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Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Gunmen from the Islamist militant group al Shabaab stormed a university in Kenya and killed at least 147 people on Thursday, in the worst attack on Kenyan soil since the U.S. embassy was bombed in 1998. Al Jazeera offers a context piece about why al Shabaab has...

Calls for Papers Turgut Ozal University School of Law, in cooperation with Association for Canadian Studies and IDI, invites scholars and policy-makers to submit paper proposals to International Conference on International Law and Domestic Policies. The Conference will take place on 30-31 October 2015 in Ankara, Turkey. The aim of this International Conference is to evaluate the impact of international law...

This week on Opinio Juris, Kevin posted links to Justice in Conflict's symposium on Palestine and the ICC (1, 2), and commented on John Bellinger's op-ed on the prosecution of ISIS through the ICC. Following the University of Southampton's withdrawal of its permission for a conference on Israel, Kevin argued that Israel's defenders use double standards when it comes to academic freedom. He also...

[Craig H. Allen is the Judson Falknor Professor of Law/Professor of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington.] The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Tribunal) continued to develop the law of flag State responsibility in a 68-page advisory opinion issued on April 2, 2015 (Request for an advisory opinion submitted by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC),...

The op-ed, which appears in today's New York Times, argues that the ICC is the most appropriate venue for prosecuting ISIS's many international crimes. I have great respect for John, who is unique among former high-ranking US government officials in his willingness to defend the ICC, but the op-ed makes a number of arguments that deserve comment. It certainly makes more...

I have to teach in 5 minutes so I just wanted to post a quick link and one comment on the Iran deal reached earlier today.  Those who want to read the joint statement itself -- you can read it here.  My first reaction, based on my primer of a few weeks ago, is that it sure looks like the deal is taking...

My contribution to the symposium is now available. Here is the introduction: I want to start with a prediction, one I’ve made before and still subscribe to: the ICC will never open a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine. People of all political persuasions seem to think that the ICC is somehow eager to leap into the most politicised conflict...

[Sushma Nagaraj is an Advocate practicing commercial and constitutional law before the Bombay High Court, India. She assisted Mr. Kevic Setalvad, the Senior Advocate who represented AWAS Ireland Ltd. (the Petitioner before the Honorable Delhi High Court) with legal research on aviation law and public international law.] Indian Courts have, for the most part been generous in applying International Law but recently, the...

Does anyone out there in OJ-land know of a good book about the re-establishment of diplomatic relations? Ideally it would focus on the US (such as with Vietnam in 1995), but one discussing any country will do. I'm particularly interested in a book that describes the nuts and bolts of re-engagement: how the decision was made, how they selected the location of...

From April 17-19, the University of Southampton is scheduled to host a conference entitled "International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism." As the title indicates, the conference was always going to be controversial. (Full disclosure: I was originally scheduled to present at the conference, but pulled out a couple of weeks ago because I simply didn't...

Just in time for the activation of Palestine's membership in the ICC, over the next few days Mark Kersten's blog, Justice in Conflict, will be featuring posts by all of the people who participated in last week's roundtable at the LSE -- Mark, me, Kirsten Ainley, Dov Jacobs, Chantal Meloni, Leslie Vinjamuri, and Michael Kearney. Mark's introductory post can be found here. I...

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Kenya's government said it was "shocked and concerned" over the latest travel warnings issued by the UK and others and said security conditions in the east African country were improving. Islamist Boko Haram insurgents launched two deadly attacks on voters in northeast Nigeria on Saturday, police and a...