Moving ‘red lines’: The Russian–Ukrainian war and the pragmatic (mis-)use of international law
Journal: Global Constitutionalism
Year: 2023

Abstract The Russian invasion of Ukraine has widely been seen as a failure of the international legal order, which could neither stop Russia from launching a war of aggression, nor prevent the perpetration of international crimes. In such a reading, great power politics have (once again) trumped international law. We argue instead that international law plays a crucial part in the conflict by providing a semantic infrastructure, which the opposing parties use to justify their actions, try to re-