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Call for Contributions: GenAI and the Future of (International) Legal Scholarship

Generative AI is rapidly reshaping legal scholarship – from research and writing to review and teaching. Völkerrechtsblog invites short contributions on the changing conditions of legal and academic knowledge production.
Read our Call for Contributions (click here).

Symposium
State Responsibility in Crisis

Before or After the Violation?

Michael Oghenetega Abu

International law typically engages with climate change-displaced children only after the consequences of state inaction have become visible. By then, a family has already been uprooted, education has been interrupted, access...

Symposium
State Responsibility in Crisis

A (Twisted) Microcosm Imbued with Secrets?

Jean d’Aspremont’s recent mind-expanding book ‘The Epistemology of the Secret: International Law as Revelation’ argues that international law, like any serious epistemological project, proceeds on the assumption that the world is a continuous...

Symposium
State Responsibility in Crisis

Of Structures and Actors

International Legal Responsibility for “Necropolitical Structural Violence”? Many of the gravest harms of our time are not produced by a single, spectacular act. People starve because relief does not reach...

Symposium
State Responsibility in Crisis

Attribution and Sovereign Wealth Funds

Can the conduct of sovereign wealth funds be attributed to the State? More specifically, can a State be held responsible under international law when a State-owned investment vehicle holds stakes...

Symposium
State Responsibility in Crisis

Who Are the Houthis?

Over the past decade, the Gulf of Aden has become the epicentre of a complex and multifaceted conflict characterised, among other things, by the presence and conduct of a private...

Symposium
State Responsibility in Crisis

Non-State Actors and Collective Action in Global Health

Scarlett McArdle

‘Responsibility is the corollary of international law’, determining the very existence of international law as a normative framework. Legal responsibility remains highly outdated, however. Its state-centric nature and inability to...

Symposium
State Responsibility in Crisis

The Obligation Within the Obligation

Under international law, states are to prevent their territories from knowingly being used for acts that are contrary to the rights of other states, and this is universally known as...

Symposium
State Responsibility in Crisis

Introducing the ‘State Responsibility in Crisis’ Symposium

Kathryn Allinson

On 30 April and 1 May 2026, a group of academics came together at a workshop hosted by the University of Bristol, with the kind support of a BA/Leverhulme Small...

Article

Soft Words, Hard Borders

On 15 May 2026, the forty-six member states of the Council of Europe adopted the Chişinău Declaration, a political declaration on the future of the European human rights system that, in...

Article

This Is Not the End of Justice

Caleb H. Wheeler

U.S. President Donald Trump has made no secret of his enmity for the International Criminal Court. Since issuing Executive Order 14203 in February 2025, his administration has imposed multiple rounds...

About Völkerrechtsblog

Völkerrechtsblog is an 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

Btissam Boulakhrif

Btissam is a doctoral candidate, lecturer and research associate at the Chair of Public Law, Public International Law and European Law at the Leibniz University Hannover, as well as a research associate at theMenschenRechtsZentrum of the University of Potsdam. Her research focuses on the right of self-determination in the context of decolonization, human rights protection, and the intersection of domestic and international law.

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We publish events, jobs, and calls for papers related to international law and international legal thought and practice free of charge. Please send your submissions to newsletter@voelkerrechtsblog.org.

Calls for Papers

Edited Volume on Battlefield Forensics Centre for Research in Environmental Law Blog Series NLUO Student Law Journal Volume IX 13th Annual Junior Scholars Conference Lex Terra “Webzine” Community Interests in International Law: Theory, Adjudication and Human Rights’

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Jobs

Ko-Abteilungsleitung für die Abteilung Monitoring-Stelle UN-Behindertenrechtskonvention (100%) Wissenschaftliche*r Mitarbeiter*in zur Habilitation Studienplätze im Doktorandenprogramm im Bereich der Rechtswissenschaft Director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

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Events

Online Certificate Course on Trademark Law Digital Dual Use – Interdisziplinäre Konferenz “Community Interests in International Law: Theory, Adjudication and Human Rights”

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Media

Media
Völkerrechtspodcast

#61 „Spurlos“ verschwunden? – Gewaltsames Verschwindenlassen im Völkerrecht

Grażyna Baranowska Jasmin Wachau Salman Khan Daniela Rau

Gewaltsames Verschwindenlassen ist nach wie vor ein globales Phänomen. Derzeit gelten unzählige Menschen als verschwunden, wobei die Dunkelziffer vermutlich deutlich höher liegt als die offiziell erfassten Zahlen. Das gewaltsame...

