Treaty Negotiations

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Can the Living Instrument Doctrine Be Reversed?

June 17, 2026

On 15 May 2026, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE), meeting at ministerial level in Chişinău (Republic of Moldova), adopted a declaration in which the European Court of Human Rights (‘the Court’) was called upon to recalibrate the standard of human rights protection in the field of migration policy. Much has been written about the initial ‘letter of the nine’, in which nine governments openly criticised the Court’s migration case law, and about the ‘declaration of 27’ going into the same direction but having a much more disruptive potential, due to the large number of governments opposing the Court (see, e.g., here and here).  In the following, I will not comment on whether this was an undue interference with the Court’s independence (see the initial reaction of the CoE Secretary General) or a kind of ‘backlash’ or ‘pushback’ (see here, here). In one way or another, the Court will have to react to the Chişinău declaration. And I am sure it will…

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Genocide Modelling as Ladder and Ceiling: Ecocide and the Limits of the Rome Statute

June 15, 2026

When Arthur Galston coined the term 'ecocide' in 1970, the choice to model it on 'genocide' was deliberate; the etymological echo was designed to generate political leverage and signal the gravity of environmental destruction caused by the US’ Operation Ranch Hand in Vietnam. The same analogy that gave ecocide its political traction has also constrained…

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The Exacerbation of Longstanding Structural Tensions: The 11th NPT Review Conference Closes without an Outcome Document

June 3, 2026

From April 27 to 22 May 2026, the 11th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held in New York amid a climate of considerable tension. In a context marked by the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine, the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, concerns about a possible nuclear…

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To share or not to share: the compatibility of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements with the Non-Proliferation Treaty

April 24, 2026

Nuclear sharing at the NPT RevCon On 27 April 2026, States will gather in New York for the start of the Eleventh Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The ‘RevCon’ comes at a particularly turbulent moment in time, marked by nuclear saber-rattling by Russia in the context of its war of aggression against Ukraine, a…

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Back to the Pre-Lisbon era? Why the Provisional Application of the EU-Mercosur Agreement is so Controversial

February 23, 2026

On 17 January 2026, the EU and Mercosur signed an ambitious trade and cooperation package composed of two instruments: a Partnership Agreement (EMPA) and an Interim Trade Agreement (iTA). After more than 20 years of negotiations, this deal has been praised as a major stepping stone for extending the EU’s economic and geopolitical influence worldwide, particularly in…

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