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leoncastjan.bsky.social
international law and arms trade. working on the b sides leoncastellanos.com
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New publication! My colleague Antonio Guzmán Mutis and I have an article in The George Washington International Law Review highlighting the accountability deficit for wrongful European arms exports from a human rights perspective. 🔗 Open access: www.thegwilr.org/volume-56-is...

William Hartung and Ashley Gate @quincyinst.bsky.social argue "The real issue is how to stop dangerous, counterproductive arms transfers, not how to make it easier to cash in on sales that too often undermine U.S. interests." responsiblestatecraft.org/foreign-corr...

Mexico might expand its US lawsuit vs arms manufacturers to include providing material support to Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The game-changer here is that US antiterrorism laws apply regardless of intent @thomas-graham.bsky.social @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

#CDMX! Still time to join this panel next Tuesday on trafficking and diversion of firearms in Latin America with Prof. @sergioaguayo.bsky.social, Pablo Arrocha (SRE, México), Ivan Contente Marques (OAS), and Cecilia Farfán-Méndez. Register: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Check out my new page featuring the International Law Clinic that I supervise at @uvalawschool.bsky.social! www.leoncastellanos.com/law-clinic

Great to be back at @uvalawschool.bsky.social to work with talented students at the International Law Clinic. Our client this year is the UN Global Firearms Programme. Watch this space!

Against militarist environmental damage - brilliant oped by my great colleague www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/o...

The real question is will Europe rise to the challenge to counter the Russian threat or to protect Ukraine? www.bbc.com/news/article...

The plot thickens www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Happy Valentine's from your resident international law cumbia crusader www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRrs...

Modernism is from the NINETEENTH CENTURY??

Armed violence is spiking in the Netherlands and across major European cities: "The number of minors carrying firearms in the Netherlands has surged by 40 percent over the past four years": nltimes.nl/2025/02/13/g...

Thank you, the whole book is now available in open access here academic.oup.com/book/57867

Join us in Mexico City! International Forum on trafficking and Diversion of Firearms in Latin America: Responses, and Responsibility. With @sergioaguayo.bsky.social, Pablo Arrocha, Ivan Marques and Cecilia Farfán. 📍In-person, 25 Feb, 9:30 @CIDE MX Registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Mexico's Prosecutor General opens investigation into arms trafficking from U.S., citing that 74% of weapons used by criminal organizations are crossing the border illegally: contralinea.com.mx/interno/sema...

oh yeah www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQtK...

Front-page story on how US guns get smuggled to Mexico, with helpful graphics @elpaismexico.bsky.social elpais.com/mexico/2025-...

The government is looking to ban AR-15-style rifles commonly used in U.S. mass shootings "to clamp down on some semi-automatic weapons." www.reuters.com/world/europe...

What is business and human rights litigation? @billdodge.bsky.social shares some thoughts in this recap of our Oxford roundtable convened last month by Hassan Ahmad, Ekaterina Aristova and Rachel Chambers: tlblog.org/business-and...

Nos vemos en México para hablar de tráfico de armas con @sergioaguayo.bsky.social, Pablo Arrocha, Ivan Marques y Cecilia Farfán. Con palabras de nuestro anfitrión @perezricart.bsky.social y @romainlecour.bsky.social. 🗓️ 25 de febrero | 09:30 📍 CIDE, CDMX 👉 Registro: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The Netherlands and Israel are concluding a Status of Forces Agreement, a treaty that defines the legal status of military and civilian personnel abroad. This week, the Dutch government answered parliamentary questions on the issue (in Dutch): www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/k...

NEW ODD LOTS: We talked to Shyam Sankar, the CTO of Palantir, about his vision for reforming how the US spends money on weapons and defense podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Me when I buy an OUP/CUP hardcover

This raises serious concerns and potentially puts Google on a collision course with international law and human rights standards: edition.cnn.com/2025/02/04/b...

A tragic reminder that Europe has a gun problem. For data & expert analysis, see Project Target: vlaamsvredesinstituut.eu/en/target/

happy to see this clause in a contract I just signed, let's make this boilerplate plz

Trump pauses Mexico tariffs for 1 month, commits to working towards stopping the illegal flow of U.S. firearms into Mexico. In exchange, President Sheinbaum will send 10,000 members of Mexico's National Guard to the northern border. edition.cnn.com/2025/02/03/w...

