Professional Commentary

As a criminal defense attorney practicing post-conviction law for nearly twenty years, I’ve watched the Supreme Court whittle away convicted defendants’ right to contest their wrongful state convictions. The most recent example is the Supreme Court’s opinion in Shinn v. Martinez Ramirez, which prevents prisoners from entering federal court to litigate claims that were forfeited [...]

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The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, recently described the Russian ‘military operations’ in Ukraine as war and stated that Turkey would exercise its powers under the Montreux Convention to restrict the entry of warships into the Black Sea to restore peace. It was later announced that the Turkish Straits, linking the Black Sea to the [...]

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ELG21 / Pixabay

Since February 24, the war in Ukraine has left at least 15.7 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection (UN OCHA). Many humanitarian agencies have scaled up their operations in response to the dramatic humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and its neighboring countries. But in a war that has seen large-scale attacks on [...]

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Wikimedia Commons / GoToVan

“…Ukraine is not just a neighbouring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space. These are our comrades, those dearest to us – not only colleagues, friends and people who once served together, but also relatives, people bound by blood, family ties.” — Address by the President [...]

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Wikimedia Commons / Kwh1050

Before February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin had an “off ramp.” He could have withdrawn troops from Russia’s border with Ukraine and slinked away to an island. However, several developments have eliminated the possibility of an “off ramp.” On February 28, 2022, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced he opened an investigation into “alleged war [...]

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Wikimedia Commons / GoToVan

After having taken regional peace for granted for almost 80 years, or at least, having conceived war as an external and far away threat to a much-coveted equilibrium, on Thursday, February 26, Europe woke up stunned and dazed by the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. In the framework of a comprehensive and largely unprecedented financial, [...]

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