In association with the International Commission of Jurists

General

07 Nov

[Amir Abbas Kiani is a collaborating researcher in International Law at Shiraz University, Iran] On July 23, 2025, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its ‘historic’ Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. As part of its reasoning, the Court examined the issue of lex specialis derogat legi generali (lex specialis) to determine “…the relationship between...

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07 Nov

[Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott is the author of State Responsibility for Non-State Actors: Past, Present and Prospects for the Future (Oxford: Hart | Bloomsbury, 2022, re-issued in paperback 2024)] This is the second part of a two-part post; see Part I here. But wait! How silly of me. Apologies for jumping the gun. There are other attribution tests under the ILC Articles...

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07 Nov

[Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott is the author of State Responsibility for Non-State Actors: Past, Present and Prospects for the Future (Oxford: Hart | Bloomsbury, 2022, re-issued in paperback 2024)] This is the first part of a two-part post; see Part II here. Information operations can impact societies in many ways. Whether by undermining specific human rights, for example, as a result of crossing...

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06 Nov

[Dr Marika McAdam is an independent international law and policy advisor who works globally on human rights-based criminal justice responses to organized crime and other issues] As the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime opened for signature last month, one would like to imagine cybercriminals pulling their computers from their sockets, anxious about their doors being kicked down when that instrument enters...

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05 Nov

[Jens Iverson is an assistant professor of international law at Leiden University]  The Trump Administration has sanctioned ICC high officials, UN officials, and human rights groups. There is concern this is not the end of the US bullying — without pushback, further sanctions against individuals, organizations, and the ICC itself may continue throughout President Trump’s term and beyond.  States Parties face a...

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05 Nov

[Helen Duffy runs Human Rights in Practice and is a professor of human rights and humanitarian law at the University of Leiden. Karolína Babická is a Senior Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists] Human Rights in Practice and the International Commission of Jurists have earlier this year published a report, Justice Under Pressure: Strategic Litigation of Judicial Independence in Europe, that maps the...

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05 Nov

[Coline Minguet is an FNRS-funded PhD candidate at UCLouvain researching reparations for victims of sexual violence in armed conflicts under international law, with prior experience as a Brussels-based lawyer and academic background in international and European law] During its 80th Ordinary Session in 2024, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the “ACHPR”) adopted its Communication No. 700/18—IHRDA & Ors...

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04 Nov

[Elise Baker is a senior staff lawyer at the Atlantic Council Strategic Litigation Project, where she leads work on accountability and support for victims and survivors of human rights violations in Syria. She previously documented the Assad regime's systematic attacks on health care in Syria with Physicians for Human Rights. Britt Gronemeyer is an assistant director at the Atlantic Council Strategic...

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03 Nov

[Dr Rupert Barrett-Taylor is a Research Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute focused on the ethical, operational, and epistemological implications of Artificial Intelligence in military operations. Dr Matthew Ford is an academic in the Department of War Studies at the Swedish Defence University (FHS) focusing on war and the data-saturated battlefields of the 21st century] The state’s exclusive control over the legitimate...

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03 Nov

[Dr Jeremie M. Bracka is an international human rights law scholar and transitional justice expert at RMIT University’s School of Law (Melbourne). He previously worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and is the author of Transitional Justice for Israel/Palestine? (Springer, 2022)] The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is witnessing a striking rise in genocide litigation, as global armed conflicts...

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31 Oct

[Reabetswe Mampane is an assistant lecturer in the Department of Public Law at the University of Pretoria.  Babatunde Fagbayibo is a professor in the Department of Public Law at the University of Pretoria.] In one of the scenes in the movie Sinners, the Irish vampire, Remmick, employs a form of ‘fellowship rhetoric’ to entice the Black patrons of the juke joint to...

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31 Oct

[Ruby Rosselle ‘Ross’ Tugade is a PhD student at the Faculty of Law & Justice, University of New South Wales (Sydney), researching anti-communicst state violence in the Philippines] Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown, a ‘folk opera’ and later Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, retells the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice against the backdrop of an industrial underworld. Hadestown was first staged in 2006 and...

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