Juri Berger | Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, CH, Author at JURIST - Features

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Explainer: The judiciary corruption scandal rocking Romania

Juri Berger | Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, CH

December 23, 2025 02:44:00 pm

The state of judicial independence in Romania has come into the spotlight following one of the biggest corruption scandals in the country’s history and two weeks of mass protests in Bucharest calling for judicial reform, with tens of thousands taking to the streets. Why are Romanians taking to the streets? The demonstrations were sparked by [...]

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Features

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Gaza Exposes the Limits and Dangers of IHL’s Proportionality Rule

Juri Berger | Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, CH

December 18, 2025 04:02:55 pm

“That ratio is tremendously positive,” said Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Jonathan Conricus when asked in December 2023 about Israel’s assessment that its military had killed two Palestinian civilians for every one Hamas fighter. With these words, Conricus confirmed Israel’s point of view that killing two civilians for every enemy combatant was “proportionate,” given combat [...]

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THIS DAY @ LAW

Julius Caesar assassinated on Ides of March

Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated at the Roman Forum by a number of his own senators led by Marcus Brutus on March 15, 44 BC over concerns that he was becoming too powerful. The assassination wound up being a political failure as the Roman citizenry ended up becoming incensed at the conspirators and a civil war broke out, which Brutus and his supporters lost to Mark Antony and Octavian (later Augustus). William Shakespeare later wrote in his eponymous play about the assassination, "Beware the ides of March." Learn more about the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg born

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born on March 15, 1933.

Learn more about Justice Ginsburg from Oyez, the Supreme Court multimedia project at Northwestern University.

Code Napoleon promulgated

On March 15, 1803, the Code Napoleon (French Civil Code) was promulgated in France. The Code is considered the first successful legal code in Europe and is still used today as the basis for the modern French Civil Code. Napoleon's conquests spread his Code across the European Continent, influencing modern legal codes in Portugal, Austria, Italy, and other nations. Read a history of the Code Napoleon.