Assessing Trump’s Claims in Greenland in Light of International Law
Fadel Abdulghany The modern international legal system is based on a set of fundamental principles designed to prevent a recurrence of...
Articles
Conditions for Economic Settlement and Exclusion of International Crimes: The Case of Muhammad Hamsho and the Limits of Legitimacy
Fadel Abdulghany The question of whether it is possible to reach a settlement with economic entities linked to the former regime,...
Syrian-Lebanese agreement on the transfer of convicts: a legal benefit or a tool for politicization?
Fadel Abdulghany In Beirut, a Syrian-Lebanese agreement was signed today regarding the transfer of convicted individuals from Lebanese prisons to Syria to complete their...
Rejecting Iranian Tyranny and Israeli Interference… Principled Solidarity in Support of Democratic Transition
Fadel Abdulghany The question of how to support legitimate popular aspirations for freedom while simultaneously opposing both internal despotism and opportunistic...
The Massacre of Hama 1982: Postponed Justice and Promise of New Syria
Fadel Abdulghany The fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2014, marked the end of a long chapter of authoritarian...
Priority of Constitutional and International Standards Over Local Administrative Procedures
Fadel Abdulghany The principle that local administrative orders and instructions must not conflict with the constitution or binding international agreements is...
Repression within Syrian Intelligence… the “Branch 300” Model
Fadel Abdulghany Under Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian security apparatus formed one of the most extensive and complex systems of political control...
Facing the Death of Rifaat al-Assad
Fadel Abdulghany On January 21, Rifaat al-Assad (88), brother of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and the most prominent commander of the forces...
The Fundamental Kurdish Rights in Decree 13: A Foundational Step in the Right Direction
Fadel Abdulghany Recognizing minority rights within constitutional frameworks is a fundamental pillar for establishing political legitimacy and strengthening social cohesion in pluralistic societies....
The death of Rifaat al-Assad: Accountability, Asset Recovery, and the Incomplete Structure of Syrian Justice
Fadel Abdulghany The death of Rifaat al-Assad on January 21, 2026, in the United Arab Emirates at the age of 88, marks a pivotal moment in the pursuit of accountability for those responsible for one of the most horrific mass atrocities in modern Middle Eastern history. As the former Syrian vice president and one of the key architects of the 1982 Hama massacre, his death before facing Syrian justice exemplifies the complete entrenchment of impunity at the national level. This is not a biological accident, but rather the result of a systematic policy pursued by Hafez al-Assad's regime to protect the pillars of institutionalized violence, including Rifaat himself, by providing political and security cover for operations carried out with direct coordination and under the supervision of the highest levels of power, over a period of more than a month. While death closes the door to the direct criminal prosecution of the deceased, it does not preclude broader forms of accountability that operate independently of the accused's continued existence, nor does it eliminate the possibility of asset recovery or holding accountable the networks that facilitated the crime or profited from its proceeds. Limits of Prosecution and Universal Jurisdiction Rifaat al-Assad faced charges in three major jurisdictions, but none resulted in a full trial in the procedural sense....