In association with the International Commission of Jurists

North America

16 Oct

[Dr. Pouria Askary is an Associate Professor of International Law at Allameh Tabataba’i University. Dr. Katayoun Hosseinnejad is an independent researcher and consultant.] On August 24, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury launched a new economic campaign against Iran, which it described as targeting the country’s “lifelines”. The so called “Operation Economic Outcast” as reflected in the statement of the Secretary...

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11 Oct

[Brianne McGonigle Leyh is Professor of Global Justice Studies at Utrecht University’s School of Law and leads the university's Global Justice Investigations Lab. She co-directs the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), is a member of the Montaigne Center for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice, and is a Senior Peace Fellow with the Public International Law & Policy...

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09 Oct

[Gayane Khechoomian is a former Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and an attorney admitted to practice in California and Illinois.] Introduction Last year, President Trump issued Executive Order (EO) 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court” (ICC), relaunching a sanctions regime with the stated purpose of protecting Americans and U.S. allies from certain exercises of its...

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18 Sep

[Jessica Dorsey is an Assistant Professor of International Law at Utrecht University School of Law and Managing Editor of Opinio Juris.]The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFMI) released its 18-page report to the Human Rights Council on 17 September 2026. In the report, among other findings, the Mission outlines reasonable grounds to believe that the United...

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16 Sep

[Madara Meļņika is a PhD Researcher in Law at the European University Institute, where her research examines how international security organisations respond to environmental realities.] In May 2026, the media reported plans for NATO’s AI Centre of Excellence to be established in Rennes, a city already famous for France’s armed forces’ cyber-defence command and other AI institutions. Allegedly, France was the...

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08 Sep

[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...

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02 Sep

[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...

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27 Aug

[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...

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19 Aug

[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...

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17 Aug

[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...

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17 Aug

[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...

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