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Search: self-defense

17 Jun

...of claims under that Act.  However, this does not invariably hold true. In several instances, US courts have maintained the stance of immunity defense, notably in the lawsuit filed against Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Minister of Defense for Israel, in relation to the ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’ incident. The Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the action, citing that Barak was entitled to foreign official immunity. This decision was based on the grounds that his acts were performed in his official capacity, the sovereign government of Israel...
17.06.24 | |

24 Aug

So says the headline of a WSJ news article today (Monday, August 24, 2009, B1, by August Cole), noting that unmanned aircraft – drones such as the Predator to us civilians, although the Pentagon seems to prefer UMV – are transforming not just the military, strategic as well as tactical considerations, but defense contracting. (PopSci ran a story a little while ago on the training of UMV pilots as well.) The WSJ article notes that the administration’s fiscal 2010 defense budget request “includes approximately $3.5 billion for unmanned aerial vehicles.”...
24.08.09 | |

23 Aug

on the agenda, and therefore the “proprietary” mechanism that allows the taking (without compensation) of private Palestinian land for Israeli settlements was recognized, as requested by the Minister of Defense and Israel’s Attorney General (AG). The Rehearing of the Saliha Case Following the original decision, the Minister of Defense and the AG requested special permission for a rehearing before an extended panel of justices of the Supreme Court. They were troubled with the bottom line of the judgment – the need to vacate the outpost. The AG believed that the...
23.08.22 | |

02 Mar

...to substantive IHL norms. My intuition follows the domestic criminal law framework of recognizing some defenses to criminal liability, which may apply to all or some specific offenses, but are kept separately from the definition of these offenses. This separation operates to safeguard the integrity of the law, leaving room for forgiveness in the particular exceptional instance in which an otherwise-condemnable act may be warranted. Of course, from a realist perspective, the ex post necessity defense functions much like an ex ante authorization. I was especially intrigued by Professor Waxman’s...
02.03.10 | |

14 Jun

...basis. The below case studies will also not get into an analysis of the degree of state responsibility or obligation that might be inferred based on the degree of US support to, or control or direction over, the groups in question. In addition, it is worth noting that the ODI-GPPi study itself is not purely focused on legal risks; it also considers how such mechanisms attempted to address other policy commitments, for example, to mitigate security risks or diplomatic consequences surrounding these forces. However, a substantial focus of many of...
14.06.21 | |

06 Jan

began their operations without a formal determination of the legal status of the conflict, but instead resorted to the Department of Defense policy of applying the law of war to any armed conflict no matter how characterized. For the hundreds of Panamanian Defense Force personnel captured by U.S. forces, this resulted in treatment “consistent with” the Third Geneva Convention. The U.S. never formally classified these captured personnel as prisoners of war, because subsequent to initiation of combat operations, the government determined that the conflict in Panama was not an international...
06.01.06 | |

11 Jun

capable partners in their own defense,” Mr. Gates said. Mr. Gates complained of what he called a “two-tiered” membership structure, “between those willing and able to pay the price and bear the burdens of commitments, and those who enjoy the benefits of NATO membership but don’t want to share the risks and the costs.” He added that some NATO partners are “apparently willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets.” The broader issue is that nations commit major resources...
11.06.11 | |

09 May

...for perpetrating the acts of abuse at Abu Ghraib. That finding had been supported in the 12 other major reviews conducted by the Department of Defense, the delegation said. There had been a total of 120 deaths of detainees in Department of Defense control in Afghanistan and Iraq. There had been no deaths in Guantanamo. The vast majority of deaths were caused by factors such as natural causes, injuries sustained on the battlefield, or detainee-on-detainee violence. In only 29 cases had abuse or other violations of law or policy been...
09.05.06 | |

08 Nov

inapplicability of the "law enforcement" paradigm when targetings are justifiable under the laws of war and/or the law of self-defense. The U.S. has claimed lawfulness under the laws of war (which I disagree with regarding targetings outside of the theatre of the real war in Afghanistan and, de facto, parts of Pakistan or regarding targetings of persons who are DPH in connection with that international armed conflict who are located elsewhere) as well as the law of self-defense. Both the AI and HRW reports use the wrong tests and criteria...
08.11.13 | |

25 Jan

...executive powers, abridged individual liberties and collective self-sacrifice. Second, Mr. Bellinger’s belief that the United States is in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda is the sin qua non of his overarching analysis. The United States acts in self-defense after attacks on its “embassies, military vessels, financial center, military headquarters and capital city, killing more than 3000 people in the process.” However, this assertion depends upon these assaults being “armed attacks”. In the aftermath of 9/11, sympathetic international organizations – foremost, the UN Security Council and NATO – averred that they...
25.01.07 | |

19 Apr

...decision. But the issue was not before the Court in this case, and had not been raised by the defendant as a reason for dismissal, apart from asserting the defense in their answer to the complaint filed in 2006. Let’s back up and review the facts. When Plaintiffs filed their original suit in 2002, they chose to sue only two Shell entities: the Shell parent entity, based in the Netherlands and U.K. (“Shell Europe” for the purposes of this post), and Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, which allegedly aided and abetted the...
19.04.13 | |

08 Aug

...out by the Luftwaffe rather than the 2nd SS Panzer Division? And here’s a snippet from Ronald Radosh’s opening argument, for the “defense”: The essence of Nobile’s case is based on a highly legalistic and a-historical citation of Article 6 of The Nuremburg Charter. Nobile takes it further, by extending the description of war criminal to Truman’s entire atomic cabinet, his chain of command, the pilots on the Enola Gay, and all those politicians who through the years have praised what he calls “the atrocities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” His...
08.08.06 | |