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Sué González Hauck

@gonzalezhauck.bsky.social

3.6K followers 4K following 48 posts

Legal scholar interested in (critiques of) international and European law | Co-editor of first open IL textbook https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003451327/public-international-law-su%C3%A9-gonz%C3%A1lez-hauck-raffaela-kunz-max-milas

www.taylorfrancis.com

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Sué González Hauck @gonzalezhauck.bsky.social · Mar 3

My essay on the Hague Academy's centenary is available at EJIL. It's about order in and through law - from the invention of a 'Grotian' international order to the 'rules-based international order' and the hypocrisies that come with it

academic.oup.com/ejil/advance...

The common theme across all sections is the relationship between invoking ‘order’ in and through law and colonial and imperial projects. Since international law’s inception, it has been used to pursue such colonial and imperial projects while hiding these ambitions behind the veil of the purported rationality and objectivity that the ideas of system and order convey. I explore this theme by examining how the Hague Academy has served as a site where notions of order are constructed, legitimized and disseminated. The section on the Hague Academy’s relationship to the invented tradition of a Grotian international legal order looks at the historical context at the time the Hague Academy was founded and at the broader aim pursued by the ‘peace through law’ movement. The section on the transition between the colonial and post-colonial era highlights the political economy of the Hague Academy as a site of knowledge production by focusing on who funded the Hague Academy under which conditions in the 1950s and 1960s. The section on the so-called fragmentation of international law focuses on the core of this knowledge production, the general courses. Finally, the last section, which focuses on the dissemination of ideas of legal order by high-ranking politicians, highlights the continuities between colonial and imperial invocations of the past and present portrayals of the ‘rules-based international order’.

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Cristy Clark @cristyclark.bsky.social · 1d

Episode 12 of Law at the End of the World is out, featuring the fabulous @emilyjones.bsky.social

Bouncing off Liz’s chat with Emily,
@prof-mac.bsky.social and I talk about how academics can contribute to positive transformative change, especially within environmental law.

Challenging the foundations of environmental law - Episode 12 (with Emily Jones) - Law at the End of the World

In this episode we are joined by critical environmental law scholar Emily Jones to explore the intersections of environmental law, feminism, and academia. Emily discusses her personal journey into aca...

www.buzzsprout.com

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Henning Lahmann 🟥 @hlahmann.bsky.social · Sep 8

Watch the space below for the next two weeks. Thank you @voelkerrechtsblog.org, @verfassungsblog.de & everyone involved for standing firm and making this possible. This symposium, and the lessons we take from the subject it tackles, are of critical importance.

voelkerrechtsblog.org/de/symposium...

Knowledge Under Occupation: Academic Freedom and Palestine on the Global Stage

voelkerrechtsblog.org

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Völkerrechtsblog @voelkerrechtsblog.org · Sep 8

Organized by Khaled El Mahmoud, Sissy Katsoni, and Anna Sophia Tiedeke.

📃 Find an up-to-date overview of all published contributions here:
voelkerrechtsblog.org/symposium/kn...

Knowledge Under Occupation: Academic Freedom and Palestine on the Global Stage

voelkerrechtsblog.org

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Völkerrechtsblog @voelkerrechtsblog.org · Sep 8

The 'Knowledge under Occupation' symposium opens with Professor Ben Saul's reflection on Germany’s recent decision to classify the BDS movement as an “extremist threat”. As the author warns, this classification poses risks for fundamental rights: voelkerrechtsblog.org/boycott-dive...

Boycott, Divestment, Sanction as an “Extremist Threat”

voelkerrechtsblog.org

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Völkerrechtsblog @voelkerrechtsblog.org · Sep 8

📣 Our new symposium, #KnowledgeUnderOccupation: Academic Freedom and #Palestine on the Global Stage, is finally online! Throughout this week and the next, #Ö brings together diverse voices reflecting on how #AcademicFreedom is increasingly restricted:
voelkerrechtsblog.org/introducing-...

