Here are my latest posts…
The “Legal Rule Tagger” Teaching Tool
I’m happy to share my new interactive teaching tool, the Legal Rule Tagger. Available here: https://henriquejbmarcos.github.io/legal-rule-tagger/ This tool is designed for law students and instructors. It helps users tag and visualise the logical structure of legal rules — particularly the relationships between consequences, cumulative conditions, and alternative conditions. How it works Because it’s browser-based with…
Technology in its Villain Era – Gikii 2025
On 11-12 September, I joined the Gikii 2025, “Technology in its Villain Era”, at the Institution of Information Law (IViR) at Universiteit van Amsterdam. Special thanks to the wonderful organisers, Anh Nguyen, Bengi Zeybek, Anushka Mittal, for the space to present my work and for the invitation to join the programme committee. My presentation, “Moby…
BBNJ Cambridge Blogpost shared by DOSI
I’m happy to share that the text I published with Julia Schutz Veiga in the Cambridge International Law Journal (CILJ) was featured in the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI) ‘s September 2025 newsletter! Our piece addresses a critical gap in the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement: how to turn Article 14’s benefit-sharing commitments into practice.…
Participation in the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3, Nice)
From 8–13 June 2025, I had the opportunity to attend the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in Nice, France, as part of the Maastricht-São Paulo delegation. I participated as a scientific delegate (not representing the interests of any nation), affiliated as a Lecturer at Maastricht University Faculty of Law and a Researcher at CEDMAR…
Open Access Publication with the German Yearbook of Int’l Law
Escher’s Waterfall is unsettling to me. A perpetual cascade of water whose origin and end are indistinguishable. Water forever falling and returning, causality suspended in an optical illusion. This impossible structure haunted me as I wrote my article “Causal Loops, Ontological Crises, and Customary International Law”, now published in the German Yearbook of International Law.…
Article Publication in the International Community Law Review (Open Access)
My latest article, ‘Lex Specialis as a Reason-Giving Norm: Balancing Norm Specificity and Individual Rights in Times of Crisis’, is now available in International Community Law Review (Vol. 27, 2025). At the heart of this piece is a computational reasoning framework that reinterprets lex specialis—not as a rigid trump card, but as a defeasible, reason-giving…
Dutch National Ocean Science Conference (NOSC, 2025)
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the National Ocean Science Conference, organised by the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, the Sustainable Ocean Community, and Universiteit Utrecht. Alongside my colleague Rohan Nanda, I was honoured to present our research on MGRs—co-authored with the brilliant Julia Schutz Veiga who unfortunately could not attend—and contribute…
I’m an Accredited Scientific Delegate at UNOC3 (Nice, June 2025)
I’m honoured to share that I’ve been officially confirmed as an accredited scientific delegate to the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference, from 9–13 June in Nice, France. The UN Ocean Conference is a high-level diplomatic event, co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, aimed at accelerating action to implement Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14: the conservation…
Guest Speaker at the European Law Students’ Association (Maastricht, 2025)
I recently had the opportunity to speak at the opening of the annual event organised by the ELSA / ELSA Maastricht Alumni Network at Maastricht University Faculty of Law, where we discussed the paths, challenges, and possibilities of building an academic career in Europe. What made this invitation truly special is that it came from…
Featured Article on Opinio Juris: ‘The US–China Mirror’
New Featured Article on Opinio Juris: The US–China Mirror: TikTok, National Security, and Techno-Nationalism. Drawing on insights from the February 2025 event ‘Whatever Happened to TikTok?’ at Maastricht University Faculty of Law, I discuss the recent US ban (and unbanning) of TikTok to explore how techno-nationalism is shaping geopolitics and global law. In this piece,…
LTH Special Journal Issue Published!
Part A of the special journal issue “Narratives, Frontier Technologies, and the Law” has been published in Law, Technology and Humans (Vol. 7 No. 1, 2025)! This publication brings together research developed during the Narratives, Frontier Technologies & the Law (NFT-L) Conference, held at Maastricht University Faculty of Law on 30–31 October and 1 November…
Visiting Period at Lund University
I want to express my deep appreciation to the Faculty of Law of Lund University for the kind welcome and support during my recent visit earlier this year. While at Lund, I focused on legal reasoning in marine environmental policy, especially examining the structure of decision-making processes and how we can enhance our understanding of…
Sensemaking Worshop: AI, Regulatory Compliance, and Marine Environmental Policy
Alongside my colleague Rohan Nanda (Institute of Data Science, Maastricht University), we published a short blogpost on the sensemaking workshop we held on March 28th at Maastricht University Faculty of Law. Our goal was simple but ambitious: to foster honest dialogue across disciplines on how AI can (or cannot) support compliance with marine environmental regulation.…
Capacity-Building Course for Young Law of the Sea Researchers
On the 29th of March, I had the opportunity to teach a session on legal research methods for the capacity-building course organised by the Center for Studies on the Law of the Sea at the University of São Paulo (CEDMAR/USP). It was a privilege to contribute to this initiative, and I am grateful to CEDMAR,…
New Publication, ‘Tech Won’t Save Us,’ in LTH Journal
A colleague recently told me that they weren’t particularly concerned about climate change. After all, they had purchased an electric vehicle, invested in green funds, and installed solar panels on their roof. It was a familiar conversation—one that, I suspect, many of us have internally, often without realising it, as part of an uncritical assumption…
ELS Funding Approved!
