Jennifer Trahan has a new post at Just Security entitled "Why a 'Hybrid' Ukrainian Tribunal on the Crime of Aggression Is Not the Answer." There are many problems with Trahan's post, but in this response I want to focus specifically on the most glaring one: namely, her claim that a hybrid tribunal would need to apply Ukraine's domestic crime of...
Support has been growing in recent weeks for creating a hybrid tribunal to address Russia's criminal act of aggression against Ukraine instead of an ad hoc Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression (STCoA). The German Minister of Foreign Affairs has endorsed a hybrid tribunal over an STCoA, as has the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary. Even the US War Crimes...
Astrid Coracini and Jennifer Trahan have a new post at Just Security that argues a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression created either by treaty or by a General Assembly-endorsed agreement between Ukraine and the UN would not have to recognise the personal immunity of Russian officials. I disagree, for reasons I have explained in a recent article in...
On Tuesday, the Office of the President of Ukraine issued a press release concerning plans for creating a Special Tribunal for Russian Aggression. Most of the information in the press release was boilerplate, reaffirming the need for such a tribunal and expressing hope that the international community will get behind one. One comment, however, set off my lawdar: As noted at...
[Dr Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia. Dr O’Brien is President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), and a volunteer with the Australian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Committee. Her work on forced marriage has been cited by the International Criminal Court, she has appeared before the ICC as an amicus...
As part of my position at the University of Copenhagen's Centre for Military Studies, I have started a podcast entitled "Lex Ferenda: Conversations about Law and War." Here is the general description: This podcast involves monthly hour-long video interviews with experts whose work and practice focuses on how international law affects the conduct of military operations. Guests will normally be drawn...
[Mateusz Piątkowski is an Assistant Professor at the University of Łódź, Poland (Faculty of Law and Administration, International Law Department), Attorney-at-law, and Member of the Polish Society of the Military Law and the Law of War.] On February 27, 2022, the EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrel announced that the European Council decided to offer Ukraine a package of lethal weapons of significant value,...
[Luke James, LLM. is a security analyst interested in peace processes. He has worked at the ICC, OSCE, British Red Cross, Platform for Peace Humanity, UNV and is an Army Reservist.] On 5 July, Ret. Colonel John Spencer spoke at NATO’s Urban Warfare Conference in London. He described how Ukrainian President Zelensky “turned his civilians into fighters”, telling the Ukrainians citizens...
[Dean Michael Scharf is the Co-Founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) and the Co-Dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Dr. Paul R. Williams is the Co-Founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), Rebecca I. Grazier Professor in Law and International Relations at American University, and a world-renowned peace negotiation lawyer...
[Peter S. Konchak is a lawyer and independent researcher whose work focuses on legal and policy issues in the fields of national security, foreign affairs, and economics.] As the Russo-Ukrainian War enters a phase likely to be defined by protracted attrition warfare, the United States and many of its NATO allies are expanding their efforts to supply Ukraine with vital military...
[Amanda J. Lee, FCIArb is an International Arbitrator and Consultant at Costigan King, and the Founder of Careers in Arbitration and ARBalance. Naimeh Masumy is a research fellow at the Swiss International Law School and a dispute resolution expert specialized in energy and investment disputes.] In the first part of this two-part blog series, we addressed the absence of a coherent legal framework for the protection...
[Amanda J. Lee, FCIArb is an International Arbitrator and Consultant at Costigan King, and the Founder of Careers in Arbitration and ARBalance. Naimeh Masumy is a research fellow at the Swiss International Law School and a dispute resolution expert specialized in energy and investment disputes.] There is, regrettably, a high likelihood that Ukraine will find itself facing a disproportionate number of investment disputes as a result of the...