EJIL: Talk!
- Fairness on the Security Council: Rediscovering the Duty to Abstain May 13, 2025Background The principle nemo iudex in causa sua—no one should be a judge in their own cause—has deep roots in international law, yet its codification in the UN Charter has often been disregarded. Article 27(3) requires a State that is a party to a dispute to abstain from voting on related Security Council resolutions under […]Francois Naaman
- Mapping Disputes: The Role of Marine Spatial Planning in Contested Maritime Zones May 12, 2025In April 2025, Greece announced its first marine spatial planning (MSP), accompanied by an official map which divides the Ionian and the Aegean Seas into four different spatial units (See here for the official announcement in Greek – The map is further provided and explained below). While MSP in Greece had been under discussion for […]Dimitris Panousos
- ECtHR grants interim measure concerning Serbia: Controversies in the possible use of sonic weapons against protesters May 12, 2025On 29 April 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) granted part of the applicants’ requests to issue an interim measure in the case of Đorović and Others v. Serbia (App.no. 8904/25). The case involves the alleged use of a sonic weapon for crowd control by the authorities at demonstrations and […]Vesna Stefanovska
- Announcements: CfP Disarmament from the Margins; CfS CILJ; CfC Protecting the Rule of Law in the EU; CfL Marine and Environmental Law Conference; CfP Genocide and the Ocean Workshop; BICCL Summer Schools; CfC Non-Dominant Feminist Grammars in Global Governance; Property in Outer Space Conference; CfA European Migration and Asylum Law May 11, 20251. Call for Papers: Disarmament from the Margins. As part of an AHRC-funded project ‘Disarming International Law: forgotten pasts and future possibilities on a global front line’, the organisers (Charlie Peevers, University of Glasgow and Anna Hood, Auckland Law School) are inviting submissions for a conference exploring how disarmament is envisioned, contested, and enacted beyond traditional […]Mary Guest
- EU Court of Justice finds Malta ‘golden passports’ scheme incompatible with EU law May 9, 2025In an interesting and important decision of the Court of Justice of the EU, sitting as a Grand Chamber in Commission v Malta (Citizenship by Investment) [2024] EUECJ C-181/23, the Court has found that Malta’s 2020 ‘investor citizenship’ scheme is incompatible with EU law, in particular with the principle of sincere cooperation enshrined in article […]Eric Fripp
- Judicial Restraint and Jurisdictional Clarity: Decoding the ICJ’s Decision in Sudan v. United Arab Emirates May 8, 2025On 5th May, 2025, the International Court of Justice [‘ICJ’] delivered its Order in Sudan v. United Arab Emirates, in the application filed on March 5, 2025 instituting proceedings against the UAE concerning alleged violations of the Genocide Convention [Convention], concerning the Masalit group in Sudan. By a vote of 14-2, the Court rejected Sudan’s […]Sarthak Gupta
- The WHO Pandemic Agreement: Equity for Developing States or Business as Usual? May 8, 2025At 3am on Wednesday 16th April 2025, after three years of intense negotiations, WHO member states (minus the United States) preliminarily consented to a final text of the so-called Pandemic Agreement. The text will now be considered for final adoption at the upcoming World Health Assembly meeting in May 2025, where – barring any major […]Richard Clements
- Sudan v UAE: Where Legal Categories could have met Fluid Identities May 7, 2025Sudan v. United Arab Emirates is no more before the International Court of Justice. Not only did the Court reject Sudan’s request for provisional measures against the UAE due to a lack of prima facie jurisdiction; it controversially – nine judges voted in favour; seven against – removed the case from its general list, arguing […]Edward Thomas
- Litigating The Maputo Protocol in relation to Conflict-related Sexual Violence Before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights – Two Steps ahead and One Step Back May 7, 2025In a landmark decision adopted in 2024 and disclosed in April 2025 in Communication No. 700/18 dealing with the Minova case v. Democratic Republic of Congo (only available in French), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“the Commission”) concluded to the responsibility of the DRC in the grave and massive violations of rights […]Hélène Tigroudja
- The Latest Trump Threat to International Law: Unilaterally Mining the Area May 6, 2025On 24 April 2025, the White House issued an Executive Order (“Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources”) directing the Administrator of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to “expedite the process for reviewing and issuing seabed mineral exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the Deep Seabed […]Coalter Lathrop