On April 3, 2008, Trial Chamber I (Trial Chamber) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) delivered the judgment in Prosecutor v.
On March 25, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Medellin v. Texas,[1] a case in which a Mexican national on death row in Texas challenged his conviction on the basis that he was not afforded his right of consular notification under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). In a 6-3 decision, the Court held that the 2004 decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Mexico v.
In early November 2007, the Spanish Supreme Court's Criminal Chamber ("Supreme Court") released its judgment upholding, by a vote of 11-4, the conviction of former Argentine naval officer Adolfo Scilingo for his involvement in murders and illegal detentions in Argentina. Scilingo was convicted by a trial chamber of the Audiencia Nacional ("Audiencia"), Spain's special court for serious international crimes.
On September 16, 2007, security guards employed by Blackwater USA (Blackwater) fired on a crowd in Baghdad's Nisour square, killing 17 people. At the time of this incident, Blackwater was under contract with the U.S. Department of State to provide security for U.S. diplomats in Iraq. This incident triggered controversy in Iraq, the United States, and the international community concerning what law applied to Blackwater's actions and to the actions of other private security contractors (PSCs) hired by the United States to provide services in Afghanistan and Iraq.
On July 17, 2007, Rwanda notified the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that it plans to import the HIV-drug TriAvir from the Canadian company Apotex and will not enforce any patents granted in that respect in Rwanda.[1] Two months later, Canada issued a compulsory license allowing Apotex to use nine patented inventions for manufacturing and exporting TriAvir to Rwanda.
In the second week of September 2007, leading U.S. military and diplomatic officials provided long-awaited reports to Congress and the President on U.S. political and military activities in Iraq. These hearings focused attention on how much progress U.S. counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts have made in Iraq. Although debate surrounding these events centered on the question of the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the testimony and hearings connect the ongoing attempts by the U.S. government to adjust to the challenges presented by waging COIN campaigns.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) recently decided Copland v. United Kingdom,[1] in which the ECHR expanded the basis and extent of protection for personal data in a variety of settings, including the workplace. The European Union's Data Protection Directive already mandated very broad protection for such data in EU member states. This decision may further widen the gulf between U.S.
Introduction
On April 29, 2007, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)[1] marks the tenth anniversary of its entry into force. Along with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the CWC forms an important part of the international law supporting disarmament and non-proliferation concerning weapons of mass destruction.
Recently, David Hicks, an Australian interned for over five years in Guantanamo Bay, became the first individual sentenced under the newly-constituted Military Commission process. Hicks pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally providing material support to al-Qaeda in the context of an armed conflict against the U.S.[1] and will be repatriated to Australia to serve a further nine months of imprisonment.