Abstract

This talk will examine the legality of the recent US drone strike against Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iran Quds force. It will do so primarily from the standpoint of the UN Charter-based law on the use of force, but will also address the legality of the strike under the law of armed conflict and international human rights law.

About the speaker

Marko Milanovic is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Nottingham School of Law. He obtained his first degree in law from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, his LL.M from the University of Michigan Law School, and his PhD in international law from the University of Cambridge.

He is co-editor of EJIL: Talk!, the blog of the European Journal of International Law, as well as a member of the EJIL’s Editorial Board, and was formerly Vice-President and member of the Executive Board of the European Society of International Law.

Milanovic held visiting professorships at Michigan Law School, Columbia Law School, and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. He is an Associate of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and is a professorial research fellow at Deakin Law School. He was Law Clerk to Judge Thomas Buergenthal of the International Court of Justice in 2006/2007.

He has published in leading academic journals, including the European Journal of International Law and the American Journal of International Law; his work has been cited, inter alia, by judges of the European Court of Human Rights and the UK Supreme Court, as well as by the International Law Commission. He was counsel or advisor in cases before the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Constitutional Court of Serbia.