Sophie Duroy

Abstract of the paper: This article examines the paradoxical effects of international legal accountability processes on the international law of intelligence. In response to increasing exposure of their intelligence activities, liberal democracies have shifted from a national security culture of secrecy to one of legal rationalisation, offering legal justifications to defend and legitimate contested practices. Rather than improving compliance, accountability processes have enabled states to strategically reshape legal norms to accommodate their preferred policies. Focusing on how legal justifications affect international law’s constraining function, the article analyses the effects of legal justifications on three dimensions of legal norms: obligation, precision and delegation. Intertwining doctrinal legal analysis with International Relations scholarship on rhetorical and justificatory approaches to international law, it identifies four causal mechanisms through which strategic legal justifications decrease law’s constraining power on state behaviour and facilitate norm evasion. The article demonstrates how strategic uses of international law for legitimation purposes can gradually alter legal norms without formal changes to legal texts or institutions, ultimately decreasing international law’s constraining power. Shedding light on the limits and risks of legalisation as a regulatory strategy, these findings raise important questions about the effectiveness and adequacy of legal accountability strategies, particularly strategic litigation, in inducing behavioural change.

🚨 New publication

Very happy to share that my article in @globcon.bsky.social has now been published open access.

You can read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S204...

#OpenAccess from @globcon.bsky.social -

When intelligence accountability backfires: How states’ strategic legal justifications undermine international law - https://cup.org/4cEedPg

- @sophieduroy.bsky.social

#FirstView #IntLaw

Abstract of the paper: This article examines the paradoxical effects of international legal accountability processes on the international law of intelligence. In response to increasing exposure of their intelligence activities, liberal democracies have shifted from a national security culture of secrecy to one of legal rationalisation, offering legal justifications to defend and legitimate contested practices. Rather than improving compliance, accountability processes have enabled states to strategically reshape legal norms to accommodate their preferred policies. Focusing on how legal justifications affect international law’s constraining function, the article analyses the effects of legal justifications on three dimensions of legal norms: obligation, precision and delegation. Intertwining doctrinal legal analysis with International Relations scholarship on rhetorical and justificatory approaches to international law, it identifies four causal mechanisms through which strategic legal justifications decrease law’s constraining power on state behaviour and facilitate norm evasion. The article demonstrates how strategic uses of international law for legitimation purposes can gradually alter legal norms without formal changes to legal texts or institutions, ultimately decreasing international law’s constraining power. Shedding light on the limits and risks of legalisation as a regulatory strategy, these findings raise important questions about the effectiveness and adequacy of legal accountability strategies, particularly strategic litigation, in inducing behavioural change.

🚨 New publication

Very happy to share that my article in @globcon.bsky.social has now been published open access.

You can read it here: doi.org/10.1017/S204...

Was Targeting Ayatollah Khamenei and Other Iranian Leaders Lawful? After Ali Khamenei was killed in Iran war a key question arises: when is striking a member of the enemy leadership lawful?

While not an international lawyer, and I would love to hear from one, I find this analysis obscene. If anyone can start an illegal war and - all of a sudden - kill whomever they want, then what’s the point of international law? @justsecurity.org

www.justsecurity.org/133171/ayato...

I do not think we, as lawyers, should engage in doctrinal exercises that end up making a case for the legality of surprise decapitation strikes between states not otherwise engaged in an armed conflict
Especially when the strike at stake remains unlawful under jus ad bellum and, therefore, unlawful.

I do not think we, as lawyers, should engage in doctrinal exercises that end up making a case for the legality of surprise decapitation strikes between states not otherwise engaged in an armed conflict
Especially when the strike at stake remains unlawful under jus ad bellum and, therefore, unlawful.

What does the assassination of Khamenei tell us about existing international norms against assassination?

@lucatrenta.bsky.social and I wrote for @verfassungsblog.de about the erosion of the norm and its likely grim future should other states' protests remain muted.

What does the assassination of Khamenei tell us about existing international norms against assassination?

@lucatrenta.bsky.social and I wrote for @verfassungsblog.de about the erosion of the norm and its likely grim future should other states' protests remain muted.

This is an insightful analysis on erosion of international norms. It seems to me that on much of news reporting on international law the point gets lost: the erosion of norms does not only affect the 'bad man' but every one of us.

“Reactions by other states to Khamenei’s assassination will be decisive for the [norm against assassination’s] future trajectory.”

An important article - in an era of asymmetric warfare and dramatic power imbalances on the world stage, Western democratic leaders, so often in public, will likely come to regret the degradation of the norm against Head of State/Govt assassination by other states much more than autocrats will...

@sophieduroy.bsky.social and I have a new piece out in @verfassungsblog.de reflecting on the moribund state of the international norm against assassination. Decades of routisination and legitimation have made assassination an available tool of foreign policy, even against heads of state.

