North America

[Lara Torbay is a PhD candidate at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.] Recent developments in Gaza reveal the ways in which development cooperation – a putative expression of solidarity – can function as a neocolonial tool. Of course, the weaponization of development cooperation is not new: post-development scholars have highlighted and criticized it arguing that, against colonized peoples, development cooperation cannot...

[Shanice R. Guthrie is a law student at Yale Law School ‘27 and the Student Director of the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic. Born and raised in Jamaica, she brings a personal understanding of climate harm to her work on legal accountability.] The Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic partnered with WITNESS to conduct original research on the use of audiovisual evidence...

[Claire Beutter is a PhD Candidate in International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute.] Writing for the New York Times in 1965, Hans Morgenthau expressed his hope that the “vaunted pragmatism and common sense of the American mind” would correct the dangerous misconceptions driving US involvement in Vietnam, “before they lead us from the blind alley in which we find ourselves...

[Efrén Ismael Sifontes Torres is an Ayudante de Segunda in international law courses, and the academic co-coordinator of the Observatory of International Humanitarian Law, for the University of Buenos Aires School of Law] On 24 July, the Venezuelan's interim authorities announced through their Minister of Foreign Affairs' X account, the “firm and unwavering” decision to withdraw from the Rome Statute and therefore, leave the International...

[Davit Khachatryan is a lecturer at American University of Armenia and Russian-Armenian University] There is something almost ritualistic about restating the law of self-defense. Article 51 has been parsed, contested, stretched, and invoked in nearly every major armed conflict since 1945. Few provisions of international law are at once so settled in principle and so contested in application. Yet the war between Iran...

[Sarah Shoker is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow in artificial intelligence at U.C. Berkeley Risk and Security Lab and former Geopolitics Team Lead at OpenAI. Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University School of Law and Managing Editor of Opinio Juris.] What began as a quiet contract dispute between the U.S. Department of Defense and the AI...

[Taylor Kate Woodcock is a researcher in public international law at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University School of Law and Managing Editor of Opinio Juris.]  Four and a half months have passed since the Minab school bombing by United States forces in Iran on 28 February 2026, killing at least 157 people – including 120...

[Samay Jain is a legal researcher and scholar from Symbiosis Law School, Pune] On 7 January 2026, the Trump administration published a Presidential Memorandum directing the withdrawal of the United States from sixty-six international organisations simultaneously, comprising 31 UN entities and 35 non-UN bodies, spanning climate, labour, migration, peacebuilding, and the rule of law. The list included the UNFCCC, the International...

[Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University School of Law; Elke Schwarz is a Professor of Political Theory at Queen Mary University London; Ingvild Bode is a Professor of International Relations, University of Southern Denmark; Zena Assaad is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering, Australian National University; and Neil Renic is a Lecturer...

[Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University School of Law; Elke Schwarz is a Professor of Political Theory at Queen Mary University London; Ingvild Bode is a Professor of International Relations, University of Southern Denmark; Zena Assaad is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering, Australian National University; and Neil Renic is a Lecturer...

[Ariel Costa holds a doctorate in public international law and has worked with universities and research institutions across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The author lives in the US on a temporary research visa. They are writing under a pseudonym because they are concerned this post will subject them to arrest or removal proceedings.] On January 3, US forces captured Venezuela’s...