[Kunal Ambasta is an Assistant Professor at the National Law School of India University.] “Can a right to privacy be read into the Indian Constitution and deployed to protect homosexual sexual acts?” This is one of the questions posed right at the start of the AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan (ABVA) Report on homosexuality in India published in 1991. In 2018, the...
[Siddharth Narrain is a lawyer and legal researcher based in Delhi.] Earlier this year, a five-judge Constitutional Bench of the Indian Supreme Court, in a path-breaking judgment in Navtej Singh Johar declared the colonial sodomy statute (Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code) unconstitutional, and no longer applicable to consenting sexual acts between adults, effectively decriminalizing homosexuality, and legally recognizing LGBTI...
[Victor Kattan is Senior Research Fellow of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore where he heads the Transsystemic Law Cluster. He is also an Associate Fellow of NUS Law and an associate (non-resident) member of Temple Garden Chambers in London.] Palestine’s Application Instituting Proceedings against the United States of America (U.S.) at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 28 September has produced much commentary in a short...
[Sam Zarifi is the Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists.] Prof Harold Hongju Koh in his new book, Trump vs. International Law, has issued an explicit call to arms to American lawyers and bureaucrats to resist Donald Trump’s egregious attempts at dismantling the ‘postwar system of global governance’ and replacing it with ‘a far nastier, more brutish world, less respectful...
In 2004, three friends and legal scholars – Peggy McGuiness, Chris Borgen, and Julian Ku – started Opinio Juris, the first blog dedicated to the informed discussion of international law. In 2006, the blog took on its first two non-founding members, Roger Alford and Kevin Jon Heller. Over the past 14 years new voices came and (to a much lesser...
The start of a new school year is a time for transitions and it is no different for Opinio Juris. Since founding the website fourteen years ago with Peggy and Julian, Opinio Juris has surpassed all of our original hopes with the additions of Roger, Kevin, Duncan, Peter, Ken, Deborah, Kristen and Jens. Each new member brought a unique perspective...
[Kate Vigneswaran is Senior Legal Advisor for Middle East and North Africa for the International Commission of Jurists and Sam Zarifi is the Secretary General of the International Commission of Jurists.] Can the International Criminal Court now exercise jurisdiction over the deportation of Syrians into Jordan? This question was raised by a Syrian lawyer last week at a discussion on the sidelines...
[Michail Vagias is a Senior Lecturer in Law and the Program Manager of ProCuria 2017-2018 at The Hague University of Applied Sciences.] The problem: Discussing Sudan’s immunities in the absence of Sudan On 29 March 2017, Sudanese President Al-Bashir made an official visit to Jordan for the 28th Arab League Summit. Jordan neither arrested nor surrendered him to the International Criminal Court, pursuant to the arrest...
The International Justice and Human Rights Clinic at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia (“Allard IJHR Clinic”) is seeking a full-time junior supervising attorney to work with the Clinic Director and law student clinicians from Sept 1, 2018 to July 31, 2019, with possible extension. The Allard IJHR Clinic works on pressing human rights and global...
[Greg Fox is Professor of Law and Director of the Program for International Legal Studies, Wayne State University Law School. He thanks Ashley Deeks and Brad Roth for their comments.] Among the many confusing reports coming out of the Helsinki Summit on July 16 is the news that Presidents Trump and Putin reached a series of “agreements.” Whatever these agreements may...
The International Law Commission, a group of 34 independent experts, charged with codifying and progressively developing international law is currently (and exceptionally) meeting at the UN in New York. Amidst the substantive conversations on subsequent practice of treaties, customary international law, and jus cogens, there are two other themes that are coming up with some frequency. First, the lack of gender diversity...
[Jennifer Trahan is an Associate Clinical Professor at the NYU Center for Global Affairs.] In his Opinio Juris post on May 4, Dr. Mohamed Helal provides a defense of Russia’s veto use related to the situation in Syria, one that he defends as in line with the negotiations of the UN Charter and a vision of veto power of the permanent members of...