Volume 27 (2024) of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law – "International Humanitarian Law under Pressure" is out!

Over 100 International Law Experts Warn: U.S. Strikes on Iran Violate UN Charter and May Be War Crimes Over 100 international law experts sign letter on Iran War, UN Charter, and international humanitarian law.

Over 100 international lawyers (including me) warn that U.S. strikes on Iran violate the UN Charter and may be war crimes.

Read the letter here:

www.justsecurity.org/135423/profe...

Hardly a better place to spend yet another cold and grey spring day than @nationalarchives.gov.uk.web.brid.gy

Muchas gracias Francisco!

Thanks Kyle!

BBC Audio | The Global Story | Was the air strike on an Iranian school a war crime? What we know so far about the strike - and what the legal consequences could be.

I spoke with BBC News for this important story about the U.S. air strike on an Iranian girls' school. Take a listen:

www.bbc.com/audio/play/w...

Thanks so much, dear Antje! 🤗

Very grateful for this support, @britishacademy.bsky.social 🙏🏻📚📁It will enable me to complete a book project provisionally entitled “Compromise, not Consensus: International Institutional Change in a Postcolonial World (1955-1981)”. Thanks also to @campolis.bsky.social @christscollegecam.bsky.social

Declaring that no quarter will be given unequivocally violates international humanitarian law. Indeed, ordering that no quarter will be given, threatening an adversary therewith or conducting hostilities on this basis is prohibited and constitutes a war crime.

Jürgen Habermas Dies at 96; One of Postwar Germany’s Most Influential Thinkers In dozens of books, he rejected postmodern cynicism about truth and reason, arguing that rational communication was the best way to redeem democratic society.

Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher and public intellectual who was one of the most influential and cited thinkers in postwar Germany, died on Saturday. He was 96.

🙏🏻

Join us on Thursday online or in person. @unbiodiversity.bsky.social @unep.org @lauterpachtcentre.bsky.social @cambridgelaw.bsky.social @demedglobal.bsky.social @cisdl.bsky.social @hugheshall.bsky.social @lucycavcoll.bsky.social @ebrd.bsky.social

This is what Hegseth’s “no stupid rules of engagement” means - straight up war crimes.

Recently, my first PhD student @zikunyang.bsky.social defended her brilliant dissertation about China’s varying attitudes re: climate change cooperation and R2P, developing an exciting new argument based on impressive amounts of empirical evidence. Such a a joy to supervise her; I’m so proud! 👏🏻🎓📖🍾

Double Preemption, Imminence, and the U.S. Attack Against Iran Rubio’s argument that Operation Epic Fury was preemptive self-defense is not credible and does not satisfy the necessary precondition.

The Trump Administration keeps throwing new arguments at the wall to see what might stick--but each one is worse than the last.

This is an excellent piece by @eliavl.bsky.social explaining why Rubio's recent "double preemption" argument is a non-starter.

www.justsecurity.org/133093/preem...

Stealth Change: How the United States and the United Kingdom Embraced International Humanitarian Limits on Nuclear Use This article analyzes how American and British policy shifted, from rejecting to accepting the applicability of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) to nuclear use. Through a study of primary and secon...

New article by Giovanni Mantilla @giofabman.bsky.social titled "Stealth Change: How the United States and the United Kingdom Embraced International Humanitarian Limits on Nuclear Use" analysing the shift of UK and US nuclear policy.

You can read it here: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Stealth Change: How the United States and the United Kingdom Embraced International Humanitarian Limits on Nuclear Use This article analyzes how American and British policy shifted, from rejecting to accepting the applicability of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) to nuclear use. Through a study of primary and secon...

Finally out! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Longer post to come but for now, key take-aways: international pressure matters, domestic pressure matters, international treaty law (however contested) matters, and super importantly these days, civil servants who believe in international law matter!

This is bleak: Jes Staley, currently CEO of Barclays, reassuring Epstein that popular revolt against financial elites is unlikely because capitalism and pop culture have defanged social movements, leaving people more invested in consumption than justice.

For an excellent in-depth exploration of the US use of financial sanctions since September 11th onwards, listen to Episode 5 of the @lrb.co.uk Aftershock podcast 'In dollars we trust'
@danielsoar.bsky.social

www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

Epstein files shed more light on Steve Bannon’s efforts to influence European politics Donald Trump’s former adviser told Epstein in 2019 that he was ‘focused on raising money for Le Pen and Salvini’ before European elections

Every European citizen should read this piece on the relationship between Steve Bannon and the European far right parties, as detailed by Bannon in his emails to Epstein www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Super cool, Duncan, congrats!!

Utopia Abstract. Ideal societies, better worlds, more just and peaceful ways of living: these have long been the stuff of human beings’ social dreaming. In this c

NEW BOOK!

I'm very happy to say that my new book, Utopia, co-written with Douglas Mao, has been published on-line

academic.oup.com/book/62279

OLC Maduro Memo: Assisting War vs Participating in Hostilities A recent OLC memo on U.S. use of force wrongly expands who can be targeted under the law of armed conflict, undermining civilian protections.

1/ Important read from my friends Charlie Trumbull & @mikeschmitt.bsky.social

Bottom line: A sentence you could easily miss in the Trump DOJ/OLC's Maduro memo concludes a new category of *civilians* can be lawfully killed during armed conflict. It is wrong.

www.justsecurity.org/130603/olc-m...

The Predatory Hegemon Ever since Donald Trump first became U.S. president, in 2017, commentators have searched for an adequate label to describe his approach to U.S. foreign relations. Writing in these pages, the political...

“The Trump administration appears to believe it can prey on other states forever, and that doing so will make the United States even stronger,” writes @stephenwalt.bsky.social. But “predatory hegemony contains the seeds of its own destruction.”

US Foreign Policy Is Now Medieval The search continues for a framework to make sense of, or at least label, the baffling state of world affairs since Donald Trump took his second oath of office as president of the United States. And n...

From @bloomberg.com, discussing Stacie Goddard & @abenewman.bsky.social's recent work on neoroyalism. (The IO essay: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...)

www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

I’m co-organizing this interdisciplinary @europeanisa.bsky.social workshop on the UNSC in gorgeous Izmir this summer July 1-3, alongside Stefano Recchia (SMU). Still a few days left to submit abstracts (Feb 11). Consider sending yours in!

I’m co-organizing this interdisciplinary @europeanisa.bsky.social workshop on the UNSC in gorgeous Izmir this summer July 1-3, alongside Stefano Recchia (SMU). Still a few days left to submit abstracts (Feb 11). Consider sending yours in!

Stealth Change: How the United States and the United Kingdom Embraced International Humanitarian Limits on Nuclear Use This article analyzes how American and British policy shifted, from rejecting to accepting the applicability of the law of armed conflict (LOAC) to nuclear use. Through a study of primary and secon...

Finally out! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Longer post to come but for now, key take-aways: international pressure matters, domestic pressure matters, international treaty law (however contested) matters, and super importantly these days, civil servants who believe in international law matter!

Thank you @verfassungsblog.de for publishing our thoughts.