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Melissa Stewart

@melissastewart.bsky.social
4.6K followers 1K following 514 posts

Associate Professor of Law ~ University of Connecticut School of Law & Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute Public International Law | Human Rights | Statelessness | Int’l Environmental Law

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Reposted by Melissa Stewart
Dr Juliette McIntyre 🩷💚 🏳️‍🌈 @drnajimagi.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Went all the way to The Hague to watch Nicaragua v. Germany may as well write about it too t.co/o3CB9sPSU0
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Rebecca Ingber @becingber.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
In 1909 E.M. Forster wrote a short story, a warning about a world in which humans would cease to understand their own technological creations. It’s a quick read; here’s the PDF. (Apropos of nothing … )
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Cris van Eijk @crisveijk.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Hey quick question - can an Executive Order supersede multiple bilateral treaties that use 'Lake Ontario' as a critical part of defining scope, and require mutual agreement to amend? L: Protocol to the Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality, art 1(j) R: Convention On Great Lakes Fisheries, art I
Excerpt from Protocol to the Agreement on Great Lakes Water Quality (as amended) (signed 7 Sept 2012, in force 12 Feb 2013) 3125 UNTS 26, art 1(j)

"() "Waters of the Great Lakes" means the waters of Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario and the connecting river systems of St. Marys, St. Clair including Lake St. Clair, Detroit, Niagara and St. Lawrence at the international boundary or upstream from the point at which this river becomes the international boundary between Canada and the United States, including all open and nearshore waters."Convention On Great Lakes Fisheries (signed 10 Sept 1954, in force 11 Oct 1955) 238 UNTS 97, article I

"This Convention shall apply to Lake Ontario (including the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario to the forty-fifth parallel of latitude), Lake Erie, Lake Huron (including Lake St. Clair), Lake Michigan, Lake Superior and their connecting waters, hereinafter referred to as "the Convention Area". This Convention shall also apply to the tributaries of each of the above waters to the extent necessary to investigate any stock of fish of common concern, the taking or habitat of which is confined predominantly to the Convention Area, and to eradicate or minimize the populations of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) in the Convention Area.
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NPR @npr.org · 25/08/2026
The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States. n.pr/4zwqYnP
n.pr
US set for largest mass visa revocation in history targeting up to 200,000 foreigners, officials say
The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum status in the United States.
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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft @maxplanck.de · 25/08/2026
The world’s #oceans simmered to their hottest temperatures on record over the weekend. They and are likely to warm even further in the next few months, putting stress on life in the water and on land too, the European #climate service Copernicus announced. @apnews.com @copernicusmarine.bsky.social
apnews.com
Earth is simmering in its hottest water temps on record, and that's bad for fish and us
The European climate service Copernicus says the world's oceans have reached their hottest temperature on record.
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Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
"Even with tonight’s [Supreme Court] stay, section 3 [of the Executive Order on mail-in ballots] remains blocked; the USPS Final Rule remains frozen." Always grateful for the clear-eyed and lightening fast analysis by @stevevladeck.bsky.social. www.stevevladeck.com/p/246-making...
stevevladeck.com
246. Making Sense of the Mail-in Ballots Ruling
The Supreme Court’s grant of a stay in one of the mail-in ballot cases is deeply wrong, but it’s also not the main event over whether Trump’s patently unlawful executive order can take effect.
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SlenderSherbet @slendersherbet.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Éclipse totale du chat.
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Yael Schacher @yaelschacher.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
So many immigrants I've interviewed break down about this. "Monsanto Maler was one of several Haitian immigrants who traveled from Springfield for a check in...after an ankle monitor was attached to him, Maler was seen collapsing to the ground and crying." www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/hundre...
springfieldnewssun.com
Hundreds rally at site were Haitians required to check-in, get monitors after end of TPS
Hundreds of people gathered outside a federal immigration office Sunday morning to show support for Haitian immigrants from Springfield who were called to report for immigration check-ins.
