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.

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3,510 Articles
Afghan residents and family members of the victims gather next to a damaged vehicle inside a house, day after a US drone airstrike in Kabul on August 30, 2021.

Questions to Investigate U.S. Drone Strike in Kabul: An Alleged Killing of 10 Civilians

We drafted dozens of specific questions for Congress, reporters, and investigators to ask.
A view of the room where the session is held at International Court Of Justice on January 23, 2020 in The Hague, Netherlands. The judges sit in a room at the front of the room. People fill the rest of the seats in the room.

Towards a New Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity: Next Steps

Such a convention could dispel the notion that only genocide deserves international sanction and attention.
Michael Ratner, a US Military Defence Lawyer and one of the counsel in the US Supreme Court, listens during a press conference concerning the situation of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in London, 24 March 2004.

The Humanity of Michael Ratner, The Fabrications of Samuel Moyn

Joseph Margulies and Baher Azmy write to set the record straight.
Two tall greyscale rectangles cast dark shadows representing the Twin Towers. Text reads, “How Perpetual War Has Changed Us: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11”

Paradigm Shift: The Consequences of Choosing a War Path, and Leaving It

We owe it to the next generation to grapple now with the consequences of remaining at war -- as well as the consequences of choosing not to be -- lest we find ourselves reflexively…
Two tall greyscale rectangles cast dark shadows representing the Twin Towers. Text reads, “How Perpetual War Has Changed Us: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11”

How to Responsibly End Three Key Rights-Abusing Post-9/11 Policies

Accountability needs to include reckoning with Guantanamo, state-sanctioned U.S. torture, and secretive and unlawful lethal strikes.
A black and white photograph of the First International Peace Conference in the Hague. Men sit in rows at desks in a horseshoe shape. Art covers the walls.

Oh, the Humanity

Reviewing Samuel Moyn, Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2021), 416 pp. Samuel Moyn’s new book…
Salvadors Police officers stand guard in front of the Supreme Court of Justice in San Salvador, on May 2, 2021.

Islands of Advances in a Sea of Setbacks: Central American Rule of Law

The Biden administration’s promise to attack the root causes of migration from Central America just got harder to keep.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid addresses a press conference in Kabul on September 7, 2021. Flags of the Taliban stand on both sides of the desk he sits at.

Between Legitimacy and Control: The Taliban’s Pursuit of Governmental Status

Recognition of a government involves calculations of both law and politics. What factors will influence States' response to the Taliban?
Two tall greyscale rectangles cast dark shadows representing the Twin Towers. Text reads, “How Perpetual War Has Changed Us: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11”

In the “War on Terror,” What Did Rights Organizations Get Wrong?

A leading human rights lawyer raises provocative questions about track record of U.S. human rights organizations. An essay in advance of a live event on Thursday night to discuss…
A general view shows the Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) cement plant in Jalabiya, some 30 kms from Ain Issa, in northern Syria, in February 19, 2018.

Corporate Criminal Liability for International Crimes: France and Sweden Are Poised To Take Historic Steps Forward

The growing trend seeking to hold corporations liable for their role in human rights abuses abroad is gaining new momentum.
In this photo taken on March 3, 2019, Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers take part in a drill exercise at a military base in the Guzara district of Herat province. Two soldiers stand on top of a building with guns while the others surround the base of the building with guns.

Afghanistan: A Tragic Lesson of the US Military’s Flawed Approach to Capacity Building

To avoid failing in other counterterrorism training missions, the US needs to invest in and empower assessment, monitoring, and evaluation.
Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Asad Ahmad Khan holds a press conference at the Ministry of Justice in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on August 12, 2021.

The International Criminal Court and Afghanistan

Here's how the ICC can advance justice in Afghanistan despite the Taliban takeover.
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