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International Law

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Self-Defense To Cyber Force: Combatting The Notion Of 'Scale And Effect', Thomas Eaton Jan 2021

Self-Defense To Cyber Force: Combatting The Notion Of 'Scale And Effect', Thomas Eaton

Scholarly Works

The ability to reach out, with a few keystrokes or a couple lines of code, through the interconnected world of cyberspace and create militarily advantageous effects 10,000 miles away has changed warfare as previously conceived, perhaps more than any other advancement in any other domain of war. Cyber weapons are weapons, and whatever law applies to conventional weapons equally applies to cyber weapons. Long before cyber operations were even science fiction, there was much debate over what constituted a use of force that would justify force in response. In many ways, the debate over what constitutes cyber-attacks has been pasted …


Unequal Enforcement Of The Law: Targeting Aggressors For Mass Atrocity Prosecutions, Nancy Amoury Combs Mar 2019

Unequal Enforcement Of The Law: Targeting Aggressors For Mass Atrocity Prosecutions, Nancy Amoury Combs

Faculty Publications

It is a central tenet of the laws of war that they apply equally to all parties to a conflict. For this reason, a party that illegally launches a war benefits from all the same rights as a party that must defend against the illegal aggression. Countless philosophers have shown that this so-called equal application doctrine is morally indefensible and that defenders should have more rights and fewer responsibilities than aggressors. The equal application doctrine retains the support of legal scholars, however, because they reasonably fear that applying different rules to different warring parties will substantially reduce overall compliance with …


Kavanaugh And The Military Commissions: Reading The Law “As Written” For An Unpopular Defendant, Peter Margulies Jul 2018

Kavanaugh And The Military Commissions: Reading The Law “As Written” For An Unpopular Defendant, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Use Of Force At The Gaza Border: A Hybrid Approach To Tactical Challenges, Geoffrey Corn, Peter Margulies Jun 2018

Use Of Force At The Gaza Border: A Hybrid Approach To Tactical Challenges, Geoffrey Corn, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The Contributions Of United Nations Security Council Resolutions To The Law Of Non-International Armed Conflict: New Evidence Of Customary International Law, Gregory H. Fox, Isaac Jenkins, Kristen E. Boon Jan 2018

The Contributions Of United Nations Security Council Resolutions To The Law Of Non-International Armed Conflict: New Evidence Of Customary International Law, Gregory H. Fox, Isaac Jenkins, Kristen E. Boon

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.


Toward A Science Of Torture?, Maxwell Gregg Bloche May 2017

Toward A Science Of Torture?, Maxwell Gregg Bloche

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Does torture “work?” Proponents, including President Trump and the architects of CIA “Enhanced Interrogation” say it does, by breaking terrorists' resistance to revealing information that saves lives. Torture's foes typically dismiss this claim as false to the point of fraud--fortuitous coincidence with torture's unlawfulness. Neither view, I argue herein, rests firmly on evidence. Rival anecdotes, not data, have, so far, driven this debate. And a scientific answer is beyond our reach, since: (1) rigorous comparison between interrogation methods that do and don't involve torture isn't possible, and (2) studies of this sort would be transparently unethical. This hasn't stopped the …


Cyber Strategy & Policy: International Law Dimensions, Matthew C. Waxman Jan 2017

Cyber Strategy & Policy: International Law Dimensions, Matthew C. Waxman

Faculty Scholarship

Important international law questions for formulating cyber strategy and policy include whether and when a cyber-attack amounts to an “act of war,” or, more precisely, an “armed attack” triggering a right of self-defense, and how the international legal principle of “sovereignty” could apply to cyber activities. International law in this area is not settled. There is, however, ample room within existing international law to support a strong cyber strategy, including a powerful deterrent. The answers to many international law questions discussed below depend on specific, case-by-case facts, and are likely to be highly contested for a long time to come. …


Closing Impunity Gaps For The Crime Of Aggression, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum Jul 2016

Closing Impunity Gaps For The Crime Of Aggression, Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Faculty Articles

As stated at Nuremberg, the crime of aggression is the “supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” International instruments clearly and repeatedly have outlawed initiating wars of aggression and other illegal uses of armed force. States parties recently have defined and codified the crime in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and delineated the scope of the ICC’s jurisdiction over aggression. Although the ICC is an important mechanism for accountability and justice, it is not certain when it will be able to adjudicate …


