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Selected Works

2011

Law of Armed Conflict

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Goldstone Reconsidered, Richard D. Rosen Sep 2011

Goldstone Reconsidered, Richard D. Rosen

Richard D. Rosen

Following the 2008-2009 Israeli-Hamas war, the Human Rights Council dispatched a fact-finding mission headed by South African Jurist Richard Goldstone to investigate the hostilities. In September 2009, the mission issued its findings in a nearly 500-page report containing a variety of complaints against Israel, the most explosive of which was that Israel, as a matter of state policy, intended to kill Palestinian civilians and destroy their property. A year and a half later, Justice Goldstone reconsidered the mission’s conclusion, acknowledging that Israel may not have deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians during the conflict. This paper argues that Justice Goldstone’s reconsideration of …


Targeting, Command Judgment, And A Proposed Quantum Of Proof Component: A Fourth Amendment Lesson In Contextual Reasonableness, Geoffrey S. Corn Feb 2011

Targeting, Command Judgment, And A Proposed Quantum Of Proof Component: A Fourth Amendment Lesson In Contextual Reasonableness, Geoffrey S. Corn

Geoffrey S. Corn

No decision by a military commander engaged in hostilities has more profound consequence than the decision to launch an attack. Pursuant to the law of armed conflict (LOAC), that decision must be based on the judgment that the object of attack – a person, place, or thing - qualifies as a lawful military objective. This judgment almost always sets in motion the application of deadly combat power, and routinely produces loss of life or grievous bodily injury, often times to individuals and property not the intended object of attack, but considered ‘collateral damage.’ In operational terms, this judgment determines whether …