More than any other policy area, the conduct of security affairs implicates legal systems beyond our own domestic law. Despite a deep-seated American distrust of international law, a web of international norms, treaties and agreements compels the United States to defend its conduct in terms intelligible to the world at large. As policymakers grapple with issues from cyberwar to targeted killings, legal expertise in international humanitarian law, the law of armed conflict, and a myriad other areas of international law will only become more crucial.
Latest in International Law
The legal dimensions of the Black Sea Grain Initiative offer insights into the actual and potential roles of international law at times of crisis.
Definitional challenges in international law make regulating Wagner Group activity difficult, and transnational governance is not a ready substitute. What can be done instead?
The growing involvement of civilians in activities on the digital battlefield puts individuals at risk of harm and contributes to the erosion of the principle of distinction, an edifice on which the rest of the law applicable in armed conflicts is built.
The international community’s renunciation and criminalization of aggressive wars resulted from a conscious law reform project inspired by two costly world wars. A recommendation from the International Law Commission at the United Nations, if ratified, may undo this precedent.
The Biden administration’s arms transfer policy emphasizes human rights and governance in arms transfer decisions but hews closely to the format of past policies. How the policy will change outcomes depends on its implementation.
The U.N. Forum on Business and Human Rights made it clear that the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are increasingly reflected in concrete legal requirements, and businesses need to start addressing and planning for their implementation.
Negotiations for a U.N. cybercrime convention have entered a critical stage. U.N. member states disagree on what “cybercrime” means and what should be the human rights safeguards of the future convention.
On the battlefield, every soldier knows what a red cross or red crescent stands for. As warfare is increasingly digitized, is it possible to digitize this universal symbol of protection as well?
If big data is a resource and therefore a potential target of armed conflict, what kinds of attacks justify an armed response and what are the rules governing such attacks?
The undersea cable system is increasingly vulnerable to attack, yet reliance on this critical infrastructure to carry internet traffic as well as the transfer energy continues to grow. A divided Congress should unite to better protect this critical infrastructure.