Watch Your Facebook Comment Section!
15.10.2021
Recently, in Sanchez v France, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) swung the door towards social media users’ liability wide open, allowing not only politicians, as in the...
Read more
Remedies for Bad Faith Violations
13.10.2021
In this blog post, I discuss how the Committee of Ministers (CoM) has developed the Article 18 remedial jurisprudence in the field of individual measures through its monitoring of the...
Read more
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
11.10.2021
Last year, the Netherlands presented their comments on the International Law Commission (ILC)’s Draft Conclusions on Peremptory Norms of General International Law (jus cogens). The Dutch report, which is set...
Read more
The End of Indicators
06.10.2021
On 16 September 2021, the World Bank unceremonially buried one of its most controversial projects, the Doing Business ranking: in a tight-lipped statement, the Bank announced that “management has taken the...
Read more
Is History a Good Legal Argument?
24.09.2021
Lucia Leontiev
Punsara Amarasinghe
It has become a frequent occurrence for Russia’s top leaders to write about their views on the western approaches to international law and international relations concerning Russia or the Post-Soviet...
Read more
From Achmea to Komstroy
22.09.2021
In a recent landmark decision Moldova v. Komstroy, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on 2 September 2021 found intra-EU investment arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty...
Read more
Memoranda of (Mis)Understandings (Part II)
15.09.2021
Sabrina Schäfer
Florian Held
As described in Part I of our post, non-legally binding arrangements (NBAs) play an ever larger role in foreign policy. As a response to their growing popularity and to avoid...
Read more
Memoranda of (Mis)Understandings (Part I)
13.09.2021
Sabrina Schäfer
Florian Held
When thinking of international law, most lawyers’ first association might not concern non-legally binding arrangements (NBAs) between States (also described as ‘Memoranda of Understanding’ or ’MoUs’). After all, the terms...
Read more
Recognition of a Taliban Government?
08.09.2021
After the horrible events of the last weeks, policy makers around the world will soon think about their future relationship with the new Taliban leadership in Afghanistan. Whereas some States...
Read more
An Urgent Call for Climate Mainstreaming
07.09.2021
Saskia Stucki
Guillaume Futhazar
Tom Sparks
Erik Tuchtfeld
Hannah Foehr
The world is facing climate emergency, one of a series of overlapping and mutually reinforcing environmental crises. In 2017, more than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries signed the World Scientists’...
Read more
Missing Perspectives
30.08.2021
Today marks the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. For many Syrians, survivor-led initiatives and family associations, this is a day of mourning. At least 100.000 Syrians have...
Read more
Article 14 ECHR in the Closet
21.08.2021
On 13 July 2021, the European Court of Human Rights rendered its judgment in Fedotova and Others v. Russia and unanimously decided in favour of the three complaining same-sex couples....
Read more
Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case
20.08.2021
Authoritarian governments are exerting their influence on interstate political bodies to persecute political opponents at home and abroad. This results in practices that undermine the rights of individuals to a...
Read more
Navigating an Ocean of Information
12.08.2021
Julian A. Hettihewa
Felix Schott
In 1981, the UN General Assembly agreed for the first time that “Governments should consider the inclusion of youth representatives in their national delegations to the General Assembly and to...
Read more
The Narratives of Space Exploration
28.07.2021
Hilding Neilson
Elena Cirkovic
Human space exploration has been part of the social and political consciousness since Dr. Werner von Braun published his seminal guidebook for a human settlement of Mars. The possibility of...
Read more
Consulting Canadians on a Framework for Future Space Exploration Activities
28.07.2021
Hilding Neilson
Elena Cirkovic
We would like to start this two-part post with a reference to two very different and recent news articles from Canada: First, the positive: The Walrus article on First Nations...
Read more
Unlimited Brutality
26.07.2021
Tens of thousands of Syrians have suffered arbitrary arrests, mainly by the Syrian regime’s security forces, in connection with the popular movement that started in March 2011. They all experienced at least...
