International Law
513 Articles
A Legal and Operational Assessment of Israel’s Targeting Practices
Over the course of 50 days in the summer of 2014, the Israeli Defense Forces conducted a high-intensity air and ground campaign against Hamas in the Gaza strip. Sparked by the…
Defeating ISIS in Iraq: We Cannot Fight Evil With Evil
News of the “liberation” of Tikrit, the city nearby the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, from occupation by ISIS militants two weeks ago was a welcome advance in the war to destroy…
European Legal (In)Action and the Ukraine Crisis
While political responses, dispersed with rhetoric flourishes, continue to be dispensed by European leaders reacting to the sustained crises that follow from Russian annexation…
Guest Post: To Ban New Weapons or Regulate Their Use?
In January, I highlighted the apparent anomaly of international law’s ban on laser weapons that are “specifically designed … to cause permanent blindness” while permitting…
Killing With Military Equipment Disguised as Civilian Objects is Perfidy, Part II
On Friday, I concluded that modifying a civilian-looking vehicle into a military object to attack an adversary could indeed amount to perfidy during an international armed conflict.…
Why Teaching International Law in American Universities Matters
International law has a fairly peripheral role in American legal education. At a clear majority of schools, international courses are both exclusively elective and limited in number.…
Video: UN Expert Pablo de Greiff on Holding US Officials Responsible for Torture
Last week, I had the chance to ask Pablo de Greiff, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, about accountability…
International Cyber Governance: Engagement Without Agreement?
The following post is the latest installment of our Monday Reflections feature in which a different Just Security editor takes an in-depth look at the big stories from the…
How to Interpret the UN Human Rights Committee’s Comment on National Security Detentions: State Party Submissions
Last October, the United Nations Human Rights Committee adopted General Comment No. 35 (GC) which has important implications for international law regulating detentions, including…
Palestine’s Two Cards: A Commitment to Legality and an Invitation to Stop Crimes
Two steps recently taken by Palestine could be a game changer for a seemingly intractable problem. I will argue that these decisions should not be construed as an assault on Israel.…
Palestine and the ICC — Some Legal Questions
There has already been a great deal of political commentary about the Palestinian decision to join the International Criminal Court. What about the legal issues? Statehood The…
The Sony Hack: Norms and North Korea
In statements on the Sony hack on Friday, both Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama highlighted the need to develop norms for state behavior in cyberspace. Tying the…