General

The Harvard International Law Journal has just posted a call for their 60th anniversary volume. Here is the relevant text: The Harvard International Law Journal is now accepting article submissions for Volume 60. We seek to publish innovative, original scholarship that makes a significant contribution to the field of international law. We welcome submissions from legal scholars, practitioners, and doctoral degree candidates on...

Last month, the UN Secretary General António Guterres announced that he was referring the longstanding border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela to the International Court of Justice. This decision was made after a long period of mediation by various UN Secretaries-General dating back to 1990.  But as a ICJ jurisdiction nerd, I am curious what the basis of the Secretary-General's power...

We are thrilled to announce that over the next few days we will be co-hosting with EJIL:Talk! a discussion of Anthea Roberts’ new prize-winning book Is International Law International? (Oxford University Press, 2017). The book has recently been awarded the American Society of International Law’s  2018 Certificate of Merit for “Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship.” As the ASIL Book Awards Committee states: In...

Re: Deportation of Asylum Seekers under the “Procedure for Deportation to Third Countries” Violates International Law This memorandum is submitted by the undersigned, Israeli experts on international law at academic institutions in Israel and abroad. The policy on asylum seekers in Israel raises complex issues with broad public ramifications. This memorandum does not take a position on the full range of...

The ICTY Trial Chamber announced today its verdict in Prosecutor v.  Ratko Mladić and has found the defendant guilty and sentenced him to life in prison. (The judgement summary, which was read aloud in court, is available here. I don't see a link to the full judgement; if someone else has it, please provide a link in the comments below.)...

From Professor Laurie Blank: The American Society of International Law's Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict awards the Francis Lieber Prize to the authors of publications that the judges consider to be outstanding in the field of law and armed conflict.  Both monographs and articles (including chapters in books of essays) are eligible for consideration — the prize is awarded...

[Xuechan Ma, PhD candidate at Grotius Center for International Legal Studies of Leiden University, the Netherlands, researching on the topic of international cooperation in disputed marine areas; L.L.M. & L.L.B. at Peking University, China. Email: maxuechan@gmail.com.] The Special Chamber of the ITLOS delivered its judgement of the Ghana v. Côte d'Ivoire case on 23 September 2017, which pertained to unilateral oil...

International law is famously mushy and subject to a variety of interpretations.  But there are some issues upon which there is more consensus under international law, such as the illegality of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.  But is there any reasonable argument favoring the legality of the Catalan Parliament’s recent declaration of independence from Spain?  I don’t think so. At the outset,...

I am pleased to announce an upcoming experts workshop on UN Accountability on October 19 at Seton Hall Law School. This workshop will explore the liability of International Organizations for international wrongs, as well address direct, indirect or shared responsibility. It will offer a detailed examination of accountability, and what models of external and internal international dispute resolution currently exist, and...

I have just started watching Star Trek: Discovery, the first new Star Trek series in a decade. It's excellent -- dark, well-acted, with beautiful special affects. But I have to say that it was shocking to see the Captain of a Federation starship engage in a blatantly perfidious act in the second episode. The Federation has just come out on...

As most of our readers know, Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, a leading figure in the creation of the field of international criminal law, passed away yesterday at the age of 79. Professor Bassiouni had a large email list of friends and acquaintances, and his email account sent out one last posthumous message last night. We are posting it here for those...