Melissa Stewart

Accountability for #Janjaweed crimes incl rape, murder, torture, forcible transfer. Pleased to see in particular the accountability for SGBV; some #justice for the many girls & women raped in this awful conflict & #genocide in #Sudan. I hope it will be a deterrent to those committing current crimes.

Is Israel breaking the law by stopping the Gaza-bound flotilla? According to a UN legal framework, a nation's territory does not extend beyond 19km from its shores but enforcing international maritime law is a challenge across the globe.

Yes, yes it is.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Richardson alumnus Julian Aguon ’09 wins the Right Livelihood Award, Sweden’s “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his groundbreaking climate justice work at the International Court of Justice.

Full announcement: law.hawaii.edu/29324/

#ClimateJustice #RightLivelihoodAward #RichardsonLaw

Job alert! We have a 5 year fixed term teaching-focussed position in our new Indo-Pacific Studies program. Can highly recommend UNSW Canberra as a place to work.

IPS is an emerging field, so applications welcome from cognate disciplines.

Details: external-careers.jobs.unsw.edu.au/cw/en/job/53...

US government faces brain drain as 154,000 federal workers exit this week More than 150,000 federal employees will leave the U.S. government payroll this week after accepting buyouts - the largest single-year exodus of civil servants in nearly 80 years, triggering what unions and governance experts warn is a damaging loss of institutional expertise.

(Reuters) - More than 150,000 federal employees will leave the U.S. government payroll this week after accepting buyouts - the largest single-year exodus of civil servants in nearly 80 years ..

@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Myanmar: Making sure there is no return On September 29, the UN Fact-Finding Mechanism on Myanmar publishes a report on “the destruction and seizure of Rohingya homes, farms, mosques, and other property in 2017.” An integral part of the gen...

The IIMM has released a report on the destruction of #Rohingya property in #Myanmar, positioning this as #genocide. I spoke to @janethanderson.bsky.social, who covered the report. www.justiceinfo.net/en/150350-my...

Just sat through a session where it was suggested that one potentially effective use of AI is to have students feed their illegal, non-consensual, undisclosed recordings of my lectures into the giant plagiarism machine to provide summaries of class sessions, & I am going to become The Joker 🤷‍♂️

In light of the Admin asking SCOTUS to end birthright citizenship, I am sharing the updated version of my forthcoming article, "Birthright Citizenship, Denaturalization, and the Specter of Statelessness."

(Still in progress. Comments still welcome.)

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

Good news on 17 January 2026 the #BBNJ will enter into force - such an important treaty. This is 120 days after the date of deposit of the sixtieth instrument of ratification.

treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDe...

43. Emergency cast: Israel's blockade of Gaza This week Tamsin Phillipa Paige and Douglas Guilfoyle discuss the IDF's interdiction of the Madleen aid vessel bound for Gaza, the law of blockade in naval warfare, and its contested relationship with

I will be on ABC Radio National's PM program today discussing the illegality of Israel's blockade of Gaza (tldr: you can lawfully declare a blockade in international armed conflict, but not to starve civilians).

We have a deeper dive on the issues here:
soundcloud.com/calledtotheb...

@mstewartscience.bsky.social

Justice Eddins went even further in a concurrence joined by two other justices. He flamed the U.S. Supreme Court for choosing to "steamroll" the First Amendment's separation of church and state by mandating government support of religion. He wrote: The federal wall cracks. The Supreme Court's recent religious clause cases wreck the relationship between free exercise and non-establishment.... The Roberts Court casually dismisses the lessons of American and world history, the warnings of prominent early Americans, and the judiciary's storied legal minds. Bad things happen unless government and religion are completely separated. Justice Eddins also wrote about something you and I have been talking about for a long time, which is the conservative supermajority making up facts. He called out Kennedy v. Bremerton, the notorious "praying coach" case, writing: "As it often does, the Court repackaged and whitewashed facts to achieve a desired outcome." This is the same point that Sherrilyn Ifill has made on the show about how the record in that case, and so many others, is ignored.

I am pleased to report that Hawaii Supreme Court Justice Todd Eddins has dropped another total evisceration of the Supreme Court.

He says originalism is a fraud—and the Republican justices are shamelessly making up facts and history to impose radical Christian nationalism: slate.com/news-and-pol...

