Public International Law

[Elena Baylis is Professor of Law, with a joint appointment in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh. The views expressed in this paper are hers alone.]  Introduction  Reconciliation refers to the need to transform the relationships between societies on opposing sides of an armed conflict from mutual antagonism to “mutual recognition and acceptance.” (Bar-Tal & Bennink 2004)...

[Atul Alexander is an Assistant Professor of Law at the The WB National University of Juridical Sciences.] The ILC Draft Article 7 on the Immunity of State Officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction was the source of controversy in the ILC in the context of the exception to the customary nature of ‘immunity’ rationae materia for the acts committed by State officials. The ILC’s approach to exempt six...

[Anne Marie Goetz is Clinical Professor at the Center for Global Affairs, School of Professional Studies, New York University and served at UNIFEM and UN Women between 2005 and 2014 as the Chief Advisor on Governance, Peace and Security. The views expressed in this paper are the author’s alone.] I. Introduction  By 3 June 2022, 124 cases of sexual abuse committed during...

International lawyers do debate class, but not necessarily in their own professional milieu. There is significant literature on ‘bourgeois’ international law, while the discussion as to what a ‘proletarian’ international law might look like is still alive and well (see for example here, here, and here). Despite these long-standing ties between international legal scholarship and the question of class, there...

It has been a busy time at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the past few months, particularly in relation to cases based on the Genocide Convention. At the moment, there are two ongoing cases relating to this convention – Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar) and Allegations of Genocide...

[Sévane Garibian is a Professor in International Criminal Law and Transitional Justice at the University of Geneva and an Adjunct Professor in Legal Philosophy at the University of Neuchâtel. She is currently leading the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) funded research project “Right to Truth, Truth(s) through Rights: Mass Crimes Impunity and Transitional Justice” at the University of Geneva. Marion Vironda Dubray is a doctoral...

[Sévane Garibian is a Professor in International Criminal Law and Transitional Justice at the University of Geneva and an Adjunct Professor in Legal Philosophy at the University of Neuchâtel. She is currently leading the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) funded research project “Right to Truth, Truth(s) through Rights: Mass Crimes Impunity and Transitional Justice” at the University of Geneva. Marion Vironda Dubray is a doctoral...

[Michelle Coleman is a Lecturer in Law at the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law, Swansea University and the author of book The Presumption of Innocence in International Human Rights and Criminal Law (Routledge 2021).] Language Matters: The Role of the Presumption of Innocence in Seeking Justice During the Russia-Ukraine Conflict Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war there have been calls...

[Hans Gutbrod (Twitter: @HansGutbrod) is Associate Professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi and Senior Fellow, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Seton Hall University. He regularly writes on ethics in international affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics.] In the last two years, headlines from Kabul across Karabakh to Kiyv have brought news...

Call for Papers Human Rights and International Investment Law PhD Workshop - Call for Abstracts: The Erasmus Initiative Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity (Erasmus University Rotterdam) is pleased to announce a call for abstracts for a Human Rights and International Investment Law PhD Workshop, taking place online on 27 and 28 October 2022. The Workshop will bring together PhD candidates and investment...

[Elise Keppler is an associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, where she has worked since 2003 to advance justice for serious crimes before domestic, hybrid, and international courts, with a focus on crimes committed in Africa.] West African and nearby governments came together in Dakar, Senegal in late May to discuss advancing accountability for atrocity crimes through national trials and cooperation with the International Criminal...