International Humanitarian Law Commons^™

Rightly Dividing Jus Ad Bellum And Jus In Bello In The Israel/Hamas War, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Pace International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Issues Arising From The Military Use Of Ai-Supported Biometrics, Marten Zwanenburg

International Law Studies

Biometrics is increasingly used by armed forces for a variety of purposes, such as access control, the registration of detainees, and increasingly also targeting. The capabilities of biometric systems are considerably strengthened when they are enabled by artificial intelligence (AI). This article analyzes legal questions that are raised by the military use of such AI-supported biometrics. It argues that relevant legal frameworks are International Humanitarian Law, international human rights law, and the right to privacy in particular, as well as data protection law. The article finds that arguably, IHL may require the use of (AI-supported) biometrics in certain situations if …

Ai And Naval Operations, Wolff Heintschel Von Heinegg

International Law Studies

Artificial intelligence systems in naval operations are reality. They enhance naval capabilities in various respects. Autonomous surface and underwater vehicles depend on such systems. Moreover, these systems contribute to threat detection and identification, to real-time strategy optimization, and to intelligence analysis. The present article provides a brief analysis of the legality of AI systems used by naval forces under the law of naval warfare, which, in many respects, differs considerably from the law of land warfare. Accordingly, it is necessary to distinguish between attacks from the sea against targets on land and attacks against targets at sea and in the …

Beyond Precedent: Sexual Violence As An Act Of Genocide In The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda, Ciara Kilroy

Peace and Conflict Studies

Wartime sexual violence (WSV) has been a characteristic of violent conflict throughout recorded history, yet has failed to illicit the same international attention and condemnation as other war crimes. WSV has also been a particularly pervasive method of destruction during genocide, in which women make up the majority of victims and are targeted for both their gender and group membership. However, sexual violence is not enumerated as a crime of genocide in the 1948 Genocide Convention. Despite its absence from the formal genocide convention, legal institutions have still attempted to hold perpetrators responsible for sexual violence during genocide. This paper …

Military Ai And The Specter Of The Limitless War, Yuval Shany, Yahli Shereshevsky

International Law Studies

Legal and extra-legal factors related to the development of international humanitarian law (IHL) support the exercise of strategic restraint during armed conflicts. We claim, however, that technological developments in the area of military artificial intelligence (AI) fundamentally do away with many of the technological constraints that limited the capacity of militaries to fully utilize the “license to kill” afforded to them by IHL. Such a violence-enhancing effect can become even more dramatic in cases where other restraining factors are less effective. The upshot of our analysis is that the implicit assumption that IHL would be applied in a context of …

The Criminal Responsibility Of Russia For War Crimes In The Russo-Ukrainian War, Nicolas R. Obabko

Honors Capstones

This Honors Capstone Thesis serves as an independent research study to verify the authenticity of allegations of Russian war crimes and violations of international humanitarian and criminal law in Russian conduct during the Russo-Ukrainian War. This research study primarily focuses on Russian war crimes and violations of international law that occurred after the beginning of the full-scale war on February 24, 2022, while acknowledging that allegations of similar violations have been occurring since 2014. This Honors Capstone Thesis uses international law sources such as the Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide …

Not So Firmly Settled: How The Inconsistent Jurisprudence Of The Firm Resettlement Bar Serves As A Tool For Asylum Seeker Exclusion, Caroline V. Garrido

Fordham Law Review

The firm resettlement bar to asylum, designed to limit protections to those without refuge elsewhere, has become a source of inconsistency, confusion, and exclusion in U.S. asylum law. Circuit courts have adopted two different approaches for determining whether an asylum seeker has firmly resettled in a third country. Despite the Board of Immigration Appeals’ attempt to unify these approaches through the introduction of a burden-shifting framework, courts remain divided, and there is no clear guidance on what constitutes firm resettlement. This Note argues that this lack of guidance has led to inconsistent court holdings and interpretations that conflict with the …

Israel's Blockade Of Gaza Was Legal; Withholding Humanitarian Aid, Not So Much, Menachem Z. Rosensaft

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Last month, the International Court of Justice rebuked Israel in an advisory opinion for blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza during the course of the Israel-Hamas war there and emphasized that starvation of civilian populations as a method of warfare is prohibited under prevailing international humanitarian law. Predictably, Israel’s UN ambassador dismissed the advisory opinion as “shameful.”

