14 January 2026
Remaking the United Nations
It has long been recognised that the institutional structure of the United Nations—most centrally, the veto power of the permanent members of the Security Council—is deeply problematic. What is now at stake is not whether the United Nations can be improved, but whether it can continue to function when its most powerful members openly exempt themselves from its core commitments. We have reached the point when the Charter’s principles require rethinking the UN’s institutional form. Continue reading >>
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10 January 2026
Retreating from Internationalism
On January 7, President Trump issued a memorandum, “Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States.” The memorandum lists 66 entities for withdrawal, many of which are connected to the United Nations. This is another dramatic signal from the Trump Administration. It shows scorn for the global commons and disdain for the United Nations. The symbolic impact is obvious and vicious. The practical impact is harder to measure. Continue reading >>
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05 January 2026
The Seizure of Maduro as a Repudiation of Legal Constraint
The Trump Administration’s armed attack on Venezuela and seizure of President Maduro does not even purport to serve the values of the international community. Its rhetoric dismisses communal interests and values with performative brazenness. It evokes a pre-Charter world of “spheres of influence,” where regional powers are licensed to pursue their own ends through imposition upon weaker neighbors. Continue reading >>22 December 2025
Amal Clooney (née Alamuddin)
Amal Clooney is an international human rights lawyer known for representing victims of mass atrocities, journalists prosecuted for their reporting, survivors of genocide and sexual violence, political prisoners, and marginalised communities. Through strategic litigation before international, national, and regional courts, as well as through the Clooney Foundation for Justice and the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, her work is dedicated to expanding access to justice. Continue reading >>
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22 December 2025
When Universities Govern
When UN Special Rapporteurs send an allegation letter to a university, international law is doing something unusual. On 14 October 2025, five mandate-holders addressed such a letter to Columbia University, raising concerns about protest policing, disciplinary sanctions, surveillance, and the treatment of non-citizen students and scholars in connection with Gaza-related expression and assembly. The letter does not resolve disputed facts. Its importance lies elsewhere: it reflects a shift in how international human rights law responds to the privatisation of coercive governance. Continue reading >>
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17 October 2025
Pick and Choose at the ICJ
The International Court of Justice has recently begun to deviate from its own standards. Three cases illustrate the emergence of a new approach to assessing “circumstances” required for the indication of provisional measures under Article 41 of the ICJ Statute. Traditionally, the Court has applied a structured five-prong chronological test, established in Belgium v. Senegal. In contrast, it now seems to adopt a more selective, “pick-and-choose” approach to that test. While giving the Court a certain degree of flexibility in assessing the circumstances, this approach creates risks of arbitrariness and unpredictability. Continue reading >>
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09 October 2025
The Shape of Things to Come
While global meat governance currently faces significant political obstacles to transformative change, early signs point toward a shift toward a more sustainable and responsible global food system. The extension of legal principles such as the no-harm rule to climate change, the emergence of a global governance complex, normative frameworks like One Health, and the recent proliferation of policy initiatives may even signal the early formation of a new global food system architecture. Driven by bottom-up forces, these developments have the potential to reshape current practices and advance sustainable meat governance. Continue reading >>
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08 October 2025
The International Law of Meat Trade
The legal barriers erected by international trade law tend to stymie animal welfare policies. States might, in good faith, fear to violate international trade law. They also use the international trade regimes as a scapegoat for not promoting animal welfare domestically. This happened in Switzerland with foie gras, a cruelty meat product which, after discussion in Parliament, has not been prohibited. The argument was that a market ban might violate WTO law. Continue reading >>
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01 October 2025
Defund Meat: A Call for Transformative Meat Governance
“Defund Meat” may be an unusual and perhaps provocative title for a critical interdisciplinary discussion around meat in the Anthropocene. At first blush, it may sound like a crude activist slogan, or a hopelessly idealistic call for abolishing the meat system. Upon closer examination, however, it turns out to be a sheep in wolf’s clothing. As I shall argue, defunding meat is a much more commonsensical, pragmatic, and mainstream(able) proposition than its radical overtone might initially suggest. Continue reading >>20 September 2025
Neither Reform nor Reconstruction
Contemporary international law is in crisis, but not yet in a systemic crisis. Based on historical experience, therefore, a reconstruction of international law is not to be expected for the time being. In the foreseeable future, the existing system will continue to exist, but in the absence of meaningful reform it will also be further weakened. We must prepare ourselves for a prolonged period of stagnation and even atrophy, a progressive wasting away and marginalisation of norms and institutions built in the past. Continue reading >>
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