Two Weeks in Review, 21 April – 4 May 2025

Stefan Robert McClean examines Greenland’s utility for membership in Concacaf, the North American soccer confederation, after being ineligible for UEFA resulting from its requirement of UN-recognized statehood. McClean particulars how UEFA’s constitutive method to state recognition contrasts with Concacaf’s extra versatile standards, which may permit the autonomous territory of Denmark to affix the worldwide soccer neighborhood. McClean argues that these differing membership guidelines spotlight the political complexities of worldwide sports activities governance and its influence on the sporting aspirations of non-independent entities like Greenland. Learn the complete submit right here.

Quazi Omar Foysal explores the Sudan v. UAE case on the ICJ, the place the UAE argues for the case’s removing resulting from a “manifest lack of jurisdiction” primarily based on its reservation to the Genocide Conference, the only jurisdictional foundation. Foysal analyzes the ICJ’s precedent for eradicating circumstances on the provisional measures stage when jurisdiction is clearly absent, notably with regard to treaty reservations. Foysal concludes that the ICJ’s determination on the validity and scope of the UAE’s reservation will decide the case’s destiny and suggests the Court docket ought to make clear its “manifest lack of jurisdiction” normal. Learn the complete submit right here.

Hugo Relva and Vito Todeschini critically analyze draft article 10 of the ILC Draft Articles on immunity of state officers, which might require a discussion board state to inform the official’s state earlier than initiating felony proceedings or taking coercive measures. The authors argue that this prior notification lacks a authorized foundation, dangers hindering investigations, and enabling impunity. The authors additional distinction this with the ILC’s work on Crimes Towards Humanity, which mandates notification solely after custody, and advocate deleting or considerably revising draft article 10 to align with established treaty legislation.  Learn the complete submit right here.

Cecilia Brocca explores the current decision adopted by the Human Rights Council to determine an open-ended intergovernmental working group. This group is tasked with elaborating a world legally binding instrument centered on the promotion and safety of the human rights of older individuals. Brocca notes that the adoption of this decision is a historic step ahead in addressing the neglected dimension of older individuals’ human rights throughout the current, fragmented worldwide authorized framework. Learn the complete submit right here.

Valentin Martin discusses the Worldwide Chess Federation (FIDE)’s coverage prohibiting transgender ladies from competing in ladies’s chess competitions, arguing that this coverage is discriminatory and violates the Olympic Constitution. Martin contends that gender-based categorization in sports activities needs to be the exception, not the rule. The writer proposes a brand new framework the place disciplines are prohibited from distinguishing between males’s and girls’s occasions except there’s a clear scientific foundation, suggesting a world company to implement harmonized laws in opposition to discrimination in sports activities. Learn the complete submit right here.

Nicolas Lamp explores the implications of President Trump’s imposition of “reciprocal” tariffs for worldwide commerce legislation. Lamp argues these new tariffs differ considerably from earlier ones, as they aim almost all nations, lack a foundation in precise commerce boundaries, and essentially undermine the aim of worldwide commerce legislation by creating insecurity. Lamp means that whereas different nations ought to deal with the U.S. as an outlier within the commerce system, they have to proceed to uphold worldwide commerce legislation amongst themselves to protect its integrity. Learn the complete submit right here.

Miles Jackson and Hannah Woolaver study the South African Excessive Court docket’s judgment within the COSAS 4 prosecution, specializing in the direct utility of customary worldwide legislation, together with the crime in opposition to humanity of apartheid. The court docket rejected arguments put ahead by the accused that the costs had prescribed and violated the precept of legality, asserting that customary worldwide legislation is instantly relevant in South Africa. Jackson and Woolaver talk about the authorized foundation for this, the purpose at which apartheid grew to become a criminal offense beneath customary worldwide legislation, and the court docket’s view on the non-applicability of prescription to crimes in opposition to humanity. Learn the complete submit right here.

Joshua Joseph Niyo questions whether or not current geopolitical occasions point out a weakening of the customary worldwide legislation prohibition in opposition to forcible annexation resulting from inconsistent worldwide responses. Niyo analyzes the conditions in Ukraine, Palestine, Western Sahara, and the DRC, suggesting {that a} lack of sturdy opposition to territorial acquisitions dangers eroding the present norm. Niyo concludes by stressing the significance of the worldwide neighborhood actively reinforcing the prohibition to take care of world stability and the ideas of worldwide legislation. Learn the complete submit right here.

Jérôme de Hemptinne and Helena Szczupak analyze the potential of Worldwide Legal Regulation (ICL) to guard Indigenous peoples from the destruction of their lands, contemplating crimes in opposition to humanity, genocide, and ecocide. They spotlight the anthropocentric limitations of present ICL and the challenges in making use of genocide definitions to Indigenous communities. Whereas ecocide presents potential, it doesn’t totally seize the Indigenous connection to land. The authors suggest an aggravated type of ecocide throughout the ICC Statute to particularly defend Indigenous peoples’ rights when environmental injury severely impacts their lifestyle. Learn the complete submit right here.

