Use of Force

Over the coming five days, we are happy to host a book symposium on Boyd van Dijk’s new book, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions, published by Oxford University Press. In addition to comments from van Dijk himself, we have the honor to hear from this list of renowned scholars and practitioners: Eyal Benvenisti, Andrew Clapham, Doreen Lustig, Katharine Fortin, Karin Loevy...

[Dr Ka Lok Yip is an Assistant Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University.] Events vs Tendencies: an Interdisciplinary Divide? In view of the gravity of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is understandable that most legal commentators focus on the legal norms regulating the event directly, jus contra bellum, rather than other legal norms regulating the tendencies that make up the more...

[Francisco Lobo is a Doctoral Researcher at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London and a Legal Theory and International Criminal Law lecturer. He holds an LLM in International Legal Studies (NYU), an LLM in International Law, and an LLB (University of Chile).] During the past weeks a flurry of legal opinions concerning Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine has flooded...

[Nurlan Mustafayev is a counsel on international legal affairs at the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan, an instructor on public international law, and a pro bono advisor to Azerbaijani refugees on claims before the European Court of Human Rights.] Introduction  Unlike Russia’s ongoing direct invasion of Ukraine, many cases of military invasions were a mixture of direct and indirect or...

[Dr Tomas Hamilton (@tomhamilton) is a Researcher at the University of Amsterdam and Managing Editor of the VICI-funded project 'Rethinking the Outer Limits of Secondary Liability for International Crimes and Serious Human Rights Violations'.] China’s Obligations Under Article 7 of the ATT Not to Transfer Arms to Russia In the event that assistance does not fall into the above mandatory prohibitions of Article 6, for instance if Russia provides...

[Dr Tomas Hamilton (@tomhamilton) is a Researcher at the University of Amsterdam and Managing Editor of the VICI-funded project 'Rethinking the Outer Limits of Secondary Liability for International Crimes and Serious Human Rights Violations'.] As Russian aggression against Ukraine continues and evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity mounts, third-party States and individuals may be considering their potential liability for supplying arms to Russia. On 24 March...

[Kim Christian Priemel is Professor of Contemporary European History at the University of Oslo and author of The Betrayal. The Nuremberg Trials and German Divergence (OUP 2016).] The Kremlin’s allegation that its invasion of Ukraine was necessary to stop a genocide committed by the Kiev government against the population of the secessionist Donetsk and Luhansk provinces has been widely and rightly...

[John Quigley was appointed in 1994 by the US Department of State and the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (predecessor to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) as an independent legal expert to recommend solutions for the status of Crimea and to promote reconciliation between the authorities in Kiev and Simferopol.] Russia’s failure to achieve a quick...

[Owiso Owiso is a Lecturer in Public International Law at the University of Groningen.] Introduction Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine commenced in February 2022, there have been increased calls for criminal accountability for crimes allegedly (being) committed in the context of the invasion. Following Ukraine’s declarations of February 2014 and February 2015 accepting the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and...

[Dr Pavel Doubek is a postdoctoral researcher at Institutum Iurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He publishes in the field of International Law and Human Rights.] In the face of unprecedented aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the civilian population, calls are getting stronger for the international community to impose a no-fly zone over the Ukraine territory and adopt other necessary...

Announcements ABILA - Crisis in Ukraine: International Law and Accountability: The ABILA ICC Committee is pleased to co-sponsor a virtual panel on Crisis in Ukraine: International Law and Accountability on Thursday, March 31 at 12:15-1:45 pm ET. Given the tragic outbreak of war in Ukraine and Russia’s flagrant violation of the UN Charter and ongoing commission of crimes, this panel will...