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State Intelligence Gathering: Conflict Of Laws, Charles H.B. Garraway

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article begins with an examination of the development of the law of war (Part II) and human rights law (Part III) before looking at the differing legal categories of armed conflict (Part IV). It then examines the applicability of human rights law in situations of armed conflict (Part V) and the increasing complexity of defining violence, whether as armed conflict or otherwise (Part VI). The Article proceeds with an examination of the overlap between the law of war and human rights law (Part VII) and the risk of divergence that this overlap causes (Part VIII). Finally, it seeks to …

What's International Law Got To Do With It? Transnational Law And The Intelligence Mission, James E. Baker

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article describes a continuum of contemporary threats to U.S. national security, with a focus on nonstate terrorism. Part III addresses the role of intelligence and national security law, and in particular law addressed to process, in combating these threats. Good process advances the liberty and safety interests embodied in the concept of national security. Good process improves the quality of decision. It also enhances accountability, which in turn improves decision. Where good process is defined in law to include executive directive, it is better insulated from the immediate imperatives of secrecy and speed.

The Cost Of Confusion: Resolving Ambiguities In Detainee Treatment, Kenneth Anderson

Research Reports & White Papers

This short policy paper considers US counterterrorism policy with particular attention to treatment of detainees in matters of challenging detention, interrogation, trial of detainees, and release. It analyzes the existing US war on terror and considers future policies that would address both national security concerns and human rights/civil liberties concerns. The paper is written by two experts and advocates in counterterrorism-related issues, coming from the center right and the center left in American politics, as part of a project of the Stanley Foundation, Bridging the Foreign Policy Divide, which publishes papers by pairs of experts coming from conservative and progressive …

Individual And State Responsibility For Intelligence Gathering, Dieter Fleck

Michigan Journal of International Law

It is the purpose of this contribution to examine relevant norms and principles for assessing acts of intelligence gathering under international law (Part I), evaluate legal problems of attribution of such acts (Part II), and, where governments commit wrongful acts, look into circumstances precluding their wrongfulness (Part III). Based on these considerations, legal consequences for criminal accountability (Part IV) and reparation (Part V) will be discussed. Finally, some conclusions may be drawn (Part VI).

International Criminal Court Begins Its First Prosecution Putting Its Credibility On The Line In Child Soldier Case, Nigel D. Graham

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Illegal Peace? Power Sharing With Warlords In Africa, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

This paper examines the legality of power-sharing in Africa with specific reference to the Accra and Lome accords, which brought about a fragile cessation of the conflicts in Liberian and Sierra Leone, respectively. It examines the future of international criminal law vis-a-vis power-sharing by prospectively examining gaps in state practice and rules that arguably permit the "crime of illegal peace" by insurrectionists, political elites, and moral guarantors. When warlords use violence to coerce democratically constituted governments to share power, does power-sharing simply become a euphemism for "guns for jobs"? Which legal rules, if any, govern peace agreements in internal conflicts? …

Ireland 1880-2005: A Constitutional Perspective, Sir David Williams

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

Women As Architects Of Peace: Gender And The Resolution Of Armed Conflict, Margaret E. Mcguiness

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Any attempts to redress the harms women experience as a result of armed conflict must include a role for women in peace processes. The many excellent contributions to this symposium help us understand the complex ways in which gender affects, and is affected by, armed conflict. The end to a conflict may come too late to heal or adequately redress many gender-specific injuries: the psychological fall out and physical damage of sex-related war crimes, the permanent displacement of women and children from their homes, the destruction of families and livelihoods. Moreover, peace processes—the informal and formal mechanisms through which …

“I’M Just Talking About The Law”: Guantánamo And The Lawyers, Marten Zwanenburg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Guantánamo: The War on Human Rights by David Rose. New York: The New Press, 2004.

Noble Human Rights Defender Or International Band-Aid? On Contemporary Humanitarianism, Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross by David P. Forsythe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Making Sense Of A Senseless War, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone by Lansana Gberie. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005.

and

Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight by Rachel Brett and Irma Specht. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005.