Quote: “Assassinating a sitting head of state without any legal justification has now become a reality.”

The US and Israel have assassinated a sitting head of state.

SOPHIE DUROY and LUCA TRENTA on Khamenei’s killing and the normalisation of assassination as a tool of statecraft.

verfassungsblog.de/is-the-inter...

University of Essex strikes escalate over campus closure & job cuts Nine days of strike action begins this week at the University of Essex in an escalating dispute over plans to close Southend Campus, cut 400 jobs and limit course provision.

Over 400 job cuts and a plan to close Southend Campus.

Nine more strike days at the University of Essex..

We will keep fighting.

www.ucu.org.uk/article/1442...

Looking for recommendations on where to submit a 5,000-word essay on international law/global politics. Any journals you know accepting short-form pieces?

400+ redundancies, Southend campus closed, the foundation year department closed, other departments decimated...

...not a popular plan, it seems! Our tireless picketers have been chatting to hundreds of staff and students a day, and we've secured loads of new UCU and Unison members and supporters ✊

Donate to Stop the cuts at the University of Essex, organized by Billy Woods The University of Essex senior management team have announced their plans to make… Billy Woods needs your support for Stop the cuts at the University of Essex

good morning, it’s day 4 of strikes at the University of Essex to save 400 jobs across all departments, the Southend campus and our Foundation programme — many members are worried about making ends meet. if you can, please donate to our strike fund: gofund.me/059af6be8

High court rules ban on Palestine Action is unlawful – live Protest group’s co-founder wins legal challenge against decision to proscribe it under anti-terrorism laws

Moments of Collective Joy, to quote the one and only Lynne Segal.

sign with lots of angry wugs protesting cuts

good morning, #linguistics 🐦🐦 pals

the University of Essex wants to cut 50% of our Language & Linguistics department, close our foundation programme & our Southend campus, + cut 400 jobs academic departments and professional services jobs across all depts

join us in the fight against these cuts!

Save Essex: Stop the Cuts, Save Southend, Protect Education These proposed cuts mean people losing their livelihoods in a higher education sector already facing a jobs crisis, where alternative employment is scarce and careers built over many years can be dest...

We're still facing 400+ job losses, the loss of a campus, the closure of our foundation year department, and many more departments cut to the bone. Please sign our petition to help stop the cuts, save jobs, and defend our students' education!

Live: Essex University staff to walkout as strike set to begin over job cuts A strike and rally are set to begin later today against Essex University plans to cut more than 400 jobs.

www.echo-news.co.uk/news/2584833...

Dr Sophie Duroy’s latest research shows how states justify controversial security practices through legal narratives that can reshape global norms. | Blog | University of Essex Dr Sophie Duroy’s latest research shows how states justify controversial security practices through legal narratives that can reshape global norms.

My recent research is featured on @universityofessex.bsky.social research blog.
A short-form reflection on strategic legal justification and international law in security contexts.

www.essex.ac.uk/blog/posts/2...

Excellent piece by @sophieduroy.bsky.social @lucatrenta.bsky.social. I disagree only that if US “no longer feels compelled to justify its actions in legal terms, other states—especially authoritarian regimes—are likely to follow suit”. Instead 🇨🇳🇷🇺 already cynically claim guardianship of int. law.

Thanks Malcolm! I'm honestly torn on this one. As things stand I agree with you, but I also think disengagement by the US opens the path to others, who may follow it when it becomes convenient

When people talk about the idea that some universities must go under, there’s a certain tendency to behave as if these smaller local campuses are negligible- regrettable casualties perhaps but not ‘real’ universities. This report does a great job of illustrating why that’s wrong.

It's also a reminder of the consequences of pandering to the 'legitimate concerns' about immigration of the 'left behind' - not least for 'left behind' areas.

Devastatingly sad.
Every Labour MP should be forced to read this. In fact, every MP, who rushed back to Parliament to vote to save one steel mill, whilst hastening the collapse of dozens of universities - and harming the students, staff, communities and economies universities sustain and support

some further context to this excellent piece: we have still not seen any
modelling on how closing Southend campus will improve the overall finances long-term and what the costs may be and, unlike the other cuts, this has been presented as a done decision in the middle of a teaching day in December

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

Incandescent. One of the best pieces I've read about what university means to people and their communities - and what will happen to a city and people after one closes. The *Labour* government and Jaqui Smith in particular should be ashamed of themselves and shamed into doing something. Deplorable.

University of Essex staff to strike in February in fight against job cuts 7 days of strikes will hit the University of Essex in February over plans to cut 400 jobs, the University and College Union (UCU) has announced today.

Cutting 400 jobs at the University of Essex would hit students, teaching, research and the wider community.

Closing the Southend campus would be devastating for the town.

Staff strike 12–19 Feb.
Join the rallies: 5 Feb Southend an 12 Feb Colchester (12–1pm). Info ⬇️