In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Search: self-defense

25 Oct

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...
25.10.13 | |

05 May

Benjamin G Davis Brother McNeal - great stuff! I am not in Obama's head and not privy to those who structured the legal space. Your approach is plausible though I do note that Holder spoke in terms of the self-defense space and not the law of armed conflict. As I have said other places, the strongest of the trimodal categories for the legal justification are loac as you see, next law enforcement, and third self-defense (which I am sqeamish about its strength as a category). Best, Ben Josh I'm afraid...
05.05.11 | |

18 May

...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...
18.05.09 | |

18 May

...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...
18.05.09 | |

23 Apr

conform to a demanding application of constitutional law and international law.” The bottom line is that I am not fully in a position to judge, but neither really are those students who chose to express their views as they did, nor are the academics who were asked and chose to sign the petition. Petitions that purport to know what is unknowable and not in the public domain are neither good individual defenses, nor are they robust defenses that advance the protection of human rights in the United States or elsewhere....
23.04.15 | |

20 Mar

Indian defense ministry’s annual air show. Do you: (a) buy expensive gifts for New Delhi’s generals; (b) treat the press to Kingfishers and samosas; (c) produce a Bollywood-esque video featuring bare-midriff girls, flower-draped missiles, and the catch phrase “dinga dinga dee?” Unfortunately for us, Israeli arms-maker Rafael chose C. Which means we may have just found the most atrocious defense video of all time… I don’t know if there’s a real substantive point here. Who am I fooling? I don’t have a substantive point here. Just check out the video....
20.03.09 | |

17 Dec

Steve testified yesterday about WikiLeaks in front of the House Judiciary Committee. Here is a snippet of his testimony, which discussed five major flaws in the Espionage Act: Second, the Espionage Act does not focus solely on the initial party who wrongfully discloses national defense information, but applies, in its terms, to anyone who knowingly disseminates, distributes, or even retains national defense information without immediately returning the material to the government officer authorized to possess it. In other words, the text of the Act draws no distinction between the leaker,...
17.12.10 | |