Topics
The Evolving Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict – An International Law Perspective – Part II
Editors’ Note: In a prior post, the authors presented background material and jus ad bellum analysis of an ongoing situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. In this post, they address jus in bello and other international legal issues...
The Evolving Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict – An International Law Perspective – Part I
Editors’ Note: This post is the first in a two-part series addressing international legal issues related to the ongoing situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. On 19 September, Azerbaijan launched an “anti-terror” operation into Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan that...
Islamic Jihadism and the Laws of War
In my position as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regional legal coordinator in the Middle East and North Africa for the last ten years, I’ve had the sad privilege to witness the ugly wars between various States and the Islamic jihadist groups that...
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Speaks to West Point Cadets
Editor’s note: On September 20, 2023, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andriy Kostin, visited the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare at the United States Military Academy West Point to meet with cadets and faculty. He made the following official remarks. Thank you...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – What’s Chivalry Got to Do with It?
Regrettably, the recent update of the U.S. Department of Defense Law of War Manual continues to associate chivalry with the law of armed conflict. No change has been made in Section 2.6 of the Manual or the related footnotes, where chivalry is still celebrated....
United States Transfers Depleted Uranium Rounds to Ukraine: The Legal Issues
On September 6, the United States announced it was sending 120 mm depleted uranium armor-piercing tank rounds to Ukraine for use in the 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks to be delivered this fall. In response, a Kremlin spokesman asserted that the United States’ use of depleted...
Ceasefires under Scrutiny – Reviewing Marika Sosnowski’s Redefining Ceasefires
I am grateful to Articles of War for the opportunity to provide some reflections on Redefining Ceasefires: Wartime Order and Statebuilding in Syria (hereinafter Redefining Ceasefires), by Dr. Marika Sosnowski. This is an insightfully researched and well-written study...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – What Was Left Unsaid for Cyber Operations
Since the long-awaited update to the Department of Defense (DoD) Law of War Manual, there has been no shortage of commentary and scholarship surrounding the new amendments. While updates to the Manual are worthy of attention, what was not updated is equally deserving...
Military Aid to Russia and International Law
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is in Russia to discuss military support, including supplying artillery shells and rockets, for Russian operations against Ukraine. In the past, North Korea has supplied the Wagner Group with arms and ammunition. Its support to...
Russia’s Interdiction of Neutral Merchant Vessels and the Law of the Sea
On August 12, 2023, the Russian patrol ship Vasily Bykov intercepted the Turkish-owned, Palau-flagged merchant ship Sukru Okan in the Black Sea between its point of embarkation in Chalkis, Greece and its destination of Izmail, Ukraine. The incident occurred less than...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – The Civilian Presumption’s Durability
The revised U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Law of War Manual recognizes a presumption of civilian status for decision-making in targeting operations. In this post, I explore the implications of a civilian presumption by examining the nature of legal presumptions...
The Mission Against IS-affiliate Ansar al-Sunna in Mozambique: Does the Law of NIAC Apply?
In October 2017, Ansar al-Sunna, a non-State group, initiated a violent conflict in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. In April 2018, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) and, from 2019, IS endorsed its activities. In March 2021, the U.S. government...
Prisoner of War Status and Nationals of the Detaining Power
As preparations for Ukraine’s spring 2023 offensive were underway, reports of Russian dissidents conducting cross-border raids from Ukraine into Russia began to surface. The groups were identified as the Liberty of Russia Legion (sometimes referred to as the Freedom...
Treaties in Armed Conflict: The Sharp Split Between “General” and “Particular” Treaties
The recent completion and publication of the second edition of my text, The Law of Treaties, provides an opportunity to reflect on how treaty law applies to specific subject areas and aspects of international law. In this post, I identify a typology of law of armed...
The Anti-ISIL Coalition, Civilian Harm, and the Obligation to Investigate
This post is drawn from the author’s article-length work, “How Does the Obligation to Investigate Alleged Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Apply in Ad Hoc Military Coalitions?” appearing in The Military Law and the Law of War Review. In recent...
