In light of some of the news this past week about U.S. coercion of Minneapolis and Venezuela, I am posting an unpublished talk I gave @brooklynlawschool.bsky.social that draws on the work of @himself.bsky.social @abenewman.bsky.social @harlangcohen.bsky.social. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

In a political moment when the left sounds like the right with slightly better manners, Pedro Sánchez suggests trying something unfashionable: policy. 'Western nations must choose between becoming closed and impoverished societies, or open and prosperous ones.' www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/o...

International Law and Diplomacy in a Changing World Join Dr Francisco J. Quintana in conversation with Mario Oyarzábal on international law, diplomacy, and law-making in a changing global order. 🗓 Fri 6 Feb 2026 | ⏰ 13:00–14:00 | 📍 Old College Find out more and register: https://edin.ac/49Ufy2x

Saw No Other Choice, by Park Chan-wook. Made me think a lot about the tension between having a vocation and having a job in the present context. Hard not to connect that to academia (and Marina's post below) right now.

Looking forward to hosting a conversation with Mario Oyarzábal on how the day-to-day work of international law continues even as the international order appears to be fracturing. Join us, in person, at Edinburgh Law School, next Friday February 6: www.law.ed.ac.uk/news-events/...

'Fighting for a seat at a table that is on fire': great post by Marina on early career academia.

'If Europe wants to retain its independence, it needs to commit to action. The anti-coercion instrument, for all its faults, is the best option that Europe has.' @himself.bsky.social for @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/o...

The EU really does not understand the state of the world.

The U.S. cannot afford not to care: a massive dump of U.S. Treasuries would seriously harm the dollar. Of course, it’s very likely that Europe would be similarly harmed. A slower, progressive diversification away from U.S. assets should be underway, though - and harm the U.S. in the medium term.

I spoke with BBC Mundo about the Drago Doctrine: a Latin American pushback against using force to collect public debts. Latin America's early history of decolonisation helped make it a champion of non-intervention, a key principle that now looks increasingly fragile. www.bbc.com/mundo/articl...

Regarding United States Action in Venezuela

"[...] "planetary" has emerged as conceptual alternative to the "global", which had itself emerged as an alternative to the "international". Yet these semantic shifts remains superficial if they do not grapple with the deeper conceptual question: How is the earth written, by whom, and to what ends?"

This is the best explanation I've seen about the role of Guyana's oil in what just happened in Venezuela—something @fjquintana.com also alluded to on here yesterday. I still think that only gets you about 40-60% of the way to invasion without Rubio or Miller manipulating Trump for their own ends.

US attacks on Venezuela and the abduction of Nicolás Maduro raise profound legal and geopolitical concerns, with implications well beyond Venezuela itself. In a new post co-authored with Julian Arato, we examine the attack and its broader consequences under international law.

It's a particularly good day to re-read Walter LaFeber's classic 'Inevitable Revolutions: the United States in Central America'. openlibrary.org/books/OL2135...

This is a great interdisciplinary call for papers on world-making!

🌟 Call for papers 🌟 'How is the earth written, by whom and to what ends? And how is it written through law? What distinguishes the planetary, the global & the international—and how might these distinctions matter legally?' Join us in Florence in June! @eui-eu.bsky.social @uoelawschool.bsky.social

This feels like a crime against reading. Berman did not consent to this AI butcher job.

Thinking of submitting to the European Journal of International Law and wondering how the review process works? 💡 Check out this EJIL info video ⬇️

Time to make my first ever donation to Wikipedia.

Few things put me off an article faster than needless hostility towards other authors.

Delighted to see JIEL 28(3) out in the world, which includes my article 'Dollar Dominance, De-Dollarisation, and International Law'. The rest of the issue is packed with sharp work (inc @jbentonheath.bsky.social, @dcpeat.bsky.social, @elenachachko.bsky.social). academic.oup.com/jiel/article...

What does de-dollarisation mean in practice? How does it relate to global law and governance? My article 'Dollar Dominance, De-Dollarization, and International Law' is now out in JIEL. I present dollar dominance and de-dollarisation as competing legal institutions. academic.oup.com/jiel/advance...

