Recent Posts

[Dr. Kubo Mačák is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom.] Donald Trump’s recent decision to withdraw all US troops from Syria, announced characteristically through a Twitter post, has once again brought the ongoing hostilities in the Middle Eastern country into international spotlight. More than seven years into the conflict, its origins in a series...

Over the coming ten days, we are proudly kicking off the new year with our first book symposium of 2019 on Kubo Mačák's new book, Internationalized Armed Conflicts in International Law, published by Oxford University Press. In addition to comments from Kubo himself, we have the honor to hear from this list of renowned scholars and practitioners: Laurie Blank, Bill Boothby, Susan...

As I noted in a recent post, on January 4th, the Lima Group decided not to recognize “the legitimacy of the new presidential term of Nicolas Maduro” as President of Venezuela. On January 11th, Venezuela’s National Assembly declared itself the “sole Legitimate Power of Venezuela before the International Community” (all unofficial translations my own). Soon after, the Assembly’s Chairman, Juan...

Call for Papers LSE is pleased to announce a call for papers for a workshop on Gender, Peace and Nature to take place on 28 June 2019 at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security. The purpose of this workshop is to draw together the links between the nature, the Earth, our home, and gender discrimination and structural inequality in the context...

[Madaline George, JD, is the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute Fellow at Washington University School of Law.] During the 17th Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a side event was hosted on the Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) Initiative. The side event – The Initiative for a New Multilateral Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition for Domestic Prosecution...

On January 4th, the Lima Group – an informal gathering of 14 states seeking multilateral solutions to the humanitarian, democratic, and economic crisis in Venezuela – issued its latest statement, on the upcoming inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President of Venezuela (see here for Spanish version). The statement called for the non-recognition of the legitimacy of Maduro’s government and called...

In keeping with the aim of providing a more user-friendly Opinio Juris 2.0 to our devoted readers, we are relaunching the weekly "Events and Announcements" postings. If you would like to promote a call for papers, conference, event, job, PhD or post-doc position on the site, please contact John Heieck at eventsandannouncements [at] gmail [dot] com and provide a one-paragraph description...

[Sergey Sayapin LLB, LLM, Dr. iur. is an Assistant Professor in International and Criminal Law at KIMEP University’s School of Law, Almaty, Kazakhstan, since 2014, and Director of the LLB in International Law Programme.]  Introduction On 25 November 2018, Russia attacked and seized three Ukrainian navy vessels, which were on their way from Odessa to Mariupol. Russia´s Federal Security Service...

During colonial times, the Spanish empire lost around 1500 warships carrying priceless riches from the gold and silver mines of the Andes and the Sierra Madre. Under international law, these sunken warships are immune from state jurisdiction and generally remain state property even after sinking. In the past decade, international law has sought to regulate their preservation and salvaging, both...

[Jenny Domino is a Harvard Law School Satter Fellow placed with ARTICLE 19. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and not the views of ARTICLE 19.] Facebook has been described as a service to democracy. This perception arguably peaked during the Arab Spring uprisings, touted as Facebook’s crowning glory in its mission to connect people. The past...

[Caroline Stover is a lawyer focusing on human rights law and refugee law in Southeast Asia.]  Mr. Hakeem Al-Araibi, a Bahraini footballer, dissident, refugee, and Australian legal permanent resident, has been detained in Bangkok since late last month, as Thailand considers whether it will send Mr. Al-Araibi back to Bahrain, or allow him to return to Australia. If returned, Mr. Al-Araibi...

[Lieutenant Commander Yusuke Saito is a legal advisor in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and a military professor at Stockton Center for International Law, United States Naval War College. The views expressed in this article are of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the stance of the U.S. Naval War College and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.] Introduction The U.S.–North...