Search: self-defense

10 Oct How to Get Quirin Right When Quirin Was Wrong

On Monday, the defense in the Al Bahlul case filed their reply brief. The case is important because it squarely presents the issue that was left hanging after Hamdan, i.e. whether the military commissions have jurisdiction to try inchoate conspiracy. It also raises the far deeper question of whether the jurisdiction of the military commissions is limited to offenses against the law of nations (the international law of war), or whether the military commission’s jurisdiction to try law of war offenses includes domestic offenses as well. The government has repeatedly...

26 Apr Russia “Suspends” Participation in Conventional Forces Treaty

Maybe Duncan or others can help me out here, but how exactly can Russia legally “suspend” its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, as the Washington Post reports today? Russia is unhappy about the planned deployment of a limited NATO missile defense system in Europe. Under the treaty’s Article XIX, the Treaty is of “unlimited duration”. Russia has “the right to withdraw from this Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events related to the subject matter of this Treaty have jeopardized its supreme interests.” Under Article 57...

25 Oct Due Process in Targeting

Jordan "[L]ethal" and "deliberate" targeting can occur many times per hour in the theatre during an international armed conflict or an armed conflict not of an international character. Obama's preference for "near certainty" with respect merely to "drone" targeting is not a requirement under the international laws of war or self-defense. Although the U.S. Constitution should apply with respect to everything the Executive does here or abroad, the question shifts to what does the Constitution require when force is used lawfully under the international laws of war and/or self-defense. For...

18 May “Necessity Knows No Law”

...generations. Our grandparents lived in an age when territorial conquest and colonialism were common place. The idea of the peaceful settlement of disputes was only beginning to gain traction. A century ago major powers bombarded the ports of struggling nations to secure the repayment of public debt. Their dream was that perhaps one day, in the distant future, international society would organize itself in a way that provided for collective security and defense. They were struggling with how to regulate the potential military abuses of that great new technology: the...

29 Jul Military Commissions Moving Ahead

Cross-posted at Balkinization UPDATE: Thanks to “Anon” in comments for sending along a link to the engrossed text of the military commissions bill passed by the Senate last week. I really hate to interrupt this great discussion about Kal’s even greater book, and hope to get into it myself before week’s out. In the meantime, I thought it worth noting that while most of Congress was focusing on health care, the Senate quietly succeeded late last week in passing its version of the defense authorization bill (S. 1390) containing a...

18 May On Reviving the Commissions

...isn't protective enough to ensure that coerced statements get the appropriate treatment by the finders of fact at military commissions. However, in cases of coercion, I would think the judge has more options than that under the rules of evidence. The real question, raised by Glazier unless I misread him too, is how much evidence surrounding or relevant to the making of any statement being admitted will remain classified and potentially undisclosed to the defense. How can the defense argue voluntariness issues without knowing all evidence potentially relevant to that...