The Yemen Accountability Project (YAP) is proud to announce the publication of its seventh white paper, "Assessing the Legal Implications of the Military Response to Houthi Attacks in the Red Sea." This paper marks a pivotal expansion of YAP’s work, documenting not only atrocities committed within Yemen, but also the international legal implications of the unfolding Red Sea conflict.
The report analyzes the legality of military responses by the United States, the United Kingdom, and coalition partners to Houthi attacks on commercial and military vessels between October 2023 and January 2025. The paper evaluates these events under international law governing self-defense, counterterrorism, and piracy, concluding with a discussion on the use of force against non-state actors. It provides critical insights into the legality of Operation Prosperity Guardian and explores the complex intersection of maritime security and international humanitarian law.
"This project was a enriching opportunity to explore how international law responds to real-world conflicts, particularly in the Red Sea where there are have constantly been belligerents entering and exiting the situation, and most alarmingly civilian objects being the subject of military operations," said writers Chapman and Fox. "We looked at the attacks in the Red Sea through the lenses of self-defense, counterterrorism, and piracy to help us better understand how governments justify military operations, and specifically the responses taken to such actions. It was rewarding to connect the legal principles to such an urgent, evolving situation, and to think critically about how policy and law interact on the global stage. For a continuing study of this conflict, it would be important to expand our understanding of the situation to the legal context of the larger conflicts of the Middle East and beyond."
YAP is a student-led initiative at Case Western Reserve University School of Law founded in 2018 as a cooperative effort between legal scholars, non-governmental organizations, students, and other stakeholders. Funded by a generous grant from Timothy Geisse and directed by Professor Jim Johnson, YAP investigates open-source materials related to the Yemen conflict with the goal of facilitating future prosecutions of war crimes and crimes against humanity in domestic or international courts.