Had a good reading day while preparing a lecture on customary law for the Global Law LLB at the @uoelawschool.bsky.social. From William Twining, ‘The Camel in the Zoo’ in Law in Context: Enlarging a Discipline (Oxford University Press 1997):

What does de-dollarisation mean in practice? How does it relate to global law and governance? My article 'Dollar Dominance, De-Dollarization, and International Law' is now out in JIEL. I present dollar dominance and de-dollarisation as competing legal institutions. academic.oup.com/jiel/advance...

One Battle After Another. That’s the tweet.

"The MAGA assault on the Fed poses the awkward but important question: What kind of central bank should we want for America? A sensible discussion about that question cannot start from political innocence. How we generate credit and money will always be political." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/o...

Critique need not propose, but it must orient. Otherwise it’s just noise.

Conor Gearty was, without hesitation, the best academic writer I’ve read. He was also a thoroughly decent and kind human being who fearlessly used his position speak truth to power. Conor did law, politics and academia the right way and he will be sorely missed. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.

this is truly terrible news. a great scholar and thinker who used his voice and academic standing for all the right causes.

I v much enjoyed reading this provocative and important indictment of 'contributionism' in the historiography of international law in Latin America by M. Díaz Chalela and @samuelmoyn.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

This week, despite Venezuela's 2012 denunciation of the American Convention, the IACtHR held that Venezuela remains bound. Why? Because Guaidó re-ratified the Convention, retroactive to 2013, in 2019. The catch? Maduro was incumbent before and after Guaidó, and, arguably, during Guaidó. Read👇

Maduro, Guaidó, and the Two-Government Paradox in Chirinos Salamanca v Venezuela | by Francisco J. Quintana and Justina Uriburu

Waiting for the liberal IR monograph explaining how emperors make their horses senators assuming they can control them but then discovering that horses often socialise into norm entrepreneurs.

Given Judge Sebutinde has years of her term left, this would be the right move by the other court members - it’s clear that there can be no impartiality in future proceedings

☁️ South America’s sovereignty is being lost in Big Tech’s cloud IIPP Prof. @ceciliarikap.bsky.social calls for South American governments to stand up to #BigTech firms extracting data, knowledge and natural resources from the region. ✍️ Read her new @opendemocracy.net article here: buff.ly/9UFbU8L

Just back from the LASIL (SLADI) Biennial in Montevideo, where ~100 scholars met for three days of rich, honest debate on international law, politics, and Latin America’s role in the world. Grateful to co-organise with amazing colleagues. See you in Mexico City 2027!

There is a risk of thinking that because so much of Trump's trade talk is just diplomacy theatre that it doesn't matter much. But I got another lesson last week about why even posturing on trade matters last week--from my kid's orthodontist 1/4

Preliminary EU-US trade deal reached. It sets a 15 percent tariff on most E.U. goods, including cars Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...

I'm delighted to be heading to Brasília 🇧🇷 for @icon-s.bsky.social 2025. I’ll be presenting my work on dollar dominance and de-dollarisation in a panel discussion with B. Kingsbury, D. Petrova, and A. Rodiles. If you're around and would like to meet up for a coffee, do reach out!

King's 'Maradona theory of interest rates': By duping defenders into thinking he would change direction, Maradona scored without having to do so. Central banks can guide expectations of future interest rates so that inflation targets can be met without big changes. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

There is, undoubtedly, much to say about the ICJ’s landmark advisory opinion on Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change. In this post, Julian and I begin by unpacking the Court’s treatment of the sources of international law governing climate change and how those sources interact.

ICJ opinion says states are legally obligated to tackle climate change

ICJ Advisory Opinion on climate change:

A fair question. It could be a make-or-break moment for the Court. I'm critical of grandiose yet ultimately apolitical judgments (see IACtHR). But if the ICJ had not even tried to jolt states out of complacency on something as vital as climate change, what, then, would make it so worth preserving?

Jaime Torres Bodet was a Mexican writer, diplomat and university professor who served as the second Director-General of UNESCO (1948-1952). His writings express a bygone era when international law and diplomacy functioned as ambitious languages and practices of worldmaking in and from Latin America.