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Melissa Stewart @melissastewart.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Excellent post by Guy Goodwin-Gill on the Supreme Court's failure in Al Toro Lado to engage in any meaningful analysis of U.S. obligations under international law or Art. 33 of the Refugee Convention. opiniojuris.org/2026/08/06/w...
opiniojuris.org
Wrong in 1993, Still Wrong in 2026: Al Otro Lado and Incompetence in the US Supreme Court
[Guy S. Goodwin-Gill is Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Emeritus Professor of International Refugee Law, University of Oxford] In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Coast Guard …
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Adil Haque @adhaque.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
The ICJ will hold public hearings on preliminary objections in Nicaragua v. Germany on September 7-10. Nicaragua alleges that Germany is complicit in genocide and failed to ensure respect for IHL in Gaza. Germany argues the claims are inadmissible because Israel is an 'indispensable third party'.
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Asaf Lubin @asaflubin.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Come work with me! We’re hiring in law and technology, cybersecurity law, AI law, IP law, national security law, and international law, as well as other areas!
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Melissa Stewart @melissastewart.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
One of my first real concerts was seeing The Frames at the Black Cat in 2005. Glen Hansard blew my mind. I played his album Rhythm and Repose on repeat for years whenever I needed comfort in the form of song. And when I had a small band in the Berkshires, Falling Slowly was a go to cover.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
In Cisco, #SCOTUS not only (unpersuasively) eviscerated the Alien Tort Statute, but it effectively neutered a 22-year-old precedent for no other reason than that the Republican appointees disagree w/ it. Today’s “One First” goes deep into the ruling—and why stare decisis is really *is* for suckers:
stevevladeck.com
240. The Rise and Fall of the Alien Tort Statute
The Court's June 23 ruling in Cisco was significant not only for what it means for human rights accountability, but for the justices' approach to stare decisis.
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Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
“Worryingly, research is beginning to indicate that shifting too much “cognitive load” onto AI can lead to the atrophy of core intellectual processes, including memory, concentration and analytical skills.” www.smh.com.au/national/nev...
smh.com.au
‘Never-skilling’: High school rush to AI threatens to create a generation of dunces
Research is beginning to indicate that reliance on AI can lead to the atrophy of core intellectual processes, including memory, concentration and analytical skills.
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Harlan G. Cohen @harlangcohen.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
In this issue: 3 Book Reviews: (1) @annetrebilcock.bsky.social reviews International Organization Initiatives: How and Why Organizations Adapt and Change, edited by Gabrielle Marceau and @hgoett.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/ysy6hyks
tinyurl.com
International Organization Initiatives: How and Why Organizations Adapt and Change. Edited by Gabrielle Marceau and Henner Gött, assisted by Akshaya Venkataraman and Ana Balcazar-Moreno. Oxford, UK: O...
International Organization Initiatives: How and Why Organizations Adapt and Change. Edited by Gabrielle Marceau and Henner Gött, assisted by Akshaya Venkataraman and Ana Balcazar-Moreno. Oxford, UK: O...
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Harlan G. Cohen @harlangcohen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
In this issue: @keitnerlaw.com's “State Responsibility as Myth and Legend” uses Alan Tzvika Nissel’s Merchants of Legalism+Allison Powers Useche’s Arbitrating Empire to explore how late 19th/early 20th cent. arbitration furthered subordination yet created frameworks for justice: tinyurl.com/fp5kubyk
tinyurl.com
State Responsibility as Myth and Legend | American Journal of International Law | Cambridge Core
State Responsibility as Myth and Legend - Volume 120 Issue 3
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
On Tuesday, the full Fifth Circuit granted DOJ's request for a "precedential stay" of district court rulings holding that the Due Process Clause requires bond hearings for immigration detainees w/in 90 days of their arrest. Today's "One First" explains why that's a really big (and problematic) deal:
stevevladeck.com
Bonus 239: The Fifth Circuit's "Precedential Stay" in Sosnava Rodriguez
The Fifth Circuit once again did the government's bidding on immigration detention—this time through an unexplained procedural move I've never seen before.
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Boyd van Dijk @boydvandijk.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
The UNHCR archives in Geneva are at risk; reading room already closed - and there's a much broader 'humanitarian archive emergency' ongoing with aid budget cuts. www.aretenews.com/unhcr-refuge...
aretenews.com
As aid funds shrink, archivists warn of risks to the humanitarian record
UNHCR's archives are a test case for humanitarians struggling to preserve institutional memory in an era of retrenchment.
