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Ukraine Symposium – The Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group & Ukrainian Prosecutions of Russian POWs – Part 3
In two previous posts (here and here), I addressed guilty pleas by three Russian soldiers recently processed by two Ukrainian domestic, civilian courts. This post synthesizes the previous posts’ observations into considerations for the recently-formed Atrocity Crimes...
Déjà Vu: International Landmine Law and the New U.S. Landmine Policy
Following a “comprehensive policy review,” the Biden Administration announced significant changes to U.S. Anti-Personnel Landmine (APL) policy on June 21, 2022. The new policy reverses most aspects of the Trump Administration’s 2020 policy. In fact, since the Clinton...
Ukraine Symposium – The Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group & Ukrainian Prosecutions of Russian POWs – Part 2
A prior post recounted the recent trial and guilty plea by Russian Army Sergeant Shishimarin in Ukraine. That post identified a number of important substantive and procedural legal considerations from those proceedings. This post provides similar attention to a...
Ukraine Symposium – The Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group & Ukrainian Prosecutions of Russian POWs – Part 1
On 25 May 2022, the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom announced the establishment of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA). According to the announcement, “[t]he overarching mission of the ACA is to support the War Crimes Units...
Military Markings and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
The duty to distinguish oneself from non-combatants and civilians (e.g., by wearing a uniform or distinctive emblem) is a characteristic of every domain of warfare, including the aerial environment. In naval and air warfare, the main focus of distinction is on...
U.S. Strike Cells: Dispelling the Myths
Last August, in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the world witnessed a disastrous incident in Kabul when ten Afghan civilians, including up to seven children, were killed by a U.S. drone strike meant for ISIS. It was a truly tragic event, without...
Ukraine Symposium – War Sanctions Steadily Degrade the Russian Maritime Sector
When Russia (re)invaded Ukraine in February, national sanctions imposed on Russian shipping companies and designated Russian-owned vessels and financial institutions began degrading the country’s maritime sector. These sanctions include the launch of “Task Force...
Ukraine Symposium – U.S. Offensive Cyber Operations in Support of Ukraine
Last Wednesday, General Paul Nakasone, Commander of United States Cyber Command and Director of the National Security Agency, opened the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence’s annual CyCon Conference. In his address, General Nakasone discussed the...
Ukraine Symposium – Effects-Based Enforcement of Targeting Law
The international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine tragically demonstrates that the European continent is still not immune from war. It also illustrates that the laws of war are only as effective as the leadership and discipline that guides military forces...
Ukraine Symposium – Is the Law of Neutrality Dead?
The 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict has rekindled the debate about the validity of qualified neutrality during an international armed conflict. The concept is sometimes also referred to as benevolent neutrality. Since Russia’s invasion this year, nearly 40 nations,...
The Law of Armed Conflict in 2040
In the summer of 2020, the Lieber Institute team and I convened a workshop at West Point titled “LOAC 2040.” We invited a group of law of armed conflict (LOAC) scholars and practitioners from around the world, and with a range of perspectives, to consider how that...
Ukraine Symposium – Negotiating an End to the Fighting
As the conflict in Ukraine grinds on with no end in sight, speculation over the possibility of negotiating an end to the fighting continues. Most discussion has centered on the terms of any such agreement. Issues on the table have included, inter alia, the withdrawal...
Abu ‘Aram: Displacement of Persons, Displacement of Law
On May 4, 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court sitting as High Court of Justice handed down its decision in HCJ 413/13 Abu ‘Aram v. The Minister of Defense. This decision granted the Israeli military authorities permission to displace over 1,000 Palestinians (and possibly as...
Ukraine Symposium – Neutral State Access to Ukraine’s Food Exports
On May 14, the G7 group of industrialized nations met to devise a plan to ensure the export of Ukrainian grain to avert a global hunger crisis. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has created cascading effects on the region and the world, not least is the impact on food...
Foreign Fighters: The Terrorism/IHL Conundrum and the Need for Cumulative Prosecution
The attack launched by ISIS on 20 January 2022 against the Al-Sina’a Prison in Al-Hasakah, an area situated in North-Eastern Syria and currently under the authority of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, with the intention of freeing ISIS fighters held there,...
