Military, War, and Peace Commons^™

Thinking Globally, Policy Locally: A Plan For Decentralized Law Enforcement In Côte D’Ivoire, __ J. Of Int’L Bus. & L. __ (Forthcoming 2015), Hugh Mundy

Hugh Mundy

During a 2009 speech in Ghana, President Barack Obama said, “Africa doesn’t need strongmen. It needs strong institutions.” Obama credited Ghana’s “impressive rates of growth” to the country’s “repeated peaceful transfers of power even in the wake of closely contested elections.” Free elections and non-violent power transfers, he said, “may lack the drama of the twentieth century’s liberation struggles” but “will ultimately be more significant.” Last July, the president expressed similar sentiments during a highly anticipated trip to Kenya. Côte d’Ivoire offers a stark example of the instability wrought when an unseated leader refuses to cede power. Once hailed as …

Combating Terrorism With The Alien Terrorist Removal Court, Jonathan Yu

Jonathan Yu

No abstract provided.

A Competition Of Minds And A Penetration Of Souls: How Short-Term Interrogation Tactics After 9/11 Led To Grave Long-Term Unintended Consequences Today (As Told Through The Voices Of Four Interrogators), Peter J. Honigsberg

Peter J Honigsberg

No abstract provided.

"To Kill A Cleric?: The Al-Awlaki Case And The Chaplaincy Exception Under The Laws Of War", K Benson

K Benson

Anwar al-Awlaki was the first American citizen to be targeted for extrajudicial assassination by the Obama administration. While scholarly attention has focused on legality of his killing under domestic law, his status as a chaplain under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has gone unexamined. The possibility that Anwar al-Awlaki may have been a protected person as a chaplain has profound ramifications for the legality of his killing and for the conduct of the war on terror more generally. As the definition of a "Chaplain" under IHL is under-developed at best and vague at worst, ideologues such as Mr. al-Awlaki operate in …

Children, Armed Conflict, And Genocide: Applying The Law Of Genocide To The Recruitment And Use Of Children In Armed Conflict, Jeffery R. Ray

Jeffery R Ray

This paper shows that the use of child soldiers in armed conflict has the potential to be considered as genocide. A brief background of genocide is presented prior to the analysis. Part I, of the analysis, will discuss three issues: First, the modern understanding of genocide and the substantive areas of law that govern it; Second, the definition of ‘child’ within the international arena as it relates to child soldering; Third, a discussion to determine if children can constitute a ‘group’ in the context of the law of genocide. Part II provides a discussion elaborating on Part I then analyzing …

The Push To Criminalize Aggression: Something Lost Amid The Gains?, Mark A. Drumbl

Mark A. Drumbl

The International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, but the Rome Statute fails to define the crime. A Special Work- ing Group on the Crime of Aggression, however, has made considerable progress in developing a definition. The consensus that has emerged favors a narrow definition. Three characteristics animate this consensus: (1) that state action is central to the crime; (2) that acts of aggression involve inter- state armed conflict; and (3) that criminal responsibility attaches only to very top political or military leaders. This Article normatively challenges this consensus. I argue that expanding the scope of the …

In Search Of A Forum For The Families Of The Guantanamo Disappeared, Peter Honigsberg

Peter J Honigsberg

The United States government has committed grave human rights violations by disappearing people during the past decade into the detention camps in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. And for nearly thirty years, beginning with a 1983 decision from a case arising in Uruguay, there has been a well-developed body of international law establishing that parents, wives and children of the disappeared suffer torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (CID).

This paper argues that the rights of family members were severely violated when their loved ones were disappeared into Guantanamo. Family members of men disappeared by the United States have legitimate claims …

"A Sea Change In Security: How The War On Terror Strengthened Human Rights", Michael Galchinsky

Michael Galchinsky

The UN Security Council's initial response to 9/11 (UNSC Res. 1373) deemphasized the requirement that states respect human rights and humanitarian law in their counter-terrorism efforts. However, starting in 2002, a backlash by numerous global governance institutions asserted that human rights and security are mutually reinforcing. The emerging norm of mutual reinforcement influenced the SC to direct its Counter-Terrorism Committee to incorporate human rights concerns more robustly into its work. The SC’s increasing adoption of a rights-based approach indicates that the UN's security and human rights missions are bound more closely together than ever before.

A Dark Descent Into Reality: Making The Case For An Objective Definition Of Torture, Michael W. Lewis

Michael W. Lewis

The definition of torture is broken. The malleability of the term “severe pain or suffering” at the heart of the definition has created a situation in which the world agrees on the words but cannot agree on their meaning. The “I know it when I see it” nature of the discussion of torture makes it clear that the definition is largely left to the eye of the beholder. This is particularly problematic when international law’s reliance on self-enforcement is considered. After discussing current common misconceptions about intelligence gathering and coercion that are common to all sides of the torture debate, …

The Relevance Of International Law To The Domestic Decision On Prosecutions For Past Torture, Bartram Brown

Bartram Brown

Chasing 'Enemy Combatants' And Circumventing International Law: A License For Sanctioned Abuse, Peter J. Honigsberg

Peter J Honigsberg

In 1944, in Korematsu v. United States, the Supreme Court made a major error in judgment. It ruled that the executive may forcibly remove over 110,000 Japanese Americans from their homes and relocate them in American detention camps. In two recent Supreme Court cases, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the court made similar errors in judgment by accepting the administration's term "enemy combatant." The Supreme Court's errors were compounded when Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 in October, 2006, statutorily defining the term enemy combatant for the first time. By acknowledging the term enemy combatant, the …

Human Rights, Sovereignty And The Final Status Of Kosovo, Bartram Brown

Bartram Brown

No abstract provided.

Barely Borders: Issues Of International Law, Bartram Brown

Bartram Brown

No abstract provided.

Intervention, Self-Determination, Democracy And The Residual Responsibilities Of The Occupying Power In Iraq, Bartram Brown

Bartram Brown

No abstract provided.