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.
3,765 Articles
New Development in Palestinian bid to Join International Criminal Court
Reports this week indicate that the Hamas leadership has signed a pledge to support any move by the Palestinian Authority to become a state party to the International Criminal…
Official Act Immunity and the Singh Case
At Lawfare, John Bellinger has commented on Judge Boasberg’s August 19 ruling that former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is immune from suit for human rights abuses in…
Cert. petition in Ali accepts Justice Breyer’s invitation
As I posted back in April, Justice Breyer issued a statement respecting denial of certiorari in the case of Hussain v. Obama in which he more or less invited Guantánamo habeas…
Did the U.S. drone strike and secretly compensate Yemeni civilians?
New documentary evidence has emerged indicating that the families of those killed in a controversial December 2013 U.S. strike in Yemen received upwards of $1 million dollars in…
The Weapons Piece of the Proportionality Analysis in Gaza
Significant commentary (here and here) continues to be generated about proportionality and the legality of the use of force, including addressing the jus ad bellum (justification…
Untold History of the Torture Program
In this morning’s Los Angeles Times, Larry Siems and I have an op-ed about the soldiers and public servants who tried to expose and end the torture program. It begins: After…
More focus on jus ad bellum in Gaza
More than 1900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, hundreds of thousands are displaced and the material destructions are formidable. There have been several claims that Israel…
Medical Repatriation of Aging Guantanamo Detainees: The case of Al-Adahi
Mohammed Al-Adahi, a Yemeni national who has been detained at Guantanamo for more than 12 years and was approved for conditional release in 2010, has been described by his lawyers…
The important and difficult issues in the al-Nashiri case: When did the war begin? And was the COLE bombing a war crime?
The tragic bombing of the USS COLE by al Qaeda operatives in October 2000 was a heinous crime. Even if it occurred as part of an armed conflict between the United States and…
The ICRC’s Position on Human Shields (and Gaza)—A Reply to Professor Adil Haque
I agree with Professor Adil Haque’s description of the ICRC’s bifurcated position on voluntary human shields. I have accordingly added a note in my original post which now…
Letter to the Editor: Human Shields in the DPH Guidance
[Editor’s Note: Ryan Goodman responds to Professor Haque’s letter to the editor in a subsequent post.] In his recent post, Ryan Goodman writes that the ICRC adopts the view…
Verdict in Cambodia: Too Little Too Late, but Still Important
Amidst all the developments in the Middle East, we could not allow the verdict rendered by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Case 002 to go unacknowledged.…