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Special Agreements Concluded by Armed Opposition Groups: Where is the Law?
Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions binds the parties to non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) without making any distinction between the obligations of States and those of armed...
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Sorry Sir, We’re All Non-State Actors Now: A Reply to Hill-Cawthorne and...
The recent High Court judgment in the case of Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence [2014] EWHC 1369 (QB) has sparked a lively debate about the authority to detain individuals in the context of a...
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Locating the Legal Basis for Detention in Non-International Armed Conflicts:...
Last month, in response to the decision of the English High Court in Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defence (see Marko’s commentary here), we wrote a piece arguing that Mr Justice Leggatt correctly...
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Non-State Armed Groups in NIAC: Does IHL Provide Legal Authority for the...
Court of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam The recent Serdar Mohammed v. Ministry of Defencecase has prompted a number of interesting and insightful posts addressing the issue of whether...
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The Legality of Turkey’s Possible Self-Defence Action against ISIS: A...
Sina Etezazian is a PhD Candidate at Monash Law School. In a recent blog post at Lawfare, Professor Ashley Deeks analyses the manner in which Turkey may lawfully protect the Turks taken hostage by the...
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Refusing to Negotiate Can Have Tragic Consequences
Jon Bellish is the Project Development Manager at the One Earth Future foundation and a fellow at the Ved Nanda Center for International & Comparative Law at the University of Denver Sturm College...
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MH 17 Goes to Strasbourg: Some Remarks on Obligations of Prevention,...
David Pusztai is a PhD candidate in international law at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. The families of the German victims of the tragic MH 17 incident have reportedly decided to...
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Security Council Resolution 2178 (2014): The “Foreign Terrorist Fighter” as...
This is Part I of a two-part post. Read Part II here. Introduction At a summit meeting of 24 September in which over 50 government representatives were heard, the Security Council unanimously adopted...
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Security Council Resolution 2178 (2014): The “Foreign Terrorist Fighter” as...
This is Part II of a two-part post. Read Part I here. Res. 2178 is no basis for criminal sanctions Resolution 2178 is not in itself the basis for criminalising the behaviour it seeks to suppress. On...
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Not Only a Matter of Lex Specialis: IHL, the European Union and Its Two...
These times of foreign fighters who travel from Europe to Iraq and Syria have revived the debate on how the definition of terrorism relates to armed conflict. The recent judgment of the EU first...
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‘Temporary Exclusion Orders’ and their Implications for the United Kingdom’s...
This is Part I of a two-part post, a modified version of a legal opinion submitted to the UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights. This Part discusses the implications of temporary exclusion...
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The Airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and the Alleged Prohibition on...
Since the initiation of the US-led airstrikes against Islamic State (or ISIL) forces in Iraq and Syria in August and September of last year, the legality of the strikes in Syria has been the subject of...
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The Alleged Prohibition on Intervening in Civil Wars Is Still Alive after the...
In a recent post on ‘The Airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq’ (hereafter “the post”), Dapo Akande and Zachary Vermeer argue that the legal justifications given by the states intervening in Iraq...
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IHL Does Not Authorise Detention in NIAC: A Reply to Sean Aughey and Aurel...
As noted by Sean and Aurel, the appeals proceedings in Serdar Mohammed v Ministry of Defence have sparked a renewed debate about detention in non-international armed conflict (NIAC). They have set out...
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IHL Does Authorize Detention in NIAC: A Rejoinder to Rogier Bartels
We are grateful to Rogier Bartels for his thoughtful comments on our recent post and article in which we argue that IHL authorizes State parties to a NIAC to detain suspected insurgents. In this...
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The Palestinian Authority Jury Award: Implications on Liability of Non-States...
The recent jury verdict in the U.S. federal court finding that the Palestinian Authority should pay $655.5 million in damages to American victims of terrorism during the second Intifada has important...
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The Case of Russia’s Detention of Ukrainian Military Pilot Savchenko under IHL
There has been much debate in recent weeks over whether international humanitarian law (IHL) authorizes internment in non-international armed conflicts (NIACs) (see posts here, here and here). Both...
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An Old Question in a New Context: Do States Have to Comply with Human Rights...
The phenomenon of foreign fighters involves, as described by the OHCHR, “individuals who leave their country of origin or habitual residence, motivated primarily by ideology or religion, and become...
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This Week: Discussion of Kristina Daugirdas’s “Reputation and the...
Over the next few days, we will be hosting a discussion of Kristina Daugirdas’s article “Reputation and the Responsibility of International Organizations,” which was published in volume 25, no. 4 of...
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IO Reputation and the Draft Articles on IO Responsibility
In 2011, the International Law Commission adopted a set of draft articles on the responsibility of international organizations. Like the ILC’s draft articles on state responsibility, the IO...
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