Gabriella Blum is the Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law School, specializing in public international law, international negotiations, the law of armed conflict, and counterterrorism. She is also the Vice Dean for the Graduate Program and International Legal Studies, Faculty Director of the HLS Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (HLS PILAC), and a member of the Program on Negotiation Executive Board.
Rita H. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Gabriella Blum, HLS PILAC Faculty Director
Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in the fall of 2005, Blum served for seven years as a Senior Legal Advisor in the International Law Department of the Military Advocate General’s Corps in the Israel Defense Forces, and for another year, as a Strategy Advisor to the Israeli National Security Council.
Blum is a graduate of Tel-Aviv University (LL.B. (’95), B.A. (Economics) (’97)) and of Harvard Law School (LL.M. (’01) and SJD (’03)).
Blum is the author of Islands of Agreement: Managing Enduring Armed Rivalries (Harvard University Press, 2007), Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists (MIT Press, 2010) (co-authored with Philip Heymann and recipient of the Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize), and The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones—Confronting a New Age of Threat (Basic Books, 2015) (co-authored with Benjamin Wittes and recipient of the Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize), as well as of journal articles in the fields of public international law and the law and morality of war.
Contact
Professor Gabriella Blum
E-mail: gblum@law.harvard.edu
Assistant: Bradford Conner
E-mail: conner@law.harvard.edu
Videos
Ethics and the Global War on Terror (March 7, 2017)
The Future of Violence (April 10, 2015)
The Fog of Victory (August 7, 2013)
Publications
HLS PILAC Reports
“Quantum of Silence: Inaction and Jus ad Bellum,” 2019 (co-author with Dustin A. Lewis and Naz K. Modirzadeh)
“Indefinite War: Unsettled International Law on the End of Armed Conflict,” Legal Briefing, Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, February 2017 (co-author with Dustin A. Lewis and Naz K. Modirzadeh). See also a related Lawfare post [link].
“War-Algorithm Accountability,” Research Briefing, Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, August 2016 (co-author with Dustin A. Lewis and Naz K. Modirzadeh). See also related Lawfare posts [link] and [link].
“Medical Care in Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law and State Responses to Terrorism,” Legal Briefing, Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, September 2015 (co-author with Dustin A. Lewis and Naz K. Modirzadeh). See also a related Lawfare post [link] and a Lawfare Podcast episode [link].
Books
The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones—Confronting a New Age of Threat (with Benjamin Wittes) (Basic Books, 2015) (awarded the 2015 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize).
Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists: Lessons from the War on Terrorism (with Philip Heymann) (MIT Press, 2010) (awarded the 2010 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize).
Islands of Agreement: Managing Enduring Armed Rivalries (Harvard University Press, 2007).
Edited Books
The Enduring Legacy of Michael Walzer’s Just and Unjust Wars: 35 years later (Gabriella Blum & Joseph Weiler eds., European Journal of International Law Symposium Issue, 2013).
Journal Articles
The Shadow of Success: How International Criminal Law Has Come to Shape the Battlefield, 100 International Law Studies 133 (2023).
The Unable or Unwilling Doctrine: A View From Private Law, 63 Harvard International Law Journal 63 (2022) (with John C. P. Goldberg).
The Paradox of Power: The Changing Norms of the Modern Battlefield (The Twenty-Third Annual Frankel Lecture: Address) 56 Houston Law Review 745 (2019).
Defenses, 97 Texas Law Review 881 (2019) (with Oren Bar-Gill).
Prizeless Wars, Invisible Victories: The Modern Goals of Armed Conflict, 49 Arizona State Law Journal 633 (2017).
War for the Wrong Reasons: Lessons from Law, Journal of Moral Philosophy (forthcoming, 2014) (with John C. P. Goldberg).
Unsatisfying Wars: Degrees of Risk and the Jus ex Bello (under review by Ethics, 2014) (with David Luban).
The Fog of Victory (symposium piece – The Enduring Legacy of Just and Unjust Wars – 35 Years Later), 24(1) European Journal of International Law 391 (2013).
States’ Crime and Punishment, 38 Yale Journal of International Law 57 (2012).
Invisible Threats (Hoover Institute Taskforce on Law and National Security, Stanford University, 2012).
Re-envisaging the International Law of Internal Armed Conflict: A Response to Sandesh Sivakumaran, (solicited piece) 22(1) European Journal of International Law, 265-271 (2011).
On a Differential Law of War, 52 Harvard International Law Journal 164-218 (2011) (selected for the Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum, June 2010).
Law and Policy of Targeted Killing (with Philip Heymann), 1 Harvard National Security Journal 145-170 (2010).
The Dispensable Lives of Soldiers, 2 Journal of Legal Analysis 69-124 (2010).
The Laws of War and the Lesser Evil, 35 Yale Journal of International Law 1-69 (2010).
The Laws of War and the Lesser Evil (abridged), American Society of International Law, Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting, Cutting-Edge Scholarship Panel (2010).
The Laws of War and the Lesser Evil, online symposium on opiniojuris.org.
The Role of the Client: The President’s Role in Government Lawyering, Symposium Issue, 32 Boston College International and Comparative Law Review 275-287 (2009).
Bilateralism, Multilateralism, and the Architecture of International Law, 49 Harvard International Law Journal 323-379 (2008).
The Disengagement Plan and the International Community, Conference Report (Robert H. Mnookin ed.), 21(2) Negotiation Journal 248-249 (2005).
Book Chapters
The Individualization of War: From War to Policing in the Regulation of Armed Conflict, in Law and War (Amherst Series, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming, 2013).
Earthquakes and Wars: The Logic of International Reparations, in Jus Post Bellum (Larry May ed., Cambridge University Press, 2013) (with Natalie Lockwood).
“Explosive Remnants of War,” in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, (Oxford University Press, 2010).
“Cluster Munitions,” in Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law, (Oxford University Press, 2010).
“When Not to Negotiate,” with Robert H. Mnookin, in The ABA Negotiator’s Fieldbook 101-112 (Andrea K. Schneider and Christopher Honeyman eds., 2006).
“The Legal Framework Applicable to Fighting Terrorism,” with Pnina Sharvit Baruch, in The Limited Conflict 327-345 (Hagai Golan & Shaul Shai eds., 2004) (in Hebrew).
Working Papers
On Pacifism and Targeted Killings
Old Debates over New Technologies: On Balloons, Airplanes, and Drones
Magazines, Newspapers, & Media
“Punishing Syria,” Lawfare Blog, September 2013.
Canadian Radio Broadcasting, “The Current,” segment on Israeli-Palestinian Negotiation, September 26, 2010.
“A Comparative Perspective on Judicial Review of Counterterrorism Operations: Israel - U.S.,” 47 Justice 17-21 (Spring 2010). (A slightly amended version appeared on http://opiniojuris.org/2009/06/23/gabriella-blum-comments-on-the-role-of-the-judiciary-in-israel-in-counterterrorism/
“Combating Human Shields: Four Strategies,” 75 Congress Monthly 8-10 (May/June, 2008).
"The Israeli Model for Detainees Rights," with Martha L. Minow, Boston Globe, October 18, 2006.
Select Events
Select Audio Recordings
The Lawfare Podcast, A Band-Aid for a Bomber: Is Medical Assistance to Terrorists Protected Under IHL?, Lawfare (Sept. 12, 2015), https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-band-aid-bomber-medical-assistance-terrorists-protected-under-ihl (with Gabriella Blum and Dustin Lewis).