Introducing the Symposium ‘Knowledge Under Occupation: Academic Freedom and Palestine on the Global Stage’

voelkerrechtsblog.org

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Ksenia Arapko @marxologist.bsky.social · Aug 2

Ai Weiwei was invited to contribute short reflections on “What I would have liked to know about Germany earlier" for an upcoming issue of Zeit Magazin. His submission was first shortened and edited, then immediately cancelled after a review by the Executive Editor. Ai shared his reflections anyway:

Here is the column I wrote on the theme "What I Would have liked to Know About Germany Earlier," along with the additional reflections I provided at Zeit Magazin's request.
-A society governed by regulations, yet lacking individual moral judgement, is more dangerous than one with none at all.
-A society that values obedience without questioning authority is destined to become corrupt.
-A society that admits to error but refuses to reflect on its origins possesses a mind as stubborn and dull as granite.
-Here, at a deserted street, people stop dutifully at a red light. Not a car in sight. This, I once thought, is the mark of a highly evolved society.
-At the heart of bureaucracy lies a collective endorsement of power's legitimacy, and therefore, individuals surrender their moral judgement–or perhaps never developed one. They abandon challenge. They relinquish dispute.
-When conversation becomes avoidance, when topics must not be mentioned, we are already living under the quiet logic of authoritarianism.
-When the majority believe they live in a free society, it is often a sign that the society is not free. Freedom is not a gift; it must be wrestled from the hands of banality and the quiet complicity with power.
-When people sense that power is beyond challenge, they redirect their energy into trivial disputes. And those trivialities, collectively, are enough to erode a society's very foundations of justice.
-When public events of great consequence–such as the Nord Stream Pipeline bombing–are met with silence from both government and media, the silence itself becomes more terrifying than any atomic bomb.
-Facts are acknowledged partially, forgotten deliberately, or swallowed by collective silence. And so we repeat catastrophe–against and again, in cycles.
-When the media becomes a servant of public opinion, or avoids conflict to maintain favour with existing powers, it becomes an accomplice to authority. What we call lies are not always distortions of fact.

-Political leaders make decisions steeped in fallacy & failure. This reflects the broader political condition of a society in which most people have surrendered their awareness & even their basic agency–allowing such leaders to enact their mistakes on their behalf
-When a society uses linguistic difference or cultural misunderstanding as excuses for exclusion, it has crossed into a more insidious form of racism. This is not a political opinion–it is an attitude, a stain in blood, passed down like genes
-Bureaucracy is not merely sluggish. It is a cultural scorn. It rejects the possibility of dialogue. It insists that ignorance, codified into policy, no matter how wrong & inhumane it is, remains the best resistance against social mobility, against moral motion. In such a society, hope is not misplaced. It is extinguished
-In the surrounding atmosphere, one sees not culture, but self-congratulation; not art, but insularity & collective reverence for power. What is missing is sincerity–honesty of emotion & of intention. In such an environment, art that grapples with true human feeling or moral reckoning is nearly impossible to produce.
-A place that routinely discards self-awareness & erases individual agency is one that lives under iron walls of authoritarianism
-I have no family, no fatherland, never known what it is to belong. I belong only to myself. In the best of circumstances, that self should belong to everyone. I still do not know what art is. I only hope that what I make might touch its edges while it seems unrelated to anything. & in truth, in the best of circumstances it is unrelated to me, for the "I" already melts into everything
-Those things found in galleries, museums, & collectors' living room–are they art? Who has declared them so? On what basis? Why do I always feel suspicion in their presence?
-Works that evade reality, that shy away from argument, from controversy, from debate–be they text, painting, or performance–are worthless.

