In association with the International Commission of Jurists

self-defense Tag

21 Aug

[Arez Rizgari is an Iranian scholar. The author is writing under a pseudonym because they are concerned that this post will subject them to political retaliation or restrictions on their academic freedom by Iranian authorities.] On the morning of 17 July 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) struck the offices of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan in the Kurdistan...

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19 Aug

[Benazir Jatoi is a UK-based human rights lawyer from Pakistan. She has consulted with the UNFPA and UNWomen, Pakistan.] It is essential that countries critically re-examine the expansionist approach to self-defence. This is because it has become an arbitrary tool of affluent military powers to justify war and set dangerous precedents of raw and brutal force, causing devastating human suffering, primarily...

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17 Aug

[Davit Khachatryan is a lecturer at American University of Armenia and Russian-Armenian University] There is something almost ritualistic about restating the law of self-defense. Article 51 has been parsed, contested, stretched, and invoked in nearly every major armed conflict since 1945. Few provisions of international law are at once so settled in principle and so contested in application. Yet the war between Iran...

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12 May

[Chiara Redaelli is research fellow at the University of Geneva, Faculty of Law, and IHL/ICL expert for IDLO, Kyiv office. She is also co-editor in chief of the Journal on the Use of Force in International Law and co-chair of the IHL Progressive Development Platform of Ukraine.  Antonio Bultrini is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Florence, Visiting Professor at...

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18 Dec

[Dr Chiara Redaelli is a research fellow at the University of Geneva, IHL and ICL expert with the International Development Law Organization Ukraine Office and co-editor in chief of the on the Use of Force and International Law] From Drug Boats to Battlefields? The United States’ Case for Using Force against Cartels Since early September 2025, the United States has carried out...

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07 Oct

[Moises A. Montiel Mogollon is a professor of international law at the Centro de Investigaciones Docentes y Económicas (CIDE)] As a result of the unilateral military buildup in the southern Caribbean by the United States with the alleged goal of combatting drug trafficking, the North-American nation has conducted a series of militarized operations resulting in the death of presumptively Venezuelan nationals...

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19 Sep

[Louisa Handel-Mazzetti is an Assistant Professor at the Royal Netherlands Defense Academy (NLDA) and a PhD Candidate at the Institute of Air and Space Law at Leiden University] In May 2025, President Trump unveiled the 175 billion dollar plan to build the Golden Dome missile shield, originally introduced in January 2025. Drawing inspiration from Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (‘Star Wars’) and...

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03 Sep

[Mohammad Mishal is a graduate of the Advanced Master in European and international human rights law at Leiden University and has most recently worked as Academic Coordinator of the same programme] Introduction  In a 2021 article, Dapo Akande and Antonios Tazanakopoulos posit that when a state’s territory is occupied by an unlawful armed attack, the occupation continues the attack, allowing the injured state...

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25 Jul

[Masoud Zamani is a lecturer in International Law and International Relations at the University of British Columbia, Canada.  Amir Abbas Kiani is a collaborating researcher in International Law at Shiraz University, Iran.] The recurring exchange of lethal force and military operations between Iran and Israel gives rise to several urgent and complex legal questions within the framework of jus ad bellum. A particularly intriguing...

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20 Feb

[Tarcisio Gazzini is Professor of International Law at the University of Padova (Italy). He is the author of The Changing Rules on the Use of Force in International Law (Manchester University Press, 2006) and a founding editor of the book series Nijhoff International Investment Law and of Journal du droit transnational] Introduction Self-defence has become a legally intractable subject. Article 51 of...

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12 Jul

[Ayesha Malik is Deputy Director at the Research Society of International Law where she leads the Conflict Law Centre. She is also Adjunct Faculty at the Lahore University of Management Sciences where she teaches international criminal law to undergraduate students.] On April 1, Israel attacked Iran’s consulate in Damascus killing Iranian generals and military officers. Nearly two weeks later, Iran responded...

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