In sympathy and commemoration of the Global Sumud Flotilla, intercepted recently in an attempt to run the maritime blockade off Gaza, I share an excerpt from Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

The International Court of Justice has made available on its website the Annexes to the Application instituting proceedings in the matter of a request relating to the return of property confiscated in criminal proceedings (Equatorial Guinea v France), filed 29 September 2022. The extensive Annexes help researchers and students to understand the background of the…

The Doctors’ Commons International collection of documents, texts and materials on the Question of Palestine is now available. You can find the page behind the “Documents” tab, or directly via this link.

Opening speech given at the 2nd Kobe PCRC / KOPRI Antarctic Governance Workshop, Kobe, Japan, 18.1.2025

The International Court of Justice has made available on its website the Annexes to the Application instituting proceedings in the case concerning the Aerial Incident of 8 January 2020 (Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and United Kingdom v. Islamic Republic of Iran). The web publication of the original legal documents in the Annexes will greatly help scholars…

The problem with the article is that it fails to understand what international law is, or at least aspires to be. The prohibition of legislative adjudication is an essential aspect of the rule of law. Laws are meant to express general norms, whereas their application to individual disputes is the domain of courts and adjudicators.

We have recently opened up a webpage for the research project “A legal history of the global commons“. The project is funded by a Dutch starting grant for early career researchers and it is run by Dr Ville Kari at Tilburg Law School Department of Public Law and Governance. The project coordinator is Maria Hanswijk.…

The weekend’s news cycle was dominated by a stray Chinese spy balloon which travelled across the U.S. skies, accompanied by the loud howl and wail of American commentators protesting against the “brazen disregard for US sovereignty”, while their Chinese counterparts criticised the US for the “indiscriminate use of military force” against the balloon, which had…

The first close-up pictures of the Moon – with the Earth conveniently in the background – were published by the Artemis I programme. I have been following it with close interest, and will keep doing so, as mankind is reaching out beyond the Earth orbit again. In case you’ve missed the story, have a look…

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. (2022) [decision here] Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992) Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) It has taken me a while to digest the…