Symposium
Contingency in International Law

How Could International Law Have Been Otherwise? A Rejoinder

Our edited volume has asked a question that is deceptive in its simplicity: Could international law have been otherwise? One could expect the answer to be a resounding ‘yes’, given...

Symposium
Contingency in International Law

Revisiting the Impossible

Ingo Venzke and Kevin Jon Heller’s edited volume "Contingency in International Law: On the Possibility of Different Legal Histories" (Oxford University Press, 2021) (hereinafter: Contingency) is a rare editorial accomplishment....

Symposium
Contingency in International Law

Planned Obsolescence of International Law

Marina Veličković

‘Contingency in International Law: On the Possibility of Different Legal Histories’, an ambitious volume edited by Ingo Venzke and Kevin Jon Heller which was published in April 2021, puts international...

Symposium
Contingency in International Law

Contingency “Between” and “Beyond”

Between you and me, Professors Ingo Venzke and Kevin Jon Heller’s edited collection reads like a classic expositional text on the ways to think about contingency in international law –...

Symposium
Contingency in International Law

Thinking Like ‘Fools’: Recovering the Radical Potential of Contingency in International Law

Edited collections often tend to surface within the hegemonic voice of the editors – they introduce the concept, set the frame, determine the contours, and also illustrate the specific set...

Symposium
Contingency in International Law

Are What-Ifs a Virtual Experiment or a Parlour Game?

In his famous series of lectures delivered at Cambridge University, E. H. Carr displayed a cynical attitude towards those who tend to ask what if an event had happened otherwise....

Symposium
70 Years of UNHCR and Refugee Convention

Afrikas vergessene Flüchtlingskonvention

Marcia C. Schenck

1969 entwickelte die OAU (Organisation für Afrikanische Einheit, heute die Afrikanische Union, AU) ihre eigene Flüchtlingskonvention, welche afrikanische Werte widerspiegeln sollte. Sie wurde am 10. September 1969 in Addis Abeba...

Symposium
Contingency in International Law

Contingency in the History of International Law?

At a time when overseas travel, in-person academic events, and mediocre conference food were still commonplace, I attended the conference in Amsterdam that forms the backdrop for this impressive volume....

Symposium
Contingency in International Law

New Music for Old Ears

Ingo Venzke and Kevin Jon Heller’s Contingency in International Law: On the Possibility of Different Legal Histories, an edited volume with thirty distinct contributions just published by Oxford University Press,...

Symposium
Contingency in International Law

Book Review Symposium: Contingency in International Law

Raffaela Kunz Raphael Oidtmann Anna-Julia Saiger

Could international law have turned out differently? What were contingent crossings at which international law could have taken different avenues? And why might it be worth thinking counter-factually? Over the...

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Völkerrechtsblog is a peer-reviewed academic blog on all matters of public international law and international legal thought. We welcome contributions from all around the globe on these topics.

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Editor of the Week

Dana Schmalz

Dana Schmalz is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, she holds a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. Her work centers on refugee and migration law, human rights, and legal philosophy. In her current research project, she is exploring how population growth has been an object of international legal activities.

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NLIU Law Review Volume XI, Issue I KlimaEssay – Ein Essaywettbewerb zum Recht im (Klima)Wandel German Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 64, 2021) Call for Authors: Open Textbook on Public International Law Special Issue on Data, Law, and Decolonisation Indian Journal of International Law

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Space Sustainability Talks Hamburg Summer Talk Series Online Interview and Discussion with John Ruggie on the 10th Anniversary of ‘his’ Guiding Principles Webinar Series: COVID-19 Vaccinations and International Law Intersections of International Environmental Law with National Jurisdictions Unpacking Transitional Justice Series, Seminar 4 Völkerrechtslunch Special Edition: #HowToFund

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Livestream: COVID-19 Vaccinations and Human Rights

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated political, academic, and societal debates for the past one and a half years. As soon as they became available in late 2020, COVID-19 vaccines brought...

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Livestream: The COVID-19 Vaccination Gap, Human Rights, and Patent Waivers

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated political, academic, and societal debates for the past one and a half years and been a dramatic reminder of the fact that health is a...

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Livestream: Discussion with John Ruggie on the 10th Anniversary of ‘his’ Guiding Principles

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the endorsement of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights by the UN Human Rights Council, the Institute for International Law...

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Listen: Space Law

Vivienne Kobel Lydia Vosberg

We are happy to present an episode of the podcast series “Public International Law in a Nutshell”. The podcast was produced in a podcast seminar (‘Public International Law in a...

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Symposium
Rewarding in International Law

On Rewarding in International Law

Engaging with the contributions of the Symposium 'Rewarding in International Law', Veronika Fikfak discusses the new approach proposed in 'Rewarding in International Law' (AJIL) with the two authors, Anne van...

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The Future of “Climate Refugees” in International Law

Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni Jan-Phillip Graf

The issue of “climate refugees” has attracted scholarly attention for over a decade. The historic ruling of the Human Rights Committee (‘HRCtee’) in Ioane Teitiota v. New Zealand further increased...

Völkerrechtspodcast
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#6 (Des-)information

Sophie Schuberth Erik Tuchtfeld Isabel Lischewski Philipp Eschenhagen

Fake News und Desinformations-Kampagnen sind derzeit in aller Munde. Aber wann genau können wir überhaupt von Fake News sprechen? Gibt es völkerrechtliche Normen, die die Verbreitung von falschen oder...

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Rule of Law Rules #5: “The Risk That Exists in the Digital Ecosystem is Decentralized”

“Rule of Law Rules” is our new podcast on Rule of Law in the age of digitalization from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. The host of the podcast is Dr Angela Daly, a...

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Raubkunst im Humboldt Forum – Down the Rabbit Hole of Intertemporality

Das Humboldt-Forum befindet sich im wiederaufgebauten Berliner Stadtschloss, und wird in diesem Jahr sukzessive eröffnen. Beherbergen soll das Museum u.a. die Sammlungen des ethnologischen Museums und des Museums für Asiatische...

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Contingency in International Law

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» This is a wonderful arena to explore differences in problem structure. I would remind ourselves that the UNFCCC innovated when it first conceived of "common but differentiated responsibilities." Perhaps intuitively...«

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