International and foreign relations law professor Michael J. Glennon has posted a new paper to SSRN, “The Road Ahead: Gaps, Leaks, and Drips,” which will be of considerable interest to both scholars and practicing lawyers trying to get their arms … Read more »
Thomas Nachbar (well known to many Lawfare readers – University of Virginia law professor and US Army reservist in the JAG Corps, among other roles) has posted to SSRN a paper originally published last year in the military strategy journal … Read more »
Harvard Law School professor Gabriella Blum has posted a book chapter to SSRN, “The Individualization of War: From Collectivism to Individualization in the Regulation of Warfare,” appearing in Sarat, Douglas, Umphrey, eds., Law and War (Stanford UP 2013 forthcoming). This … Read more »
Financial resources for terrorist groups probably should get more attention here at Lawfare than we give it. We know that interdiction of terrorist financing has been utterly crucial as a tool of counterterrorism since 9/11, but the ins and outs … Read more »
John Villasenor has new law review article out taking a systematic look at drones and privacy. Entitled “Observations from Above: Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Privacy” and published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, it … Read more »
"I like to write about foreign policy, national security, and related subjects. I like to make art. This site is an experiment in combining the two."
So writes Caitlin Fitz Gerald about her new blog, Drawnward, which I am … Read more »
Jack Goldsmith has flagged NYU professor Ryan Goodman’s European Journal of International Law article, “The Power to Kill or Capture Enemy Combatants,” as well as a Slate article by Goodman drawn from that academic journal piece, “The Lesser Evil: What … Read more »
I’m not a big fan of the law review article as a form. But every now and then, one comes along that is genuinely important, that sheds new and interesting light on an important issue, that cuts through the unilluminating … Read more »
Back on December 11, 2012, I posted a special Readings page of links to articles, reports and other materials on autonomous weapon systems and their regulation. It is updated periodically; I’ve just added new articles by Michael Schmitt and Jeffrey … Read more »
Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy—with whom we are piloting our little analytic experiment—has an important and timely report out entitled The State of Global Jihad Online: A Qualitative, Quantitative, and Cross-Lingual Analysis. … Read more »
Herb Lin of the National Research Council has just published an informative, brief article entitled, “Defining Self-Defense for the Private Sector in Cyberspace.” It’s a good primer on active cyberdefense. It opens:
It is the United States’ stated
Lawfare is always pleased to note new books by friends and contributors, tag them as Readings, and encourage discussion of them here and around the web. So please welcome Curtis Bradley’s brand-new book, International Law in the U.S. Legal System… Read more »
Alan Backstrom and Ian Henderson have a new draft working paper at SSRN, “New Capabilities in warfare: an overview of contemporary technological developments and the associated legal and engineering issues in article 36 weapons reviews” (International Review of the Red … Read more »
The American Society of International Law has released a new “ASIL Insight” on law applicable to autonomous weapon systems. (ASIL Insights are short, descriptive pieces on topical issues meant as non-technical “backgrounders” for journalists, the general public, and anyone looking … Read more »
Columbia Law School scholar and former State Department lawyer Rebecca Ingber has posted to SSRN a new article forthcoming in the Yale Journal of International Law, “Interpretation Catalysts and Executive Branch Legal Decisionmaking.” Abstract:
Recent years have seen much
John Brennan, nominated by President Obama to become the next CIA director, will apparently face some tough questioning from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) at his Senate confirmation hearings (reportedly set for Thursday, February 7, 2:30 pm). Sen. Wyden has sent … Read more »
Former UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Legal Adviser Daniel Bethlehem has just published an important piece in the latest issue of the American Journal of International Law. The article, entitled “Self-Defense Against an Imminent or Actual Armed Attack by Nonstate … Read more »
Andrew Kent (Fordham University School of Law) has posted a new paper to SSRN, “Judicial Review for Enemy Fighters: The Court’s Fateful Turn in Ex Parte Quirin, the Nazi Saboteur Case.” (66 Vanderbilt Law Review 101 (2013).) Professor Kent will … Read more »
Bryant Walker Smith (a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society) has authored a new CIS White Paper on whether self-driving cars are, or can be, legal in the United States. His answer is … Automated Vehicles are Probably … Read more »
University of Pennsylvania law professor David Skeel has an important opinion piece in the December 28, 2012 Wall Street Journal on the role of religion in the US military, “The Military Balance of Faith and Freedom: A West Point cadet … Read more »
Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta delivered a wide-ranging address on December 18, 2012 at the National Press Club in Washington DC on the United States’ overall national security strategy. The speech was part valedictory lap prior to Panetta stepping … Read more »
This Lawfare post serves as a running list of links to articles, documents, or other materials related to the regulation and legal review of autonomous weapons systems (or increasingly automated weapons systems). (As of February 18, 2013; this … Read more »
I linked earlier to this new article in the course of critiquing Human Rights Watch’s report on “killer robots,” but it’s worth separate notice. Matt and Ken have written an excellent new treatment, published in Policy Review, of “… Read more »
Fourth Amendment scholar Orin Kerr has written a very important–and readably brief–law review article in The Green Bag entitled, “A Theory of Law.” I commend it to all Lawfare readers who have ever had trouble finding a citation.… Read more »
Further to my weekend Readings post noting David Cole’s new SSRN paper, David dropped me a note, which I’m delighted to put up below. I think David is right in these comments; knowing he’s expanding this into a book, … Read more »
Georgetown law professor David Cole has a new article up on SSRN, “Where Liberty Lies: Civil Society and Individual Rights after 9/11.” It offers something of a retrospective on the role of civil society organizations in defending a vision of … Read more »
