EJIL: Talk!
- Reclaiming Authority: Forcing Seabed Mining Contractors to Choose between the ISA and the USA December 9, 2025Vouloir le beurre et l’argent du beurre Aspiring Canadian mining firm, The Metals Company, Inc. (TMC), through its wholly-owned subsidiaries (p. 10) Nauru Ocean Resources, Inc. (NORI), Tonga Offshore Mining, Ltd. (TOML), and The Metals Company USA, LLC (TMC USA) (together, the TMC Group), is pursuing two incompatible avenues to access and exploit polymetallic nodules […]Coalter Lathrop
- AI-Enabled Weapons Systems and the Environment: The Overlooked Costs of AI-Driven Warfare December 8, 2025Introduction The relationship between AI-enabled weapons systems and environmental harm grown in significance in contemporary society. These two areas fall within fields that have attracted increasing global attention: on the one hand, the protection of the environment, and on the other, the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), meaning the technology that enables machines to […]Marco Di Donato
- Announcements: Legal Dimensions of Agricultural Subsidies in the WTO System Conference; Provisional Measures Before the ICJ Seminar; Empowering Through Digital Technologies Conference December 7, 20251. Legal Dimensions of Agricultural Subsidies in the WTO System Conference. This two day International Conference on Legal Dimensions of Agricultural Subsidies in the WTO System will be held virtually on 19 – 20 December 2025 from 10 AM- 6 PM (IST), with no registration fee. Jointly organized by the University of Mysore (India), UCLouvain […]Mary Guest
- The Corporate Identity of UNSC Resolution 2803: Trump’s Gaza Plan as a Business Strategy on New Cities Construction December 5, 2025Building on the excellent post by Michelle Burgis-Kasthala on UNSC Resolution 2803 and President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, annexed to this “deeply problematic Resolution”, we would like to explore here the background and context of the physical reconstruction proposals for Gaza contained in this Plan. Burgis-Kasthala rightly mentions that these […]Helmut Philipp Aust
- Legal Limits for the ICC’s Jurisdiction over International Crimes Committed in Sudan December 5, 2025On 3 November 2025, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced investigations into crimes allegedly committed in Darfur since the outbreak of hostilities in April 2023. This announcement comes as reports emerged from from El-Fasher, Northern Darfur, about mass killings, rapes, and other crimes. On 7 November, UN High Commissioner […]Gabriel M. Lentner
- Opinion: Bilateral Boarding Agreements are No Viable Solution for the EU to Tackle the “Dark/Shadow Fleet” Problem December 4, 2025The legal challenges created by so-called “shadow/dark vessels”, specifically by oil tankers, operating to circumvent economic and financial sanctions, has kept lawyers busy for quite some time. All related ships – which could be more than 1.000 tankers in late 2025 – are characterized by some common denominators: First, they do not follow any joint […]Henning Jessen
- Two Birds, One Bill: How BBNJ National Legislation Can Tackle UNCLOS Deep Seabed Mining Gaps December 4, 2025The Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) will enter into force on 17 January 2026, marking a pivotal moment for marine conservation, global ocean governance and multilateralism. Many States Parties will need […]Hannah Lily
- International Law, Language and Worldmaking December 3, 2025This is the final post in the mini symposium, International Law in the Current Moment. The metaphor of international law as a language is commonplace. It is intuitive to those engaged in day-to-day practice, and it is the premise for a range of critical accounts. It is implicit in many diagnoses of international law today—as […]Megan Donaldson
- Reparation for the War Expenses of States Assisting Ukraine December 2, 2025As we’re waiting to see how yet another round of Ukraine-US-Russia peace talks is going (not that I’m holding my breath), I’ve had conversations with several (very distinguished but unnamed) colleagues in the past few days on an important question of principle: do third states assisting a victim of aggression in its exercise of self-defence, […]Marko Milanovic
- Teaching International Law When the Ground Is Moving December 1, 2025This post is the third in the mini symposium, International Law in the Current Moment. Teaching international law today presents distinct challenges. A sense of crisis has gripped not only the profession but also the broader public. Its primary causes include Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s large-scale destruction of Palestinian lives and livelihoods, […]Idriss Fofana