Aleydis Nissen examines the South Korean Constitutional Court docket’s landmark 2024 ruling in D.H. Kim et al v Korea, which discovered the federal government’s lack of concrete long-term emissions discount targets past 2030 violated the constitutional rights of future generations to a wholesome surroundings. The court docket creatively linked the constitutional precept of ‘statutory reservation’ to the worldwide legislation precept of intergenerational fairness, emphasizing the legislature’s duty to enact particular local weather plans. Nissen concludes that this case, influenced by worldwide local weather agreements and a part of a world development in local weather litigation, units a major precedent for judicial involvement in environmental governance and local weather accountability. Learn the complete submit right here.

The current EJIL:Speak! Symposium explores the growth of human rights safety to non-human topics from African, Inter-American, and European views. The symposium options contributions from numerous authors inspecting matters such because the safety of non-human topics from an ECtHR choose’s viewpoint, the intersection of science, know-how, human dignity, and guidelines, and the coherence of robotic rights with human rights. Different articles delve into rising animal rights, the ‘rights of nature’ in human rights courts, and the function of company human rights in worldwide legislation accountability. Learn Patricia Wiater’s introduction to the Symposium right here.

Michael Waibel and Rebecca McMenamin study the connection between granting human rights to firms and holding them accountable for human rights violations, discovering no computerized connection and important variations in method throughout regional human rights programs. They argue that the scope of company human rights is a matter for legislative, not judicial, dedication, pointing to ongoing UN efforts to determine binding company accountability requirements. Learn the complete submit right here. 

Monica Feria-Tinta examines the function of human rights courts in environmental safety, specializing in the Inter-American Court docket’s recognition of nature’s intrinsic authorized pursuits, as seen in Advisory Opinion 23 and the La Oroya case. Contrasting this with the European system’s concentrate on company rights, she explores the potential for granting authorized standing to pure entities, referencing nationwide examples just like the Atrato River case in Colombia. Feria-Tinta advocates for a shift in the direction of recognizing the inherent rights and interconnectedness of nature and human well-being in authorized frameworks. Learn the complete submit right here.

Saskia Stucki examines the rising authorized recognition of animal rights, noting their growing presence in home courts, notably within the International South. Stucki argues that the justifications for these rights are pluralistic, encompassing anthropocentric (human advantages), zoocentric (animal-centered intrinsic worth), and ecocentric (environmental context) rationales. She contends that this numerous basis, whereas typically criticized as weak, really supplies a stronger and extra extensively palatable foundation for the development of animal rights alongside human and environmental rights, in the end benefiting all three. Learn the complete submit right here.

Patricia Wiater explores the arguments for granting human rights to robots and AI, inspecting each the coherence argument primarily based on the therapy of firms and the ethical argument grounded in AI’s potential human-like qualities. 1 Wiater expresses skepticism in the direction of morally primarily based robotic rights resulting from AI’s lack of inherent traits and dependence on people, suggesting a functional-political perspective is extra persuasive. 1 She concludes that whereas AI regulation is evolving and authorized personhood for AI would possibly emerge, there’s at present no sturdy ethical or purposeful justification for extending autonomous human rights to AI entities, as human-centered protections are ample. Learn the complete submit right here.  

Verónica Gómez discusses human dignity as a foundational precept for authorized obligations within the context of fast scientific and technological developments. She emphasizes the historic recognition of human dignity after World Battle II and its connection to equality, notably for traditionally marginalized teams like Indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants within the Americas. Gómez additionally explores the intergenerational dimension of dignity, highlighting the duty of present generations to guard the surroundings for future ones, referencing the Inter-American Court docket’s stance within the La Oroya v. Peru case on the significance of environmental safety for human survival throughout generations. Learn the complete submit right here.

Tim Eicke discusses the European Conference of Human Rights and Basic Freedoms (ECHR) and its method to non-human topics. The ECHR extends some safety to authorized individuals, akin to firms, granting them rights like honest trial, respect for house, and freedom of expression. Whereas the ECHR doesn’t explicitly defend animal welfare, it acknowledges animal safety as a normal curiosity. The article explores the complexities of granting standing to animals or nature in court docket, notably when nationwide legal guidelines acknowledge them as authorized individuals, and it questions the justification for extending human rights to robots or AI, suggesting a human-centric method the place their safety is derived from human pursuits. Learn the complete submit right here. 

Take heed to EJIL: The Podcast! Episode 33: Proudly owning the Future? Worldwide Regulation and Know-how as a Crucial Challenge right here.