Ukraine Symposium – Territorial Acquisition and Armed Conflict
Soon after the outbreak of its international armed conflict with Ukraine in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea. Eight years later, it also annexed territory around the four Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. In each case, the annexations, which...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – To Shoot, or Not to Shoot . . . Automation and the Presumption of Civilian Status
(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.) One of the most important and inherently complex areas in the conduct of hostilities relates to plans and decisions to attack....
Russia-Ukraine War at Sea: Naval Blockades, Visit and Search, and Targeting War-Sustaining Objects
On February 24, 2022, Russia’s Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport (Rosmorrechflot) announced the suspension of navigation in the Sea of Azov “until further notice” due to the commencement of “antiterrorist operations” by the Black Sea Fleet. The...
The Pending Israel-Palestine ICJ Advisory Opinion: Threats to Legal Principles and Security
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is poised to eviscerate the longstanding “land for peace” legal framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was established by UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the Oslo Accords. It is the only...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – A Commentary on the Amendments
(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.) Introductory Remarks Shortly after the 2015 publication of the US Department of Defense (DoD) Law of War Manual, Professor Michael Newton...
The Niger Coup and the Prospect of ECOWAS Military Intervention: An International Law Appraisal
On 26 July 2023 the Nigerien military, led by the Head of the Presidential Guard General Abdourahamane Tchiani, seized power from the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, and suspended the constitution. President Bazoum, along with his family, have been...
Stranded Seafarers Under International Humanitarian Law
Introduction One of Ukraine’s first belligerent reactions to its invasion by the Russian Federation was closing its ports to international shipping—leaving 2000 seafarers stranded aboard 94 vessels in and around the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov under threats of...
2023 DOD Manual Revision – Practical Concerns Related to the Presumption of Civilian Status – Part II
(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.) Part I of this post analyzed relevant provisions of international law to assess whether a presumption of civilian status must necessarily...
Articles of War Editorial Board Changes
Executive Editor We are pleased to congratulate Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Alcala on his appointment as Executive Editor at the West Point Press. The newly established publishing arm of the United States Military Academy, West Point Press has rapidly produced an...
2023 DOD Manual Revision – Practical Concerns Related to the Presumption of Civilian Status – Part I
(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.) Since the 3rd edition of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Law of War Manual was released at the end of 2016, a slew of suggested...
Digitalize It: Digital Evidence at the ICC
The International Criminal Court (ICC, or the Court) first accepted digital evidence in a legal proceeding in 2013 during the prosecution of Al Faqi Al Mahdi for ordering the destruction of the Timbuktu shrines and mosques in Mali. Since that case, there has been...
A Legal Assessment of North Korean Missile Tests
On July 11, 2023, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) Korean People’s Army (KPA) Strategic Force fired a Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), North Korea’s most powerful ballistic missile, a distance of some 3,800 miles, with most of...
Mass Grave in Sudan: Revisiting the Rules on the Treatment and Disposal of the Dead
On July 13, 2023, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, reported that eighty-seven bodies were discovered in a mass grave in the west of the Darfur region in Sudan. According to the report, local people had no option but to dispose of the dead bodies in...
Merchant Shipping as Military Objectives and Naval Economic Warfare
On July 17, 2023, within 48 hours of the suspension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Russia and Ukraine made pivotal declarations potentially expanding the scope of their hostilities to a hitherto unprecedented scale. Both States declared their willingness to...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – What’s In a Presumption?
(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.) One of the most notable—if not the most notable—changes to the Department of Defense Law of War Manual (the Manual) is inclusion of the...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – Handling Uncertainty in the Law of Attack
(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.) A Civilian Status Presumption The recent revisions to the DoD Law of War Manual have sparked some concern with regard to its adoption of...
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...
The Intelligence Community, Atrocities, and Accountability
(Editor’s note: This article is part of a joint symposium hosted by Just Security and Articles of War. The symposium addresses topics discussed at a workshop held at The George Washington University Law School concerning U.S. cooperation with the International...
2023 DoD Manual Revision – A Welcome Change to the Presumption of Civilian Status
(Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of posts that will analyze and assess the 2023 revisions to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual.) On 11 July, the Department of Defense (DoD) General Counsel, the Honorable Caroline Krass, promulgated the...
