Articles of War
Clarifying Neutrality: The Rise of Different Statuses?
With the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, one can witness the rebirth of a classical topic of international law: the law of neutrality. Some argue that neutrality is “obsolete.” An alternative perspective is that a new kind of neutrality, called “qualified...
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2023 DoD Manual Revision – The Civilian Presumption Misnomer
(Editor’s note: This post is part of a series analyzing the 2023 revisions to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual.) The changes made to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Law of War Manual published yesterday have given U.S. military lawyers and their...
ENMOD: Dead Letter or Environmental Lifeline?
Editors’ note: This post is derived from the author’s article published in issue 118(3) of the American Journal of International Law. There is...
Ukraine Symposium – Russia’s Reproductive Violence in Ukraine: Hidden Atrocities of War
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has inflicted enormous harm on the civilian population, exposing many women, children, and in some cases...
Australian Compensation for War Crimes in Afghanistan: A Rights-Based Approach, Not Military Charity, is Needed
In July 2024, Australia adopted a new legal scheme to compensate victims of war crimes committed by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in...
Booby-traps and “Apparently Harmless” Portable Objects
Recent hostilities in eastern Europe and the Middle East have generated significant interest in issues of law of armed conflict (LOAC) compliance....
A New Tool in the Fight Against Impunity for Core International Crimes
Globalisation has made various aspects of our society more efficient over the past century. At the same time, it also brings with it a certain...
Ukraine Symposium – Sunk in Battle but the War is Not Over: Who Owns the Moskva Now?
The study of underwater cultural heritage, and that of sunken warships, has typically focussed on the legal protections surrounding a site in the...
The New Syria and Its Obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention
On December 8, 2024, after weeks of hostilities, rebel groups led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured the capital city of Damascus and took...
Ukraine Symposium – Terrorizing Civilians and the Law of Armed Conflict
Reports from the Kherson Oblast, an area of Ukraine the Ukrainian military recaptured in November 2022, indicate that the Russian military is using...
The New Crime of Kinocide
Editors’ note: This post is based on the work of The Civil Commission on October 7th Crimes Against Women and Children and its report “Kinocide:...
The Silent Service: The Law of Armed Conflict’s Blind Spots Regarding Modern Submarine Warfare
Submarines play a critical role in warfare due to their stealth, speed, endurance, and firepower. These attributes make them the “queens of the...
Terror, Chaos, and Shame: When Information Operations Constitute War Crimes
The informational dimension of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has provoked important debate around the legal framework applicable to...
One Year On: Are the ICRC’s Principles for Civilian Hackers Shaping the Laws of War?
In October 2023, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) laid down a stark warning: cyber warfare must not spiral into lawless...