Read more
The Nijmegen Principles and Guidelines on Interim Measures (2021)
19.07.2021
Recently, scholars have paid considerable attention to interim (or provisional) measures (both in general [see here, here and here], and in the context of human rights adjudication [for a focus...
Read more
Law’s Vulgar Silence
28.06.2021
In Völkerrechtsblog's editorial on 1 June 2021, the editors raised a concrete question to their readers, on the occasion on the most recent wave of violence in Israel and Palestine:...
Read more
Of Missed Chances and Set Narratives
25.06.2021
“Far from surprising” one could call the latest and final judgement in the case of the former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladić. On 8 June 2021, the Appeals Chamber of the...
Read more
Reducing is Caring
25.06.2021
Angelo Jr Golia
Anneloes Hoff
The ‘Shell Climate Case’, on which the District Court of the Hague ruled on 26 May 2021, may well herald a new era for climate change litigation. The Dutch court...
Read more
How Law Can Make War Inhumane and Banal
23.06.2021
War is governed by laws—laws that demand those engaged in armed conflict value humanitarianism and minimize civilian harm. When civilians are disproportionately killed in armed conflict, it’s because involved parties...
Read more
Extinguishing the Flares of Death
21.06.2021
At 400 °C, around 447 gas flares, known as ‘flares of death,’ are constantly burning in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. This is a long-standing practice by which the...
Read more
Big Brother Watch v. UK
04.06.2021
On 25 May 2021, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights issued a landmark ruling on the compatibility of systems of mass surveillance with the European Convention...
Read more
Will Vienna Talks Put an End to the “COVID-19 Plus” in Iran?
20.05.2021
The pandemic is still far from over. In its response to combat COVID-19, Iran has been facing significant difficulties “in part due to the weakening of the national health-care system...
Read more
Germany’s “Fair Share” of Climate Change Jurisprudence
17.05.2021
Germany has now its own landmark climate case. In its recent decision on the Climate Protection Act (CPA), the Constitutional Court did not follow all of the claimant’s submissions and...
Read more
The Selection of the “Worst of the Worst”
13.05.2021
“International law should not be wielded as the big stick by strong nations used to pummel the weak ones. We are against selective justice.” As quoted by Jean Ping, former...
Read more
The Dreadful Night Goes On
12.05.2021
At times, words fail to describe the horrors of reality. That is until we have recourse to the language of international criminal law (ICL). While its use may be problematic,...
Read more
A Case of MOX Plant 2.0 in the Pacific?
06.05.2021
On 13 April 2021, the Japanese government formally authorised the release of 1.25 million tons of treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean....
Read more
A Bill for Better Business
05.05.2021
On 11 March 2021, four Dutch political parties submitted a private members’ bill which introduces a new corporate duty of care for human rights and the environment. This proposal for...
Read more
Vaccine Apartheid and the Unlikely Overcoming of the Pandemic by 2023
04.05.2021
The most important challenge for humanity is to end the pandemic within two years. However, as the largest vaccination rollout in history begins, it is doubtful that this goal will...
Read more
Leaving the Pre-Digital Era, Finally!
04.05.2021
The UN human rights protection system has left the pre-digital era behind: The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child just released its new General Comment (GC) No. 25...
Read more
All that Glitters Is Not Gold
03.05.2021
On 29 April 2021, the German Federal Constitutional Court held that the provisions of the German Federal Climate Change Act “are incompatible with fundamental rights insofar as they lack sufficient...
Read more
Three Hours from Paris to Karlsruhe
01.05.2021
Only two days after its publication, the German Constitutional Court’s decision on the 2019 Climate Protection Act has already given rise to significant repercussions both in political and legal debates....
Read more
Case Concerning a Mysterious Maritime Delimitation Treaty
23.04.2021
On 5 March 2021, the Press Office of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced that proceedings had been instituted in the Court by way of a Special Agreement between...
Read more
Der Anfang ist gemacht!
