Non-international Armed Conflict
52 Articles
Category Mistake: There Is No Jus ad Bellum for Use of Force Against Non-State Actors
From South Asia to Europe and beyond, government lawyers have to inquire as to when a State is legally justified in resorting to military force against a non-State actor. What…
Memo to President Obama: You Have Another Memo to Withdraw
The election of Donald Trump has triggered an anxious conversation about how President Obama can entrench some of his accomplishments before January 21, 2017. Importantly, given…
Letter to the Editor: Response to Human Rights in Armed Conflict, Part I
In a previous post, I raised numerous concerns with Prof. Adil Haque’s novel proposal that lowers the threshold for determining what constitutes a non-international armed conflict…
Human Shields in Mosul
Daesh’s inhumanity seems to know no bounds. For its latest depravity, the group has forcibly expelled hundreds of civilians from nearby villages and forced them to serve as…
What Law Applies to the Resort to Force Against Non-State Actors? Filling the Void of “Internal Jus Ad Bellum”
What international legal rules determine when the U.S. government can resort to force against a non-state armed group such as the Khorasan Group, if that organization plans an…
De Facto and De Jure Non-International Armed Conflicts: Is It Time to Topple Tadić?
When does violence between a state and non-state actor constitute an armed conflict and thus trigger the system of legal rules that apply in non-international armed conflict (NIAC)?…
Triggers and Thresholds of Non-International Armed Conflict
When and where does the law of non-international armed conflict apply? Since most contemporary armed conflicts are fought between states and organized armed groups, or between…
Determining When the Armed Conflict With Al-Qaeda Started
A panel of the DC Circuit recently held oral arguments in the case of Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri — a Saudi man accused of involvement in numerous terrorist plots and attacks against…
A Quick Update on Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence
Earlier this month, the UK Supreme Court held oral argument in Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence, a crucial case concerning the legality of British detention policy in Afghanistan.…
International Law, Targeting, and Detention in the Age of International Terrorism
Editor’s Note: This is the second post in a miniseries about the International Committee of the Red Cross’s newly released Report on International Humanitarian Law and the…
The Start, End, and Territorial Scope of Armed Conflict
Editor’s Note: This is the first post in a miniseries about the International Committee of the Red Cross’s newly released Report on International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges…
Armed Opposition Groups’ Courts: Challenging the Lawfulness of Detentions in Light of the Serdar Mohammed Appeals Judgment
Much has already been written on the authority to detain in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) (see here, here, and here for recent posts). So much so, in fact, that it…