The ICJ Order in Ukraine v. Russia

Article

The ICJ Order in Ukraine v. Russia

28.03.2022

Diego Sanchez Borjas

On March 16th, 2022, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), handed over its Order on provisional measures in the case concerning...

Article

The Individual Expressions of Judges in the ICJ Provisional Measures Order in Ukraine v. Russia

19.03.2022

Kyra Wigard

Last Wednesday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its much-awaited order on provisional measures in the case brought by Ukraine against Russia’s military invasion. The Court decided on three...

Article

Of Bullshit, Lies and ‘Demonstrably Rubbish’ Justifications in International Law

18.03.2022

Fuad Zarbiyev

In an essay titled ‘The Importance of International Law’, Sir Arthur Watts raised the interesting question of why states feel that they have to provide legal justifications for their actions...

Article

“No chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction were developed on my land”

17.03.2022

Florian Jurina

Ideally, political actions and decisions should be based on a transparent, solid, and credible factual foundation. When different participants pursue different interests, this ideal runs at risk of being compromised,...

Article

„No chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction were developed on my land”

17.03.2022

Florian Jurina

Idealerweise sollten politische Handlungen und Entscheidungen auf einer transparenten, soliden und glaubwürdigen Faktengrundlage beruhen. Wo Akteure unterschiedliche Interessen verfolgen, läuft dieses Ideal Gefahr, unter die Räder zu kommen; sei es,...

Article

The Emergency Special Session on Ukraine

17.03.2022

Diego Sanchez Borjas

On March 2nd 2022, the UN General Assembly (GA), convened by the Security Council (SC) for an Emergency Special Session on Ukraine, adopted a resolution that, inter alia, demanded the...

Article

On Critique and Renewal in Times of Crisis

16.03.2022

Barrie Sander Immi Tallgren

Many of us are struggling to absorb the news coming out of Ukraine. Putin’s reckless and unjustified invasion has already generated significant loss of life, millions of refugees, and nuclear...

Article

Between Relief and War Crimes

16.03.2022

Kilian Roithmaier

As the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine has entered its third week, Russian forces continue their assaults against key Ukrainian cities. Amid heavy fighting, Ukraine and Russia agreed to establish...

Article

The Weaponisation of International Law in Ukraine

15.03.2022

Malcolm Jorgensen

A provocative feature of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been invocation by Russian officials of the legal language of “sovereignty”, “self-defence”, “genocide” and of “international law” itself. In tactical terms,...

Article

Media Pluralism in the Americas

14.03.2022

Anna Kohte

In its first judgment on community radio broadcasting, notified on 17 December 2021, the Inter-American Court (Court or IACtHR) indicated that states are obliged to guarantee access to radio broadcasting...

Article

Parting Paths – Russia’s Inevitable Exit From the Council of Europe

12.03.2022

Isabella Risini Andrew Forde

Since 24 February 2022, Europe has been shaken by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This blatant violation of international law led to the suspension of Russia’s rights of representation at...

Article

Neither Neutral nor Party to the Conflict?

09.03.2022

Markus Krajewski

Russia's attack on Ukraine marks a profound turning point in Germany's foreign and security policy. For the first time, Germany supplies weapons to a party to an armed conflict. At...

Article

Weder neutral noch Konfliktpartei?

09.03.2022

Markus Krajewski

Der Angriff Russlands auf die Ukraine markiert eine tiefgreifende Zäsur in der Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik Deutschlands. Erstmals werden Waffen an eine Partei eines bewaffneten Konflikts geliefert, die Militärausgaben sollen massiv...

Article

How Are Nuclear Power Plants Protected by Law During War?

07.03.2022

Anne Dienelt

The world held its breath when, on the morning of March 4, 2022, reports became public that Russian military forces had attacked the largest nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia in...

Article

Wie sind Atomkraftwerke im Krieg durch das Recht geschützt?

07.03.2022

Anne Dienelt

Die Welt hielt den Atem an, als am Morgen des 4. März 2022 bekannt wurde, dass die russischen Streitkräfte das größte Atomkraftwerk in Zaporizhzhia in der Ukraine in der Nacht...

Article

Russia Has Not Breached the Jus Contra Bellum in 2022; It Did in 2014

07.03.2022

Marco Roscini

There is hardly any doubt that the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine started on 24 February 2022 is a blatant violation of international law. According to the news arriving from...

Article

To Close or Not to Close

04.03.2022

Nilüfer Oral

This analysis by Nilüfer Oral first appeared on the NUS-CIL blog and is a revised and updated version of the original text. President Zelensky’s Request to Turkey to Invoke...

Article

More than Names and Numbers?

