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17 Yale J. Int'l L. 609 (1992)
State-Sponsored Assassination in International and Domestic Law

handle is hein.journals/yjil17 and id is 617 raw text is: State-Sponsored Assassination in International and Domestic Law Michael N. Schmittt I. INTRODUCTION ................................................ 610 I1. HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDINGS ...................................... 613 HI. CONTEMPORARY PROHIBITIONS OF ASSASSINATION DURING PEACETIME............... 618 A. Major Treaties ............................................. 618 B. Inferences fom Other Legal Norms ................................ 619 C. Extradition Treaties .......................................... 621 D. State Practice ............................................. 623 E. Conclusions ............................................... 627 IV. CONTEMPORARY PROHIB1TIONS UNDER THE LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT............. 628 A. From General Order 100 to the Oxford Manual ......................... 628 B. Hague IV and the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions ............. 629 C. Domestic Manuals on the Law of War ............................... 631 D. Some Conclusions: A Definition of Wartime Assassination .................. 631 1. Targeting Individuals ...................................... 632 2. Treachery .............................................. 632 a. Rationales .......................................... 633 b. Etamples ........................................... 633 c. Civilian Clothes, Irregulars, and Wearing the Enemy's Uniform ......... 635 3. Identity of the Target, Choice of Weapon, and Necessity and Proportionality .... 639 4. Guidelines for Understanding Assassination in the Law of Armed Conflict ...... 641 V. APPLYING THE PROPER CORPUS OF LAW ................................ 642 A. When the Law of Armed Conflict Governs ............................. 642 B. State-Sponsored Killings as Self-Defense ............................. 644 C. State-Sponsored Killing as Anticipatory Self-Defense ...................... 645 1. The Issue of Imminence ...................................... 646 2. Evaluating the Threat to the State .............................. 648 D. Determining Political Motivation of State-Sponsored Killing in Non-Defensive Situations ............................................... 650 t Major, United States Air Force. LL.M., Yale Law School, 1991; J.D., University of Texas, 1984; M.A., Southwest Texas University, 1983; B.A., Southwest Texas University, 1978. The views, opinions, and conclusions in this article are those of the author and should not.be construed as an official position of the Department of Defense, the United States Air Force, or any other governmental agency.