11 September 2026
Schrödinger’s Breach
On Thursday, 10 September 2026, the oral proceedings regarding Germany’s preliminary objections in the Alleged Breaches of Certain International Obligations in respect of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Nicaragua v. Germany) case concluded. The case already has a complicated history. It is thus perhaps unsurprising that this case has raised some particularly knotty procedural questions. This article attempts to unpack the most important and interesting ones, which were the focus of the oral proceedings. Continue reading >>
0 
10 September 2026
Correcting the Map, as We Must, and Yet Still
On 4 September 2026, 164 UN Member States adopted the African-led “Correct the Map” Resolution which seeks to change the Mercator map – the world’s most widely used map – and encourages governments, schools, international organisations and technology companies to use more equal-area representations of the world instead, such as Equal Earth. Correcting the map is a matter of justice: recognising and contesting inherited ways of seeing, while cultivating other ways of seeing and inhabiting a world in which those inheritances, like empire itself, refuse to disappear. Continue reading >>
0
10 September 2026
“But the Court Is Only a Court”
We should not tolerate a condition in which all eyes are on international law, but precisely when it is needed the most, it remains unenforceable. Keeping calm and carrying on should mean keeping our eyes open not only about what is desirable for the world, but also on what can realize such desires here and now. If we offload that responsibility and bask in our own legal purity, we do that only at our own expense. Continue reading >>
0
09 September 2026
Closing Without Closure
In the aftermath of the explosive-drone incident at Leipzig airport, German Foreign Minister Wadephul announced a package of measures against Russia, including the closure of Germany's last remaining Russian consulate-general in Bonn and the termination of the bilateral agreement governing the activity of Russian and German cultural centres – chief among them the “Russian House” in Berlin. Moving forward on the path of definite closure will, however, involve cutting a number of legal Gordian knots. Continue reading >>
0
04 September 2026
Thinking Constructively Together
Thank you to Kostia Gorobets and Andrea Carcano for convening this symposium and to all the contributors, who so thoughtfully responded to my piece. Though I cannot do justice in this reply to all the excellent points they raise, I want to draw on a few threads. The sovereigntist theory is bad because it is confused. It defines too narrowly and ultimately misrepresents what international law (in practice) is, what international law (in practice) does, and why international law (as a practice) can be worthwhile. Continue reading >>
0
04 September 2026
“All the World’s a Stage”
When I started thinking about my response, I was tempted to do justice to the richness of the arguments. However, I resisted this temptation for a very practical reason. In a short post like this one, my argument would become a bit like the law in Hakimi’s metaphor: a bramble bush reaching out in all directions without a clear authorial voice to keep the story together. A nice metaphor for the life of law, but a bad model for a blog post. Therefore, I decided to do something that Hakimi hopefully pardons: I made a sovereigntist move, singled out one core point from her article and wove my arguments around it. Continue reading >>
0
03 September 2026
Translating Authority Into Action
During my academic life, which including my student days, spans almost 50 years, I engaged in trying to solve some of the complex riddles of what we call international law. How to relate international law as a legal system to the society it serves; what actually is the society it serves; and how does it respond to changes in that society? Where Monika Hakimi remains focused on theory, I probably lean more toward the possible impact of this on international law in practice. Continue reading >>
0
02 September 2026
Becoming the Sea People
Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited The Odyssey, released in mid-July, is already one of the most successful – and most controversial – films of 2026. The film retells the homecoming of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after ten years of war at Troy. Odysseus was pivotal to that war, as he devised the famous Trojan horse that allowed the Greeks to enter and destroy the city. I suggest that the film can be read as a reflection on the current state of international law. I am aware that I am not the first to draw this parallel. In contrast to other contributions, however, I read the film from a European perspective as a parable about Europe’s place in a fraying international order and its responsibility to uphold the rules of public international law. Continue reading >>
0
01 July 2026
Dianne Otto
There is no doubt that Professor Dianne Otto is a giant of legal scholarship, a foundational figure in feminist international law, and a pioneering scholar of queer theory in international law. But more important than all of these achievements is that she is a woman of great integrity, fierce passion, and abundant hope and joy who has been an inspiration and role model to so many scholars who have come after her. I consider myself extremely lucky to be one of those scholars. Continue reading >>
0
09 April 2026
Three Lessons from the UN Declaration on Enslavement
On 25 March 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, led by African and Caribbean states, the Declaration on the Trafficking of Enslaved Africans and Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity. The Declaration can be read as operating within the language of foundational instruments of international law while simultaneously pushing their limits through a set of decisive doctrinal moves. Seen in this light, the Declaration offers at least three lessons for international law today. Continue reading >>
0