Public International Law

[Alexander Talel is an American attorney. He previously served as law clerk to Judge Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to Judge Sidney H. Stein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.] Hoda Muthana of Hackensack, New Jersey joined ISIS when she was 19. She wants to come home...

[Dr. Pouria Askary is an Associate Professor of International Law at Allameh Tabataba’i University (ATU).] This post is based on a presentation delivered in a webinar organized by AALCO on 6 April 2023. Since the very beginning, the work of the International Law Commission (ILC) on the topic of general principles of law has surprised many States as well as commentators by introducing a second category...

[Wubeshet Tiruneh holds a Ph.D. in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland.] It has been six months since the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) – the two main parties to the armed conflict in Ethiopia – signed an agreement on permanent cessation of hostilities.The parties, among others, agreed on permanent cessation of hostilities, protection...

[Carlos Lusverti is the Latin America Legal advisor with the International Commission of Jurists] The principle of presumption of innocence in criminal cases is core to the rule of law. It is also a universally recognized general principle of law, incorporated into general international human rights treaties, the Venezuelan Constitution and domestic law as part of the Criminal Proceedings Code. However,...

[Oscar Genaro Macias Betancourt is the Former Director of Restitutions at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Specialist in International Law on Cultural Property.] Introduction  There are multiple angles to approach the complex debate around the restitution of cultural property to their countries of origin. From the legal perspective, the branches of civil, criminal, and international law offer a diversity...

[Dr. Paul R. Williams is the Founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), the Rebecca I. Grazier Professor in Law and International Relations at American University, and a world-renowned peace negotiation lawyer who has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations.] [Alexandra Koch is Co-Chair of the Policy Planning Initiative at the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) and...

[Alison Smith is the International Justice Director for No Peace Without Justice. She has worked and published on the rights of the child in accountability processes for twenty years, and participated in the consultations leading to the adoption of the OTP Children’s Policy.] It has been 20 years since the launch of “International Criminal Justice and Children” by UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre and No Peace Without Justice....

[Dr Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. He is the author of State Responsibility for Non-State Actors: Past, Present and Prospects for the Future (2022).] Whatever the motivations for doing so, such as providing authority for further sanctions, there may come a point where the relationship between Russia and the Wagner Group will...

[Nandini Shinde is a Catalyst for Change Fellow at Migration and Asylum Project, an initiative of the Ara Trust, where she works as a legal representative for refugees in their refugee status determination. She has a background in international criminal and humanitarian law. Radhika Goyal is a Policy Associate with Accountability Counsel where she advocates for international financial institutions to be...

[Andrew Clapham is Professor of International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute and the author of "Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction and War".] The arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova have generated a lot of talk about the absence of any obligation on Russia to comply due to Russia...