Russia-Ukraine War and the Law: War Crimes, Legal Accountability, and Other Campaigns on the Legal Front

Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine began, the law has become its own front, full of maneuvers, counter-attacks, and campaigns. Genocide, martial law, sanctions, the crime of aggression against a sovereign state, war crimes against civilians: the law has proven a tool that Ukrainian authorities have wielded in creative and complicated ways. This panel of experts considers legal aspects of Russia’s war on Ukraine, from martial law to a Putin war crimes tribunal, considering both international and domestic legal doctrines, and thinking about innovations and experiments as well as limitations and risks of “campaigns” on the legal front.

Sponsored by Petro Jacyk Program for the Study of Ukraine and the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies. Co-sponsored the Center for International and Comparative Law, Saint Louis University School of Law.