Reuters reports that the District Court for the District of Columbia has been asked to compel Facebook to "release 'all documents and communications produced, drafted, posted or published on the Facebook page' of military officials and police forces" in Myanmar in the context of The Gambia's case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). On January 23, 2020, the ICJ ordered a series of provisional measures to safeguard the rights of the Rohingya group in Myanmar, as requested by The Gambia. The case is ongoing, and The Gambia has until October 23, 2020, to file its...
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 3, 2020, the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), the Council of Europe's anti-corruption body, published its 2019 annual report. A press release from the Council of Europe states that
[i]n 2019, compliance with GRECO recommendations under the 4th evaluation round slightly increased [from last year]: 36% of recommendations had been fully implemented by the end of the year. The recommendations with the lowest level of compliance continued to be those issued in respect of MPs (27%), whilst it was higher in respect of judges (37%) and prosecutors (...
On May 29, 2020, China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) released a decision that builds on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Regions’ (HKSAR) pre-existing obligations under the Basic Law and is intended to increase national security in Hong Kong. The decision stipulates that, in addition to “complet[ing] the national security legislation stipulated in the Basic Law . . . at an earlier date,” the HKSAR must “effectively prevent, stop and punish acts and activities endangering national security.” The decision also includes measures intended to increase oversight of the HKSAR’s actions...
On June 1, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court published its opinion in Nasrallah v. Barr. The case concerned judicial review of an order under the U.N. Convention Against Torture (CAT) of whether or not to grant relief to an applicant for protection. CAT relief is granted to a noncitizen if he or she demonstrates a likelihood of torture in the country of removal. The U.S. Government sought to remove the petitioner after he pled guilty to receiving stolen property, but the petitioner applied for CAT relief to avoid going back to Lebanon. The petitioner’s application for CAT relief was...
On June 1, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court published its opinion in GE Energy Power Conversion France SAS v. Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC, a case involving interpretation of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (New York Convention). The issue was “whether the [New York Convention] conflicts with domestic equitable estoppel doctrines that permit the enforcement of arbitration agreements by nonsignatories.” GE was a subcontractor for three contracts between ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA, LLC and F. L. Industries, Inc., tasked with “design[ing],...
On Friday, May 29, 2020, President Trump announced that as of that date, the U.S. relationgship with the World Health Organization (WHO) is terminated. According to the New York Times, the administration cited the WHO's handling of the current pandemic as one of the main reasons for U.S. withdrawal. The United States was one of the original proponents and supports of the WHO, and has been engaged with it since it began in 1948. The New York Times reports that it is unclear whether withdrawal can occur without Congressional approval.
On May 29, 2020, the European Court of Human Rights published an advisory opinion to the Constitutional Court of Armenia on retroactive application of law and whether references to specific articles of the Armenian Constitution within its Criminal Code were “compatible with Article 7 of the Convention.” According to a press release, the Constitutional Court had requested the opinion in its review of a case against Robert Kocharyan, the former president of Armenia, who had been “charged…under Article 300.1 § 1 (Overthrowing the constitutional order) of the 2009 Criminal Code,” but committed...
On May 22, 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in Cooper v. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), upholding the district court’s decision to dismiss the claims against GE and TEPCO. The case was “brought in California by United States servicemembers … [who] alleg[e] they were exposed to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant” when responding to the disaster. In reviewing the district court’s decision, the Court of Appeals evaluated whether a choice of law analysis between Japanese and California law was appropriate in...
On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, declared to Congress that the State Department no longer considers that Hong Kong is sufficiently autonomous from China. As a result, he stated that “Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997.” As reported by the Washington Post, Pompeo’s declaration “could have far-reaching ramifications in its trading relationship with the United States.” A move by American diplomats to discuss the situation in Hong Kong in a virtual...
On May 22, 2020, Eliot L. Engel (Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs) and Adam Smith (Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services) published their letter to Mike Pompeo and Mark T. Esper (Secretaries of the Department of State and Department of Defense, respectively) opposing the Trump administration’s “plans to withdraw . . . from the Treaty on Open Skies.” They noted that withdrawing from a treaty “without consultation with or notification to Congress . . . is in direct violation of Section 1234 of the Fiscal Year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.” The authors...