In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Recent Posts

16 May

Legal academia is a contact sport. Students, faculty, and managers brutalise one another with gusto. Personifying the adversarial character of the dominant legal systems, they wrestle over course design and assessment, procedures and promotions, not to mention teaching allocation and the inevitable inequities that ensue. And I’ve only scratched the surface. To improve win rates (or survival chances), participants in...

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16 May

Announcements Online Event - "Minimalism vs. Maximalism in the ECHR": We are pleased to announce an online panel “Minimalism vs. Maximalism? Challenges and Future Directions in the Interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights” on 8 June, 4 pm CET. How does, and how should, the European Court of Human Rights interpret and apply the rights protected under the European Convention on Human...

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13 May

[Jed Odermatt is Lecturer at the City Law School, City, University of London, where he is co-convenor of the International Law and Affairs Group (ILAG) and member of the Institute for the Study of European Law (ISEL). The opinions expressed herein are the author’s alone.] The Russian Federation has demanded that Ukraine should renounce potential NATO membership. Early on in the...

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13 May

[Dr Emma J Marchant is a lecturer in international criminal law at the University of Birmingham, UK having completed her doctorate on intelligence standards during targeting and the impact of technology. She researches international humanitarian law specifically surrounding intelligence and information during conflict.] Introduction In recent days there has been increasing focus on intelligence sharing arrangements with Ukraine. The legal question that...

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13 May

[Oleksandr Vodiannikov, PhD, LLM, is a member of Ukraine’s Law Reform Commission and previously served as a member of Ukraine’s Judicial Reform Council and of the Constitutional Commission.] The cost of war for the Ukrainian economy, infrastructure, and the population is spiraling every day as the ensuing devastation grinds on. The bill to be paid for the reconstruction of Ukraine's shattered...

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13 May

[Dr. Moritz von Rochow is a postdoctoral researcher at the Walther-Schücking-Institute for Public International Law at Kiel University and accredited lawyer, focusing on international environmental and development law as well as on the impacts of a digitalised global society.] What if Russia would succeed to conquer Ukraine or at least large parts of its territory including major ports like Odessa? In this hypothetical...

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12 May

[Eymir Albal is a Ph.D. candidate at İstanbul University. She works as a research assistant at Özyeğin University.] The problem of hunger, which has increased rapidly in recent years, has become much more serious since COVID-19. Since 2014, the gains in reducing this problem have started to decline. Criticism and concerns about the existing food systems have increased, set against the backdrop of...

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10 May

[Pia Hüsch is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow, focusing on the regulation of cyber operations in international law.] Temporary Rerouting of Internet Traffic in Kherson, Ukraine On the 2nd of May 2022, several news outlets reported that part of the Ukrainian internet connection in the occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson almost completely broke down, only...

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09 May

[Alexandre Skander Galand is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School, Berlin.] On 3 April 2022, President Zelenski announced that he ‘approved a decision to create a special justice mechanism in Ukraine for the investigation and judicial examination of every crime of the occupiers. The essence of it is the joint work of national and international experts: investigators, prosecutors and...

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09 May

[Dr. Joanna Rozpedowski (twitter: @JKRozpedowski) teaches political theory at George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government, and her research focuses on international human rights and humanitarian law, geopolitics, and global security.] As recently as April 2019, the Trump Administration renewed a long-standing U.S. opposition to international courts by revoking visas of the International Criminal Court's Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda,...

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06 May

[Grant Dawson served as the Principal Legal Officer of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from 2014–2021. He has regularly published and lectured on the topic of disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The opinions expressed herein are the author’s alone.] The Russian Federation has alleged that Ukraine was developing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons before the...

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06 May

[Florent Beurret is an LLM Student in Public International Law at the University of Amsterdam and currently an intern at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut.] No international lawyer was surprised when on 25 February 2022, the day after Russia started its invasion of Ukraine, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution supported by 11 UNSC members, which would have ordered Russia to “immediately...

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