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From Specificity to Institutional Reliability: J.B. v. Greece and Diplomatic Assurances

On 26 May 2026, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) delivered its judgment in J.B. v. Greece (no. 54796/16). The case concerns the potential removal of a Syrian national from Greece to Türkiye under the EU-Türkiye Statement of 18 March 2016, following the rejection of his asylum claim on safe third country grounds. The Court struck out the applicant's substantive Article 3 complaint concerning his removal to Türkiye (§ 64), found no violation of Article 13 taken with Article 3 as regards the examination of his asylum claim (§ 135), and found a violation of Article 3 concerning the conditions of his detention at Mytilene police station (§ 145). While the detention finding largely follows established Article 3 case law concerning conditions in Greece, the judgment’s more significant doctrinal question concerns the Court’s treatment of assurances supporting return to Türkiye.

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Must States Control Their Borders? The Ceuta Crisis and International Law

Ceuta, a Spanish city on the North African coast with a population of approximately 80,000, experienced an unprecedented mass influx of people during the last week of July. Around 70,000 people, mostly Moroccan nationals but also persons from other countries, entered the territory irregularly. Although the precise causes remain uncertain, the immediate trigger appears to…

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Trade with the Settlements: How EU Law Points the Way Out of the Deadlock

The International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of 2024 on Legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Terrritory, including East Jerusalem has prompted many scholarly comments on third states’ obligations to react to violations of international law by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) (notably here and…

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Who Pays for Aggression? Ukraine’s Reparation Claims and Russian Frozen Assets

As Russia’s war against Ukraine rages, inflicting suffering on the country, its people, and economy, the Russian Central Bank (RCB) assets remain immobilised (i.e., frozen). Since December 2025, the EU, on whose territory a significant chunk of these assets has been immobilised, – €210 bn worth of assets out of approximately €290 bn  – modified the legal…

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How the war in Ukraine impacts the law and politics of security guarantees

The paradoxical revival of security guarantees Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has revived the concept of security guarantees. Their content and scope have been central to scholarly and political debates about Kyiv’s resistance to the Russian aggression (see here and here). Yet, this revival highlights a…

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