On January 19, 2016, the General Court of the European Union (Court) upheld the imposition of fines on Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric for their participation in the cartel on the market for gas insulated switchgear (GIS). According to the press release, the Commission determined in 2007 that the two Japanese companies had participated in a cartel with twenty European companies who also produced gas insulated switchgear, a “major component for electric substations to convert electrical current from high to low tension and vice versa,” and ordered them to pay individual fines as well as a...
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 January 16, 2016, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Agency inspectors confirmed Iran’s compliance with all required preparatory steps under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). According to a news report, Iran pledged in the plan to “never under any circumstances to seek, develop or acquire nuclear weapons, and the UN Security Council is to consider ending sanctions imposed for its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) violations.” The UN Secretary-General welcomed “Implementation Day” by stating, “This is a significant milestone that reflects...
On January 18, 2016, the United Nations human rights office announced that Peru agreed to compensate a woman whose human rights had been violated when she was denied an abortion. According to the press release, K.L., a seventeen-year-old girl from Peru was fourteen weeks pregnant when her doctors diagnosed the fetus with a fatal birth defect and recommended an abortion to avoid putting her life at risk. An abortion in such circumstances was legal in Peru, but the hospital refused to perform the procedure citing missing regulations as the reason. K.L carried the pregnancy to term, and was...
On January 15, 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands issued a statement on the establishment of the Kosovo Relocated Specialist Judicial Institution, a special tribunal that will try crimes committed during the Kosovo War. Although the court is a national court of Kosovo, it will be located in The Hague, which was chosen after consultations between the European Union, the Kosovan, and Dutch governments and will be paid for with EU funds. The decision to move the tribunal outside Kosovo takes into account the sensitive nature of the issues raised by the proceedings and...
On January 13, 2016, Tamara Fields, the widow of a man killed during a terrorist attack in Jordan, filed suit against Twitter, alleging that the social media network has violated federal law prohibiting the support of terrorist organizations. According to the complaint, “Twitter has knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds and attracting new recruits. This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out numerous terrorist attacks, including the November 9,...
On January 13, 2016, the European Commission initiated its inquiry into recent developments in Poland and their impact on the rule of law as a fundamental value of the European Union. According to the press release, “the political and legal dispute concerning the composition of the Constitutional Tribunal . . . [and] the changes in the law on the Public Service Broadcasters” prompted the assessment under the Rule of Law Framework. According to a news report, the new laws allow the government “to appoint more sympathetic judges to the nation’s Constitutional Tribunal . . . [and] rein in the...
On January 11, 2016, the European Commission decided that a corporate tax break Belgium had granted to thirty-five companies violates EU state-aid rules. According to the press release, “[t]he scheme reduced the corporate tax base of the companies by between 50% and 90% to discount for so-called "excess profits" that allegedly result from being part of a multinational group.” The EU Commissioner for competition policy stated, “It distorts competition on the merits by putting smaller competitors who are not multinational on an unequal footing.” In addition to ending the special tax deals...
On January 6, 2016, TransCanada filed suit in U.S. federal court in Texas, alleging that President Barack Obama's refusal to approve the pipeline project Keystone XL violates provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the U.S. Constitution. According to a news report, the pipeline was intended to connect Canadian oil sands with American refineries, but was heavily criticized by environmental groups arguing that oils sands are a particularly polluting energy source. Obama explained his decision by noting that an approval of the pipeline would undermine U.S. leadership in the...
On January 6, 2016, the UN Secretary-General issued a press release strongly condemning the underground nuclear testing that North Korea announced had taken place that day. The Secretary-General stressed that “[t]his test once again violates numerous Security Council resolutions despite the united call by the international community to cease such activities [and] is also a grave contravention of the international norm against nuclear testing.” He further pointed out that the test could have a “profoundly destabilizing” effect in the region. According to a news report, the Security Council...
On January 5, 2016, the European Court of Human Rights (Court) ruled in Frumkin v. Russia that Russia had violated the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) by failing to ensure the peaceful conduct of a political rally in Bolotnaya Square and by arresting and detaining of one of the protesters. According to the press release, authorities had unexpectedly moved the planned route for the rally, which caused confusion amongst the protesters and eventually led to the termination of the demonstration by the police. Yevgeniy Frumkin, a Russian citizen, was unable to leave...