On October 23, 2014, the International Criminal Court (ICC) granted interim release to three suspects, who have been in custody since November 2013, in Prosecutor v. Bemba and Others. The court granted the relase in order to ensure that they were not detained for an unreasonable period prior to trial, as enshrined in Article 60(4) of the Rome Statute. According to the press release, “[t]he suspects shall appear before the Court when requested by the Judges.” The three “are suspected of offences against the administration of justice allegedly committed in connection with [...
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 October 22, 2014, the Italian Constitutional Court (the Court) ruled that several international laws on foreign state immunity were incompatible with the Italian legal order in regard to war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to the unofficial English translation, the Court declared unlawful certain legislation that Italy had enacted in order to put into effect the International Court of Justice’s 2012 judgment on Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy). The Court found constitutionally unlawful Article 3 of Italian law 5/2013, which ratified...
On October 29, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled in Gough v. the United Kingdom that Scotland had not violated the European Convention of Human Rights (the Convention) by repeatedly arresting and imprisoning Mr. Gough for appearing naked in public. According to the press release, Mr. Gough “was arrested over thirty times in Scotland for being naked in public . . . [and] convicted on a number of occasions of breach of the peace . . . [as well as] contempt of court for refusing to dress for his court appearances.” The Court ruled that these arrests did not...
On October 21, 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled (French only) in Sharifi and Others v. Italy and Greece that Italy and Greece violated the European Convention of Human Rights (the Convention) by indiscriminately expelling foreign nationals from Italy and returning them to Greece, with the fear of subsequent deportation to their countries of origin, without providing them access to asylum procedures. According to the press release, in regard to four of the applicants, the Court held that Greece violated Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) and...
On October 20, 2014, a World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel issued two reports ruling against the U.S. in a dispute with Canada and Mexico, finding that the United States’ amended country-of-origin meat-labeling regulations are discriminatory and in violation of international fair trade rules. In their conclusions, the Panel recommended “that the Dispute Settlement Body request the United States to bring the inconsistent measure into conformity with its obligations under the [Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade] and the [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade] 1994.” According to a...
On October 18, 2014, at the conclusion of the sixth session of the Conference of the parties to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), several decisions were adopted. According to a news article, the decisions adopted include, inter alia, tax regulations, which “provide for tax rates to be monitored, increased and adjusted annually, taking into account inflation and income growth,” and measures “aimed at restricting tobacco industry interference.” Parties also adopted a decision acknowledging the need for regulation regarding “electronic...
On October 17, 2014, a World Trade Organization (WTO) Working Party agreed on the terms of Seychelles’ admission as a member to the WTO after eighteen years of negotiation. According to a press release, as part of their accession negotiations, “Seychelles concluded eight bilateral agreements on market access for goods and nine bilateral agreements on market access for services,” among other commitments. Seychelles’ official accession “still requires the formal approval of all 160 WTO members in the General Council in December” as well as “the ratification of the Accession Package by...
On October 16, 2014, the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) annulled, on procedural grounds, measures maintaining the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the EU list relating to frozen funds of terrorist organizations. According to the press release, the Court found “that the contested measures are based not on acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities, as required by Common Position 2001/931 and case-law, but on factual imputations derived from the press and the internet.” The Court found that while decisions by Indian...
On October 14, 2014, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2179, extending the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) until February 28, 2015. Acting under Chapter VII, and “[r]ecognizing that the current situation in Abyei and along the border between the Sudan and South Sudan continues to constitute a serious threat to international peace and security,” the Security Council decided that troops authorized by Resolution 2104 would be maintained “and that the remaining authorized forces continue to be deployed consistent with the progressive reactivation of the [Joint...
On October 13, 2014, President Theodor Meron of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) presented the mechanism’s second Annual Report to the UN General Assembly. According to a press release, President Meron “reported on the MICT’s progress and noted that it faced two pre-eminent challenges: apprehension of individuals indicted by the ICTR but not yet arrested, and relocation of individuals who were acquitted or finished serving sentences.” In his speech, he stated “that the Mechanism continues to make excellent progress at assuming relevant functions, and that it has...