Judging a Ghost
20.11.2025
For over a decade, European states have externalized migration control to non-European partners such as Libya - often beyond the reach of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). S.S....
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Fragmentation Remains Out There
19.11.2025
In her opinion, Marìa Santillán argued that the recent Advisory Opinions of ITLOS, IACtHR, and the ICJ “mark a definitive shift from legal fragmentation toward a harmonized framework for state...
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Moving Beyond “Berlin Plus”
18.11.2025
As Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine in 2022, Europe was reminded that peace on this continent could no longer be taken for granted. Russian production figures for main battle tanks...
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From Harmonization to Coexistence
17.11.2025
Much has already been said about the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) Advisory Opinion (AO) on the Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change which was delivered in July...
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Mirage of Legality, Miracle of Legitimacy
17.11.2025
The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) long-awaited advisory opinion on climate change has already generated an avalanche of scholarly commentary. Some have hailed it as a “historic legal victory” for...
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Clean Sport, Clouded Rights?
14.11.2025
The Opinion of Advocate General (“AG”) Dean Spielmann in NADA Austria (C-474/24) has sent some shockwaves in the sporting industry. It is the result of a clash between the World...
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Updating ‘Party Appointment’
13.11.2025
Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), and Arbitration before the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in particular, has been under fierce scrutiny from academia, civil society, and political...
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Tasting the Poisoned Fruit
12.11.2025
It has recently been made public that Magnus Gäfgen, who in 2002 kidnapped and murdered a child in Germany, has applied for release from prison. The case attracted widespread attention...
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Oceans as a Test for Multilateralism
11.11.2025
The ocean is both a metaphor and a mirror of international cooperation, being vast, liquid, and collective. It demonstrates, perhaps more graphically than any terrestrial setting, the evolving capacity of...
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Filling in the Blanks
06.11.2025
While the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip brings a measure of hope, the international community collectively holds its breath. U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan – while...
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Let’s Call it What it is: Germany’s Anti-Palestinianism
06.11.2025
Rarely do you hear about an international treaty being adopted (almost) unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). However, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of...
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Dead Letter with Teeth?
05.11.2025
Article 61(8) of the Rome Statute (the “Statute”) allows the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resubmit charges that the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) has refused to confirm, provided...
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Gerechtigkeit jenseits der Hauptstraße?
05.11.2025
Strafverfahren gegen syrische Geheimdienstmitarbeiter in Koblenz oder ehemalige IS-Kämpfer in Frankfurt zeigen: Deutschland ist zu einem wichtigen Forum für die internationalen Strafjustiz geworden. Spätestens seit der Reform des Völkerstrafgesetzbuch im...
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129 Words and the Weight of Worlds
04.11.2025
We will soon cross a Rubicon in our new commercial space age. In 2024, a rocket lifted off every 36 hours. In 2025, every 28 hours. Commercial providers now account...
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A New Occupation of Palestine
04.11.2025
Sanmay Moitra
Samiksha Mukherjee
With President Trump declaring the end of the war in Gaza, and Hamas and Israel agreeing on the ‘first phase’ of a US-brokered peace deal, what comes next for Palestine...
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Embedding Informality in Human Rights Due Diligence
29.10.2025
Informal workers at the bottom of supply chains in agriculture, mining, artificial intelligence, and the automobile industry are often overlooked and excluded from legal protections. Consequently, they are subjected to...
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Hostage Diplomacy as Coercion?
28.10.2025
Over the past decades, hostage diplomacy has emerged as a growing threat to international security. In particular, states such as China, Iran, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela have increasingly employed this...
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Echoes of Darfur
24.10.2025
When Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court delivered its judgment in Prosecutor v. Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (‘Ali Kushayb’) on 6 October 2025, it finally closed a file...
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I.C. v. The Republic of Moldova
21.10.2025
Introduction In I.C. v. the Republic of Moldova, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) established that the state policy of ‘deinstitutionalisation’ of mentally handicapped people from state care institutions...
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Continued Statehood without Territory?
17.10.2025
Much has been written already about the landmark Advisory Opinion on Climate Change (hereinafter ‘AO’) of the International Court of Justice (‘ICJ’) and much more will follow. While the ICJ...
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Against the Harmful Digital Satire
13.10.2025
In a previous piece for EJIL: Talk, I examined the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) judgment in Yevstifeyev and Others v. Russia, where the Court addressed two applications. The...
