Oona Hathaway

Obligation of States to Stop Intelligence Support for U.S. Strikes The only way States can avoid complicity in “arbitrary killings” under IHRL is to refrain from sharing intelligence that enables them.

A counterproductive and unlawful U.S. policy:

Several States have now curtailed counter-narcotics intelligence support and/or called out U.S. boat strikes as illegal:

Canada
Colombia
EU
France
Mexico
Netherlands?
UK

We discuss their legal obligations that forbid support for boat strikes.

Had so much fun recording this podcast with Philippa Webb, Marko Milanovic & Nicolas Angelet. We discuss the legality of the US strikes on suspected drug boats and the UNRWA advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. Take a listen!

www.ejiltalk.org/ejil-the-pod...

Save the Date and don't miss the upcoming Nuremberg Academy Talk: "War Unbound" by Professor Oona Hathaway @oonahathaway.bsky.social
🗓️ 13 November 2025, 11:00 am
📍Room 619, @nurembergacademy.bsky.social
Further information: www.nurembergacademy.org/public-disco...

Thanks Holger!

Pleased to be quoted here alongside @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social and my friend @oonahathaway.bsky.social.

I am looking forward to this talk. If you are in Nuremberg, please join us!

Willing states must act to save international legal order, warns top academic Yale professor says wars in Ukraine and Gaza and threats from Donald Trump risk the ‘total collapse’ of the global courts system

www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...

Thanks to the PIL Discussion Group for a great conversation!

Are you in Oxford on November 6? If so, consider joining me for my talk, "War Unbound"! Details below.

If you are in London on November 5, consider joining me for this conference on "The U.S. & International Law in a Changing World."

Register for free here: www.eventbrite.com/e/the-us-and...

We warmly invite you to our second PIL Discussion Group event of this term, scheduled for next Thursday, 6 November 2025. Prof @oonahathaway.bsky.social will deliver a talk entitled ‘War Unbound’. For more information and to register for the event, see here: www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/even....

Oona A. Hathaway Meet Oona Hathaway, Executive Editor at Just Security and Professor of International Law at Yale Law School where she directs the Center for Global legal Challenges and serves as the Counselor to the ...

Today 11:30: JS Editors @oonahathaway.bsky.social and @adhaque.bsky.social
on "Customary International Law What Role Can it Play in Responding to Contemporary Global Crises?”
#ILW2025

Oona’s analysis:
www.justsecurity.org/author/hatha...

Adil’s analysis:
www.justsecurity.org/author/haque...

If you are in Berlin, please join me for my talk, "War Unbound," on Monday evening at the Freie Universität Berlin! Details here:

www.jura.fu-berlin.de/fachbereich/...

Join us for the keynote lecture by Prof. Oona A. Hathaway
@oonahathaway.bsky.social marking the launch of the JuDem Project at CCRD @humboldtuni.bsky.social

🗓️ Nov 17, 2025 | 18:00
📍 Humboldt Graduate School, Festsaal
Luisenstr. 56, 10117 Berlin
Registration: bit.ly/4n0xNqa

Susan was not only a pioneer; she was a genuinely kind person. While interning for NPR in 1992, I prepared her briefing book and staffed her at the Republican Convention in Houston. I was 19 and had a lot to learn. I feel so grateful for the chance to see her brilliance and humanity in action.

Congratulations, Eliav!

Glad to talk with Claudia Grisales for this @npr.org story on the Venezuelan boat strike and Congress's failure to play any meaningful role.

www.npr.org/2025/09/14/n....

War Unbound - American Academy in Berlin Axel Springer Lecture War Unbound International humanitarian law, also known as the law of armed conflict, is supposed to spare civilians from the worst calamit

If you are in Berlin, consider joining me at the American Academy in Berlin for my fellows talk, "War Unbound," on October 23 at 7:30 pm. (Those not in Berlin can watch the livestream.)

Sign up here:
www.americanacademy.de/event/war-un...

Glad to talk with Claudia Grisales for this @npr.org story on the Venezuelan boat strike and Congress's failure to play any meaningful role.

www.npr.org/2025/09/14/n....

In recent days, the EU announced that it is considering creative new ways to use Russia's frozen central bank assets to support Ukraine. Russia is threatening retaliation.

For a deep dive into the legal issues involved, take a look at our recent article:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Anti-satellite weapons are proliferating and now include the prospect of a nuclear-armed satellite capable of wiping out our entire communications infrastructure.

We tackle the many hard legal issues this new reality raises @nyulawreview.bsky.social.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Analysis: Trump claims he can do anything he wants with the military. Here’s what the law says | CNN Politics Having rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War, the president is going on offense with the US military.

“The decision to blow up the boat and kill everyone onboard when interdiction and detention was a clearly available option is manifestly illegal and immoral" -- sad have to make such an obvious point, but here we are.

Read the whole piece: www.cnn.com/2025/09/10/p...

It was an honor to speak at the opening of the @hertieschool.bsky.social academic year yesterday in Berlin. I so enjoyed the chance to welcome the students and the conversation with Violeta Moreno-Lax and Pierre Thielbörger!

Episode 33: Oona Hathaway

This was a great conversation about the value and future of international law.

Take a listen.

open.spotify.com/episode/3j4y...

President Trump's executive order purporting to rename the Department of Defense is just one more piece of evidence that he's prepared to destroy the postwar legal order.

Here's why that matters:

nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Recognition Rules: The Case for a New International Law of Government Recognition - NYU Law Review The last several years have been marked by contentious disputes about which governments represent the states of Venezuela, Libya, Yemen, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Niger. Such disputes are far from idl...

It's out!

"Recognition Rules: The Case for a New International Law of Government Recognition"

Published in @nyulawreview.bsky.social, with coauthors Justin Cole and Alaa Hachem.

You can download it for free here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Is the Prohibition on the Use of Force Collapsing? If the postwar legal order is dissolving, the world must not simply mourn the loss.

"If prohibition on use of force is falling apart, we must not simply mourn the loss. We must consider what we can do to protect against most catastrophic effects of this shift & seize opportunity to build a new, more resilient, more equitable int legal order."

carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

Might unmakes right with Professor Oona Hathaway | The Ballpark podcast | USAPP In an article in the July/August edition of Foreign Affairs magazine, “Might Unmakes Right: The Catastrophic Collapse of Norms Against the Use of Force”, Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro look at the hi...

New Podcast alert:

Might unmakes right with Professor Oona Hathaway | The Ballpark podcast

blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

Is the Prohibition on the Use of Force Collapsing? If the postwar legal order is dissolving, the world must not simply mourn the loss.

Is the Prohibition on the Use of Force Collapsing?

My latest @carnegieendowment.org, with Stewart Patrick:

carnegieendowment.org/research/202...

Bolton is not the most sympathetic figure, but the investigation of him is a product of a system of mass over-classification that creates opportunities for selective prosecution and undermines U.S. national security.

I explain this and more in "Secrecy's End":

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....