International Justice

Highlights:

The USS Gravely, a US Navy warship, departs the Port of Port of Spain on October 30, 2025. The US warship arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on October 26, 2025, for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela, as Washington ratcheted up pressure on drug traffickers and Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Saber Rattling and Venezuela: Lawful Show of Force or Unlawful Threat of Force?

Clearly, U.S. actions are threatening to Venezuela. But do they amount to an unlawful threat under international law, or are they merely a lawful show of force?
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko (L) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) during the Great Heritage - Common Future Forum, a Russian-Belarusian meeting, dedicated to the anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad on April 29, 2025 in Volgograd, Russia. Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko are having a joint visit to Volgograd, former Stalingrad, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

Memorandum for Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression Committed Against Ukraine

James Goldston and Esti Tambay present their organization's work, a Memorandum supporting efforts to hold officials accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
Family members and supporters of those killed on Bloody Sunday, hold a banner reading "towards Justice" as they walk towards Belfast Crown Court in Belfast, Northern Ireland on October 23, 2025. (Photo by PAUL FAITH/AFP via Getty Images)

Legal Progress Stalls for Northern Ireland Families

With pending court cases and legislative reforms, the coming months will show whether long-overdue justice will be served in Northern Ireland.
ILW 2025

A Series on the Occasion of ABILA’s International Law Weekend 2025

Just Security, as a co-sponsor of International Law Weekend 2025, is pleased to feature a series centered around the event's theme: "Crisis as Catalyst in International Law."
The Just Security Podcast Cover Image

The Just Security Podcast: Reflections on International Law Weekend 2025

Chiara Giorgetti, Milena Sterio, and Rebecca Hamilton join Just Security’s Managing Editor, Megan Corrarino, to discuss takeaways from ABILA's International Law Weekend. 
A crowd swirls around a blaze set in front of a blue-green solid metal gate inscribed with the name of the U.N. peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO. A few palm fronds are seen in the foreground, and stone walls flank the gate in the background.

The United Nations and a World in Pain

The U.N.’s survival depends on how it positions itself between the elephant and the mouse, in South America and the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and beyond.
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A woman cleans the memorial of a victim at the site of the Nova Festival to mark the 2nd anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks on October 07, 2025 in Re'im, Israel. Various commemorations are taking place around Israel to mark the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks in Israel and the Gaza border area on October 7, 2023. During the attacks, 251 hostages were taken and around 1,200 people were killed, making it the deadliest attack in Israel's history. In response to the attacks, Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 67,000 people and displaced around 90% of the enclave's population of 2.1 million. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

When Sexism Endangers Lives: In Israel, Sidelining Women Comes at the Cost of Security

The October 7th massacre and unprecedented war in Gaza compel Israel to rethink its conception of security. It must include a gender-based analysis.
Anglo-French troops land at Port Fouad, near Port Said on November 05, 1956 during the Suez Crisis. An Anglo-French intervention has been launched after Egypt's President Nasser nationalized Suez Canal on July 26, 1956. End of December diplomatic action by the USA and the USSR forced Britain and France to withdraw and Israel to relinquish Sinaï which they invaded in October. (Photo by Guy Touchard / AFP) (Photo by GUY TOUCHARD/AFP via Getty Images)

Crisis as Catalyst: The Past, Present, and Future of International Law

To see crisis as catalyst is to reject fatalism and to believe that law can be both a shield and a compass in turbulent times. #ILW2025 aims to honor that belief.
People react as they gather close to a mass grave in the town of Bucha, just northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on April 3, 2022.

Russia’s Eliminationist Rhetoric Against Ukraine: A Collection

Updated with new analysis of how key words, phrases, and themes appear to express intent to eliminate Ukraine or Ukrainians as a nation-state, people, or culture.
Palestinians rally around aid trucks which entered from the Karem Abu Salem crossing, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 12, 2025, as a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian factions holds in the besieged territory. A Gaza ceasefire was holding for a third day on October 12, ahead of a US-proposed hostage-prisoner exchange and a summit aimed at charting a path to peace after two years of war. (Photo by OMAR AL-QATTAA/AFP via Getty Images)

Implementing the Gaza Ceasefire

The ceasefire in Gaza faces many challenges and is currently threatened by serious violations. What can we learn from the experience of ceasefires elsewhere?
A collage of images featuring scenes from the Russia - Ukraine War.

Just Security’s Russia–Ukraine War Archive

A catalog of over 100 articles (many with Ukrainian translations) on the Russia Ukraine War -- law, diplomacy, policy options, and more.
The frame of the photo is filled with a tightly packed crowd of judges in black robes and purple, blue, or fuscia neck ruffles, alongside members of the public. Polish, EU and other flags can be seen above them in the background, apparently carried by marchers.

Attacks on U.S. Legal Profession Reflect Global Slide in Countries It Once Aided

Political pressures like those used to silence legal professionals and undermine rule of law in Europe and Eurasia echo patterns of the autocratic playbook.
Brazilian indigenous people and others take part in a demonstration called by Stop Ecocide International (SEI) for the recognition of ecocide as an international crime, on October 20, 2022 outside the European Council in Brussels where EU leaders were gathered for a summit. (Photo by KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)

Attacks on Nature, Atrocities Against People: The Case for Environmental Harm as a 12th Crime Against Humanity

Addressing the global environmental crisis requires urgent action, and this new treaty offers States an unprecedented opportunity to confront it directly and decisively.
(L-R) US Vice President JD Vance, US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listen as Democratic Republic of the Congo Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner during a meeting with her and Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe (not pictured) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2025. Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed an agreement in Washington on Friday to put an end to a conflict in the eastern DRC that has killed thousands, although broad questions loom on what it will mean. Trump has trumpeted the diplomacy that led to the deal and publicly complained that he has not received a Nobel Peace Prize. But the agreement has also come under scrutiny for its vagueness including on the economic component, with the Trump administration eager to compete with China and profit from abundant mineral wealth in the long-turbulent east of the vast DRC. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Sanctions Removal on Mining Magnate Would Set Back Peace and Investment in DR Congo

The Trump administration and Congress can end the cycle of looting, smuggling, and violent extraction of raw materials from the DRC and provide a better footing for peace.

Balancing the Scales: Survivors’ Needs and Rights and Criminal Accountability in Ukraine

Providing options and support for victims of sexual and gender-based violence can help survivors see themselves as part of a larger movement toward accountability and healing.
Marshall Islands president Hilda Heine speaks during the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York City on September 24, 2025. (Photo by Leonardo MUNOZ / AFP) (Photo by LEONARDO MUNOZ/AFP via Getty Images)

A Human Rights Approach to Nuclear Regimes: Lessons from the Legacy of Nuclear Testing in the Marshall Islands

Acknowledgement and respect for human rights can encourage States, like the Marshall Islands, to join and actively participate in nuclear regimes.
A man walks through the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli airstrikes at the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on January 12, 2025, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images)

U.N. Commission Finds That Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza: What Does It Mean?

Context for those seeking to understand what it does (and does not) mean for the UN Commission to make a genocide determination.
Crew members of the US Navy warship USS Sampson (DDG 102) are pictured at the Amador International Cruise Terminal in Panama City on September 02, 2025. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on September 1, 2025, that eight US military vessels with 1,200 missiles were targeting his country, which he declared to be in a state of "maximum readiness to defend" itself. (Photo by MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)

Using Labels, Not Law, to Justify Lethal Force: Inside the Venezuelan Boat Strike

Applying a new label to an old problem does not transform the problem. Nor does it grant the U.S. president or the U.S. military expanded legal authority to kill civilians.
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