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Jungle Cruise
09.10.2025
Gabriel Andrés Concha Botero
In recent years, Colombia and Peru have clashed over the sovereignty of Isla Santa Rosa, a landmass formed in the 1960s by Amazon River sedimentation. Over time, accretion joined it...
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From Rights to Relation
09.10.2025
The growing appeal of the Rights of Nature (RoN) framework reflects a significant evolution in legal and ecological thought. It challenges anthropocentric assumptions and tries to reposition nature not just...
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Evaluating Israel’s Strikes in Iran
08.10.2025
It has been argued that Israel's “Operation Rising Lion” cannot be justified under jus ad bellum, because it fails the necessity and proportionality criteria for self-defense. This post contends that...
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Climate Change, Human Rights, and the Law of the Sea
08.10.2025
María José Alarcón Santillán
Recent Advisory Opinions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) mark a...
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S.S. and Others V. Italy
01.10.2025
Recently, particularly in Europe, the obligations towards refugees and asylum seekers have become a game of cat and mouse, whereby obligations are created, and loopholes or other legally sound ways...
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Balancing Act
25.09.2025
Earlier this year, the United States announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the withholding of funds destined for the UN Human Rights Council under the United Nations’ (“UN”)...
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Flying Too Low?
24.09.2025
Artificial islands have become central flashpoints in maritime disputes, particularly in the South China Sea. Their strategic use by coastal states raises difficult questions under international law, especially regarding the...
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The First in Absentia Confirmation at the ICC
23.09.2025
Last week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) held its first-ever confirmation of charges hearing in absentia, in the case of The Prosecutor v. Joseph Kony. Twenty years after the Court...
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After Semenya
22.09.2025
The Grand Chamber’s decision in Semenya v. Switzerland marks a pivotal development in the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECtHR) evolving engagement with international arbitration. The case concerned Caster Semenya,...
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Between Norms and Implementation
18.09.2025
Introduction: Framing the Debate Colombia’s Decree 488/2025 has prompted a renewed debate about the role of administrative instruments in realising indigenous territorial autonomy and implementing constitutional pluralism. In their recent...
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The Dollar is No Longer the Mighty Reserve Currency
08.08.2025
This blog explores the complexities of the post-1971 dollar-based monetary system, a framework that has underpinned decades of American economic pre-eminence. However, as U.S. debt levels approach unsustainable thresholds, there...
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“What’s in a Name?”
07.08.2025
On January 20, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14172, “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness”, which mandated inter alia the renaming of the U.S. continental shelf area...
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At the Nexus of Reproductive Crimes and Torture
07.08.2025
Susann Aboueldahab
Alexandra Lily Kather
Akila Radhakrishnan
This post examines the case of Alaa M. to shed light on an often-forgotten dimension of gender-based crimes – reproductive violence. In an important new precedent, the Higher Regional Court...
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International Courts and Tribunals under Cyber-Threat
07.08.2025
In June 2025, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was targeted by a cyber-attack. This incident occurred some two years after an ‘unprecedented’ cyber-attack shook the ICC in September 2023. Earlier,...
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One Health in the New Pandemic Agreement
06.08.2025
After over three years of negotiations, on 20 May 2025 the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA) finally adopted a new international instrument, the WHO Pandemic Agreement, which aims to strengthen...
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Carl Schmitt, International Law, and Constitutional Tradition in the United Kingdom
06.08.2025
Mads Andenas
Eirik Bjorge
We live in a time when international law seems “to be called into question more fundamentally than before” (Georg Nolte, p. 230). The debates to which this situation gives rise...
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A New Liability Frontier?
05.08.2025
Tajra Smajic
Gustavo Leite Neves da Luz
On 24 April 2025, the United States (U.S.) White House issued an Executive Order titled “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources” (the Executive Order) aimed at accelerating the development...
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It Is Not Just International Law; It Is Also a Cat
01.08.2025
No matter how and from which direction you drop a cat, it always lands on its feet. The same goes for international law, or rather international lawyers, whose infallible feet...
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Call for Papers: Tackling Human Rights, Environmental Protection and Business
30.07.2025
Rishiti Choudaha
Dani Spizzichino
Our teams invite interested persons to contribute articles in English or German to our online-symposium “Tackling Human Rights, Environmental Protection and Business – A Multilevel Approach”. Who we are The...
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A Gendered Analysis of Famines as Genocide-Locating Opportunities for International Law
30.07.2025
Though famines affect women to a greater degree than men, this gendered impact is rarely recognized in international law. With the current food crisis in Gaza, famines as genocidal acts...
