International Law
531 Articles
The al Iraqi Case and the Future of Military Commissions
This morning’s New York Times features a story by Charlie Savage about yesterday’s addition of a conspiracy charge to the pending military commission proceeding at…
The Missing Moral Conscience of U.S. Foreign Policy: Where is the State Department’s Legal Adviser? [Updated]
Later today, the Senate will hold confirmation hearings for Caroline Diane Krass to serve as the CIA’s General Counsel, a position that just recently became vacant. Not letting…
The Parallels Between South African and U.S. Law On Universal Jurisdiction
The Parallels Between South African and U.S. Law On Universal Jurisdiction In an earlier post, we noted that the South African universal jurisdiction (UJ) statute is not particularly…
The Unexceptional Nature of the South African Universal Jurisdiction Law
In the wake of the moving funeral of Nelson Mandela, we have reported on the recent ruling of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal mandating that the National Prosecution…
“This One Goes To Eleven”: The ICC and the Security Council
The unprecedented rejection by Saudi Arabia of its elected seat on the Security Council in October, 2013, ostensibly in protest of the Council’s perceived failures in the Middle…
U.S. Intervention at the ICC Assembly of States Parties
The 12th session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) of the International Criminal Court has been meeting in The Hague this week. The United States sent an inter-agency delegation…
The New US “Red Line” – No Privacy Rights For Foreigners
Colum Lynch has a fascinating blog at Foreign Policy based on a leaked memo reflecting the United States’ latest “redline”: that no privacy rights be recognized for foreigners…
Major New Step Forward For International Debate on Autonomous Weapons Systems
Today, the 117 state parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) agreed to hold the first ever intergovernmental meeting on autonomous weapons systems. The…
Preventive Detention and Human Rights Law: A Way Out of Bagram or Another Dead End?
With the drawdown of US forces in Afghanistan, one of the thorniest problems involves the detention of individuals who cannot be criminally tried but nevertheless pose an acute…
Creative Ambiguity – International Law’s Distant Relationship with Peacetime Spying
In all the sound and fury over “five eye” intercept programs, commentators appear so far to have paid relatively little attention to international law. This is no simple…
More on the Rights of Others – Ben Wittes’ Failure of Imagination
Ben Wittes weighs in today on Lawfare on the side of rejecting privacy rights for anyone but U.S. citizens, aligning himself with Orin Kerr and against myself [see my previous…
Report to the General Assembly on Armed Drones and the Right to Life (or drones should follow the law, not the other way around)
[Editorial note: Last week, the United Nations discussed two major reports on drones. Just Security’s coverage included posts by Philip Alston, Ryan Goodman (here, here), Kevin…