States and Statehood

A month ago, the United Nations General Assembly took a position significantly less ambiguous than the ICJ on a question of existential importance to island States threatened by climate-induced sea-level rise. Referring to the Climate Change Advisory Opinion, it recalls that the Court “found that, once a State is established, the disappearance of one of its constituent elements…

My latest article, ‘Statehood and International Organization: Rethinking Their Conceptual Relationship with Reference to Customary International Law’, addresses whether, how, and to what extent, doctrinal propositions that we accept about the legal personality of states can be extended to international organizations. I argue that our theories would make much more sense if we let go of the…

On 20 February 2026, Ghana, in a press release, formally notified the Government of Togo of its decision to submit their unresolved maritime boundary dispute to arbitration under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (henceforth: 1982 LOSC). After the lapse of almost a decade during which negotiations, joint technical committees and high-level…

The last two weeks have taken us from headlines to bylines and beyond. Front-page legal questions on USA-Greenland and Russia-Ukraine continue to occupy commentators. While others draw our attention to the lesser thumbed back pages: from colonial-era agreements in contemporary arbitration, and the recognition of Somaliland, to the "stateless eight" suspended in legal limbo at the International Residual…