EJIL: Talk!
- Pre-Exploitation Litigation: Cases No. 34 and 35 and the Timing of Deep-Sea Mining Governance 12/06/2026On 5 June 2026, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) announced two new proceedings before its Seabed Disputes Chamber (SDC). Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI) and Tonga Offshore Mining Ltd. (TOML) each instituted proceedings against the International Seabed Authority (ISA) and requested provisional measures. The cases have been entered as Case […]Yinuo Kang
- Case Concerning an Inquiry by the International Seabed Authority: Less a Defence of Due Process than an Attempt to Short-circuit It? 11/06/2026On 30 May 2026, two deep seabed mining exploration contractors—NORI and TOML (“the contractors”), both subsidiaries of Canada-based The Metals Company (TMC)—lodged an application and a request for provisional measures with the Seabed Disputes Chamber (SDC). The claims allege that the International Seabed Authority (ISA) violated international obligations relating to due process, transparency, and non-discrimination […]Hannah Lily
- CERD’s May 2026 Statement on Israel’s Death Penalty Law: On the Silence of Other Treaty Bodies and On a Missed Rendez-Vous with The Hague 11/06/2026On 29 April 2026, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed alarm at Israel’s “Death Penalty for Terrorists Law,” urging its immediate repeal, and situating the rolling back of a long-standing de facto moratorium on executions within a broader framework of racial discrimination. CERD’s statement is significant per se, but also for […]Elodie Tranchez
- From “Blinking Red” to AMIA: An Emerging Standard of Intelligence Failure Under the Right to Life 10/06/2026On 1 September 2004, more than a thousand people were taken hostage in School No. 1 in Beslán, North Ossetia. Three days later, at least 334 of them — including 186 children — were dead. On 18 July 1994, a vehicle laden with explosives detonated in front of the headquarters of the AMIA — the […]Damián Neustadt
- Essential Supplies for Friends? AOTES, Export Restrictions, and WTO Non-Discrimination 09/06/2026When supply-chain disruptions interrupt access to essential supplies, small, highly open economies are particularly vulnerable. A familiar response has been cooperation and information-sharing, as reflected in the IPEF Supply Chain Agreement. New Zealand and Singapore have now taken a narrower and harder legal step. Their Agreement on Trade in Essential Supplies (AOTES), signed on 4 […]Yoshimichi Ishikawa
- A Framework for the Weight of Treaty Body Output: The ICJ’s Right to Strike Advisory Opinion 08/06/2026On 21 May 2026, the International Court of Justice delivered its advisory opinion on the right to strike under ILO Convention No. 87, holding by ten votes to four that the right is protected by that instrument. The Opinion clarifies a long-running issue between workers’ and employers’ groups. But it is also significant as a […]Marius Emberland
- Announcements: Diversity and Teaching International Law Webinar; CfP Workshop on Neutrality in Legal Scholarship; Doctoral Workshop on Sustainability and Law; Evidence in Human Rights Law Conference; First International Congress on Human Rights 07/06/20261. Diversity and Teaching International Law Webinar. On Wednesday 17 June at 14.30 – 16.00 CET, the ESIL Teaching Corner Webinar Series will host a webinar on ‘Diversity and Teaching International Law’ to address a wide range of perspectives on teaching and classroom practice on this subject, including cultural diversity, decolonisation, gender, the geographical diversity […]Mary Guest
- From Trade to Investment: Can the ACWL Model Travel? 04/06/2026UNCITRAL Working Group III has been seized with Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) reform for nearly ten years. Pursuing several initiatives in parallel, one project now entering its final stages is the Advisory Centre on International Investment Dispute Resolution (Advisory Centre). The Advisory Centre, as stated in Article 2 of its draft statute, aims to enhance […]Bram Goede
- The Exacerbation of Longstanding Structural Tensions: The 11th NPT Review Conference Closes without an Outcome Document 03/06/2026From April 27 to 22 May 2026, the 11th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held in New York amid a climate of considerable tension. In a context marked by the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, concerns about a possible […]Estelle Beauvillain
- Eurovision, Non-Recognition and Bangaranga?! 02/06/2026Bulgaria won the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with Dara’s “Bangaranga”; Israel finished second; and five countries, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland, stayed away in protest at Israel’s participation. That combination, spectacle, boycott and contested belonging, is a useful entry point into a wider legal problem. Eurovision is not the United Nations. […]Michael John-Hopkins