Public International Law

1- White Supremacy and the International Legal Order Writing in 1997, Charles Mills threw a grenade into political theory. With a touch of hyperbole, we might even say he collapsed the contours of the social sciences. Standard undergraduate philosophy courses, he tells us, cover two thousand years of political thought. Mainstream philosophers introduce students to liberalism and libertarianism, capitalism and communitarianism, socialism...

[Adrienne Ringin holds a Bachelor of Arts (International Politics) and Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne and currently works as a research assistant to Dr. Rosemary Grey at the University of Sydney with a focus on sexual and gender-based crimes at the International Criminal Court.] September 26 2022 saw the opening of the trial in the case of The Prosecutor...

[Ríán Derrig is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute of the United Nations World Maritime University, Malmö.] In late August 2022 delegates from around the world convened at UN Headquarters in New York to agree a treaty. The treaty could protect biodiversity in ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction – the ‘high seas’ – and redistribute ocean resources. This was expected to be the last...

[Zsófia Baumann is a Junior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague, where she works on topics related to foreign terrorist fighters, counterterrorism and human rights and carries out research on the rehabilitation and reintegration of terrorist offenders.] Part I of this post outlined the main criticisms directed at the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) from the human rights community. It...

[Zsófia Baumann is a Junior Researcher at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague, where she works on topics related to foreign terrorist fighters, counterterrorism and human rights and carries out research on the rehabilitation and reintegration of terrorist offenders.] Introduction The Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) was set up in 2011 as a multilateral, informal platform of 30 Members working to support...

[Santiago Vargas Niño, LL.M. is an independent legal consultant and lecturer in international protection of human rights at Los Andes University in Bogotá D.C., Colombia. He previously worked as a legal officer of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. He also served as an intern, legal assistant, assistant legal officer, and legal consultant of the Office of the Prosecutor of the...

[Caroline Stover is a lawyer focusing on human rights and refugee law and is currently the acting Head of Asia Programme at ARTICLE 19. Michael Altman-Lupu is a human rights lawyer working with ARTICLE 19 to protect and defend freedom of expression in Southeast Asia.] The Argument for the Investigation of Those Ordering Internet and Telephonic Shutdowns Under Articles 25(3)(c) and...

[Caroline Stover is a lawyer focusing on human rights and refugee law and is currently the acting Head of Asia Programme at ARTICLE 19. Michael Altman-Lupu is a human rights lawyer working with ARTICLE 19 to protect and defend freedom of expression in Southeast Asia.] Introduction Across the world, the rise of internet-based communications has facilitated the documentation of evidence of violations of...

[Raquel Saavedra is an International Legal Adviser, Myanmar, for the International Commission of Jurists. Kingsley Abbott is the Director of Global Accountability and International Justice, International Commission of Jurists.] In recent conversations with diplomats covering Myanmar, we continue to be asked: is it still worthwhile for states to support the work of Myanmar lawyers when the justice system is in a state of...

[Dr Melanie O’Brien is Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Western Australia and President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). She is also a 2022 research fellow at the Sydney Jewish Museum.] Two years ago, in August 2020, thirteen blog posts were written in a Rohingya Symposium here on Opinio Juris. These posts covered, inter alia, the need for accountability, the Security Council, the problematic fact that Myanmar’s...

[Marissa Kardon Weber is an international criminal and human rights lawyer. She works on strategic human rights litigation against Iran and its agents and instrumentalities in U.S. federal court on behalf of victims of hostage taking, torture, extrajudicial killing, and aircraft sabotage. The views expressed herein are entirely her own.] Double Standards in Extrajudicial Killings? The decades of treatment and recent likely attempted murder of novelist and defender of the freedom...

[Dr. Emma Irving, M.A., LL.M., is a consultant in the fields of international criminal law, human rights, and technology and was formerly the senior researcher in the Leiden IHL Clinic's Digitally Derived Evidence Project. Dr. Robert Heinsch, LL.M. is an Associate Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University, and is the Director of its Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum...