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 of force against Iran is, on the facts as we know them, almost certainly illegal. The only justification that Israel can provide for its use of force is self-defence under Article 51 of the Charter – using force to repel an armed attack, subject to the criteria of necessity and proportionality. The first point to clarify here is that the nature and stated goals of Israel’s use of force – damaging Iran’s nuclear programme and preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon that could be used against Israel – are explicitly about deflecting a future armed attack by Iran against Israel, i.e. an attack that is yet to occur. In other words, this is not a…
Use of Force
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Is ‘prolonged occupation’ still ‘military occupation’ governed by IHL?
Article 42 of the Hague Regulations (HR), annexed to the 1907 Hague Convention IV, provides that a territory is considered occupied ‘when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army.’ In such circumstances, the relevant provisions governing military occupation become applicable, as codified in the HR (Articles 42-56), the Fourth Geneva Convention…
Attacks on Submarine Cables and Pipelines: A Self-Defence Approach Complementary to Law Enforcement
Combating sabotage of submarine cables and pipelines is first and foremost a matter of law enforcement. The problem is that the international law of the sea, as traditionally understood, does not provide coastal States with sufficient authority to effectively respond to sabotage activities beyond their territorial waters (for an in-depth discussion, see here). The European…
US Withdrawal from NATO and Its Impact on Access to Greenland
The US has long expressed interest in acquiring Greenland. Most recently, President Trump indicated a desire to ‘get’ the island by whatever means necessary. While the motivations remain somewhat unclear, there is – despite political rhetoric – no doubt as to Danish sovereignty over the island. Refusals to rule out…
The Ukraine Dialogue
Thucydides’ famous Melian Dialogue came to mind when reading about President Trump’s demand that Ukraine surrender control over its natural resources and accept Russian control of additional territories. As described by Thucydides in the Melian Dialogue (416 BCE), Athens demands the submission of Melos, a weaker island state, offering it a stark choice: subjugation or destruction. Melos refuses…
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