On June 20, 2014, the East African Court of Justice at Arusha, First Instance Division (the Court), issued its decision in African Network for Animal Welfare v. Attorney General of the United Republic of Tanzania. The Court held that the proposal by Tanzania to build a highway across the Serengeti National Park was unlawful and issued an injunction restraining Tanzania from operationalizing the proposal. According to the press release, the Court found that the proposal infringed multiple articles of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community, including Article...
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 13, 2014, the African Court on Human and People’s Rights (the Court) issued its ruling on reparations in Reverend Christopher Mtikila v. United Republic of Tanzania. The Court held that Reverend Mtikila was not entitled to reparations for Tanzania’s enactment of a Constitutional amendment requiring election candidates to be a member of a political party, which the Court found, in its earlier judgment of June 14, 2013, to breach Articles 2 (freedom from discrimination), 3 (equal protection), 10 (freedom of association), and 13(1) (right to participate in government) of the...
On June 23, 2014, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines released a series of reports coinciding with the Third Review Conference of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. The Treaty prohibits States Parties from using, developing, producing, acquiring, stockpiling, retaining or transferring antipersonnel mines. According to the reports, “[o]ne of the most significant achievements of the treaty has been the degree to which any use of antipersonnel mines by any actor has been stigmatized...
On June 23, 2014, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court published its Report following the conclusion of the preliminary examination into the situation in the Republic of Korea. According to the press release, the Prosecutor “determined that, at this stage, the Rome Statute requirements to seek authorization to initiate an investigation have not been satisfied.” The OTP concluded, in relation to the sinking of a South Korean warship in March 2010, that “the alleged attack was directed at a lawful military target,” and, in relation to the shelling of South...
On June 19, 2014, a Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (Third Section) (the Court) declared inadmissible the application in Stichting Ostade Blade v. the Netherlands, holding that the perpetrator of a series of bomb attacks in Arnhem, who wrote to a magazine claiming responsibility for the attacks (the Letter), was not a journalistic source attracting protection under Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The magazine claimed a violation of its rights to protect its journalistic sources when, after the magazine announced that it...
On June 19, 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) issued its decision in Jessy Saint Prix v. Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, holding that “a woman who gives up work or seeking work, because of the physical constraints of the late stages of pregnancy and the aftermath of childbirth can retain the status of ‘worker’” within the meaning of Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 7 of Directive 2004/38 on the right of free movement and residence of Union citizens. According to the press release, the Court found...
On June 17, 2014, the U.S. Ambassador, Samantha Power, wrote a letter to the U.N. Security Council stating that the U.S. raid that seized the suspected leader of the 2012 attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya is legal under international law. According to a news article, Abu Khatttalah was captured in Libya “without the knowledge or permission of the Libyan government.” The letter stated that, in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, the measures were “necessary to prevent such armed attacks, and were taken in accordance with the United States’...
On June 12, 2014, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) decided Fernández Martínez v. Spain, finding—by a majority of 9 to 8—that there was no violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights when Mr. Martínez’s contract to teach religion in a State school was not renewed. According to the press release, Mr. Martínez, a former Catholic priest with a Papal dispensation from celibacy, appeared in a newspaper article “indicating [his] disagreement with the Church’s position on abortion,...
On June 12, 2014, Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court confirmed, by majority, the charges against Laurent Gbagbo, the former President of Côte d’Ivoire. According to the press release, Gbagbo will face four charges of crimes against humanity, namely murder, rape, persecution, other inhumane acts or—in the alternative—attempted murder. The crimes are alleged to have been committed in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire “between 16 and 19 December 2010 during and after a pro-Ouattara march . . . on 3 March 2011 at a women’s demonstration in Abobo, on 17 March 2011 by shelling a...
On June 11, 2014, an International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict was published at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict. According to a news article, the Protocol’s main purposes “is to promote accountability for crimes of sexual violence under international law.” Its contents include “a template for personal data to be collected from survivors and witnesses, tips on carrying out interviews and gathering testimonies, and guidance on photographing, filming and sketching crime scenes, and on the collection of physical evidence...