-I understand now: people crave power and tyranny as they crave sunshine and rain, for the burden of self-awareness feels like pain. at times, even like catastrophe.
-Under most circumstances, society selects the most selfish, least idealistic among us to take on the work we call "art" because that choice makes everyone feel safe.
Additional reflections
-In Berlin, I encounter the ever-present Schweinshaxe and Schnitzel, and I can hardly believe that such a highly developed, industrialised country offers such a monotonous selection of ingredients. Even more baffling is the sudden proliferation of Chinese restaurants–most of them noodle-based, and operating at a culinary level that any Chinese person could easily achieve at home. The variety of food and cooking methods is so limited here that people form all over the world feel compelled to open restaurants: Vietnamese, Thai, Turkish–you name it.
-But the truly horrifying part? The sheer number of Chinese restaurants. I can only assume they believe that no matter what ends up on the plate, German customers will come running. In front of some of these establishments, there are even long queues–yet the food they serve bears little resemblance to anything recognisably Chinese. My favourite food in Germany is the bread and sausage–you simply can't find ones with such distinctive character anywhere else.
-I'm puzzled by why so many people would willingly cram themselves into a small bar just to have a long conversation. Since I don't speak the language, I can only imagine that the young people coming to Berlin would talk about clubbing. This sort of thing was all the rage in the U.S. back in the '70s and '80s.
-The Germans might be the only people who are truly the furthest from a sense of humour. This could be the result of their deep reverence for rationality. Just look at Berlin Airport or the advertisements for Mercedes-Benz cars–you start to feel that their lack of humour has become a kind of immense humour in itself

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Verfassungsblog @verfassungsblog.de · Jul 21

Das BVerfG hat eine Verantwortlichkeit Deutschlands für die Drohneneinsätze von der US-Air-Base Ramstein verneint.

SUÉ GONZÁLEZ HAUCK und JENS THEILEN sagen: Trotz Lücken in der Maßstabsbildung ist das Urteil auch für die umstrittenen Waffenlieferungen an Israel von hoher Bedeutung.

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Sué González Hauck @gonzalezhauck.bsky.social · Jul 21

@jtheilen.bsky.social und ich haben für @verfassungsblog.de das Ramstein-Urteil analysiert.
Trotz der sehr hohen Hürden, die das Gericht für staatliche Schutzpflichten aufstellt, wird klar: Bei Waffenlieferungen an Israel muss eine solche Pflicht greifen.

Vertrauen und Vertretbarkeit

verfassungsblog.de

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UNRWA @unrwa.org · Jul 21

We are receiving desperate messages of starvation from #Gaza, including from our colleagues.

Food prices have increased 40 fold.

UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months, stockpiled just outside Gaza.

Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale.

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Sué González Hauck @gonzalezhauck.bsky.social · Jul 10

Had the pleasure of listening to Ka Lok Yip from Hamad bin Khalifa University and discussing all things existentialism and IHL with her.

What a fantastic start to the new Law in Context Lecture Series at HSU Hamburg, organized by @jtheilen.bsky.social, Sigrid Boysen, and me

A person standing at a desk in front of a slide reading "an existential conception of combatant authenticity in the battlefield"

Reposted by Sué González Hauck

Hendrik Simon @hendrikpsimon.bsky.social · Jul 4

🎙️ PODCAST: @erik.d-64.social und ich sprechen in der neuesten Folge des Völkerrechtspodcasts (@voelkerrechtsblog.org ) über Völkerrechtsgeschichte(n)

Unsere Gäst:innen sind Prof. Dr. Miloš Vec (Wien) sowie @gonzalezhauck.bsky.social (Hamburg).

voelkerrechtsblog.org/de/48-geschi...

#48: Geschichten des Völkerrechts: Von Grotius zu kritischen Ansätzen

voelkerrechtsblog.org

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Patricia Drewes @fraukreis.bsky.social · Jun 23

Rassismus hat so viele Gesichter.

Mindestlohn für Erntehelfer: Bauernverband für weniger Lohn an Ausländer als Deutsche

Landwirte sollten ausländischen Saisonarbeitern nicht den normalen Mindestlohn zahlen müssen, verlangt der Bauernverband. Gewerkschafter protestieren.

taz.de

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FID intRecht @intrecht.bsky.social · Jun 17

CfP: Popular International Law Workshop, docs.google.com/document/d/1...