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Adil Haque @adhaque.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Jon Finer, Biden’s deputy national-security adviser said that, for both Hamas and Israel, “civilian harm was not a side effect but part of the strategy.” The U.S., he said, “shouldn’t tolerate wars in which civilian harm is a goal, [or] allow our weapons to be used for that purpose.”
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Jacob Katz Cogan @jkatzcogan.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
dlvr.it
Call for Papers: ASIL International Law & Social Science Interest Group Biennial Conference
A call for papers has been issued for the Biennial Conference of the American Society of International Law's International Law & Social Science Interest Group, which will take place January 29-30, 2027, at UCLA School of Law. The call is here.      
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 18/07/2026
Yesterday the US Administration supercharged its explicit effort to bar international students from staying in the US after graduation. All Americans should know: 1/3 of *all* STEM PhDs working in the US are immigrants who graduated from US universities, then stayed. www.piie.com/index%2Ephp/...
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Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 07/07/2026
BREAKING: in June 2026, *every single one* of the 1,062 refugees admitted in the U.S. were white South Africans. In FY 2026, the U.S. has admitted a total of 7,727 white South Africans, three Afghans (back in November), and nobody else. For reference, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees in 2024.
rpc.state.gov
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Amanda Frost @amandafrost.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
The Other Case for Birthright Citizenship
The legal arguments are clear. Now proponents need to start defending the practice on policy grounds.
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
If "domicile" is what matters, what about two U.S. citizens domiciled in Europe who fly back to the U.S. to have a baby. Is their baby a birthright citizen under the 14th Amendment, or only thanks to "jus sanguinis" laws passed by Congress? These and many other questions go unanswered by Thomas.
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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I think a lot of people underestimate how complicated life could get if your birth certificate wasn't accepted as prima facie evidence of US citizenship, absent some new federal bureaucracy that vetted and registered qualified births.
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Verfassungsblog @verfassungsblog.de · 30/06/2026
Is irregular status just a category that vulnerable people happen to fall into – or itself a source of vulnerability? PEDRO SANZ DÍAZ on what Spain's extraordinary regularisation reveals about the legal architecture of migrant vulnerability. verfassungsblog.de/vulnerabilit...
Quote from the published piece by Pedro Sanz Díaz: “Vulnerability is not simply discovered by law; it may also be produced, intensified, or alleviated by it.”
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Early last year, I wrote about what I called the "rule-of-law" split on the Supreme Court—where Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Barrett joined the three Democratic appointees in 5-4 rulings. Cook was an example of this yesterday; the Fourteenth Amendment holding in Barbara is a bigger one today.
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
And a lest we forget Justice Kavanaugh writes separately because while he agrees with the judgment in this case that Trump cannot change birthright citizenship by EO, he believes that Congress can by statute create exceptions to birthright citizenship that would mirror the provisions of Trump’s EO.
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
I am stunned that the constitutional question was so close. I thought it would be 6–3 or 7–2. It is profoundly disturbing that four justices would allow either the president or Congress to rewrite the plain text of the 14th Amendment. This is obviously a good outcome, but the margin is alarming.
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Kavanaugh concurs and dissents in part: He holds that Trump's order does NOT violate the 14th Amendment, but does violate a federal statute. He says Congress could change the statute to effectuate Trump's order in the future. Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The Supreme Court strikes down Trump's attack on birthright citizenship. By a 5–4 vote, it holds that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born of unauthorized and temporary immigrants. Roberts and Barrett join the three liberals. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...
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Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Donald Trump came one vote away from getting the Supreme Court to say that the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented and temporary immigrants, a view held only by fringe far-right nativists until VERY recently. This is shocking. I am stunned.
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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
2 more thoughts on birthright: 1. The movement to overturn Roe and Humphrey's Executor was built over decades. It took an enormous amount of effort to manufacture that sense of scholarly viability (see: Teles, Hollis-Brusky). The right got 5-4 on birthright with a sloppy last-minute scramble
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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
But 5-4 on the text of the constitution is pretty shocking!
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ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
With this ruling, the birthright issue is not going away. The right hasn't really begun *organizing* around getting rid of the citizenship clause. Like Roe, this will be their fight for a generation. And if the Democrats just say "we won" and ignore it, like Roe, the Republicans will eventually win.
