EJILTalk!
EJIL: Talk!
- Justice for Persons with Disabilities at the Liberia War Crimes Court: Learning from Missed Opportunities at the Special Court for Sierra Leone June 28, 2024On May 2, 2024, Liberian President Joseph BoakaiKate McInnes
- Some Additional Comments on the ECtHR Crimea Judgment: Occupation, Sovereignty, and “Law” June 27, 2024Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou’s excellent post comprehensively examines the European Court’s judgment in Ukraine v. Russia re Crimea. In this post, however, I want to offer some additional comments on the judgment. My main purpose here is to discuss how the Court approached the question of territorial sovereignty over Crimea and its status as an occupied territory, […]Marko Milanovic
- Ukraine v Russia (re Crimea): the European Court of Human Rights Goes ‘All-in’ June 27, 2024Only the beginning On 25 June 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has pronounced the judgment in the first inter-state case brought by Ukraine against Russia. There are three other Ukrainian inter-state applications pending before the ECtHR. The present judgment deals predominantly with the events that took place more than 10 years ago […]Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou
- Japan Expands Its Whale Hunt to Include Fin Whales and Violates Its Duty to Cooperate June 26, 2024On June 11, Japan expanded its whale hunt to include 59 fin whales. Yet, Japan did not communicate and consult with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and any of the other range States of the fin whale or assessed the potential impacts of hunting a shared resource. As a result, Japan has breached its duty […]Chris Wold
- Statements by Officials on Social Media as Evidence Before the ICJ June 25, 2024Today there are (at least) three cases on the ICJ’s docket where applicant States have relied on social media statements made by officials of respondent States as evidence. The reliance on public statements by State officials before the ICJ is not per se a new development (a notorious example is the Nicaragua case). However, since […]Marina Fortuna
- The ITLOS Advisory Opinion: Human Rights as a Withered Branch of International Law? June 24, 2024On 21 May 2024, at the request of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS or Tribunal) delivered its long-awaited advisory opinion. While some scholars have welcomed the advisory opinion for its ‘contextual and systemic approach to interpretation’ [cf. […]Khaled Elmahmoud
- Compliance and Accountability Mechanisms in the 2024 Revisions to the WHO International Health Regulations (2005) June 21, 2024Since the COVID-19 virus first emerged in China in late 2019 there have been many high-level reviews of how the world could better have tackled this devastating episode, including the report of the Independent Panel on Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) report “Make it the Last Pandemic” co-chaired by Helen Clark and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. […]Caroline Foster
- Does international law prohibit ‘constructive refoulement’? June 20, 2024Earlier this month, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that 43.4 million people worldwide are refugees – many of whom flee the over 120 ongoing armed conflicts. While voluntary repatriations are the preferred durable solution for the largest number of refugees who dream of going home – in safety and dignity – one […]Tilman Rodenhäuser
- Targeted Sanctions – Enforcing International Norms Through the Backdoor? June 19, 2024Introduction On 10 April 2024, the EU General Court annulled the inclusion of Petr Aven and Mikhail Fridman in the list of persons subject to restrictive measures. The Court failed to establish causality and did not find sufficient evidence linking these individuals to the acts undermining territorial integrity of Ukraine. This decision by the EU […]Marina Aksenova
- Forceful imposition of foreign citizenship as discrimination and breach of the right to respect for private life June 18, 2024Introduction On 27 March 2024, the UN Human Rights Committee (UN HRC) adopted an important decision concerning human rights violations resulting from the application of Russian law in Crimea after its annexation by Russia in 2014. In Bratsylo and others v. Russia (Bratsylo case), the UN HRC found that the applicants’ detention and criminal convictions […]Gaiane Nuridzhanian