Loac And Artillery In Urban Areas: The Case Of Gaza 2014, Peter Margulies Dec 2015

Loac And Artillery In Urban Areas: The Case Of Gaza 2014, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Al-Libi And Detention At Sea, Peter Margulies Oct 2013

Al-Libi And Detention At Sea, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


A Response To Steve Vladeck And Kevin Jon Heller, Peter Margulies Jul 2013

A Response To Steve Vladeck And Kevin Jon Heller, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Proportionality In Counterinsurgency: A Relational Theory, Evan J. Criddle Feb 2012

Proportionality In Counterinsurgency: A Relational Theory, Evan J. Criddle

Faculty Publications

At a time when the United States has undertaken high-stakes counterinsurgency campaigns in at least three countries (Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan) while offering support to insurgents in a fourth (Libya), it is striking that the international legal standards governing the use of force in counterinsurgency remain unsettled and deeply controversial. Some authorities have endorsed norms from international humanitarian law as lex specialis, while others have emphasized international human rights as minimum standards of care for counterinsurgency operations. This Article addresses the growing friction between international human rights and humanitarian law in counterinsurgency by developing a relational theory of the use …


The Legal Dilemma Of Guantanamo Detainees From Bush To Obama [Updated], Linda A. Malone Jan 2012

The Legal Dilemma Of Guantanamo Detainees From Bush To Obama [Updated], Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

The stage for the Guantanamo detainees’ commission proceedings was set by the interplay between the Executive’s detention powers and the Judiciary’s habeas powers. The Bush administration turned to Congress to provide less than what was required by the court, instead of the minimum deemed necessary to comply with each decision, or to explore another legal argument for not complying. This article examines how the law for the Guantanamo detainees has been shaped by the US courts and by Congress. The article begins by observing the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court for compliance with the constitutional and humanitarian law requirements, …


The Legal Dilemma Of Guantánamo Detainees From Bush To Obama, Linda A. Malone Jan 2011

The Legal Dilemma Of Guantánamo Detainees From Bush To Obama, Linda A. Malone

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Un Peacekeeping: A Sheep In Wolves Clothing? Review Of Un Peacekeeping In Lebanon, Somalia And Kosovo: Operational And Legal Issues In Practice, Jeremy I. Levitt Jan 2010

Un Peacekeeping: A Sheep In Wolves Clothing? Review Of Un Peacekeeping In Lebanon, Somalia And Kosovo: Operational And Legal Issues In Practice, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

Scholars and practitioners have been debating the legal and operational aspects of UN military operations since its enforcement actions in North Korea in 1950 and the Congo in 1960 (UN Operation in the Congo [ONUC]). Since then, the UN Security Council (UNSC) has authorized some semblance of enforcement action in Kuwait, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, East Timor and Albania, and authorized, sanctioned or co-deployed forces in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Coˆte d’Ivoire and Sudan. The scholarly literature is abundant with analysis of nearly every aspect of peacekeeping and peace enforcement …


Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks Jul 2009

Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks

Scholarly Works

The past several decades have seen a Copernican shift in the paradigm of armed conflict, which the traditional Law of International Armed Conflict (LOIAC) canon has not fully matched. Standing out in stark relief against the backdrop of relative inactivity in LOIAC, is the surfeit of activity in the field of international human rights law, which has become a dramatic new force in the ancient realm of international law. Human rights law, heretofore not formally part of the traditional juridico-military calculus, has gained ever increasing salience in that calculus. Indeed, human rights law has ramified in such a manner that …


States Of War: Defensive Force Among Nations (Reviewing George P. Fletcher & Jens David Ohlin, Defending Humanity: When Force Is Justified And Why (2008)), Guyora Binder Jan 2009

States Of War: Defensive Force Among Nations (Reviewing George P. Fletcher & Jens David Ohlin, Defending Humanity: When Force Is Justified And Why (2008)), Guyora Binder

