to military force against a threat from a non-state actor. Professor…
Full Text: “Oxford Guidance on Law of Relief Operations During Armed Conflict”
In today’s conflict zones, from Syria to Sudan, it is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible at times, for those providing humanitarian relief to reach the people…
Who is Responsible for the Yemen Funeral Bombing, and How?
The aftermath of a bombing by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Photo: Almigdad Mojalli/IRIN The Saudi-led coalition has acknowledged, after initially denying, that it carried…
How We Read a NYT Story on UN Responsibility for Peacekeepers’ Misconduct
A new Haitian cholera vaccination program. Image by UN/MINUSTAH/Logan Abassi In this post, we’re trying something attempted once before at Just Security. Below, we present an…
Untangling the Web of Actors in Syria and Additional Complexities of Classifying Armed Conflicts
As the international community struggles to find solutions to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, several recent posts at Just Security and elsewhere have offered interpretations…
How to Move Beyond South Africa’s Notice of Withdrawal from the ICC
International Criminal Court, The Hague, Netherlands-Hypergio, Wiki Commons As the dust settles following South Africa’s controversial and perhaps unconstitutional announcement…
South Africa’s ICC Withdrawal: Why? And What Now?
South African President Jacob Zuma at the Sports for Peace Gala 2010 in Johannesburg-Wikimedia Commons Stunning many in the international community, South Africa announced on Friday…
Human Shields in Mosul
Daesh’s inhumanity seems to know no bounds. For its latest depravity, the group has forcibly expelled hundreds of civilians from nearby villages and forced them to serve as…
Letter to the Editor: Bombing Hospitals: Why Bad Actors—Not the Laws of War—Are to Blame
In “Military Attacks on ‘Hospital Shield: The Law Itself is Partly to Blame,” the authors address the dangers of analogizing between human shields and hospitals,…
Justice Richard Goldstone: South Africa’s Attempt to Withdraw from Int’l Criminal Court is Unconstitutional
In a shocking surprise to many in the international community, South Africa has announced that is has formally begun the process of withdrawing from the International Criminal…
If US and UK Have Joined the Fighting in Yemen, What’s Their Duty to Investigate Alleged Saudi War Crimes?
Air strike in Sana’a, May 2015. Image by Ibrahem Qasim – Wikimedia If the United States and United Kingdom (have) become not just supporters of the Saudi-led coalition…
Military Attacks on “Hospitals Shields”: The Law Itself is Partly to Blame
The MSF Trauma Center in Kunduz, Afghanistan, following the US airstrike on the facility in October 2015. Image by Andrew Quilty. From the war in Afghanistan and the US-backed…