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

Sexual Torture, Rape, and Gender-Based Violence in the Senate Torture Report
The ramifications and significance of the Senate Torture Report continue to spin out in various fora. While I have noted that the use of certain torture methods used at Guantanamo…

Judge Pohl’s rebuke of DOD’s unorthodox effort to accelerate the 9/11 trial
[UPDATED at 6:00 p.m. with links to, and some discussion of, DoD rationales and the regulatory amendment itself.] Things have been moving very slowly, to say the least, in the…

Associated Forces and Co-belligerency
While Congress is expected to adopt a new Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), debate continues on the scope…

General Martins on the Shrinking Military Commissions
Marty’s important post from last night includes a link to yesterday’s statement by General Mark Martins, Chief Prosecutor of the Guantánamo military commissions, in…

Al-Nashiri can now speak about his treatment … plus news about full SSCI Report
[Editor’s note: This post was originally published at 9:00 PM E.S.T. on February 22, 2015] Two weeks ago, I reported here that the prosecution had submitted motions to the…

Washington’s New Drone Sales Policy Could Export US-Style Drone War
This week, the United States released a new policy for the export of US-made drones. The policy conditions any drone sale on a pledge by the foreign buyer government that it will…

The Fine Line Between Collective Self-Defense and Intervention by Invitation: Reflections on the Use of Force against ‘IS’ in Syria
Bashar and Asma al-Assad. Image credit: Ricardo Stuckert/ABr via Wikimedia Commons. [Editor’s Note from Ryan Goodman: With the U.S. Congress turning its attention to an…

Challenging the Guantánamo Narrative: “Too Dangerous to Transfer”
This post is the latest installment of our Monday Reflections feature in which a different Just Security editor takes an in-depth look at the big stories from the previous…

“Gag order” on Military Commission defendants substantially lifted
Very important and welcome news from Guantánamo Bay: The defendants in military commissions cases and their counsel are now free to discuss their interrogations and conditions…

A comprehensive summary of GTMO policy, practices and prospects
It’s all here in the prepared testimony of Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Brian McKeon before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday morning. Most…

Authorization vs. Regulation of Detention: What Serdar Mohammed v. MoD Got Right and Wrong
The UK Court of Appeal will soon hear the appeal in Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defense, a highly important case in which the UK High Court held that the long-term detention…

UK Court of Appeal to assess legality of detentions in Afghanistan
Next week, the United Kingdom Court of Appeal will begin to hear arguments in the government’s appeal against the High Court ruling in Serdar Mohammed v Ministry of Defense.…