Book Reviews

In "Defending Humanity: When Force is Justified and Why," George Fletcher and Jens Ohlin analogize international defensive force to individual self-defense. Based on this analogy, Fletcher and Ohlin justify a presumptive right on the part of every state to intervene against aggression, and a right of humanitarian intervention in support of national groups but not populations. They oppose reprisals, preemptive defense, and resistance to invading armies by irregular troops. This review essay argues that the relative weakness of the Security Council, the unequal power of states, and the contingency of international recognition on effective force all undermine the analogy between …


Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of International Armed Conflict, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks Jan 2009

Human Rights And Military Decisions: Counterinsurgency And Trends In The Law Of International Armed Conflict, Dan E. Stigall, Christopher L. Blakesley, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The past several decades have seen a Copernican shift in the paradigm of armed conflict, which the traditional Law of International Armed Conflict (LOIAC) canon has not fully matched. Standing out in stark relief against the backdrop of relative inactivity in LOIAC, is the surfeit of activity in the field of international human rights law, which has become a dramatic new force in the ancient realm of international law. Human rights law, heretofore not formally part of the traditional juridico-military calculus, has gained ever increasing salience in that calculus. Indeed, human rights law has ramified in such a manner that …


Illegal Peace? Power Sharing With Warlords In Africa, Jeremy I. Levitt Jan 2007

Illegal Peace? Power Sharing With Warlords In Africa, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

This paper examines the legality of power-sharing in Africa with specific reference to the Accra and Lome accords, which brought about a fragile cessation of the conflicts in Liberian and Sierra Leone, respectively. It examines the future of international criminal law vis-a-vis power-sharing by prospectively examining gaps in state practice and rules that arguably permit the "crime of illegal peace" by insurrectionists, political elites, and moral guarantors. When warlords use violence to coerce democratically constituted governments to share power, does power-sharing simply become a euphemism for "guns for jobs"? Which legal rules, if any, govern peace agreements in internal conflicts? …


The Proliferation Security Initiative And The Evolution Of The Law On The Use Of Force, Mark R. Shulman Jan 2006

The Proliferation Security Initiative And The Evolution Of The Law On The Use Of Force, Mark R. Shulman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


The Law On Intervention: Africa's Pathbreaking Model, Jeremy I. Levitt Jan 2005

The Law On Intervention: Africa's Pathbreaking Model, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

This article seeks to examine the sum and substance of the evolving intervention regime in Africa. I employ a structural approach to highlight the normative framework governing humanitarian intervention in Africa at the sub-regional and regional levels. The article is meant to be a snapshot rather than a comprehensive treatment of the law of intervention in Africa. Space constraints preclude examination of the legality of the various post-Cold War, unilateral African interventions (i.e., those that took place without prior Security Council authorisation or valid state consent). These include the interventions by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in …


Re-Membering Law In The Internationalizing World, Vivian Grosswald Curran Jan 2005

Re-Membering Law In The Internationalizing World, Vivian Grosswald Curran

Articles

This article examines some of the challenges to understanding new, non-national legal configurations as contexts of origin color understandings and evaluations of legal standards allegedly shared across legal communities. It examines a case on assisted suicide, Pretty v. U.K., decided by the European Court of Human Rights. The case illustrates mechanisms of legal integration in the European court, followed by a process of dis-integration that occurred when the decision was reported to the French legal community. The French rendition reflected a legal community's inability to process common law information through civil law cognitive grids. The article addresses both the capacity …


Occupation Failures And The Legality Of Armed Conflict: The Case Of Iraqi Cultural Property, Mary Ellen O'Connell Dec 2004

Occupation Failures And The Legality Of Armed Conflict: The Case Of Iraqi Cultural Property, Mary Ellen O'Connell

The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Working Paper Series

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the looting of the Iraqi National Museum in April 2003 by remarking, “stuff happens.” In doing so, he gave an early indication that in planning to invade Iraq, the Bush Administration failed to take seriously the legal obligations of an occupying power. Occupying powers have a variety of binding legal obligations, including obligations to stop looting, protect cultural property, and protect persons in detention. Yet, the Administration sent a wholly inadequate force to fulfill those obligations, and, more seriously, the force received no direct and imperative orders to do so. As a result, …


The Death Penalty--An Obstacle To The "War On Terrorism"?, Thomas Michael Mcdonnell Jan 2004

