Geneva Conventions
154 Articles
A Quick and Dirty Summary of–and Reaction to–the Al-Bahlul Decision [UPDATED]
What follows is a very quick-and-dirty summary of this morning’s ruling by the en banc D.C. Circuit in Al-Bahlul v. United States. There are five opinions, but a couple…
Force Feeding at Guantanamo and Judge Gladys Kessler
In his commencement address at West Point on May 28, President Obama said, “What makes [America] exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law,…
United States War Crimes Statute & Sri Lanka
Ryan Goodman’s post on Sri Lanka calls for the prosecution under U.S. law of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. In prior posts, we’ve discussed the way in which international crimes (including…
Where is al-Bahlul??
I’d previously only been tweeting about this, but it seems worth a proper post to flag the remarkable fact that it’s now been well over seven months (!) since the…
Palestine, the Vatican and Accession to International Treaties: Some Ancillary Thoughts
The application to accede to multiple international treaties and international organizations made by President Mahmoud Abbas on April 1st (see full list) has proceeded with…
States, Almost States, Non-State Actors and the Geneva Conventions: Palestinian President Abbas’s attempt to join the Club
[Editor’s Note: Be sure to see the letter to the editor from a former Deputy Legal Adviser to Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations responding to this…
The Continuing Importance of a Low Threshold for LOAC Application in International Armed Conflict
Reports yesterday from Ukraine include the news that at least one Ukrainian soldier at a military base in Crimea has been killed, most likely by Russian soldiers. Furthermore,…
An Inauspicious Anniversary: It’s Time to Release the Report of the Special Interagency Task Force on Interrogations and Transfer Policies
Yesterday was the five-year anniversary of President Obama’s Executive Order 13491 on ensuring lawful interrogations. The Order, one of the first acts of the Obama administration,…
The Coming Hicks and Khadr Appeals: Yet Another Military Commission Headache
As various media outlets reported earlier this week, Australian David Hicks–one of the first detainees charged and convicted (via plea) under the Military Commissions Act…
The Other, Lurking Constitutional Question in al-Bahlul
I would add only one thing to Jen’s thorough summary of the al-Bahlul argument next Monday, about something she references at the very end of her post: Besides ex post…