Great discussion here with Jack Goldsmith on the unitary executive theory in the context of Trump's suspension of federal aid & other government expenditures: open.spotify.com/episode/2Iej...

New data shows the U.S. zip code provenance of crime guns in Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti. Gun trafficking from the U.S. is continuing, with Arizona emerging as a preferred source. The report also compares gun exports during the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. Read more 👇

Simpler isn’t always better. A new paper in PNAS explores how advances in machine learning and beyond challenge science’s obsession with Ockham’s razor https://santafe.edu/news-center/news/sharp-look-into-ockhams-razor

"Šakalienė said her country isn't planning to slash the welfare state to boost the military budget. That's in contrast to recent comments from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who suggested that social spending should be reduced to free up cash for defense." www.politico.eu/article/lith...

NATO chief Mark Rutte calls for a "shift to a wartime mindset" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

go.bsky.app/U4jPcYY

Couldn't agree more with Daniel here: "The challenges ahead for a new generation of legal scholars and historians affords us no time to cling to the bitterness of those who preceded us".

20 Jan: Mexico presents a position paper at the UN categorically rejecting the invocation of the "unwilling or unable" doctrine as a legal justification for the extraterritorial use of force in self-defense against non-state actors. Also on 20 Jan: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Companies in Russia's neighbouring countries are intermediaries in the evasion of military sanctions: Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as Georgia and Uzbekistan. Since the outbreak of war, these countries have seen an abnormal increase in arms imports www.journalismfund.eu/arms-route-t...

"Urgent steps need to be taken to stop incentivizing quantity in science if one is to stem the scientific pollution." zenodo.org/records/1463...

My favourite David Lynch work is his comic, "The Angriest Dog in the World". It used the same pictures but with different words, which might sound familiar to you! I'd never heard of it when I started Dinosaur Comics, but when I discovered it about it a year in, I made sure T-Rex got a dog <3

Mexico a violent country? 'We are being flooded with weapons from the US' — @nrc.nl reports from Culiacán with quotes by @ievajusionyte.bsky.social: www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Mexico has filed its SCOTUS brief in its case against gun manufacturers. Argument is scheduled for March 4th, 2025. The full docket coverage is available via @scotus-blog.bsky.social : www.scotusblog.com/case-files/c...

“The amount Biden just bragged about giving to the weapons industry is about $540 billion more than the combined value of all the projects announced under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS Act.” responsiblestatecraft.org/biden-foreig...

"Civil society has watched in puzzled wonderment as Europe sleepwalks into a mercenary #spyware crisis. Europe is an epicenter of spyware abuses and increasingly playing host to spyware companies." @jsrailton.bsky.social @citizenlab.ca therecord.media/commercial-s...

"I think the Mexican conflict is a weird mix of crime and war and we don’t have the best language and legal norms to deal with that." @ioangrillo.bsky.social via @unherd.com: unherd.com/2025/01/trum...

⚖️Courts are applying new due diligence standards yet interpreting them differently. To provide clarity, @leoncastjan.bsky.social has recently curated an @ajil.bsky.social symposium with @tibisay-morgandi.bsky.social and @lawprofpuig.bsky.social to examine these measures. Read more

Catch the video of #LookingAhead2025 event: "Evolving Legal Challenges to the Arms Trade in 2025" with Shahd Hammouri, Marina Aksenova, and James Yap and moderated by @leoncastjan.bsky.social (details at www.forumarmstrade.org/lookingahead...) Video: youtu.be/aZXRUc6kZ4E?...

Join us tomorrow @forumarmstrade.bsky.social ! Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Dark dark academia www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Hey international law, this could be us www.nytimes.com/2025/01/09/a...

Register for #LookingAhead2025 event "U.S. Border: Understanding the Guns and Immigration Link in 2025" Jan 16 at 2PM EST with * John Lindsay-Poland, Stop US Arms to Mexico * Jonathan Lowy, Global Action on Gun Violence * Laura Vargas, University of Colorado www.forumarmstrade.org/lookingahead...