Themes

[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,...

[Danaé van der Straten Ponthoz is the Head of Advocacy and Policy at the Global Survivors Fund. The views in this post are expressed in the author’s personal capacity. Leanna Burnard was a Legal Advisor at REDRESS during the MLA negotiations. She is now a lawyer with the Global Legal Action Network.] Introduction 26 May 2023 was a historical day in the...

[Julie Bardèche is a French lawyer and a legal advisor at REDRESS, an NGO that pursues legal claims on behalf of survivors of torture in the UK and around the world to obtain justice and reparation for the violation of their human rights.] The author represented REDRESS at the Diplomatic Conference that led to the adoption of the Ljubljana-The Hague Convention. The...

[Ezéchiel Amani Cirimwami is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law. He holds a joint PhD in International Criminal Law from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Free University of Brussels (VUB).] The author attended the Ljubljana Diplomatic Conference as a DRC delegate and was elected by the Conference as a member of the...

[Bruno Biazatti is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law and a PhD candidate at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.] The author attended the Ljubljana Diplomatic Conference and the observations contained here reflect his personal notes taken during the negotiations. The Ljubljana – The Hague Convention on International Cooperation in the...

[Pamela Capizzi is the Head of Pool of Legal Expertise at TRIAL International. Hugo Relva is Legal Adviser for Amnesty International (International Secretariat) at the International Justice Team.] Pamela and Hugo participated in the negotiations of the Ljubljana-The Hague Convention in May 2023 on behalf of TRIAL International and Amnesty International, respectively. On 26 May 2023, the Ljubljana-The Hague Convention on International Cooperation in the...