This workshop focusses on the legal actions initiated to uphold the legal obligations of public and private entities in relation to Palestine and the Palestinian people as an instance of strategic litigation. It gathers academics, practitioners, and NGOs to explore what role EU law plays in advancing such claims. 

Arms trade and corporate due diligence

In light of the mounting evidence of systematic human rights violations and war crimes carried out by Israel in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), in particular since October 2023, legal actions have been instituted directly against Israel and its political leadership. Often embedded in broader human rights advocacy networks, those cases in Europe have focussed mainly on arms trade and corporate due diligence. 

EU has been absent

Interestingly, EU law has been largely absent from strategic litigation in solidarity with Palestine. This opens up possibilities of investigating why civil society, in comparable cases across EU jurisdictions, chooses different strategies with regard to EU law. In this workshop we invite academics and practitioners to take stock of the litigation initiated so far and to collectively think about alternative routes to uphold the obligations set out in EU law with regard to the respect for international law in Palestine.