Department of Defense Issues Update to DoD Law of War Manual on Presumption of Civilian Status and Feasible Precautions to Verify Military Objectives
Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) released an important update to its Law of War Manual, including a revision to Section 5.4.3 (“Assessing Information in Conducting Attacks”) and a new subsection 5.5.3 titled “Feasible Precautions to Verify Whether Objects of...
Al Hassan Symposium – “Islam Itself Is Not on Trial”: Culture and Religion in Al Hassan
The case of The Prosecutor v. Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud (Al Hassan case) before the International Criminal Court (ICC) is remarkable for many reasons. As with all cases before the Court, the Al Hassan case brings with it a plethora of cultural...
Al Hassan Symposium – Understanding Rebel (Dis)Order in Al Hassan
Editor’s note: This post is part of a joint symposium hosted by the Armed Groups and International Law and Articles of War blogs. This symposium addresses the pending ICC Al Hassan judgment. Katharine Fortin, Sean Watts, and Diletta Marchesi’s introductory post is...
Can the Black Sea Grain Initiative Continue Without Russian Participation?
On July 17, 2023, the Black Sea Grain Initiative expired after Russia refused to extend the term of the UN-brokered accord that has “facilitated the export of more than 30 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain to global markets via three Black Sea ports.” Russia...
Al Hassan Symposium – Rebel Governance under the Spotlight: the ICC Al Hassan Case
Editor’s note: This post is part of a joint symposium hosted by the Armed Groups and International Law and Articles of War blogs. This symposium addresses the pending ICC Al Hassan judgment. Katharine Fortin, Sean Watts, and Diletta Marchesi’s introductory post is...
Al Hassan Symposium – Petite Sardine or Big Fish? Rebel Governance and the ICC Al Hassan Trial
On 25 May, the Defence finished their closing statements in the Al Hassan case at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The case relates to acts committed during the nine months of 2012 and 2013 that Ansar Dine and Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AD/AQMI)...
Harvesting Vulnerability: The Challenges of Organ Trafficking in Armed Conflict
This post is drawn from the author’s article-length work, “Harvesting Vulnerability: The Challenges of Organ Trafficking in Armed Conflict” appearing in the International Review of the Red Cross. Over 140,000 organ transplants are performed each year worldwide, a...
The Biden Administration’s Decision to Transfer Cluster Munitions to Ukraine: Legal and Policy Considerations
The Biden administration recently announced the approval of a new arms package for Ukraine that will, for the first time, include the provision of cluster munitions. This decision follows media reporting indicating that the administration had been “actively...
Release, Repatriation, and Parole of POWs: Lessons from Recent Practice in the Ukraine-Russia Conflict
The start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is famously connected to the events that took place on Snake Island. During the early stages of the invasion, the Russian warship Moskva approached the island, warning the island’s defenders to surrender or be...
Ukraine Symposium – Transfers of POWs to Third States
Introduction On 9 June 2023, media reported that Hungary received eleven Ukrainian Prisoners of War (POWs) from Russia. More than a week later, Reuters reported that three of these persons had been repatriated to Ukraine. The exact circumstances of how the group of...
The United States Should Ratify the Rome Statute
(Editor’s note: This article is part of a joint symposium hosted by Just Security and Articles of War. The symposium addresses topics discussed at a workshop held at The George Washington University Law School concerning U.S. cooperation with the International...
International Law and Accountability for the Nova Kakhovka Dam Disaster
The Dnieper River is one of the largest transboundary rivers in Europe, originating in Russia, flowing through Belarus and Ukraine before reaching the Black Sea. The river is Ukraine’s primary water source and covers a significant portion of the country. Ukraine has...
How Qualified Neutrality Impacts the Law of Contraband
It is often thought that the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine conflict may depend heavily on the amount and type of military equipment that both parties are able to bring to the battlefield. Depriving the enemy State of material it needs to sustain its warfighting...
