Law Commons^™

The "Fog Of Law": The Law Of Armed Conflict In Operation Iraqi Freedom, Marc Warren

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Counterinsurgency And Stability Operations: A New Approach To Legal Interpretation, Dale Stephens

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

A United States Marine General Should Replace General Mcchrystal, Christopher C. Cooper Dr.

Christopher C. Cooper Dr.

General McChrystal’s insubordinate statements about the President and Vice President of the United States represent a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). What the Obama administration should take from this unfortunate event is that the top commander in Afghanistan (and in any war for that matter) should be a United States Marine general. Marines stay fit. Marines follow orders. Marine officers set the example. We must be critical of General McChrystal for setting the most abhorrent of examples for the men and women of the U.S. Army.

U.S. Response To Terrorism: A Strategic Analysis Of The Afghanistan Campaign, Valentina Taddeo

Journal of Strategic Security

This article examines the U.S. response to global terrorism and its campaign in Afghanistan from 2001 to today. The aim of this article is first to understand the fallacies, missteps, and misunderstandings of the U.S. approach in Afghanistan. Second, the analysis evaluates the lessons learnt and some possible strategies for achieving long-term stability and security in Afghanistan. In particular, the analysis focuses on the different strategies adopted by the United States and their achievements. Despite a first victory over the Taliban regime, the initial approach was focused on the enemy only and it lacked long-term planning, paving the way to …

Colonial Cartographies And Postcolonial Borders: The Unending War In And Around Afghanistan, Tayyab Mahmud

Tayyab Mahmud

Many of today’s pervasive and intractable security and nation-building dilemmas issue from the dissonance between the prescribed model of territorially bounded nation-states and the imprisonment of postcolonial polities in territorial straitjackets bequeathed by colonial cartographies. With a focus on the Durand Line, the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the epicenter of the prolonged war in the region, this article explores the enduring ramifications of the mutually constitutive role of colonialism and modern law. The global reach of colonial rule reordered subjects and reconfigured space. Fixed territorial demarcations of colonial possessions played a pivotal role in this process. Nineteenth century …

Bagram, Boumediene, And Limited Government, Robert Knowles

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Square Peg In A Round Hole: Government Contractor Battlefield Tort Liability And The Political Question Doctrine, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Recent assertions of the political question doctrine by battlefield contractor defendants in tort litigation have brought new life to the doctrine while raising new questions. The lawsuits stem from incidents in both Iraq and Afghanistan and include plaintiffs ranging from local nationals suing contract interrogators and interpreters, to contract employees suing another contractor following insurgent attacks, to U.S. service members suing contractors after vehicle and airplane crashes. The lawsuits involve tort claims, which on their face do not conjure up images of a constitutional power struggle, but in at least fifteen cases thus far contractor defendants have asserted the political …

Not Child's Play: Revisiting The Law Of Child Soldiers, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This brief commentary discusses child soldiers in general and Omar Khadr, a 15 yr old whom the United States military captured during armed conflict in Afghanistan, in particular. I suggest the conversation should be broadened and to move past misperceptions of the applicable law and norms concerning detention and prosecution of child belligerents.

The Law And Policy Implications Of 'Baited Ambushes' Utilizing Enemy Dead And Wounded, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

When a state's armed forces is engaged in hostilities, how long after an engagement or firefight before the international humanitarian law requirement to search for and care for the wounded and find and bury the dead is triggered? This military practitioner's note discusses the legal and policy implications of 'baited ambushes,' the practice of utilizing wounded and dead enemies as the bait for follow on forces, which are then engaged.

A Behavioral Approach To Human Rights, Andrew K. Woods

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

For the last sixty years, scholars and practitioners of international human rights have paid insufficient attention to the ground level social contexts in which human rights norms are imbued with or deprived of social meaning. During the same time period, social science insights have shown that social conditions can have a significant impact on human behavior. This Article is the first to investigate the far-ranging implications of behavioralism—especially behavioral insights about social influence—for the international human rights regime. It explores design implications for three broad components of the regime: the content, adjudication, and implementation of human rights. In addition, the …

Efficacy Of The Obama Policies To Combat Al-Qa’Eda, The Taliban, And Associated Forces—The First Year, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

In President Obama’s first year in office, he failed in combating al-Qa’eda, the Taliban, and associated forces. President Obama wished to change the perception on the ‘War on Terror’ established by the Bush Administration, but instead created more confusion and frustration in an attempt to change old policies.

Most notably, President Obama refused to irrevocably and sternly tell the American public that the conflict with al-Qa’eda was indeed a war. The Bush Administration’s first action taken after 9/11 was the pronouncement that the United States was at war. President Obama instead referred to the conflict as an “overseas contingency operation.” …