Eric Holder, the Politico is reporting, has now said that it would have been lawful to shoot Bin Laden even if he had tried to surrender: Holder initially said the U.S. team "obviously" should have accep...

Director Panetta appeared on PBS Newshour yesterday, and spoke to the question of whether this was a situation in which SEAL Team Six was merely to use force as a last resort in self-defense.  As Ben not...

Martin Scheinin, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms, also says the Bin Laden killing was legal--and also hinges this judgment on the opportuni...

Lawfare reader Matthew Ing writes in with the following: I've been a dedicated reader of the Lawfare Blog since its inception.  I recently read with interest your Lawfare post, "What Would Mary Ellen O’C...

Jessica Stern has this article over at Daily Beast describing her reactions to Usama bin Laden's death. My sincere apologies for posting this a day late, but it's very much still worth a read. Here's an ...

In a recent post, Bobby raised the question of what impact, if any, Bin Laden’s death would have on the legal effect of the Authorization for Use of Military Force, or “AUMF.”  As I noted in a post earli...

Over at Opinio Juris, Deborah Pearlstein says that "it’s disheartening to see conversation already turning to old, old debates about interrogation." Pearlstein is upset because certain people (including ...

Yesterday I posted some initial thoughts on whether the UBL operation constituted a "covert action" for statutory purposes.  If so, the operation would require a presidential finding and notificiation to...

This article by Thomas Darnstädt, published online by Der Speigel, is getting a lot of attention today.  The thrust of the piece is captured by the tagline at the top: "Is this what justice looks like?

This morning I read Curt's thoughtful piece reflecting on the news of Osama bin Laden's death and how the news was received in various demonstrations across the country. I respectfully disagreed with som...

After giving myself a day to reflect on Bin Laden’s death, here are a few thoughts that occurred to me. First, the killing of Bin Laden is obviously a significant development in the conflict with Al Qae...

The other night, with CNN reporting very tentatively that the Bin Laden operation had likely been a drone strike, Bobby and I got a little ahead of ourselves. Bobby said that it will "be interesting inde...