As Russia’s war against Ukraine rages, inflicting suffering on the country, its people, and economy, the Russian Central Bank (RCB) assets remain immobilised (i.e., frozen). Since December 2025, the EU, on whose territory a significant chunk of these assets has been immobilised, – €210 bn worth of assets out of approximately €290 bn – modified the legal basis for their immobilisation. The move has not only allegedly permanently immobilised these assets under Article 122(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) but also avoided the risk that the measures might be discontinued due to a lack of consensus – particularly if Slovakia (or Hungary in the past) were to oppose the renewal of EU sanctions against Russia (these sanctions have to be renewed every six months). Yet this modification has not resolved a time-sensitive and pressing issue of financing Ukraine’s wartime efforts and post-war reconstruction. This post outlines the current estimates of the costs of Ukraine’s reconstruction, puts in a nutshell the ambit of the legal debate on the…
Immunities
Page 1 of 7
Functional Immunity and “Covert Violent Acts”: The BGH’s Progressive Development of CIL in the Nord Stream Case
On 10 December 2025, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) delivered its order (StB 60/25, English press release available here) in the criminal case against Serhiy K., accused of participating in the destruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022. K.'s defence raised functional immunity as a procedural bar, arguing…
The Court That Built the Advisory Opinion It Refused to Complete: OC-30/25 on Arms Trafficking, Corporate Immunity, and the Reach of Advisory Jurisdiction
Mexico’s effort to hold the gun industry to account has now encountered an institutional setback in San José. Its request for an advisory opinion raised six questions before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). This post examines, against a more expansive account of OC-30/25 offered here, whether laws granting public or private arms-industry companies…
Central Bank Sanctions Return to the CJEU
A Primer on the Russian Central Bank’s Legal Challenge to the Permanent Freezing of its Assets On March 3, 2026, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) announced that it has recently filed an action for annulment under Article 263 TFEU challenging Council Regulation (EU) 2025/2600 before the General Court of the EU. This regulation…
Judicial Independence Under Threat: Russia’s Conviction in absentia of Nine International Criminal Court Officials
On 12 December 2025, the Moscow City Court convicted nine International Criminal Court (ICC) officials in absentia for crimes relating to the unlawful prosecution of Russian citizens. These individuals were prosecuted in retaliation for the issuance of ICC arrest warrants against several Russian nationals, including President Vladimir Putin. A group of UN experts promptly declared the…
- Page 1 of 7
- Last