Robert F. Turner. “Intentional Targeting of Regime Elites: The Legal and Policy Debate.” New England Law Review, vol. 36, no. 4 (2002): 785-794.
This article highlights the complex legal and ethical challenges attorneys face when addressing state-sanctioned actions like targeted assassinations especially in the context of national security and counterterrorism. In backsliding democracies where executive power often expands with limited oversight, lawyers must grapple with the tension between codified legal restrictions and strategic imperatives that may undermine rule of law principles. By engaging with sensitive policies such as bans on assassination, attorneys play a critical role in interpreting, challenging, and sometimes defending state actions that test democratic norms and legal boundaries, helping to shape the evolving relationship between law, ethics, and state power amid democratic erosion.