At the crossroads of scholarship and practice
The Lieber Institute at West Point facilitates and contributes to the global dialogue on today’s most pressing and complex law of war issues. Through its research, publications, events and education, it strives to advance the understanding and maintain the primacy of law in today’s armed conflicts.
The Lieber Institute seeks to bridge the divide between legal scholarship and battlefield experience in the study of the law. It engages in innovative research and collaboration on multiple topics of legal study including targeting, detention, artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and war crimes accountability.
Researching Cutting-edge Issues.
Promoting Understanding.
Empowering Combat Leaders.
GC IV Commentary Series – The Role of Principles in IHL
Editors’ note: The following series considers ICRC’s 2025 updated Commentary on the Fourth Geneva Convention. Rosa-Lena Lauterbach, Liisi Adamson, and Sean Watts’s introduction to the series is available here. Principles occupy a distinctive place in international...
PSYOP Defection Messages, Amnesty, and the Law of Armed Conflict
Calls to defect can save lives. When they promise amnesty, legal review must extend from the words broadcast to the authority behind them and the institutions expected to perform them. This post explores recent practice with calls for enemy defection, particularly as...
Hollow Control: Cyber Compromise and Human Judgment in Lethal Autonomous Weapons – Part II
The danger that cyber compromises pose to lethal autonomous weapons (LAWS) is that operators can make the right decision based on false information. Humans may remain in command while the information that makes that command meaningful has been corrupted. Our first...
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Volume 13
Volume 12
Volume 11
