I haven't written about the "unwilling or unable" test for self-defence against non-state actors in a while, largely because I've said all I have to say about why the test is not part of customary international law. (See my many posts here.) But I would be remiss not to note the strangest invocation of the test I've ever seen, which...
[Anny Matamoros Pineda is a Doctoral student in public international law at Lund University] One of the central appeals of science fiction lies in its capacity to imagine worlds that move beyond present reality while still remaining consistent with the known laws of the universe. Within this genre, utopian visions serve a deeper function by questioning the inevitability of existing institutions....
[Yaroslav Halieiev is a second-year PhD Candidate at the University of Tartu (Estonia)] The Context: Maymulakhin and Markiv v. Ukraine In June 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Court) issued a landmark decision in the case of Maymulakhin and Markiv v. Ukraine in which the Court addressed the lack of legal protection for same-sex couples under Ukrainian law. Rooting...
[Zahra Jafarbeklou is a researcher in international law based in Iran and an LL.M. candidate at the Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University] Introduction: The Paradox of “Permitted” Isolation The late 2025 snapback mechanism triggered the digital siege stifling Iran’s academic community. On paper, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued General License D-2...
[Gerhard Kemp is professor of criminal law at UWE Bristol and serves on the board of directors and executive committee of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town] The recently adopted “Death Penalty for Terrorists Law” (unofficial translation, here) was met with widespread condemnation by governments (e.g., here, here), civil society and human rights groups (e.g., here), the UN High...
[Harry Mwesigwa is an LLM candidate in human rights and democratisation in Africa at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and a research assistant at the Human Rights and Peace Centre, Makerere University] Introduction In March 2025, Uganda deployed its troops to South Sudan at the invitation of the South Sudanese government which requested ‘urgent military support in order to...
[Dr Xudong Zhang is a lecturer at the School of Law, Shanghai Maritime University] From the South China Sea to the East China Sea, Asia's waters are witnessing an unprecedented intertwining of fisheries and geopolitics. When Chinese fishing vessels are detained by Japan's Fisheries Agency in waters off southwest Nagasaki prefecture, when the Korea Coast Guard uses force against Chinese fishing...
[Diya Daniel is a third-year law student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] Mainstream International Law and Homogenous Norms International law today, called mainstream international law (“international law”), is theoretically based on cooperation and inclusion. The United Nations (“UN”) Charter, for example, contains references to state sovereignty and equality, which aims to put every state on equal footing....
[Garima Dhankhar holds an LL.M. in International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution from the National University of Singapore. She currently works with Justice Indu Malhotra, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India and a Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, assisting in international arbitrations.] The past few years have demonstrated, with increasing clarity, that geopolitical conflicts are no longer peripheral...
[Chiara Redaelli is research fellow at the University of Geneva, Faculty of Law, and IHL/ICL expert for IDLO, Kyiv office. She is also co-editor in chief of the Journal on the Use of Force in International Law and co-chair of the IHL Progressive Development Platform of Ukraine. Antonio Bultrini is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Florence, Visiting Professor at...
[Chiara Redaelli is research fellow at the University of Geneva, Faculty of Law, and IHL/ICL expert for IDLO, Kyiv office. She is also co-editor in chief of the Journal on the Use of Force in International Law and co-chair of the IHL Progressive Development Platform of Ukraine. Antonio Bultrini is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Florence, Visiting...
[Khan Khalid Adnan is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb), a Barrister in England and Wales, and an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He currently serves as the Head of the Chamber at Khan Saifur Rahman & Associates, Dhaka, Bangladesh.] Oral proceedings on the merits in The Gambia v Myanmar (12-29 January 2026) ended where genocide...