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Changing the Map, Reframing the World?

When we talk about international law, we talk about how the world is ruled. When doing so, we speak of States, territories and borders, often picturing them against a world map familiar from school geography lessons. Yet that apparently straightforward image embodies choices about how the world is represented. The popular Greenland comparison makes the problem visible: on the commonly used Mercator maps, Greenland appears almost as large as Africa, although Africa is approximately fourteen times as large. A continent represented by 54 UN Member States appears comparable to Greenland, a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark without independent statehood. As Luis Eslava discusses, familiar maps can reproduce inherited assumptions about whose place in the world matters. To this end, on 4 September 2026, the General Assembly adopted the African-led “Correct the Map” initiative, presented by Togo, by 164 votes to one, with six abstentions: Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine (automatically…

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Two Weeks in Review: 10—21 August 2026

As we swelter through late summer, a hardy few have retained a cool hold over their critical faculties. In the last two weeks, attention has turned chiefly to the ICC: from the in absentia convictions of members of the Rapid Support Forces, to the removal of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, and a decision recognising that a State Party…

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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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A “Free Economic Zone” as an Element of Peace for Ukraine?

At various points in recent months, proposals have been made to create a “free economic zone” in parts of Ukraine’s territory. These proposals seem to pursue at least two different purposes. First, they can be understood as an alternative solution to questions of a territorial nature, i.e. creating a territorial arrangement which involves neither full Ukrainian sovereignty over…

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Some Preliminary Thoughts on Ghana’s Announced Recourse to 1982 LOSC Arbitration in the Maritime Boundary Dispute with Togo

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…

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