To find scholarly articles in law journals and in journals for other disciplines, you can conduct searches in a variety of databases.
Search law review articles on Westlaw , Lexis, and Hein Online. See the Finding Articles page in the Summer RA Workshop 2025 guide for visuals and tips on searching the different articles databases.
International Legal Materials (ASIL): Primary international legal documents including opinions of international and national courts on international law, US court opinions on international law, UN resolutions, and new treaties. Available on Hein Online, Lexis, and Westlaw; updated by the International Law in Brief blog.
You might also search for articles in social science and interdisciplinary journals. Use Emory A to Z Databases to find Emory's databases by subject or by type of database. Or try these databases for inter-disciplinary research in multiple subject areas.
Emory Library Search/Articles+: The catalog for the Emory libraries is also a database for searching articles in multiple campus databases. Log in first as an Emory user to get access to journal databases. Use the link to Articles+, search, then refine your search results by resource type, subject, or collection. Results will include links to the articles in campus databases.
Academic Search Complete: Multi-disciplinary database of full-text scholarly journals, searchable by full-text and fields. Many articles are available in PDF images of the original journals.
Social Sciences Full Text: Full-text journals in the social sciences, including anthropology, political science, sociology, economics, and related fields.
JSTOR: Full-text, pdf journals, including older volumes. Disciplines include International Relations, Law, Peace & Conflict Studies, Political Science, and Public Policy & Administration.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online): Journal articles, books, working papers, policy briefs, and reports and studies from NGOs and think tanks on international affairs and foreign relations. Filters for searches include geographical, content type, publisher, and topic (including security, international relations, conflict resolution, foreign policy, war).
Google Scholar: Use the advanced search (in the menu at the top left) to limit your search to exact phrase, at least one, or within a number of words, or search by author, journal, or date range. Use the Settings (in the menu) to link to Emory libraries (as Library Links). This will allow you access to Emory subscription databases from your search results.
Emory Library collections: Search the Emory Library catalog for books on international law, the law of war, literature on war, and the history of warfare. War (International Law) and Intervention (International Law) are among the subject searches available for legal materials. For print materials, international law can be found, in general, in the KZs, and international relations in the JZs, with works on treaties and international agreements at KZ118-194 . You can find a guide to Library of Congress subject classification (call number ranges) in this guide. In general, world history can be found in the D call number ranges.
Acts of Aggression and Prosecuting the Crime of Aggression
by
There was a time when taking up arms as a means of resolving international disputes was commonplace in the world. More recently, the international community of states has attempted to restrict armed conflicts to certain defined circumstances only; yet, acts of aggression still seem to prevail in this day and age. While the Security Council of the United Nations has been charged with a primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security, efforts to entrust the International Criminal Court (ICC) with a competence to prosecute persons in a position of authority responsible for the planning, preparation, initiation or execution of acts of aggression has thus far not been finalized. Even if the exercise of jurisdiction by the ICC to prosecute crimes of aggression were to become a reality--a matter that will be reconsidered in 2017 at the earliest--governments will be afforded the sovereign power to exclude the exercise of jurisdiction for the crime of aggression committed by its national or on its territory, either by not ratifying the ICC Statute or by depositing a declaration to that effect with the Registrar of the ICC.
International Law and Armed Conflict
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International Law and Armed Conflict: Fundamental Principles and Contemporary Challenges in the Law of War uses vivid stories and cases to bring basic principles of law and current challenges to life in the classroom. Basic legal principles and policy inform and frame contemporary issues, as well as tomorrow's unanswered questions and challenges Protection of civilians Contemporary weapons--lethal autonomous weapons, cyber operations, outer space Conflicts with terrorist groups Integrated coverage of related fields, such as human rights and national security law, provides a more complete picture of the legal paradigm that applies to armed conflict
International conflict and security law
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This incisive book provides an extensive analysis of the robust array of international law applicable across the spectrum of international conflict and security. With a particular focus on new and emerging technologies and domains such as cyber and outer space, Laurie Blank illustrates how international conflict and security law applies to 21st century challenges
The Law in War
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This book provides a comprehensive yet concise overview of key issues related to the regulation of armed hostilities between States, and between States and non-State groups. Coverage begins with an explanation of the conditions that result in the applicability of international humanitarian law, and then subsequently addresses how the law influences a broad range of operational, humanitarian, and accountability issues that arise during military operations. Each chapter provides a clear and comprehensive explanation of humanitarian law, focusing especially on how it impacts operations. The chapters also highlight both contemporary controversies in the field and potentially emerging norms of the law. The book is an ideal text for students studying international humanitarian law for the first time, as well as an excellent introduction for students and practitioners of public international law and international relations.
