Fetishizing the State: Gentili and the Myth of the Modern Laws of War

Symposium
Interview
International Law and the Political

Fetishizing the State: Gentili and the Myth of the Modern Laws of War

21.11.2023

Claire Vergerio Hendrik Simon

According to international humanitarian law, the answer to the question of who is considered a legitimate actor of force is primarily the following: sovereign states. This state-centred answer is often...

Symposium
Book Review
The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law

Editors’ Response

17.11.2023

Panos Merkouris Jörg Kammerhofer Noora Arajärvi

We would like to thank the editors of the Völkerrechtsblog for organising this symposium on The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law, and the commentators for thoughtfully and...

Symposium
Book Review
The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law

The Evergreen Examination Question

16.11.2023

Outi Korhonen

As ChatGPT-4 and other artificial intelligence machines are all but extinguishing the essay-writing practice, it is high time that we receive the right answer to the ever-green topic of international...

Symposium
Book Review
The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law

Reflections on Customary International Law and Interpretation

15.11.2023

Orfeas Chasapis Tassinis

It is not often that one reads about Schrödinger's cat, the particle and wave qualities of light, and Latour’s idea that modern discourses are always driven by their foundational contradictions...

Symposium
Book Review
The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law

The Practical Question of the Interpretation of Customary International Law

14.11.2023

Eirik Bjorge

The featured monograph in this symposium – The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law – offers welcome engagement with the question of whether there can be such a...

Symposium
Book Review
The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law

Legal Appropriation or Rechtsnahme through Customary International Law

13.11.2023

Monica Garcia-Salmones

Legal Appropriation or, what is the same, Rechtsnahme means in this contribution the space of human interaction that is appropriated by international judges, lawyers and other legal actors when they...

Symposium
Book Review
The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law

Introducing the Book Review Symposium on “The Theory, Practice, and Interpretation of Customary International Law”

13.11.2023

Jan-Henrik Hinselmann Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni Raphael Oidtmann

This summer, Judge Hilary Charlesworth made international lawyers very happy (some of them at least) when her dissenting opinion appended to the judgment of the International Court of Justice in...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Angelika Nußberger

13.10.2023

Angelika Nußberger Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Angelika Nußberger, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Tamsin Phillipa Paige

29.09.2023

Tamsin Phillipa Paige Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Dr. Tamsin Phillipa Paige, and through the following questions, we will try...

Media
Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Keynote: Searching for Progress in International Law

23.09.2023

As the conclusion of the online symposium on “Progress and International Law”, we welcome you to the livestream of the keynote speech by Hilary Charlesworth on “Searching for Progress in...

Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

The “Responsibility to and for Progress” in International Law

22.09.2023

Martin Schwamborn

How do we achieve a responsible approach to progress and its consequences? This old question of humankind has been given new momentum by recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI): Numerous...

Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Agenda 2030 Between the Ideology of Progress and the Reality of Poverty and Exploitation

21.09.2023

Matheus Gobbato Leichtweis

Adopted in 2015, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development promises to eliminate poverty and promote sustainable development, peace, and prosperity for all by 2030. The Agenda introduced 17 Sustainable Development...

Bofaxe
Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Towards a Feminist Interpretation of the ECHR’s Provisions on Access to Abortion

21.09.2023

Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

While applications regarding the incompatibility of deadly restrictive abortion policies with the European Convention on Human Rights (‘ECHR’) are piling up before the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’, ‘Court’),...

Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Towards an (Im)possible Polis: Legal Imagination and State Continuity

20.09.2023

Alex Green

Thomas Baty once quipped that ‘[i]nternational law, it is generally agreed, has something to do with states’. By opening The Canons of International Law in this manner, Baty draws our...

Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Border Dialectics: Progress, Regress, and Resistance

20.09.2023

Giulia Raimondo

Received knowledge about the protection of migrants in international law tells a story of progress. A story of expanded refugee definitions, complementary protection, and extraterritorial obligations. Yet a counternarrative has...

Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Locating Progress in the European Convention on Human Rights

19.09.2023

Jens T. Theilen

Progress may seem to be a temporal concept. That is certainly how it is usually understood in the literature on progress and international law. Statements of progress are said, for...

Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Progress and Linear Time: How to Rethink International Law to Account for Ecologically Precarious Presents?

19.09.2023

Eliana Cusato

We live in the ‘era of global boiling’, says UN Secretary-General Guterres, as July 2023 set to be the hottest month on record. While the ecological conditions of planetary life...

Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Visions of Progress and International Law in Nineteenth-Century Latin America

18.09.2023

Tania Atilano

The concept of progress in international legal scholarship and practice has been explored over time. The narratives of progress in international law are conventionally drawn from the European or North...

Symposium
Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?

Introducing the Symposium ‘Progress and International Law: A Cursed Relationship?’

18.09.2023

Alexander Holzer Lisa Kujus Rebecca Kruse Júlia Miklasová Jasper Mührel Paula Rhein-Fischer Lorenz Wielenga Sara Wissmann

The notion of progress is firmly embedded at the core of international law discourse. “When we speak of something as progressive, we assume that it is a desirable improvement compared...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Thoko Kaime

15.09.2023

Thoko Kaime Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Thoko Kaime, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Alexander Orakhelashvili

01.09.2023

Alexander Orakhelashvili Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Professor Alexander Orakhelashvili, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Giulia Raimondo

14.07.2023

Giulia Raimondo Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Dr. Giulia Raimondo, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Symposium
Interview
International Law and the Political

Beyond Black and White: Normative Ambiguities and the Delivery of Cluster Bombs

12.07.2023

Elvira Rosert Frank Sauer Hendrik Simon

Following the decision by the United States of America to provide cluster bombs to Ukraine, a contentious public and academic discourse has emerged, centering on the legality and legitimacy of...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

23.06.2023

Olabisi D. Akinkugbe Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, and through the following questions, we will try...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Noëlle Quénivet

09.06.2023

Noëlle Quénivet Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Noëlle Quénivet, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Moira Dustin

26.05.2023

Moira Dustin Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Dr. Moira Dustin, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Symposium
Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives

Theory as Practice in International Law

25.05.2023

Emily Jones

International law is indeterminate yet, as Koskenniemi argues, it is also structured around a series of ‘embedded preferences’, fostering ‘structural biases’ and limiting the range of possible outcomes. Consequently, international law...

Symposium
Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives

Making Sense of Posthuman Feminist Theory in International Law

24.05.2023

Anastasia Hammerschmied Amelie Herzog

Feminist engagements with international law oscillate between seeking legal change from within the law and the need to look beyond that system to completely reimagine it. This well-known tension of...

Symposium
Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives

Nature and the Conceit of Law

23.05.2023

Usha Natarajan

Coming to this erudite text from Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAlL), I found much to agree with and learn. TWAIL is an anti-colonial anti-imperial disciplinary movement formative to...

Symposium
Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives

‘Life as Relation not Dividuation’

22.05.2023

Sanskriti Sanghi

A deepening climate crisis. A failing legal framework. A search for alternative imaginations. In this reflection on Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives by Emily Jones, I will engage...

Symposium
Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives

An Invite to Stay With the Trouble

19.05.2023

Maria Elander

Emily Jones’ monograph Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives is an invitation to explore how posthuman feminist theory sheds new light on a range of contemporary issues and debates...

Symposium
Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives

Must We Instrumentalize?

18.05.2023

Fleur Johns

Chapter 2 of Emily Jones’s rich and generative new book, Feminist Theory of International Law Posthuman Perspectives, draws attention to all the ways in which humans and machines “are already...

Symposium
Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives

Exclusionary Humanism and Anthropocentrism: A Valid Tandem?

17.05.2023

Pedro Martínez Esponda

International law is all-too-human, argues Emily Jones in Chapter 1 of her penetrating and deeply insightful Posthuman Feminism. International law might well gravitate around nonhuman entities – the state, international...