The Ethics Of Torture, Rebecca Evans

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Torture: Does It Make Us Safer? Is It Ever OK? A Human Rights Perspective. Edited by Kenneth Roth and Mindy Worden. New York: The New Press, 2005. 201 pp.

Violations Of Human Rights During Military Operations In Chechnya, Federico Sperotto

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The case-law of the European Court of Human Rights concerning violations of human rights law during armed conflict has been extended after the first decisions on cases arose from violations, committed during the war in Chechnya between 1999 and 2000. In the words of the Court, at that time the situation called for exceptional measures, in order to regain control over the Republic and suppress an illegal armed insurgency. The Court has been ready to admit those measures, including the deployment of army units equipped with heavy combat weapons, military aviation and artillery, were necessary to counter the aggressiveness of …

Preserving The Peace: The Continuing Ban On War Between States, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

The history of international law is, in large part, about the development of restraints on states' right to resort to force in dealing with external conflicts. Today, states may use force only in self-defense to an armed attack or with Security Council authorization. Even in these cases, states may use force only as a last resort, and then only if doing so will not disproportionately harm civilians, their property, or the natural environment. These rules restricting force are found in treaties (especially the United Nations Charter), customary international law, and the general principles of international law. In other words, the …

Keynote Address, Jeffrey H. Smith

Michigan Journal of International Law

This afternoon, I want to touch briefly on a number of issues rather than discuss one or two to death. I chose this approach because it seemed an appropriate way to open a conference. I also chose it because I hope I can convince you that intelligence and international law interact in a way that simultaneously strengthens the law and improves intelligence; that law matters, especially in time of war; and that both good intelligence and good law have one common core value: integrity. So that you will have a sense of the perspective that I bring to this, I …

After Atrocity Examples From Africa: The Right To Education And The Role Of Law In Restoration, Recovery, And Accountability, Erika George

Faculty Scholarship

This article begins to consider these important questions through a discussion of the multiple models used to address, and redress massive human rights violations in South Africa, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. I argue that lawyers and policy makers working to advance the rule of law must consider the role of law in transitional societies not only as a means of ensuring that perpetrators of grave human rights abuses are held accountable, but also as a foundation for the future. I submit that for the rule of law to take root, the conditions of a society must be fertile; and respect …

The Rule Of Law And The Military Commission, Stephen J. Ellmann

Articles & Chapters

This essay examines the underlying foundations of the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. After laying out many of the features of the conflicting positions taken by the majority and dissents in the case, the article argues that the majority's judgment was by no means determined by the plain meaning of the statutory provisions at issue, nor even by the Steel Seizure framework of overlapping zones of executive and legislative power. Instead, three factors deserve special emphasis. The first is the Court's effort to protect, and catalyze, Congressional authority. The second is the Court's understanding of its own role …

The Military Commissions Act, Habeas Corpus, And The Geneva Conventions, Curtis A. Bradley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

U.S. Counterterrorism Policy And Superpower Compliance With International Human Rights Norms, Kenneth Anderson

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This essay, originally prepared for a symposium on Guantanamo and international law, provides an brief overview of the elements that a comprehensive US counterterrorism should encompass. This overview is set against the question of how the US, as the world's superpower, ought to address its international law obligations. The essay then sets that question against the still-further question of what it means to be the superpower in a world that some believe is gradually evolving into a multipolar world, but which is currently a world of a conjoined US-international global system of security.

