EJIL: Talk!
- Who’s the ‘Self’ in Collective Self-defence under International Law? About Japanese PM Takaichi’s Comments Regarding an Attack on Taiwan décembre 18, 2025What caused such a stir about newly elected and first-ever female Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan last month? Appearing before the House of Representatives Budget Committee on November 7th, Takaichi was asked by an opposition member to clarify her government’s understanding of what might amount to an “existential crisis situation” (存立危機事態) under […]Jean-Baptiste Dudant
- When Decolonization Meets Human Rights: CERD’s 2025 Decision on the Chagos Agreement décembre 18, 2025Debates on the Chagos Archipelago have long been framed through questions of territorial sovereignty and decolonization, largely as a bilateral matter between the UK and Mauritius. Human rights dimensions have not been absent, as Chagossian claims have appeared in domestic courts, before the European Court of Human Rights, and in several UN mechanisms, but they […]Elodie Tranchez
- Countering the Coup in Benin: A jus ad bellum perspective décembre 17, 2025On 7 December in Benin, a small group of soldiers attempted a coup d’État. Early in the morning, after gunfire was heard around the presidency, eight armed soldiers appeared on national television, presenting themselves as the Comité militaire pour la refondation (CMR). They announced that they had deposed President Patrice Talon and proclaimed Lieutenant-Colonel Pascal […]Julien Antouly
- A Fourth Optional Protocol to the CRC to Strengthen the Right to Education in International Law? décembre 17, 2025Introduction The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted by the General Assembly on 20 November 1989, is the most widely ratified treaty within the UN human rights system. Comprising 54 articles, the CRC covers the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children, recognising them as individual rights holders. Between […]Elena Patrizi
- International Law’s Problem of Evil décembre 16, 2025This post continues the series International Law in the Current Moment. “It is no more possible to continue doing law in an intellectually respectable way once the metaphysic is gone, than to continue worship once God is dead. Law is like God—here. And once you say that God is just a bunch of conventions, he […]Yussef Al Tamimi
- Prosecuting Members of Russian Mercenary Groups for War Crimes, a Remedy for Victims? décembre 15, 2025‘Remedy is rare’ for the victims of atrocity crimes and human rights violations committed by contemporary mercenaries. Indeed, there have been only a few prosecutions of mercenaries fighting in Ukraine since 2014 and those have been specifically for the crimes of mercenarism or for engaging in foreign military service. A shift occurred, however, on 14 […]Sorcha MacLeod
- Levée en Masse at Sea? Rethinking a Forgotten Category of IHL décembre 15, 2025One of the more unusual features of international humanitarian law is its recognition that civilians—ordinary inhabitants of a territory—may spontaneously take up arms against an invading force and still qualify as lawful combatants. This is the concept of levée en masse: an exceptional status reserved for moments of extreme urgency, before civilians have time to […]Pornomo Rovan Astri Yoga
- Two Weeks in Review: 1—12 December 2025 décembre 14, 2025Sixty-five years ago today, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Peoples and Countries. Fourteen years later on the same day, it set out its definition of aggression. Both—in different but related ways—remain highly pertinent, as the last two weeks at EJIL:Talk! have shown. The last fortnight takes […]Sebastian von Massow
- Announcements: CfP Digital Solidarity and International Law; CfA AILA Conference on International Law; UN Audiovisual Library of International Law; CfP Navigating Stormy Seas; CfS ASIL International Criminal Law Workshop décembre 14, 20251. Call for Papers: Digital Solidarity and International Law – Collective Action and Human Rights in the Digital Age. This edited volume will be published under a contract with Routledge in the Routledge Research in International Law series. It will examine how solidarities are formed and expressed in the digital sphere and their implications for […]Mary Guest
- Targeting Third-State Merchant Vessels: Military Objectives and War-Sustaining Objects in the Russo-Ukrainian Armed Conflict décembre 12, 2025The Russian aggression that precipitated the Russo-Ukrainian armed conflict has long seen both states affirm the validity of forcible economic warfare at sea. Invoking the law of contraband, they have declared and to varying degrees demonstrated their intent and willingness to inspect, intercept and/or divert, capture or destroy private shipping at sea. Notably though, thus […]Himanil Raina