Symposium
Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives

Introducing the Symposium on Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives by Emily Jones

17.05.2023

Lys Kulamadayil Isabel Lischewski Sebastian M. Spitra

Emily Jones is known in the international law research community as a co-host of the Essex Public International Law lecture series. She, herself a critical international law scholar, initiated this...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Andreas Føllesdal

12.05.2023

Andreas Føllesdal Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Andreas Føllesdal, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Jean d’Aspremont

28.04.2023

Jean d’Aspremont Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Jean d'Aspremont, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Sergey Sayapin

14.04.2023

Sergey Sayapin Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Sergey Sayapin, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Marko Milanovic

31.03.2023

Marko Milanovic Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Marko Milanovic, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Vasuki Nesiah

17.03.2023

Vasuki Nesiah Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to another interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Vasuki Nesiah, and through the following questions, we will try to get...

Symposium
Women in International Law Vol. 2

Goodbye Refuge, Hello Bespokism

10.03.2023

Zoe Bantleman

In recent months and years, the United Kingdom (UK) has increasingly shifted away from a robust asylum and protection framework and towards increasing reliance on inadequate bespoke ‘safe and legal’...

Symposium
Women in International Law Vol. 2

Forced Marriage of Afghan Girls and the Bifurcated Approach for Defining Persecution

09.03.2023

Cristina María Zamora Gómez

Since the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021, women and girls have been erased from public life and have had their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights...

Symposium
Women in International Law Vol. 2

“Voluntary” Repatriation

08.03.2023

Natasha Yacoub

Voluntary repatriation has been upheld as the ideal durable solution for refugees by the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner’s Programme (‘Ex Com’) and has its roots in efforts...

Symposium
Women in International Law Vol. 2

How Joining a Majorette Group Can Lead You to Being Denied International Protection

07.03.2023

Lore Roels

“… [Y]ou have been working since you were 17 ...; you are financially independent ...; [a member of a] religious community..., the choir ..., [and] the majorette group ...; [and]...

Symposium
Women in International Law Vol. 2

Introducing the Second Annual ‘Women in International Law’ Symposium

07.03.2023

Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on the 8th of March, the Völkerrechtsblog celebrates women in international law with the annual ‘Women in International Law’ symposium....

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Vladislava Stoyanova

24.02.2023

Vladislava Stoyanova Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Associate Prof. Vladislava Stoyanova, and through the following questions, we will try...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Diane Desierto

10.02.2023

Diane A. Desierto Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the latest interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Diane Desierto, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Symposium
Interview
International Law and the Political

Relapse into ‘Civilisation’?! A Narrative’s Continuity and Change

01.02.2023

Ntina Tzouvala Hendrik Simon

Critical International Law has become increasingly influential in academic discourse. However, argues Ntina Tzouvala, there remain important blind spots. An interview on capitalism, racism, and the ongoing impact of ‘civilisation’....

Symposium
Interview
International Law and the Political

(Merging the) Fragments of Critical International Law

31.01.2023

Ntina Tzouvala Hendrik Simon

Critical International Law has become increasingly influential in academic discourse. However, argues Ntina Tzouvala, there remain important blind spots. An interview on capitalism, racism, and the ongoing impact of ‘civilisation’....

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Itamar Mann

27.01.2023

Itamar Mann Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to another interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Itamar Mann, and through the following questions, we will try to get...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Lys Kulamadayil

13.01.2023

Lys Kulamadayil Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the first interview of 2023 for the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Dr. Lys Kulamadayil, and through the following questions, we will...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Dianne Otto

23.12.2022

Dianne Otto Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to another interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! Through this interview, we will try to get a glimpse of Prof. Dianne Otto’s interests, sources of...

Symposium
Racial Profiling in Germany

Racist Police Practices

15.12.2022

Lisa Washington

In 2012, Biplab Basu and his daughter rode a train from Prague to Berlin. The train had just passed the Czech Republic, when two German federal police officers got on...

Symposium
Racial Profiling in Germany

Race and Empire in International Law

14.12.2022

Anna Hankings-Evans

The prohibition of racial discrimination has played a marginal role within the global human rights agenda. This corresponds to the subordination and neglect of ‘race’ in how international legal scholars...

