International Law
665 Articles
Trump’s Calls to Pillage Iraqi Oil
In his appearance with Secretary Clinton at NBC’s Commander-in-Chief Forum earlier this month, Donald Trump called for actions that amount to a war crime. Addressing US policies…
The Updated First Geneva Convention Commentary, DOD’s Law of War Manual, and a More Perfect Law of War: Part III
This third post of a series on the ICRC’s Updated Commentary on the First Geneva Convention of 1949 offers some concluding observations and further comparisons with the recent…
How the Risk of an Int’l Criminal Court Investigation Should Affect Military Targeting Practices
The International Criminal Court currently has jurisdiction over the territory and nationals of 124 States Parties to the Court, plus Darfur and Libya, where jurisdiction was conferred…
Fighting Human Trafficking in Conflict: Ideas for the UN Security Council
Slavery – is it making a comeback? There is a growing awareness that as many as 45.8 million people may be enslaved around the world today, and that supply-chains for basic commodities…
Weapon, Combatant, Child, Animal: They’re All Insufficient Analogies for Autonomous Weapon Systems
Autonomous weapon systems, that is, weapon systems capable of independently selecting and engaging targets, are usually portrayed in one of two ways. Either they are depicted as…
The ICRC Updated Commentaries: Reconciling Form and Substance, Part II
Last week, I left off my exploration of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) 2016 Updated Commentaries on the First Geneva Convention of 1949 by asking…
A 9/11 Commission Approach to the Russian Hack of the DNC
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
Are Saudi-led Coalition Forces Committing War Crimes in Yemen?
This month, Saudi-led coalition forces recommenced airstrikes on Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, targeting the forces of Ansar Allah (known as the Houthis), after peace talks that…
The ICRC Updated Commentaries: Reconciling Form and Substance, Part I
Sean Watts’ July 5, 2016 post focuses attention on two significant documents intended to clarify “how best to read and understand the law of war” in the 21st Century: the…
The Significance of the ICC’s First Guilty Plea
Yesterday Al Faqi Al Mahdi of Mali pled guilty at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to one count of directing an attack against buildings dedicated to religion and historic…
Congress Needs to Press the Pentagon, Saudi Arabia on Abuses in Yemen War
On August 9, one day after the Pentagon notified Congress of its intention to sell $1.2 billion in weapons systems to Saudi Arabia, the Saudi-led coalition resumed airstrikes on…
The Islamic State, Genocide, and Gender Discrimination
Slowly but surely, over the past two years, the UN and national governments have acknowledged that what the Islamic State is doing to the Yazidi religious minority in Northern…