Retired Brigadier General Kenneth Watkin’s new book, Fighting at the Legal Boundaries: Controlling the Use of Force in Contemporary Conflict, helps address some of the issues with the increasingly blurred line between international humanitarian law and human rights law. Professor Mitt Regan’s review addresses the trends that Watkin regards as posing novel challenges for states accustomed to traditional concepts of the use of force and discusses Watkin’s concepts that are especially relevant to the question of how much the traditional categories of law enforcement guided by human rights principles and armed conflict governed by international humanitarian law should continue to frame thinking about the use of force. Regan also critiques Watkin’s use of the binary framework of law enforcement and armed conflict to guide analysis.
Tag Archives: Human Rights
The Border and Beyond: The National Security Implications of Migration, Refugees, and Asylum Under US and International Law
In the United States, the discussion about immigration is dominated by a narrow focus on the security of the borders, particularly the southern border, and the potential threats posed by people who seek enter the country. However, the national security implications of the refugee crisis go way beyond the borders. Protecting refugees, rather than keeping them out, is a national security imperative.
Of Guns & Grotius
Kellman discusses the breakthroughs in the development of explosive weapons since the 13th century. He then analyzes the evolution of theories on the international law of war as expounded by Grotius, Gentili, and Vatel. He argues that these scholars should have instead developed an international law of peace; he hypothesizes what the foundation of law would have looked like and presents a contemporary alternative vision to the law of war accordingly.