Symposium
Racial Profiling in Germany

Human Rights Standards for Accountability and Effective Remedies

13.12.2022

Elisabeth Kaneza

In Germany, for a long time, racial profiling was regarded as a problem that exists in other countries. However, in recent years more victims of racial discrimination have brought cases...

Symposium
Racial Profiling in Germany

Racial Profiling in Germany

13.12.2022

Sué González Hauck

In Basu v. Germany, an international body reminded Germany once again of its less-than-perfect human rights record regarding racial discrimination. In this case, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Satang Nabaneh

09.12.2022

Satang Nabaneh Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to another interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Dr. Satang Nabaneh, and through the following questions, we will try to get...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Rohini Sen

02.12.2022

Rohini Sen Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the fifth interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Rohini Sen, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Book Review
Symposium
The World Bank’s Lawyers

In Gratitude

25.11.2022

Dimitri Van Den Meerssche

One of the most challenging parts of writing The World Bank’s Lawyers was coming to terms with its closure – the closure of its cover, its core claims, the changes...

Book Review
Symposium
The World Bank’s Lawyers

Disentangling Global Governance

25.11.2022

Gail Lythgoe

Whatever happened to chaos theory anyway? Its heyday seems to be over within social sciences at least. With a longer history in ‘natural’ or ‘hard’ sciences, the theory became big...

Book Review
Symposium
The World Bank’s Lawyers

The Firm

24.11.2022

Negar Mansouri

In his ethnographic book on the World Bank, Goldman describes the bank as “a fickle place to experience and comprehend. Mental maps mislead, directional signs baffle, and paths through it...

Book Review
Symposium
The World Bank’s Lawyers

International Institutional Law “Under the Radar”

23.11.2022

Michael Riegner

When I arrived at the World Bank in Washington D.C. in 2014, the Bank was in the process of incorporating a new agenda on security, conflict and fragility in its...

Book Review
Symposium
The World Bank’s Lawyers

A New Map of (International Law’s) Empire?

22.11.2022

Guy Fiti Sinclair

In a (very) short story, “On Exactitude in Science”, Jorge Luis Borges tells how, in a certain Empire, “the Art of Cartography” had “attained such Perfection” that eventually “a Map...

Book Review
Symposium
The World Bank’s Lawyers

Unsettling the Place of Law in International Organizations

21.11.2022

Isobel Roele

In The World Bank’s Lawyers Dimitri Van Den Meerssche does a great service to legal scholarship on international organizations by insisting that the place of law therein is not guaranteed,...

Book Review
Symposium
The World Bank’s Lawyers

The World Bank’s Lawyers: Book Launch

21.11.2022

Florenz Volkaert Tommaso Soave Ahmed Memon Gail Lythgoe Negar Mansouri Dimitri Van Den Meerssche

On Wednesday 16 November, the ESIL Interest Groups on History of Intentional Law and International Organisations and Völkerrechtsblog, hosted a book launch for The World Bank’s Lawyers by Dr. Dimitri...

Book Review
Symposium
The World Bank’s Lawyers

Ever Shifting, Ever Changing

21.11.2022

Anna Sophia Tiedeke

As international scholars, we have been trained to accept a certain role law occupies in international and global settings, and have adopted a very peculiar perspective on how to study...

Symposium
Interview
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Fuad Zarbiyev

18.11.2022

Fuad Zarbiyev Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to today’s interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us, we have Prof. Fuad Zarbiyev, and through the following questions, we will try to get...

Symposium
International Law and the Political

Can We Trust Each Other?

15.11.2022

Filipe dos Reis Hendrik Simon

Interdisciplinarity still seems to be the order of the day. Despite its many advantages, it tends to be a sometimes-ambivalent undertaking: demanded in academia’s bureaucracies (for funding applications, no less),...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Marco Sassòli

11.11.2022

Marco Sassòli Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to another interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! Through this interview, we will try to learn more about the interests and sources of inspiration of...

Interview
Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Jan Klabbers

04.11.2022

Jan Klabbers Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the second interview of the Völkerrechtsblog’s symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! With us we have Prof. Jan Klabbers, and through the following questions, we will try to...