22.04.2021
Am 23. April 2020 begann am Oberlandesgericht Koblenz das Verfahren gegen zwei ehemalige Mitarbeiter des syrischen Geheimdienstes wegen Beihilfe und Mittäterschaft an Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit. Das Syria Justice and...
Read more
Don’t Settle For Less
22.04.2021
Nora Jauer
Justine Batura
The German Parliament will debate today a draft for a due diligence act intended to protect human rights in global supply chains ('Lieferkettengesetz'), as submitted by the German government. The...
Read more
A Violent Effort to Rewrite History?
19.04.2021
The geographically small Nagorno-Karabakh is rich in cultural and religious heritage. It is therefore not surprising that the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over this contested territory spurred not...
Read more
Cyber Space, Sovereignty and the Intricacies of International Law-Making
16.04.2021
On March 5th, 2021, Germany published its position paper “On the application of International Law in Cyberspace”. The inter-ministerial document stipulates Germany’s views on the rules regulating state activity in...
Read more
Maritime Delimitation, Non-Appearance, and Acquiescence
15.04.2021
From 15 to 18 March 2021, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held oral hearings in the Case of Maritime Delimitation in the Indian Ocean (Somalia v. Kenya). Initially scheduled...
Read more
No Rocket Science!
15.04.2021
Outer space’s unique environment has been utilized to study and further a range of subjects, from colloid behavior to creating protein crystals for more effective disease control, often having enormous commercial application. For...
Read more
Beware of Procedural Perils
14.04.2021
The global political momentum created by the COVID-19 pandemic recently led to a joint statement on 30 March 2021, signed by the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Director-General and twenty-seven heads...
Read more
Time for an Update of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
14.04.2021
On 25 March 2021, the European Court of Justice (‘ECJ’) dismissed as inadmissible the climate action brought by 10 families from the European Union, Kenya and Fiji, for the protection...
Read more
Not Making the Cut
08.04.2021
On 21 January 2021, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court or ECtHR) adopted its judgement on the inter-state case Georgia v Russia (II). The judgement concerns...
Read more
International Lawyers, Look to the Heavens – Before We Lose Them
07.04.2021
What kind of law do you ‘do’? Where would you place its outward bounds? Substantively, but also geographically; what lines do you draw in your imagination to encompass your field(s)...
Read more
Eye on the Spy
31.03.2021
During the Covid-19 pandemic, more services and activities have migrated online. Digital supply chains have therefore emerged as the lifeblood of modern society and interferences with them can be hugely...
Read more
Turkey’s Withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention
27.03.2021
As the 65th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is in progress, feminists from around the world are shocked by Turkey’s sudden decision to withdraw...
Read more
“Sport Sex” before the European Court of Human Rights
22.03.2021
Sport is the field par excellence in which discrimination against intersex people has been made most visible. Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe Issue Paper: Human rights and intersex...
Read more
The Ongwen case: A prism glass for the concurrent commission of gender-based crimes
15.03.2021
Alexandra Lily Kather
Amal Nassar
In a long-anticipated judgment at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Trial Chamber IX found Dominic Ongwen, a former commander in the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), guilty of 61 counts of...
Read more
The impacts of climate change on the humanitarian system: towards truly long-term cooperative action
05.03.2021
On 1 December 2020, the German Federal Foreign Office hosted one of five virtual launches of the 2021 Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) in Berlin. The GHO, which is published annually...
Read more
Climate migrants – How German courts take the environment into account when considering non-refoulement
03.03.2021
In a recent landmark decision concerning an Afghan national a German Higher Administrative Court declared a ban on deportation (non-refoulement) based on German immigration law in conjunction with international human...
Read more
Dawn of a new era of global data protection?
02.03.2021
Aishwarya Natarajan
Franziska Rinke
Sebastian Weise
The recent survey of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development indicates that 128 out of 194 countries have put data privacy legislations in place. By implication, around 66%...
