[Marc Weller is Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge and a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers. He served as United Nations Senior Mediation Expert and has been an advisor in a large number of peace negotiations. He is the co-editor of International Law and Peace Settlements (Cambridge University Press, 2021). The views expressed are his own alone.] On Monday, Russia floated a peace balloon....
[Dr. Mona Paulsen is an Assistant Professor in International Economic Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science.] Dramatic escalation of economic sanctions on the Russian Federation have made one thing clear – trade and security are no longer strange bedfellows. On 2 March 2022, Ukraine formally invoked the security exceptions of the World Trade Organization (Article XXI of the GATT 1994, Article XIVbis...
[Nikolas M. Rajkovic is Chair of International Law at Tilburg University (The Netherlands). He is a Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the Law Department of the European University Institute (Italy).] NATO and EU leaders present Russia’s aggression against Ukraine as a storied conflict between geopolitical power and a “rules-based order.” In the hours that followed the invasion, EU Commission President, Ursula Von...
[Hiruni Alwishewa is a PhD Candidate in International Law at The Graduate Institute Geneva, researching the responsibilities of actors involved in the transfer of arms to conflict zones.] Introduction The recent invasion of Ukraine will likely revive the assertion that international law has failed to constrain Russian aggression, as occurred when the Autonomous Region of Crimea was annexed by Russia in March...
[André de Hoogh is Associate Professor in International Law, University of Groningen. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Public International Law, which provides advice to the Dutch government and parliament; this contribution has been written in his personal capacity, and does not reflect in any way the views of the Advisory Committee. His research covers a wide...
[Richard L. Kilpatrick, Jr. is Assistant Professor of Business Law at the College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina (USA).] A Technical Tool (Re)Emerges in the Sanctions Spotlight At a time when a violent ground war has mobilized on the European continent, it has been surprising to see a bank messaging system under such intense public debate. Even a month prior to Russia’s...
[Jennifer Trahan is Convenor of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, and Clinical Professor at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs.] Let us be clear why the United Nations is largely paralyzed in the face of one of the clearest cases of aggression since 1939: it is because of the veto power of a permanent member of the UN Security...
[Carsten Stahn is Professor of International Criminal Law and Global Justice at Leiden Law School.] ‘In times of war, the law falls silent’ (silent enim leges inter arma). This famous maxim by Cicero is often used to illustrate the lack of power of law in the face of conquest and occupation. In the discourse over the war in Ukraine, we witness...
As of 23:00 CET on 21 February 2022, media outlets and journalists have begun to report on an announcement by Russia that it will send troops for "peacekeeping operations" in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Eastern Ukraine. This followed Russia's announcement earlier the same evening that it would recognize those regions as independent entities, triggering threats of sanctions from...
[Marc Weller is Professor of International Law and International Constitutional Studies at the University of Cambridge and Editor of the Oxford Handbook on the Use of Force in International Law.] The international rules on the use of force are simple. Force may never be employed as a means of international policy. Force is only available by way of self-defence, if specifically...
[Jennifer Trahan is Convenor at The Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression and Clinical Professor at NYU Center for Global Affairs. Trahan was a member of the Council of Advisers on the Application of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to Cyberwarfare.] With Russian forces poised on the border of Ukraine and the US Government reportedly considering a...
[Lucia Leontiev is a PhD candidate in international and human rights law at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa (Italy) and Maastricht University.] Between 17 and 19 September 2021, Russian federal elections were held. For the realist, the results of the elections were not a surprise, as the Kremlin-supported party, United Russia, won the majority of seats in the parliament...