Professor Sterio presented on six different panels at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans.  

On January 6, she spoke on a Hot Topics panel entitled “Ukrainian Resilience on the Front Lines of Democracy: What is the Role of International Law?.  On January 7, she spoke on a panel entitled “Declaring a Climate Emergency,” where she focused on the recent rulings by international and regional courts establishing that there is a human right to live in a healthy environment. 

Also on January 7, Professor Sterio spoke on a late-breaking panel, which she also organized, on “Maduro’s Capture and the Venezuelan Incursion: Untying the Legal Knots?”  On January 8, she presented at two teaching/pedagogy panels, on the topics of “Teaching Human Rights: From Specialized Courses to Doctrinal Integration” and “Teaching International Law & Intergroup Dialogue in Challenging Times” (Professor Sterio organized the latter panel as well).  Finally, also on January 8, Professor Sterio provided comments to a junior scholar on a panel entitled “New Voices in International Human Rights and International Law.”  

Professor Sterio was also elected Treasurer of the International Law Section; she continues to serve on the Executive Committees of the International Human Rights Law and the National Security Law Sections, where she is past chair.  

Professor Milena Sterio presented at a book roundtable at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law on December 11 in Philadelphia.  The book roundtable centered around Professor Harold Hongju Koh’s new book, The National Security Constitution in the 21st Century. Professor Koh, Yale Law School, is former Legal Advisor to the U.S. State Department and one of the most prominent scholars of international law worldwide. 

Professor Sterio’s remarks, on the topic of “Koh’s Mirror Approach as Restraint on Presidential Power in Matters of National Security,” focused on Professor Koh’s proposal, as described in his book, to require the same degree of congressional involvement when it comes to treaty withdrawal or exit as was required for joining the same treaty.  Professor Sterio’s remarks will be published in the form of a law review article by the Temple Journal of International and Comparative Law in 2026.

Professor Milena Sterio participated in the International Criminal Court’s Assembly of States Parties in The Hague, Netherlands, from December 1-5.  Professor Sterio participated as a delegate of the Public International Law and Policy Group, a Washington D.C.-based NGO (the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties is open to states and their delegates, as well as accredited NGO delegates). 

During the Assembly, Professor Sterio presented on a panel on the topic of “Practical Measures to Protect the International Criminal Court.”  Her remarks focused on the recent U.S. sanctions against three prosecutors as well as six judges at the ICC.  

Professor Sterio (top center) with other members of the Crimes Against Humanity Study Group at the American Branch of the International Law Association.

Professor Milena Sterio published a book review titled “The ‘End of Immunity’ for Leaders who Commit International Crimes?” on Lawfare Blog.  Lawfare is one of the most prestigious blogs in international law; book reviews are authored by expert invitation.  

Professor Sterio reviewed former International Criminal Court Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji’s book,  “The End of Immunity: Holding World Leaders Accountable for Aggression, Genocide, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Humanity” (Prometheus, 2024).  Judge Eboe-Osuji’s book espouses the view that customary international law rejects the principle of personal immunity before international criminal courts for sitting political and military leaders who commit atrocity crimes.  This view, which Judge Eboe-Osuji had adopted and advanced as an ICC judge, is shared by some scholars but rejected by others who argue that sitting heads-of-state waive immunity only if they are judged before an international tribunal whose jurisdiction their respective states have agreed to.  Judge Eboe-Osuji’s book addresses an important scholarly as well as practical topic.  It also provides a comprehensive historical analysis of various international negotiations, agreements, and other instruments as proof, according to Judge Eboe-Osuji, that customary law rejects personal immunity as a bar to prosecution of atrocity crimes before an international court.  

According to Professor Sterio’s review, “The strengths of ‘The End of Immunity’ lie in its elegant language, its thorough recounting of historical developments regarding immunity, and its passionate call to action for accountability for heads of state who commit atrocity crimes. It thus reflects Judge Eboe-Osuji’s long-standing quest to establish accountability for high-ranking officials and represents a kind of intellectual culmination of his career. In Eboe-Osuji’s words, “[a]ny argument for immunity of heads of state is effectively a protest against the judicial process[.]”

Professor Milena Sterio organized and participated in a side event at the United Nations 6th Committee during International Law Week, on Friday, October 31.  The event, “The Right to Equal and Inclusive Participation and the International Court of Justice: Where are the Women,” focused on the need for gender parity at the International Court of Justice.  The event was hosted by the Gender Parity at the International Court of Justice Project (Professor Sterio serves on the Steering Committee), and the American Branch of the International Law Association’s Gender Justice in International Law Committee (Professor Sterio co-chairs this Committee, which she also co-founded).  In addition, the event was co-sponsored by the United Nations Permanent Missions of Canada, Mexico, Sweden, and Singapore.  

Since its inception in 1945, there has been only six female judges on the bench of the ICJ.  In the upcoming ICJ judicial elections, out of eleven candidates thus far nominated by states, only three are women.  The side event, which featured remarks by a slate of distinguished panelists, stressed the need for equal and inclusive participation for women on the ICJ’s judicial bench, as a fundamental human right.  Professor Sterio moderated the discussion along with Dr. Jessica Corsi (University College London).  Expert panelists included Karen Ong, Deputy Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations, Prof. Nilufer Oral, International Law Commission, Prof. Jelena Pia-Commella, Member of the Commission of the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women Committee, Jelena Crncevic, Special Counsel, Withers Worldwide, and Akhila Radhakrishnan, End Gender Apartheid Campaign.