This post assesses the legality of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz from the perspective of the law of armed conflict at sea. In the context of the rights of neutral States, it discusses the passage regime in and over the Strait of Hormuz that continues to apply in the on-going international armed conflict (IAC) that was…

In less than 14 months, submarine telecommunications cables connecting Estonia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, and Sweden have been cut nine times in the Baltic Sea. In addition, an underwater electricity cable and a gas pipeline have been cut by a ship anchor. These damages occurred in three separate incidents all involving a foreign commercial ship dragging an anchor…

On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched an invasion of Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have no possibility to evacuate from besieged cities of eastern Ukraine as the humanitarian corridors are not functioning (see here). According to media reports, the worst humanitarian situation right now is found in the port city of Mariupol…