Events COVID-19 and International Law: The Bocconi University , with the support of the European Society of International Law, is organising a webinar on the theme of 'COVID-19 and International law: Novel Strain or old wine in new test tubes?'. The Webinar will be held on 15 December 2020 at 13.30-18.00. Concept note: As the blogosphere breathlessly attests, the COVID-19 pandemic...
[Dr. Jule Giegling is a Research Associate at the Ruhr-University Bochum as well as at Kümmerlein Rechtsanwälte mbB.] On 14 September 2020 the Co-Facilitators of the General Assembly’s Treaty Body Review 2020 issued their final report on the findings of the approximately six month co-facilitation process concerned with the strengthening of the UN human rights treaty body system (accessible here). The Treaty Body Review, which was...
[Dimitri van den Meerssche is a Researcher in the Dispute Settlement and Adjudication strand at the T.M.C. Asser Institute.] On Thursday, 26 November, Prof. Andrew Murray, will deliver the Sixth T.M.C. Asser Lecture – ‘Almost Human: Law and Human Agency in the Time of Artificial Intelligence’. Asser Institute researcher Dr. Dimitri Van Den Meerssche had the opportunity to speak with professor Murray about his...
Announcements Top international lawyers to draft definition of 'Ecocide': International lawyer Philippe Sands QC and international judge Justice Florence Mumba are to co-chair an expert drafting panel on the legal definition of “ecocide” as a potential international crime that could sit alongside War Crimes, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Launching with preparatory work this month, and set to draft the definition...
A few days ago, I had the pleasure of giving an online lecture for the Iranian Center for International Criminal Law about the relationship between the US and the ICC. In the lecture, I trace the evolution of the US-ICC relationship and try to predict what that relationship will look like under President Biden. I also speculate about why Trump has...
[Assistant Professor at the Poznań Human Rights Centre, Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.] The Trump administration’s ‘family separation policy’ has been widely reported and criticized (see for example here and here). Recently, the public learned of the policy’s horrible long-term effects: in October 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed that parents of 545 children...
[Lys Kulamadayil is a SNSF Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Amsterdam Center for International Law.] Is the handshake between men and women a protected social practice under the German constitution and if so, should persons who refuse to shake hands be denied citizenship? A recent judgment by the Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg affirming German authorities’ decision to deny a Muslim man German citizenship...
[Justin M. Loveland is a freelance legal consultant in public international law, transitional justice, and international human rights, currently working as Senior Legal Consultant to the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission of Seychelles.] For the perhaps small percentage of the world that can place Seychelles on a map, the 115 islands northeast of Madagascar form a paradisiacal archipelago of white sandy beaches whose main offerings...
[Pranay Lekhi is a Legal Advisor – Not Admitted UK – at Allen & Overy, London. He graduated first-class from the University of Cambridge with a specialization in International Law. Views are strictly personal.] On October 7 2020, the Supreme Court of India held that public places cannot be occupied indefinitely while exercising the right to peacefully protest (para 17). The judgement has...
[Parisa Zangeneh is a PhD student at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, where she is a recipient of the Hardiman Scholarship.] The Independent Expert Review and themes of trust and tenure In Friday’s EJIL:Talk post on the Independent Expert Review (IER, the Report), Professor Guilfoyle raises a number of important issues about the health of the...
[Alessandro Pizzuti is co-founder of UpRights. Prior to forming UpRights, Alessandro worked as a legal officer at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as well as at the International Residual Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.] On 14 October 2020, the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) announced...
[Eve Massingham is a Senior Research Fellow with the School of Law at The University of Queensland.] Over the coming months there will be considerable attention, both in Australia and internationally, on the findings of the Brereton Inquiry into crimes alleged to have been committed by Australian special forces operating in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. The report specifically identifies 19...