Article 437 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code outlaws planning, preparation or initiation of an aggressive war or an armed conflict, conspiring for any such purpose or waging of an aggressive war or aggressive hostilities. Yet, the domestic legislation is silent on the existence of a leadership requirement. On 28 February 2024, the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court (hereinafter, the GCSC) offered a long-awaited clarification of this conundrum. My blog post provides an overview of the facts and procedural history germane to the crime of aggression charges, as well as a brief analysis of judicial ..read more

After some nine months of intense diplomatic negotiations, the Ukraine Assistance Fund (UAF) has finally found its place in the EU legal framework. A political agreement was reached at ambassadorial level in COREPER on 13 March, and EU Foreign Ministers formally finalised it in the form of a Council Decision at the Foreign Affairs Council on 18 March 2024 (here). This post aims to understand the legal features of the new fund in the context of EU assistance to Ukraine, in order to shed light on its objective contribution to the EU’s response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the con ..read more

Perhaps more than any other time in the history of the International Court of Justice, international human rights law has never been more ubiquitously and stridently deployed at the World Court by so many States, several of whom do not necessarily have the usual nationality linkages when it comes to the assertion of injuries and harms from asserted breaches of international human rights obligations of States. While there has rightly been much commentary accumulating (especially here at EJIL:Talk!) on live developments in the International Court of Justice’s growing docket of post-Bosnia v. Se ..read more

This piece is cross-posted on Just Security. Two long years ago, Russia launched its brutal campaign of aggression and atrocity against Ukraine. That full-scale invasion has now killed more than 30,000 Ukrainians, displaced more than 10 million, and destroyed more than $400 billion of civilian property and infrastructure. The United States and its partners responded by freezing some $380 billion in Russian assets, committing not to return them until after Russia pays for the damage it has caused. Yet despite protracted public debate (including here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, h ..read more

On 28 February 2024, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that ‘it is time to start a conversation about using the windfall profits of frozen Russian assets to jointly purchase military equipment for Ukraine’. This statement comes on the heels of a decision adopted by the Council of the European Union (EU) on 12 February 2024, which was hailed as the ‘first step to use Russia’s frozen assets for Ukraine’. According to this decision, Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) holding more than EUR 1 million in assets and reserves of the Central Bank of Russia ..read more

On 31 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its judgment on the merits of the case in Application of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Ukraine v. Russian Federation). One of the issues was Ukraine’s assertion that Russia had breached its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) through a campaign of racial discrimination against Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrain ..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

1. Summary and Context On 31 January 2024, the ICJ delivered its long-awaited Judgment on the merits in the case Ukraine v Russia concerning alleged violations of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism (ICSFT) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). It was a sobering experience for those who followed the case closely, as the vast majority of Ukraine’s claims were rejected. Notwithstanding a broad range of claims advanced by Ukraine against Russia under both Conventions, the ICJ narrowly found (13 ..read more

On February 2, the International Court of Justice dealt Ukraine’s case against Russia under the Genocide Convention a heavy blow when it dismissed the majority of the claims for lack of jurisdiction. The decision effectively transformed the case into one about whether Ukraine violated international law (by committing genocide), a far cry from Ukraine’s original application. And it appears to preclude any meaningful remedy for Russia’s brutal war at the merits stage. But Russia’s blatant breach of Ukraine’s provisional measures, which are binding, raises the possibility that the final judgment ..read more

The latest study from January 2024 indicates that we are not on track to meet the goal of the Paris Agreement and predicts global warming to reach 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. Continuing substantial fossil fuel use for decades longer constitutes a tragic moral failure of immense proportions. The narrow chance remains to correct course by radically transforming global energy systems. Does this signal the inadequacy of COP28 outcomes and international climate governance as a whole? Furthermore, what are the limitations of the UNFCCC regime face in addressing challenges experienced by countries li ..read more