Ukraine Symposium – The Ukraine Conflict and the Future of Digital Cultural Property
Various international instruments explicitly provide for the protection of cultural property in armed conflict. As conceived, the law was formulated to protect physical works from damage or destruction in war. Events in Ukraine, however, have demonstrated that armed...
Ukraine Symposium – Are We at War?
Last week, allegations that the United States and a number of other NATO nations are providing intelligence to Ukraine that enables attacks against Russian forces continued to surface. Broadly speaking, the reports of intelligence sharing are credible. As Chairman of...
Ukraine Symposium – Destructive Counter-Mobility Operations and the Law of War
Decades of experience have greatly improved familiarity with, if not always fidelity to, law of war rules applicable to attacks on enemy forces. Less well appreciated is the law of war regime applicable to other acts of violence including destruction or demolition of...
Ukraine Symposium – Counternormativity and the International Order
Aspects of the shifting world order were recently addressed during The George Washington International Law Review’s 2022 Symposium, “The State of the Nation-State in International Law,” where many discussants noted the range of factors driving changes in the...
Ukraine Symposium – Building Momentum: Next Steps towards Justice for Ukraine
[Author's Note: I am a member of the Legal Task Force on Accountability for Crimes Committed in Ukraine, alongside Amal Clooney and other international lawyers and academics. I am writing in my own capacity.] *** On 27 April, 63 days after the Russian invasion, the UN...
Ukraine Symposium – Military Networks and Cyber Operations in the War in Ukraine
When Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, many expected that the kinetic military action would be accompanied by extensive cyber operations. After all, the Sandworm group, an advanced persistent threat (APT) team forming part of Russia’s...
Augmented Reality Battlefield
States are prioritizing measures to enhance soldiers’ situational awareness during military operations, including the development of augmented reality capabilities. Augmented reality, as distinguished from virtual reality, superimposes digital content on a live view...
Ukraine Symposium – Litigating Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Since the commencement of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, different international courts and tribunals have been engaged as means to invoke international responsibility for the various violations of international law that have occurred. As is...
Lieber Institute White Paper: Responding to Malicious or Hostile Actions under International Law
Recent consultations with senior legal advisers have highlighted the need for a clear map of response options available to States facing hostile or malicious actions, whether attributable to another State or a non-State actor. After all, to respond effectively to such...
Ukraine Symposium – Lawful Use of Nuclear Weapons
The February invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces was followed by an even graver threat to global peace as the Kremlin announced President Vladimir Putin’s order to raise Russia’s nuclear forces into a higher state of alert. Reportedly, Putin’s order enhances his...
Ukraine Symposium – The Montreux Convention and Turkey’s Impact on Black Sea Operations
Weeks into Russia’s military campaign into Ukraine, the role homeported Black Sea maritime forces are playing is well documented. Reuters recently published a story in which the Russian Defense Minister confirmed that Russia struck Ukraine with Kalibr cruise missiles...
Ukraine Symposium – Defiance of Russia’s Demand to Surrender and Combatant Status
Before its latest shelling of Mariupol, Russia demanded that fighters defending the city surrender, lest they face a “military tribunal.” More recently, there were rumblings that Russia was preparing to send law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and court officials...
Non-State Armed Groups’ Perspectives of IHL: The FARC-EP Case
Non-State armed groups (NSAGs) are one of the dramatis personae in the current humanitarian landscape. Not only do these entities use armed violence to achieve their military and political goals, they also establish institutions that regulate the everyday life of...
New Edition of The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations
The Stockton Center for International Law (SCIL), U.S. Naval War College (NWC), recently completed a 2-year effort, in coordination with the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Coast Guard, to update The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations (NWP...
Ukraine Symposium – Cyber Neutrality, Cyber Recruitment, and Cyber Assistance to Ukraine
The war between Russia and Ukraine has given rise to many challenging international humanitarian law (IHL) questions. In this post I will focus on its cyber dimension and consider how certain customary law obligations imposed on belligerents and neutrals under the law...
Ukraine Symposium – Maritime Neutrality in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Most of the reporting and commentary regarding the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has so far focused on the land domain of warfare. However, there are significant maritime legal aspects to the conflict. An earlier post in this symposium briefly touched on...
