JurisprudenceEst. 2026 · The Hague · International Law
Analysis at the intersection of sovereignty, commerce, and human rights.
February 2026 · Volume III
The multilateral trading system was designed to make economic coercion costly and visible. Recent years have tested whether that design survives contact with great-power competition.
When the United States blocked new appointments to the WTO's Appellate Body in 2019, it did not merely create a procedural inconvenience — it dismantled the only binding appellate mechanism the multilateral trading system had ever produced. Three years on, the damage compounds.
The invocation of GATT Article XXI national security exceptions has transformed from a rarely used last resort into a routine instrument of trade policy. The question before international adjudicators is no longer whether the exception applies, but whether its self-judging character has any outer limit.
The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism presents the most consequential collision between climate ambition and WTO non-discrimination obligations since the Shrimp-Turtle dispute. The legal analysis depends on whether environmental measures can escape scrutiny under Article III:4 by design.
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UNCLOS was drafted before climate change became a legal category. The ocean governance regime is now absorbing pressures its architects could not have anticipated.
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea issued its advisory opinion on state obligations regarding climate change and ocean protection in May 2024. Its legal reasoning is careful, its implications are significant, and its enforcement mechanism is, as with most of international law, largely aspirational.
The Philippines v. China award in 2016 was celebrated as a landmark victory for the rule of law at sea. China's response — a single word, "null and void" — clarified the fundamental tension between jurisdictional reach and political compliance that defines international adjudication.
The International Seabed Authority's delayed adoption of exploitation regulations has created a legal vacuum that mining companies and sponsoring states are navigating with increasing impatience. The concept of the common heritage of mankind, designed to distribute oceanic wealth equitably, is being quietly renegotiated.
"The Tribunal's reasoning suggests that UNCLOS obligations to protect the marine environment are not merely programmatic aspirations but binding duties whose content climate science can now specify with sufficient precision."
— ITLOS Advisory Opinion, May 2024 — Analysis, Jurisprudence
The investor-state dispute settlement system is simultaneously the most criticised and most used mechanism in international economic law. Understanding why requires reading the awards carefully.
The CJEU's ruling in Achmea established that investor-state arbitration clauses in bilateral investment treaties between EU member states are incompatible with Union law. The Energy Charter Treaty was supposed to be different. The subsequent decisions suggest it is not, and the arbitration community is still processing the consequences.
Investment treaty tribunals have developed a doctrine of legitimate expectations that constrains the sovereign right to regulate in ways that no domestic constitutional system would recognise. The question is whether this represents necessary investor protection or an unaccountable transfer of regulatory authority to private adjudicators.
The growth of litigation finance in international arbitration has introduced a category of participant who shapes case strategy, controls settlement decisions, and bears no procedural obligations whatsoever. Tribunals are beginning to address this asymmetry, but the regulatory response remains fragmented across institutional rules.
Jurisprudence is a writing desk where treaties, trade disputes, and cross-border crises are dissected with the patience of a calligrapher inking each stroke.
Long-form analysis that treats international law not as abstraction but as the living architecture governing how nations collide and cooperate. Written for junior associates preparing for arbitration hearings, policy advisors drafting position papers, and LL.M. students at The Hague who need someone to untangle the ICJ's latest advisory opinion before their seminar on Thursday.
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