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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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Sovereign Darkness: Iran’s Internet Blackout and the Four-Body Problem of International Law

May 20, 2026

By 21 April 2026, Iran’s internet blackout had entered its fifty-third consecutive day, the longest nationwide internet disruption ever recorded (NetBlocks; IODA Iran shutdown report). Connectivity remained at approximately one per cent of pre-war levels. The shutdown was costing the economy an estimated $35–40 million per day in direct losses, rising to $70–80 million when indirect…

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Functional Immunity and “Covert Violent Acts”: The BGH’s Progressive Development of CIL in the Nord Stream Case

May 12, 2026

On 10 December 2025, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) delivered its order (StB 60/25, English press release available here) in the criminal case against Serhiy K., accused of participating in the destruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022. K.'s defence raised functional immunity as a procedural bar, arguing…

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Some Further Thoughts on the Illegal US Attack on Venezuela: Self-Defence, Cyber, and Continuing Coercion

January 7, 2026

In this post, I want to provide a couple of thoughts on some aspects of the unlawful US attack on Venezuela on 3 January. Before doing so, however, I should simply say that I completely endorse the analyses of colleagues here on EJIL: Talk! and on Just Security. The illegality of the US…

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A Human Right to Informational Self-determination: What it is and why it matters for Digital Human Rights

November 21, 2025

On 9 October 2025, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (‘Inter-American Commission’) published a thematic report titled “The Impact of Digital Surveillance on Freedom of Expression in the Americas”. Among other things, the report called on member states to give effect to a new human right - the “right to informational self-determination”. The report comes…

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