Law of War Manual
69 Articles
DOD’s Unbalanced Stance on Precautions Against Harming Civilians
Editor’s Note: Just Security is holding a “mini forum” on the new Defense Department Law of War Manual. This series includes posts from Sean Watts, Eric Jensen, and others.…
Law of War Manual: Information or Authoritative Guidance?
Editor’s Note: Just Security is holding a “mini forum” on the new Defense Department Law of War Manual. This series includes posts from Sean Watts and others. After reviewing…
The DOD Law of War Manual’s Return to Principles
Editor’s Note: Just Security is holding a “mini forum” on the new Defense Department Law of War Manual. This post is the first in a series. Stay tuned for more from Eric…
The Defense Department Stands Alone on Target Selection
A deeply troubling provision in the Defense Department’s new Law of War Manual suggests that commanders are not legally required to minimize civilian casualties when selecting…
Human Shields and Proportionality: A Reply to Charlie Dunlap
In its new Law of War Manual, the Defense Department takes the position that harm to human shields, no matter how extensive, will be “understood not to prohibit attacks under…
Human Shields and the DOD Law of War Manual: Can’t We Improve the Debate?
In a recent post, Prof. Adil Ahmad Haque attacked the new Defense Department Law of War Manual’s position on proportionality and human shields. Evidently, Haque thinks that the…
The Defense Department’s Indefensible Position on Killing Human Shields
The Defense Department apparently thinks that it may lawfully kill an unlimited number of civilians forced to serve as involuntary human shields in order to achieve even a trivial…
The OPM Hack and the New DOD Law of War Manual
Last Friday was a big day in cybersecurity news. OPM announced that, in addition to the compromise of the personnel information of federal employees revealed on June 4, Chinese…
The Law of War Manual is here (no, really)
The last time the U.S. Department of Defense published a comprehensive manual on the law of war was in 1956, when Richard Baxter set the standard. Much has happened since then–the…