Search: battlefield robots
12 Jul Ken Anderson on The Hamdan Buzz
...artificial distinction that simply does not exist on the battlefield. Analytically, on the one hand, far from a civil war between a government and nonstate actors within the territory of a state, the Afghanistan war is the invasion of the territory of a state by another state – the cuts against calling it an armed conflict “not of an international character.” On the other hand, if you conceive of the war against Al Qaeda as a conflict separate from the conflict against Afghanistan, then because Al Qaeda is a nonstate...25 Sep Bobby Chesney Responds to My Post
...an IHL scholar to see the problems with that argument. IHL applies only if conflict is sufficiently intense and organized to qualify as a NIAC. Period. There is no “weak domestic law” exception to that fundamental requirement. And even if a NIAC exists, IHL applies to individuals located outside the battlefield only if they are members of an organization involved in that NIAC or are directly participating in hostilities there. The real question, in short, is whether individuals in the U.S. accused solely of materially supporting terrorism can be considered...26 Jul Use of Hearsay Evidence in Military Commissions
...security…. The draft measure describes court-martial procedure as “not practicable in trying enemy combatants” because doing so would “require the government to share classified information” and would exclude “hearsay evidence determined to be probative and reliable…. Nor does the bill adhere to the military’s rules for the admissibility of evidence and witnesses at trial statements because “the United States cannot safely require members of the armed forces to gather evidence on the battlefield as though they were police officers,” the proposal says. The draft bill specifies that no matter how...24 Mar Weekly News Wrap: Tuesday, March 24, 2015
...military experts to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State in nine air strikes in Iraq and Syria in the latest round of daily attacks on the militants, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Sunday. Praised as a model of Arab Spring progress, Tunisia has finally been drawn onto the global jihadi battlefield after Islamist militants gunned down foreign tourists in a brazen assault at the heart of the capital. The Lebanese military is struggling to...
20 Nov Australian Special Forces War Crimes Prosecutions: Crucial but Just One Aspect When It Comes to Respect for the Laws of War
...battlefield itself. It is in the training pre-deployment, in the policies embedded, and ultimately, in the culture of the armed forces – but also of the nation those forces represent. There are many measures that governments can, and do, take to respect and ensure respect for the laws of war. Many of the actions required to be undertaken by countries to respect the law are set out in law itself. These including ensuring the women and men who serve know the laws and are well trained in them. However, the...02 Feb Weekend Roundup: January 26 – February 1, 2013
This week on Opinio Juris, Julian kicked off on a lighter note with a Chinese cartoon on the maritime dispute between China and the Philippines. IHL and ICL lawyers were well catered for throughout the week, starting with a guest post by Michael W. Lewis, who discussed two more issues raised at the Boundaries of the Battlefield symposium: “elongated imminence” in response to an armed attack and the lack of operational experience of those writing on international humanitarian law. Kevin later took issue with the suggestion that Israel’s Six Day...19 Apr Kony 2012: IHL 2.0: Is There a Role for Social Media in Monitoring and Enforcement?
...and it can facilitate greater scrutiny of the battlefield. Due to its scale and the ability to easily and exponentially reproduce information (as we saw with the massive viewership of the Kony2012 video), social media is useful for quickly and efficiently publicizing events and information which can be used to generate public interest, to bolster advocacy campaigns, and to educate about the law. One emerging social media tool increasingly used during armed conflict and promoted as a new way to “enforce” violations of IHL is “crisis mapping”. It is interesting...01 Oct The Folly of Comparing Al-Awlaki to Admiral Yamamoto (Updated)
It appears the right-wing has settled on a shiny new historical comparison to justify the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki. Here is Jack Goldsmith in the New York Times: An attack on an enemy soldier during war is not an assassination. During World War II, the United States targeted and killed Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. And here is John Tobin in the American Spectator: Anwar al-Awlaki was actively recruiting terrorists to attack the U.S. He was, in effect, a battlefield commander, and...
30 Apr Soldier Self-Defense Symposium: Individual Self-Defense in Armed Conflict – a US Perspective
...of self-defense would likely succeed in scenario two, but fail in scenario three. While this is a technical argument that would have little significance in an actual criminal case, it is important to note because it illustrates why individual self-defense on the battlefield is a limited authority. It will generally apply in only two situations – against someone trying to harm a person for motives not connected to the ongoing armed conflict or in non-international armed conflicts against members of organized armed groups or civilians taking a direct part in...03 Oct Is There a Limit to the Crimes Subject to the Jurisdiction of the Military Commission?
...war. Congress does not seem to have perceived any limit to the range of non-law of war offenses that may be subjected to trial by military commission. Considering the military commissions are creatures of the laws and customs of war, or as some commentators have labeled them, “war courts”, I have a hard time reconciling this view of jurisdiction. I do not dispute that some offenses may be subjected to trial by military commission by statute, but I think this is a limited category of customarily accepted “battlefield” crimes that...