In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Public International Law

08 Jul

[Jean d’Aspremont is the Chair in Public International Law at the University of Manchester.] That international lawyers constantly feel a need to revisit their doctrinal fundamentals is no sign that the international legal discipline is running out of steam (and out of inspiration). Even if international lawyers feel the world is crumbling in front of them and demanding urgent interventions, there...

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08 Jul

[Martin Scheinin is a Professor of International Law and Human Rights at European University Institute and a former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism.] Professor Monica Hakimi’s article ’Making sense of customary international law’ is both rewarding and thought-provoking. It fully merits this Symposium. She makes a convincing case that most if not all mainstream doctrinal writing on the topic has serious flaws. She rightly criticizes...

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07 Jul

[Jutta Brunnée is University Professor and Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto.] With her provocative new article Making Sense of Customary Law, Monica Hakimi challenges doctrinalists as well as theorists of international law to engage in a sophisticated conversation about a classical problem: how do we know when customary international law (CIL) exists as “a general practice...

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07 Jul

Introduction Monica Hakimi’s new article, “Making Sense of Customary International Law,” is my favourite kind of scholarship: bold, critical, revisionist, tendentious. Too few scholars are brave enough to confront the sacred cows of public international law this forthrightly, and for that reason alone Hakimi deserves our thanks and praise. That said, I disagree with nearly every word in Hakimi’s article. An adequate response would require an article of its...

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07 Jul

Call for Papers Special Edition: The Business and Human Rights Regime in the Americas: The Revista Internacional de Derechos Humanos (RIDH) is pleased to announce a call for papers for the Special Edition of The Business and Human Rights Regime in the Americas. Given that the Special Rapporteur for Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights...

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06 Jul

[David Stewart is Professor from Practice; Co-Director, Global Law Scholars Program; Director, Center on Transnational Business and the Law at Georgetown Law.] As a general proposition, the law prizes clarity, precision and certainty.  Tolerance of ambiguity is not a virtue taught in most law school classrooms.  That’s one reason why beginning students of international law often find it difficult to grasp...

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06 Jul

[Monica Hakimi is the James V. Campbell Professor of Law at Michigan Law School.] I’m extremely grateful to Opinio Juris for hosting this symposium on my recent article on customary international law (CIL). And I’m honored by the fantastic group of contributors. In the article, I aim to dismantle a common conception of CIL—an idea that shapes how many international lawyers think...

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06 Jul

This week, we have the pleasure of hosting a robust discussion on Monica Hakimi's latest article, Making Sense of Customary International Law. Abstract: This Article addresses a longstanding puzzle about customary international law (CIL): How can it be, at once, so central to the practice of international law—routinely invoked and applied in a broad range of settings—and the source of...

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03 Jul

[Danilo Ruggero Di Bella is a lawyer at Bottega Di Bella.] Upon overthrowing a dictatorship, the swift recovery of stolen assets hidden abroad by a dictator is a key concern for every newly established government. At times, a newly constituted government may rely on the voluntary cooperation of foreign state authorities in which stolen assets are located. In other instances, the newly established government may face difficulties...

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30 Jun

[John B. Quigley is Emeritus Professor of Law at Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University.] The annexation, now under consideration by Israel, of land in occupied Palestine is aimed, in part, at bringing many of Israel’s settlements into the territory of Israel. Annexation, however, may bring the unintended consequence of the loss of those very settlements. Much of the land on which the...

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30 Jun

Along with 187 other American lawyers and legal scholars, I have signed a statement condemning the Trump administration's Executive Order permitting the US to sanction individuals involved with the ICC's investigation into the situation in Afghanistan. It's quite a list of signatories, including three former US war-crimes ambassadors and a number of former judges and prosecutors at various international criminal...

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29 Jun

[Srinivas Burra is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Legal Studies at South Asian University, New Delhi; Haris Jamil is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at University of Delhi, New Delhi.] On 15 June 2020, there was a violent face-off in the Galwan valley, in the western sector of the China-India border. Soldiers from China and India scuffled at the border, which led to...

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