I am thrilled to share that our project “Artificial Intelligence and Marine Environmental Policy: What Role for Automated Systems?” will be funded by the Netherlands Empirical Legal Studies Academy. This project has been a long-standing collaboration between Rohan Nanda and me, and we are now delighted to have the involvement of several colleagues, including external…
Invited Speaker on US-China Social Media Geopolitics (i.e., Whatever Happened to TikToK!?)
The colleagues of the Law & Popular Culture Network (Livia Solaro, Eline Couperus, Agustin Parise, and Arthur Willemse) at Maastricht University Faculty of Law have invited me to speak at their event “Whatever Happened to TikTok?” This event aims to bring together researchers to discuss the reasons and implications of the recent legal developments around TikTok, particularly its recent ban in the…
Towards a New Environmental Law of the Sea? (TEGL Conference, 2024)
A quick throwback to the ‘Transformative Effects of Globalization and Law’ Conference, which took place on 16 December 2024 at Maastricht University Faculty of Law. I had the pleasure of organising and chairing the panel ‘Towards a New Environmental Law of the Sea? Navigating Legal Uncertainties in Warming Oceans’. My presentation focused on my ongoing…
Multinaturalism, Climate Change, Human Rights
Last Friday (Dec 13th, 2024) at the University of Hasselt, we had the pleasure of presenting some remarks on the epistemic and anthropological complexities of climate change litigation. Focusing on Viveiros de Castro’s notions of ‘multinaturalism’ and ‘perspectivism’, André Nunes Chaib and I presented our work at the ‘Enhancing Compliance with Human Rights from Below…
Waves of Change: Nurturing Ocean Resilience & Chartering Sustainable Futures (The Maldives)
Last December 10th, I had the pleasure of presenting my ongoing research on the technical panel at the ‘Waves of Change: Nurturing Ocean Resilience & Chartering Sustainable Futures’ Conference at the Villa College, FSL, The Maldives. In my paper, I examine the 2024 ITLOS Advisory Opinion on Climate Change to show how the tribunal has…
Book Chapter on Customary International Law
I am happy to share the publication of my book chapter ‘Addressing the Chronological Paradox of CIL,’ in the Cambridge University Press volume edited by Marina Fortuna, Panos Merkouris, Andreas Follesdal, Kostia Gorobets, Pauline Westermann, and Geir Ulfstein for the TRICI-Law project at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. In this chapter, I try to disentangle the chronological…
The ‘Narratives, Frontier Technologies, and the Law Conference’ was a Success!
On 30-31 October and 1 November 2024, Maastricht University Faculty of Law held the Narratives, Frontier Technologies & The Law (NFT-L) Conference. Our conference featured nearly thirty presentations across six panels and six keynote speeches. It provided an engaging platform for academic and cultural diversity, bringing together experts in mathematics, biomedicine, philosophy, law, and the…
Decoding Discretion in International Environmental Law: A Study of the ITLOS Advisory Opinion on Climate Change
Later this week (on Wednesday, November 6, 2024), I will present my ongoing research at the Maastricht Foundations of Law Colloquia. This early-stage work focuses on using large language models to analyse discretion in climate change litigation. In particular, I am examining the 2024 Advisory Opinion on Climate Change from the International Tribunal for the Law…
New Article in Springer Nature’s AI & Society Journal
My new open-access article was published in Springer Nature’s AI & Society journal, ‘Can large language models apply the law?’ In this piece, I argue that LLMs cannot apply the law. Note that this is not a matter of whether LLMs should apply the law. Rather, I examine whether they can—I conclude that they can’t.…
Conference Organisation: NFT-L (Narratives, Frontier Technologies, and the Law)
Tina Ishak and I are organising a three-day conference at the Maastricht University Faculty of Law: the Narratives, Frontier Technologies & the Law (NFT-L) Conference. It’s happening from 30 October to 1 November 2024, both on-site at the Faculty and Online. In this conference, we’ll explore the intersection of frontier technologies—artificial Intelligence, robotics, neuro-technology, biotech,…
Climate Change & the Law of the Sea
Tomorrow, October 15th, I will have the privilege of presenting my ongoing research on using Large Language Models to map exercises of discretion in climate change at CEDMAR/USP’s conference on the “Law of the Sea and Climate Change”. I am incredibly grateful to the organizers for the opportunity to present my work alongside outstanding scholars…
Climate Change as a catalyst for Armed Conflicts
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to lecture to the Globalisation and Law Masters students at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Law on the “Foundations of Global Law” course. My lecture examined the emerging dynamics of armed conflicts, particularly the role of climate change and natural disasters in fuelling unrest. Using the Syrian Civil War as a concrete example,…
Research cited by Ukraine in the Ukraine v. Russia PCA case
I am proud to share that my co-authored paper with Eduardo Cavalcanti de Mello Filho, “Peaceful Purposes Reservations in the Law of the Sea Convention and the Regulation of Military Exercises or Maneuvers in the Exclusive Economic Zone” published in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, has been cited by hashtag Ukraine before…
Featured Researcher at CAPES
I am thrilled to share that I was selected as a featured researcher by CAPES (CAPES – Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazilian Ministry of Research and Education), highlighting my doctoral research that delves into the concept of consistency in international law. This recognition stemmed from my time as a CAPES-funded scholar…
JURIX – The 36th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems
In December 2023, I presented my paper titled “Can ChatGPT Apply the Law?” at the Artificial Intelligence, Law, and Philosophy special workshop during JURIX 2023 (The 36th International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems). My paper delves into the ontological question of whether Large Language Models (LLMs) can apply the law, steering clear of…
Henrique Marcos 