The ongoing dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) reflects a deeper structural challenge in international water governance: the fragmentation of legal regimes and the inability of existing institutional arrangements to operationalize core principles of international water law in a coherent and enforceable manner. Despite widespread recognition of foundational norms—such as equitable and reasonable [...]
This month marked the beginning of the academic year in Afghanistan. Usually it follows immediately after Nowruz, which fell on March 21st this year. But this year, because several festivals—Ramadan, Eid and Nowruz (the beginning of the new year)—came one after another, the Taliban government announced that the school year would start a week later. [...]
Israel’s new death penalty law is one of the most discriminatory pieces of execution legislation that the world has witnessed since Hitler’s Third Reich. This incontrovertible truth is yet another reason why the Israeli Knesset’s recent passage of its heinous “Death Penalty for Terrorists” law on March 30 has effectively defiled this year’s observance of [...]
The reported executions of four Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) by Russian forces near the village of Veterynarne in the Kharkiv region on April 11 stand as a clear and prosecutable violation of the Geneva Conventions. According to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office, Russian forces stormed Ukrainian positions and executed four as-yet unidentified soldiers, deliberately shooting [...]
The United States is doing it again. Another war. Another bloody episode, which will be added to its violent history. Another blatant violation of international law. Only a few months ago the US illegally toppled the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. And now it is strangling Cuba to death for the purposes of a regime [...]
A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. —US President Donald Trump via social media Modern international justice is the product of lessons learned from civilizational destruction. And the language of civilizational destruction has a particular resonance in international law. It [...]
At dawn in Iran, the state speaks in the language it knows best: silence and secrecy. This week, as global attention fixed on the escalating confrontation between Washington and Tehran, the Islamic Republic executed four political prisoners in two days. Their names—Babak Alipour, Pouya Ghobadi, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Mohammad Taghavi‑Sangdehi—will not appear in ceasefire proposals or [...]
Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, world politics have been shaped by sovereignty-centered belligerence. When considered over time, especially as technologies of military destruction become more widespread and indiscriminate, this seventeenth-century system of competitive nationalism portends one overarching deficit: It is destined to fail. What should be done, especially by the world’s “superpowers” and [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC), established under the Rome Statute, has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, destruction of historic and religious monuments, and witness intimidation. It has prosecuted several individuals for these crimes, and in 2024, issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for the [...]
The current war in West Asia, now in its second month following US and Israeli attacks on Iran beginning February 28, has rapidly escalated beyond the belligerents, imposing severe indirect burdens on neutral states. On March 11, Iranian retaliatory actions, missile and drone strikes against Israel, US bases, and Gulf allies, spread to commercial shipping, [...]
