ABSTRACT
Human rights advocates and the media have rightly paid a great deal of attention to the US disregarding the Geneva Conventions and international human rights in its treatment of detainees in Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base, Guantánamo Bay and the CIA black sites. Yet there is another area of concern that has been widely discussed in Europe and the Middle East, but has received less attention in the US, namely, state agents such as the CIA or Special Operation Forces deliberately targeting and killing a suspected terrorist rather than attempting to capture or arrest the targeted person.1 Some have called these “assassinations,” others “targeted killings.” But however denominated, the government identifies a specific individual and instructs its agents to kill that person. The question explored in this chapter is whether such premeditated and deliberate killing violates international law. Aside from morality, which also informs the debate, the legal question is a complex one, and as noted international humanitarian law scholar Michael Bothe put it, the short answer is “it depends.”2
