Use of Force
Attacking Iran: Retaliation or Self-Defense?
On October 1, Iran launched a major two-wave attack consisting of over 180 missiles against Israel. The primary targets were the headquarters of Mossad and three Israeli Air Force bases. However, Israel’s multi-layered air defense systems, supported by U.S. warships,...
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),...
Crimea and the Interrelationship Between Military Occupation and Annexation
Every State in the world is protected from the use of force against its sovereignty and territorial integrity. This protection and the corresponding right of self-defense, enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter, lie at the heart of international law. Put simply,...
Taiwan’s New Rules of Engagement
In July 2024, Taiwan’s military released to the public its rules of engagement (ROE) prior to testing their effectiveness in the annual Han Kuang exercises, which took place on July 22-26. Taiwan developed the ROE in 2017 and revised them in 2023 as the People’s...
Israel-Hamas 2024 Symposium – Israel’s Jus ad Bellum and LOAC Obligations and the Evolving Nature of the Conflict
According to the New York Times, some senior American officials have concluded Israel has achieved all it can militarily in the Gaza Strip. It reports that “a growing number of national security officials” believe that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) will never be able...
Targeting Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr
On Wednesday morning, Israel killed the Chief of Hamas’s Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. To do so, it reportedly used a bomb that had been smuggled two months earlier into the...
Applying the Unwilling or Unable Test: Israel Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen
On July 18, 2024, Houthi rebels conducted a drone strike in Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding at least ten others. The attack was carried out by an Iranian Samad-3 drone that had been modified to conduct the long-range strike. The attack constitutes the first...
Russia’s Alleged Nuclear Anti-Satellite Weapon: International Law and Political Rhetoric
The development and testing of anti-satellite weapons (ASATs), as well as debates concerning the legal and policy implications of ASAT testing and use, have existed since soon after the dawn of the Space Age. The centrality of these issues has waxed and waned over...
Space Privateers or Space Pirates? Armed Conflict, Outer Space, and the Attribution of Non-State Activities
Famously, George Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France at the end of the First World War, quipped that “generals always prepare to fight the last war, especially if they won it.” Such flaws of perspicacity, of course, are not limited to generals. After all, as Nobel...
Houthi Attacks on Merchant Vessels in the Red Sea
The Red Sea has seen a rise in attacks on merchant ships since 19 October 2023. Although the number of ships having been attacked differs depending on the sources used, the number has by now at the very least exceeded 50 (see here and here). Beyond injuries to crew,...
Reconceptualizing Norm Conflict in International Law
Editor’s Note: This post is drawn from the author’s article-length work, “Reconceptualizing Norm Conflict in International Law,” recently published in The Asian Journal of International Law. Representative of the traditional approach to defining “norm conflict” under...
In Honor of Yoram Dinstein – (Not) The Day After in Gaza
Editors’ note: This post is part of a series to honor Professor Yoram Dinstein, who passed away on Saturday February 10, 2024. These posts recognize Professor Dinstein’s work and the significant contribution his scholarship has made to our understanding of...
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