Last week, over on Articles of War, I read with great interest a post on Common Article 1 (CA1) of the Geneva Conventions by my good friends Mike Schmitt and Sean Watts. Their post, building on their prior work, argues that CA1 should not be understood as having any external dimension. It comments in that regard on the case brought by Nicaragua against Germany before the International Court of Justice, in which the Court is now deliberating on the request for provisional measures. Anything that Mike and Sean write is always going to be thoughtful and considered. But I must confess that I was ..read more

1 Introduction This post explores the nature of the duty to ensure respect for international humanitarian law (IHL) embodied in Common Article 1 of the Four Geneva Conventions and in other IHL provisions. The duty imposes positive and negative obligations upon States in relation to other States’ conduct that violates or poses a serious risk of violating IHL. The post focuses on negative obligations under this duty, which was recently invoked by Nicaragua before the ICJ in its application against Germany (e.g., paras 12, 17, 31, 88), in which Nicaragua alleged that Germany had violated interna ..read more

On the 23rd of January 2024, the Russian Federation launched a “massive” airstrike on the cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv, firing 41 missiles. The air defences shot down 21 of these missiles. These strikes exemplify a pattern. On the 1st of January 2024, the Russian Federation launched one of the biggest air attacks on a number of Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv. Prior to this, on the 28th of May 2023 BBC News reported that Russian Federation launched 54 drones on the city of Kyiv overnight. The air defence systems shot down 52 of these drones. The Kyiv City Military Authority reported that the a ..read more

A growing number of States have published statements examining the application of international law to cyberspace (for an overview see the Cyber Law Toolkit). On 29 January 2024, the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council adopted the ‘Common African Position on the Application of International Law to the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Cyberspace’, and on 18 February 2024 the Assembly of the AU endorsed it. For an overview of the Common African Position (CAP) and its process of adoption see the post by Mohamed Helal, the AU’s Special Rapporteur on the CAP. The CAP ..read more

Introduction On 12 February, the Appeals Court of the Hague in the Netherlands handed down its judgment in a case concerning the shipment of U.S. owned spare parts for F-35 fighter aircraft from a warehouse in the Netherlands to Israel (see here, only available in Dutch). The Court of Appeal held that the Netherlands must take adequate measures within a week to stop the further shipment of F-35 parts to Israel. The judgment resulted from an appeal lodged against the judgment of 15 December 2023 of the district court of the Hague in summary proceedings (see here, only available in Dutch). This ..read more

In Gaza not even the dead are at peace. In mid-December the New York Times and the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor first reported that Israel had destroyed several cemeteries in Gaza, bulldozing graves, scattering human remains, and even exhuming bodies, some of which were subsequently taken to Israel. Last week, CNN filed a report documenting the destruction of sixteen cemeteries by the IDF in Gaza, indicating, if not a systematic practice, then at least a pattern of involving cemeteries in hostilities. This pattern raises two legal questions. First, under what circumstances is attacking or de ..read more

On January 11, 2024, the US and UK, supported by a group of other States, commenced attacks against targets in Yemen. These attacks were preceded by a range of efforts to secure the sea lines of communication through the Red Sea against continued attacks by the Houthis from Yemen territory. A maritime coalition taskforce was set up (operation Prosperity Guardian) under the operational umbrella of Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) in Bahrain to protect shipping from incoming drones and missiles and the path to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) was taken. UNSC resolution 2722 (2024), dema ..read more

The interstate case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia is currently pending on its merits before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. It is one of the most complex and politically momentous cases ever to be heard by the Court. Russia is no longer participating in the proceedings, and will not comply with any judgment rendered by the Court. This means that the immediate practical consequences of the judgment itself will be relatively limited, although I’m sure Ukraine will try to use it in various creative ways (for example, to justify the seizure of frozen Russian as ..read more

Talk about bad timing. This week, all international lawyers with a little more than passing interest in all things cyber have their eyes on – or are themselves in – New York. That’s because the UN “Cyber OEWG”, a shorthand for an open-ended working group with a much longer name, is in session to discuss, among other issues, how international law applies to the use of information and communications technologies by States. But while State representatives were reciting their polished statements replete with references to abstract international legal rules, a very concrete incident was unfolding ..read more

Introduction International humanitarian law (IHL) does not only oblige States who are directly engaged in an armed conflict to fulfil their obligation to respect its rules and principles during the conduct of hostilities and take measures to stop violations. IHL also places an obligation on all State Members to the Geneva Conventions to ensure respect and take measures to stop violations. The unfolding events in the Palestinian territory, occupied by Israel, specifically after Hamas’ attack on Israel, have clearly attracted the attention of many international law researchers and scholars. Som ..read more