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The ICTY Trial Chamber delivered on 26 March Decision on Prosecution Motion Seeking Determination that the Accused understands English for the Purposes of the Statute and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence in Prosecutor v Radovan Karadžić. This decision inter alia concerns whether statements made on Opinio Juris by one of Karadžić’s legal advisers can serve as [...]
Filed under: International Courts, International Criminal Law | 2 Comments »
According to a press release of the UN, Antonio Cassese, the former (and first) president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has been elected president of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). Pursuant to Art. 8(2) of the Statute of the STL (annexed to UN Security Council resolution 1757) this makes judge [...]
Filed under: International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice, International terrorism | Leave a Comment »
Over the weekend the number of readers of International Law Observer crossed the 100,000 visitors mark. A great thank you to all of our readers, worldwide, for spreading the word around! We hope that you enjoy the various contributions on the blog and encourage you to keep participating in the discussion on international law related [...]
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The UN Human Rights Council’s 10th Regular Session is currently coming to a close. As usual, the various reports available make for fascinating and frustrating reading, not least because of the design of the OCHR’s website, which could charitably be described as eccentric. The major point of interest was the report of Richard Falk, the [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law, United Nations | 2 Comments »
The overarching consideration that the belligerent parties in armed conflicts should adhere to must be the need to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties. This, however, is not the sole concern. In addition to taking into consideration the plight of civilians, belligerent parties will also have to take into account the environment. Environmental issues are linked to [...]
Filed under: Environmental Law, International Environmental Law, International Humanitarian Law, Peacekeeping, Public International Law, Publications | 1 Comment »
Antonio Cassese (ed.), The Oxford Companion to International Criminal Justice, OUP, 2009, pp. 1008. Short book review by Jernej Letnar Černič. International criminal law falls within the areas of international law which have progressively developed in the past two decades. This field of law has come a long way since its first steps in Nuremberg [...]
Filed under: Book review, International Criminal Law, Relevant Literature | Leave a Comment »
On 17 March 2009, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea adopted an amendment to the rules relating to the prompt release of vessels. The new rules change the way in which financial security may be posted to comply with the relevant provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention. Articles 73 and [...]
Filed under: ITLOS, Law of the sea | Leave a Comment »
On 10 March 2009, Diakonia IHL Program, 4th International Humanitarian Law Session on Air warfare with Ove Bring, a Professor of International Humanitarian Law at the University of Stockholm. The discussion concerned the normative framework of rules applicable to air warfare, and contextualised specific rules to the case of the recent war on Gaza. The [...]
Filed under: Conference, International Humanitarian Law, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
As the shadow of the financial crisis looms over national economies, government’s worries about protectionist measures of their trade partners spread. A recent example for this can be found in the China’s recent displeasure about the US rules on Chinese poultry. This regulation blocks imports of Chinese poultry products because of the alleged health risk [...]
Filed under: Public International Law, World Trade Organization | Leave a Comment »
As we reported earlier on the so-called “Homer defence“, here is another peculiar defence strategy: according to the AP, a man accused of driving drunk said Pennsylvania courts have no jurisdiction over him because he’s his own country. The defendant stated that he believes police lack jurisdiction to pull him over. As he said in court: [...]
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The Board Members of the Global Reporting Initiative have earlier this week adopted the Amsterdam Declaration on Transparency and Reporting. The Declaration argues for the adoption of the ‘global reporting framework that enhances transparency and is informed by the legitimate interest of all key sectors of society.’ In this way, the increased transparency would contribute [...]
Filed under: human rights and business, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
As environmental law as a legal discipline comes of age, it becomes appropriate to subject it to critical appraisals of various shapes and forms. One such appraisal is undertaken in “Environmental Law and Justice in Context”, edited by Jonas Ebbesson and Phoebe Okowa of Stockholm University and Queen Mary University respectively, with special reference to [...]
Filed under: Book review, Environmental Law, International Environmental Law, international justice, literature, Relevant Literature | Leave a Comment »
Ben-Naftali and Zamir have recently published an article in the Journal of International Criminal Justice titled ‘Whose ‘conduct unbecoming’? The shooting of a Handcuffed, Blindfolded Palestinian Demonstrator’. The work considers the case of HCJ 7195/08 Abu Rhama et al. v Military Advocate General – the petition in the case is available in English. The case [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, International Courts, International Humanitarian Law, international justice, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law, Publications, Responsibility to protect, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
By creating this blog the authors of International Law Observer wanted to promote the critical debate on up-to-date legal developments in the field of (public) international law inter alia by reporting on recent developments in the academic field, informing on influential case-law of international tribunals, presenting international custom and important legislation by international organizations and [...]
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On the 4th of March 2009, after seven months of deliberation, the International Criminal Court charged President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan with war crimes and crimes against humanity in the violence that has engulfed the Darfur region in recent years. But he escaped the charge on genocide at least for now, as the ICC [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice | 2 Comments »
Last week much attention at the ICC has been devoted to the confirmation of arrest warrant against Omar al-Bashir, while less attention has been paid to the important decision of the Pre-trial Chamber III to adjourn the confirmation of charges hearing in the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo and to ask the [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
A Special Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was convened on Friday 6 March in order to elect a judge to fill the vacancy created by the sad death of Judge Choon-Ho Park in November last year. In accordance with the practice of the States Parties, [...]
Filed under: International Courts, ITLOS, Law of the sea, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
In April this year the Human Rights Council will hold a ‘Durban Review’ conference in Geneva, in order to “evaluate progress towards the goals set” at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR). The 2001 meeting ended in confusion when the Israeli and US delegations walked out, and its [...]
Filed under: Human Rights, Public International Law, United Nations | 7 Comments »
In a week when much of the international law attention has been focused on the ICC and its arrest warrant against President Bashir of Sudan, little attention has been afforded to the news that Iran is currently hosting a conference looking into the possibility of seeking prosecution of a number of Israeli officials for alleged [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, international justice, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | Leave a Comment »
If you hold an interest in international environmental law, you might find the special rapport in this week’s Economist on waste interesting. Although waste does not at first sight concern international law and related areas, the rapport fascinatingly describes many of the challenges and problems which waste gives rise to. Given that, on average, each [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, ECJ, Environmental Law, Human Rights, International Environmental Law, Law of the sea | Leave a Comment »
As reported, the Pretrial Chamber of International Criminal Court has earlier today confirmed an arrest warrant for Omar al Bashir, the incumbent president of Sudan, for crimes against humanity and war crimes but not for crime of genocide against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethinc groups. Albeit a number of practitioners and experts of international [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law | 5 Comments »
The Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC today partly approved the request for an arrest order for President Al Bashir of Sudan. The warrant, requested by the Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, relate to charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes but not genocide as requested by the prosecutor. In a press conference held today, the Registrar [...]
Filed under: ICC, International Courts, International Criminal Law, international justice | Leave a Comment »
Today the ECJ issued two judgments on the failure of Member States to adopt appropriate measures to eliminate incompatibilities of bilateral investment agreements which they entered into with third countries prior to their accession to the EU. The Court ruled that Austria (Case C-205/06) and Sweden (C-249/06) have failed to fulfil their obligations according to [...]
Filed under: EC-Law, EU-Law, EU/EC Law | Leave a Comment »
Modern warfare has for a considerable time presented a challenge for the application of the classical laws of war, thereby contributing to their distortion. One of the foundational rules of international humanitarian law, which has been affected by this very symptom, is the principle of distinction. In other words, the question that is asked of [...]
Filed under: International Humanitarian Law, Law of Treaties, Middle East Crisis, Public International Law | 1 Comment »