Read more
Trump verlässt das Weiße Haus – und hinterlässt Chaos im Westsahara-Konflikt
19.02.2021
Mit Joe Bidens Amtszeit hat eine neue Ära im Weißen Haus begonnen. Doch Donald Trump hinterlässt ein umfassendes außenpolitisches Vermächtnis, welches sich auch auf den Nahen Osten und Nordafrika erstreckt:...
Read more
The ICC Israel Palestine decision: Clear skies for an investigation but not without asterisks and further questions
18.02.2021
On February 5, the ICC rendered its long-awaited Decision on the case of Israel and the Palestinians. With a majority of 2-1, Pre-Trial Chamber I held that the ICC does...
Read more
The unforeseeable future and the rule of law
17.02.2021
On December 22, 2020, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Selahattin Demirtaş v. Turkey (no. 2) concerning the pre-trial...
Read more
Quand le vin est tiré, il faut le boire
16.02.2021
Ansonsten drohen Konsequenzen, wie sich jetzt in einem Gerichtsverfahren vor dem Tribunal Administratif de Paris (Pariser Verwaltungsgericht) zeigte. 2018 haben sich Oxfam, Notre Affaire à Tous, Fondation pour la Nature et...
Read more
The history of international law matters
12.02.2021
Speaking about the ‘turn to history in international law’ has now become an embarrassing cliché in the specialized literature and this should be celebrated. Firstly, because the expression the ‘turn...
Read more
Enforced disappearances in Turkey: an old habit or a new trend?
11.02.2021
Turkey has a long history of state-sponsored abductions and enforced disappearances, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. At the beginning of this century, this grim trend seemed to be running...
Read more
The earth system, hydrosphere, and outer space: Cosmo-legal approaches
09.02.2021
The law is an example of human design, which has imposed anthropocentric interests on everything considered non-human. With the example of the relationship between law, orbital space, and water, the...
Read more
“We contributed to the respect for international law and the peaceful resolution of international conflicts”
08.02.2021
Julian A. Hettihewa
Ina Heusgen
Last month, Germany’s two-year non-permanent membership in the Security Council of the United Nations ended (see here for Hannah Birkenkötter’s blog post). We seize this opportunity to reflect with Ina...
Read more
„Wir haben in diesem Gremium zur Einhaltung des internationalen Rechts und zur friedlichen Konfliktlösung beigetragen“
08.02.2021
Julian A. Hettihewa
Ina Heusgen
Im vergangenen Monat endete die nicht-ständige Mitgliedschaft Deutschlands im Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen (siehe hierzu bereits den Beitrag von Hannah Birkenkötter). Wir nehmen dies zum Anlass, um mit Dr. Ina...
Read more
The Facebook Oversight Board and its Trump test
04.02.2021
Facebook exercises extraordinary power over individuals in the digital world, and the grave consequences of what is said on Facebook can easily spill into the physical world too. There is...
Read more
Informed dissent or misinformed rebellion? Making sense of India’s farmer protests
04.02.2021
“We are food: we eat food, we are made of food, and our first identity, our first wealth, our first health, comes from the making, creating, giving of good food.”...
Read more
Von Felsen und Fischen – Zur Frage der Fischereirechte um Rockall
02.02.2021
Bei der steinigen 624 m² großen Erhebung, die 162 Seemeilen in westlicher Richtung entfernt vom nördlichen Teil des Vereinigten Königreichs aus dem Nord-Ost-Atlantik ragt und die unter der Bezeichnung „Rockall“...
Read more
The Hague District Court on travel restrictions: A test for international human rights law?
29.01.2021
Rutsel Silvestre J Martha
Kit De Vriese
On 31 December 2020, The Hague District Court issued its summary judgment in De Lugt v The Dutch Government, closing a tumultuous year which had started with the first confirmed...
Read more
Enforced disappearances in Syria and the Al Khatib trial in Germany
27.01.2021
More than 100,000 Syrians have been subjected to enforced disappearances since 2011, when Syria descended into a civil war. The Syrian regime, operating through its four Intelligence Services, has used...
