Between Crime and War: Hybrid Legal Frameworks for Asymmetric Conflict

The threat posed by the recent rise of transnational non-state armed groups does not fit easily within either of the two basic paradigms for state responses to violence. The civilian paradigm focuses on the interception of demonstrable immediate threats to the safety of others. The military paradigm focuses on threats posed by collective actors who pose a danger to the state's ability to maintain basic social order and, at times, the very existence of the state. While the United States has responded to the threat posed by non-state armed groups by using tools from both paradigms, it has placed substantially more emphasis on the military paradigm than have other states. While several reasons may contribute to this approach, one may be the assumption that a state must use each set of tools strictly according in accordance with the principles that underlie each paradigm. Implicit in this assumption may be the sense that the only alternative to the civilian paradigm is the
unqualified military one.

The chapters in this book suggest, however that we need not see the options as confined to this binary choice. It may be profitable to consider borrowing elements from each paradigm on some occasions to act more expansively than the conventional civilian paradigm allows, but less expansively than the conventional military paradigm would permit. At the same time, the mixing of the categories comes with its own ethical and legal risks that should be scrutinized.


Author: Jens David Ohlin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 12/11/2022
Pages: 592
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.15lbs
Size: 9.36h x 6.41w x 1.70d
ISBN13: 9780197638798
ISBN10: 0197638791
BISAC Categories:
- Law | International
- Law | Military
- Law | Constitutional

About the Author

Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Claire Finkelstein's current research addresses national security law and policy and democratic governance with a focus on related ethical and rule of law issues. Professor Finkelstein is the founder and faculty director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL), a non-partisan interdisciplinary institute affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC).

Christopher J. Fuller is Associate Professor of Modern U.S. Foreign Policy and Head of Admissions at the University of Southampton. He specializes in U.S. foreign policy from 1945 to the present day with a particular interest in the "War on Terror" and wider U.S. counterterrorism practices. His previous books include See It/Shoot It: The Secret History of the CIA's Lethal Drone Program (2017).

Jens David Ohlin became the Allan R. Tessler Dean of Cornell Law School on July 1, 2021. His scholarly work stands at the intersection of four related fields: criminal law, criminal procedure, public international law, and the laws of war. Trained as both a lawyer and a philosopher, his research has tackled questions as diverse as criminal conspiracy and the punishment of collective criminal action, the philosophical foundations of international law, and the role of new technologies in warfare, including cyberwar, remotely piloted drones, and autonomous weapons.

Mitt Regan is McDevitt Professor of Jurisprudence, Director of the Center on the Legal Profession, and Co-Director on the Center on National Security and the Law at Georgetown University Law Center. His work focuses on international law, national security, international human rights, and legal and military ethics. Professor Regan is also Senior Fellow at the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy, and Adjunct Faculty Member at the Center for Military and Security Law at the Australian National University College of Law.