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Two Weeks in Review: 29 June—10 July 2026

July 12, 2026

“The test of a first-rate intelligence,” according to F. Scott Fitzgerald, “is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” For international lawyers in these times of the Board of Peace and the Gaza Riviera, this kind of functional cognitive dissonance has become less a mark of intelligence than a basic job requirement. But contrary to common usage, Fitzgerald did not have cynics and pragmatists in mind—quite the opposite. He continues, “One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” In this spirit, commentators over the last fortnight have turned their attention to what Pope Leo’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas can teach us about AI governance, China’s “quiet renegotiation” of UNCLOS and its application in times of war, and the continuity of statehood for soon-submerged island states—as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s decision on the termination of the UK–Rwanda Asylum Partnership Agreement, battlefield medicine and the principle of unnecessary suffering, and the…

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Treatable Wounds, Untreated Law: What Modern Battlefield Medicine Tells Us About the Principle of Unnecessary Suffering

July 9, 2026

Introduction Advances in battlefield medicine have transformed the legal relevance of the principle of unnecessary suffering in international humanitarian law—but the legal community has not yet absorbed this transformation. For most of the history in which the relevant legal standards developed, certain vascular injuries caused in armed conflict were almost invariably fatal or resulted in amputation.

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The Exacerbation of Longstanding Structural Tensions: The 11th NPT Review Conference Closes without an Outcome Document

June 3, 2026

From April 27 to 22 May 2026, the 11th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held in New York amid a climate of considerable tension. In a context marked by the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, concerns about a possible nuclear…

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Domestic Courts and the States’ Obligation to Prevent Genocide and Serious Violations of IHL: The Brussels Court of Appeal’s Interlocutory Judgment of 16 March 2026

May 26, 2026

On 16 March 2026, the Brussels Court of Appeal (hereafter, the “Court”) issued an interlocutory judgment in summary proceedings (référé) concerning the alleged failure of the Belgian State to comply with its international obligations in relation to the risk of genocide and serious violations of international humanitarian law (“IHL”) in Gaza (hereafter, the “Judgment”).  The…

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To share or not to share: the compatibility of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements with the Non-Proliferation Treaty

April 24, 2026

Nuclear sharing at the NPT RevCon On 27 April 2026, States will gather in New York for the start of the Eleventh Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The ‘RevCon’ comes at a particularly turbulent moment in time, marked by nuclear saber-rattling by Russia in the context of its war of aggression against Ukraine, a…

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