Putin and Xi’s Pact for Outer Space
On the eve of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on entering a new era of international relations—including in outer space. The February 4 statement enunciated the importance of...
NATO SHAPE Serge Lazareff Prize Awarded to COL Williams and LTC Alcala
On 5 April, the Office of Legal Affairs at NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) informed the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Lieutenant General Darryl A. Williams, that Colonel Winston Williams and Lieutenant...
Ukraine Symposium – Comprehensive Justice and Accountability in Ukraine
As the war between Russia and Ukraine enters its second month there are increasing allegations of serious law of armed conflict (LOAC) violations. The allegations, amplified by graphic images and videos which are sometimes even narrated by purported witnesses, have...
Ukraine Symposium – Results of a First Enquiry into Violations of International Humanitarian Law in Ukraine
On 3 March 2022 the Moscow Mechanism of the human dimension of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was invoked by Ukraine supported by 45 participating States. This mechanism mandated a mission of experts, undertaken by Professor Wolfgang...
Ukraine Symposium – Cultural Property Protection in the Ukraine Conflict
Cultural heritage is once again in the crosshairs of an invading army. The Ukrainians, while concentrating on defending their homeland and their people, have nonetheless dedicated considerable efforts to the protection of cultural property, both movable and unmovable....
Ukraine Symposium – Ukraine’s Levée en Masse and the Obligation to Ensure Respect for LOAC
In its quest to mount military resistance to the Russian invasion, Ukraine has looked beyond its regular armed forces to its citizens and others. The status of some fighting forces, and consequential issues of detention and targeting in accordance with the law of...
The Creeping Normality of LOAC Noncompliance
Taking stock of the state of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) may be one of the most important tasks facing international law today. In that vein, it is well worth asking whether the Law of Armed Conflict is still “fit for purpose”? As the current conflict in Ukraine...
Ukraine Symposium – Maritime Exclusion Zones in Armed Conflicts
Since the early 1900s, belligerents have established maritime zones during armed conflict to control access to broad ocean areas and to shape battlespace management. Regardless of their label—exclusion zone, restricted area, operational zone, war zone—all zones have a...
Ukraine Symposium – Unprecedented Environmental Risks
Environmental damage in armed conflict is generally caused in four ways: (1) the conduct of hostilities, i.e., the use of means and methods of warfare (weapons and tactics); (2) natural resource extraction and exploitation; (3) the military environmental footprint in...
Ukraine Symposium – Weaponizing Civilians: Human Shields in Ukraine
Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine has become a horrific demonstration of the many ways a State can violate international humanitarian law (IHL) and how individual soldiers and their commanders can commit war crimes. To counter condemnation of its...
Ukraine Symposium – War Crimes against Children
For the 452 million children living in conflict zones (1 in 6 globally), the effects of conflict are multiple, wide-ranging, and devastating. With an increase in asymmetric warfare globally, children are targets of horrific acts of violence, including killing,...
Ukraine Symposium – The Ukraine Conflict, Smart Phones, and the LOAC of Takings
According to at least one report, in the course of their operations Russian forces entered residential complexes in the suburbs of Kyiv, displaced residents from their apartments, held them captive in basements, and seized many of their cell phones and laptops...
Ukraine Symposium – Russian Booby-Traps and the Ukraine Conflict
As Russian troops pull back from the Kyiv area, they are leaving behind horrific evidence of international humanitarian law (IHL) violations and war crimes. Images from the suburb of Bucha, including the bodies of dead civilians with hands bound and mass civilian...
Ukraine Symposium – A War Crimes Primer on the Ukraine-Russia Conflict
More than a month into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, allegations of war crimes have proliferated from media, advocacy groups, international organizations, and even States. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has initiated an...
The Siren Song of Universal Jurisdiction: A Cautionary Note
In the face of the humanitarian crises and government abuses in the Syrian Civil War, the German Office of the Federal Prosecutor General initiated prosecution against a number of Syrian officials for a range of crimes including murder, rape, and arbitrary detention....
Hunter 2-S Swarming Attack Drones: Legal & Ethical Dimensions
Halcon, a defense company based in the United Arab Emirates, unveiled its aerial fleet of swarming drones—Hunter 2-S—at the Unmanned System Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi on February 21, 2022. The small-sized Hunter 2-S modular launching system is the latest...