Read more
The Judgement of Solomon that went wrong: Georgia v. Russia (II) by the European Court of Human Rights
26.01.2021
On 21 January 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court or ECtHR) delivered its long-awaited judgment in the inter-state case Georgia v. Russia (II). This case concerns the...
Read more
Taking stock: A review of Germany’s two years on the Security Council
25.01.2021
Germany’s two-year membership in the UN Security Council ended on 31 December 2020. Starting with big expectations, it hit the hard realities of increasingly divisive world politics in times of...
Read more
Withdrawing from the ‚Withdrawal Doctrine‘
21.01.2021
Shortly after his election, President Joe Biden announced a number of issues he would tackle during his first days in office. Amongst others, this included reversing the effects of what...
Read more
South Korea’s denial of Japan’s immunity for international crimes
18.01.2021
The issue of sexual enslavement of Korean women during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945 has been called ‘the most emotional historical dispute’ between South...
Read more
Chaos averted or executive overreach?
15.01.2021
No “No-Deal Brexit”! On Christmas Eve 2020, a continent breathes a sigh of relief. The EU and the UK adopt the “EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement” (TCA) to resolve years...
Read more
Universal jurisdiction without universal outreach?
13.01.2021
Alexander Dünkelsbühler
Alexander Suttor
Lea Borger
Creating a framework for the prosecution of international crimes under universal jurisdiction is clearly worthwhile. But as the intervention by the German Constitutional Court (BVerfG) in the Syrian war crimes...
Read more
One man’s martyr is another man’s malignant nuclear missile designer
22.12.2020
‘Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh’, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018. On 27 November 2020, the world remembered. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a man who Israel and the United States have...
Read more
The Energy Charter Treaty and its (in)compatibility with EU law
17.12.2020
Belgium is on the move again. After having submitted a request to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for an opinion on the compatibility of the Comprehensive...
Read more
The M/V Roseline A incident
09.12.2020
On 22 November 2020, roughly 200 kilometres off the coast of Libya, the Turkish-flagged cargo ship M/V Roseline A was intercepted by the German naval frigate Hamburg. Soldiers boarded the...
Read more
Saying Yes to development projects
07.12.2020
When a UN agency asked a rural community in Liberia about their development priorities after the civil war, the community asked for music instruments. Failing to understand the economic and...
Read more
One step forward – three steps back: why the hellfire from Ramstein may continue after all
01.12.2020
Maybe it is the time of the year that Ramstein Air Base looks even greyer and gloomier than usual in the cold November twilight, maybe it is the bitter thought...
Read more
Guidance at a critical moment – thoughts on CERD’s General Recommendation on racial profiling by law enforcement officials
28.11.2020
The term “racial profiling” is not found in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), but practices of racial profiling have long been of...
Read more
Jurisdiction – who speaks international law?
26.11.2020
As it is the case with many productions, only a small fraction of the work is visible to the public. As organisers of next year’s international conference “Jurisdiction – who...
Read more
Between fiction and reality: rights of nature in German television and before the ICJ
23.11.2020
Last week, the German public free-TV channel ARD broadcast the film "Ökozid" ("ecocide"), commissioned by ARD and produced by the independent production company zero one film, set in 2034, in...
Read more
Expanding the restricted realm of international trade law to animal welfare
19.11.2020
Deeksha Sharma
Tushar Behl
Can products be banned for animal welfare? Intensive and unsustainable farming disregards animal welfare and represents a critical risk to both animals and humans. This article shows the relevance of...
Read more
Another brick in the wall?
17.11.2020
Following several military operations by the Kingdom of Morocco, the Polisario Front is no longer committed to the 1991 ceasefire agreement. This marks the end to an almost thirty-year-absence of...
Read more
COVID-19, people, and other animals
12.11.2020
The ongoing pandemic has put a spotlight on the interface between the health of humans, animals, and the environment. COVID-19 is a zoonosis: a disease that is naturally transmissible from...
