Boat Strikes Syllabus Supplement

Expert backgrounder on how War Powers Resolution works in application to U.S. military operations against suspected drug cartels.

U.S. law provides the congressional Intelligence Committees with tools to evaluate covert action programs and spur potential legislative action.

The two determinations are mutually exclusive; it is legally impossible to maintain both simultaneously.

Congress and the public must do more to address the dangerous pressures imposed on servicemembers and defend the guardrails that protect both U.S. forces and democracy.

The U.S. operations conducted to date against suspected members of drug cartels stretch the applicable international law rules and their interpretation beyond recognition.

Annotated questions Congress should be asking about U.S. military strikes on suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean.

The Trump administration’s “armed conflict” justification, however, is groundless.

Analysis by former career judge advocate officer and former court-martial prosecutor.

By Professor Ben Saul, the Challis Chair of International Law at University of Sydney and United Nations Special Rapporteur.

If allowed to go unchecked, the Caribbean strikes could encourage additional unlawful executions by the United States and other leaders.

An absence of credible legal basis for the Caribbean strike suggests the Trump admin is asserting a prerogative to kill outside the law.

A deep dive into US domestic authority and law most relevant to the US strike on alleged Venezuelan drug boat.