Command Responsibility and the Ukraine Conflict
The news on the conflict in Ukraine is replete with violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), conveying the impression that soldiers have either been ordered to commit these crimes or have been allowed to do so (or a combination thereof). In the latter case,...
Weaponizing Food
The conflict in Ukraine is threatening the world’s food system. For instance, Ukraine and Russia supply around 30% of global wheat and barley exports. And over 40% of Ukrainian wheat export goes to Africa, where food shortages are endemic. In a March 25 update, the UN...
The Law and Character of War in 2035
In fall of 2020, the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare at West Point joined a U.S. Army Futures Command (AFC) multi-year study on the changing character of warfare. The study has convened three times annually since. Its purpose is to predict and identify...
Deportation of Ukrainian Civilians to Russia: The Legal Framework
The United Nations estimates that the conflict in Ukraine has displaced over 10 million people. As of March 16, there are an estimated 6.4 million internally displaced persons (IDP) within the country. The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement sets out...
The War at Sea: Is There a Naval Blockade in the Sea of Azov?
Although land operations have garnered most attention, the war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation also rages at and from the sea. During these last weeks, several merchant vessels were attacked and seized, some apparently within the territorial sea of a NATO...
A Ukraine No-Fly Zone: Further Thoughts on Law and Policy
In a recent post, my friend and colleague, Professor Michael Schmitt set out some of the legal issues relating to the imposition of a no-fly zone over Ukraine. This post reemphasizes some of the points he raised. It also introduces a note of caution into the...
Are Thermobaric Weapons Lawful?
The Russian Federation has deployed and likely used thermobaric weapons during its invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States alleged that Russia “used the vacuum bomb today, which is actually prohibited by the Geneva Conventions,” while American...
Abducting Dissent: Kidnapping Public Officials in Occupied Ukraine
In the last two weeks, it has been reported that Russian occupying forces have abducted up to three Ukrainian mayors with new mayors installed in their place. On Friday 11 March, it was reported that Russian soldiers occupying the city of Melitopol had taken the...
Are Mercenaries in Ukraine?
Reports suggest both Russia and Ukraine are recruiting and supplementing forces in ways that potentially implicate international legal rules related to mercenaries. This post, after surveying media reports of mercenaries in Ukraine, examines the law-of-war rules...
Portending Genocide in Ukraine?
As Russian forces continue their brutal invasion of Ukraine, worrisome signs are emerging about the prospect of genocide. While the term is used rather freely in the media, the prospect of actual genocide returning to Europe for the first time in nearly thirty years...
Time for a New War Crimes Commission?
The shock of invasion remains fresh and raw. And yet it must cede room for new shocks, for the quotidian tremors caused by reports that Russian troops have shelled homes and maternity hospitals, dropped cluster bombs on schools, seized nuclear plants, and forced more...
A No-Fly Zone over Ukraine and International Law
In an impassioned address to the U.S. Congress on March 16, Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, asked the United States for additional military assistance, including the establishment of a no-fly zone. This is a terror that Europe has not seen, has not seen for...
Displacement from Conflict: Old Realities, New Protections?
Globally, conflicts are the main source of both internal and cross-border displacement. The conflict prompted by Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine, which is a considerable escalation from the original incursion in 2014, has already caused the largest external...
The ICJ’s Provisional Measures Order: Unprecedented
On March 16, 2022, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rendered its provisional measures order in the application brought by Ukraine against Russia under the Genocide Convention, arguing, inter alia, that Russia’s invasion was an unlawful abuse of its obligation...
Ukraine’s Legal Counterattack
Beyond its endurance on the battlefield, Ukraine has launched a legal counterattack against Russia in the courts. The normally slow-moving, process-heavy gears of international justice are now moving at relative lightspeed in response to Russia’s illegal invasion of...
Law Applicable to Persons Fleeing Armed Conflicts
As early as February 23rd, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, estimated that 5 million people may flee if hostilities erupted in Ukraine. As of March 13th, less than three weeks after the Russian Federation launched an...
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...
Fact-Finding in Ukraine: Can Anything Be Learned from Yemen?
On 4 March 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate “all alleged violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, and related crimes in the context of the aggression...
