History of International Law

For almost eighty years, United Nations Member States have behaved as if a mandate required them to maintain regional continuity in elections to the International Court of Justice. Yet, the Court's Statute contains no such rule. Article 9 requires only that the Court, taken as a whole, represent “the principal legal systems and civilizations of the world”;…

Few figures in international law have witnessed and influenced its development as much as Judge Theodor Meron. A Holocaust survivor who became a leading scholar, government legal adviser, diplomat and international judge, his unique reflections offer a first-hand account, built over decades of experience, of how international law is formed, interpreted, and applied under pressure.  I…

“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…

Much has been said on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ (the Board) and much remains to be seen. While the identity of the Board as an international organisation has been discussed (here), other contributions have focused on the corporate dimension of the organisation (here, here and here) or…