Völkerrechtspodcast
Media

#60 Internationales Recht und Anarchismus – Brauchen wir noch Institutionen?

Julia Emtseva Marie-Christin Manke Juan Manuel Klein Deborah Peters

Anarchismus und Recht – passt das überhaupt zusammen? Und was hat der Abolitionismus damit zu tun? Auf den ersten Blick scheinen diese Ansätze kaum vereinbar. Gleichzeitig steht die internationale...

Völkerrechtspodcast
Media

#59 Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt: Friend and Enemy

Scott J. Shapiro Elisa Costadura Viktoria Moissiadis Juan Manuel Klein Rouven Diekjobst

This is the second episode of the cooperation between the Völkerrechtspodcast and the Mal nach den Rechten schauen podcast, in which we examine the continuities of National Socialism in public...

Media
Völkerrechtspodcast

#58 Don’t Speak? Speech Crimes im Internationalen Strafrecht

Wibke Timmermann Juan Manuel Klein Rouven Diekjobst Daniela Rau

Speech Crimes sollen Situationen erfassen, in denen Menschen zu schweren Menschenrechtsverletzungen aufrufen, diese Verletzungen aber noch nicht erfolgt sind oder versucht wurden. Sie stellen damit ein wichtiges Mittel zur...

Völkerrechtspodcast
Media

#57 Fair Play? Sport und Menschenrechte im Konflikt

Björn Schiffbauer Salman Khan Marie-Christin Manke Deborah Peters

„Sport has the power to change the world.“ Von dem Optimismus dieser Worte des ehemaligen südafrikanischen Präsidenten Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) scheint inzwischen nur noch wenig übrig zu sein. Bereits bei...

Völkerrechtspodcast
Media

#56 Demokratie als Menschenrecht? Aktuelle Entwicklungen vor dem IAGMR

Vanessa Vanegas Daniela Rau Juan Manuel Klein Marie-Christin Manke

Gibt es ein Menschenrecht auf Demokratie? So ungefähr lautet eine der Fragen, die Guatemala im Dezember 2024 dem Inter-Amerikanischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte vorlegte und über die im März 2026...

Völkerrechtspodcast
Media

#55 Der Verhältnismäßigkeitsgrundsatz im Humanitären Völkerrecht: Kollateralschäden verbieten?

Valentin Jeutner Rouven Diekjobst Salman Khan Jasmin Wachau

Zivilpersonen dürfen in bewaffneten Konflikten nicht das Ziel von Angriffen sein. Das bedeutet aber nicht, dass jeder Angriff, bei dem Zivilpersonen zu Schaden kommen, gegen das humanitäre Völkerrecht...

Media
Völkerrechtspodcast
Symposium
Women in International Law Vol. 5

#54 Publish, Parent, Perish? Making Space for Mothers in Legal Academia

Motherhood sits uneasily within the institutional imagination of international legal academia. Academic career paths are still commonly structured around expectations of uninterrupted productivity, geographic mobility, and “always-on” availability...

Media
Völkerrechtspodcast

#53 Interventionen vor dem IGH: Verfahrensinstrument mit Mehrwert?

Jane A. Hofbauer Jasmin Wachau Rouven Diekjobst Isabel Lischewski

Diese Podcastfolge behandelt einen Aspekt der Verfahrenspraxis des Internationalen Gerichtshofs, der in jüngerer Zeit verstärkt diskutiert wird: die Interventionen von Drittstaaten. Grundsätzlich stehen Staaten zwei Wege der Intervention offen: entweder...

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State Responsibility in Crisis

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» "Leugnung des Existenzrechts Israels" setzt voraus, dass dieses Existenzrecht besteht. Wer ein ExistenzRECHT Israels annimmt, dessen Leugnung strafbar sein soll, muss darlegen und beweisen, dass es zumindest eine Rechtsordnung gibt,...«

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» The Defense Secretary fired many strategic-level military officers from the Pentagon and this human-level act is not accounted for herein. I believe there were numerous firings and forced retirements creating...«

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» The legal recognition of diverse family structures—such as those formed through assisted reproductive technologies (A.R.T.) and queer family-building—highlights a critical gap between modern social realities and traditional legal frameworks. Courts...«

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