The Russia-Ukraine War and the Space Domain
As demonstrated by this symposium, every domain of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War presents critical legal questions. This post focuses on the potential consequences of the war on the space domain. Although Russia continues to play a vital role in the development and...
The Attack at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant and Additional Protocol I
On March 4th, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced a report by Ukrainian authorities that Russian forces had attacked the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeast Ukraine. Russia denied this characterization. The IAEA reported that a building...
Levée en Masse in Ukraine: Applications, Implications, and Open Questions
On February 24, 2022, facing an existential threat, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree ordering a general mobilization to defend Ukraine against a Russian invasion. Posted on the presidential website, the decree intended "to ensure the defence of the state”...
Common Article 1 and the Conflict in Ukraine
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing armed conflict raise a host of questions related to international humanitarian law (IHL). Some of these concern the legal relationship between Russia and Ukraine only. Others are also directly relevant for States that...
The Fog of War, Civilian Resistance, and the Soft Underbelly of Unprivileged Belligerency
All across Ukraine, ordinary citizens have been cornered into making a truly Draconian, but necessary choice: whether or not to take up arms and actively participate in defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion—a mass escalation of the illegal war which started in...
Consistency and Change in Russian Approaches to International Law
Recent Russian conduct on the world stage—and less metaphorically, on the territory of Ukraine—has been appalling. Violations of international law (such as acts of aggression and unlawful support for insurgents or mislabeled peacekeeping operations) followed...
Remarks on the Law Relating to the Use of Force in the Ukraine Conflict
Professor Mike Schmitt has addressed the application of the right of self-defense to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This post adds comments on the application of the law relating to the use of force to the present conflict. Specifically, I address whether there is...
Accountability and Ukraine: Hurdles to Prosecuting War Crimes and Aggression
Social media and news outlets are replete with examples of misconduct occurring during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In fact, this conflict is being conducted under the public eye—more so even than recent conflicts in Syria or Iraq—given the absence of...
Special Forces, Unprivileged Belligerency, and the War in the Shadows
The February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine resulted in news reports of fear in the streets of Kyiv as Ukrainian forces engaged in “a frantic hunt for spies and traitors,” as well as saboteurs and teams seeking to kill President Zelensky and 23 other leaders within...
The Other Side of Civilian Protection: The 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention
The initial stage of an international armed conflict, such as the one in Ukraine, inevitably focuses international attention on the conduct of hostilities. This is to be expected, given the immediate, visible and usually devastating effects of the use of force on the...
Keeping the Ukraine-Russia Jus ad Bellum and Jus in Bello Issues Separate
In any situation of international armed conflict (IAC), such as that between Ukraine and Russia right now, two bodies of law necessarily come into sharp relief: The jus ad bellum, which deals with the “why” of the IAC (the legitimacy or otherwise of going to war); and...
Providing Arms and Materiel to Ukraine: Neutrality, Co-belligerency, and the Use of Force
Since the outbreak of renewed hostilities on February 24, numerous States have provided Ukraine significant military assistance in its ongoing armed conflict with Russia. NATO members that have approved or transferred lethal weapons to Ukraine include Belgium, Canada,...
On War
As the invasion of Ukraine was starting, the Russian Ambassador to the United Nationals responded to the Ukrainian Special Envoy “Don’t call this a war. This is called a ‘special military operation in Donbass.’” Other Russian Ambassadors reiterated the statement...
Russian Troops Out of Uniform and Prisoner of War Status
The presence of Russian troops in civilian clothes or Ukrainian military uniforms has been repeatedly reported during the conflict, especially attempting to enter Kyiv. As Ukrainian forces continue to defend their nation, the detention of Russian troops—including...
Russia’s Illegal Invasion of Ukraine & The Role of International Law
The United States’ leadership of Western opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the correct response. No question. The entire international system of States is based upon Westphalian notions of sovereign equality, border inviolability, territorial integrity,...
Siege Law
Images of the million or more persons who have fled toward neighboring States highlight the tragic humanitarian impact of the ongoing armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia. However, a worse fate could await those unable to flee. Despite a slower than expected...
