The last fortnight has seen commentators focus primarily on conflict, climate, and immigration. A mini-symposium has ranged over a number of legal questions raised by a potential Russia-Ukraine peace treaty: from VCLT rules on treaty validity and security guarantees, to free economic zones and the question of the reconstruction of Ukraine through seized assets of the Russian Central Bank. The Iran War continues to provoke deep reflection: while US attacks on neutral commercial vessels expose a fundamental tension between the Law of Naval Warfare and the UN Charter; the uneven international reaction to the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and Iran’s response, force us to think about what state silence can—and cannot—tell us about the law. Climate obligations for states and corporations continue apace, as Paris Judicial Court’s judgment against TotalEnergies marks a significant advance in corporate climate litigation, and advisory opinions by the ICJ and IACtHR potentially open the way for a customary obligation on states to “actively pursue” climate science. The sharpening of EU immigration policy through the Return Directive and the Chișinău Declaration remain…
Self-Determination
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A “Free Economic Zone” as an Element of Peace for Ukraine?
At various points in recent months, proposals have been made to create a “free economic zone” in parts of Ukraine’s territory. These proposals seem to pursue at least two different purposes. First, they can be understood as an alternative solution to questions of a territorial nature, i.e. creating a territorial arrangement which involves neither full Ukrainian sovereignty over…
Two(ish) Weeks in Review: 6 April—1 May 2026
In a slightly extended version of Two Weeks in Review, we take in fundamental questions about what happens when law and lawyers seek or refuse to justify illegal actions, “relocation orders” issued by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, Australian soldiers and Belgian consular officials in domestic courts for international crimes, the…
On Violence: Self-Defence to Self-Determination in International Law
There are moments when the international legal order reveals itself not through its rules but through the violence done in its name. Today’s expanding doctrine of self-defence—invoked with increasing ease, justified with decreasing care—is one such moment. It is tempting to read this as an unravelling, a slide into disorder. Yet what is unravelling here is not only…
The Davos Trap on Greenland
The dispute about Greenland has been conducted by the US as a zero-sum game. Either ‘ownership’ over Greenland would be handed over to Washington, or else economic sanctions or worse would be applied to Denmark and her European allies. It was all or nothing until earlier this week. There is a general sense that NATO…
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