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681 Articles

Why Does Microsoft Want a Global Convention on Government Access to Data?
Last month, Brad Smith, the General Counsel of Microsoft, called for an international convention on government access to consumer data (he was at Davos, so presumably he uploaded…

A Rejoinder from Jenks and Corn re U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
There is probably no area of greater consensus between us and Professors Goodman and Jinks (their post) than the recognition that the law of armed conflict should and must be responsive…

Eyes Wide Shut: Scahill and Greenwald’s Flawed Critique of U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
[Editor’s Note: Stay tuned later today for a post by Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks responding to the guest post by Chris Jenks and Geoffrey Corn.] In The NSA’s Secret Role in…

Can the ICC Compel Witnesses to Testify?
On Friday (February 14), the Trial Chamber in the Ruto and Sang case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) will hear oral argument on a prosecution motion that could have significant…

In the Trenches: The Other Civilian/Military Conflict
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates new book, Duty, Memoirs of a Secretary at War, which describes the tensions and lack of trust between the White House and senior military…

A Terrorist Watchlist Error Revealed
Last month, a federal district court for the very first time ordered the government to disclose an individual’s status on the terrorist watchlist. Jennifer Daskal described…

A Reply to Gabor Rona on “Extrajudicial Release” in Afghanistan
In his post “Extrajudicial Release: A New Rule-of-Law Problem?” Gabor Rona rightly criticizes U.S. officials’ use of the term “extrajudicial release.” It is a troubling…

Quantum Mechanics, Big Data and the Right of Privacy
If it has done nothing else, the exposure of the NSA metadata collection program has caused both legal commentators and courts to rethink the doctrines that have long governed…

Extrajudicial Release: A New Rule-of-Law Problem?
Monday’s Wall Street Journal reported on the release, this past Sunday night, of a statement by U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, lamenting the decision of an Afghan-led review board…

Security, Uncertainty, and the National Security Administration: The President Should Defend, Not Revise, Current NSA Procedures
The question of national security and its relationship to individual privacy has always provoked a challenge for persons with strong libertarian inclinations, who rightly embrace…

A $15 Million Dollar Torture Partnership
It has been common knowledge for a while that Poland hosted a secret CIA prison where Abd al Rahim al Nashiri and other prisoners now held in Guantánamo were detained and tortured. …

Section 215 Telephone Metadata Collection: The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Trashes Pretty Much Everyone
Wow. There’s really no other way to capture what the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board told the nation today in its 200+ page report on the NSA’s telephone metadata…