Introduction Of all the questions I've been asked concerning the latest round of violence in the Israel/Palestine situation, the most common is whether Israel's actions in Gaza amount to the war crime of collective punishment. Because of my role as a Special Advisor to the ICC Prosecutor, it would be inappropriate for me to address that question; there is, of course,...
[Chuka Arinze-Onyia is a practicing criminal defense lawyer with an avid interest in international justice issues. He authored this article during a recent stint as an International Justice in Africa Fellow with Amnesty International.] On 16 December 2022, the ICC Prosecutor announced that his office had concluded the investigation phase of its work in Central African Republic (CAR) and would not pursue new...
[Dr Saeed Bagheri is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in International Law at the University of Reading School of Law. He conducts research in the law on the use of force and international humanitarian law.] After three decades of being occupied by Armenia, the territories in and around Nagorno-Karabakh (NK), which make up more than 20 per cent of Azerbaijan’s territory were recaptured...
[Stefano Angeleri (X/Twitter: @StefAngeleri) is a EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at Queen's University Belfast and visiting scientist at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University] Funding: This research was supported by funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 101032116—HEAVEN. During the last 8 years, 7.7 million people have fled Venezuela...
[Victor S. Mariottini de Oliveira is a PhD candidate in International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland] Introduction On September 19th 2023, Azerbaijan launched a military operation targeting separatist positions in the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway territory of Armenian majority located within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders. The “anti-terror” operation orchestrated as a response to alleged infrastructure sabotage activities carried...
In a world where powerful states are becoming more brazen in their impunity, it is crucial to give voice to those who resist. Along with nearly 800 lawyers, scholars, and practitioners, representing a diverse range of perspectives from academia and practice, I have signed a statement warning of the possibility of genocide in Gaza, Palestine. This open letter underscores the...
Introduction In March 2022, I wrote a piece for Opinio Juris in which I described the international legal community as a “visible college.” Playing on Schachter’s concept of an “invisible college” of international lawyers “dispersed throughout the world” (p 217) but united in their faith in the law’s pacifying and transformative potential, my piece celebrated international lawyers’ willingness to engage with...
[Dr Letizia Lo Giacco is Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University] The International Court of Justice (ICJ, ‘the Court’) has recently heard the preliminary objections in the case Allegations of Genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Ukraine v Russian Federation: 32 States...
Since my fields of research include criminal law, international law, and international humanitarian law, several colleagues and students have asked for my preliminary legal assessment regarding the recent attacks in Israel by Hamas terrorists. These terrorist attacks were egregious and shocking violations of human dignity and cannot be justified in any context. Although facts are still being gathered, the available evidence...
[Gabrielle McIntyre is Chair of Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, Co-cordinator of Africa Legal Aid’s Gender Mentoring Programme for International Judges; Independent international law consultant. Nicholas Vialle is a Pro Bono Lawyer (human rights, refugee and migration law), Australia; Independent international human rights law consultant.] This brings us to the second issue concerning the development of AI which may raise issues...
[Gabrielle McIntyre is Chair of Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, Co-cordinator of Africa Legal Aid’s Gender Mentoring Programme for International Judges; Independent international law consultant. Nicholas Vialle is a Pro Bono Lawyer (human rights, refugee and migration law), Australia; Independent international human rights law consultant.] The explosion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and corresponding evidence of significant efficiencies and innovation in...
If you're not careful, [international lawyers] will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.Malcolm X The Power of Mythmaking Origin stories are always more fiction than fact, more myth than reality. At times, origin stories serve to redeem a dubious past, while at others they enable us to justify an unwelcoming...