On March 25, Harold H. Koh, legal adviser to the United States State Department, delivered the keynote address to the American Society of International Law.
In his speech, Mr Koh who was dean of the Yale Law School during the Bush administration, laid out the Obama administration’s approach to the use of force specifically in relation to UAV or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the targeted killings of combatants.
The speech came in the footsteps of a congressional hearing by the Congressional Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that began on Tuesday. Prof Koh argued that drone attacks meet the legal principles set out in the law of war because they fall under the larger doctrine of ‘self-defence’.
In an “ongoing armed conflict the United States has the right to use force including lethal force to defend itself including by targeting persons such as high-level Al Qaeda leaders who are planning attacks”.
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