For a civilian caught up in the crossfire of an international armed conflict, determining protected status under international humanitarian law (‘IHL’) represents more than a theoretical exercise of distant intellectualisation by jurists. It takes centre stage in the trenches of suffering, and is arbiter in deciding who receives the full protection of the Fourth Geneva Convention (‘GC IV’)…

On 3 March 2022, Professor Alain Pellet published a reflection on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, drawing parallels to the 2014 occupation of Crimea. With the eighth anniversary of the Crimean ‘referendum’ approaching, this post will respond to Prof. Pellet’s thoughts on the Crimean Tatars and their ‘marginal’, according to Prof. Pellet, reaction to Russia’s activities in Crimea…

Into the eighth month of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia has rushed to implement its plan to annex and assimilate newly occupied southern-eastern regions of Ukraine via sham referenda and attempted absorption of territories through respective domestic laws. The areas in question include parts of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and…