Drone Attacks: Law Enforcement or Armed Conflict?

Drone Attacks: Law Enforcement or Armed Conflict?
American Society of International Law - The Ritz-Carlton
Targeting with Drone Technology: Humanitarian Law ImplicationsCo-sponsored by the ASIL Lieber Society and Human Rights Interest GroupsThis panel explores the standards governing the rapidly expanding use of drone technology in targeting operations. Presenters will query US policy, focusing on perceived gaps that affect the legal analysis and the factors that counsel for or against greater clarity. Discussion will include (i) the geographic scope of conflict, (ii) targeting conducted by non-military personnel, and (iii) reciprocal application of policy by other countries and armed groups.Moderator:NAZ MODIRZADEHHarvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict ResearchSpeakers:CHRIS JENKSU.S. ArmyNils MelzerInternational Committee of the Red CrossInternational law, and the world in which it operates, are increasingly both harmonious and dissonant. The Society’s Annual Meeting in 2011 will focus on the evolution of international law in the context of this paradox.The paradox of simultaneous segmentation and seamlessness raises important questions. Most broadly, when should international law be segmented, and when should it be seamless? What are the mechanisms for deciding this question, and what are the values that inform those decisions? What do these trends say about international law as a coherent system? To what extent are certain groups and their viewpoints excluded or ignored? What does this say about who the influential players within the international legal system are, and how that influence is exercised? What does the existence of competing conceptions of international law itself mean for ASIL's constituents, including judges deciding international issues, practitioners seeking to persuade courts and craft international policy, and scholars seeking to understand and propose solutions to global problems?Society members are uniquely positioned to tackle these questions with their diverse perspectives, experiences, and areas of expertise, and their unifying commitment to investigating the limits and possibilities of international law. We look forward to an exciting and dynamic meeting that will examine such trends, and their implications for international law and legal institutions in the 21st century.