Publications

ILGSPD Publication Series aims to showcase the work developed by the programme’s postgraduate students, in the form of a dissertation, working paper, or policy brief. Publications address themes of global security, peace and development, broadly understood, through the lens of international law, international relations, and/or sustainability.

Publication No 3/24: "The Open-Ended Working Group on Information and Communication Technologies: How do Russia and China Define Gaps in International Law?

In this background paper, Chloe Young traces the evolution of Russia and China’s perspectives on international law’s applicability in cyberspace, focusing on the two states’ contributions to the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Information and Communication Technologies since 2019. Reviewing a broad range of written and oral government statements, the paper demonstrates that Russia and China advocate for the creation of a new legally binding instrument on cyberspace due to the ‘alleged gaps’ in existing international law relating to the qualification of computer attacks as armed attacks, attribution of malicious cyber activity, definition of illegal cyber behaviour, establishing the responsibility of manufacturers, countering online terrorist activity, and addressing the dissemination of illegal online content. The paper also identifies Russia and China’s positions on which issues fall outside the OEWG’s mandate and the extent to which the existing international law applies in cyberspace.

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Publication No 2/24: "The European Court of Human Rights in a New Era: The Rising Trend of Rights-Based Climate Change Litigation"

This working paper by Rusudan Shashikadze focuses on rights-based climate change litigation before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). It identifies the legal challenges that the ECtHR is likely to face in its development of a climate change jurisprudence and explores potential legal approaches that the Court can adopt in response to these challenges, drawing on the jurisprudence of domestic and international courts that have to date dealt with climate change cases.

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Publication No 1/24: "Paving the Way to Paris: Sports Sanctions and the Russia-Ukraine War"

This background paper by Nina Valentini analyses the developments in the Olympic sports sanctions landscape in response to the Russia-Ukraine war, exploring the interplay of sports neutrality, peace, and human rights considerations in the decisions of the International Olympics Committee and International Sports Federations. In addition, the paper includes a rich compilation of sanctions imposed by International Sports Federations and political statements made by states, international organisations, and other international actors in this context.

Click here to download the background paper.