Law of Armed Conflict: An Operational Approach, Second Edition

Chris Jenks is a research professor of law. His research interests are at the intersection of the law of armed conflict, accountability norms and emerging technology. He is the co-author of a criminal law textbook and two editions of a law of armed conflict textbook and has published book chapters with both Oxford and Cambridge University Presses. His articles have appeared in the law reviews and journals of Harvard, Berkeley, Georgetown, Stanford, & Washington & Lee and the International Review of the Red Cross. His blog posts have been featured on Lawfare, Just Security, and Opinio Juris. He has published opeds with Newsweek, Stars and Stripes, and USA Today. He has testified before the US Congress’ Helsinki Commission and presented to House and Senate Staffers on Capitol Hill, the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment, at the American Society of International Law, the Council on Foreign Relations, and at universities and institutes around the world.

Prior to joining the SMU faculty, Professor Jenks served for more than 20 years in the U.S. military, first as an infantry officer and later as a judge advocate and was detailed to both the human rights and refugees and the political/military affairs sections of the Office of the Legal Adviser at the Department of State and as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney on both the civil and criminal side at the Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice’s Counterterrorism Section nominated him for the John Marshall Award for interagency cooperation following his work as the lead prosecutor in the Army’s first counterterrorism trial involving a soldier who attempted to aid the al-Qaeda terrorist network. While working at the Department of State, he served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly. In his last assignment, Professor Jenks served as the chief of the international law branch for the U.S. Army in the Pentagon, where he supervised the program by which foreign countries asserted criminal jurisdiction over U.S. service members and represented the Department of Defense at Status of Forces Agreement negotiations; he was also the legal adviser to the U.S. military observers group, which provides personnel to U.N. missions around the world.