CfP Popular International Law Workshop

Call for Papers Popular International Law Workshop International law has a vibrant life as a popular and public language. From the mass protests about an ‘illegal war’ in Iraq in 2003, to the multifa...

docs.google.com

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Yossi Bartal @yossibartal.bsky.social · Jun 11

A groundbreaking report by Israeli journalist Itay Mashiach exposes how Germany’s antisemitism monitoring mechanisms are being exploited to stigmatize migrant communities, minimize the threat of the far-right, & delegitimize human rights activism. Now in English. diasporaalliance.co/wp-content/u...

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Jens Theilen @jtheilen.bsky.social · Jun 3

Now published open access in the current issue of @ejiltalk.bsky.social — in wonderful company including @kalokyip.bsky.social on the right to life during hostilities and @gonzalezhauck.bsky.social on systematicity in the liberal internationalist ethos

🔗 academic.oup.com/ejil/issue/3...

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Sué González Hauck @gonzalezhauck.bsky.social · May 30

Thank you 💜

Reposted by Sué González Hauck

Lys Kulamadayil @lyskulamadayil.bsky.social · May 30

The new issue of @ejiltalk.bsky.social is out and in it, you will find articles by my wonderful colleagues @jtheilen.bsky.social & @gonzalezhauck.bsky.social.
Have a look!

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ANZSIL Gender, Sexuality & International Law Interest Group @anzsilgsil.bsky.social · May 13

Call for abstracts for a collective book project and workshop in Cambridge in Oct 2025 focused on non-dominant feminisms in global governance. Co-designed and edited by Juliana Santos de Carvalho, Dena Kirpalani, Lucia Kula & Bérénice K. Schramm. More details here: drive.google.com/file/d/1RPb3...

Pluriloguing call.pdf

drive.google.com

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elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · May 6

Genocide being talked about in terms of bad PR is peak whatever-the-fuck-our-moment-is

murchadhfinn.bsky.social @murchadhfinn.bsky.social · May 6

“Not a failure of policy - a failure of branding.”

An important piece by Haaretz’s Rachel Fink

It explains much when viewing RTÉ & BBC coverage or listening to the West’s radio platforms grasp for the ‘failed branding’ while totally ignoring the ‘failure of policy’ and humanity

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Adil Haque @adhaque.bsky.social · May 2

"We will look at our children and grandchildren in shame and we will not be able to explain to them why we could not stop this horror."

UN Humanitarian @unocha.org · May 2

"How much more blood must be spilled before enough is enough?"

Decision makers remain silent as #Gaza faces unimaginable suffering.

Israel's full blockade on aid is preventing humanitarians from saving people.

The blockade must be lifted. The horror must end.

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Jens Theilen @jtheilen.bsky.social · Apr 29

📄 New article:

Colonialism continues to shape the project of European human rights. In this article I trace the continuity of civilizational hierarchies in the ECtHR’s case-law on extraterritoriality and European consensus

Available in EJIL @ejiltalk.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/ejil/advance...

A screenshot of the title (“Civilizational Hierarchies and the Notion of ‘Europe’ in the European Convention on Human Rights”) and abstract of the paper available at the link above

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Dr Juliette McIntyre ☯︎🩷💚 🏳️‍🌈 @drnajimagi.bsky.social · Apr 28

Cessation is not limited by proportionality; wrongdoing on the part of Palestine or Hamas does not relieve Israel of its own obligation to cease unlawful conduct

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Dr Juliette McIntyre ☯︎🩷💚 🏳️‍🌈 @drnajimagi.bsky.social · Apr 28

What must Israel do, having breached its obligations? Stop, basically. Cessation and non-repetition.

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Dr Juliette McIntyre ☯︎🩷💚 🏳️‍🌈 @drnajimagi.bsky.social · Apr 28

The facts as submitted tend to suggest .... not

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Dr Juliette McIntyre ☯︎🩷💚 🏳️‍🌈 @drnajimagi.bsky.social · Apr 28

I think partly we are hearing a lot of facts about how truly fucking awful it is in Gaza because there isn't a huge amount to be said about the law - it's pretty straightforward and the issue is whether Israel is complying or not

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