My brilliant friend Sarah Kay, a prominent UK/EU human-rights lawyer who was born in Dublin and raised in Belfast, posted the following statement on Facebook about what Brexit means to her. We've had some legal and political analysis of Brexit on the blog, but Brexit is also, and perhaps fundamentally, personal -- if it happens, it will have a lasting effect on people's...
I'm delighted to call readers attention to a symposium next week on my friend Itamar Mann's new book, Humanity at Sea: Maritime Migration and the Foundations of International Law, which was just published by Cambridge University Press. Here is the 411: This interdisciplinary study engages law, history, and political theory in a first attempt to crystallize the lessons the global 'refugee crisis'...
I'm delighted to announce the publication of two new essays. The first is "The Use and Abuse of Analogy in IHL," which is a chapter in Jens's edited book for CUP, "Theoretical Boundaries of Armed Conflict and Human Rights." I'm very proud of the essay -- and all of the contributions to the book are excellent. The second publication is my article "Radical...
In addition to my posts here (see below), I have several pieces over the last week discussing different aspects of the South China Sea award up at various outlets across the web universe (I know, I know, I need to stop writing about this topic, but indulge me just a little longer). To briefly recap my various takes, here is a quick...
The American Branch of the International Law Association has sent us the following call for submissions for an "Emerging Voices Panel" that they have added to this October's International Law Weekend. (Not to be confused with Opinio Juris' Fourth Annual Emerging Voices Symposium, which will be starting later this month). ILW is an excellent conference and I am sure this will...
Much to many observers’ surprise, the first country to take aggressive action in response to the UN Convention for the Law of the Sea tribunal’s award this week was Taiwan. New Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s government issued a blistering statement stating that the arbitral award was unacceptable and that it has no “legally binding force on the ROC.” It noted...
I have been mildly obsessed with the dispute between the Philippines and China for over three years now. It touches on so many areas of my research interest: international courts, China, and the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. So I am almost sad that the dispute, at least for legal purposes, finally ended today with the arbitral...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Violent clashes in South Sudan claimed the lives of two Chinese U.N. peacekeepers, bringing to three the number of troops China has lost in the past two months as it ramps up its engagement in peacekeeping efforts. Al Shabaab Islamist militants rammed a car packed...
Did you hear the one about Judge de Gurmendi, the President of the ICC, taking bribes for from 2004 on to ensure Omar al-Bashir's indictment? The president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is facing calls to resign after it emerged that she may have received financial rewards said to be in millions of dollars to ensure the indictment of Sudanese President...
[Dr. Joanna Nicholson is a Researcher at PluriCourts – Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order at the University of Oslo.] For a crime to amount to a crime against humanity, it must be shown to have been part of a bigger picture, namely part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population....
William Gibson, repurposing a Gertrude Stein quip, said about cyberspace "there's no there, there" capturing the ethos of the internet as a place beyond the physical world of borders and jurisdiction. Bitcoin melded cryptography and networked processing to attempt to make a currency that was not based in or controlled by any state. But the internet is based on servers and...
[Jennifer Trahan is Associate Clinical Professor, at The Center for Global Affairs, NYU-SPS, and Chair of the American Branch of the International Law Association’s International Criminal Court Committee. The views expressed are those of the author.] A significant event happened quietly at the UN on June 27: Palestine deposited the thirtieth instrument of ratification of the International Criminal Court’s crime of...
