Countermeasures

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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 have been a wave of false information on social media claiming that Spain’s border was open. That claim was partly based on a distorted reading of a 29 June 2026 judgment of the Spanish Supreme Court concerning the so-called “rejection at the border” (rechazo en frontera) regime applicable at the Ceuta and Melilla fences.

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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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Trump’s “Tarifaço” Against Brazil: a Breach of the Non-Intervention Rule

On 9th of July 2025, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, sent a letter to the Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva communicating that the US will impose a 50% tariff over Brazilian imports starting August 1st. The letter was released in Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, and came as a relative surprise…

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Assistance to a Countermeasure in International Law

In recent years, States have begun to discuss and assess whether and when they may cooperate in the taking of countermeasures. The question has arisen most prominently in debates about the application of international law to cyber operations in light of the fact that cyber-capabilities vary significantly among States, making some more vulnerable to malicious cyber-operations, as well…

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Proxy Countermeasures in International Law

Introduction  In the last few years, the term ‘collective countermeasures’ has at times been used to refer to two conceptually distinct claims. It has continued to be used to refer to the idea that a State other than an injured State, in the sense of Article 48 of the ILC Articles on State Responsibility, may take…

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