On December 11, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in Lozano v. Alvarez, a case arising out of issues regarding “equitable tolling” under Article 12 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Article 12 of the Convention requires that an abducted child be returned if the other parent files a petition for the child’s return within one year of the abduction. Thus, Article 12 ensures that the abducting parent not benefit from the laws of the nation to which he or she has abducted the child. Should the left-behind...
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 December 13, 2013, Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, according to the press release, unanimously ordered that the proceedings in the Prosecutor v. Šešelj case “would resume from the point after the closing arguments, and move into the deliberations phase as soon as Judge Niang has familiarized himself with the file.” The Chamber ruled that “a new judge is able to assess witness testimony given in his absence through other means, including video recordings,” and therefore that “Judge Niang will be . . . able to evaluate the...
On December 12, 2013, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed an application requesting the adjournment of the provisional trial date in the Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta case. According to the press release, the Prosecutor encountered problems with key witnesses and thus concluded that her case “does not satisfy the high evidentiary standards required at trial.” The Prosecutor further stated that she “need[s] time to complete efforts to obtain additional evidence” and consider whether the evidence meets such standards. She also stated that the “decision...
ICSID Tribunal Rules For Disqualification of Arbitrator in Burlington v. Ecuador (December 13, 2013)
In Burlington v. Ecuador, a dispute arising out of two production-sharing contracts, the Chairman of the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) upheld a proposal to disqualify Professor Orrego Vicuña according to Arbitration Rule 9(1), which provides that “a party proposing the disqualification of an arbitrator pursuant to Article 57 of the Convention [. . .] promptly, and in any event before the proceeding is declared closed, file its proposal with the Secretary-General, stating its reasons therefore.” The Chairman found...
In Ali v. Obama, the federal appeals court in Washington, DC denied the petitioner’s writ of habeas corpus petition, holding that “determining whether an individual is part of Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or an associated force almost always requires drawing inferences from the circumstantial evidence, such as that individual’s personal associations.” In March 2002, the petitioner was captured in Pakistan while staying at a guesthouse of Abu Zubayadah (an ally of Osama bin Laden), declared an enemy combatant, and subsequently detained at Guantanamo Bay.
The petitioner denied any...
On December 13, 2013, the International Court of Justice ruled in Construction of a Road in Costa Rica along the San Juan River (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica) and Certain Activities carried out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua) that the circumstances, as they now present themselves . . . are not such as to require the exercise of its power . . . to indicate provisional measures.” According to the press release, Nicaragua had requested provisional measures “to protect certain rights which, in its view, are affected by the road construction works being...
On December 13, 2013, a majority of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court dismissed the Prosecutor’s appeal relating to the temporal scope of charges in The Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang case. According to the press release, in January 2012, Pre-Trial Chamber II confirmed the charges against the two accused for, inter alia, crimes against humanity allegedly committed between January 1, 2008 and January 4, 2008 in the greater Eldoret area in Kenya. In July 2013, after the Trial Chamber was constituted and had set the date for...
On December 5, 2013, a Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled by majority in Vilnes and Others v. Norway that, according to the press release, “Norwegian authorities failed to provide deep sea divers with essential information about risks associated with their employers’ use of rapid decompression tables” and thus violated Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) but not Article 2 (right to life) or Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Mr. Vilnes and other divers argued that they...
On December 12, 2013, the United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic issued a report concluding “that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic.” The report stated that “clear and convincing evidence” existed “that chemical weapons were used … against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale in the Ghouta area of Damascus on 21 August 2013.” The Mission also collected information on the alleged use of chemical weapons in Khan Al Asal on March...
On December 12, 2013, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Frédéric Hay v Crédit agricole mutuel de Charente-Maritime et des Deux-Sèvres that, according to the press release, “[e]mployees who enter into a civil partnership with a partner of the same sex must be granted the same benefits as those granted to their colleagues upon their marriage, where marriage is not possible for homosexual couples.” Mr. Hay, who had entered into a PACS arrangement (civil solidarity pact) with his same-sex partner, was an employee of Crédit agricole mutuel, which grants certain...