By Megan M. Tylenda*
Megan Tylenda is a 3L and will graduate from Albany Law School in May 2024. Prior to law school, Meg graduated summa cum laude from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, a Bachelor of Science in Sociology, and a double minor in Global Engagement and Peace Studies/Violence Prevention.
At Albany Law, Meg has served on the Student Bar Association as a 1L Senator and 2L Senator and is currently the Executive Treasurer. She is the Executive Editor for Miscarriages of Justice for Albany Law Review. Additionally, she has worked for Dean Rosemary Queenan and Professor Christine Chung as a Research Assistant and interned with the NYS Third Judicial District Office of Court Administration and the SUNY System Administration’s Office of General Counsel.
Also, Meg is also a Lifetime Girl Scout and enjoys baking desserts and spending time with her cat, Beans. Following graduation, Meg hopes to practice in the education and employment law fields.
* J.D. Candidate, Albany Law School, 2024; B.A., Philosophy, B.S., Sociology, Virginia Tech, 2021. Many thanks to Professor Vincent M. Bonventre, Justice Robert H. Jackson Distinguished Professor of Law, Albany Law School, for a terrific International Law of War & Crime Seminar in 2022. Thank you to the staff of International Law Studies for your work. All views and errors are my own.
World peace is an optimistic and sought-after concept. However, no matter how desirable, world peace is unattainable. This is blunt, but it is the truth. Given the innate human nature to wage war, the use of sovereignty to create and sustain war, and the international rules that govern any and all action towards war-driven states, world peace is but a mere dream.
This Paper addresses the prospect of world peace through the lens of sovereignty, specifically with regard to the role sovereignty has played in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The notion of sovereignty has been invoked throughout this conflict in a way that has disrupted traditional United Nations mechanisms that exist to mitigate conflict.
By examining the inherent loopholes in this aspect of international law, it is reasonable to believe that world peace –or, more pointedly, the absence of global violence and injustice; “positive peace”– will never come to fruition.
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To read the paper, open HERE.
