From July 7–9, 2025, the Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute convened a Special Session to address long-standing jurisdictional limitations over the crime of aggression. Despite years of momentum and widespread support from states and civil society, the reform effort failed.
At first glance, the outcome might appear to reflect a legal or normative disagreement, the type of procedural deadlock not uncommon in multilateral treaty bodies. But a neorealist lens offers a compelling framework for analyzing what may lie beneath this surface-level legal or normative disagreement. In a system where states act in accordance with their relative power, the resistance of some powerful states to reform is not incidental, but structural.
Read More “A Neorealist Reading of the Crime of Aggression Reform Stalemate – EJIL: Talk!” »
![[CFP for PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers] Emerging voices in private international law · European Law Blog](https://i2.wp.com/assets.pubpub.org/dszqce38/favicon-61724872708457-01724931428186.png?w=1200&resize=1200,0&ssl=1 "[CFP for PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers] Emerging voices in private international law · European Law Blog")
