Laws of War
107 Articles
A Right to Fight?
Do the laws of war give soldiers a right to fight, irrespective of their cause and free from other constraints? Or are the laws of war merely one set of constraints among others?…
In MacDill Speech, Obama Makes the Case For Why Wars Should be Fought Lawfully [Full Text]
President Barack Obama made a last trip to MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday to put his final mark on his administration’s counterterrorism strategy and to thank…
A Word to a Newfound Ally
As a longtime (and long-exasperated) reader of Lawfare, I’ve been heartened to see the site’s recent editorial turn, in response to current events, toward newly appreciating…
“Applying the Law of Targeting to the Modern Battlefield” – Full Speech Given by DOD General Counsel Jennifer O’Connor
Below is the speech, “Applying the Law of Targeting to the Modern Battlefield,” given by Jennifer O’Connor, general counsel of the Department of Defense, tonight…
A Duty to Disobey?
The United States is in the midst of an uncertain era of complex global threats. Some have described the nation’s defense policy as one of “forever war.” During this…
Are the U.S. and U.K. parties to the Saudi-led armed conflict against the Houthis in Yemen?
A series of posts at Just Security have focused on the rules that apply to U.S. and U.K. support for the Saudi-led coalition’s military operations against the Houthi rebels…
How We Read a NYTimes Story on Drone Strikes in Yemen
In this post, we’re trying something new. Below, we present an almost line-by-line annotation of yesterday’s New York Times story on US and Yemeni military operations in…
Consequences of the Fact-Based Armed Conflict Test in Yemen’s Internal Armed Conflict
Ryan’s recent post about ongoing “drone strikes” in Yemen raises an issue that has troubled me for quite some time from a legal, policy, and advocacy perspective. In the…
Crime, Sentencing and the War on Terror: Further Thoughts on the Al Darbi Plea
Last month, Ahmed Muhammed Haza al Darbi became the sixth Guantanamo detainee to plead guilty to war crimes before a military commission. The U.S. has accused al Darbi of various…
An al Qaeda Armed Conflict with France or Malaysia?: The Legal Question at the Heart of the al Darbi Case
Yesterday the Acting Convening Authority of the GTMO Military Commissions, Navy General Counsel Paul Oostburg Sanz, referred charges against Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al Darbi,…
Horrific New Evidence of Syrian War Crimes Emerges
The Guardian has published a piece describing the emergence of disturbing new evidence of the commission of “industrial scale war crimes” in Syrian detention centers. …
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…