On September 12, 2019, the Supremo Tribunal de Justiça (Supreme Court, Portugal), issued a judgment in the Cofemel - Sociedade de Vestuário, SA v. G-Star Raw CV case, Case-683/17 (in Spanish). The Court of Justice of the European Union Press Release 109/19 summarized the Court’s findings. The dispute concerned an accusation by G-Star that Cofemel was “producing and selling jeans, sweatshirts and t-shirts copying some of its own designs.” The Court discussed its settled case law that “any original subject matter constituting the expression of its author’s own intellectual creation can be...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On September 3, 2019, the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts in Yemen released its “Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Yemen, Including Violations and Abuses Since September 2014,” UN Document A/HRC/42/CRP.1*. The Report found “reasonable grounds to believe that the parties to the conflict in Yemen are responsible for an array of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law. Some of these violations are likely to amount to war crimes.” Further, it...
On September 10, 2019, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued its judgment in the Pryanishnikov v. Russia case, Application No. 25047/05. In a Press Release issued by the Registrar of the ECtHR, the findings of the case were summarized. In this case, the applicant, Sergey Viktorovich Pryanishnikov, a Russian national, challenged the refusal by domestic courts to grant him a film reproduction license because he was suspected of producing or distributing pornography. Pryanishnikov is the producer of erotic films and owns the copyright to over 1,500 such films. He applied to the...
In June 2019, the Council of Europe released its Recommendation regarding the “protection of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants travelling by sea,” titled “Lives Saved. Rights Protected. Bridging the Protection Gap for Refugees and Migrants in the Mediterranean.” The Recommendation sets forth that “states have clear obligations to aid any person found in distress at sea, to rescue people in distress and to ensure that their rights—including the right to life and to protection from refoulement—are upheld.” The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights put forward this...
On September 4, 2019, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi released its Report, UN Document A/HRC/42/49. The Report states: “Serious human rights violations have continued to be committed in Burundi since May 2018, in a general climate of impunity. Some of these violations constitute international crimes. Members of the youth league of the ruling party, the Imbonerakure, are the main perpetrators. Officers of the National Intelligence Service and the police, along with local administrative officials, are also frequently identified as perpetrators of such violations. Burundi has been...
On September 4, 2019, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order in the Elhady v. Kable case. In this case, the plaintiffs are “twenty-three United States citizens who claim that because of their inclusion in the federal government’s Terrorist Screening Database (‘TSDB’), referred to colloquially as ‘the Watchlist,’ they have suffered a range of adverse consequences without a constitutionally adequate remedy.” The Court held that the Department of Homeland Security Traveler Redress Inquiry Program ('DHS TRIP'), “in its...
On August 6, 2019, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued Report No. 109/19 approving the friendly settlement agreement in Case 11,144, Gerson Jairzinho González Arroyo. As noted in the press release, the IACHR received a petition on April 7, 1993, “alleging that the Republic of Colombia bore international responsibility for the forced disappearance of Gerson Jairzinho González Arroyo on November 20, 1992 in the city of Sincelejo, in the department of Sucre, and for the lack of due diligence of judicial authorities in charge of investigating those events and punishing...
On August 30, 2019, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a report entitled “Stepping Up: Refugee Education in Crisis.” In the report, the UNHCR stated that of the world’s 7.1 million school-age refugee children, over half (3.7 million) are not receiving an education. The UNHCR reported that education enrollment for refugees is approximately 63% at the primary school level, 24% at the secondary school level, and 3% at the higher education level, whereas the enrollment numbers globally are 91%, 84%, and 37%, respectively. Some of the barriers cited by the report include...
On September 2, 2019, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber delivered its judgment in the Situation on the Registered Vessels of the Union of Comoros, the Hellenic Republic and the Kingdom of Cambodia case, Case No. ICC-01/13 OA 2, and rejected the appeal filed by the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I’s decision on the November 15, 2018 “Application for Judicial Review by the Government of the Union of Comoros.” As noted in the ICC’s press release, “a...
On August 8, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in the Bakalian v. Central Bank of Republic of Turkey case, Case No. 13-55664. In this case, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims seeking compensation from the Republic of Turkey and two Turkish national banks for lands that they claim were unlawfully confiscated from their ancestors during what the Court refers to as the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923. In 2006,...