International and Foreign
2,950 Articles

Yes, Russia’s Antics in the Baltic Sea Violate “International Rules”
Recently, Russian aircraft ‘buzzed’ a US Navy ship and ‘barrel rolled’ over a US Air Force plane above the Baltic Sea. The fallout cast a distracting pall over last week’s…

Would JASTA Violate International Law?
Writing in The New York Times last Friday, Curt Bradley and Jack Goldsmith argued that the Justice Against State Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) would “violate a core principle…

We Need to Know More About the US’s Role in Yemen
A crowd quickly gathered when I arrived last month in what remained of the market in Mastaba, a small highway town in northern Yemen. A week earlier, on March 15, warplanes from…

The International Discussion Continues: 2016 CCW Experts Meeting on Lethal Autonomous Weapons
Last week, States Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), the international treaty banning or restricting the use of land mines, blinding lasers, and other…

Female Suicide Bombers: Somethings Old and Somethings New
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…

The 9/11 Civil Litigation and the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA)
For lots of readers, I suspect Saturday’s front-page New York Times story by Mark Mazzetti was their first exposure to the ongoing efforts by 9/11 victims and their families…

The State Department Adviser Signals a Middle Road on Common Article 1
In his remarks to the American Society of International Law earlier this month, State Department Legal Adviser Brian Egan stated that the United States’ commitment to upholding…

Are all “members” of ISIL targetable?
Rita Siemion and Heather Brandon of Human Rights First have published a comprehensive post on some of the more important aspects of Brian Egan’s speech to ASIL. (My own…

International Law à la Carte: Brian Egan’s Jus ad Bellum Doctrine
Last week’s speech by State Department Legal Adviser Brian Egan laying out the legal and policy rationales behind the US’s war against ISIL was largely overlooked in the mainstream…

The Human Rights Risks of Countering Violent Extremism Programs
With national and international institutions scrambling to adopt Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs, the UN Special Rapporteur for counterterrorism and human rights, Ben…

Readers’ Guide on Recent Developments in International Criminal Law
It has been a busy few weeks in international criminal law, with a range of important judgments out of the International Criminal Court, the International Tribunal for the former…

A brief response to Gabor Rona on the use of force by non-military personnel
Gabor Rona is correct, of course, that (absent a later-in-time statutory override) U.S. use of force must comply with international law, regardless of the identity of the U.S.…