Collateral Damage and Innocent Bystanders in War
This post is based on the author’s article in the Stanford Journal of International Law and is posted here with the permission of SJIL. It is generally accepted in moral philosophy that it is prohibited to knowingly kill an innocent bystander even when necessary to...
Curing the COIN Hangover
As we are adapting to the new reality of preparing for large scale combat operations (LSCO) rather than just the next counter insurgency (COIN) or counter terrorism (CT) operation, educators and trainers are raising the same concern: our forces are struggling to...
Not Dead but Sleeping: Toward a Broader Understanding of Ceasefires
The concept of a ceasefire as offering a temporary pause during armed conflict dates back at least one thousand years and has religious provenance – ceasefires were originally known as a "truce of God." The founding father of the laws of armed conflict Hugo Grotius...
War, Law, and the Paths We Take
I first met Sufyan Abbas in Tikrit, Iraq in the spring of 2004, when I was a first-tour Captain in the U.S. Army JAG Corps assigned to First Infantry Division. Iraq, in that moment, was unstable and smouldering. The detrital effects of war and the coalition’s “shock...
Reducing the Human Cost of Large-Scale Military Operations
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
Putin Admits to Funding the Wagner Group: Implications for Russia’s State Responsibility
On June 27, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a remarkable announcement. After years of denying any links between the Wagner Group and the Russian State, Putin stated, “I want to point out and I want everyone to know about it: The maintenance of the entire...
Ukraine Symposium – Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam: Disproportionate and Prohibited
Introduction On Tuesday, June 6, 2023, the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam was destroyed causing a major humanitarian and environmental disaster. This post analyses the question of whether this destruction complied with the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL). In...
The Regulation of Crimes Against Water in Armed Conflicts and Other Situations of Violence
This post is drawn from the author’s article-length work, “The Regulation of Crimes Against Water in Armed Conflicts and Other Situations of Violence” appearing in the International Review of the Red Cross. Water is the lifeblood of human beings and society, but...
Was Russia at War with the Wagner Group?
Tension has long existed between Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group, a private military company that has borne the brunt of the deadliest fighting in Ukraine, and the Russian armed forces. In particular, Prigozhin has singled out Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu,...
Sabotage in Law: Meaning and Misunderstandings
On May 3, 2023, Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to “assassinate” President Vladimir Putin by launching two armed drones at the Kremlin in Moscow. Russia’s press service categorized the incident as a “planned terrorist attack,” and President Putin blamed Western...
A New Silenus Box: The French Manual on the Law of Military Operations
French armed forces have participated in more than a hundred military operations since 1995. Enhanced operational activity notwithstanding, France strives to consistently keep its military operations in line with international law. The new French Manual on the Law of...
U.S.-ICC Symposium – U.S. Cooperation with the ICC to Investigate and Prosecute Atrocities in Ukraine: Possibilities and Challenges
(Editor’s note: This article provides an overview of a joint symposium hosted by Just Security and Articles of War. The symposium addresses topics discussed at a workshop held at The George Washington University Law School concerning U.S. cooperation with the...
Contracts Between the Wagner Group and Russia’s Defense Ministry: International Law Implications
After months of infighting between Russian defense officials and the Wagner Group, the Deputy Defense Minister, Nikolai Pankov, announced on June 10, 2023, that “volunteer formations” would be required to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense before the...
The Libel Case Confirming Australian War Crimes in Afghanistan
The Verdict against Ben Roberts-Smith Australia’s “trial of the century” concluded earlier this month in Sydney in a moment that captured international headlines. A man commonly described as Australia’s most decorated living soldier, former Special Air Service...
Detonating the Air – The Legality of the Use of Thermobaric Weapons under International Humanitarian Law
This post is drawn from the author’s article-length work, “Detonating the Air: The Legality of the Use of Thermobaric Weapons under International Humanitarian Law,” appearing in the International Review of the Red Cross. Weapons law, principally by way of treaty law...
U.S. AFRICOM, CENTCOM, EUCOM Legal Conference 2023
In April 2023, three geographic combatant commands, U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM), U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM), and U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) joined efforts to conduct the “ACE” Legal Conference, the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference...
