United Kingdom (UK)
262 Articles

Former Chief of British Secret Intelligence: Stop Viewing the ISIS Threat Through 9/11 Eyes
On Monday, former chief of British Secret Intelligence Service, Sir Richard Dearlove gave an insightful and provocative lecture entitled, “Terrorism and National Security: Proportion…

Secrecy and Security: Guardian News vs. AB, CD
As summarised in an earlier post, last week the English Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) gave its decision in Guardian News and Media Ltd v AB and CD (“the Decision”). As…

British Appeals Court Denies Government’s Request to Hold Terrorism Trial in Secret
File this one away in the “what were they thinking” category. Today, the Guardian reports that a British appeals court has blocked an attempt by UK prosecutors to…

Statelessness update: the UK Government makes concession to citizenship-stripping proposals
Just Security has been covering citizenship-stripping proposals on both sides of the Atlantic. In an earlier post, I wrote about the UK Government’s citizen-stripping proposal…

The Limits of the Logic that the Power to Kill includes the Power to Detain
I will soon have a longer post on the UK High Court judgment in Mohammed v. Ministry of Defense, but here I want to consider a specific argument that implicates the authority of…

Serdar Mohammed: A View onto U.S. Detentions
[Editor’s Note: This post is part of a“mini forum” hosted by Just Security that analyzes different elements of the judgment in Serdar Mohammed v. Secretary of State for…

Backgrounder: Preliminary Examination into Abuses by United Kingdom Personnel in Iraq
As we reported earlier, the ICC Office of the Prosecutor has reopened the preliminary examination into crimes committed by United Kingdom personnel in Iraq from 2003-2008 during…

Assessing Serdar Mohammed through the Prism of Derogation and Detention
Last week the High Court of England and Wales, per Mr Justice Leggatt, delivered a comprehensive judgment in Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence [2014] EWHC 1369 (QB). The case…

Letter to the Editor from Gabor Rona, Mohammed v. Ministry Defense and the ICRC’s Position
I don’t know if the ICRC will make any attempt to clarify its position, but I think the Court in Serdar Mohammed is wrong to suggest that the ICRC believes there is inherent…

Interrogation-Based Detentions and the Law of Armed Conflict: What Mohammed v. Ministry of Defense Didn’t Have to Say
I am working on a post that dives into the core issue in Mohammed v. Ministry of Defense (MOD)—whether the law of armed conflict (LOAC) permits security-based detentions in non-international…

Does IHL Need Human Rights Law?: The Curious Case of NIAC Detention
As Ryan noted last week, the United Kingdom’s High Court ruled in Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defense that the United Kingdom’s 110-day detention of a suspected Taliban…

Does IHL Authorize Detention in NIACs?
As Ryan recently reported, the United Kingdom’s High Court of Justice has issued an important ruling in Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defense. The Court ruled that the long…