CIL Dialogues is the re-imagination of the existing blog of the Centre for International Law (CIL) of the National University of Singapore (NUS). The editorial team’s approach to CIL Dialogues reflects two shared commitments. First, we share a generalist perspective of international law, viewed as raising shared foundational questions across specialised fields, institutions, regions, and inquiries. Secondly, we are appreciative that CIL Dialogues is not based in (the virtual space of), or associated with institutions in the ‘Western European and Others States Group’. The blog will therefore be interested in international law broadly conceived and seek to be attentive to regional perspectives to questions of universal and general relevance, particularly relating to Asia Pacific, as well as the views and voices that may have been traditionally excluded. More...
Featured Symposium ...
Symposium: 125 years of the Permanent Court of Arbitration: A Retrospective and exploration of New Frontiers Innovations in Dispute Resolution: the PCA and Singapore on the Cutting Edge by Daniel Pakpahan Published on 12 December 2024 The second panel of the commemorative event held in Singapore on 25 July 2024 for the 125th anniversary of the …
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Symposium: 125 years of the Permanent Court of Arbitration: A Retrospective and exploration of New Frontiers The Permanent Court of Arbitration through the Ages by Liyuan Feng Published on 12 December 2024 In 2024, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) celebrates 125 years of existence. The PCA was established by the Convention for the Pacific …
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The ICC arrest warrants in the Palestine Situation: double standards, limitations and opportunities By Alessandra Spadaro Published on 11 December 2024 On 21 November 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued the first arrest warrants for crimes committed in the Situation in the State of Palestine. The warrants of arrest for …
Benefit v Consent: CJEU’s Front Polisario II Judgment and the Law of Self-Determination By Andrea Maria Pelliconi and Jed Odermatt Published on 15 November 2024 On 4 October 2024, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that fisheries and trade agreements concluded between the European Union (EU) and …
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Symposium: High Politics at the International Court of Justice The politics of facts before the International Court of Justice By Ana Luísa Bernardino Published on 23 October 2024 There was a time in the history of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in the years immediately following its establishment and, most acutely, in the aftermath …
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Symposium: High Politics at the International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice’s intrinsic powers to decide all cases brought before it By Ambassador Carlos Argüello Published on 22 October 2024 This symposium invites us to reflect on the proliferation of cases concerning “high politics” adjudicated at the International Court of Justice (ICJ or …
Symposium: High Politics at the International Court of Justice The Power of the World Court Unleashed: The Chagos Archipelago Advisory Opinion and Decolonisation By Trung Nguyen Published on 21 October 2024 British colonialism marked a dark page in humankind’s history and it still haunts us today like the ghost of Hamlet’s father. The story of …
Symposium: High Politics at the International Court of Justice The Rohingya Crisis at the ICJ: Caught between Legal Technicalities and Limits of the Court By Emraan Azad Assistant Professor in Law, Bangladesh University of Professionals Published on 18 October 2024 The crisis in relation to the protection of the Rohingya has two dimensions: one is …
Symposium: High Politics at the International Court of Justice High Politics and the International Court of Justice By Gleider Hernández Published on 17 October 2024 The notion of ‘high politics’ in international adjudication is only paradoxical if one insists strictly on a conceptual separation between law and politics. Though the point of law and legal …
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Symposium: High Politics at the International Court of Justice Mega-Political Cases before the ICJ: Transforming a Hegemonic into a Negotiated Order? By Heike Krieger Published on 16 October 2024 In recent years, states have increasingly turned to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to adjudicate what one may describe as ‘mega-political’ cases. Such cases concern …
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Symposium: High Politics at the International Court of Justice ‘High Politics’ at the International Court of Justice By Ntina Tzouvala Published on 16 October 2024 It is a long-held position of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it is not precluded from pronouncing on the legal dimensions of a question simply because said question …
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Combating Biopiracy by Fostering Coordination across the Environment, Intellectual Property and Trade Regimes By Pallavi Arora Published on 5 August 2024 The advent of biotechnology has raised concerns about biopiracy: the utilization of biological resources and traditional knowledge without permission from or compensation to the local communities who are the rightful custodians of these resources …
Symposium: Gravity at the International Criminal Court Gravity at the International Criminal Court: A Response By Priya Urs Published on 8 August 2024 I am grateful to Meg deGuzman, Patryk Labuda and Martha Bradley for generously giving their time to reflect on Gravity at the International Criminal Court. Each of them raises a variety of …
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Symposium: Gravity at the International Criminal Court Gravity at the International Criminal Court: Admissibility and Prosecutorial Discretion by Priya Urs: A significant contribution offering a refreshing guidance towards the assessment of the gravity criterion to insure prosecutorial consistency By Martha M Bradley Published on 8 August 2024 Gravity at the International Criminal Court: Admissibility and …
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Symposium: Gravity at the International Criminal Court Law versus Policy? Exploring the Meaning of Gravity before the International Criminal Court By Patryk I. Labuda Published on 7 August 2024 Priya Urs’ new book is an important contribution to the literature on the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court). In under two hundred pages, she manages …
Symposium: Gravity at the International Criminal Court Faith in Gravity By Margaret M. deGuzman Published on 6 August 2024 The concept of gravity—that some crimes are especially serious—is at the heart of the International Criminal Court (ICC or Court) regime. Among other things, it helps to determine which situations and cases the ICC investigates and …