Captain Brittany Warren, a US Army JAG who has just completed her JD at GW Law School, has an article appearing in the Military Law Review (Vol. 212, 2012, p. 133, link is to jagcnet.army.mil), “The Case of the Murdering … Read more »
I am sometimes asked what academic journals I would recommend for research in terrorism and political violence studies from an interdisciplinary social science perspective. Two stand out, although unfortunately neither is open source – each is published by Taylor and … Read more »
The question of when an armed conflict is underway for purposes of triggering the Geneva Conventions and other relevant law of war is not in principle difficult in the case inter-state international armed conflict. Any fighting between armed forces of … Read more »
Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the State Department, delivered an important speech yesterday, September 18, at the U.S. Cyber Command Inter-Agency Legal Conference on the applicability of international law to cyberspace. (H/T to Opinio Juris, which has posted the … Read more »
One of the fun things about having a book review is that occasionally, publishers send me books that—for whatever unfathomable reason—they think Lawfare might want to write about. We’ve had some stiff competition in the past for the least-relevant book … Read more »
What follows is the list of speeches by senior officials of the Obama administration, from the President on down and particularly senior lawyers of the national security agencies, addressing national security and counterterrorism (last updated on August 28, 2012):
President
Over at SCOTUSblog, there’s a terrific symposium underway to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of The Least Dangerous Branch, Alex Bickel’s seminal work on the Supreme Court and judicial review. My own contribution thereto–”The Passive Virtues as Means, Not … Read more »
Guess what? They’re still illegal outside of Afghanistan:
Targeted killing with drones in Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan have generally violated the right to life because the United States is rarely part of any armed conflict in those places. The
My old friend Naunihal Singh, a political science professor at Notre Dame University, has this very moving piece on The New Yorker‘s web page on the killings at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin:
The media has treated
The New York Times is running a “Room For Debate” exchange on the question of whether the threat from domestic hate groups is being overlooked. Contributors so far include Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, author J.M. Berger… Read more »
Dan Byman, Director of Research at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, has a new paper out entitled “Breaking the Bonds between Al Qaeda and its Affiliate Organizations.” The paper, according to the Brookings … Read more »
Jonathan Horowitz of the Open Society Justice Initiative has largely positive comments on the new Army manual on avoiding civilian harm. It opens:
This month, Lawfareblog.com posted the U.S. Army’s new manual on Civilian Casualty Mitigation (ATTP 3-37.31), which
The other day, Wells drew my attention to what could be the single most excellently eccentric national security-oriented project currently ongoing on the web: It is called Clausewitz for Kids. I am apparently not the first to discover it. … Read more »
Former Secretary of DHS, Michael Chertoff has this op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today, concerning Google’s subversion of Safari’s security settings. Here’s the introduction:
In the cyber age, privacy and security are two sides of the same coin. Digital
I’m just going to link to it. There’s some rhetoric I wouldn’t use in here, but–as I said before and as Steve explained here–this is a provocative step the government has taken, and it shouldn’t do things like … Read more »
Laurie Blank, professor at Emory Law School and director of its International Humanitarian Law Clinic, gives Lawfare the last in the series of guest comments on Mark Mazzetti’s New York Times Magazine article, “The Drone Zone.” Although the initial hook … Read more »
Over at Forbes.com, the estimable Gregory McNeal has this article about a new Army manual on preventing harm to civilians. The just-released manual, entitled “Civilian Casualty Mitigation,” was the subject of this article last year by Spencer Ackerman. McNeal … Read more »
We will have two final posts in our discussion sparked by Mark Mazzetti’s New York Times Magazine article, The Drone Zone. This one by Michael Lewis, a former Navy fighter pilot and now professor at Ohio Northern State University Pettit … Read more »
An important news analysis piece from Scott Shane of the New York Times. I’m glad Shane took the time to lay this out. Though the point seems very obvious to me, it is decidedly non-obvious to many people I … Read more »
Over at SCOTUSBlog, Lyle Denniston has a piece on the Esmail access to counsel issue I wrote about Wednesday. It opens:
For years, the federal government — in two administrations — has taken the view that the detainees being
Tom Junod wrote in with the following in response to Ben’s earlier post:
Point taken on the “lecture from the principal” criticism: you either like that or you don’t, and you didn’t. But I don’t think you got the
I have now had time to read Tom Junod’s lengthy essay in Esquire to which Ritika linked the other day. Entitled “The Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama,” it combines the form of a reported essay with a different form–one I … Read more »
Continuing the discussion surrounding issues of personal risk and combat in relation to drone warfare (Anderson on Mazzetti, Corn, and Rona, we add this comment from Charles Dunlap, professor at Duke University Law School and a … Read more »
Gabor Rona, international legal director of Human Rights First and esteemed commenter on several Lawfare posts, sends us this further comment on the Lawfare discussion around Mark Mazzett’s New York Times Magazine piece from last weekend, The Drone Zone. (Ken … Read more »
Monday, May 20, 2013
As Jack posted yesterday—and as everyone is buzzing about—President Obama will give a major counterterrorism speech on Thursday at the National Defense University. The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Politico all report on the talk, and subjects that the President will likely address.
Speaking of Jack, he noted another of today’s big stories: the Washington Post’s piece on the FBI’s search, a few years… Read more »