04.03.2022

Isabel Lischewski

On Monday, the Ukrainian representative on the Governmental Advisory Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) sent an e-mail asking the President and CEO of ICANN...

Article

The Sadly Neglected Crime of Aggression

03.03.2022

Elisabeth Baier

International criminal law has experienced an unexpected renaissance in the domestic sphere in recent years. There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Germany’s consistent application of universal jurisdiction in...

Article

Vereint gegen den Krieg

03.03.2022

Elvira Rosert

„Resolution ES-11/1 adopted“: mit einem lakonischen Tweet verkündete gestern Nachmittag der Vorsitzende der UN-Generalversammlung, dass die Weltgemeinschaft in einer Notstandssitzung den Angriff Russlands auf die Ukraine verurteilt hat. 141 Staaten...

Article

Uniting for Peace

03.03.2022

Tamsin Phillipa Paige Rob McLaughlin

In the last week, we’ve seen Russia launch a full-scale invasion into Ukraine, constituting a clear breach of the prohibition on the use of force and an act of aggression....

Article

From Grey Zones to Red Lines

01.03.2022

Andrew Forde

On 25 February, in accordance with Article 8 of the Statute of the Council of Europe (CoE), the Committee of Ministers suspended Russia’s rights of representation for seriously violating Article...

Article

Russia’s Recognition of the DPR and LPR as Illegal Acts under International Law

24.02.2022

Júlia Miklasová

On 21 February 2022, following a televised address, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed the decrees recognising the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) – two Ukrainian breakaway territories,...

Article

Seeking the Holy Grail?

23.02.2022

Vanessa Vohs

UN talks on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) have been ongoing since 2014. Regardless of intense academic engagement on the topic as well as civil society pressure, last year the...

Article

Even the Eagle does not Fly Higher than the Sun

21.02.2022

Kirsten Schmalenbach Sara Wissmann

An old Russian expression goes "Даже орел не летает выше солнца" ("Even the eagle does not fly higher than the sun"). This piece of wisdom should be kept in mind...

Article

Fiddling (With Ecocide) While Rome (and Everywhere Else) Burns

18.02.2022

Kevin Jon Heller

Völkerrechtsblog has published another post on ecocide, this one entitled “Ecocide – Legal Revolution or Symbolism?” Written by Romina Pezzot and Jan-Phillip Graf, the post argues that, if adopted by...

Article

The Armed Lifeboat Between Glasgow and Bruzgi

14.02.2022

Itamar Mann

During the last three days of COP26, a group of about 2,000 asylum seekers was stranded in a makeshift camp on the Belarusian side of Bruzgi, the international border crossing...

Article

The Hobbesian State of Nature as Cautionary Tale

09.02.2022

André de Hoogh

In his contribution related to Carmen Pavel’s book, Law Beyond the State, my good friend and colleague Kostia Gorobets suggests Doing Away with Hobbes. However, his depiction of Hobbes’s premises...

Article

The End of the Al-Khatib Trial

07.02.2022

Susann Aboueldahab Fin-Jasper Langmack

A German version of this article was previously published here on 14 January. January 13, 2022 marked the end of the world’s first trial on state torture in Syria....

Article

Verfassungsrechtliche Verantwortlichkeit in der Klimakrise

01.02.2022

Conrad Julius Oelke

Ein unterschätzter Entscheidungsaspekt Kaum eine Gerichtsentscheidung der jüngeren Vergangenheit hat so viel Aufruhr verursacht wie der Klimabeschluss (1 BvR 2656/18) des Bundesverfassungsgerichts vom März letzten Jahres. Nicht nur im schnelllebigen...

Article

Don’t Stick to a Fossil Treaty – Pull the Plug on the Energy Charter Treaty

31.01.2022

Claudia Müller-Hoff Laura Duarte

On the basis of the ECT treaty, companies like RWE claim billions from the Dutch state because they have to close their coal-fired power plants under the Dutch coal-exit law...

Article

Raus aus dem fossilen Zeitalter – Zieht dem Energiecharta-Vertrag den Stecker!

31.01.2022

Claudia Müller-Hoff Laura Duarte

Auf der Grundlage des Energiecharta-Vertrags fordern Unternehmen wie RWE Milliarden vom niederländischen Staat, weil sie nach dem niederländischen Kohleausstiegsgesetz von 2019 ihre Kohlekraftwerke schließen müssen. Doch der Europäische Gerichtshof entschied,...

Article

Having its (Strasbourg) Cake, and Eating It

26.01.2022

Colm O'Cinneide

The UK government has proposed replacing its domestic rights charter, the 1988 Human Rights Act, with a new ‘Bill of Rights’. This may further destabilise its already turbulent relationship with...

