Decisions and Revisions: Israeli Nuclear Deterrence and War With Iran
“In a minute there is time For decisions and revisions which a minute/will reverse” —T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Though much has been published about both military and legal elements of Israeli nuclear deterrence, not much has been written about the specific ways in which these core elements could conceivably intersect. [...]
Marjorie Cohn is a professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California. She has authored publications arguing against the legality of the 2003 US military intervention in Iraq as well as the US-led NATO interventions into Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia. Professor Cohn is also a national board member of Assange [...]
Targeted Killing of Avowed Terrorists: Three US Presidents and Three Cases in Point
During the Barack Obama presidency, the Justice Department prepared a 16-page unsigned, undated “White Paper” that outlined the administration’s legal reasoning justifying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-targeted killings of terrorism suspects if an informed high-level official decided that the target was a high-ranking al-Qaida figure or affiliate who posed an imminent threat of violent attack against [...]
Russia’s Use of Force Against Ukraine: An International Law Perspective
The basic international law One of the most fundamental rules of international law is that States are prohibited from using force to resolve their international disputes. Any State that uses force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another State violates this solemn rule of international law. Applying this rule, the use of force [...]
A Frankfurt court Tuesday found an Iraqi national who was part of Islamic State (IS) guilty of genocide against the Yazidi minority, sentencing him to life imprisonment for killing a five-year-old girl. This was the first time that a court convicted an individual for committing genocide against the Yazidi minority. The 29-year-old, Taha al-Jumailly, was [...]
Abstract: For Israel, core issues surrounding Iran’s still-accelerating nuclear weapons program have been strategic and political, rather than legal. Nonetheless, if Israel should ever decide that it no longer has any reasonable alternative to launching a preemptive attack against certain Iranian military/industrial targets, this defensive first-strike would need to be justified under international law. In [...]
The Legal Possibility for Charging SEAL Eddie Gallagher with Perjury
It is well known that the United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (US SEALs) have serious problems. The SEAL community has been plagued by extreme drug use and sexual assaults and has been found to engage in the murder of one of their own Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel. All of these incidences have [...]
On Friday the United States and people who respect justice around the world lost a very special jurist, William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021), a man unique among lawyers for his steadfast commitment to justice for all. He served his country as the 66th Attorney General of the United States from [...]
“States shall not take….any measures which may be prejudicial to the international obligations they have assumed in regard to the detection, arrest, extradition and punishment of persons guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.” – Principles of International Cooperation, General Assembly Resolution, 1973 “It’s not surprising that a criminal like Trump pardons other criminals, [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Monday condemned Iran’s execution of activist and journalist Ruhollah Zam on Saturday. Zam was a founder of AmadNews, which became popular during the nationwide protests, and posted articles and social media posts criticizing the Iranian government. Zam was abducted while visiting Iraq by Iranian Revolutionary Guards [...]
