Themes

[Lia Harizanova is an attorney qualified in New York State, England & Wales, and Bulgaria. After earning her law degree from Sofia University, Bulgaria and LL.M. in International Business and Economic Law from Georgetown University Law Center, USA, she currently specializes in transactions and disputes in the Energy and Construction sectors.] [Ameyavikrama Thanvi is an Advocate-on-Record at the Supreme Court of...

[Jonathan Hafetz is Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School. He is also the creator and host of the podcast, LawOnFilm.] Portraying criminal trials for mass atrocities on screen is an inherently challenging task. Filmmakers must tackle the competing demands of historical accuracy and dramatic effect. And for the film to endure, it must somehow speak both to its specific...

[Jens Iverson is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University and a Visiting Professor/Lecturer at Vermont Law School, Santa Clara University School of Law, and University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.] Dr. Stephen Strange is one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  He was able to switch fields, learn languages, and master the mystic arts...

[Cláudio Cerqueira B. Netto is a PhD candidate at Université de Lausanne. The author thanks Evelyne Schmid, Andrea Longo and Ralph Loren-Eisendecher for their comments on previous versions of this blog post. Any mistakes are obviously solely attributed to the author.] Introduction Samba is a popular musical rhythm from Brazil. In 1971, musician João Nogueira composed a samba song titled Das 200...

[Joris van de Riet is a PhD candidate in jurisprudence at Leiden Law School. He holds LLM degrees in Public International Law and in Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law from Leiden University. An earlier version of this post was presented at Gikii in Utrecht, 8 September 2023.] When Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, viewers...

[Keri van Douwen is a PhD Candidate in Public International Law at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.] Introduction  In February 2014, the exhibition The Crimea – Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea opened at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. Not long after, the Russian Federation illegally annexed the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The events prompted archeologist and curator Valentina Mordvinseva to...

[Ruth Houghton is a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle Law School (UK). Aoife O’Donoghue is a Professor in the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast.] Given the disdain with which international legal scholarship holds utopian thinking, it is perhaps surprising that international law has its own utopian literature, its own genre of utopias. And we’re not just talking about Philip Allott’s...

[Carla Ferstman is a Professor of Law at Essex Law School, United Kingdom.] The Wizard of Oz, a bestselling American children’s novel released in 1900 which spawned several movie and theatre adaptations, is a classic allegorical tale about overcoming adversity and the search for the idylls of home.  The Stuff of Fairy Tales Young Dorothy and her pet terrier, Toto, are on the...

[Alonso Gurmendi is a Lecturer in International Relations at King’s College London Department of War Studies and a Contributing Editor at Opinio Juris.]  [Sarah Zarmsky is an Assistant Lecturer and PhD Candidate at the University of Essex Human Rights Centre with a focus on the intersections between new and emerging technologies, human rights, and international criminal law. She was also a...

[Priya Pillai is an international lawyer, heads the Asia Justice Coalition secretariat and is a contributing editor at Opinio Juris.] She participated in the MLAT negotiations in Ljubljana, Slovenia on behalf of the Asia Justice Coalition. All views are personal. The negotiations over two weeks in Ljubljana, Slovenia in May this year for the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) were eye-opening in...

[Jennifer Keene-McCann is Senior Law and Policy Advisor with the Asia Justice Coalition secretariat. She attended the MLA Diplomatic Conference in Ljubljana.] Throughout the diplomatic negotiations on the newly adopted Ljubljana – The Hague Convention,  delegates supported their arguments either for or against changes to the draft by stating they hoped for the ‘widest adoption possible’. As the final version would...

[Frederika Schweighoferova is the Director of Parliamentarians for Global Action’s (PGA) International Law and Human Rights Program] The author participated in the negotiations of the Ljubljana-The Hague Convention in May 2023 on behalf of PGA. Introduction The long-awaited adoption of the Mutual Legal Assistance Convention (The Ljubljana – The Hague Convention on International Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity,...