The Death Penalty--An Obstacle To The "War On Terrorism"?, Thomas Michael Mcdonnell

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

September 11 seared our collective memory perhaps even more vividly than December 7, 1941, and has evoked a natural demand both for retribution and for measures to keep us safe. Given the existing statutory and judicial authority for capital punishment, the U.S. Government has to confront the issue whether to seek the death penalty against those who are linked to the suicide attacks or to the organization that sponsored them or both. Meting out the death penalty to international terrorists involves difficult moral, legal, and policy questions. The September 11 crimes were not only domestic crimes, but also international ones. …


The Responsibility To Protect: A Beaver Without A Dam Review Of The Responsibility To Protect: Reprot Of The International Commission On Intervention And State Sovereignty, Jeremy I. Levitt Jan 2003

The Responsibility To Protect: A Beaver Without A Dam Review Of The Responsibility To Protect: Reprot Of The International Commission On Intervention And State Sovereignty, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

The beaver's dam is comparable to protective intervention for at-risk populations.' Beavers need dams to enlarge the underwater habitat that will be open to them in winter, by creating a pond deep enough so that the bottom will not freeze. Humanitarian corridors and safe havens serve parallel functions for displaced civilians during times of conflict. Deep water, whether it is due to a beaver dam or not, provides storage for winter food and year-round underwater access to the den secure from predators. The shelter and safety deep water provides can be likened to the physical protection needed to safeguard civilians …


"Artillery Lends Dignity To What Otherwise Would Be A Common Brawl": An Essay On Post-Modern Warfare And The Classification Of Captured Adversaries, Ralph Michael Stein Jan 2002

"Artillery Lends Dignity To What Otherwise Would Be A Common Brawl": An Essay On Post-Modern Warfare And The Classification Of Captured Adversaries, Ralph Michael Stein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This essay allows the writer to enter a fluid fray being played out almost day-by-day in the media and, of course, where it counts: in the administration of President George W. Bush. Conscious of the ebbs and drifts of both the current debates and desperately anxious not to be preempted by the march of a swiftly moving time frame, this essay suggests an approach to U.S. integration of generally accepted rules for the treatment of POWs that will advance both the war on terrorism and America's need to embrace the reality of the globalization of humanistic mores and notions about …


Of Law, Lawlessness, And Sovereignty : Multinational Peacekeeping And International Law, Antje Mays Apr 2000

Of Law, Lawlessness, And Sovereignty : Multinational Peacekeeping And International Law, Antje Mays

Dacus Library Faculty Publications

Laws of war have been carefully defined by individual nations’ own codes of law as well as by supranational bodies. Yet the international scene has seen an increasing movement away from traditionally declared war toward multinational peacekeeping missions geared at containing local conflicts when perceived as potential threats to their respective regions’ political stability. While individual nations’ laws governing warfare presuppose national sovereignty, the multinational nature of peacekeeping scenarios can blur the lines of command structures, soldiers’ national loyalties, occupational jurisdiction, and raise profound questions as to which countries’ moral sense/governmental system is to be the one upheld. Historically increasingly …


The Norm Of Justice And The Negotiation Of The Rambouillet/Paris Peace Accords, Paul Williams Jan 2000

The Norm Of Justice And The Negotiation Of The Rambouillet/Paris Peace Accords, Paul Williams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.


The Legality Of The Nato Bombing Operation In The Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia, Aaron Schwabach Oct 1999

The Legality Of The Nato Bombing Operation In The Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia, Aaron Schwabach

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


Pre-Intervention Trust-Building, African States And Enforcing The Peace, Jeremy I. Levitt Jan 1999

Pre-Intervention Trust-Building, African States And Enforcing The Peace, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

This article is concerned with examining the dynamics of trust-building in a pre-intervention context.' Specifically, it will analyse the concept of trustbuilding prior to the ECOWAS humanitarian interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone, although the general thrust of my argument will no doubt apply to other African interventions.' Humanitarian intervention can be taken to mean: Intervention in a state involving the use of force (U.N. action in Iraq and Somalia or ECOWAS action in Liberia and Sierra Leone) or threat of force (U.N. action in Haiti), where the intervenor deploys armed forces and, at the least, makes clear that it …