Human Rights Obligations, Armed Conflict, and Afghanistan: Looking Back Before Looking Ahead

O n January 22, 2009, President Obama issued three executive orders mandating, among other things, a review of US detention policy, a review of US interrogation policy, and the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility as soon as practicable and, in any case, within a year of the order. With these orders, the President ensured that the US government would revisit a whole range of domestic and international legal positions governing its use of force against al Qaeda and the Taliban. two groups with which it has been engaged in armed conflict since late 200 1. One issue which the new administration may have occasion to consider in the context of the above-mentioned reviews, and as it contemplates further military engagement in Afghanistan, is the question of which body of international law governs the use of force by the United States in extraterritorial armed conflicts-and, in particular , whether the governing international legal regime is the law of armed conflict, human rights law or some combination of the two. In this area, the new