Unsere Beiträge

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...

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...

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...

Sand?! Yes, sand. Sand – or rather a lack thereof – is quickly becoming an increasingly pressing global issue. As the scarcity of this inconspicuous, yet crucial all-rounder of a...

In 2021 and beyond, refugee resettlement remains an indispensable protection tool for refugees facing particular vulnerability in countries of (first) refuge. Alarmingly, the resettlement numbers have reached the lowest levels...

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...

The fight for the protection and recognition of disabled persons’ rights frequently ends before it even starts. While about 25% of fetuses are generally aborted, this percentage rises to about 90% when the fetus is diagnosed...

In November 2020, tensions between Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments erupted into violent conflict, which is currently ongoing. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights...

While many question the relevance of the 1951 Refugee Convention today, refugee protection in the EU has actually expanded in the past 30 years. In just one generation, doctrinal shifts...

Germany’s 2021 asparagus season has just come to a close. Traditionally, 24 June, the so-called “Spargelsilvester”, marks the end of the jolly “Spargelzeit”. In 2019, Germans ate 1.7 kg of...

Wrapping up our Symposium ‘Defining Ecocide’, Christina Voigt, member of the Independent Expert Panel, explains her views on the definition of ecocide. In a conversation with Justine Batura, Philipp Eschenhagen...

In June 2021 the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide issued its proposal of the legal definition of ecocide along with its accompanying commentary. With its proposal,...

Given the justified rhetoric of urgency surrounding ecocide, this post thinks ridiculously far into the future: it thinks about a time when the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) will have enacted...

On 22 June 2021, more than 300 curious minds joined the Stop Ecocide Foundation for a video conference in which the long-awaited definition of ‘ecocide’ was to be unveiled. It...

This June, a panel of international experts revealed a proposed legal definition for “ecocide,” with the hopes that this crime eventually can be included in the Rome Statute and heard...

The proposed definition of a novel international crime of ecocide - unveiled on 22 June by the StopEcocide initiative - has been discussed widely across the international law blogosphere and beyond....

2021 ist aus migrationshistorischer und völkerrechtlicher Sicht ein ambivalentes Gedenkjahr. Neben der in dieser Blogreihe erinnerten Gründung des UNHCR und der Unterzeichnung der Genfer Flüchtlingskonvention (GFK) vor 70 Jahren sollte...

After James Crawford’s first book, The Creation of States in International Law, his revised doctoral dissertation, was published in 1979, the reviews were split. Colin Warbrick in International Affairs enthusiastically...

 Wer Staat ist, ist Völkerrechtssubjekt und darf Mitmachen im Spiel der Großen und Gleichen. Deshalb führt die Frage der Qualifikation als Staat auch immer wieder zu Streit und Konflikten,...

People who walked along the East River in mid-March towards the UN’s headquarters in New York found a peculiar picture: 168 empty school tables with blue UNICEF school bags on...

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:...

  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...

“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...