Article

The Minimum Principle

19.01.2022

Laura Burgers

‘A politician (…) thinks of the next election, while the statesman thinks of the next generation,’ James Freeman Clarke wrote in an 1870 essay with the pressing title Wanted, a...

Article

Das Ende des Al-Khatib-Verfahrens

14.01.2022

Susann Aboueldahab Fin-Jasper Langmack

Am 13. Januar 2022 endete der weltweit erste Prozess wegen Staatsfolter in Syrien. Das OLG Koblenz verurteilte Anwar R. zu lebenslanger Haft wegen Tötung, Folter, schwerwiegender Freiheitsberaubung, Vergewaltigung und sexueller...

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

Article

Critiques of International Criminal Law Revisited in the Light of the Rome Statute

10.01.2022

Marco Vöhringer

As 2021 marked the 75th anniversary of the first international criminal trial in Nuremberg, this post will reflect on the current state of international criminal law (ICL). The conventional wisdom...

Article

The Problem with Using Sanctions as Human Rights Accountability

04.01.2022

Nathanael Tilahun

In November 2021, the United States unveiled a flurry of sanctions in response to human rights and humanitarian law violations in the year-long armed conflict in northern Ethiopia. The conflict...

Article

Truly Historic

17.12.2021

Alexandra Lily Kather Johanna Groß

In-between the expectations of the international community and domestic rule of law realties, the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt sentenced Taha Al J. to life imprisonment in a historic verdict....

Article

Unfinished Business

10.12.2021

Hannah Birkenkötter Raffaela Kunz Dana Schmalz

It is Human Rights Day, again – an occasion to reflect on the state of academic debate about human rights. After a phase of significant human rights critiques, the debate has increasingly...

Article

Remembering Professor Rudolf Bernhardt

09.12.2021

Angelika Nußberger

Professor Rudolf Bernhardt, former President of the European Court of Human Rights and former director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law died on 1 December 2021...

Article

Bringing Order to Orbital Chaos?

07.12.2021

Sanchit Anand Rajeshwari Suryakanth Nagamarpalli Veronica Miele Audrey Danthinne

Three weeks ago, on 15 November 2021, a Russian anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test was reported, raising serious legal and political questions about the prohibition of the use of force in outer space. Not...

Article

It’s All About Choice

29.11.2021

Dariusz Kloza

Time and again, a debate pops up on whether access to the internet should be made a human right. While some have favoured universal access thereto with as little restrictions...

Article

The Immunity of the Holy See in Sexual Abuse Cases

24.11.2021

Cedric Ryngaert

In multiple countries, allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have led to lawsuits against dioceses and clergy, and the establishment of investigation and claims commissions. However, because of...

Article

Indicators 2.0: From Ranks and Reports to Dashboards and Databanks

23.11.2021

Angelina Fisher

In September 2021, the World Bank Group’s management announced its decision to discontinue one of its most notable and controversial products - the Doing Business Report. Michael Riegner had welcomed...

Article

The Truth about Doing Business

22.11.2021

Stéphanie de Moerloose

As well-explained by Michael Riegner in his post The End of Indicators, the World Bank pulled the plug on its annual Doing Business report (DB), after scandalous irregularities were denounced...

Article

Self-Reflexivity on the Judicial Bench

19.11.2021

Lys Kulamadayil

A knowledgeable and highly accomplished international lawyer gets appointed to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). This hardly qualifies as news. When Georg Nolte, who is no less a prominent...

Article

Auslegung von Völkergewohnheitsrecht?

18.11.2021

Lukas Kleinert

Obwohl führende Lehr- und Handbücher auf diese Fragestellung nicht eingehen, finden sich verschiedene Autor*innen in der jüngeren und älteren Vergangenheit , die Völkergewohnheitsrecht für auslegbar und dies auch für methodisch...

Article

Mission Impossible?

17.11.2021

Haris Huremagić Johannes Tropper

In its recent judgment in Moldova v. Komstroy, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has deemed intra-EU investor-state-dispute settlement (ISDS) under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) incompatible...

Article

The Normative Mess Governing Africa-EU Trade Relation Granted a New Lease of Life

16.11.2021

Melaku Geboye Desta

Whatever little hope was left for Africa-EU trade relationship to be brought within a set of coherent rules agreed between the two sides has been put to rest, potentially for...

Article

Leaving Just a Crack for Socioeconomic-Based Non-Refoulement

15.11.2021

Mariana Ferolla Vallandro do Valle

Much has been discussed about the potential of non-refoulement for preventing removal of persons to a country where they would face violations of their economic, social, and cultural rights (‘ESCR’)....

Article

Is Immaterial Restitution Enough?

