International law has famously “turned to history”. Since then, what I like to call the “foundational myth” of international law has been poked, prodded, re-evaluated and re-told in powerful, unsettling and insightful ways. The publicist’s relation with their own discipline is no longer the same, and the colonial, often violent, roots of the rules we rely on every day, are increasingly more exposed and open...
Call for Papers Call for papers: Online workshop for UNWCC researchers 28 May 2021: The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC), which operated from 1943-48, was a UN agency that supported localised prosecutions of international crimes committed during the Second World War. The Commission was composed of representatives from 16 Allied States and through its work war crimes and crimes against...
[Álvaro Rueda Rodríguez-Vila is a graduate in law (Bachelor, UNED) and in human rights (LL.M., Maastricht University).] On February 4, 2021 the International Court of Justice (ICJ or the Court) rendered its decision on the Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Qatar v United Arab Emirates) (here). In this decision, the Court ruled...
[Moisés Montiel is a lawyer advising individuals, companies, and States on matters of international law, human rights, and other international areas at Lotus Soluciones Legales. @moisesmontielm] Alex Saab, a Colombian national and businessman, decided to throw his lot in with the Maduro administration in Venezuela and is currently awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court of Cabo Verde on whether...
[Katayoun Hosseinnejad is a visiting lecturer of international law at Allameh Tabataba’i University and senior researcher at Bulan Institute for Peace Innovations (@katayoonhnejad).] [Pouria Askary is an associate professor of international law at Allameh Tabataba’i University (@askarypouria).] On 3 February 2021, the ICJ for the third and the last time reviewed the 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights between...
By Tim Fish Hodgson, Legal Adviser on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the International Commission of Jurists and Rossella De Falco, Programme Officer on the Right to Health at Global Initiative on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Historically pandemics have often catalyzed significant social change. As historian of epidemics Frank Snowden puts it: “epidemics are a category of disease that seem to hold...
Srinivas Burra is an Assistant Professor at South Asian University. Photo credit: Irish Times This post deals with India’s recent statement on the right of self-defence against the acts of non-state actors. India’s statement at the Arria Formula meeting on 24 February 2021, organised by Mexico on the topic of ‘Upholding the Collective Security System of the UN Charter: the...
Events European Court of Human Rights’ Webinar on ‘Human Punishment: Life Imprisonment and the Right to Hope’: The Criminal Law Group of the European Court of Human Rights, in cooperation with the University of Bologna, Liverpool John Moores University and ‘Beyond Detention’ Interest Group is convening a series of webinars on the broader theme of ‘Punishment, Detention, Crisis: Academic Judicial Dialogues’. The...
Call for Papers Call for Papers, Book Reviewers, and Student Prize: Irish Yearbook of International Law: The Editors-in-Chief invite submissions on any area of public or private international law for publication as an article in the Irish Yearbook of International Law (IYBIL). The IYBIL Student Prize – consisting of €250, generously sponsored by the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs – will...
Events ‘Law. Not War.’ – Special Event honouring Ben Ferencz on his 101st Birthday: Honouring the 101st birthday of the Benjamin ‘Ben’ Ferencz, the last living prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials, the Nuremberg Academy is holding a special live online event on 11 March 2021 starting at 5 p.m. CET, moderated by Deputy Director Dr. Viviane Dittrich. We invite you to join us on...
As readers no doubt know, Fatou Bensouda announced yesterday that the OTP is opening a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine. Doing so was a foregone conclusion, given the Pre-Trial Chamber's recent decision that the ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Regardless, even if the bulk of the work will fall...
Patricia Vella de Fremeaux (Mallia) is Associate Professor and Head of the International Law Department of the Faculty of Laws, University of Malta. Dr. Felicity G. Attard is a lecturer in the Department of International Law at the University of Malta. The “Special Relationship of Dependency” and Effective Control in Rescue Operations on the High Seas We find it more...