On November 25, 2014, the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) ruled in Safa Nicu Sepahan v. Council that the applicant, an Iranian company, may receive damages from the Council of the European Union (the Council) for sanctioning the applicant without proper evidence. This case is the first in which the Court awarded monetary damages for the improper inclusion of a company on a sanctions list. According to a blog post, the Court “annulled the [applicant’s] designation on the grounds that the Council had ‘manifestly erred’ in including the...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On November 26, 2014, the UN General Assembly (the Assembly) adopted six resolutions regarding the question of Palestine and possible solutions and steps forward for the situation in the Middle East. According to the press release, four of the resolutions related to the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights, the mandate of the Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat, the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat special programme on the question of Palestine, and the peaceful settlement of the issue, including Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its continued...
On November 20, 2014, the UN Security Council (the Council) adopted Resolution 2185, calling for the integration of police forces and policing in peacekeeping operations in its first stand-alone resolution on the topic. According to the press release, because of the increased need for a police presence in many conflict and post-conflict situations, the Council requested “host-State efforts to professionalize the law enforcement sector and . . . ensure that international policing support to those efforts [are] well coordinated with plans nationally agreed upon through inclusive processes...
On November 20, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled in Jaloud v. the Netherlands that the Netherlands violated the European Convention of Human Rights (the Convention) by failing to properly investigate Mr. Jaloud’s shooting by a member of the Dutch military in Iraq. According to the press release, the Netherlands violated Article 2 (right to life – procedural obligations) by failing to address “certain aspects . . . of the proportionality of the force used” along with not taking “appropriate steps . . . to reduce the risk of [the shooter] colluding with...
On November 17, 2014, a WTO Panel (the Panel) ruled that the U.S. Department of Commerce (USDOC) had instituted anti-dumping regulations on certain Vietnamese frozen warmwater shrimp that are inconsistent with several articles of the Anti-Dumping Agreement (the Agreement). According to the official summary, while the Panel found “Viet Nam had not established that there existed a USDOC practice amounting to a rule or norm of general and prospective application with respect to the manner in which the NME-wide entity rate is calculated,” it did find “the rate applied [by USDOC] to the Viet...
On November 13, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) ruled in Ute Reindl v Bezirkshauptmannschaft Innsbruck that food retailers active only at the distribution stage are responsible for ensuring that the meat they sell is fit for consumption. According to the press release, the Court ruled that “food business operators which are active only at the distribution stage may be fined for having placed on the market a foodstuff which fails to comply with the microbiological criterion.” The Court added that if it did not require retailers to ensure the food they...
On November 13, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) ruled (French only) in Spain v. Commission that the European Commission may compel producers of lemons, mandarins, and oranges to label fruit that has been treated with “preserving agents or other chemical substances used in post-harvest processing.” According to the press release, Spain brought the case to annul the provision, arguing that “the Commission has infringed the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination between producers” since “only citrus fruit producers are subject to the...
On November 12, 2014, a Belgium Employment Tribunal (the Tribunal) ruled (French only) that a pregnant Syrian asylum seeker and her family could stay in Belgium and receive benefits despite their entry into Europe through Spain and Spain’s agreement to take charge of the family under the Dublin III Regulation. According to a blog post, the Belgium Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil) had “informed the applicants that they were not entitled to benefit from material aid as they had not originally requested accommodation from Fedasil and an appeal against the decision...
On November 12, 2014, the Supreme Court of the U.K. (the Court) dismissed an appeal in R (on the application of Lord Carlile of Berriew QC and others) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, upholding a prior decision to maintain a ban preventing dissident Iranian politician Maryam Rajavi from entering the U.K. to speak before Parliament. According to the press release, the ban was originally implemented in 1997 and was based on the grounds that “her presence ‘would not be conducive to the public good for reasons of foreign policy and in light of the need to take a firm...
On November 11, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) ruled in Elisabeta Dano, Florin Dano v. Jobcenter Leipzig that “economically inactive” citizens of the European Union are not required to receive economic assistance from other Member States under the Directive on Free Movement of EU Citizens (the Directive). According to the press release, Germany is not required to assist Romanian nationals who traveled to Germany and requested economic assistance reserved for those actively seeking employment. The Court stated that the Directive “seeks to prevent...