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Douglas Guilfoyle @djag2.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
New #CalledToTheBar! A roadshow episode recorded at the workshop "Australia’s Relationship with the UN Security Council" feat. @dchovell.bsky.social. Conversations reflect on Australia’s role in the UNSC over eight decades, looking both backwards & to future challenges soundcloud.com/calledtotheb...
soundcloud.com
81. Australia and the Security Council: ANU Roadshow
In this roadshow episode, recorded at the workshop Australia’s Relationship with the UN Security Council: Eighty Years and Counting at the Australian National University, Douglas Guilfoyle, Imogen Sau
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Mike Becker @mikebecker.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
New #ICJ case: DRC accuses Rwanda of violating the Genocide Convention, CERD, CEDAW, and CAT. We've been down this road before; the ICJ dismissed another DRC v Rwanda case back in 2006 for lack of jurisdiction. 20 years later, have those problems been overcome? www.icj-cij.org/sites/defaul...
icj-cij.org
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Stuart Elden @stuartelden.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Salvador Santino Regilme ed., Statelessness and Citizenship Revocation in Europe: Rethinking Politics, Law, Security, and Human Rights - De Gruyter Brlll, July 2026 www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Cover of book - text in white in large blue rectangle, with bottom left photograph of barbed wire and border infrastructure
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Bec Hamilton @bechamilton.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
#SCOTUS Cisco decision was a travesty. But the accountability landscape is wider than the ATS. Esp. in this moment, with AI companies posing immense risks for the enabling of atrocities, it is on all of us to step up and support the myriad pathways to justice: www.justsecurity.org/144005/justi...
justsecurity.org
Seeking Justice the Day After SCOTUS Killed the Alien Tort Statute
The Supreme Court's decision closes one door in transnational accountability, but other paths remain for survivors to pursue justice.
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Bec Hamilton @bechamilton.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Must-read by @becingber.bsky.social Law profs in my feed especially, pay attn to the final paragraph: democracyproject.org/posts/the-wa...
democracyproject.org
The War on International Law in the United States: Rebuilding a Constituency for the Rule of Law
A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.
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Kate Jackson @katejackson.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
So we have to give our articles to AI for free if we want to post on SSRN?!? www.stephenbainbridge.com/p/the-social...
stephenbainbridge.com
The Social Science Research Network Has Jumped the Shark
Significant and unwelcome changes to what had been legal academia's major open source scholarly repository and notice system
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Melissa Stewart @melissastewart.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Truer words....
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Michael Smith @msmith750.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Close up photo of a heron in the middle of eating a fish. The fish is visible in the heron's mouth and is staring out in terror. The fish is labeled "My Summer Writing Plans" and the heron is labeled "Moving"
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Boyd van Dijk @boydvandijk.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The Rise of International Environmental Law, 1946–1993: Narrow Limits and Extensive Tasks - by Outi Penttilä & Martti Koskenniemi academic.oup.com/ejil/article...
academic.oup.com
The Rise of International Environmental Law, 1946–1993: Narrow Limits and Extensive Tasks
Abstract. Environmental lawyers have devoted little attention to their discipline’s past, and when they have done so, they have often narrated the past as
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Heike Krieger @heikekrieger.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Interested in IHL and Courts? Submit an abstract to the most recent call for papers of the Yearbook of IHL! For further information, see here: docs.google.com/document/d/e...
docs.google.com
Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, Volume 29 (2026) – Call for Abstracts
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 13/05/2026
An ICE removal flight operated by Journey Aviation just landed in Myanmar--the second time this year. Migrants onboard will have been shackled for 19+ hours. Previous Burmese deportees were immediately sent to a nearby torture prison, per @jamesstout.bsky.social. gillianbrockell.com/three-craven...
An ADSBx map of the southern half of Myanmar showing a business jet coming from the northeast and landing in Yangon.
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Tom Dannenbaum @tomdannenbaum.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Meanwhile www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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Douglas Guilfoyle @djag2.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Looking forward to hosting this discussion! Please register and join us! 📢 The Strait of Hormuz, UNCLOS and the Law of Blockade: ANZSIL Webinar, Friday 15 May 2026, 4-5PM (AEST)/6-7PM (NZST) Further information and registration here: lnkd.in/gws-Mi3y
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