Two Weeks in Review

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…

‘We like lists, because we don’t want to die.’ At least according to Umberto Eco. He had in mind our love of all things limitless when confronted with our own very discouraging, humiliating limit: death. But it applies equally to editorial introductions. The last two weeks have ranged wider than sensible categorisation can enclose—leaving the list as the…

The last fortnight has seen commentators focus primarily on conflict, climate, and immigration. A mini-symposium has ranged over a number of legal questions raised by a potential Russia-Ukraine peace treaty: from  VCLT rules on treaty validity and security guarantees, to free economic zones and the question of the reconstruction of Ukraine through seized assets of the Russian Central…

“The test of a first-rate intelligence,” according to F. Scott Fitzgerald, “is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” For international lawyers in these times of the Board of Peace and the Gaza Riviera, this kind of functional cognitive dissonance has become less a…