CF Moran

How Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia literally saved lives. It’s unusual to encounter good news these days, particularly on social media. So I was delighted to come across this image on Bluesky earlier today, of a letter to the Times of London in reference …

A very short read. Share early, share often.

lithub.com/how-tom-stop...

Lots of talk of keeping the ICC going at #ASP24 despite sanctions. But court’s issues extend well beyond the Washington pressures. www.justiceinfo.net/en/152952-ic...

The 24th Session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute: Time to Act [Ezequiel Jimenez has a PhD in international law (Middlesex University, United Kingdom), works at Amnesty International and is Senior Fellow at the Center for International Law Research and Policy.…

Lots on the table this week. Looking forward to the debate and to reading Dr Jiminez's book on the topic, published in just over a fortnight.

opiniojuris.org/2025/12/01/t...

Senator Kelly is correct.

Plus a Public Service Announcement:

KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.

The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."

This needs to be shared widely, so please do repost. That aside, the lectures are wonderful and a really engaging critique of moral obligation in modern society.

Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of Gaza civilians IDF soldiers tell documentary of opening fire unprovoked and arbitrary designations of who was an enemy

Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of #Gaza civilians - “I feel like they’ve destroyed all my pride in being an Israeli – in being an #IDF officer,” Daniel says in the programme. “All that’s left is shame.”
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

"Inclusion is about capability and perspective, not mere representation. Representation is important, but without reflecting on the quality of representation, the number of women sitting at the...table is pure performance."

Elegant and effective, and more importantly, true.

Legal Progress Stalls for Northern Ireland Families The coming months will show whether the UK has the political will to deliver long-overdue truth and justice in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland families are awaiting justice for crimes committed during the 1969 to 1998 conflict, @dooleydooley.bsky.social and @suchitauppal.bsky.social write.

A legislative battle is brewing in the U.K. Parliament over efforts aimed at accountability.

www.justsecurity.org/123679/legal...

Brilliant series. So good to hear from others who write so well.

Hundreds reportedly killed at Sudanese hospital as evidence of RSF atrocities mounts Rapid Support Forces, which claimed control of El Fasher on Sunday, reportedly killed at least 460 people ‘in cold blood’

Hundreds reportedly killed at Sudanese hospital as evidence of RSF atrocities mounts #ElFasher #Sudan #warcrimes www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Deadly attacks. New displacement. Deepening hunger.
 
We need the violence in Sudan to stop, urgent humanitarian access, perpetrators held to account.
 
I'm allocating $20M to provide urgent life-saving food, health, and protection. I will brief Security Council this morning.

"The Court found that Israel has a duty not to impede and to facilitate the humanitarian relief work of UNRWA and other organizations".

This is beyond any reasonable disagreement. It is the law. Period.

The Bottom Line of the ICJ’s UNRWA Advisory Opinion: www.ejiltalk.org/the-bottom-l... #Gaza

Thank you to the lovely Asymmetrical Haircuts team for letting me hyperfixate at them!!

📘 The Nuremberg Academy proudly contributes to “Nuremberg Principles and Ukraine: The Contemporary Challenges to Peace, Security and Justice” (@bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social, Bloomsbury Oct 2025). Feat. work by Prof. Dr Safferling @safferli.bsky.social, Dr Dittrich & K. Menon.

👉 bit.ly/4nFpgds

Today thinking about the families of the hostages held in Gaza, the fragile hope of the return, the fears of loss, and the grief that accompanies great loss.

:(

Preserving tomorrow's history today with new digital partnership Books and manuscripts held in the University of Aberdeen's collections date back centuries.

Part of our mission to make scholarship available has to include making sure those works can technically be accessed into the future. So, we're excited to announce a new partnership with @jisc.bsky.social and Libnova for long term preservation of our digital archives www.abdn.ac.uk/news/24712/

In this post @tomdannenbaum.bsky.social & I trace how the Starmer Government's repeatedly misconstrues its obligations under the Genocide Convention in #Gaza, hiding behind a Court judgement that is years away with a position that we call "legally illiterate" and "morally indefensible".

Rodrigo Duterte, former Philippines president, charged with crimes against humanity at ICC Three charges against Duterte stem from his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed thousands

“The attack included thousands of killings, which were perpetrated consistently throughout the charged period.”

#ICC releases charge sheet detailing 3 counts of crimes against humanity against former Philippines President Duterte over his “war on drugs”: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Long overdue, and perhaps worth being mindful of Crawford's words from 1990(!), still be on point today:

"For a Palestinian State to be properly described as "nasciturus", what is needed is statesmanship on all sides, and respect for the rights of the peoples and states of the region."

Hundreds of humanitarians killed this year. This is more than a statistical spike – it is normalization of violence against our community.

As we open discussions during #UNGA, I urge leaders to stop this era of impunity. Each attack is an attack on all of us. Enough.

Etched in Marble: Nathalie Tocci on Courage, Strategy and the Freedom of the Page Writers on the Forces That Shape Us and the Writing That Endures

New post: "Nathalie Tocci on Courage, Strategy, and the Freedom of the Page”

Tocci, European thought leader & Guardian columnist, has spent her career moving between policymaking & ideas

💡 Her lesson: policy and writing sharpen each other

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🔗 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-...

Israel’s strike on Qatar was a serious blow against diplomacy in the Middle East By targeting Hamas leadership on Qatari soil, Israel has not only escalated the conflict but also shaken confidence in Doha’s role as a mediator.

By targeting Hamas leadership on Qatari soil, Israel has not only escalated the conflict but also shaken confidence in Doha’s role as a mediator.

The three most damning paras in the UN Report alleging that Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza: Siege starvation, attacks on health care, direct targeting of children as patterns that cannot be explained except if group destruction is one animating purpose.

Etched in Marble: Simon Kuper on Clarity, Memory, and Why Writing Still Matters Writers on the Forces That Shape Us and the Writing That Endures

'Clarity is risk.'

catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-...

Those who cover up famine in Gaza use a familiar playbook The Israeli government is using the same method as many architects of calamity from the past 100 years

“Gaza’s famine is man-made. And those who are making it happen are doing their best to conceal their crime. The Israeli government is reading from the same playbook as many architects of calamity from the past 100 years.” - must read, by Alex de Waal 👇 observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

From One ICJ to Another

I fleshed out a few of my thoughts about the comms from the ICJ to remove Judge Sebutinde and @verfassungsblog.de were kind enough to publish them: verfassungsblog.de/from-one-icj...

A New Season for Respect the Marble Introducing "Etched in Marble: Conversations with Writers" & "Sunday Writer's Digest"

My Substack on writing, Respect the Marble is back! 🎉

I’ll be launching several new things this autumn, outlined here: catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/a-new-seas...

A quick preview 👇

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