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Cut the Carve-Out
29.07.2025
In the hallowed halls of British justice, a familiar narrative recently played out: a clash between the government's sovereign power in foreign affairs and its obligations under international law. The...
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One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?
28.07.2025
The Essential Security Interest (ESI) clause, despite its increasing prevalence in Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), has been subject to conflicting interpretations by Tribunals over the last few decades. The provision...
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New ECtHR Climate Cases
25.07.2025
On 7 May 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rendered the inadmissibility decisions De Conto v Italy and 32 Others and Uricchio v Italy and 31 Others. They are the first climate cases to be decided by a...
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The Role of International Cooperation and Technology Transfers in Advancing Equity in Global Health
24.07.2025
“With health, everything is a source of pleasure; without it, nothing else, whatever it may be, is enjoyable...Health is by far the most important element in human happiness”. Arthur Schopenhauer...
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The Conundrum of Initial Appearance
23.07.2025
On 3 June 2025, the Appeals Chamber (AC) of the International Criminal Court (the ‘ICC’) pronounced its judgement on the confirmation of charges in absentia in the case of Joseph...
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Where Law Ends, Harm Begins
23.07.2025
Ruggero Leotta
Hendrik Mathis Drößler
In early May 2025, the recently elected German government implemented a highly controversial border policy aimed at intensifying checks along its borders with Poland and the Czech Republic. Initiated by...
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Between Principle and Power
22.07.2025
Gaza and Iran are not simply sites of armed conflict; they are legal thresholds—points at which the integrity of the post-1945 legal order is tested and, increasingly, revealed as inefficient....
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Legal Pluralism in Practice?
22.07.2025
Sebastian Machado Ramírez
Paolo Amorosa
On 5 May 2025, the President of Colombia issued Decree 488 establishing ‘regulations concerning the functioning of Indigenous territories and their coordination with other territorial entities’. A post by Marzia...
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From Mare Liberum to Make America Great Again
21.07.2025
In April 2025, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources, instructing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to fast-track licenses for seabed...
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In Defence of Digital Satire
17.07.2025
The European Court of Human Rights’ recent decision in Yevstifeyev and Others v. Russia raises pressing questions about the protection of satirical speech in digital spaces. One of the applications...
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Israel’s Rising Lion
17.07.2025
It is never trite to emphasize that the law on the use of force is straightforward: it prohibits the use of force in international relations. Before 1945, it was left...
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A Kantian Critique of SS and Others v Italy
15.07.2025
Last month, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously dismissed an application by survivors of a Mediterranean ‘pullback’ operation. Although Italian coast guard officials were the first to receive the...
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Pushing Back Responsibility
15.07.2025
In June 2025, the Greek government announced the deployment of naval warships to international waters off the Libyan coast, framing the operation as a necessary intervention to prevent migrants from...
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The Long Road to Exploit Deep Sea Minerals
14.07.2025
Niels-Juergen Seeberg-Elverfeldt
Andreas Kaede
The Rules to exploit minerals from the deep seabed outside national jurisdiction are currently drafted under the auspices of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). There is, however, continuous disagreement between...
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Versammlungsfreiheit und Selbstschutz
10.07.2025
Am 20. Mai 2025 entschied der Europäische Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte (EGMR) einstimmig: Deutschland hat durch die strafrechtliche Verurteilung eines Demonstrierenden aus dem Schutzwaffenverbot gem. §§ 27 II Nr. 1, 17a...
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Oh Self-Defence, Where Art Thou?
04.07.2025
On 7 May 2024, India conducted airstrikes across the Line of Control, claiming it was acting in response to a terrorist attack in Pahalgam. The operation was termed Operation Sindoor. The...
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Historical Responsibility at Hammelsgasse 1
03.07.2025
Whenever Germany applies universal jurisdiction, abstract allusions to the country’s historical responsibility abound. Responsibility is a state of being; but eight decades after the end of the Second World War,...
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Donald Trump und das Doppelte Kredibilitätsproblem
02.07.2025
Schon vor einigen Jahren bezeichnete Stefan Talmon Donald Trump als „Totengräber des Völkerrechts“. Was sich in Trumps erster Amtszeit andeutete, transformiert sich in den ersten Monaten seiner zweiten Amtszeit in...
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Autocratic Alliance?
27.06.2025
On June 19, 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the North Korea–Russia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty in Pyongyang. The signing of the treaty...
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Blanket Bans behind Bars
26.06.2025
On 29 April 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered its judgment in “Tergek v. Türkiye”, holding by a slim 4–3 majority, that the Turkish authorities’ refusal to...