Symposium
Adivasi Struggles in Chhattisgarh

India Trains Its Sights on Dissent in Chhattisgarh

28.10.2022

Allison West

Development in the form of profit-driven resource exploitation ventures in India’s central state of Chhattisgarh, led by corporations and facilitated by the state, have wreaked havoc on the lives and...

Symposium
Adivasi Struggles in Chhattisgarh

The State vs. Adivasis

27.10.2022

Nikita Agarwal

The Bastar region in southern Chhattisgarh has been the site of an ongoing armed conflict over the last decades. The armed struggle in the region arose due to the lack...

Symposium
Adivasi Struggles in Chhattisgarh

Punished for Seeking Justice

26.10.2022

Gautam Bhatia

In 2009, Himanshu Kumar, a social activist, filed a petition with the Supreme Court of India against the state of Chhattisgarh. The case concerned the massacre of 16 indigenous people...

Symposium
Adivasi Struggles in Chhattisgarh

Tigers over Tribal Rights

25.10.2022

Alev Erhan

Indigenous communities around the world who have relied on and considered themselves custodians of the land have long confronted existential challenges in the face of privatization, extraction, and development. Often...

Symposium
Adivasi Struggles in Chhattisgarh

Economic Growth or Adivasi Rights?

24.10.2022

Tara Roy

“We exist because the forest does, and the forest exists because we do.” - Member of the Gond Adivasi people in Hasdeo Aranya That the world is facing an...

Symposium
Adivasi Struggles in Chhattisgarh

Landgrabs, Institutional Violence and Shrinking Civic Space

24.10.2022

Alev Erhan Allison West Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni Meike Krakau

India is often referred to as the “world’s largest democracy,” yet minority protection has always been a field of fierce contestation in post-independence India. Adivasis (the indigenous peoples of India)...

Symposium
Interview
The Person Behind the Academic

Chatting with Mando Rachovitsa

21.10.2022

Mando Rachovitsa Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

Welcome to the first Interview that kicks off the symposium ‘The Person behind the Academic’! For this very special interview, I could not have wished for another guest than Mando...

Symposium
The Person Behind the Academic

Introducing the Symposium ‘The Person Behind the Academic’

21.10.2022

Spyridoula (Sissy) Katsoni

If one’s academic personality and inner value system are interconnected and inseparable, then getting to know the person behind the academic can help readers to better understand one’s work. If,...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

Stocktaking of the International Criminal Court

15.07.2022

Michael Lysander Fremuth Konstantina Stavrou Andreas Sauermoser

We are extremely grateful to the editors of Völkerrechtsblog, especially, Miriam Nomanni and Raphael Oidtmann, for hosting this symposium. A big ‘thank you’ also goes to the contributors – Tom...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes

15.07.2022

Kim Thuy Seelinger

One metric by which the success or failure of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has often been measured is that of its record regarding sexual and gender-based crimes (SGBCs). This...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

The ICC at 20 and the Crime of Aggression

14.07.2022

Tom Dannenbaum

As the International Criminal Court (ICC) enters its third decade, the Court is at an inflection point. So, too, is the criminalization of aggression. However, while the catalyst for these...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

Towards an ‘International Criminal Evidence’?

14.07.2022

Yvonne McDermott Rees

Does the International Criminal Court (ICC) have an ‘evidence problem’? Recent practice would seem to suggest so. Numerous cases have been dismissed at the confirmation of charges stage, with the...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

The End of an (Unsuccessful) Era?

13.07.2022

Gabriel M. Lentner

Much hope was put into the possibility of gaining jurisdiction over situations in States which are not party to the Rome Statute through the UN Security Council (UNSC) referral mechanism....

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

Back to the Drawing Table!

