International Humanitarian Law

The Second Circuit of the US Court of Appeals has recently (April 16, 09) held  in Matar v. Dichter that the former head of the Israeli General Security Service is immune in a civil suit brought under the US Aliens Tort Claims Act (28 USC  § 1350) alleging war crimes and extrajudicial killing. The suit relates to Dichter's participation…

A US District Court has just released the first judicial opinion on the detention standard applicable to detainees in Guantanamo (formerly known as 'enemy combatants'), subsequent to the filing of the Obama administration's brief that we have previously extensively discussed. Judge Walton's opinion shows a valiant effort to grapple with the applicable international humanitarian law. Regrettably, however, I…

Nehal Bhuta is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Toronto and a member of the EJIL’s Scientific Advisory Board. . He has worked with the International Justice Program of Human Rights Watch and was a consultant with the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York. In 2008/2009 he is a Hauser Research Scholar…

These past few months have seen the emergence, or rather the beginning of the emergence of the Obama’s administration’s policy towards the fight against global terrorism. A significant part of that policy is the new administration’s relationship towards international law. While some have pointed out (disapprovingly or not) that the Obama administration is continuing many of the policies of its…