Symposium: Gravity at the International Criminal Court Gravity at the International Criminal Court: An Introduction By Priya Urs Published on 6 August 2024 I began thinking about the selectivity of the investigation and prosecution of international crimes in 2014, when I worked with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission to strengthen its role in monitoring …
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Legality of Cyber Operations in the Israel-Hezbollah War By Mr Hussein Badreddine Published on 23 May 2024 In the aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attack conducted by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, Israel claimed the right of self-defence and began a widespread operation in the Gaza strip. On 8 October 2023, Hezbollah launched rockets …
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Strengthening Global Biosecurity and Biosafety Efforts: The Role of the BWC National Implementation Database in Informing and Guiding National Policies By Dr. Jaroslav Krasny Published on 24 April 2024 The Biological Weapons Convention National Implementation Database (“BWC Database”), developed collaboratively by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and the Verification Research, Training and …
Environmental Provisions in ASEAN’s Investment Agreements: The Need to Strengthen Member States’ Right to Regulate Environmental Issues By Kim Anh Dao Published on 4 April 2024 The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) holds a significant position in the international investment rule-making arena. Alongside treaties concluded by its individual members, ASEAN, as a unified entity, …
Artificial Intelligence and Article 33.4 VCLT By Tarcisio Gazzini Published on 14 March 2024 Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to radically change legal education and the legal profession. Suffice it to mention the administration of justice through machines. This comment focuses on a much more specific issue, namely the interpretation of multilingual treaties. Article …
Does breaching UNCLOS invoke the right of self-defence? By Shani Friedman Published on 19 February 2024 Introduction Since October 2023, as part of the Israeli-Hamas war following the October 7 massacre in Israel, the Houthis – an Iranian-backed Yemeni terrorist group – attacked commercial ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea in …
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China’s engagement with the ITLOS climate change advisory proceedings and its strategic formalism in international law By Ryan Martínez Mitchell Published on 6 February 2024 Several months ago, Beijing decided to take a stand against the expansion of advisory opinion jurisdiction to the full International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), as well …
Israel, South Africa and the Power of Genocide By Yusra Suedi Published on 23 January 2024 The International Court of Justice (ICJ, the Court) has increasingly been the theatre for accusations of the crime of genocide. The latest instalment is South Africa’s institution of proceedings against Israel for committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Genocide …
Symposium: The Second World War in Asia: Justice Efforts, War Memory, and Reparations Tokyo Women’s Tribunal – Voices of the Women Working Behind the Scenes (Part Two) Interviews of Indai Sajor, Aurora De Dios, and Susan Macabuag By Aishwarya Arumugham and Lee Jia Ying Published on 19 January 2024 This is part 2 of a two-part blog …
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Symposium: The Second World War in Asia: Justice Efforts, War Memory, and Reparations Tokyo Women’s Tribunal – Voices of the Women Working Behind the Scenes (Part One) Interviews of Indai Sajor, Aurora De Dios, and Susan Macabuag By Aishwarya Arumugham and Lee Jia Ying Published on 19 January 2024 The Tokyo Women’s Tribunal (TWT) was a peoples’ …
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Falepili Union Treaty, statehood and protection of persons in light of sea-level rise: state practice of preserving the status quo? By Rashmi Raman and Daniel Pakpahan Published on 8 January 2024 The Falepili Union Treaty of 9 November 2023 is making waves across reports that comment on the intriguing and possibly trailblazing agreement on climate …
Symposium: Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law “We’re going wrong” Human rights and constitutionalism after 50 years of Chile’s coup d’État by Jorge Contesse Published on 22 December 2023 Chile has commemorated 50 years of the coup d’état that overthrew the Popular Unity government led by …
Symposium: Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law Rights, Reports, and Regionalism: The Chilean Coup and the Inter-American Narrowness by Francisco-José Quintana Published on 22 December 2023 [The Latin American leaders of my generation] lacked power, and they lacked power because they allowed foreign capital to continue …
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Symposium: Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law The Good, The Bad, The Assemblage: ITT, IBM and Chile by André Dao Published on 21 December 2023 I On 4th December 1972, less than a year before his death during the military coup, Salvador Allende addressed a plaintive …
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Symposium: Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law International Order and the Politics of Freedom of Information in Chile by Wanshu Cong Published on 21 December 2023 This post considers Allende’s socialist revolution in Chile as one of the earliest and toughest battles for not only a …
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Symposium: Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law Critical legal theory situated: the work of Eduardo Novoa Monreal as the legal adviser of Salvador Allende by Fabia Fernandes Carvalho and João Roriz Published on 20 December 2023 Ahora, después de haber tenido la singular experiencia de asesorar …
Symposium: Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law Allende’s Workshop: Technological Diplomacy and the Stakes of Solidarity by Anna Saunders Published on 20 December 2023 In the wake of mid-century decolonisation, many newly independent states sought ways to structure their economic relations so as to avoid new …
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Symposium: Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law Salvador Allende, Populism and An International Law of Solidarity by Dr Claerwen O’Hara and Dr Valeria Vázquez Guevara Published on 19 December 2023 Today, populist politics are often depicted as hostile to international law. Specifically, there is an …
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Symposium: Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law Remembering to Reimagine: A Symposium on Salvador Allende, Unfulfilled Promise, and the Future of International Law by Wanshu Cong and Francisco-José Quintana Published on 19 December 2023 Fifty years ago, a military coup d’état put a brutal end …
The ICJ should appoint experts in the advisory proceedings in Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change By Professor Eirik Bjorge, Dr Nilüfer Oral Published on 4 December 2023 The year 2023 has been marked by an unprecedented number of requests for advisory opinions concerning climate change and State obligations under international law. This …