Crime of Aggression

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A peace treaty for Ukraine: Mini-symposium on international legal issues

July 10, 2026

In the four years since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the prospects of a negotiated peace settlement have waxed but mostly waned. But the possibility of an agreement has been an ongoing focus for international lawyers. This is primarily because Russia has demanded territorial concessions from Ukraine that appear at odds with fundamental prohibitions on aggressive force and territorial annexation, as well as on treaties that facilitate those outcomes. Beyond the headline question of negotiated annexation, the parties’ public positions raise a number of other complex legal questions. How does the principle of self-determination affect proposed territorial changes? How can an agreement create accountability for aggression and other international crimes? How and in what amounts should Ukraine be compensated for its losses? How should security guarantees be structured? What role can the UN Security Council play in endorsing the agreement? And looming over the entire process is the question of whether Ukraine can even consent to an agreement it may well accept only because Russia has threatened further…

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The UN Charter at 80

October 24, 2025

The United Nations Charter entered into force eighty years ago on 24 October 1945.  Eighty years is a long life for a world order. Empires, like people, rarely last much longer. Every empire, every world order, moves through recognisable phases. There is the founding impulse – violent, visionary, unifying – when new institutions are hewn…

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How the ICC Assembly of States Parties Failed Small States: A Neorealist Reading of the Crime of Aggression Reform Stalemate

August 15, 2025

From July 7–9, 2025, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute convened a Special Session to address long-standing jurisdictional limitations over the crime of aggression. Despite years of momentum and widespread support from states and civil society, the reform effort failed. At first glance, the outcome might appear to reflect a legal…

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Building a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine

July 25, 2025

On June 25, 2025, Ukraine and the Council of Europe signed an agreement in Strasbourg to establish a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (“Tribunal”). The Tribunal is intended to create an internationally supported forum to prosecute the crime of aggression against Ukraine, widely recognized as the foundational illegality underpinning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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For an Effective and Legitimate Jurisdictional Regime on the Crime of Aggression at Last: States Parties to the Statute of the International Court to Convene on Monday for a Special Session in New York

July 4, 2025

As of Monday, a window of historic opportunity will be open for States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC Statute) for three days to provide the Court with a more effective and more legitimate legal framework for the exercise of jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. The following blogpost sets…

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