13.07.2022

Harmen van der Wilt

It is fairly generally accepted amongst ICL-scholars that the success of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after being some 20 years in operation is not to be merely gauged by...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

Referrals, Deferrals and Many Double Standards

12.07.2022

Lukas Emanuel Müller

The International Criminal Court’s (“ICC”) 20th birthday provides an opportunity to briefly recapitulate the troubled history of the relationship between the Security Council (“SC”) and the ICC. It all started...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

(In-)Sufficient Gravity of Cases before the International Criminal Court

12.07.2022

Ingrid Mitgutsch

According to article 17(1)(d) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Statute), ‘the Court shall determine that a case is inadmissible where [it is] not of sufficient gravity...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

Reflections on the International Criminal Trial Experience

11.07.2022

Damien Scalia

While the war in Ukraine is raging and many war crimes have been committed, the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, is presented as one of...

Symposium
The Past and Future of the International Criminal Court

‘An International Criminal Court […] is Hereby Established’

11.07.2022

Andreas Sauermoser Konstantina Stavrou

Benjamin Berell Ferencz, former prosecutor at the Nuremburg tribunal, once said ‘There can be no peace without justice, no justice without law and no meaningful law without a Court to...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

A Framework Agreement in Business and Human Rights?

24.06.2022

Surya Deva Claire Methven O'Brien Michael Riegner Anna Sophia Tiedeke Justine Batura

We are pleased to conclude our Symposium with a special treat for our readers: a double interview with two renowned scholars, Surya Deva and Claire Methven O’Brien, who are rather emblematic for different approaches...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

Beyond the Ritual of Treaties as Gestures

24.06.2022

Larry Catá Backer

A framework convention approach to the regulatory management of the human rights and sustainability effects of economic activity holds much promise. Defined as an international instrument establishing a general governance...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

Resisting Corporate Capture

23.06.2022

Flávia do Amaral Vieira

In 2014, the Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 26/9, which established, for the first time in the history of the United Nations, an intergovernmental body charged with the responsibility to...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

How to Avoid Politicised Monitoring?

23.06.2022

Nils-Hendrik Grohmann

It is one thing to draft international laws that protect individuals, but quite another to ensure their implementation and compliance by State parties. Taking into consideration existing framework conventions, particularly...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

Oops! They Did It Again

22.06.2022

Tara Van Ho

When they finally joined negotiations on the proposed business and human rights (BHR) treaty, the USA immediately called for ‘exploring alternative[s]’ to the current draft, including a potential framework convention. In...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

Bounded Rationality, Metonymy, Humility

22.06.2022

Claire Methven O'Brien

History does not stop, a truth of which recent years have provided a gruesome reminder. Trajectories of globalising production and exchange that were widely perceived as uninterruptable have, since 2019,...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

Caught between Principles and Perfectionism

21.06.2022

Lucas Roorda

One of the driving forces behind the movement towards a legally binding instrument on business and human rights (BHR) has been the need for effective remedies for victims of corporate...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

The Short Arm of the Law and the Long Arm of Economics

21.06.2022

Jonathan Klaaren

How does the idea of Business and Human Rights framework agreements (BHR framework agreements) look from an African perspective and – more specifically from one aware of the growing impact...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

Unpacking the Potentials of a Framework Agreement on Business and Human Rights

20.06.2022

Giulia Botta

In a context of mounting evidence of adverse impacts of business activities on human rights and the environment, the Business and Human Rights (BHR) legal framework has gained momentum in...

Symposium
Framing Business & Human Rights?

Framing Business & Human Rights?

20.06.2022

Justine Batura Anna Sophia Tiedeke Michael Riegner

Business and human rights (BHR), as an emerging field of modern law and legal research, is at an inflection point. On the one hand, its most prominent set of norms,...

Interview
Symposium
International Law and the Political

International Law and Class Dynamics

10.06.2022

Umut Özsu Hendrik Simon

In the face of massive crises and revealed ambiguities of the liberal international order, Marxist thought has experienced a significant revival in recent years—also in (international) legal thought. But what...

Interview
Symposium
International Law and the Political

Revolutions Are Not Made by Laws

09.06.2022

Umut Özsu Hendrik Simon

In the face of massive crises and revealed ambiguities of the liberal international order, Marxist thought has experienced a significant revival in recent years—also in (international) legal thought. But what...