International Law in Brief

Photo by Michele Benericetti (CC BY-ND 2.0)

On October 6, 2025, the European Commission released a revised amendment to the EU-Morocco trade agreement concerning Western Sahara, a territory disputed between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front. Listed by the UN as a “non-self-governing territory,” Western Sahara has been under Moroccan occupation since 1975. Its people, the Sahrawi, continue to seek independence, while the region remains contested.

The amendment responds to rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which emphasized that...

On October 26, 2025, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment. The Declaration takes place in a context of increasing regional environmental degradation and climate vulnerability in Southeast Asia. It also goes along with growing international recognition, under the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN General Assembly’s 2022 resolution on the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, that environmental protection constitutes a fundamental human right...

On September 18, 2025, the Russian Federation filed an application before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), appealing a decision of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The underlying dispute concerned the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. In March 2022, Australia and the Netherlands initiated the proceedings before the ICAO Council, under Article 84 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention). The submission alleged that Russia violated its obligations under the Chicago...

On October 3, 2025, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released an inquiry report finding that France committed grave and systemic violations of the rights of unaccompanied migrant children. Conducted under Article 13 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the inquiry revealed serious flaws in France’s age-assessment procedures. The Committee found that the presumption of minority, which ensures children are treated as such until proven otherwise, is applied only until an initial decision is made. Once classified as adults, many are excluded from...