Illinois Law professor Lesley M. Wexler discusses three U.S. strikes in Iran (Kuhestak, Qeshm, and Lamerd) and new UN and Bloomberg findings on the earlier Minab school strike, examining their International Humanitarian Law implications. Professor Wexler argues that these incidents reveal systemic failures, including outdated intelligence, rushed targeting, overreliance on AI, cuts to civilian harm mitigation staff, and questionable weapon choices, and that the U.S. has yet to acknowledge responsibility or release its investigations.
Amherst professor Austin Sarat discusses the parallels between Iran’s aggressive use of capital punishment—including record execution numbers, hangings, and executions for drug offenses—and President Trump’s own enthusiasm for expanding and intensifying the death penalty in the United States. Professor Sarat argues that Trump’s fixation on capital punishment reflects an authoritarian impulse akin to Iran’s use of executions as a tool of control and intimidation, and warns that while global trends favor abolition, the U.S. under Trump risks moving in the opposite, regressive direction.
