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 Establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Palestine (Part II)
I ended Part I of this series yesterday by arguing that the Palestinians’ dualistic bid to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) amounts to lawfare, in that they are not…
2 Years and 55 Prisoners To Go: It’s Time for a Lot More Guantanamo Review Boards
In 2001, Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al Sawah, a veteran of the war in Bosnia who’d joined up with al Qaeda in Afghanistan, landed in U.S. custody. Injured by a cluster bomb in the Afghan…
How to Interpret the UN Human Rights Committee’s Comment on National Security Detentions: State Party Submissions
Last October, the United Nations Human Rights Committee adopted General Comment No. 35 (GC) which has important implications for international law regulating detentions, including…
The Establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Palestine (Part I)
The new “Palestinian ICC bid” is barely two weeks old and already in full throttle, with the international legal and political commentators split between the traditional camps…
Response to My Friend Luis Moreno Ocampo on the International Criminal Court and the Palestinian Situation
[Editor’s Note from Ryan Goodman: Starting with an excellent post by Professor David Luban on Palestine’s bid to join the International Criminal Court, Just Security published…
How the U.S. Can Help Sri Lanka Turn the Corner—with a targeted war crimes prosecution
The Obama administration helped catalyze the United Nations’ ongoing efforts to bring accountability in Sri Lanka for mass war crimes committed in that country’s civil…
Al-Marri’s End and the Failed Experiment of Domestic Military Detention
In the coming days, Ali al-Marri, former enemy combatant, is scheduled to be released from federal criminal custody, clearing the way for his removal by immigration officials to…
Ongwen Onward to the Hague: Lord’s Resistance Army Commander to Face Justice
Media are reporting that Dominic Ongwen, the Joseph Kony deputy who defected last week from the Lord’s Resistance Army, will be transferred to the International Criminal Court…
Is it Really Better to be Dead than Blind?
Late last year, the U.S. Navy announced that its $40 million laser weapon is finally ready for combat aboard the special operations staging ship USS Ponce. The laser, which “zaps…
Palestine’s Two Cards: A Commitment to Legality and an Invitation to Stop Crimes
Two steps recently taken by Palestine could be a game changer for a seemingly intractable problem. I will argue that these decisions should not be construed as an assault on Israel.…
The Shrinking Military Commissions
Yesterday’s news that the Convening Authority for the Guantánamo military commissions has “disapproved the findings and sentence,” and dismissed the charges…
Letter to the Editor from former Legal Adviser to Palestine’s Mission to the United Nations
Below, reader Yousef N. Zeidan replies to Robert Howse’s Palestine and the ICC: Law and Rhetoric, and to an exchange of letters between reader Jonathan Somer and Howse.…