Public International Law

[Richard Dicker is Senior Legal Adviser for Advocacy at Human Rights Watch and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School] It has taken two years of consideration, discussion and debate, but the agreement necessary to draft an international treaty to prevent and punish Crimes Against Humanity has finally been reached. The UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, which is mandated to encourage...

[Marta Bo is a Senior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Institute and an Associate Senior Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)] In recent years, accountability for uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in warfare, especially under international criminal law, has progressively emerged as a critical issue in governance initiatives (SIPRI, GGE’s Guiding Principles, REAIM Blue Print for Action) and...

[Libby McAvoy is a Legal Advisor at Mnemonic, where she specialises in digital evidence archives, litigation support, and open source investigations into international crimes and human rights violations. Syrian Archive is Mnemonic's founding programme. Daragh Murray is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, and his research focuses on the intersection of technology and international law.] The authors were members of...

[Juliette Rémond Tiedrez is a Legal Researcher at the International Commission of Jurists’ Middle East and North Africa programme.] The views expressed in this post are the author’s alone and do not represent any institutional position on the part of the International Commission of Jurists. On 4 October 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) granted the Office of...

[Dr Anna Nadibaidze is a researcher for the European Research Council funded AutoNorms and AutoPractices projects based at the Center for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark] The United Nations Summit of the Future, held in New York in September 2024, resulted in the adoption of the Pact for the Future. Among many other issues, this pact lists as an action...

[Jimena Sofía Viveros Álvarez is a Mexican international lawyer, expert on Artificial Intelligence, a member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Advisory Body on AI, a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain, and an expert on AI for the OECD.] The origins of artificial intelligence (AI) date back to 1956. However, within the last decade it has evolved exponentially and...

[Viola Santini is a PhD candidate in International and European Law at the University of Florence. She holds an MA in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute.] Photography, War and Death, a Close Relationship In recent times, social networks and media have been inundated with harrowing images: beheaded soldiers on the Ukrainian front, mutilated bodies and blindfolded prisoners of war in...

[Adil Ahmad Haque is a Professor of Law and Judge Jon O. Newman Scholar at Rutgers Law School. His first book, Law and Morality at War, was recently published by Oxford University Press.] Erin Pobjie’s Prohibited Force is an extraordinary book. Its combination of theoretical sophistication and empirical rigor is both striking and rare. While some readers may be tempted to skip to the later chapters, which set...

[Claus Kreß is a Professor of Criminal Law and Public International Law, the Chair for German and International Criminal Law, and Director of the Institute of International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne. He formerly Served in the German Federal Ministry of Justice.] In para. 253 of its 19 July 2024 Advisory Opinion in Legal Consequences from the Policies...

[Alonso Gurmendi is Fellow in Human Rights and Politics at LSE and Contributor Editor at Opinio Juris] At Opinio Juris we are extremely happy to present the present online symposium on friend-of-the-blog, Erin Pobjie’s recent book, Prohibited Force: The Meaning of ‘Use of Force’ in International Law (available on open access here). In this fascinating contribution to the law on the use of force, Erin addresses...

[Mischa Gureghian Hall is a Researcher and Senior Status student in Law at the University of Oxford, University College, and a Legal Assistant at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.] On 25 October 2024, Ukraine deposited its instrument of ratification of the Rome Statute with the UN Secretary-General, completing the process of ratification of the statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which...

[Dr. Alonso Gurmendi is a Fellow in Human Rights and Politics at LSE and a contributor editor at Opinio Juris Dr. Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli is a Researcher of International Law at the University of Cagliari and today’s Dungeon Master Dr. Juliana Santos de Carvalho is the Isaac Newton Trust Academic Career Development Fellow in Gender Studies and Human, Social, and Political Sciences at...