Now that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is in the rearview mirror, it is important to assess the legal and moral aspects and ramifications of Israel’s two-year blockade of Gaza. Specifically, the question that needs to be asked, but that does not have a …

2025 Lemkin Award, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr), Institute For The Study Of Genocide, Elyse Semerdjian

2025–2026 Flyers

Please join the Institute for the Study of Genocide and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights for the biennial Lemkin Award Ceremony, honoring Raphael Lemkin, the originator of the term genocide and leading advocate of the UN Genocide Convention. The award recognizes the best non-fiction work focusing on genocide, crimes against humanity, and other gross human rights violations, as well as strategies for prevention. This year’s award winner is Elyse Semerdjian, for her work, Remnants: Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide.

2025 Lemkin Award Ceremony, Cardozo Law Institute In Holocaust And Human Rights (Clihhr), Institute For The Study Of Genocide, Elyse Semerdjian

2025 Event Invitations

Please join the Institute for the Study of Genocide and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights for the biennial Lemkin Award Ceremony, honoring Raphael Lemkin, the originator of the term genocide and leading advocate of the UN Genocide Convention. The award recognizes the best non-fiction work focusing on genocide, crimes against humanity, and other gross human rights violations, as well as strategies for prevention. This year’s award winner is Elyse Semerdjian, for her work, Remnants: Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide.

Symposium—Introduction, Russell Buchan

International Law Studies

In March 2025 the University of Reading and the U.S. Naval War College convened a workshop at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom to examine the application of the jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and international criminal law to the use of military AI. This is the introduction to the symposium, published as Volume 107 of International Law Studies.

Artificial Intelligence And The “Armed Attack” Threshold In International Law, Katie A. Johnston

International Law Studies

This article argues that the deployment of artificial intelligence, even in its strong fully autonomous form, does not have significant consequences for the application of the jus ad bellum framework, and in particular the armed attack threshold. As with all new weapons technologies, the deployment of artificial intelligence in the resort to force requires consideration of what “imminence” means in this context. However, artificial intelligence is fundamentally a means of making decisions to resort to force or contributing to the reasons for which such decisions are made by humans. Unlike the jus in bello, the jus ad bellum is …

Healing Through Acknowledgment: The Role Of Naturalistic Restorative Justice And Twentieth Century Genocide Recovery, Julia R. Swirbalus

The Graduate Review

This article defines and explores the application of restorative justice principles in the context of twentieth century genocide acknowledgments. The genocides used as case studies in this article include the Holocaust, Cambodian genocide, and Rwandan genocide. This article examines how survivors have utilized restorative practices to facilitate healing, the importance of historical site preservation, and governments acknowledging their wrongdoings. The importance of acknowledgment and making amends to facilitate healing is highlighted throughout the article. The findings underscore the complexity of applying restorative justice to genocide and the necessity of proper acknowledgment for true reconciliation and healing to occur. This article …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Child-Taking Justice And The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

The focus of this article is the 2022–2024 Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative undertaken the U.S. Executive Branch. The article chronicles this three-year process, which included sessions with survivors and their descendants, and which resulted in a two-volume report, in an apology by President Joe Biden, and in designation of a national memorial at one of the most notorious school sites. This article examines the initiative as an example of “child-taking justice”; that is, as a process of what is called “transitional justice”, done in an effort to redress the takings of children from their community, followed by efforts to …