Questions of Definition: Conflict in the West African Sahel and IHL
This post is drawn from the author’s article-length work, “The Question of Definition: Armed Banditry in Nigeria’s North-West in the context of International Humanitarian Law” appearing in the International Review of the Red Cross. Geographically, the West African...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Detention Operations in LSCOs: a U.S. Military Perspective
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Counterterrorism Thinking and “Large-Scale Combat Operations”
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
Life, Love & Lethality: History and Delegating Death on the Battlefield
In military circles, the 1939 Einstein-Szilard letter to President Roosevelt is a well-known document that changed the course of history. It was instrumental in the establishment of the Manhattan Project in 1945, resulting in the world’s first atomic bomb. What is...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Legal Considerations Before and During LSCOs
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
Mitt Regan’s Drone Strike – Analyzing the Impacts of Targeted Killing and the CHMR-AP
Mitt Regan, a widely respected Georgetown University Professor of National Security Law, has written a very timely and thought provoking book, Drone Strike—Analyzing the Impacts of Targeted Killing. This book reviews the available empirical evidence on the impact and...
The Place of Judge Advocates on the Next Battlefield
President Biden refers to the current decade as “the decisive decade” in the National Security Strategy (NSS). Consistent with the NSS, the National Defense Strategy (NDS) articulates the Department of Defense strategy to obtain an advantage against its adversaries...
Infant Mortality and the Law of War: Accounting for War’s Impact on the Most Vulnerable
The war in Ukraine is now well over a year old. The conflict painfully reminds us of the brutal human toll war exacts on civilians. Estimates of the numbers of civilians killed and injured vary widely. The UN Office of The High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Detention in Non-International Armed Conflict
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Protection of the Environment During an Occupation
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
The Status of Ukraine’s “IT Army” Under the Law of Armed Conflict
Two days after Russia’s renewed invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation announced a call to digital arms on Twitter: We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents. All operational tasks will be given [on this Telegram channel]....
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Environmental Protection in the Context of LSCOs
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a subject addressed during an expert workshop that the Lieber Institute co-convened alongside Harvard Law School’s Program on International Law and Armed Conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross, focusing...
Large-Scale Combat Operations Symposium – Introduction
Editor’s note: The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the ICRC, HLS PILAC, or other workshop participants. Large-scale combat operations (LSCOs) involve widespread, devastating violence, usually on a vast scale. They...
NATO SHAPE Serge Lazareff Prize Awarded to Brigadier General Shane Reeves
On 5 May, the Office of Legal Affairs at NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) presented the Serge Lazareff Prize to Brigadier General Shane Reeves. General Reeves is the 15th Dean of the Academic Board at the United States Military Academy and former...
Future Conflicts, Civilian Harm, and the CHMR-AP – Part II
Editor’s note: The first post in the two-part series illustrated the emerging “information environment” of modern warfare into which the DoD CHMR-AP will be launched. This second post addresses how CHMR-AP-enabled civilian harm mitigation supports U.S. strategic...
Future Conflicts, Civilian Harm, and the CHMR-AP – Part I
As U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has stated, mitigating civilian harm is not only a legal and moral imperative, it is also a strategic imperative. To realize these imperatives, on August 25, 2022, Secretary Austin approved the Civilian Harm Mitigation and...
The Expert Panel’s Review of Amnesty International’s Allegations of Ukrainian IHL Violations
Last week, the New York Times reported that Amnesty International (AI) “sat for months on a report critical of the group after it accused Ukrainian forces of illegally endangering civilians while fighting Russia.” The report in question was prepared by a distinguished...
The Wagner Group’s “No Quarter” Order and International Law
On April 23, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, instructed members of his paramilitary force to “kill everyone on the battlefield.” In a post to a Wagner-affiliated Telegram account, he warned, “We will no longer take any prisoners.” Ironically,...
International Law, Order, and Justice
The Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022, heralded the emergence of an increasingly realist world order. Russia’s open aggression with flagrant violations of fundamental norms and rules is a clear challenge to the liberal world order that has...
Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan: Observations from a Combat Training Center
The August 25, 2022 publication of the Department of Defense Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) generated debate about whether it is capable of being applied by the DoD across the full continuum of conflict. That continuum ranges from counter...
