On May 7, the Associated Press published an unconfirmed report indicating that the Trump Administration is considering adopting the term “Arabian Gulf” in place of the historically established name “Persian Gulf.” During a press briefing, President Trump remained deliberately noncommittal, stating, “I don’t want to hurt any feelings,” and added that he would make a final determination during his upcoming visit to the Middle East. As of this writing, no official change has been enacted, but speculation is mounting that the administration may soon formalize the use of “Arabian Gulf” in official U.S. communications. This would mark the second instance of the Trump Administration attempting to revise a long-standing geographic name, following the recent executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”…
Theory of International Law
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Lex Mitior “on trial” before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers: Whither Legality
On 17 April 2025, the Kosovo Specialist Chamber of the Constitutional Court (Chamber) issued a worrying judgment regarding the more lenient punishment – the lex mitior principle under Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) and Article 33 of the Kosovo Constitution. The reasoning relies on the legal status…
Punishing Sanctions: A Call to Arms Against Fortress America
Being an international lawyer can sometimes feel like being a librarian in the middle of a riot. You are deeply invested in the idea that there are rules – impeccable legal rules – that, if followed, would make the world a better, more orderly, place. You clutch well-thumbed and thoroughly annotated copies of the Nicaragua case,…
Trouble in Heaven: Do the Changes to the Sovereign Military of Malta’s Constitution affect its relevance for the future of Small Developing Island States
The fight of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to maintain control of their destiny and retain their statehood needs no introduction. Threatened by the sea level rise caused by centuries of greenhouse gases, SIDSs are both among the most affected (due to their low elevation above sea levels) and the smallest contributors to climate change. In…
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…