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 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.
Israel’s Supreme Court published the reasons for its judgment on the legality of the Israel-Lebanon Maritime Delimitation Agreement.
A look at the lead-up to the creation of the historic loss and damage fund, what problems remain to be hashed out, and the state of climate justice efforts both in and out of the UNFCCC regime.
The Security Council’s latest resolution is a watershed development for humanitarian assistance, spurred by years of research and advocacy, and will need to be monitored closely going forward to assess its practical impact.
The recent incident in Poland offers an opportunity to clarify gray areas of the international legal stance related to the conditions surrounding an attack that can ultimately trigger Article 5.