Guest Author
681 Articles
Mediterranean Stand-Off: why we need to move beyond crisis thinking on refugees
The current approach to refugee protection is clearly broken. Urgent action is required to end inter-state squabbling over responsibility for affording protection. Until then,…
Dangerous Drone Bill Emerges from Senate Committee
It’s rare that a congressional committee tasked with overseeing homeland security approves a bill that would not only authorize sweeping surveillance, but also could pose a significant…
Not the Final Word
Can a sitting president be indicted? The public should be skeptical of the argument that a president can’t be, which frequently relies on two opinions by the Justice Department’s…
The Department of Defense’s Report on Civilian Casualties: A Step Forward in Transparency?
While the Pentagon's new report on civilian casualties is a step in the right direction, future DoD reports should include more detail on specific incidents, including discrepancies…
Rogue Satellites Launched Into Outer Space: Legal and Policy Implications
Earlier this year, a Silicon Valley start-up called Swarm Technologies used an Indian launch vehicle to place four experimental satellites in outer space. This was despite the…
Syria: Where Civilians Became a Commodity for Settling Accounts
As long as military operations are seen as a solution to the problem in Syria, there can be no hope for parties to come together to establish peace in Syria. Meanwhile, the civilians…
What If Police Use ‘Rekognition’ Without Telling Defendants?
At least two US law enforcement departments -- and Motorola, which sells equipment to the government -- have already purchased access to Amazon’s “Rekognition” system. This…
Both the US’s Cloud Act and Europe’s GDPR Move Far Beyond Geography, but Will Not Solve Transatlantic Jurisdictional Conflicts
Europe’s destination approach of cyberspace privacy builds up to extraterritorial jurisdiction Among the many rather general issues discussed in Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing before…
Understanding the Fog of Law: Enduring Ambiguities in International Security Law
The international law governing national security and war is plagued by several critical ambiguities. When can states lawfully resort to armed force? What are the constraints on…
A Cosmic Legal Collision: The Engineer vs. The Border Patrol
For a quarter of a century, Terry Bressi, staff member and chief engineer for the Spacewatch Project at the University of Arizona’s Lunar & Planetary Lab, has had two…
No, Making the Iran Deal a Treaty Wouldn’t Have Stopped Trump from Withdrawing from It
Since President Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, legal scholars, elected officials, and political commentators have suggested that the non-binding…
Senator Merkley’s Smart New Alternative AUMF Proposal
Yesterday, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) released a new proposal for an authorization to use military force, or “AUMF.” As Merkley explained in last week’s AUMF hearing before…