Now that the United States has acknowledged – with a modest level of confidence – that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against the rebels, many press articles are asking whether (or arguing that) the United States should consider … Read more »
A few Lawfare readers have wondered why, given the past attention we have paid on this blog to the Alien Tort Statute, none of us have had anything to say about last week’s landmark decision in Kiobel. The blogosphere … Read more »
[UPDATED 4:53]
Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti, and Charlie Savage of The New York Times have this lengthy article on the hunt for Anwar Al-Aulaqi. Their piece describes, among other things, the legal analyses that approved of Al-Aulaqi’s killing.
Interestingly, the … Read more »
Not all news today is the secret meeting of the Lawfare cabal in plain sight – at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on drones and targeted killing. There is, for example, the opinion just issued in the Sea Shepherd case … 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 »
(Updated and extended.) The White Paper’s reference to imminence has occasioned some heated rhetoric about the Obama administration stretching the notion beyond all possible ordinary meaning or bounds, etc. But it’s worth bearing in mind that there’s nothing new in … Read more »
What, if anything, do developments in the military commission case of United States v. al-Nashiri portend for Al-Nashiri v. MacDonald, an ongoing, civil challenge to the accused’s war crimes prosecution? The question arises in letters filed in the civil … Read more »
Further to Ben’s post on Jennifer Daskal’s NYT Guantanamo op-ed today, over at Opinio Juris I comment on a different part of the op-ed. Ben refers in part to reasons Jen offers why a transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the … Read more »
Steve and Marty make what seem to me very valid legal arguments in response to Jonathan Hafetz’s post on Opinio Juris, in which Jonathan argues that the Feinstein Amendment’s principal effect would be to embed citizenship-based distinctions (in this … Read more »
If you are around DC on Thursday, November 8, and have an interest in cyberwarfare and law, the AU International Law Journal and National Security Law Brief are jointly presenting a program at Washington College of Law, American University – … 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 »
This month of July sees negotiations at the UN in New York on a proposed arms trade treaty. Duncan Hollis at Opinio Juris has an excellent introduction with many links. Also at OJ, I offer some thoughts on a … Read more »
Earlier this week, Kevin Jon Heller and I had an exchange over what the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA, Akhil Afridi, was actually charged with and convicted of. Writing at Opinio Juris, Kevin dismissed suggestions by Secretary of … Read more »
Over at Opinio Juris, Kevin Jon Heller has a post complaining about Leon Panetta’s recent lament that “[i]t is so difficult to understand and it’s so disturbing that [Pakistan] would sentence this doctor to 33 years for helping in … Read more »
Over at Opinio Juris, Gabor Rona of Human Rights First offers an extended critique of John Brennan’s speech on the use of lethal force. It is an interesting and provocative post, leading me to share a few thoughts in response.… Read more »
We now have a collection of speeches from the past two years by the Obama administration’s top lawyers in the national security agencies and departments on targeted killing and (hypothetically speaking) drone programs – DOS, DOD, DOJ, and most recently, … Read more »
My confreres at Opinio Juris tell me that Harold Koh, Legal Adviser to the State Department, has given OJ the text of his address on Syria at the on-going annual meetings of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) with … Read more »
Over at Opinio Juris, Kevin Jon Heller offers the following objection to Haridimos Thravalos’s guest post last night on Hamdan, conspiracy, and history:
There is, however, a basic problem with Thravalos’ argument. He claims that “[t]he Hamdan plurality
Kevin Jon Heller at Opinio Juris responds to Peter Berkowitz’s critique of Bruce Ackerman’s argument that a self-defensive attack on Iran would be unlawful. Heller maintains that Berkowitz’s response is “unconvincing.” I will try to weigh in to this debate … Read more »
Anyone who wants to understand why Lawfare does not take comments need only take a brief look at this comment thread over at Opinio Juris blasting Lawfare–and others–for not taking comments. As the old saying goes, the thing speaks … Read more »
Over at Opinio Juris, Lawfare Book Review Editor Ken Anderson raises a series of important questions about the CIA drone program. In that post, Ken very kindly notes the relationship of these questions to my Title 10/Title 50 project, … Read more »
In an editorial on Friday about the al-Awlaki killing, I stated:
An attack on an enemy soldier during war is not an assassination. During World War II, the United States targeted and killed Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the
The afternoon session of Day 2 of the conference begins with introductory remarks from Gabby Blum, the moderator of the afternoon’s first panel. She asks the panel to discuss the utility of force; what are the costs of engaging in … Read more »
Kevin Heller (Melbourne) writes in with a response to last night’s post from Peter Margulies on the CMCR decision in Al-Bahlul:
Peter Margulies is absolutely right that I ignore the factual differences between Hamdan and al-Bahlul. But that
I was intrigued by this post from a few days ago by Deborah Pearlstein over at Opinio Juris. Entitled “Catching Up with the Senate on Detainee Matters,” it concludes as follows:
the Senate bill is a substantial improvement over the
In this long post I analyze the Obama administration’s legal arguments for compliance with the War Powers Resolution. A later post will consider the broader significance of the arguments.
Here is the administration’s formal explanation of its compliance with the … Read more »
On Friday, the New York Times published the text of President Obama’s letter to Congress, regarding the use of force in Libya. (Over at Opinio Juris, Peter Spiro has posted a discussion of the letter’s implications here.) The … Read more »
Over at Opinio Juris, State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh has posted a brief statement on “The Lawfulness of the U.S. Operation Against Osama bin Laden.” The key passage reads:
Given bin Laden’s unquestioned leadership position within al Qaeda and
Over at Opinio Juris, State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh has issued an official statement regarding the legality of the UBL operation. No surprises here. Harold quotes at length from his ASIL statement, and then offers what appear to … Read more »
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Lawfare book review editor Ken Anderson makes this point about State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh’s absence from the current public discussions of the legality of the Bin Laden operation:
has the administration regained its
Lawfare reader Matthew Ing writes in with the following:
I’ve been a dedicated reader of the Lawfare Blog since its inception. I recently read with interest your Lawfare post, “What Would Mary Ellen O’Connell Do?“ Apparently, she has … Read more »
Over at Opinio Juris, Deborah Pearlstein says that “it’s disheartening to see conversation already turning to old, old debates about interrogation.” Pearlstein is upset because certain people (including us) have suggested that the fact that key pieces of information leading … Read more »
I am delighted to announce that Kenneth Anderson has agreed to become Lawfare’s new book review editor. As I noted a few weeks back, the volume of recent and forthcoming books of potential interest to readers of this blog … Read more »
Kevin Jon Heller at Opinio Juris responds to Cully Stimson’s argument that Article 75 of Protocol I, if it applied to military commissions, might gut the relaxed hearsay rules in commissions. Article 75(4)(g) provides that “anyone charged with an offence … Read more »
Here’s a little cautionary tale about life in the information anarchy in which we all exist today. It is, I suspect, a metaphor for something, though I’m not sure what. I pass it on as it may amuse some readers … Read more »
Ben’s most recent post on the al-Aulaki suit has precipitated an interesting discussion at Opinio Juris involving, among others, John Dehn, Kevin Heller, and Mary Ellen O’Connell (Mary Ellen’s thoughts appear in Kevin’s post and in his comment … Read more »
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Leading the news: President Obama speaks today at the National Defense University on counterterrorism policy. Many are previewing the speech, including John. According to the New York Times’s Charlie Savage and Peter Baker, Obama will announce more stringent targeting criteria for non-battlefield strikes. This approach will govern the use of force against both citizens and non-citizens.
Here are the Washington … Read more »
