History of International Law

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International Law as a Common Heritage of Mankind

In 1990, when the European Journal of International Law (EJIL) had its first issue, its founders, including myself, obviously stressed in their first editorial the link between international law and the construction of the European Union. The socio-political context in which the Journal had just been launched was very different from that which prevails today. Admittedly, there was already a certain convergence between the Western bloc and the countries of Eastern Europe, which had only a short time before been dominated by the Soviet Union. But this rapprochement was the opposite of the one we are now facing with the spectacular convergence between Russia and the United States led by Donald Trump. Right at the end of the Cuban crisis (1962), the USSR, inspired by Minister Gromyko, had proposed to its Western partners ‘peaceful coexistence’ between antagonistic blocs. The favorable response to this initiative led to the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the famous Declaration on Friendly Relations between States (UNGA Res. 2625). Twenty years…

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Mind Your Attitude: The Erosion of International Law?

Recurring breaches and non-enforcement of international law have persisted since the adoption of the UN Charter and the establishment of the post-World War II (WWII) legal order, which remains in place today. Scholars have repeatedly issued death certificates to Article 2.4 of the UN Charter and have raised fundamental questions about the weaknesses of this legal system and…

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Undoing the Grand Bargain? Pax Americana and the United Nations

Since its 3 February 2025 Executive Order, the United States has engaged in a series of decisions to either pause or entirely remove funding for various international organizations and agencies within the United Nations system, including withdrawing from the World Health Organization, withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the 90-day pause in…

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Lebensraum and Großraum: Nazi Spatial Theories Beyond Nazism

Two cardinal principles of international law emerging from the defeat of Nazism in 1945 were territorial integrity and self-determination in the sense of the political independence of equal sovereign states. It is, therefore, perhaps surprising to be considering the contemporary resonances of prominent Nazi spatial theories associated with its aggressive, territorially expansionist program. Nonetheless, in this post, I…

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Empire by Purchase: From Manhattan to Greenland (1625-2025)

In recent weeks, U.S. President Donald J. Trump has unequivocally expressed his desire to purchase Greenland, which holds a constitutional status within the Danish ‘Unity of the Realm’ under the framework of Denmark’s Constitution and the Act on Greenland Self-Government. Dr. Ekaterina Antsygina has already examined the legal foundations of Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland and the…

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