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Military, War, and Peace Commons

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Southern Methodist University

2014

Law of armed conflict

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Military, War, and Peace

Civil Liberties And The Indefinite Detention Of U.S. Citizens, Chris Jenks Jan 2014

Civil Liberties And The Indefinite Detention Of U.S. Citizens, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Section 1021 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act provides for the indefinite detention of individuals deemed to be part of or substantially supportive of al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces in hostilities against the United States or its coalition allies. Yet the Congress which drafted Section 1021 doesn’t know what its operative terms mean and the Executive Branch simultaneously claims the provisions are problematic yet meaningless and signs them into law. The result is uncertainty over the Executive Branch’s armed conflict detention authority, not on distant battlefields, but here in the United States. This article focuses on three …


The Janus Moon Rising - Why 2014 Heralds United States' Detention Policy On A Collision Course...With Itself, Chris Jenks Jan 2014

The Janus Moon Rising - Why 2014 Heralds United States' Detention Policy On A Collision Course...With Itself, Chris Jenks

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

2014 will serve as a test of the United States’ claims that its detention policy is consistent with the law of armed conflict (LOAC). If, as President Obama has repeatedly stated, U.S. involvement in the armed conflict in Afghanistan will end this year, then any LOAC based detention of belligerents linked solely to that conflict ends as well. That should mean the release or transfer of members of the Taliban currently detained at Guantanamo. It won’t.