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.
3,494 Articles
Defining “Meaningful Human Control” Over Autonomous Weapons
A semi-autonomous X-47B drone aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush in 2013. Image Credit: US Navy via Wikimedia. What is the appropriate role of autonomy and human…
How an ICC Investigation into Israel Would Cause a Cut Off in US Aid to Palestine
Israel and the United States have condemned Palestine’s decision to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) and also grant the Court jurisdiction retroactive to June 2014,…
Salvadoran General Deemed Deportable In the Absence of Criminal Charges
UPDATE: Former Defense Minister of El Salvador, Vides Casanova, has been detained pending extradition. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) ruled last week that General Carlos…
Supreme Court Denies Cert in Samantar v. Yousuf
On Monday, the US Supreme Court denied certiorari in Samantar v. Yousuf, ending an attempt by the former Prime Minister of Somalia to claim that the torture and extrajudicial killing…
Microsoft Case: The Government Responds, But Fails to Convince
The government has now filed its Second Circuit brief in the dispute with Microsoft (discussed here, here, and here), challenging key assertions by Microsoft and its many amici,…
Beyond Drones: The Next-Generation of Autonomous Weapons Cannot be Developed in Secrecy
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…
Why Teaching International Law in American Universities Matters
International law has a fairly peripheral role in American legal education. At a clear majority of schools, international courses are both exclusively elective and limited in number.…
Video: UN Expert Pablo de Greiff on Holding US Officials Responsible for Torture
Last week, I had the chance to ask Pablo de Greiff, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, about accountability…
The Backroom: An Inside Account of UN Sec-General’s Statement on US War in Syria
President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Image credit: White House/Pete Souza Several posts at Just Security have focused on international legal questions raised…
“New Torture Files”: Declassified Memos Detail Roles of Bush White House and DOJ Officials Who Conspired to Approve Torture
An alleged CIA prison near Kabul, Afghanistan. Image credit: Trevor Paglen via Wikimedia Commons. Last week, I wrote, both here and in the New York Times, that after reading all…
End of War = End of Detention? Taliban detainee files renewed habeas petition
At year’s end, I examined here the possible legal significance of the President’s declaration on December 28 that “our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending,…
Another Successful Terrorism Trial Inside the US
Khaled Abdul Rahman Hamad al-Fawwaz was stoic as his fate was announced, staring straight ahead, unflinching, his face blank, wearing the same white Islamic kufi on his head and…