Recent Posts

In her book "Justice for Some: The Role of International Law in the Palestinian Struggle," Noura Erakat makes a provocative claim: that international law, often hailed as a neutral guardian of justice, has actually strengthened Israeli settler-colonialism. Erakat contends that international law's supposed neutrality is but a mirage, shaped and coloured by global power imbalances. In this episode,...

[Aakash Chandran is the Legal Advocacy and Communications Manager at Asia Justice Coalition. He tweets at @ChandranAakash] Introduction The support for the International Law Commission’s (ILC) Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity (“Draft Articles”) is growing across the board at the United Nations General Assembly’s Sixth Committee (“Sixth Committee”). In 2019, the Draft Articles were adopted by the ILC and submitted to the...

This post is an adapted from an article in the forthcoming Volume 26 of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law in which Sai Venkatesh, the Managing Editor of UNYB, interviewed Judge Hilary Charlesworth. It has been edited for blog format with permission.  Judge Hilary Charlesworth has had a profound impact on the advancement and development of international law over...

[Agnieszka Klonowiecka-Milart is a Polish judge and former member of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal (2016-2023). She also previously served as an international judge of the Supreme Court Chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) (2010-2016) as well as the Supreme Court of Kosovo (2000-2008). Sheila Paylan (@SheilaPaylan) is an international human rights lawyer and former legal advisor...

To have your event or announcement featured in next week’s post, please send a link and a brief description to ojeventsandannouncements@gmail.com! Calls for Papers Genocide and the Ocean: Conceptualising their Relationship: From the seemingly ceaseless drowning of refugees to mass deprivation caused by naval blockades to the devastation of coastal areas through climate change and its contribution to patterns of forced migration,...

[Michelle Burgis-Kasthala is a Senior Lecturer in Public International Law at the University of Edinburgh. Her work explores practices of statehood, territoriality and criminal accountability across the Middle East.] Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   The ceremony of...

[Dominique Dalla-Pozza is a Senior Lecturer at ANU College of Law who also teaches into the ANU National Security College. Tamsin Phillipa Paige is a Senior Lecturer with Deakin Law School and periodically consults for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in relation to Maritime Crime.] In 2019 the television show Battlestar Galactica (BSG), as re-envisaged by Ronald D Moore and David...

[Matheus Gobbato Leichtweis is a PhD Candidate in International Law at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.  He holds a Master’s Degree in Legal Studies at UFRGS and an LLM in Environmental Law at University of Dundee, UK.] Introduction The first ‘Third World superstar, Bob Marley rose to become one of the most important voices of resistance...

[Devina Srivastava is an international development practitioner and researcher, intrigued by the multifaceted interactions between humans, culture, society, and technology.] Picture a pristine, ethereal landscape, where the serenity of the snow-capped mountains meets the hustle and bustle of bustling local markets, a place synonymous with an untouched, heavenly beauty - this was the Kashmir etched in the hearts and minds of audiences through...

[Alonso Gurmendi is a Lecturer in International Relations at King’s College London’s Department of War Studies and a Contributing Editor of Opinio Juris] It is easy to approach The Lord of the Rings as a simple black and white, “good guys vs. bad guys” story. In fact, in a now (in)famous 1956 review, Edmund Wilson complained that the series was “a...

[Aysenur Zeynep Ozmen is a PhD student and teaching assistant at the University of Aberdeen School of Law. Her research interests are aviation and space law, autonomous vehicles and the legal aspects of artificial intelligence - all the cool stuff of law.] “This is space. It does not cooperate.”Mark Watney, The Martian (2015) Introduction David Bowie's Space Oddity was released in 1969, coinciding...