Gray: Targeted Killings: Recent US Attempts to Create a Legal Framework

Christine Gray (Univ. of Cambridge - Law) has published Targeted Killings: Recent US Attempts to Create a Legal Framework (Current Legal Problems, Vol. 66, pp. 75-106, 2013). Here's the abstract:

The significant increase in targeted killings by the USA under President Obama has led to growing demands for greater transparency about the legal justification for this controversial use of force. In response several members of the administration have recently made speeches about the legal rules governing targeted killing. This article will consider these speeches and identify some of the key questions that they have left unanswered. These include the nature of the relationship between Al-Qaeda and its ‘associates’, and the links of the various terrorist groups, if any, to the terrorist attacks of 9/11; the categorization of lawful targets; the role of the CIA; the scope and meaning of ‘imminence’; and the establishment and significance of host state consent.