Faculty Commentary

One year ago, Louisiana broke a 15-year halt on executions by debuting nitrogen hypoxia. Officials called Jessie Hoffman Jr.’s death “flawless,” yet their own reports noted “convulsive activity,” and media witnesses described twitching, clenched hands, head movements, and jerking as the gas took hold. This contradiction should shape our reflection a year later. The real [...]

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Julian Lupyan, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Do you approve the text of the law revising Articles 87, paragraph 10, 102, paragraph 1, 104, 105, 106, paragraph 3, 107, paragraph 1, and 110 of the Constitution, approved by Parliament and published in the Official Gazette no. 253 of 30 October 2025 under the title ‘Provisions Governing the Judicial System and the Establishment [...]

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A scientist, whether theorist or experimenter, puts forward statements or systems of statements, and tests them step by step. Karl R. Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959) In the many-sided conflict now underway against Iran (i.e., simultaneous and complementary operations led by the United States and Israel), little concern has been expressed for a [...]

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The establishment of the Special Tribunal on the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (STCA) marks a historic moment in the defense of the international legal order. Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine represents the most blatant act of aggression in Europe since the Second World War. The international community has responded with determination, culminating in the [...]

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The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The most dangerous wars are not the ones forced upon nations, but the ones they begin believing they can control. As the United States edges deeper into open conflict with Iran—a conflict Washington initiated with the confidence of a country accustomed to quick, decisive victories—we are drifting toward a strategic defeat of our own making. [...]

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SECWAR, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

US President Donald J. Trump has launched his most dangerous act of aggression yet on the world stage. Posterity will be taking copious notes on how the world responds.  Trump’s illegal February 28, 2026, attack on Iran came after he offered the Trojan horse of sham “diplomacy” to de-escalate a purported nuclear threat to the [...]

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The most striking aspect of the Trump administration’s legal argument for the attack on Iran is that, in practical terms, it simply does not exist. When President Donald Trump announced that the United States was “at war,” he claimed the strikes were intended to eliminate “imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” yet offered no evidence [...]

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U.S. Department of State, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Good faith, a form of honesty, is the lifeblood that flows through contracts, treaties and negotiations, leading to bargains, ceasefires, and the end of wars. Good faith presupposes sincerity of purpose. When parties come to the table to resolve a conflict, they assume that each side genuinely seeks a resolution. The demands may be excessive, [...]

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The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in Hunter v. United States, a case concerning when people can be forced to yield their rights through a plea “agreement.” It’s a case that, for at least one of the Court’s justices and a longtime critic of plea bargaining, is likely to resonate especially strongly: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, [...]

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At first glance, neither the June 2025 operation against Iran nor the follow-on attacks of late February 2026 carried any real risks of a nuclear conflict. Allegedly, in those large-scale military actions, cooperative efforts by Israel and the United States were launched to prevent Iranian nuclearization. Still, in any future armed conflict against the Islamic [...]

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