The essay defends the concept of counterterrorism …

Remarks On Intervention, Juan E. Mendez

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

Hamdan Confronts The Military Commissions Act Of 2006, George P. Fletcher

Faculty Scholarship

In 2006 the law of war experienced two major shock waves. The first was the decision of the Supreme Court in Hamdan, which represented the first major defeat of the President's plan, based on an executive order of November 2001, to use military tribunals against suspected international terrorists. The majority of the Court held the procedures used in the military tribunal against Hamdan violated common article three of the Geneva Conventions. A plurality offour, with the opinion written by Justice Stevens, based their decision as well on afar-reaching interpretation of the substantive law of war. They held that conspiracy …

Incentivizing And Protecting Informants Prior To Mass Atrocities Such As Genocide: An Alternative To Post Hoc Courts And Tribunals, Eric Talbot Jensen

Faculty Scholarship

International institutions are almost exclusively reactive to violations of international law. There are very few systemic methods of proactively trying to prevent egregious violations such as genocide; rather, international law seems to take punishing violators as its sole approach. In modern times, most of the punishment and post-event enforcement has come through international courts and tribunals. These courts and tribunals are astoundingly expensive and notoriously inefficient. More importantly, the threat of prosecution does not appear to act as an effective deterrent in preventing criminal acts. This is unacceptable. With hundreds of thousands of lives at stake, the international community must …

Essay: Special Operations Forces And War Crimes By Guerillas, Gregory R. Bart

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

What The Swiss Miss (Review Of Friedrich Durrenmatt, Selected Writings), Kenneth Anderson

Popular Media

The Swiss playwright and novelist Friedrich Durrenmatt (1921-90) is remembered among English-language audiences primarily as the author of the 1956 play, The Visit of the Old Lady. He is, however, a leading playwright and novelist, primarily of detective fiction, of Europe and the German language in the post-war period. This review from the Wall Street Journal examines the full body of his work in a three volume selection of his writings published by the University of Chicago. One important consideration is Durrenmatt's place as a German language writer, yet Swiss, rather than German, following the horrors of the Second World …

A Complete Property Right Amendment, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

The trend of the eminent domain reform and "Kelo plus" initiatives is toward a comprehensive Constitutional property right incorporating the elements of level of review, nature of government action, and extent of compensation. This article contains a draft amendment which reflects these concerns.

Gabriel H. Teninbaum On The Witnesses: War Crimes And The Promise Of Justice In The Hague By Eric Stover. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 230 Pp., Gabriel H. Teninbaum Esq.

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague by Eric Stover. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 230 pp.

Doomed Internationalist, Kenneth Anderson

Popular Media

Introduction. The neoconservative influence on American foreign policy has not had an enthusiastic response outside the United States. Its failure to bring peace and democracy to Iraq has now resulted in a spate of critiques in America itself, even from within the policy establishment. The highest-level defection has been that of Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man (1992), the paean to the triumph of capitalism that became a canonical neoconservative text of the 1990's, articulating the transition from the Clinton administration to that of George W. Bush. In his new book, After the Neocons, …

American Military Justice And International Criminal Court Complementarity: The Case Of Ucmj Article 60, Allen J. Dickerson

ExpressO

Although the American military is effectively one of the most potent of international institutions, discussions of its regulation have been oddly domestic. The court-martial – the single most important institution for disciplining military forces, preventing atrocities and punishing offenders – has seen its jurisdiction and procedures hotly debated, but most often by those in uniform or individuals interested in domestic military policy. This paper aims to internationalize the discussion, recognizing that the discipline of American military forces is of major concern to both international law and U.S. foreign policy. By exploring the interaction between a major innovation in international law …

Modern Condottieri In Iraq: Privatizing War From The Perspective Of International Human Rights Law, Antenor Hallo De Wolf

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

Can Appropriation Riders Speed Our Exit From Iraq?, Charles Tiefer

All Faculty Scholarship

To explore the implications of riders - provisions added to appropriation bills that "ride" on the underlying bill - on the United States' continued military force in Iraq, the author draws three hypotheticals, each focusing on the debate surrounding the policy and political disputes raised by the use of such riders. A "withdrawal" rider, which would authorize funding only if there exists a plan to withdraw American ground troops by a set deadline, remains the most important - and controversial - rider. Riders may also significantly affect wartime policies, like those that limit the President's use of reservists in combat …