Read more
Sorry, Elon: Mars is not a legal vacuum – and it’s not yours, either
05.11.2020
On October 28th, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX published its Terms of Service for the beta test of its Starlink broadband megaconstellation. If successful, the project purports to offer internet connection...
Read more
Democracy in Latin America under COVID-19
28.10.2020
Mariela Morales Antoniazzi
Alina Maria Ripplinger
Just like all over the world, Latin America’s current state of emergency concerns saving the health, integrity and lives of people. Nevertheless, in the context of COVID-19 the region is...
Read more
Three years after the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar: Has the ASEAN changed?
26.10.2020
Dominique Virgil Tuapetel
August 2020 marked the three-year commemoration of mass atrocities towards the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, causing around 730,000 Rohingya to flee to the neighbouring Bangladesh and other countries. This post...
Read more
Bridging the gap: the MPIA as a valuable short-term solution to the impasse of the WTO’s Appellate Body?
12.10.2020
“At the core of a well-functioning multilateral trading system is an effective dispute resolution mechanism”, emphasized Appellate Body Member Peter Van den Bossche in his farewell speech. Reality in the...
Read more
Thou shalt not ‘break international law in a very specific and limited way’
15.09.2020
On 9 January 2020, the House of Commons – one part of the British Parliament – passed the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020, which enabled the United Kingdom (UK)...
Read more
The Aegean Sea dispute on the edge of escalating
09.09.2020
The feud between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean Sea counts several decades but has lately sparked international concerns about the region’s peace and stability. On 27 November 2019, the...
Read more
Invitation to sign: Note on the United States’ Claim to activate the snapback mechanism under Security Council Resolution 2231
03.09.2020
On 20 August 2020, the United States attempted to launch the mechanism often referred to as the ‘snapback’ mechanism provided for by the Iran nuclear agreement, the a (JCPOA) of...
Read more
Creeping diversion from secularism in Turkey
24.08.2020
On 10 July 2020, the Turkish government published its decision to re-transform the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in accordance with the decision of the highest administrative court. Since then,...
Read more
Violating international law through onerous procedural law
18.08.2020
On June 15, 2020, the United States Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review issued proposed regulations that...
Read more
A turn to youth in international law?
17.08.2020
And they did it again. On 14 July 2020, the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of Resolution 2523. The resolution, being the third of its kind, focuses on...
Read more
The complacency of constitutional courts: India’s Supreme Court and the Citizenship Amendment Act
12.08.2020
It is a common assumption that Constitutional courts in a democracy perform the role of protecting citizens’ rights against arbitrary use of government power. This is an important limb of...
Read more
How is COVID-19 affecting Amazonia?
10.08.2020
COVID-19 has spread throughout the world as a health crisis with deep socio-economic consequences. While the focus of the effects of COVID-19 often lie in urban centers, Indigenous people have...
Read more
“Stop quarantine, start war”
06.08.2020
National clashes between Armenians and Azerbaijanis have recently taken over media headlines again. In the ECHR’s Chamber judgment on the Makuchyan and Minasyan v. Azerbaijan and Hungary case of 25...
Read more
A bridge too far: Polish-Czech border incident
05.08.2020
Agata Kleczkowska
Martin Faix
On 28 May 2020, when the Polish and Czech borders were closed due to the pandemic, two Polish soldiers, assigned to assist the Polish Border Guard, decided to relocate their...
Read more
Orbit tax – mitigating space debris or aggravating economic disparity?
03.08.2020
Urvisha Kesharwani
Atika Chaturvedi
Since the launch of Russian satellite Sputnik-1 in 1957, the space industry has never looked back. Currently, there are about 20,000 satellites orbiting the earth, and with the private players...
Read more
Ungleichheit ist die wahre Pandemie
29.07.2020
Die aktuelle, durch COVID-19 verursachte globale Krise hat nicht nur die Schwäche des hegemonialen globalen Wirtschaftsmodells, sondern auch die dringende Notwendigkeit aufgezeigt, die Verteidigung der Menschenrechte aus einer transnationalen Perspektive...
Read more
