National Security Law Commons^™

Protecting Rights In The Age Of Terrorism: Challenges And Opportunities, Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Depending on whom you speak to these days (and the mood in which you find them), international law is either practically moribund, or it's more vibrant and important than it has been for years. To take the good news story first, international law issues have been at the forefront of public discourse over the past few years. Pick your issue: the U.N. Charter and the international law on the use of force? The Convention Against Torture? The Geneva Conventions? You'll find it on the front page these days. Journalists are phoning international law professors for background briefings, and students are …

A New Framework: Post-Kyoto Energy And Environmental Security, Lakshman D. Guruswamy

Publications

In this article Professor Guruswamy advances an argument for new energy agreements that address the immense global environmental challenge presented by the increasing global energy demands of both the developed and developing world. Arguing that new energy accords are needed to meet this challenge, he identifies and describes the decidedly interdisciplinary knowledge base and analytics required to negotiate such international instruments. The construction of these knowledge bases call for scientific, engineering, technological, legal, social, economic and behavioral expertise. Professor Guruswamy identifies pragmatic steps--including a targeted research agenda--that will contribute to such an undertaking and begin the arduous process of addressing …

Sustainable Energy: A Preliminary Framework, Lakshman Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

Energy, Environment & Sustainable Development, Lakshman D. Guruswamy

Publications

No abstract provided.

Afghanistan, Greg Sanders

Human Rights & Human Welfare

After September 11, Afghanistan became the first battleground of the War on Terror when the Taliban government refused to turn over Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda members. Human rights concerns about these events fall in two areas. First, did the United States violate human rights when it launched Operation Enduring Freedom to overthrow the Taliban and during the subsequent occupation? Second, have the occupation forces and new regime of under the leadership of Hamid Karzai done enough to improve the previously miserable human rights situation in Afghanistan?

The Usa Patriot Act, Toni Panetta

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The events of September 11, 2001 serve as the origin of the United States’ War on Terror as popularized by the Bush administration. Previously, American strategies to combat terrorism focused on attacks against its interests abroad, and support for other governments’ efforts to curb terrorist acts within their own boundaries. However, September 11 revealed vulnerability to violence by non-state actors within U.S. borders. In response, the United States reshaped its anti-terrorist strategies to prevent future attacks by targeting terrorists, foreign and domestic, known and potential.

Be Reasonable! Thoughts On The Effectiveness Of State Criticism In Enforcing International Law, Michael Y. Kieval

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Note examines the effectiveness of diplomatic criticism in enforcing international law, particularly in the counter-terrorism (or anti-insurgency) context. It is not concerned with determining what international law does or does not "in fact" allow States to do in combating terrorism and other existential threats.

The Politics Of The Geneva Conventions: Avoiding Formalist Traps, Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Geneva Conventions were drafted in 1949, in another world. The world of the Geneva Conventions' "framers" is still familiar to all of us, though increasingly it is familiar from movies and books rather from the evening news or, still less, our own lived experience. The world in which the Conventions were drafted was a world of states: powerful states, weak states, predatory states, law-abiding states, but states all the same. Soldiers wore uniforms designed by their states, carried weapons issued by their states, obeyed orders given by their commanders, and fought against the armies of other states.

Well--most of …

Foreign Policy And Separation Of Powers Jurisprudence: Executive Orders Regarding Export Administration Act Extension In Times Of Lapse As A Political Question, Themes Karalis

Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law

The article examines the interplay between the Export Administration Act (EAA) and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), particularly focusing on whether the EAA qualifies as an Exemption 3 statute under FOIA. It explores how courts have upheld the EAA's exemption status even during periods of lapse, emphasizing the executive branch's authority to maintain export controls through executive orders. The analysis highlights the deference given to the executive in foreign policy matters and the challenges posed by the EAA's temporary nature, suggesting that Congress should consider amending the EAA for automatic renewal to avoid recurring issues.

Military Detention And The Judiciary: Al Qaeda, The Kkk And Supra-State Law, Wayne Mccormack

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article touches on the choice of whether to use the language and tools of war or the language and tools of law enforcement in responding to terrorism. The principal focus, however, is on the limited issue of judicial review and military detentions. The Article reviews the case law created on this subject during the Civil War and World War II. Historical considerations are found by the author to be relevant and helpful in solving the incoherency of current legal responses to terrorism. For instance, indefinite military detention is not coherent with either the international law concept of violations of …

Was Bedeutet "Terrorismus?", Michael P. Malloy

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

International Law And Weapons Of Mass Destruction: End Of The Arms Control Approach?, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

War Everywhere: Rights, National Security Law, And The Law Of Armed Conflict In The Age Of Terror, Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Both international and domestic law take as a basic premise the notion that it is possible, important, and usually fairly straightforward to distinguish between war and peace, emergencies and normality, the foreign and the domestic, the external and the internal. From an international law perspective, the law of armed conflict is triggered only when a armed conflict actually exists; the rest of the time, other bodies of law are applicable. Domestically, U.S. courts have developed a constitutional and statutory jurisprudence that distinguishes between national security issues and domestic questions, with the courts subjecting government actions to far less scrutiny when …

It's Time To Be Fair To Jonathan Pollard, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

International Law And The Pre-Emptive Use Of Force: Afghanistan, Al-Qaida, And Iraq, Christopher Greenwood

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will review the legal framework on the use of force and suggest that there are cases in which the use of "preemptive force" may be justified, provided that certain important conditions are satisfied. Parts III and IV will then apply this analysis to the two cases that have focused attention on the whole issue of preemptive action, namely, the threat from international terrorism (Part III) and the situation in Iraq (Part IV). The writer's conclusions are summarized in Part V.

