In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Public International Law

18 Oct

[Victor S. Mariottini de Oliveira is a PhD candidate in International Law at the Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland] Introduction On September 19th 2023, Azerbaijan launched a military operation targeting separatist positions in the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway territory of Armenian majority located within Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders. The “anti-terror” operation orchestrated as a response to alleged infrastructure sabotage activities carried...

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17 Oct

Introduction  In March 2022, I wrote a piece for Opinio Juris in which I described the international legal community as a “visible college.” Playing on Schachter’s concept of an “invisible college” of international lawyers “dispersed throughout the world” (p 217) but united in their faith in the law’s pacifying and transformative potential, my piece celebrated international lawyers’ willingness to engage with...

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12 Oct

Since my fields of research include criminal law, international law, and international humanitarian law, several colleagues and students have asked for my preliminary legal assessment regarding the recent attacks in Israel by Hamas terrorists. These terrorist attacks were egregious and shocking violations of human dignity and cannot be justified in any context.  Although facts are still being gathered, the available evidence...

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09 Oct

[Alexandra Lily Kather, co-founder of the emergent justice collective, advises accountability actors on the strategic investigation and prosecution of intersectional dimensions of core international crimes and works to strengthen decolonial feminist, intersectional as well as transformative approaches in international justice.] [Yousuf Syed Khan is a Senior Lawyer with Global Rights Compliance, where he focusses on accountability for starvation as a method of warfare in...

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05 Oct

[Dr. Camilla S. Haake is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights affiliated with the University of Vienna.] Before release on 21 July 2023, Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ film heated up the tempers of countries bordering the South China Sea (SCS). Vietnam and the Philippines had announced in early July that they would not release the film because of a geopolitically controversial...

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02 Oct

[Jennifer Trahan is a Clinical Professor at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and Director of their Concentration in International Law and Human Rights.] It is time for States Parties to amend the Kampala crime of aggression amendments and remove the jurisdictional gaps. At the Rome Conference, many states, particularly those from the Non-Aligned Movement, Germany, and Italy advocated for the inclusion of the crime of aggression...

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28 Sep

[Mariam Bezhanishvili (LinkedIn; Twitter; ResearchGate) is a PhD candidate at the European University Viadrina, researching on the protection of property during armed conflicts and occupations. She was formerly a visiting professional at the International Criminal Court and a legal intern at the International Bar Association ICC&ICL Programme.] On 18 July 2023, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a judgment in relation to the Situation in the...

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26 Sep

[Dhaval Bothra is a law student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune.] Introduction This blog specifically analyzes the legality of unilateral economic sanctions imposed by Member States, excluding UNSC sanctions. The primary focus is on evaluating the compatibility of these unilateral economic sanctions with the WTO's Public Morals Exception, with particular emphasis on Article XX(a) of the GATT. It should be...

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20 Sep

I had hoped not to write any more posts about the international vs. internationalized tribunal debate. I have written extensively on the topic already, and the prospects for an international tribunal grow dimmer with each passing day. Alas, Patryk Labuda's most recent entry on the topic at Just Security requires a response: although the arguments are the same unpersuasive ones...

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18 Sep

Travelling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. Ibn Battuta From its vantage point atop the Kasbah in Tangier, Morocco, the Ibn Battuta museum overlooks the meeting point of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea—a vista coloured by myriad beginnings and a few endings as well. More of a memorial than a museum, the site...

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12 Sep

In recent days, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva has generated much controversy by declaring that, should Russian President, Vladimir Putin, visit the G20 Meeting in Brazil in 2024, he would not be arrested, in defiance of the existing International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant against him. Eventually, Lula backtracked, stating the arrest was not up to him, but Brazil’s judiciary. In so doing,...

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04 Sep

[Shamik Datta is an undergraduate student at NALSAR University of Law (India). He is particularly interested in investment treaty arbitration, commercial law and public international law.] In recent years, the importance of the investor’s corporate social responsibility (‘CSR’) and environmental obligations has gained wide prominence in international investment law. This has resulted in several states explicitly including provisions mandating compliance with such responsibilities and obligations in...

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