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The Road Not Taken?
23.06.2025
On 30 September 2024, the Republic of Lithuania took the noteworthy step of referring the situation in Belarus to the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor. Lithuania’s referral alleges that crimes against...
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The Siege Within
20.06.2025
Israel has blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza since the end of a ceasefire in March, throwing the territory into what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis in...
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From Humiliation to Historic Partnership?
17.06.2025
After the highly publicized fallout between the presidents of Ukraine and the United States at the White House in March 2025, both leaders have now reconciled. By the end of...
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Space Data as ‘Investment’ in International Investment Law
12.06.2025
Outer space is now a dynamic, commercialized arena, prompting economic and legal systems to reassess how value is defined beyond Earth. The rise of private actors has driven new value...
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Dracarys and Law
11.06.2025
Fiction constructs speculative worlds where the meaning of restraint, responsibility, and legitimacy can be tested and revealed. Focusing on the destruction of King’s Landing in Season 8, Episode 5 of...
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The Hague and Europe’s Last Dictatorship
10.06.2025
Aleksandr Lukashenko’s regime has been in power for over 30 years. Belarusians who have fled the country report years of systematic repression, persecution, and inhuman treatment by authorities. These accounts...
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Thin Line Between Protection and Permission
02.06.2025
On April 1, 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a landmark ruling in Ships Waste Oil Collector B.V. and Others v. the Netherlands. They held that the Netherlands’...
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Unchecked Industrialization, Environmental Degradation, Risk Society, Spatial Justice
28.05.2025
Introduction Recently, the Supreme Court of India took suo motu cognizance with respect to the deforestation activities being undertaken in the Kancha Gachibowli Forest, Telangana. Shrubs and bushes were felled,...
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EU Steps Forward
22.05.2025
Corporate accountability is increasingly recognized as essential in addressing the twin triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. As transnational corporations (TNCs) dominate global supply chains, their...
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Trump’s Tariff Plan
21.05.2025
Poorva Sharma
Vasujit Dubey
In February 2025, US President Donald Trump announced the Fair and Reciprocal Trade Plan (hereinafter ‘F&RP’), a comprehensive overhaul of US trade policy aimed at ‘rebalancing’ what he views as...
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Between a Soft and a Hard Place
20.05.2025
Cristina Elena Popa Tache
Cătălin-Silviu Săraru
International financial governance is characterised by an increased proliferation of non-binding instruments (‘soft law’). The European Union (EU) stands out as an influential actor in this trend, both through the...
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The Paris Agreement’s Crucial Test
15.05.2025
Harsh Mahaseth
Aryaman Keshav
Humans survive. Whether it is pandemics, volcanic eruptions, or the ice age; humans endure and survive. With the effects of global warming at the door, human survival is once again...
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The UK Supreme Court’s Unworkable Sex Definitions in For Women Scotland
14.05.2025
Manon Beury
Lena Holzer
Electra Zacharias
On 16 April 2025, the UK Supreme Court decided in the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v. The Scottish Ministers that the term “woman” in the Equality Act 2010...
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India, the Indus Waters Treaty, and the Limits of Good Faith
14.05.2025
Parthiban Babu
Sai Ramani Garimella
The terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025, reportedly perpetrated by militants operating from Pakistani territory, has reopened a long-familiar fault line in South Asian politics. Yet...
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The New European Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer
13.05.2025
On March 12, 2025, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe unanimously adopted the European Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer (‘the Convention’). This instrument...
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Will the Swiss Grandmas Travel the World?
12.05.2025
Hannah Leoni Stahl
Aylin Yildiz Noorda
Liz Hicks
Anticipation has run high for what some call the KlimaSeniorinnen ruling delivered on 9 April 2024. While it is too early to definitively assess the KlimaSeniorinnen ruling’s impact on law...
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Trumps ökonomische Erpressung
09.05.2025
Die Zollpolitik der USA unter Donald Trump war schon 2018 ein rechtspolitischer Stresstest. In der öffentlichen und juristischen Diskussion dominierte damals die Bewertung im Rahmen des Welthandelsrechts – insbesondere nach...
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Reproductive Violence in Occupied Gaza
08.05.2025
Israel’s commission of reproductive violence on the Gaza Strip exemplifies the impunity surrounding violations of Palestinians’ right to reproductive health. Since Israel’s breach of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire on 18 March...
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Precaution as Obligation?
01.05.2025
On March 14, 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) made public a landmark ruling holding Ecuador internationally responsible for the violation of various rights of the Tagaeri and...
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Non-Penalization Under Threat
28.04.2025
In February 2025, the United Kingdom (UK) introduced new guidance for its immigration staff regarding the “good character” requirement in its citizenship applications. Under the new guidance, people who have travelled...
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Protecting Nationals Abroad in Hostile Times
23.04.2025
In the midst of a perilous global moment, the fate of many immigrants in the U.S. threatened with removal seems to hang by a thread. This is bound to give rise to...
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The Plight of Palestinian Refugees
22.04.2025
Introduction With regards to refugee status determination, Palestinians are uniquely positioned under international law. This unique position goes back to the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, when thousands of Palestinians fled...
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Forgotten Crisis in a World in Turmoil
15.04.2025
While many in Europe are focused on the Russo-Ukrainian War, or perhaps on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and eroding transatlantic relations, one major contemporary issue has been left out of public...
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On the Fragmentation of International Law and Global Health Law
09.04.2025
Introduction A set of intertwined compelling questions need to be answered by the Bureau of the World Health Organization (WHO) Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) before presenting the results of the...
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Remembering Abel Nathan Willing (1856-1925)
01.04.2025
Dass der US-amerikanische Völkerrechtler Abel Nathan Willing völlig in Vergessenheit geraten ist, lag nicht nur an den juristisch-politischen Zeitumständen. Auch seine Persönlichkeit, die mit dem Etikett „schwierig“ nur unzureichend gekennzeichnet...
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Remembering Abel Nathan Willing (1856-1925)
01.04.2025
The fact that the American international law expert Abel Nathan Willing fell completely in oblivion was not only due to the legal and political circumstances of the time. His personality,...
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Lawfare: The Mortal Kombat of Jurisprudence
17.03.2025
Carl von Clausewitz, a prominent Prussian military theorist at the beginning of the 19th century, in his major work “Vom Kriege” (On War), described war as nothing more than the continuation...
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Finally, “Rainbow Jurisdiction” at the International Criminal Court?
14.03.2025
On 23 January 2025, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan KC has filed the first two applications for arrest warrants in the situation in Afghanistan. These...
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Democracy on Trial
13.03.2025
Toni Selkälä
Shorena Nikoleishvili
Regular elections constitute a cornerstone of democratic societies. In most states, elections are timed, organised, and administered in accordance with detailed electoral legislation. The right to cast a vote and...
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EU Deforestation-Free Regulations
13.03.2025
On the island of Borneo, Malaysia, palm trees stretch as far as the eye can see. Malaysia is the world’s second largest palm oil producer after Indonesia. However, the European...
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The Law of Treaties and Ukraine’s Resource Curse
11.03.2025
The spectacle around their White House meeting on Friday, 28 February, between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy was and is widely reported. The meeting was supposed to peak in the...
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Draft Rules on Deep Seabed Mining in a Critical Phase
11.03.2025
Andreas Kaede
Niels-Juergen Seeberg-Elverfeldt
The “Regulations on Exploitation of Mineral Resources in the Area” (hereafter: “Exploitation Rules”) are currently drafted under the auspices of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). It was established by the...
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“Senator, I Can’t Give You a Yes or No Answer”
10.03.2025
At the end of January, videos of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation hearings went viral. Kennedy – a controversial figure best known for his anti-vaccines rhetoric – was chosen by...
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Klimagutachten des Internationalen Gerichtshofs
19.02.2025
Während der Antrag der UN Generalversammlung für ein Gutachten zur Frage der Pflichten von Staaten bezüglich Maßnahmen gegen den Klimawandel als Meilenstein gefeiert wird, besteht das Risiko, dass das Gericht...
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Steering the Tide
17.02.2025
The 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in favor of the Philippines marked a landmark moment in the geopolitical and legal disputes over the South China Sea...
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Putting the Cart before the Horse?
04.02.2025
On 3rd October 2024, Mauritius and the United Kingdom published a Joint Statement on both governments’ websites (UK.gov and govmu.org). This political agreement addresses the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands,...
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XX (b), (g) and Everything in Between
27.01.2025
The interaction between trade and climate has become a legal and geopolitical hotbed. The European Union (‘EU’) recently decided to introduce a carbon tariff, which would result in hiked prices...
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Seabed Warfare
24.01.2025
Countless submarine cables are the communicative backbone of a globalized world of states. Today they form a “new front line”. The same can be said of other elements of critical...
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