Student Commentary

Rising authoritarianism, armed conflicts, and technological upheaval are eroding the foundations of international law. One state, with no army, no economic might, and physically smaller than many college campuses, continues to exert global influence through the quiet power of moral authority and legal advocacy. The Vatican, long underestimated as a relic of medieval diplomacy, arguably [...]

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Introduction The proliferation of AI chatbots, especially those exhibiting discriminatory bias, hate speech, and the unauthorized use of public data, has raised significant ethical and legal concerns. A prominent example of these issues is the GPT-4chan bot, trained on data scraped from 4chan’s politically incorrect board (pol). Known for its chaotic nature and minimal moderation, [...]

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Johan Bakker, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A dangerous trend, all too familiar on American campuses, is seeping into European universities: the tendency for moral certainty to curdle into censorship, and for political fashion to harden into institutional policy. In the US, we’ve witnessed how campus politics can devolve into purity tests, where disagreement leads to disqualification, and where entire groups—often Jewish [...]

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Hungary announced its intention to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the beginning of April, an announcement that coincided with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the country’s capital. The visit took place amid a pending warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest issued by the ICC last November. The ICC’s Rome Statute obligates all [...]

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After the events following the seventh of October 2023, in May 2024, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC/Court) Prosecutor filed applications for arrest warrants for three Hamas Members, Israel’s prime minister, and the former Israeli minister of defense. Israel responded by challenging the Court’s jurisdiction. In November 2024, the ICC rebuffed Israel’s challenge as procedurally premature. [...]

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The United Kingdom’s approach to artificial intelligence (AI) regulation embodies a balance between fostering innovation and adhering to the fundamental principles of the rule of law. The UK has recognized the importance of creating an environment conducive to technological advancement while ensuring that AI systems are governed in a way that is ethical, transparent, and [...]

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On March 25, Trinidad and Tobago’s Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling that the country’s colonial-era “Buggery and Serious Indecency laws” are unconstitutional. The decision brought worldwide scrutiny and criticisms about backsliding human rights and what many rights groups deem the “re-criminalization of homosexuality.” The Court of Appeal’s reasoning in the decision is [...]

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Streets were silenced, businesses shuttered, and daily life reduced to hurried, masked visits to the grocery store. Such scenes seemed unthinkable, yet they became a reality as governments worldwide scrambled to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. While Western democratic leaders at first placed faith in isolating known infections, many ultimately followed in the [...]

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If Prime Minister Mark Carney wins the Canadian federal election, new Attorney General and Minister of Justice Gary Anandasangaree — appointed by Carney on March 14 — will likely remain in the role as he now faces a moment that directly parallels his earlier career as an international human rights lawyer advocating for Tamil victims [...]

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