EJIL: Talk!
- Casual Vacancy Elections and “Pre-Campaigning” for Permanent Elections November 5, 2025Following Judge Abulqawi Yusuf’s resignation from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations will hold an election on 12 November 2025, to fill his vacant seat for the remainder of his term, which was set to expire by February 2027. These elections will take place only a year before the original date of […]Noam Morris
- The Security Council and the Western Sahara: Between Self-Determination and Implicit Recognition of Moroccan Sovereignty November 4, 2025On 31 October 2025, the Security Council voted in favour of Resolution 2797 extending the mandate of the long-standing UN mission to Western Sahara, but this time referenced Morocco’s 2007 Autonomy Proposal – which envisions the territory as self-governing under Moroccan sovereignty – as a basis for negotiations and the final status of Western Sahara. […]Kushtrim Istrefi
- The 1.5°C Temperature Target as a Means to an End: Key Implications of the ICJ’s Interpretation of the Paris Agreement’s Overall Objective November 4, 2025Introduction In its 2025 Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change (AO), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave its imprimatur to the aim of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels as the current ‘consensus target’ of the Paris Agreement (para 224), consciously abandoning the target of ‘well […]Rita Guerreiro Teixeira
- Opting Out of Accountability: The United States and the Implications of Withdrawal from the Universal Periodic Review November 3, 2025On 28th August 2025, the United States of America (USA) took the step of withdrawing from the UN’s human rights monitoring process, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The peer review process, through which states evaluate one another’s human rights records, has seen near-universal engagement since the first UPR cycle commenced in 2008. The USA’s decision […]Michael Lane
- Announcements: CfP Business, Armed Conflict and International Law Workshop; UN Audiovisual Library of International Law; FAO Role of International Law in Shaping a Better Future Lecture; CfP Fairness and International Law; CfP European Yearbook on Human Rights; Right to Strike Under International Law Materials; CELI Book Launch November 2, 20251. Call for Papers: Business, Armed Conflict and International Law Workshop at Utrecht University. This workshop is aiming to study the involvement of businesses in armed conflict, broadly defined, from different perspectives. In particular, the workshop invites reflections on the limits of the law and the structural constraints of the relevant legal frameworks, fostering dialogue […]Mary Guest
- The Moscow Mechanism Expert Report on the Treatment of Ukrainian Prisoners of War by the Russian Federation October 31, 2025In July 2025, forty-one OSCE participating States, in cooperation with Ukraine, invoked the OSCE Moscow Mechanism to examine the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) by the Russian Federation. This activation reaffirmed the mechanism’s continuing importance as an instrument for addressing serious violations of international law. Embedded within the OSCE framework, the Moscow Mechanism […]Hervé Ascencio
- Rethinking Human Rights Treaty Withdrawals: A Process-Based Approach October 30, 2025Human rights treaties embed rights in national legal systems, empowering individuals to claim their rights domestically and internationally. Yet it is exceptionally easy for states to withdraw from most of these treaties, as well as from multilateral agreements that establish standards of accountability in closely analogous areas, such as international criminal law. This includes treaties […]Başak Çali
- Criminal Boundaries of Being and Turkey’s Future in Europe: Penalization of Gender and “Immoral” Sexuality under Turkey’s 11th Judicial “Reform” Draft October 29, 2025The 11th Judicial “Reform” Draft marks a decisive turn in Turkey’s authoritarian transformation (see here, here and here), recasting criminal law as a moral device of identity governance by penalizing all who deviate from state-prescribed heteronormativity. Framed as necessary to “protect the family”, “raise physically and mentally healthy generations”, and “combat gender-neutrality movements”, the draft […]Bedirhan Erdem
- Reinforce, Reform or Rupture? The Future of the European Convention on Human Rights October 29, 2025Introduction If a week is a long time in politics, then two years is an eternity for the Council of Europe. At the Reykjavik summit in May 2023, European leaders across the political spectrum reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment” to the European Convention on Human Rights as a mechanism to promote peace and stability and the […]Alice Donald
- Further Legal Consequences of Obligations Erga Omnes (Partes) in the ICJ Climate Change Advisory Opinion: Duty of Non-Recognition and Article 62 Intervention October 28, 2025In its Climate Change Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice held that certain climate-related obligations of States under customary international law and climate change treaties are erga omnes (partes). One important consequence – as the Court explicitly confirmed – is that States can invoke each other’s responsibility for breaching those climate obligations. As Paddeu […]Icarus Chan