Interest in targeted killing and drone warfare is not letting up in intensity – at least to judge by the pace of events on the topic. Right on top of my debate with Notre Dame’s Mary Ellen O’Connell on this at Washington University two weeks ago, Professor O’Connell and the Brookings Institution’s (and Hoover Institution’s) […]
Author Archive | Kenneth Anderson
NGO Accountability and Legitimacy at Brooklyn Law School
I was privileged yesterday to take part in an exciting conference in New York yesterday at Brooklyn Law School, Governing Civil Society: NGO Accountability, Legitimacy and Influence. Congratulations to Professors Claire R. Kelly and Dana Brakman Reiser at BLS for putting it together. I was on one of the panels at this one day session […]
A Good Theme for Your College Application Essay?
Let the Right One In?
Paul Miller, RIP
Like many of HLS ’86, I was saddened to read the obituary of our classmate Paul Miller, who passed away at the untimely age of 49. Paul was born with dwarfism, and as a disability rights activist, member of the EEOC, and other senior government positions, was long in DC, where I occasionally ran into […]
Self Defense and Non-International Armed Conflict in Drone Warfare
By Kenneth Anderson on October 22, 2010 6:31 am in Afghanistan, International Law, Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict
Over the past year, I’ve been spending much time on the questions of drone warfare and the legal issues raised – many talks, panel discussions, debates, and so on. In the course of those discussions, as well as discussions with many experts one-on-one, I’ve wanted both to clarify a couple of my views and acknowledge […]
John Louth of OUP Guestblogging at Opinio Juris
Some VC readers, particularly academics, might be interested in the guest posts going up this week at Opinio Juris by John Louth, the editor in chief of academic law at Oxford University Press, thanks to the good offices of OJ’s Kevin Jon Heller. Mr. Louth is guest-posting on international law publishing, but much of what […]
Google Cars Drive Themselves, and Robots and the Law
The idea of robotic cars that drive themselves is a good one, I think, and one whose time is rapidly coming. The New York Times reports on Google undertaking test drives of cars in the San Francisco area with robotically controlled cars, including a drive down Lombard Street, a famously hilly and difficult street. The […]
The AfPak Conflict and the Lead-up to the December 2010 Strategic Review
I am currently underwater with some things and won’t be posting much, despite my interest in the debates over drones, targeted killing, and much else besides. However, I wanted to suggest that, for those trying to make sense of US actions in AfPak – including the overt strikes by NATO against safe havens in Pakistan, […]
A Tribute to Louis Henkin from Harold Koh
By Kenneth Anderson on October 15, 2010 11:07 am in International Human Rights Law, International Law
The great international law scholar Louis Henkin passed away two days ago; for many decades he taught at Columbia Law School, which released a note from the dean on Professor Henkin’s passing. Over at Opinio Juris, Harold Koh, currently Legal Adviser to the State Department, has a lovely tribute to him. I have come not […]
Targeted Killing and Drone Debate at Washington University Law School Today
By Kenneth Anderson on October 8, 2010 12:00 pm in Targeted Killing, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
(Update: Sorry about leaving off a title! perils of posting from an Ipod!) Today at noon, the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University Law School is holding a debate on targeted killing using drone aircraft. It features Notre Dame’s Mary Ellen O’Connell and yours truly, and moderated by Minnesota Public Radio’s Matt […]
Addendum on My Intellectual Life at UCLA, and a Note on the New Class
Further to my post below on the passing of Philippa Foot. In addition to the philosophers whom Larry Solum lists as having great intellectual impact on us as undergraduates, for myself and in my own intellectual trajectory at UCLA, I have to add to Larry’s list from outside the philosophy department – the great political […]
Philippa Foot (1920-2010)
With great sorrow, I mark the passing of Philippa Foot, the great Oxford moral philosopher and my teacher at UCLA. I took my first class in ethics from her, and I took every possible other class with her. I will not try to summarize her philosophical method or her importance in Anglo-American analytic philosophy of […]
Congratulations to Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain
Congratulations to Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the 9th Circuit, who has been named chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on International Judicial Relations by Chief Justice Roberts. It is a three-year term, and Judge O’Scannlain is a terrific choice to chair it. The 9th Circuit announcement notes that the Committee was formed in 1993 to […]
Drone Warfare as Force Protection, and Drones as Strategic Air Power
By Kenneth Anderson on October 2, 2010 6:08 pm in Robotics, Targeted Killing, Uncategorized, War and Armed Conflict, War on Terror
Adam Entous, Julan E. Barnes, and Siobhan Gorman have an outstanding piece of national security reporting on the front page of the weekend Wall Street Journal, “CIA Escalates Campaign in Pakistan: Pentagon Diverts Drones to Afghanistan to Bolster Campaign Next Door.” This is a fine piece of journalism that integrates reporting from AfPak and Washington […]
Strategic Ambiguity? How to Interpret This Sentence?
I have no idea how many people attended the DC rally today; could be 10 or 1,000,000 for all I know. I’m sitting outside my law school in the sunshine. I know that there is much commentary on comparisons to the Beck rally in terms of size. But I am unsure how to interpret the […]