2001 AUMF
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Secretary Kerry on the relationship between the 2001 and ISIL AUMFs
Last month, I wrote that “[a]ssuming the President and Congress mean for [the Administration’s draft] AUMF to impose limits on the President’s authority–including,…

Sens. Cardin and Murphy Offer Up Bill to Sunset 2001 AUMF
Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced legislation today to sunset the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against al-Qaeda. This comes…

Video of How to End the Forever War and Fight ISIL: Q&A with Harold Koh
How can the United States wind down operations in Afghanistan responsibly? Is there likely to be an end to “armed conflict” with al Qaeda anytime soon? What role does…

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Approves ISIL AUMF and Sunset of 2001 AUMF
On Thursday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a draft authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against ISIL (full text) by a margin of 10-8 along party…

Highlights (and Concerns) for Senator Menendez’s Draft AUMF
Senator Bob Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has circulated a draft authorization for the use of force (AUMF) against ISIL. Importantly, Sen. Menendez…

Principles to Guide Congressional Authorization of the Continued Use of Force Against ISIL—Clarification on Sunset Provision
On Monday, a group of eight legal experts, including some Just Security editors and some not, released a document entitled, “Principles to Guide Congressional Authorization…

Avoiding Unnecessary Wars and Preserving Accountability: Principles for an ISIL-Specific AUMF
Earlier today, a group of legal experts–including Rosa Brooks, Sarah Cleveland, Jen Daskal, Walter Dellinger, Harold Koh, and Marty Lederman–released a set of “Principles…

One More Thing on Goldsmith & Waxman
There is not much to add to my colleague Shalev Roisman’s response to Jack Goldsmith and Matthew Waxman’s essay in The New Republic arguing that it is President Obama, and…

Rejecting the Bush Comparison: A Response to Goldsmith & Waxman
Jack Goldsmith and Matthew Waxman have written an interesting essay on President Obama’s war powers legacy, boldly titled “Obama, not Bush, is the Master of Unilateral War.”…

Ending the Forever War is (Still) in Reach–a.k.a. How I Read the Goldsmith-Koh Exchange
Last week, Harold Koh wrote another important intervention in his efforts to help steer the United States out of “the Forever War.” That objective is to take the country eventually…

Assessing the Claim that ISIL is a Successor to Al Qaeda—Part 2 (Organizational Goals)
The key question we are asking in this (two-part) series of posts is whether Congress’ 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) applies to ISIL. More precisely, we…

Assessing the Claim that ISIL is a Successor to Al Qaeda—Part 1 (Organizational Structure)
The administration’s position that ISIL is a successor of al-Qaeda deserves serious consideration. We do so in this post, and show some serious flaws in this position. What hangs…