EJIL: Talk!
- A new future for New Caledonia? August 29, 2025New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the Pacific, might become a state within France. The French government and six delegations representing pro- and anti- independence factions in New Caledonia have signed the Bougival Accord, a draft agreement setting a one-year timeline to reconfigure France’s constitutional system and its relation to its former colony. The […]Ignacio Portela
- Maduro, Guaidó, and the Two-Government Paradox in Chirinos Salamanca v Venezuela August 29, 2025On 26 August 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) announced its judgment on preliminary objections in Chirinos Salamanca y otros vs. Venezuela, issued on 21 August 2025. Given the stakes, the decision was anxiously awaited. The core question was whether Venezuela, where serious human rights abuses have been documented for over a decade, […]Francisco J. Quintana
- The ECtHR as Protector of the Council of Europe’s ideals – the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v the Russian Federation (merits) August 28, 2025On 9 July 2025, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (‘ECtHR’) delivered its long-awaited judgment on the merits of the Ukraine and the Netherlands v the Russian Federation. Described as an ‘excellent judgment’ attaining the ‘best possible outcome that was realistically obtainable’, the decision not only vindicates (and can vindicate) the […]Konstantinos Giorkas
- Conflict at COPs: Russia’s Exit from the Ramsar Convention August 28, 2025Russia’s withdrawal from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands didn’t make global headlines—but it probably should have. At first glance, a wetlands convention may seem an unlikely casualty of war. Yet, when Contracting Parties, at their fourteenth meeting, voted to pass a resolution in response to Russia’s aggression on Ukraine, they might have unwittingly (or not?) […]Eva Baudichau
- Redefining the Rules: A New Generation of Sponsorship Agreements in Deep Sea Mining? August 27, 2025A ‘new generation’ of sponsorship agreements for deep sea mining operations between The Metals Company (TMC) subsidiaries and their sponsoring states is evolving. On May 29th, 2025 The Republic of Nauru (Nauru) and Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI) concluded an amended version of their sponsorship agreement (Nauru-SA). Similarly, on August 4th, 2025 the Government of […]Nicolò Andreotti
- Brave New “Tariff” World: Secondary Tariffs as a New Form of Secondary Sanctions* August 26, 2025International trade law has always been about tariffs. Tariffs were on Woodrow Wilson’s mind when he delivered his famous Fourteen Points in 1918, proposing the removal of all economic barriers as one of the ingredients for peace. Tariffs, or, should we say, the removal of tariffs was at the heart of Cordell Hull’s vision for […]Elena Cima
- Does Might Unmake the Past? A Reply to Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro August 26, 2025In their spirited contribution “Might Unmakes Right” in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs, Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro warn of the looming erosion of one of the central norms of international law: the prohibition of the use of force. They cite breaches such as the illegal U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, […]Hendrik Simon
- 1.5 at the ICJ August 25, 2025The ICJ’s climate change Advisory Opinion of July 2025 capped a year in which global temperatures averaged 1.53°C above pre-industrial levels. In this context, the Court’s strong endorsement of the Paris Agreement’s more stringent 1.5°C limit is remarkable. The Court made three broad statements on 1.5. First, it recast the Paris objective of ‘pursuing efforts […]Stephen Humphreys
- Announcements: CfP ICJ at 80 – Gender and the ICJ Judge; Adapting Private International Law in an Era of Uncertainty; CfS GNLU-CPIL Blog August 24, 20251. Call for Participants: The International Court of Justice at 80 – Gender and the ICJ Judge. The Working Group on Gender Parity for the ICJ and the Feminist Judgments in International Law Project have announced a forthcoming workshop on ‘The International Court of Justice at 80: Gender and the ICJ Judge’ on Saturday 20 […]Mary Guest
- “Humanitarian” Killing Zones August 22, 2025Commentators have long observed that international humanitarian law (IHL) — which is intended to limit human suffering in armed conflict — is often invoked by belligerents to legitimize, rather than constrain, conduct harmful to civilians (e.g. here, here, and here). Concerns that expedient interpretations of IHL are undermining its protective function have been voiced with […]Eitan Diamond