On June 27, 2016, Palestine became the thirtieth state party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to deposit its instrument of ratification of the amendments addressing the crime of aggression (Kampala amendments). Palestine’s acceptance is significant because a minimum of thirty ratifications are required before the amendments may be activated. Because participants in the 1998 Rome Conference could not agree on a precise definition of the crime of aggression, the drafters deferred the decision for a subsequent review conference, stating in Article 5.2, “The Court...
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 June 27, 2016, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel and Turkey had reached an agreement to resume full diplomatic relations, ending six years of estrangement between the two countries. The once-close regional powers severed relations after a May 31, 2010, incident in which Israeli naval commandos forcibly boarded the Mavi Marmara, one of six vessels sailing seventy-two miles offshore that formed part of a flotilla assembled to deliver humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. The incident resulted in the death of nine Turkish passengers, the...
On June 23, 2016, the United Kingdom held a referendum on whether to leave or remain in the European Union. A nationwide majority of 51.9 percent voted to leave. The referendum turnout was 46.5 million people, or 72.2 percent of the population. A majority of voters in England and Wales voted to leave, while a majority of voters in Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. The process for a member state to leave the European Union is detailed in Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which stipulates that “any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own...
On June 23, 2016, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a ceasefire agreement with Timoleón Jiménez, the commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and presidents from six Latin American countries attended the ceremony in Havana, Cuba. In a statement, the Secretary-General expressed support for the negotiating process initiated in 2012 and recognized that “the Colombian peace process validates the perseverance of all those around the world who work to end violent conflict.” The ceasefire agreement details a plan for...
On June 21, 2016, the International Criminal Court sentenced Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo to eighteen years’ imprisonment. The sentence follows Bemba’s March 21, 2016 conviction on two counts of crimes against humanity (murder and rape) and three counts of war crimes (murder, rape, and pillaging). In the trial’s guilt phase, the Court found that Bemba effectively acted as a military commander and knew that the soldiers under his effective authority and control were committing or about to commit the charged crimes. In determining Bemba’s sentence, the Court balanced the gravity of the crimes;...
On June 21, 2016, the European Court of Human Rights Grand Chamber held in Al-Dulimi and Montana Management Inc. v. Switzerland that in its implementation of Security Council Resolution 1483, Switzerland violated the applicants’ right to a fair hearing under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Resolution 1483 imposed an obligation on states to “freeze without delay” the financial assets of individuals or entities connected with the government of Saddam Hussein. Pursuant to this resolution, Switzerland froze the applicants’ Swiss assets. The applicants challenged...
On June 20, 2016, the United States Supreme Court delivered its opinion in RJR Nabisco v. European Community, where it applied the presumption against extraterritoriality to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), holding that RICO applies to acts conducted outside the United States only where the statutes that criminalize the underlying acts allow for it. The case tracks the Court’s extraterritoriality jurisprudence in Morrison v. National Australia Bank and Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum. The European Community and twenty-six of its...
On June 16, 2016, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic released a report concluding that the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) has committed genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against the Yazidis. These crimes are defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. According to the report, ISIS has engaged in “killings; sexual slavery, enslavement, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and forcible transfer causing serious bodily...
On June 14, 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its judgment in Commission v. United Kingdom, holding that the U.K. can require child benefit and child tax credit recipients to have a right to reside in its territory. In April 2004, the EU adopted Regulation No. 883/2004, wherein it established a series of common principles to be observed by member states in the sphere of social security, amongst them the principle prohibiting discrimination on the basis of nationality. The EU Commission subsequently received a number of complaints from non-British EU...
On June 13, 2016, the United Nations Security Council, in Resolution 2291, extended the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) until December 15, 2016. The Mission’s mandate includes supporting the implementation of the Libyan Political Agreement of December 17, 2015, supporting the Government of National Accord (GNA) created by that agreement, and supporting the formation of the country’s security arrangements and “subsequent phases of the Libyan transition process.” Expressing “grave concern at the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Libya,” the Council further...