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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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Challenging Times Ahead: Australia’s War Crimes Prosecutions

April 27, 2026

On Tuesday, 7 April 2026, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, was arrested and charged with five counts of the war crime of murder. He is the second soldier charged following Australia’s Brereton Inquiry, which, in November 2020, found credible information of 23 incidents of unlawful killing and two incidents of cruel treatment by Australian…

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Once Again in Belgium: Prosecuting a Colonial Crime – The Assassination of Patrice Lumumba

April 22, 2026

In December 2024, a Belgian Court of Appeal recognised the civil liability of the Belgian State for a colonial crime committed in the Belgian Congo between 1948 and 1953. In the Métis case, as already addressed by scholars, the Court held that the Belgian policy of systematically removing children born to a Black mother and a…

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Forging a Convention for Crimes Against Humanity

January 15, 2026

This is a post in our Joint Symposium on "Negotiating a Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity" run in partnership with Just Security. In November 1945, as the world began emerging from the devastation of World War II, 22 former members of the Nazi regime were arraigned in a courtroom in Nuremberg on three…

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Negotiating a Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity – Introduction to the Symposium

January 14, 2026

This is the first post in our Joint Symposium on "Negotiating a Treaty on Crimes Against Humanity." This piece is cross-posted on Just Security. We are delighted to host this symposium and grateful to the editors of Just Security and EJILTalk! for publishing it. Over the coming days, the…

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