03.11.2021

Gracia Lwanzo Kasongo

The discussion on the restitution of the Congolese cultural heritage is not a recent one. As estimated by Calafate Ribeiro Margarita and Pinto Ribeiro, it arose in 1936 along with...

Article

Two Milestones in Favour of the Environment in Just a Few Days?

02.11.2021

Nora Jauer

On Friday, 8 October 2021, the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations (UN) recognized the human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This was welcomed with...

Article

Trimming Pegasus’ Wings

27.10.2021

Roland Klein

For centuries, export control regulations have accompanied the development of new weapon technologies. The revelations of the ‘Pegasus Project’ have put the question of whether and how to regulate the...

Article

A Sisyphean Task?

20.10.2021

Paul Vitter Thiessen

The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) with its 55 member states (including the EU’s except for Italy) is the only energy specific international investment agreement. The treaty is increasingly put under...

Article

A Straight Line Towards the Sea

18.10.2021

Christoph Saake

Almost to the day six months after the public hearings took place (for a comment see here), the International Court of Justice delivered its judgment in the case of Maritime...

Article

Watch Your Facebook Comment Section!

15.10.2021

Frederic Kupsch

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...

Article

Remedies for Bad Faith Violations

13.10.2021

Başak Çalı

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...

Article

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

11.10.2021

Marco Vöhringer

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...

Article

The End of Indicators

06.10.2021

Michael Riegner

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...

Article

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...

Article

From Achmea to Komstroy

22.09.2021

Johannes Tropper

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...

Article

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...

Article

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...

Article

Recognition of a Taliban Government?

08.09.2021

Lukas Kleinert

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...

Article

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’...

Article

Missing Perspectives

30.08.2021

Lina Schmitz-Buhl

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...

Article

Article 14 ECHR in the Closet

21.08.2021

Eva Maria Bredler

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....

Article

Devious Use of International Organizations to Persecute Dissidents Abroad: The Erdogan Case

20.08.2021

Yasir Gökçe

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...

Article

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...

Article

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...

Article

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...

Article

Unlimited Brutality

26.07.2021

Fadel Abdul Ghany

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...

Article

The Nijmegen Principles and Guidelines on Interim Measures (2021)

19.07.2021

Eva Rieter Rosa Möhrlein

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...

Article

Law’s Vulgar Silence

28.06.2021

Nadia Kornioti

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:...

Article

Of Missed Chances and Set Narratives

25.06.2021

Miriam Nomanni

“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...

Article

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...

Article

How Law Can Make War Inhumane and Banal

23.06.2021

Maryam Jamshidi

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...

Article

Extinguishing the Flares of Death

21.06.2021

Dorothy Puga

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...

Article

Big Brother Watch v. UK

04.06.2021

Massimo Frigo

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...

Article

Will Vienna Talks Put an End to the “COVID-19 Plus” in Iran?

20.05.2021

Khashayar Biria

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...

Article

Germany’s “Fair Share” of Climate Change Jurisprudence

17.05.2021

Philipp Schönberger

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...

Article

The Selection of the “Worst of the Worst”

13.05.2021

Natali Gbele Salman Khan

“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...

Article

The Dreadful Night Goes On

12.05.2021

Santiago Vargas Niño

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,...

Article

A Case of MOX Plant 2.0 in the Pacific?

06.05.2021

Anh Nguyen

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....

Article

A Bill for Better Business

05.05.2021

Anneloes Hoff

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...

Article

Vaccine Apartheid and the Unlikely Overcoming of the Pandemic by 2023

04.05.2021

Juan C. Herrera

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...

Article

Leaving the Pre-Digital Era, Finally!

04.05.2021

Stephan Gerbig

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...

Article

All that Glitters Is Not Gold

03.05.2021

Jasper Mührel

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...

Article

Three Hours from Paris to Karlsruhe

01.05.2021

Anna-Julia Saiger

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....

Article

Case Concerning a Mysterious Maritime Delimitation Treaty

23.04.2021

Arpita Goswami Sachdeva

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...

Article

Der Anfang ist gemacht!

22.04.2021

Merlina Herbach

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...

Article

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...

Article

A Violent Effort to Rewrite History?

19.04.2021

Sylvia Maus

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...

Article

Cyber Space, Sovereignty and the Intricacies of International Law-Making

16.04.2021

Florian Kriener

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...

Article

Maritime Delimitation, Non-Appearance, and Acquiescence

15.04.2021

Christoph Saake

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...

Article

No Rocket Science!

15.04.2021

Manasa S Venkatachalam

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...

Article

Beware of Procedural Perils

14.04.2021

Pedro Villarreal

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...

Article

Time for an Update of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

14.04.2021

Remo Klinger

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...

Article

Not Making the Cut

08.04.2021

Mariam Bezhanishvili

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...