Combatant Privileges and Protections
Discussions of the status of persons in armed conflict over the past two decades have centered on the paucity of rules for such categorizations and difficult questions of detention authority, treatment obligations, distinction, and identification of members of...
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...
The Abuse of “Peacekeeping”
On 21 February, President Vladimir Putin explained that Russian forces would enter Ukraine to “perform peacekeeping functions.” Earlier this year the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) also deployed “peacekeeping forces” to Kazakhstan, predominately made...
Closing the Turkish Straits in Times of War
On February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic as independent States and purportedly deployed Russian “peacekeeping” troops to the breakaway Ukrainian regions to maintain...
Application of IHL by and to Proxies: The “Republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk
From March 2014 until 23 February 2022, Russia denied any involvement in Ukraine (other than Crimea which it has annexed). It claimed that hostilities in the Donbas were conducted by forces of the “republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk (the “republics”). Ukraine argued...
Are Molotov Cocktails Lawful Weapons?
A frequent feature of violent riots and revolts, the Molotov cocktail has reappeared in reports of Ukraine’s preparations to resist the ongoing Russian invasion. Although undoubtedly symbolic of resolve to resist using all means available, whether Ukrainians’ use of...
Ukraine and the Defender’s Obligations
In a recent post, I expressed my concern over the ability of the modern law of armed conflict (LOAC) to continue to not only regulate hostilities, but also do it in a way that survives actual near-peer conflict. I concluded: The lack of near-peer hostilities for the...
Deepfake Technology in the Age of Information Warfare
Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, there were speculations that Russia was planning to produce a graphic fake video showing a Ukrainian attack as a pretext for an invasion. Although this “false flag” operation did not play a major role in the end, deepfake technology...
The Russia-Ukraine War and the European Convention on Human Rights
As with the 2008 Russia-Georgia conflict, the war between Russia and Ukraine—likely to last much longer and be far more brutal than the Georgian conflict—is fought by two States Parties to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Both are subject to the...
Neutrality in the War against Ukraine
This contribution briefly addresses the question of whether and to what extent States that are not parties to the war against Ukraine are bound by the law of neutrality. In particular, are these States obliged to refrain from any assistance to Ukraine, including by...
Cluster Munitions and the Ukraine War
There are reports that cluster munitions have been used by both sides during the Ukraine Wars. Is such use lawful? Cluster munitions can, in general terms, be defined as “weapons that open in mid-air and disperse smaller sub-munitions—anything from a few dozen to...
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...
Russia’s “Special Military Operation” and the (Claimed) Right of Self-Defense
On 24 February, Russia attacked Ukraine on several fronts. Two days earlier, President Vladimir Putin had announced Russia’s recognition of Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics in the Donbas region and ordered in so-called “peacekeepers.” Those breakaway entities...
Symposium Intro: Ukraine-Russia Armed Conflict
The sad human tragedy in Ukraine is not only a pivotal moment for international peace and security, but also a serious test of the role of law in armed conflict. The situation is one of international armed conflict between States that are members of the United Nations...
Terrorist Offences and IHL: The Armed Conflict Exclusion Clause
In our current article in the International Review of the Red Cross, we discuss the so-called “armed conflict exclusion clause” (also known as an “international humanitarian law (IHL) exclusion clause” or “IHL savings clause”). This clause regulates the relationship...
The U.S. Legal Obligation to Take Precautions to Minimize Civilian Harm
U.S. Special Forces recently conducted a raid against the residence of the Islamic State’s leader. President Biden and other U.S. Department of Defense officials ordered a ground operation rather than an air strike to conduct the attack. They characterized this...
The ICJ’s Armed Activities Reparations Judgment: A Brave New World?
On February 9, 2022, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rendered its judgment on reparations in the case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo, between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. The Court awarded the DRC a total...
Through the Drone Looking Glass: Visualization Technologies and Military Decision-Making
On 29 August 2021, the U.S. military launched its last drone strike in Afghanistan before American troops withdrew from the country. The strike targeted a white Toyota Corolla near Kabul’s international airport, driven by Zemari Ahmadi, believed to be carrying an ISIS...
Reentering the Loop
The warfighting advantages of using lethal autonomous systems, and the potential costs of not using them, seem to guarantee their role in future armed conflict. This post argues that optimizing their effectiveness involves not only improving their independent...