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.
3,510 Articles

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.

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.

The Humanity of Michael Ratner, The Fabrications of Samuel Moyn
Joseph Margulies and Baher Azmy write to set the record straight.

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…

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.

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…

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.

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?

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…

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.

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.

The International Criminal Court and Afghanistan
Here's how the ICC can advance justice in Afghanistan despite the Taliban takeover.