Authorization To Kill Terrorist Leaders And Those Who Harbor Them: An International Analysis Of Defensive Assassination, Brenda L. Godfrey

San Diego International Law Journal

The purpose of this Comment is to explore the legal justification for the targeted killing of a terrorist leader as an act of self-defense. In particular, the focus of this Comment will be on the interpretation of the self-defense doctrine under customary international law and the United Nations Charter. First, this Comment will examine the background and common definitions of assassination. Then, the focus will shift to an evaluation of the relevant customary international law and the Caroline doctrine. Next, this Comment will analyze the United Nations Charter, Article 51 as it relates to a claim of self-defense in response …

Annan Leaves Door Open For U.S. Action, Alan J. Meese

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Self-Defense And The Use Of Force: Breaking The Rules, Making The Rules, Or Both?, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This article examines shifts in international law regarding the use of force -- the jus ad bellum -- that emerged in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and subsequently were invoked in part by the United States and United Kingdom to justify military intervention in Iraq. These shifts import some elasticity -- in time, space, and place -- into the preexisting legal understanding of self-defense. To be sure, the general consensus that supported the use of force in Afghanistan as a legitimate exercise of self-defense has diluted as the use of that force expanded into other theaters …

Preemptive Strategies In International Law, Michael N. Schmitt

Michigan Journal of International Law

This Article explores the appropriateness of preemptive strategies in international law. Are preemptive actions approved by the international community lawful? Can States act unilaterally or in a coalition of the willing to preempt terrorism, the development and transfer of WMD, or other threats? If so, under what circumstances and based on what quantum and quality of evidence? When can preemptive actions be taken against non-State actors such as terrorists who are based in other States?

Public Health And National Security In The Global Age: Infectious Diseases, Bioterrorism, And Realpolitik, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Law In The Heart Of Darkness: Atrocity & Duress, Rosa Ehrenreich Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Our faith in the law is rarely tested, since in America, at least, few of us ordinary people ever find ourselves at the extremes, confronting violence and terror. But the extremes have a way of creeping up on us, and the unimaginable can quickly and imperceptibly begin to seem routine. Millions of ordinary Europeans discovered this in the middle of the last century, and thousands of ordinary Americans discovered it in Vietnam. Some Americans are discovering it again today in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq. Experientially, there is often no sharp dividing line between "ordinary" life and …

Fourth Dimensional Intelligence: Thoughts On Espionage, Law, And Cyberspace, David M. Crane

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Victimhood In Our Neighborhood: Terrorist Crime, Taliban Guilt, And The Asymmetries Of The International Legal Order, Mark A. Drumbl

Scholarly Articles

This Article posits that the September 11 attacks constitute nonisolated warlike attacks undertaken against a sovereign state by individuals from other states operating through a non-state actor with some command and political structure. This means that the attacks contain elements common to both armed attacks and criminal attacks. The international community largely has characterized the attacks as armed attacks. This characterization evokes a legal basis for the use of force initiated by the United States and United Kingdom against Afghanistan on October 7, 2001. Notwithstanding the successes of the military campaign and the need for containment of terrorist activity, this …

Where Do We Go From Here? New And Emerging Issues In The Prosecution Of War Crimes And Acts Of Terrorism: A Panel Discussion, Kenneth Anderson

Presentations

Panel discussion.

American Exceptionalism And The International Law Of Self-Defense, Mary Ellen O'Connell

Journal Articles

Following the September 11th attacks in the United States (U.S.), one could make a case for America's use of force in Afghanistan as a lawful exercise of the right of self-defense. But the proposals to invade Iraq following September 11th cannot be so defended. Those proposals did not concern defending the basic security of the U.S. in the sense that basic security defense is currently understood in the international community. They concerned, rather, defense of a more expansive concept of security, a concept wherein the U.S. need not tolerate antagonistic regimes with the potential to harm U.S. interests. The invasion …

The War On Terrorism And The End Of Human Rights, David Luban

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the immediate aftermath of September 11, President Bush stated that the perpetrators of the deed would be brought to justice. Soon afterwards, the President announced that the United States would engage in a war on terrorism. The first of these statements adopts the familiar language of criminal law and criminal justice. It treats the September 11 attacks as horrific crimes—mass murders—and the government’s mission as apprehending and punishing the surviving planners and conspirators for their roles in the crimes. The War on Terrorism is a different proposition, however, and a different model of governmental action—not law but war. Most …

The Fight Against Global Terrorism: Self-Defense Or Collective Security As International Police Action? Some Comments On The International Legal Implications Of The "War Against Terrorism", Jost Delbruck

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Full Volume 75: International Law Across The Spectrum Of Conflict

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Index (Volume 74)

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents (Volume 74)

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.