Living Property, Joseph William Singer

Seattle University Law Review

The Supreme Court has increasingly defined property rights that are per se exempt from regulation in the absence of compensation, most recently in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (2021) and Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023). The Court claims that it can identify property rights that are categorically protected from regulation by reference to history, tradition, and precedent. Yet this approach is oddly ahistorical; it is inconsistent with the fact that property law changed dramatically over U.S. history, as well as varying tremendously among the states. It is also inconsistent with the historical context of the Founding era. At that time, …

Redefining Section 230 Immunity, Lucas Dini

Seattle University Law Review

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has provided broad immunity to online platforms for third-party content which was the foundation for the internet's growth. However, the rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to produce algorithms to curate content to users of online services has blurred the line between being a passive host of third party content and active editorial control. This Note examines the legal, policy, and constitutional implications of applying Section 230 immunity to platforms that use AI to curate and promote third-party content. This analysis argues that algorithmic promotion of third-party content constitutes a platform's …

Overcrowding The System: Rethinking Juvenile Justice In Washington State, Mckenna White

Seattle University Law Review

The recent crisis at Green Hill School highlights the detrimental consequences of severe overcrowding in Washington State’s Juvenile Rehabilitation system—a problem exacerbated by the implementation of the JR to 25 legislation. This Note argues that the juvenile rehabilitation system, which is currently struggling to manage a wide age range of offenders, necessitates a fundamental rethinking of juvenile justice practices. By examining neurological research indicating continued brain development into the mid-twenties, along with the high prevalence of trauma among justice-involved youth, this Note proposes the creation of a dedicated third system of care within the Department of Children, Youth, and Families …

Addressing The Root Of Housing Insecurity: Washington Should Divest From “Crime-Free” Housing Programs, Sarah Cerdena

Seattle University Law Review

Crime-Free Rental Housing Properties (CFRHPs) have proven to be an ineffective and inequitable approach to public safety. Often, tenants in these properties are evicted—at times, extrajudicially—as a result of conduct that does not rise to violations of their lease provisions, much less criminal behavior. By placing extraordinary power in the hands of local law enforcement to carry out these ordinances, CFRHPs predictably pose significant harm to Black and Latinx communities, survivors of domestic violence, disabled tenants, and low-income tenants generally. Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court grappled with the tensions arising between CFRHPs and the enforcement of Washington landlord-tenant law. …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

Esg Investing Breaches Erisa Fiduciary Duties? A Closer Look At Spence V. American Airlines, Inc., Eric Chin-Ru Chang

Seattle University Law Review

In Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas found that American Airlines breached its fiduciary duties due to BlackRock’s ESG investing practices. Contrary to some reports suggesting that the ruling prohibits ESG investing under ERISA, a closer look at the ruling shows that the court only targeted American Airlines’ failure to manage conflicts of interest appropriately, rather than the legality of ESG investing itself. In light of the intensifying ESG backlash in the United States, this Article cautions against further restrictive measures on ESG investing. Such measures would exacerbate the widening …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Roots Of Credit Inequality, Andrea Freeman

Seattle University Law Review

Debt oppression began before the United States became a country. Settlers enslaved Africans and Indigenous people, treating them as property that they could buy and sell for their economic and personal benefit. When enslavement became illegal, new economic systems and laws that included sharecropping, Black Codes, and Jim Crow kept Black people in servitude. Laws that prohibited enslaved people from owning property or selling goods to white people evolved into restrictions on Black people’s occupations and market participation, both formal and informal. When Black entrepreneurs overcame these obstacles and built wealth within Black business enclaves, white people enforced their racist …

“A Plain Denial”: Reclaiming Equal Protection In American Juvenile Law, Addie C. Rolnick, David S. Tanenhaus, Justin Iverson, Danielle L. Silvestri

