Articles for category: English Articles

Bullying Universities

David Pozen at Columbia University calls Columbia University’s new agreement with the federal government “regulation by deal.” In regulation by deal, the administration foregoes the process of developing general standards to be enforced by regularized processes, all under the watchful eyes of courts, and instead bargains directly with each institution to be regulated, striking a bespoke arrangement with each. It’s a strategy that uses the power of the government outside the development of general rules and therefore outside the law.   

28. Juli 2025

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Can The EU Levy Its Own Taxes?

The budgetary dance in the EU budgetary cycle always starts early and seems to follow similar patterns: the heads of state assess their positions, the press then divides them into camps (usually a frugal and an expansionist one), and the European Commission proposes measures that would expand the Union's budgetary autonomy. With the announcement of a new “Corporate Resource for Europe” (“CORE”), the Commission has relaunched an age-old debate: can the Union levy its own taxes, and if so, on what legal basis?

28. Juli 2025

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International Rulings and the UK–Mauritius Chagos Agreement

On 22 May 2025, following negotiations that began in November 2022 and a joint statement of 3 October 2024 (to learn more, see Sebastian von Massow), the United Kingdom and Mauritius concluded an Agreement, stating that “Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago in its entirety, including Diego Garcia” (Article 1). The Chagos Agreement is not only a diplomatic achievement, but also a “contractual transposition” of the decisions of international courts and tribunals.

27. Juli 2025

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A Single Paragraph’s Promise

One topic in the ICJ's advisory opinion on climate change has unfortunately garnered little attention: climate-induced displacement. The ICJ dedicates just one single, 105-word paragraph to this pressing issue. Still, this one seemingly modest paragraph may have profound implications for millions of people fleeing across borders due to climate change, potentially reshaping the legal landscape for those seeking protection and at least offering minimum guarantees against their removal to a place where they would be at risk.

26. Juli 2025

Pullbacks in the Channel

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Last week, negotiations for a new UK–France agreement culminated in the announcement of a 'one in, one out' pilot scheme, under which the UK will return small boat arrivals to France while accepting asylum seekers selected from France who can demonstrate family ties in Britain. The agreement signals a sui generis evolution in European migration control. For the first time, rather than pushing asylum seekers back to third countries to avoid legal responsibilities under EU and international law, an EU Member State is directly preventing departures from its own territory. 

25. Juli 2025

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Enhanced Due Diligence

The IACtHR establishes that States have a series of obligations to ensure a healthy environment and climate, and prevent violations of human rights. To this end, the IACtHR develops the standard of enhanced due diligence as a binding framework for State action. This standard includes elements aimed at ensuring that the response to climate change is effective, fair, transparent, and evidence-based (para. 224). This blog post discusses the heightened due diligence standard, as clarified by the IACtHR, and outlines nine key elements of this standard.

25. Juli 2025

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What We Lost in the Skies Above Tehran

The damage that Merz and Steinmeier have inflicted on both Germany’s international credibility and the order put in place with the founding of the United Nations will likewise be felt for decades to come. As things stand right now, as far as the jus contra bellum is concerned, there might not be much left to reconstruct when the community of international law scholars meets up in Berlin in September. In that, the realists may find reason to rejoice. They, too, will come to miss it once it’s gone.

24. Juli 2025

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Corporations, Climate, and the Court

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Corporations, especially those engaged in fossil fuel production, agriculture, construction, and transportation, play a significant role in the climate crisis and in its human rights impacts. It is thus of critical importance that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR)’s Advisory Opinion 32/25 (AO-32/25) not only directly addresses corporate climate and human rights impacts, but also provides some pathways forward on these persistent barriers to accountability. This blog discusses AO-32/25’s holdings and innovations as related to business and human rights and reflects on their broader legal implications.

24. Juli 2025

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The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Climate Change

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“An existential threat” – this is how the International Court of Justice (ICJ) characterized climate change in its long-awaited advisory opinion on the obligations of States with respect to climate change. In the most significant development in international climate law since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the ICJ outlined numerous obligations that could significantly shape the contours of international environmental law and global climate governance.

24. Juli 2025

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