Non-State Actors

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Access to the Logbook: How Autonomous Ships Complicate the Flag State’s Ability to Fulfill its Article 94 UNCLOS Obligation

September 9, 2026

On 1 July 2026, the IMO's non-mandatory International Code of Safety for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships took effect. The Code provides guidelines for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS), or ships that, to various extents, operate independently of direct human control and are overseen or remotely controlled by humans in remote operations centres (ROCs), where the data, such as video feeds, radar, and GNSS, is projected on a screen, much like in a video game. In its wake, one of the larger questions left looming has to do with jurisdiction over that data, so vital to MASS, and to what extent the flag State must control it to meet its international legal obligations. This post argues that a flag State cannot fulfill its Article 94 UNCLOS due diligence obligation through only a private law contract with the company holding the data. Instead, it must be able to expect access to the data, which can only be achieved using public international law agreements.

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Ensuring Accountability and Remedy for Victims of Mercenarism: Colombia at an Inflection Point

August 10, 2026

In March 2026, the Colombian Parliament and then-President Petro agreed to accede to the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries (International Convention). With the deposit of the accession instruments, Colombia will end a multi-year gap in the Convention’s adoption and become its 39th State party. This move represents a significant…

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A Third Category of Enforced Disappearance? The Committee on Enforced Disappearances’ Article 34 Resolution on Mexico

July 31, 2026

In April 2026, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) adopted a resolution under Article 34 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (hereinafter “the Convention”) and urgently brought the matter before the UN General Assembly.  Article 34 empowers the CED to bring a situation to the attention of…

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On Violence: Self-Defence to Self-Determination in International Law

May 1, 2026

There are moments when the international legal order reveals itself not through its rules but through the violence done in its name. Today’s expanding doctrine of self-defence—invoked with increasing ease, justified with decreasing care—is one such moment. It is tempting to read this as an unravelling, a slide into disorder. Yet what is unravelling here is not only…

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The Court That Built the Advisory Opinion It Refused to Complete: OC-30/25 on Arms Trafficking, Corporate Immunity, and the Reach of Advisory Jurisdiction

March 26, 2026

Mexico’s effort to hold the gun industry to account has now encountered an institutional setback in San José. Its request for an advisory opinion raised six questions before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). This post examines, against a more expansive account of OC-30/25 offered here, whether laws granting public or private arms-industry companies…

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