Seattle University Law Review

Juvenile courts are based on the premise that children are different from adults and should therefore be treated differently. Children may be treated more informally by courts, punished for different purposes, and brought before the court for different behaviors. Since In re Gault, the Supreme Court has been clear that there are limits to how different juvenile courts can be. Juveniles are entitled to many of the same procedural protections as adult criminal defendants, although the Court has preserved some procedural differences where it has determined that their benefit is outweighed by the need to preserve the informality, flexibility, …

Mandating Fluoride: A Constitutional Exercise Of Police Power, Anita Jahangiri

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses the ongoing debate over fluoridation: the regulation of fluoride levels in public water systems. Extensive research indicates fluoridation, when regulated at the recommended concentration, is both safe and highly effective in preventing dental caries. Better known as cavities, dental caries is a preventable yet widespread health issue that disproportionately affects low-income populations. Reducing dental health disparities among economic classes is a pressing public health issue. Fluoridation is not merely a policy option, but a critical, proven tool to address such disparities and uphold the collective welfare of Washingtonians. This Note focuses on fluoridation as a public health …

Neurodiversity In The Courtroom: Expanding Jury Service Accessibility Beyond Physical Disability, Samantha L. Mabe

Seattle University Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act has required equal access to jury service for decades; however, efforts to accommodate jurors with disabilities have been slow to develop beyond some minor accommodations for physical disabilities. While neurodivergent people frequently struggle to navigate a world catered toward neurotypical people, jury service remains inaccessible for many neurodivergent people who need accommodations to attend trial and engage in jury deliberations. If courts and advocates do not consider how to develop accommodations to secure the service of neurodivergent jurors, they will miss out on the unique skillsets that neurodivergent people can bring to resolving disputes.

Disabled …

Classification Of The Armed Conflicts In The Near East, Marco Sassòli

International Law Studies

This article explores the proper classification of Israel’s current conflicts with Hamas and Hezbollah as international or non-international armed conflicts. It discusses the different possibilities of how the international humanitarian law of international or non-international armed conflict applies to those conflicts and whether and to what extent the international humanitarian law of military occupation applies to the conduct of Israel Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. It also explains why the proper classification of the conflicts still matters and is not only an intellectual exercise for scholars or students. While every conflict has its specifics, the article deals …

Digital Regulation And Development: A Global Micro And Macro Comparison, Katrin Kuhlmann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Regulation of the digital economy is receiving increased attention both domestically and internationally, but too little scholarship exists assessing the degree to which these new rules effectively support economic, social, and sustainable development. This Article advances a micro-macro framework for assessing digital regulation and its development dimension, including digital inclusion and measures to address the digital divide, the protection of human rights, and the operationalization of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In doing so, it incorporates a “micro international law” methodology to compare domestic legal design features and trace their diffusion into regional trade agreements and, in turn, into …

Security And Terrorism Vs Free Expression: Analytical Study On The European Court Of Human Rights, Mariam Adel Massoud

Theses and Dissertations

The 11 of September attacks provide a paradigm shift when it comes to protection of national security. It results in a trending vision that prioritized security over national security, which makes it essential to think about balancing national security with free expression as a pillar of democratization. This study focusses on how the balance between freedom of expression and national security interests is achieved. It studies the legal approached of the European court of human rights and its legal assessment to strike this balance. The findings of this analytical study asserts that in order for the ECtHR to achieve this …

Duck, Duck, Prisoner Abuse: Trump Presidency, Prison Labor, And The Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), Maya Huffman

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

The use of compulsory prison labor in American jails and prisons has reached alarming levels. Despite the Thirteenth Amendment’s purpose of abolishing slavery in the United States, slavery-like conditions persist under the guise of compulsory prison labor. The Thirteenth Amendment created an important caveat to the prohibition of slavery in the United States: involuntary servitude is permissible as a punishment for crime. Across the country, incarcerated individuals are forced against their will to engage in physical labor with sub-standard safety protocols, endure physically and mentally abusive superiors, and receive little to no pay. Despite domestic and international condemnation of the …