📣Call for applications: Dialogues on Mobility, Surveillance & Resistance JAN 26–30, 26 Tijuana, Mexico
Organized by International Migration Institute & University of Amsterdam's Decolonial Futures Research Priority Area.
Apply by SEP 25. Funding available! www.migrationinstitute.org/imi-archive/...

📣 Call for Papers 📣

Citizenship Challenges for Children and Young People: Barriers, Borders, and Bureaucracy in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives 🌍🚧📜

📝 Abstracts: 20 Oct 2025
📄 Drafts: 31 Mar 2026
📍 Workshop: Barcelona, 14–15 May 2026 (TBC)
✅ Final Paper: 17 Jul 2026

Full Details 👇

3. I was granted withholding of removal by an immigration judge in the Otero Immigration Court on April 30, 2025 on account of the likelihood that I would be persecuted or killed Case 1:25-cv-03135-TSC Document 21-1 Filed 09/13/25 Page 2 of 5 if removed to Nigeria. My wife is a U.S. citizen. She filed an I-130 petition on my behalf for me to receive a family visa. That petition was approved four months ago. 4. I am currently detained in Dema Camp in Ghana, where myself and other people who were also deported from the United States are being imprisoned. We are constantly surrounded by military guards.

5. I am originally from Nigeria. In Nigeria, I was a member of one of Nigeria's main political parties, the P.D.P. In 2018, 1 started being violently targeted by members of the ruling political party, the A.P.C. In November 2018, members of the A.P.C. beat me and other party leaders with plank woods, iron rods, and machetes. The attacks escalated from then and happened several times until I left Nigeria. 6. I fled Nigeria in 2019 after being tortured by the military and police officers for the Nigerian Department of State Services. They tortured me and kept me locked in a dog cage for three days until they let me go and told me they would kill me if they ever saw me again. After this incident I had to leave Nigeria to save my life. 7. Nothing in Nigeria has gotten better since I left. The situation in the country has become worse. The political party that targeted me is still in power.

9. The officer finally told me that we were going to Ghana. I told him that I am afraid of going to Ghana and that I cannot go to Ghana. 10. He told us "whether you like it or not, your ass is getting on that plane." He then straitjacketed me extremely tightly, tying me from my shoulders to my feet. 11. I was put onto a military plane with the other people who were taken from their cells. I remained straitjacketed for several hours until I pleaded with the officers to remove it so that I could use the restroom. I begged the officers over and over again to take off the straitjacket so that I could use the restroom, otherwise I would urinate on myself. They finally removed the restraints on my legs after pleading with them for a long time, but left the restraints on my upper body.

23. We are all afraid for our lives. We are not safe here, and now they are planning to hand us over to our country's government for further persecution and torture. We don't know what our futures hold. 24. We urgently need help. We do not want to meet with government officials of our countries or to be returned to those countries. I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on September 13, 2025. /s/ Signature September 13. 2025 Date

It is truly horrifying what is being alleged against the Trump administration in the Ghana case.

Here is from an affidavit filed in the case today: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

@who.int is doing all we can to alleviate suffering & evacuate those who need urgent medical care outside Gaza.

The urgent problem we face is that too few countries are willing to receive them.

We call for countries to open their arms to these critically ill patients.

This is known as "chain refoulment" and yes, it's a violation of international law.

How a Group of Students in the Pacific Islands Reshaped Global Climate Law

Inspiring article (gift link) highlighting the important role that a group of student activists from the Pacific Islands played in bringing about the International Court of Justice's momentous climate ruling. Features Solomon Yeo, a recent LLM student @uhawaiilaw.bsky.social.

Table 1. Countries Designated for TPS, as of March 31, 2025 Country Recent Decisions Required Arrival Datea Expiration Dateb Approved Individualsc Afghanistan Termination September 20, 2023 July 14, 2025 8,105 Burma Extension and redesignation March 21, 2024 November 25, 2025 3,670 Cameroon Termination October 5, 2023 August 4, 2025 4,920 El Salvador Extension February 13, 2001 September 9, 2026 170,125 Ethiopia Extension and redesignation April 11, 2024 December 12, 2025 4,540 Haiti Partial vacatur of extension, termination June 3, 2024 February 3, 2026 330,735 Honduras Termination December 30, 1998 September 8, 2025 51,225 Lebanon New designation October 16, 2024 May 27, 2026 140 Nepal Termination June 24, 2015 August 5, 2025 7,160 Nicaragua Termination December 30, 1998 September 8, 2025 2,910 Somalia Extension and redesignation July 12, 2024 March 17, 2026 705 South Sudan Extension September 4, 2023 November 3, 2025 210 Sudan Extension August 16, 2023 October 19, 2026 1,790 Syria Extension and redesignation January 25, 2024 September 30, 2025 3,860 Ukraine Extension August 16, 2023 October 19, 2026 101,150 Venezuela (2021) Extension March 8, 2021 September 10, 2025 252,825 Venezuela (2023) Termination July 31, 2023 April 7, 2025 (or October 2, 2026)d 352,190 Yemen Extension and redesignation July 2, 2024 March 3, 2026 1,380 Total 1,297,635

