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15 Sep

...of his final visits to Scotland later on Monday four days before a historic independence referendum to warn Scots a vote to leave the United Kingdom is a forever choice. Hundreds of thousands of Catalans packed the streets of Barcelona on Thursday to demand the right to vote on a potential split from Spain, their ambitions boosted by an independence referendum scheduled for later this week in Scotland. For more on the independence vote, we are hosting an Insta-Symposium–watch for updates starting later today. Russia’s strength is being tested by...
15.09.14 | |

09 Mar

...to Mexico’s nationals. (Update: Marty Lederman, as usual, was first to notice this article and the first to comment. Michael Froomkin has the text of the withdrawal and more comments about the timing of the withdrawal) A couple of insta-observations: (1) The ICJ might find that the U.S. withdrawal itself was not in conformity with international law. In particular, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (if it is accepted as customary international law) seems to prevent countries from withdrawing from a treaty unless that treaty specifies that withdrawal...
09.03.05 | |

20 Sep

This week on Opinio Juris, we hosted an insta-symposium on the Scottish Independence Referendum. David Scheffer surveyed the legal terrain in case of a yes vote, Stephen Tierney discussed how Scotland’s move to independence would be characterised under international law, Milena Sterio argued that international law could develop a norm containing a positive right to secession under certain circumstances, Jure Vidmar looked at Scotland’s position in the EU, Tim Sparks took a long view, and Christopher Connolly discussed the phrasing of the referendum question. Finally, Chris asked whether there will...
20.09.14 | |

08 Mar

This week on Opinio Juris, we continued to follow the situation in Ukraine as it unfolded with an insta-symposium. Alexander Cooley gave an overview of the power politics at play, while Chris posted about Russia’s use of legal rhetoric as a politico-military strategy, and about how language affects the evolution of international law. This last post built on a discussion between Julian and Peter in which Julian argued that the crisis shows the limits of international law, while Peter took aim at the Perfect Compliance Fallacy. Further issues of compliance...
08.03.14 | |

22 Feb

...may further the informed discussion of this crisis. The Ukraine-Russia Crisis of 2022: Marc Weller, “Is Russia’s Bullying Illegal” (8 February 2022); Sophia Zademack & Luke James, “Western Weapons in Ukraine” (8 February 2022); Jennifer Trahan, “A Reminder of the Importance of the Crime of Aggression: Considering the Situation of Russia and Ukraine” (4 February 2022); David Scheffer, “Legal Principles Matter in Defense of Democracies” (17 January 2022). We also invite readers to explore any of our previous posts on Ukraine and Russia, including our Insta-Symposium on Ukraine from 2014....
22.02.22 | |

10 Mar

...the Russian Federation. For more on the Ukraine crisis, see our insta-symposium here. Russia has made what may be a move towards taking part in talks over the Ukraine crisis, but is standing firm in its insistence that Crimea has a right to break away from Kiev’s rule. Germany’s Angela Merkel delivered a rebuke to President Vladimir Putin, telling him that a planned Moscow-backed referendum on whether Crimea should join Russia was illegal and violated Ukraine’s constitution. The EU has reiterated its earlier pledge to ink a trade deal with...
10.03.14 | |

18 Apr

from the military hospital in which he was staying. The US is dispatching army planners to Jordan but is wary of direct American intervention in Syria. Human Rights Watch has urged Libya to allow access for Al-Senussi, char For readers who follow the US’ current conflict with al-Qaeda and affiliated forces closely, you may recall two guest posts (here and here) about a recent symposium entitled The Boundaries of the Battlefield. The organizers of that symposium (full-disclosure: I was one of them) have written a summary report on the symposium....
18.04.13 | |

05 Nov

[Professor James Gathii, provides this timely insta-background on today’s decision by the the ICC prosecutor to open an investigation into the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya. Professor Gaathi teaches at Albany Law School, where he is the Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship and Governor George E. Pataki Professor of International Commercial Law. He publishes extensively on legal developments in sub-Saharan Africa.] The International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on November 5, 2009 informed Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga that he had decided to request...
05.11.09 | |

20 Apr

This week on Opinio Juris, it was hard to miss our insta-symposium on the Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. Ken beat Julian to the punch to break the news and link to the opinions. The core part of Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion for the Court, on the insufficiency of “mere corporate presence” to displace the presumption against extraterritoriality, can be found in this post by Julian. Roger read this to require that the ATS can only apply to conduct that at least partly takes place within...
20.04.13 | |

15 Mar

We had a busy week on the blog, so if you haven’t been able to keep track of it all, here is a summary of what happened. We continued the Ukraine Insta-symposium with posts by Remy Jorritsma on the application of IHL to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and by Sina Etezazian on Russia’s right to protect its citizens in the Crimea and Ukraine’s right to use of force in self-defence. A post by Greg Fox and one by Tali Kolesov Har-Oz and Ori Pomson discussed the limits of...
15.03.14 | |

28 Sep

...do seem to be trending toward applying it strictly (i.e., booting out cases). I don’t know if I think that will continue in the lower courts, however. In the splendid Insta-Symposium here at OJ on Kiobel, commentators raised various ways, several of them ingenious, in which a district court judge could march ahead with ATS suits. Whether Roberts or Breyer’s approach to the question of jurisdiction, in other words, each still suffers from Sosa’s “Delphic oracle” problem: a judge wanting to find grounds to kick out the case could do...
28.09.13 | |

24 Jan

...of outrageous error or intential mistatement! At least the dissent pointed out how the majority completely misunderstood (or intentionally mistated) the early ATS cases as well as piracy. Shocking, incompetent, and perhaps result-oriented judicial out-of-control activism! Daniel Professor Alford, I seem to recall that this topic was discussed vigorously in the comments to the OJ Insta-Symposium. One of the thoughts that came up at that time was a distinction between two ways an international norm becomes part of common law. One is the traditional English view that customary international law...
24.01.14 | |