International law was created to act as a check on unrestrained power, yet in practice is only effective at controlling states who are willing to conform, leaving those states whom international law was intended to control practically untouched by it. Out of the ruins of the Second World War came the concept of enforceable international law, followed by the creation of the United Nations and the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . International law promise

The prolonged war in Yemen, which has been locked in a stalemate for a decade, has now entered a new stage. The Southern Transitional Council (STC), supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a major player in the war in Yemen, was able to successfully penetrate the regions of Hadhramaut and Al Mahra , effectively controlling the official borders of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) – South Yemen. The STC has been the sole representative of the souther

Widely accepted international legal norms inject moral norms and ethical considerations into global politics, often rightly so, criminalising violent foreign intervention, crimes against humanity, and more. Presidents and world leaders, most recently Rodrigo Duterte, have been held to account by the International Criminal Court, for example, for these transgressions. Yet, accountability for President Trump’s recent military operation in Venezuela, which violated the sovereign

“When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you” is a line from Nietzsche , who warned that “whoever fights with monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster.” I recall this Nietzschean fragment as apposite to today’s Venezuela, and how tempting it is for those who struggle against domination to justify using the dominator’s tools. Venezuela is not only a tragedy for Venezuelans; it is a test of whether democracies can resist becoming what they

Relations between the USA and Venezuela experienced one of the most shocking fractures in modern diplomatic history this January when President Maduro was captured by US special forces and taken to New York. His midnight Caracas kidnapping has transformed tensions between the two countries from a classic diplomatic crisis into a global sovereignty and legal crisis, rendering it a pivotal test of the nascent multipolar world order, rather than a mere feud between strongmen. An

On December 1st 2025 Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, commonly known as ‘El Hishri’, was surrendered to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and is to face trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity in The Hague this year. The trial is a significant moment in the modern history of European-Libyan relations as it demonstrates that crimes - both contemporary and historical - of the greatest severity that are committed in Libyan detention centres are subject to internationa

The shift in international perception of the United Arab Emirates that has occurred in the last two decades is a result of perhaps one of...

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion In April 2025, the Trump Administration and the State Department announced  that their annual...

CELAC–China summit revealed both the potential and limitations of regional diplomacy in this new era. China is defending the order that...

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion The law has long served as both a shield and a smoke screen, selectively wielded to justify both...

As the Italian government persists in its attempts to violate international law, it continues to encounter judicial obstacles. In...

After two long centuries, the sun will finally set on the British Empire . On Thursday 3rd October, it was announced that the UK would...

The legal framework for recognising climate migrants at international level certainly lacks  a distinctive category. Broader terms like...

Last week, in a coordinated move following extensive deliberations, the governments of Norway, Spain, and Ireland announced their...

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst, focused a significant part of his career on the value and psychological interpretation of symbols; he...

After the House of Lords backed down on their amendments to the Rwanda bill last week, deportations to the East African country became...