The basic stuff about international law
This branch of law defines how sovereign nations must act toward each other and treat individuals within their borders.
What is Public International Law?
This Latin term refers to the legal rules that restrict when a nation can legally resort to military force.
What is jus ad bellum?
This Latin term sets the legal rules for how military forces must actually behave during a conflict.
What is jus in bello?
This ethical principle requires a military to use a reasonable, balanced amount of force relative to its tactical goal.
What is proportionality?
This 2003 conflict lacked UN support and was highly criticized for relying on weak intelligence about Weapons of Mass Destruction
What is the U.S. invasion of Iraq?
This important article, created in 1945, sets the standard rules for modern international relations.
What is the United Nations Charter?
This specific UN Charter article protects state sovereignty by banning the use of force against another nation's territory or independence.
What is Article 2(4)?
This modern name for jus in bello focuses on preventing war crimes and protecting victims of conflict.
What is International Humanitarian Law (IHL)?
This rule requires militaries to clearly tell the difference between enemy combatants and innocent civilians.
What is distinction?
This 2022 invasion violated the UN Charter because the target country never attacked or threatened the invading nation.
What is Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
This type of law handles the legal rights and relationships between private citizens or companies from different countries.
What is Private International Law?
This vital exception under UN Charter Article 51 allows a country to fight back if it faces an armed attack.
What is the right to self-defense?
These international rules protect civilians, prisoners, and wounded soldiers during wartime.
What are the Geneva Conventions?
This controversial targeting method attacks unknown individuals based entirely on suspicious behavior patterns rather than a confirmed identity.
What is a signature strike?
This superpower faced heavy criticism when it abstained from a UN Security Council Gaza cease-fire resolution and claimed the vote was nonbinding.
What is the United States?
Diplomats use this phrase to describe a global system built on treaties and international court rulings.
What is the "rules-based order"?
This 2001 domestic law gave the U.S. president broad power to use military force after 9/11, but was later expanded to fight a global war.
What is the AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force)?
This branch of historical law specifically regulates the actual methods and weapons militaries can use in battle.
What is Hague Law?
The U.S. relies heavily on these unmanned aircraft to protect its soldiers, though operating them causes high rates of PTSD in pilots.
What are drones (or UAVs)?
This 1950 UN mechanism lets the General Assembly recommend action when the Security Council is deadlocked by a permanent member's veto.
What is the "Uniting for Peace" resolution?
Because it lacks a global police force, international law relies on member states taking enforcement into their own hands, which resembles this system
What is vigilante justice?
This minority legal theory allows a region to break away from its home country as a last resort to escape severe human rights abuses.
What is remedial secession?
The global war on terror severely strained national security law by blurring the line between military combat and this domestic duty.
What is law enforcement?
To justify drone strikes outside active warzones, the U.S. tries to stretch the definition of "imminent threat" to include this future danger.
What is anticipated terrorism?
This international body issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, showing that institutions still try to enforce accountability.
What is the International Criminal Court (ICC)?