16 September 2025
Killing For Show
On September 2 and 15, President Trump ordered the United States Navy to destroy small speed boats in the Caribbean. In both cases, all on board died. International lawyers have uniformly criticized the killings as unlawful. The President and his closest advisers have repeated that they simply do not care whether the killings violated the law. This may well be President Trump's most dangerous assault on the rule of law to date. And, yet, government officials in states long committed to the rule of law at home and abroad have remained largely silent. Continue reading >>
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02 March 2022
The Legal Obligation to Recognize Russian Deserters as Refugees
The European Union (EU) and its member states are reportedly considering offering asylum to Russian deserters. They and other states around the world have a legal obligation to do precisely that. Soldiers who flee punishment for refusing to fight in aggressive wars are properly understood as refugees under international law. Continue reading >>25 February 2022
A Terrible Crime
International law, it is often said, has lost its normative power. The opposite is true. Continue reading >>
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16 April 2018
Völkerrechtswidrigkeit benennen: Warum die Bundesregierung ihre Verbündeten für den Syrien-Luftangriff kritisieren sollte
Die Bundesregierung betont gerne, dass Deutschland für eine regelbasierte internationale Ordnung stehe. Das völkerrechtliche Gewaltverbot ist ein zentraler Eckpfeiler dieser Ordnung. Es zu verteidigen sollte Anliegen der deutschen Bundesregierung sein – auch gegenüber den westlichen Verbündeten. Dabei muss sich die Bundesregierung nicht mit Russland gemein machen. Continue reading >>14 April 2018