On September 6, 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that member states are not required to grant every European Union (EU) citizen who has moved within their territory the same protection against extradition that they offer their own nationals. According to the press release, Aleksei Petruhhin, an Estonian citizen, was arrested in Latvia and taken into provisional custody. Shortly thereafter, the Latvian authorities received an extradition request from Russia, stating that criminal proceedings had been initiated against Petruhhin. The Court noted that in moving from...
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 August 31, 2016, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overruled a $650 million verdict against the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization for harm suffered by Americans through terrorist attacks in Israel. According to a news report, eleven families had brought suit against the Palestinian organizations under the Anti-Terrorism Act, alleging they were responsible for terrorist attacks that killed or wounded them and their family members. The Second Circuit found that the District Court had erred in exercising jurisdiction, noting that the attacks had occurred “...
On August 24, 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) submitted their third joint report to the Security Council on chemical weapons uses in Syria. According to reports, the Security Council tasked the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) in August 2015 with identifying “individuals, entities, groups, or governments involved in the use of chemicals as weapons, including chlorine or any other toxic chemicals.” The report examined nine cases of previously established chemical weapons uses that occurred in...
On August 23, 2016, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in J.K. and Others v. Sweden that the return of three Iraqi asylum seekers in Sweden to their home country would violate Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the press release, J.K had run a business with solely American clients from a U.S. military base in Iraq and had been targeted by al-Qaeda because of his cooperation with Americans. After several attempts to kill him, bomb his house, and destroy his business stock, J.K and his...
On August 22, 2016, Ahmad Al-Faqi Al Madhi admitted guilt at the start of his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Al Madhi’s trial was concluded two days later on August 24, 2016. According to the press release, Al Madhi was accused of the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against historical monuments and buildings dedicated to religion. As a member of Ansar Eddine, an extremist group affiliated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Al Madhi was accused of destroying nine mausoleums and one mosque in Timbuktu, Mali, between June 30 and July 11, 2012....
On August 17, 2016, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights published Roca and others v. Peru, a ruling (only available in Spanish) it had taken in June, holding Peru responsible for violations of the American Convention on Human Rights and the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearances in a case involving the forced disappearance of Tenerio Roca. According to the press release, Roca was travelling on a bus with his wife in July 1984 when he was arrested by members of the Navy and Investigative Police and taken to the Municipal Stadium of Huanta. His family was not...
On August 12, 2016, the Swiss Federal Tribunal ordered Israel to pay $1.1 billion to Iran in a decades-old dispute relating to the Eliat-Ashkelon Pipeline. According to a news report, the pipeline was initiated in 1968 as a joint project between the countries and was designed to transport Iranian oil to Europe. After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the relationship between the countries collapsed and Iran pursued arbitration proceedings to claim its share of the proceeds generated by the venture. The Swiss court rejected Israel’s appeal against an arbitration ruling of last year, citing...
On August 12, 2016, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution approving the deployment of an additional 4,000 peacekeepers to the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS). The resolution authorized the renewal of UNMISS’s mandate through June 30, 2017, and emphasized the mission’s focus on protection of civilians. According to the press release, the Security Council passed the resolution in response to concerns about fighting in the capital city of Juba, obstruction of UNMISS and other humanitarian actors by the South Sudanese Transitional Government...
On August 6, 2016, the United States released a redacted version of the Presidential Policy Guidance (PPG). The eighteen-page document—issued in May 2013 and reportedly referred to formally as the PPG and informally as the “playbook”— establishes procedures for capture and kill operations by U.S. forces targeting terrorists outside of the United States and areas of active hostilities. (In July 2016, the Obama administration clarified that current areas of active hostilities include Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan). According to reports, the redacted PPG was released in response to a 2015...
On August 4, 2016, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said in a statement that preliminary UN investigations into the recent fighting in South Sudan reveal that government security forces carried out killings, rapes, lootings, and destruction of property. Fighting erupted in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, on July 7, 2016 between government forces known as the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), loyal to President Salva Kiir, and the “SPLA in Opposition,” who back First Vice-President Riek Machar. The fighting displaced thousands of people and SPLA...