Judge Carmel Agius, Acting President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, issued a decision assigning Judge Mandiaye Niang to the Bench in the case of Prosecutor v. Vojislav Šešelj, following the disqualification of Judge Frederik Harhoff from the Bench in August 2013. According to the press release, Judge Agius also urged the Trial Chamber to “consult with the Accused on whether to rehear the case or continue the proceedings with the newly appointed Judge,” as provided for in the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence. Vojislav Šešelj, 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.
The EU Commission has found that the UK’s “patent box” scheme—adopted earlier this year and providing a 10% rate of corporation tax for income derived from patents—violates the EU Code of Conduct for Business Taxation, which aims to prevent countries from operating policies that result in harmful tax competition. According to a recent article, the patent box violates the code for two reasons. First, it is not “sufficiently linked to real economic activity” given that “it would allow companies that are merely managed in the U.K. to claim the credit, regardless of whether the actual ‘...
Over 300 senior tax officials from more than 100 jurisdictions and international organizations met in Paris during the 18th Annual Tax Treaty Meeting to discuss solutions to unintended double non-taxation caused by base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). According to the press release, the officials “discussed the content of the Action Plan on BEPS released in July 2013 and ways through which developing countries can engage and provide input.” The Action Plan on BEPS relates to “tax planning strategies that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to make profits ‘disappear’ for tax...
Click here for news report (approximately 2 pages); click here for resolution (approximately 3 pages)
In an extraordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) on October 12, 2013, leaders passed a resolution regarding Africa’s relationship with the International Criminal Court. While reiterating the AU’s commitment to fight impunity, the Assembly resolved that sitting African heads of state shall not appear before any international court during their term of office. The ICC is currently pursuing cases against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William...
Click here for Judgment (approximately 63 pages); click here for press release (approximately 5 pages)
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the Janoweic and Others v. Russia case brought by relatives of victims the Katyń massacre—the killing of more than 20,000 prisoners of war in the wake of the Red Army’s invasion of Poland in 1939—who argued that Russia had not carried out an effective investigation into their relatives’ deaths while displaying a dismissive attitude towards their requests for information. The Court first found that it was not...
Click here for Grand Chamber Judgment (approximately 47 pages); click here for press release (approximately 5 pages)
On October 21, 2013, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Del Río Prada v. Spain that Spain violated Article 7 (no punishment without law) and Article 5 § 1 (no unlawful detention) of the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the press release, Ms. Inés del Río Prada, who was convicted of perpetrating multiple terrorist attacks between 1982 and 1987, had complained that a new sentencing approach adopted by...
Click here for request (approximately 130 pages); Click here for press release (approximately 2 pages)
The Netherlands, on October 21, 2013, submitted to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea a request for the prescription of provisional measures pending the constitution of an arbitral tribunal in a dispute with the Russian Federation. According to the press release, the Netherlands has instituted arbitral proceedings against Russia under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, contending that the Artic Sunrise, a Greenpeace...
Click here for Judgment (approximately 27 pages); click here for press release (approximately 3 pages)
On October 25, 2013, in the Prosecutor v. William Samoei Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang case, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court ruled that, according to the press release, “the absence of an accused person from trial is permissible under exceptional circumstances if the accused has explicitly waived his right to be present at trial.” The Trial Chamber thus unanimously reversed the decision of Trial Chamber V(a), conditionally granting William Samoei Ruto’...
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The European Court of Justice (ECJ), on October 3, 2013, issued a judgment in the Pinckney v. KDG Mediatech AG case. The ECJ has qualified a general rule that courts have jurisdiction to hear a dispute either in the Member State where the defendant is domiciled or the Member State where the alleged harmful event occurred. Mr. Pinckney, a resident of France, discovered that an Austrian company, without his authority, had reproduced songs from his album and that companies...
Click here for news story (approximately 2 pages); click here for complaint (approximately 67 pages)
Advocates for victims of the 2010 Haitian cholera outbreak have initiated class-action litigation against the United Nations, claiming that the organization is responsible for the epidemic that has killed over 8,300 and sickened over 650,000 Haitians. A complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by lawyers from the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti alleges that the “reckless, negligent, and tortious behavior” of the UN contributed...