Europe

[Dr Caroline Sweeney is a lecturer in International Human Rights Law with a particular research interest in the intersection between international law and international politics in Syria. She has published on accountability for international crimes committed in Syria since 2011.] On 13 January 2022, the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany convicted Anwar Raslan, a former Syrian intelligence officer, of the...

[Hakan Kaplankaya is a former Turkish diplomat, jurist and INSTITUDE member.] The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), on 23 November 2021, handed down a landmark judgment, Turan and Others v. Turkey, concerning the lawfulness of pre-trial detentions of the judges and prosecutors suspended from office in the wake of the coup attempt that took place on the 15th of July,...

[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...

[Sophia Zademack, MLaw, LL.M. has previously worked with different Human Rights Organizations and is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Zurich. Luke James, LLM. is a security analyst interested in peace processes. He has worked at the ICC, OSCE, British Red Cross, Platform for Peace Humanity, UNV and is an Army Reservist.] Summary The defensive weapons supplied to Ukraine are...

[Rana Kassas is a public international law scholar and legal regulatory consultant. She is a Ph.D. candidate at Kent Law School, University of Kent, and her research focuses on the Public-Private Distinction in Investment Treaty Arbitration.] Introduction The sharp imbalance between the legal and investment tools available to private investors and those that are available to government-backed investors in the context of...

Calls for Papers Call for Papers - German Yearbook of International Law: The Editors welcome submissions for volume 65 (2022) of the German Yearbook of International Law (GYIL), inviting interested parties to submit contributions on all topics of public international law for consideration for inclusion in the forthcoming edition. The "General Articles" section of the GYIL is open to submissions from the entire...

[David J. Scheffer is a former US diplomat, an international law professor, and a Senior Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He is author of The Sit Room: In the Theater of War and Peace.] Legal principles matter as two major democracies—Taiwan and Ukraine—are threatened by superpower neighbors. Whether one argues about Taiwan’s status as a country or a province...

Call for Papers Call for Papers - South Asian Postgraduate Law Conference 2022: The first SAPLawC’22,  to be held virtually on 25th and 26th November 2022 aims to bring together research scholars working in the area of legal issues that are of concern within the South Asian countries. The purpose of the Conference is to encourage the young research scholars to present their research before...

[Álvaro Rueda Rodríguez-Vila is a graduate in law (Bachelor, UNED) and in human rights (LL.M., Maastricht University).] On 15 September, the Spanish Constitutional Court (Tribunal Constitucional, or TC) barred a case from investigating and prosecuting crimes committed during the Franco dictatorship (a period of time known as franquismo, or Francoism). This decision, Auto 80/2021, refers to a complaint alleging tortures committed...

Call for Papers Call for Proposals - The 2022 Multidisciplinary Forum on Law and Longtermism: The University of Hamburg and The Legal Priorities Project invites paper proposals on the topic of ‘Longtermism and the Law’, for a multidisciplinary forum that will take place on 9-11 June 2022. The guiding theme of this Forum is the role of law in sustaining and improving life hundreds...

[Carola Lingaas is an associate professor of law at VID Specialized University in Oslo (Norway).] Introduction Around the same time in October 2021, 10,000 kilometers apart, two cases were litigated before domestic courts that dealt with indigenous rights to use of land: one before the Kenyan Environment and Land Court in Meru, the other one before the Supreme Court of Norway. Both...