Reflections on the DoD General Counsel’s Cyber Law Address
On Tuesday, the General Counsel of the Department of Defense, the Honorable Caroline Krass, addressed the annual United States Cyber Command Legal Conference. Her speech followed in the footsteps of Hon. Harold Koh’s 2010 presentation to the conference as Department...
Implementing Integrated Deterrence in the Cyber Domain: The Role of Lawyers
Editor's note: Caroline D. Krass, General Counsel of the Department of Defense, delivered the keynote address at the 2023 USCYBERCOM Legal Conference earlier today, Tuesday, April 18. I. Introduction Good morning. I want to thank General Nakasone and Colonel Hayden...
Rebellious Detention: Reflections on the ICRC Study on Detention by Non-State Armed Groups
Editor's note: We are delighted to publish this post on the subject of armed groups by Dr. Ezequiel Heffes. In addition to being a valued contributor to Articles of War, Dr. Heffes is an Editor of the blog Armed Groups and International Law, where readers can find...
Ukraine Symposium – Accountability for Cyber War Crimes
In our digitally connected and technology-dependent world, cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure such as electric power grids, water treatment facilities, and industrial control systems have far-reaching safety and security consequences. When these attacks are...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Make War Sharp Again?
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. Francis Lieber...
New Lieber Institute Senior Fellows
We are pleased to announce the addition of three Senior Fellows to the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare. Gary Corn, Laura A. Dickinson, and Helen Durham each bring a wealth of talent and experience across a broad range of subjects. Their expertise extends to...
The Dutch Chora Judgment: Ex-Gratia Payments and Compensation
Recently, a Dutch district court in The Hague delivered its judgment concerning claims arising from a 2007 battle in Chora, Afghanistan. Whereas an earlier post by Marten Zwanenburg reviewed the judgment with a focus on the alleged violations of International...
Are States Aiding and Assisting Ukraine and Russia Using Force?
The provision of military aid and assistance from States supporting Ukraine and Russia has been a salient theme in their international armed conflict following Russia’s renewed invasion in February 2022. As of late March 2023, for instance, over fifty States have...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Islamic Laws of War
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. Many people...
The Shadow of Success: How International Criminal Law Has Come to Shape the Battlefield
The rise of international criminal law (ICL) and its expansion in the past few decades has been celebrated as one of the greatest achievements of modern international law, advancing justice and the rule of law, deterring atrocities, and protecting victims worldwide....
ICJ Ruling on Iran’s Proxy War: The United States Must Pay
On March 30, the International Court of Justice issued a ruling on financial measures that the United States had adopted against Iranian assets. The case was brought by Iran, seeking to challenge the legality of these financial measures as a breach of the Treaty of...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – The Eastern Native North American “Laws of War”
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. The Clash of...
LTC Alcala Awarded ASIL’s Baxter Prize
The American Society of International Law (ASIL) has awarded the 2023 Richard R. Baxter Military Writing Prize to Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Alcala for his paper "Cultural Evolution: Protecting 'Digital Cultural Property' in Armed Conflict.” The Baxter Prize is awarded...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – East African Laws of War
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. In our chapter...
U.S. Support to the ICC (in AI-Generated Iambic Pentameter)
I never imagined I would submit for publication a poem from Chat-GPT about U.S. policy toward the International Criminal Court (ICC). But that is what I am doing today. The background is as follows. Each day, we hear more about uses of generative artificial...
Dead Bodies of War in Legal-Historical Context
“We have come for the bodies of the slain, wishing to bury them in observance of the universal law ….” Euripides, The Suppliants, ca. 423 BCE[i] Since the early days of the war between Ukraine and Russia, there have been various accounts of what is being done or not...
Laws of Yesterday’s Wars Symposium – Indigenous Australian Laws of War
Editor’s note: The following post highlights a chapter that appears in Samuel White’s edited volumes Laws of Yesterday’s Wars published with Brill. For a general introduction to the series, see Samuel White and Professor Sean Watts’s introductory post. Australia is...