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As the political crisis in Ukraine over the government’s decision not to sign an Association Agreement with the EU passes its second week, this conflict and the positioning over other Russian “Near Abroad” countries (especially Armenia, Moldova, and Georgia) are good examples of the interrelationship of norms and geopolitical strategy. The situation has been largely described in terms of Putin’s reaction to...

One hundred and ten years ago next month, British geographer Halford Mackinder presented a paper at the Royal Geographical Society in London entitled “The Geographical Pivot of History,” setting out the basic tenets of what we now call “geopolitics.”  Strategic thinking during the Cold War was in part framed by geopolitical ideas such as the struggle over key territory in...

The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the ICC just released its 2013 Report on Preliminary Examination Activities. There is much to chew over in the report, but what is most striking is the OTP's slow-walking of its preliminary examination into crimes committed in Afghanistan. The OTP divides preliminary examinations into four phases: (1) initial assessment, which filters out requests for...

A few days ago, in response to reports of an imminent deal between P5+1 and Iran concerning Iran's uranium enrichment, Tyler Cullis and Ryan Goodman debated whether Iran has a "right" to develop nuclear power for civilian purposes. Tyler argued that Iran does, citing (inter alia) Art. IV of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT): Nothing in this Treaty...

[Dov Jacobs is the Senior Editor for Expert Blogging at the Leiden Journal of International Law and Assistant Professor of International Law at Leiden University] In the upcoming days, you will find food for thought with regard to four articles featured in issues 26-2 and 26-3 of the Leiden Journal of International Law, covering a wide range of contemporary discussions in international law. The first discussion stems from Janina Dill’s article entitled “Should International Law Ensure the Moral Accountability of War?. In this piece, the author discusses recent just war theories that argue the need of international humanitarian law (IHL) to regulate killing in war in accordance with individuals’ liability by moving away from the collective dimension of protected status. The author posits that such proposal is not realizable, and suggests ways to improve the current system. In their thoughtful discussions of the article, Gabriella Blum of Harvard Law School, and Christopher Kutz of Berkeley Law, invite the author to forward her argument yet further. Specifically, Gabriella Blum suggests that individual human rights can and should be taken into account in the context of war, while Christopher Kutz questions Dr. Dill’s premise that the collective approach to war in IHL is in contradiction with the general evolution of International Law towards taking into account individual rights. The second discussion revolves around Maarten den Heijer’s article, Diplomatic Asylum and the Assange case, where he argues that granting such asylum contradicts a number of principles of international law. Gregor Noll, from Lund University, and Roger O’Keefe, from Cambridge University, challenge the author’s premises, both in relation to his historical analysis and in relation to his evaluation of the legal framework. The third discussion focuses on Devika Hovell’s proposals in A Dialogue Model: The Role of the Domestic Judge in Security Council Decision-Making. In the article, the author discusses the ways in which domestic and regional judges (EU, ECHR) deal with United Nations Security Council Resolutions and suggests the need to go beyond the classical notions of bindingness and hierarchy.  She proposes instead a more subtle and elaborate “dialogue model”. Erika de Wet, of the Universities of Amsterdam and Pretoria, and Piet Eeckhout, from University College London, draw attention to the limits of the author’s model within the current international law structure and in context of the states’ international legal obligations. In a nutshell, the professors argue dialogue is not always possible. Finally, the fourth discussion is an interchange between Zoran Oklopcic and Brad Roth, from Wayne State University, on the former’s challenge in “Beyond Empty, Conservative, and Ethereal:  Pluralist Self-Determination and a Peripheral Political Imaginary to the latter’s allegedly “empty” concept of self-determination. Brad Roth defends his “empty” notion of self-determination, pointing out the difficulties of actually identifying the substance of such principle. Aside from the in-depth and engaging appraisal of the specific issues contained in the articles, the various discussions all either directly or indirectly touch upon what has historically been at the heart of international law:

A couple of weeks ago, Mother Jones blogger Kevin Drum said he was surprised that Syria has, by all accounts, voluntarily given up its chemical-weapons capability: I don't really have any comment about this, except to express a bit of puzzlement. As near as I can tell, Bashar al-Assad is really and truly sincere about destroying his chemical weapons stocks.1 But why?...

Peggy, Julian, Duncan and I took a stab at a podcast discussion of Tuesday's Supreme Court arguments in Bond v. United States.   [audio mp3="https://opiniojuris.org/wp-content/uploads/oj-podcast.mp3"][/audio]   You can now find an audio of the argument itself here. Mentioned in the course of the discussion are related posts by David Golove and Michael Ramsey here and here. The Nick Rosencranz Harvard Law Review article that...

[Michael W. Lewis is a Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University. He is a former Navy aviator and Topgun graduate.] Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International released reports last week criticizing the use of drones in Yemen and Pakistan.  Both reports have significant flaws in the way the factual information was presented and in how they characterize international law and US...