From Cold War to Cyber War
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This book follows the history of the international law of peace and armed conflict over the last 25 years. It highlights both the parameters that have remained the same over the years as well as the new challenges now facing international law. The articles analyze new developments concerning the prohibition of the use of force in international relations, self-determination of peoples, human rights and human security as well as international coordination of humanitarian assistance.
Internationalized Armed Conflicts in International Law
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This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of factors that transform a prima facie non-international armed conflict (NIAC) into an international armed conflict (IAC) and the consequences that follow from this process of internationalization. It examines in detail the historical development as well as the current state of the relevant rules of international humanitarian law. The discussion is grounded in general international law, complemented with abundant references to case law, and illustrated by examples from twentieth and twenty-first century armed conflicts.In Part I, the book puts forward a thorough catalogue of modalities of conflict internationalization that includes outside intervention, State dissolution, and recognition of belligerency. It then specifically considers the legal qualification of complex situations that feature more than two conflict parties and contrasts the mechanism of internationalization of armed conflicts with the reverse process of de-internationalization. Part II of the book challenges the conventional wisdom that members of non-State armed groups do not normally benefit from combatant status. It argues that the majority of fighters belonging to non-State armed groups in most types of internationalized armed conflicts are in fact eligible for combatant status. Finally, Part III turns to belligerent occupation, traditionally understood as a leading example of a notion that cannot be transposed to armed conflicts occurring in the territory of a single State. By contrast, the book argues in favour of the applicability of the law of belligerent occupation to internationalized armed conflicts.
The Morality of the Laws of War
by
Combatants are equal under the laws of armed conflict, regardless of whether the wars they fight are just or unjust, legal or illegal. They are permissible targets and can kill each other in battle. This basic feature of international law has been recently put into question by a group of moral philosophers known as revisionists, who argue that just combatants in an unjust war should be considered innocents, and their deaths considered murder. Dr. Prieto Rudolphy explains and assesses the conflict between the revisionist argument and the existing legal norms in The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder. The book provides an in-depth assessment of modern ethical thought on killing in wartime, deconstructing the revisionist view of war and offering a new perspective on the legal equality of combatants. Prieto Rudolphy not only examines the tension between the revisionist morality and the traditional thesis of symmetry between combatants but proposes a contingent justification of the latter and an alternative morality of war. Underlying both is the inescapable fact that regulating war is always a moral compromise. At the same time, she argues that there is urgent moral pressure to improve our laws - to bring them closer to an ideal whereby war does not exist. The Morality of the Laws of War is a must-read for scholars of moral philosophy and international law, from students to experts, providing a thorough account of contemporary debates on the ethics of warfare and using nuanced arguments to illuminate a fresh perspective.
A Socio-Legal History of the Laws of War
by
International laws governing the conduct of war and the behaviour of soldiers on the field of battle is a topic of strong academic and legal interest. Moving beyond contemporary work on the laws of war that is legalistic in nature, A Socio-Legal History of the Laws of Wardemonstrates how the content and application of these laws are driven as much by cultural worldview and normative practice, as by legal principle. Tying the story of the development of the laws of war to key structural and cultural changes occurring within the societies that develop and adopt such behavioural proscriptions, this history, the second of two volumes, examines the emergence of international law and legal orders whereby warfare and its conduct begin moving out of the realm of cultural norms and into a quasi-legal space, where specific principles of international law in general, and laws of war in particular, become more precisely articulated, formalized, and codified. Examining the evolution and multiplication of laws constraining how warfare is waged from the founding of the United Nations and the formalized creation of the Geneva Conventions to the contemporary era, the utilization of ad hoc tribunals in the post-war period, and the establishment of the International Criminal Court in the early 21st century, Mullins provides a cogent understanding of how this historical moment developed and what paths potential lie ahead.
War Crimes
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Looks both at the current politics in relation to war crimes, but also at the history going back to the mid-19th century and earlier. Including key features such as documents and images, this very much helps readers get a full picture of this complex and disturbing topic. War Crimes and genocide are much studied, and this is a good, clear introduction to this complex and crowded field. While there has been an explosion of research on war crimes and the laws of war in recent years, most focus on single areas, the legal dimensions of war crimes and the ore recent past - this book goes beyond all of these and provides a comprehensive and clear introduction with a much longer purview.
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