Accountability
Analyzing State Support to Non-State Actors – Part II: Response Options and Conflict Classification
As non-State actors assume an increasingly prominent role in international affairs, State support to them as a strategic tool for advancing political objectives has become more common. Such support presents significant challenges to the clear-eyed application of...
Analyzing State Support to Non-State Actors – Part I: Primary Obligations and Attribution
Today, armed conflicts are frequently characterized by State support to non-State actors as a means of advancing the former’s strategic objectives. For instance, Iran continues to enable Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthi, and other militia operations throughout the Middle East...
Lieber Studies Series – Military Investigations
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s chapter in Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict: Select Issues (Jelena Pejic and Margaret Kotlik eds. 2025), the eleventh volume of the Lieber Studies Series published with Oxford University Press. Military...
Lieber Studies Series – Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict: Select Issues
Civilian protection is a basic aim and legal obligation of international humanitarian law (IHL) or the law of armed conflict (LOAC). Yet, as recent and ongoing armed conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, and elsewhere demonstrate, State armed forces and...
Sudan: The Case for Recognising All Conflict-Related Sexual Violence as Torture
Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) is often framed as an unfortunate byproduct of war rather than as an intentional and strategic act of violence. However, a closer examination of CRSV in modern conflicts reveals it is not incidental. As a deliberate weapon...
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 complexity. This is noticeable, for example, in the prosecution of international crimes. In May 2019, on the occasion of the...
The Conflict in Eastern DRC and the State Responsibility of Rwanda and Uganda
In late January 2025, a rebel alliance involving the militia group M23 seized control over the town of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Notwithstanding their declaration of a unilateral ceasefire, at the time of...
The Role of the Private Sector in Ensuring Respect for IHL
On September 12th, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) published its report, International Humanitarian Law and the Challenges of Contemporary Armed Conflicts. It is customary for the ICRC to produce such a report in the run-up to each quadrennial...
EU Support to Ukraine through Windfall Profits: Reparative Value, International Law, and Future Pathways
Over two years into the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the fate of Russian assets frozen by Western sanctions is followed almost as closely as battlefield developments. Considering the figures at play (assets worth an estimated $300 billion),...
Beyond Compliance Symposium – Compliance + Restraint Towards Full(er) Protection in War
Editors’ note: This post forms part of the Beyond Compliance Symposium: How to Prevent Harm and Need in Conflict, featured across Articles of War and Armed Groups and International Law. The introductory post can be found here. The symposium invites reflection on the...
Military Investigations in Armed Conflict: Investigating Themselves?
Editors’ note: This post is based on the author’s recently published book, Military Investigations in Armed Conflict: Independence and Impartiality under International Law, published with Routledge. “We investigated ourselves and found we did nothing wrong.” This...
Legal Black Hole Redux: The 9/11 Military Commission Plea Withdrawal
When a military commander makes a bad call, or a series of them, they are typically relieved of the duty pursuant to which the call was made. President Lincoln took this route with General George McClellan’s strategic dithering during the Civil War, as did President...
