A few years ago I wrote a Council on Foreign Relations report titled Intervention to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities: International Norms and U.S.

The situation in Syria being fluid, and our writers having authored a good number of posts on the subject, I thought it might be useful to compile the blog's work on legal issues, international and domes...

Dapo Akande has a pithy analysis of the legality of humanitarian intervention at EJIL: Talk!  Akande notes that “there is very little State support for the view that international law permits States to u...

So writes the D.C. Circuit in this terse per curiam order.  It was issued Monday. Al Warafi, a Yemeni detainee, had claimed in the District Court that he had not joined the Taliban, but instead worked o...

I agree with Jack's analysis of the UK statement. I would add that the British legal position is not new.   The British relied on the doctrine of humanitarian intervention for their participation in the...

Here is the UK’s statement on “the legality of military action in Syria following the chemical weapons attack in Eastern Damascus on 21 August 2013.”  It maintains that “[i]f action in the Security Counc...

Big news from the Department of Defense this morning: two detainees have been transferred from the Guantanamo detention facility to the government of Algeria.

As I noted in an earlier post, the newly emerging uses of multi-lateral military force for humanitarian intervention -- such as to respond to states that gas their own citizens -- raise profound issues a...

I'm leaving the Syria war powers discussion to those around here who actually know something about the subject, but I had one glancingly-related thought. If you're trying to decide the legality of a reso...

Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro argue in the WP that military force in Syria absent Security Council authorization would violate the U.N. Charter, and they sketch alternatives to intervention.   I agree ...

You can find today's letter here.