January 1, 2017

Most Read Posts 2016

Written by Dapo Akande

Happy New Year to all EJIL:Talk readers! In many ways, 2016 was a remarkable year for international law. It is hard to pick a standout event or development but perhaps 2016 will be remembered as the year when international lawyers began to think seriously, across the board, about the legal processes relating to how states exit from international commitments. It is probably fair to say that international lawyers have spent far more time thinking about the processes by which international law obligations are imposed on states and other actors than on the processes by which those international law commitments might cease to be binding. The UK’s Brexit referendum of June 2016 means we now have to think about how the UK unwinds from its membership of the EU. The notices of withdrawal from the ICC Statute by South Africa, Burundi, and the Gambia also raise questions about treaty withdrawal. Then the election in the US of Donald Trump raises the prospect of US withdrawal from a range of treaties dealing with climate change, trade and the Iranian nuclear deal. All of this might suggest that research into issues relating to treaty withdrawal would constitute a profitable research agenda for 2017! All of these were covered on this blog in 2016 but clearly there will be more to say.

I would like to thank all of our readers but also all of those who wrote posts on EJIL:Talk! in 2016! Below is a list of the posts that were most read in 2016. Some of these posts were written in earlier years.

20) After Trump: China and Russia move from norm-takers to shapers of the international legal order, Anne Peters (2016)

19) Permanent Imminence of Armed Attacks: Resolution 2249 (2015) and the Right to Self Defence Against Designated Terrorist Groups, Marc Weller (2015)

18) A Plea Against the Abusive Invocation of Self-Defence as a Response to Terrorism, Olivier Corten (2016)

17) Grand Chamber Judgment in Al-Dulimi v. Switzerland, Marko Milanovic (2016)

16) Russia and China Challenge the Western Hegemony in the Interpretation of International Law, Lauri Mälksoo (2016)

15) Turkey’s Derogation from the ECHR – What to Expect?, Martin Scheinin (2016)

14) On My Way Out – Advice to Young Scholars II: Career Strategy and the Publication Trap, Joseph Weiler (2016)

13) Self-Defense and Non-State Actors: Indeterminacy and the Jus ad Bellum, Marko Milanovic (2010)

12) The Bashir Case: Has the South African Supreme Court Abolished Immunity for all Heads of States?, Dapo Akande (2016)

11) ICTY Convicts Radovan Karadzic, Marko Milanovic (2016)

10) European Court Decides Al-Skeini and Al-Jedda, Marko Milanovic (2011)

9) The United States is at War with Syria (according to the ICRC’s New Geneva Convention Commentary), Adil Ahmad Haque (2016)