JIB/JAB Podcast

A conversation with Monica Hakimi of Columbia Law School and Janina Dill of the University of Oxford on crisis facing the international legal order, as exacerbated by the unlawful US-Israeli war against Iran. The conversation begins with the jus ad bellum analysis of the attacks, before turning to explore whether and why the UN Charter system on the use of force is collapsing, and why states have...

A conversation with Monica Hakimi of Columbia Law School about how best to understand and respond to the current transformation of the international legal order. We explore some of Monica's recent theoretical work on how to better understand the operation of international law, as a necessary step to being able to comprehend both why and how the international legal order is in transformation, and t...

Conversation with Brian Finucane of The International Crisis Group and former legal advisor in the U.S. Dept. of State, on the legality of the US military strikes against alleged drug smugglers in the Southern Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. We discuss whether either self-defense under jus ad bellum, or international humanitarian law applicable to armed conflict, apply to these strikes, and if not,...

Harold Hongju Koh of Yale Law School discusses his new book, The National Security Constitution for the 21st Century, which examines the structural and systemic reasons for the dangerously increased strength of the executive branch of government in the U.S., and its implications for American use of force, foreign relations, and international law. We discuss not only the evolution and implications...

Janina Dill of the University of Oxford and Adil Haque of Rutgers Law School return to the podcast to address the question of whether it is possible now, while hostilities are still ongoing, to assess whether some aspects of the IDF's conduct of hostilities may be in violation of IHL. The question is germane because many argue that one cannot assess such violations until all of the evidence is ava...

A conversation with Professors Ingrid Brunk of Vanderbilt University Law School and Monica Hakimi of Columbia University Law School, about their forthcoming article on the prohibitions against annexations - a prohibition that is related to and often conflated with the prohibition agains the use of force, but which is distinct and important. We discuss the origins and operation of the principle, wh...

In a cross-posted episode I discuss with Jonathan Hafetz, host of the Law on Film podcast, and professor of law at Seton Hall Law School, the film "Eye in the Sky" - a 2015 film about a British and U.S. operated drone strike against al Shabaab terrorists in Kenya, which intelligently and engagingly explores the legal, ethical, philosophical, political, and strategic issues raised by the operation....

A round-table discussion with Professors Monika Hakimi of Columbia Law School, Adil Haque of Rutgers Law School, and Marko Milanovic of Reading Univ. School of Law, on the question of whether Israel has a right of self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7. The incident raises, and we explore, important questions about the scope of the prohibiti...

A discussion with Tom Dannenbaum, a professor of international law at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, on his work on the war crime of starvation. We delve into the proper interpretation of the IHL prohibition on starvation as a method of warfare, and the war crime of intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the Rome Statute of the ICC, considering what precise...

A discussion with Chris O'Meara, Lecturer at Exeter University Law School, about his new book, "Necessity and Proportionality and the Right of Self-Defence In International Law." Chris explains his novel taxonomy for the principle of necessity, and how the relationship among necessity, proportionality, and imminence should be properly understood, and we delve into some of the potentially controver...

A conversation with René Provost, professor of law at McGill University, Faculty of Law, in Montreal, about his recent book "Rebel Courts: The Administration of Justice by Armed Insurgents." We discuss the methodology he employed in researching this deep and rich ethnography of rebel courts in conflicts ranging from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, to Sri Lanka, Colombia, and the DRC. We discuss how h...

A conversation with Boyd van Dijk, currently a McKenzie Fellow at the University of Melbourne in Australia, about his new book, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions. We discuss some of the myths surrounding the history of the conventions, as well as the tensions and conflicts not just between parties to the negotiations, but also within delegations, caused by conflicting interes...

A conversation with Leila Sada, Professor of Law at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, United States, and special advisor on crimes against humanity to the Prosecutor of the ICC. We discuss the decade long effort to establish a new international convention to prohibit and punish crimes against humanity, the role and limitations of the ICC in governing crimes against humanity, the re...

A conversation with Dr. Chile Eboe-Osuji, former President of the ICC and Distinguished International Jurist at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada. We discuss why the ICC cannot prosecute the crime of aggression in Ukraine and what the better alternatives might be, the jurisdiction and immunity issues that might arise, how other war crimes should be pros...

A conversation with David Sloss, Professor of Law at the University of Santa Clara, about his new book, "Tyrants on Twitter: Protecting Democracies from Information Warfare." We discuss the recent history Russian and Chinese exploitation of social media, and explore the strategic and geopolitical implications of allowing these countries engage in this "warfare by other means" to undermine democrac...

A conversation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine with Professors Eliav Lieblich of Tel Aviv University, Marko Milanovic of the University of Nottingham, and Ingrid Wuerth of Vanderbilt Law School. We focus on how we should be thinking about the implications of this war for the jus ad bellum regime and the collective security system going forward. While the invasion is clearly an unlawful and e...

A conversation with Sam Moyn, Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University. We discuss his recent and acclaimed book "Humane," which, drawing on an insight of Leo Tolstoy, argues that as the United States has come to focus on humanizing armed conflict in the last few decades, its interest in constraining the incidence of war has declined. We discuss the...

A conversation with Olivier Corten, Professor of International Law at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium, about the recently published 2nd edition of his book "The Law Against War." Our discussion ranges from the differing methodological approaches to the international law on the use of force, the threshold for what constitutes a use of force, the scope and operation of the doctrine of sel...

A conversation with Aslı Bâli, Professor of Law at UCLA in the United States, on the lawfulness of comprehensive autonomous economic sanctions, and the relationship they may have with the laws of war. Economic sanctions can cause the kind of humanitarian harm and economic disruption that could be unlawful under IHL, or constitute a prohibited use of force if caused by cyber operations or naval blo...

Discussion with Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, who's terms as Judge and President of the ICC ended recently, on his role in the development of the ICC, and on some of the criticisms of the Court. We examine the meaning of "attack" in the Rome Statute through the lens of the Ntaganda case, and the relationship between so-called Hague Law and Geneva Law, and between war crimes and crimes against humanity,...

A panel discussion ofthe legal issues raised in the Gaza conflict of May 2021, with Professors Janina Dill of the University of Oxford, Adil Haque of Rutgers University Law School, and Aurel Sari of Exeter University Law School. The conversation begins by placing the legal issues in context, and addressing the question of whether the narrow focus on technical legal aspects may serve to obscure the...

A conversation with Srinivas Burra, professor of law at South Asian University, Faculty of Legal Studies, in New Delhi, India. Srinivas has written extensively on both jus ad bellum and international humanitarian law, often with a focus on India's practice and position in relation to these legal regimes. We discuss first how India's position regarding the doctrine of self-defense, as indicated in...

A conversation with Yasuyuki Yoshida, Professor of International Law at Takaoka University in Toyama Japan, and former Capt.(N) in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force, discusses Japan's posture on various aspects of the jus ad bellum regime, and whether or how its position may have changed as a result of the "reinterpretation" of Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan. Article 9 renounces the...

A conversation with Rebecca Ingber, Professor of Law at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law, and formerly a lawyer in the Office of Legal Advisor in the U.S. Department of State. We discuss a recent essay in which Rebecca examines how international and domestic law operate together to facilitate the incremental moves by which the U.S. initiates, expands, and extends armed conflicts. The pro...

A conversation with Sarah Holewinski, the Washington Director at Human Rights Watch, and formerly the Director of CIVIC (Civilians in Conflict). In between those two roles she served under then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, and as special advisor on human rights in the Chairman's Office of the Joint Staff in the Department of Defense. We begin by discussing an essay Sarah...