Detention
Ukraine Symposium – Putting “Overall Control” to the Test of the Third Geneva Convention
Detention is a common feature of both international and non-international armed conflicts (IAC and NIAC). Despite the increasing convergence in the regulation of the two types of conflicts as a matter of customary law, the rules on detention remain different. The...
Status of Foreign Fighters in the Ukrainian Legion
Among other new resistance groups, Ukraine has formed an International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine (UKR Legion). There are reports that its members come from all over the world, including Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European...
Prisoners of War in Occupied Territory
It seems increasingly likely that the international armed conflict raging in Ukraine will devolve into a partial Russian occupation of large portions of Ukrainian territory. President Putin may very well declare annexation—or reincorporation—of that territory into...
Legal Status of Ukraine’s Resistance Forces
In the lead up to Russia’s invasion, Ukraine prepared to defend its territory by, among other things, training its citizens to serve as a “resistance in waiting.” The extent to which these resistance forces have engaged Russian invaders to date remains unclear. What...
Afghanistan 2021: Reflections from the Stockton Center for International Law’s Workshop
Despite over twenty years of legal analysis, many issues regarding the Afghanistan conflict remain unsettled. At a recent Stockton Center for International Law law of armed conflict (LOAC) workshop, an experienced and diverse group of scholars and practitioners...
Counterterrorism, Investigative Detention, and the New Global Security Environment
The images of Afghan civilians clinging to crowded military planes departing Afghanistan as the Taliban reclaimed Kabul are the iconic indicia of a tectonic shift in the global security environment. This shift, to be sure, did not begin with the U.S. retrograde from...
Battlefield Detention, Counterterrorism, and Future Conflicts
Editor’s note: The following post is part of the Articles of War Symposium on Beth Van Schaack’s book, Imagining Justice for Syria. The symposium offers a platform for the contributing experts to carry the conversation on justice and accountability in Syria forward....
The Updated GCIII Commentary: A Flawed Methodology?
In June of 2020, as part of its ongoing multi-year effort, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) launched its updated Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention of 1949. The Commentary analyzes how practice in the application and interpretation of...
Interpretation in the Updated GCIII Commentary
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Updated Commentary to the Third Geneva Convention is a remarkable feat of scholarship worthy of serious academic attention. It leaves almost no interpretive stone unturned in its effort to identify the humanitarian...
Will Autonomy in U.S. Military Operations Centralize Legal Decision-making?
The growth of machine learning tools in military operations raises new questions about where the most critical decision points are located. Are the most important political, operational, and legal decisions made out in the field, where the tools are used, or in...