Targeted Killings

The United States’ military operation against Iran has raised important questions about the legality of the strike and potential fora in which Iran could bring claims against the United States. Although, as recently argued on this blog, the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) may not have jurisdiction to hear Iran’s claims based on the United…

This morning, Israel launched a major military operation against Iran targeting its nuclear programme, including facilities, individual scientists and military leadership. In this post, I will provide a  quick, preliminary analysis of the legality of Israel’s use of force against Iran as a matter of the jus ad bellum. As I will explain, Israel’s use…

There is much that we still don’t know about the attacks that Israel has conducted against Hezbollah in Lebanon by detonating hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies rigged with explosives. This type of attack is genuinely unprecedented – I can’t recall any sufficiently close analogue, but maybe others can. This novelty poses some difficulty in understanding how long-established rules…

Yesterday, the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, stood up in Parliament and formally accused the government of India of committing a targeted killing on Canadian territory. The victim, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was a prominent leader of a Sikh separatist movement in India, who was designated as a terrorist by the Indian government. He was assassinated…