International Law in Brief

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 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 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 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...