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Institutional Choice And Targeted Killing: A Comparative Perspective, Elad D. Gil

Faculty Scholarship

For over a decade, the use of targeted killing has been one of the most controversial issues in counterterrorism policy and law. One longstanding debate over this tactic concerns the allocation of decision-making and oversight authority among the branches of government. As attempts to settle this debate through textual and historical sources yield indeterminant answers, scholars tend to examine them through a functionalist prism, asking what institutional structures best serve the interests of national security while ensuring adequate accountability and preventing unnecessary force.

This article, retaining that functionalist framing of that issue, will approach the question through a comparative law …