Trump has stripped, or moved to strip, Temporary Protected Status from over:

- 605,000 Venezuelans
- 330,700 Haitians
- 51,200 Hondurans,
- 8,100 Afghans
- 7,100 Nepalese
- 4,900 Cameroonians
- 2,900 Nicaraguans

These figures don't even count the hundreds of thousands of parole terminations.

NEW: This morning the Trump admin put out the Federal Register notice terminating the 2021 TPS designation for Venezuela. It is set to end 60 days from Monday, or Friday, November 7.

This termination brings the number of people Trump has stripped TPS from to at least 1 million.

Episode 141 – Defining Genocide with Melanie O’Brien Experts are saying Israel’s action in Gaza are genocide. How do they come to this conclusion? Melanie O’Brien guides us through the elements they consider. Do like, subscribe and leave …

Can Israel’s actions in Gaza be described as a genocide? How do you prove special intent and separate legitimate self-defence from international crime? @DrMelOB explains the different elements she and other academics have to consider.
Episode out now👇
www.asymmetricalhaircuts.com/episodes/epi...

7. At all of the shelters visited in the middle of the night, ProBAR staff witnessed children who had been pulled out of their beds. They were confused and scared. At Hands of Healing Los Fresnos, one young girl was extremely distraught, crying and repeatedly saying that she could not go back to Guatemala. At New Hope McAllen, one young girl was so scared that she vomited and asked to speak with a clinician. At Urban Strategies Alamo, one young teenager was scared that he might end up murdered like one of his family members. At Compass Connection in Harlingen, an attorney was able to meet with only one child. None of these children’s parents in their home country had requested their return. ProBAR’s client and named Plaintiff ARMD was at Compass Connection, but he was transported to a plane without notifying me as his attorney of record.

🚨NEW: Declarations filed in the lawsuit against the rushed attempt to deport 600 Guatemalan children reveals the chaotic way the Trump admin carried out the operation.

Children were taken out of bed after midnight to be rushed onto planes. One girl "was so scared she vomited."

🚨 ATTN: Early career scholars and future authors! 🚨We hope you join us at the ASIL Midyear Meeting to discuss the craft of international legal scholarship, the opportunities to publish in the Journal, and some tips for navigating the peer review process. asil.org/midyear-meet...

Texas Law Academic Fellowships We are delighted to announce the launch of the Texas Law Academic Fellowships program.  The program supports individuals who are committed to obtaining an appointment as a tenure-track member of a law...

Texas Law has a new academic fellowship program. Please share with any aspiring legal academics!

(The first fellow started this summer and I can say the level of mentorship, support, and inclusion of fellows is exceptional)

Old enough to remember the outrage in the United States when Serb forces killed Bosnian civilians fetching water during the siege of Sarajevo.

Haley is a star and a wonderful colleague and friend. Any school would be lucky to have her.

A dramatic, extremely worrying moment; over 61,000 people held in ICE detention. That is the highest number ever on record in United States history; roughly 6,000 higher than the previous record set under Trump six years ago, and over 21,000 higher than when Trump took office just seven months ago.

Breaking News: Read three top CDC officials' resignation emails. The end of an era.

Enough is enough. The health of the country is in danger. Read our resignation letters: insidemedicine.substack.com/p/breaking-n...

The Resignation Letter Of Dr. Demetre C. Daskalakis Of The Centers For Disease Control "FIRE HIM"- wrote Senator Patty Murray tonight about the deeply malevolent Robert Kennedy after a day of extraordinary chaos

Demetre Daskalakis' resignation letter. One for the history books. www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/the-resign...