09 October 2023
Open letter from Israeli international law experts
The taking of hostages is a blatant violation of international law. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. Pending their release, they are all entitled to be treated with humanity and respect. This includes the receipt of proper medical care and supply of essential medication for those who need it, and the provision of information regarding the hostages and means of communication with them. We call upon the international community, including all states and relevant international organizations to pressure those holding the hostages to release them all immediately. Continue reading >>
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20 April 2023
Context Is Open to Interpretation, Too
Taiwan is no longer ‘The Orphan of Asia’ as depicted in a 1983 mandarin Chinese pop song that gave expression to the Taiwanese’ feelings of betrayal and abandonment, after the US ‘recognize[d] the Government of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] as the sole legal Government of China’ in 1979 and withdrew its troops from the island. Today Taiwan is one of the most discussed geopolitical hotspots. In this contribution, I aim to take the discussion of Taiwan’s legal status forward in response to Wu and Lin’s outright rejection of the Resolution’s bearing on the Taiwan question, by drawing attention to the complexity of the context in which the Resolution was adopted. Continue reading >>
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14 April 2023
Taiwan and the Myth of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758
At the United Nations (UN) press briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General on 27 March 2023, critical and long-overdue questions resurfaced. With the Secretary General portrayed as a champion for democratic values, why has the UN shut the door on Taiwan, the most democratic country in Asia? Why are citizens of Taiwan not even allowed to enter the premises of the United Nations? Questions as such touch upon the scope and application of UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, and the implications of China’s persistent strategy to inflate and distort it. Continue reading >>02 November 2022
Foreign Agents, Diplomatic Skirmishes and the Law on Diplomatic and Consular Relations
In September 2022, the Madrid-based NGO ‘Safeguard Defenders’ published a report entitled ‘110 Overseas – Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild’, in which it documented the existence of at least 54 extraterritorial and undeclared Chinese police stations in more than 30 countries, many of them European Union Member States, such as Germany, Ireland, or the Netherlands. These police facilities, operated under the guise of ‘service centres’ supposedly providing diplomatic and consular services such as extending driving licences for Chinese nationals, have hence been located in cities such as Dublin, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. Continue reading >>18 October 2022
Is Taiwan a State?
Taiwan just celebrated its national day on 10 October 2022. In her speech, President Tsai Ing-wen traced the Republic of China’s resettling in Taiwan in 1949, to its democratization in the 1980s and 1990s, the latter of which transformed it into the Republic of China (Taiwan). Tsai also cautioned the People’s Republic of Chinas (the PRC) “attempts to erase the sovereignty of the Republic of China (Taiwan) have threatened the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the region.” In contrast, in its “White Paper on Taiwan Question and the Unification of China in a New Era,” the PRC reiterated its longstanding position that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and cited United Nations (UN) Resolution 2758 to advance its so-called “One China Principle” internationally. Continue reading >>
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21 September 2022
Mobilisation
Putin’s speech did not explicitly mention concrete plans to annex Ukrainian occupied territories, but Putin did announce a quick “recognition” of the fake “referenda” on joining Russia in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, scheduled in just a few days. In terms of international law, planned annexations will change nothing. States are under international legal obligation not to recognise any territorial changes declared by Russia. Any territorial concessions imposed on Ukraine under nuclear blackmail would also be legally null and void. Putin’s desperate attempt to change the game is unlikely to influence the resilience of Ukraine and its allies. Continue reading >>
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14 August 2022
Proactive International Law
In this blog post we challenge the reactive nature of international law, a discipline that has largely developed in response to specific crises and incidents, such as wars, pandemics, mass migrations, economic breakdowns, or technological advancements. While we acknowledge that the reactive paradigm of international law has facilitated adoption of pragmatic solutions to the concrete problems encountered and offered international law a path by which to direct its development, this approach, we contend, has led international law to be backward-looking, short-sighted, and ill-prepared to address newly emerging global threats and advances. Continue reading >>
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08 March 2022
No New Cold War for International Law
With Russia’s war against Ukraine not being the Blitzkrieg that Putin had planned for, there has been discussion that we are entering a new Cold War. During the (old) Cold War, development of international law was stunted due to the need of agreement between opposing political blocs that had fundamentally differing views on the role and content of international law. This blog post argues that even if we enter a new Cold War, we won’t soon have a similar adverse situation for international legal development because the legal understanding of one of the alleged “camps” lacks consistency, legitimacy and broad geopolitical support. Continue reading >>07 October 2021
Contesting Consent
On 29 September 2021, the EU General Court (GC) annulled Council decisions approving trade and fisheries agreements concluded between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco. An earlier post by Eva Kassoti gave an overview of the factual and legal background to the judgments and offered insightful critical analysis. This post will focus on how the GC approaches the issue of how the EU authorities could receive the ‘consent’ from the people of Western Sahara. Continue reading >>
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06 October 2021
The Long Road Home
On 29 September 2021 the General Court (GC) issued two important judgments annulling the Council decisions on the conclusion of the EU-Morocco Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement and on the amendment of Protocols 1 and 4 to the EU-Morocco Association Agreement. These judgments are the latest instalment in the continuing Western Sahara saga before the CJEU and they are of seminal importance both in assessing the Court’s approach to international law in its practice, and, more fundamentally, in assessing the EU’s commitment to the strict observance of international law in its relations with the wider world. Continue reading >>
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