Until recently, the status of customary international law in the U.S. legal system drew scant attention outside of legal academic circles. The onset of the global war on terrorism (GWOT), however, has focused new attention on the status of customary international law in U.S. law. Many important aspects of the U.S. government's conduct of the GWOT has been challenged as violating customary international law (CIL), which arises from the custom and practices of nations.

Click here to view the full text of this working paper as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.