On March 8, 2018, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its judgments on the verdict and sentence in the case The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo, Aimé Kilolo Musamba, Jean-Jacques Mangenda Kabongo, Fidèle Babala Wandu and Narcisse Arido. The five accused were found guilty of offenses against the administration of justice by Trial Chamber VII in October 2016 for corruptly influencing witnesses and soliciting false testimonies in the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo before the ICC. According to the press release, the...
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 March 8, 2018, eleven Asia-Pacific states (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam) signed a trade agreement titled the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a multilateral free trade agreement that updates its previous iteration as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Much of the original TPP has been kept in the CPTPP, though twenty-two provisions from the TPP were suspended or otherwise changed. The Agreement will allow for freer trade and investment access among its members and is...
On March 6, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in Slowakische Republik v. Achmea BV that an arbitration clause in a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between the Netherlands and Slovakia violated European Union law. The case concerned arbitration proceedings between Achmea, a Netherlands insurance group that initiated the proceedings, and Slovakia, which had prohibited the type of insurance services that Achmea undertook to provide in Slovakia and later argued that the arbitration clause was in violation of several provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of...
On February 26, 2018, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention released its Revised Deliberation No. 5 on Deprivation of Liberty of Migrants, in which the Group discusses its “criteria for determining whether the deprivation of liberty of asylum seekers and immigrants might be arbitrary.” It provides a series of explanations regarding the various rights of migrants under international law as they concern the deprivation of liberty on matters such as the length of detention, the right to asylum, challenging detention, rights during detention, and the prohibition of non-refoulement. As...
On February 22, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in European Commission v. Poland that Poland had breached EU air quality standards and “persistently exceeded” pollutant limits set under a 2008 EU directive for the protection of human health. The press release notes that the European Commission brought the case because Poland was not in compliance with the daily and annual limit values for PM10, “a mixture of organic and non-organic substances present in the air [that] may contain toxic substances such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, dioxin...
On February 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran that U.S. victims of a foreign terrorist attack could not rely on a provision of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to collect damages from Iran by seizing Iranian antiquities held by the University of Chicago. The case concerns a $71.5 million default judgment against Iran to victims and relatives of victims of a 1997 suicide bombing by Hamas in Jerusalem for the state’s role in supporting Hamas. Plaintiffs brought suit under §1605A of the FSIA, an exception to general immunity...
On February 12, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) published a report on the human rights situation in Venezuela, entitled “Democratic Institutions, the Rule of Law and Human Rights in Venezuela.” According to the press release, the IACHR decided to draft the report due to the “marked deterioration in terms of the exercise of human rights in Venezuela, and the grave political, economic, and social crisis in the country.” The report analysis spans the last two years, with particular focus on 2017, and focuses on four main areas: “democratic institutions; social protest...
On February 8, 2018, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled in R (on the application of Bancoult No 3) v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs that a Wikileaks cable leaked by whistleblower Chelsea Manning should have been admitted into evidence before the Administrative Court, but that it would not have affected the outcome of the case in this instance. The case concerns a challenge by the Chagos Refugees Group (CRG) on behalf of Chagos islanders that were expelled from the island in the 1960s and 70s, arguing against the British government’s decision to create a marine...
On February 7, 2018, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed legislation that prohibits blaming Poland for Holocaust crimes committed by Nazi Germany. The legislation is an amendment of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance Act and imposes a prison sentence of up to three years for falsely attributing Holocaust crimes to Poland. The press release from the office of the president states that “the President will now refer the new legislation to the Constitutional Tribunal, for an assessment of whether it puts undue restrictions on freedom of speech.” President Duda noted in his...
On February 2, 2018, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in joined cases Maritime Delimitation in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean and Land Boundary in the Northern Part of Isla Portillos to set the maritime boundaries between Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, as well as a land boundary in a sandbar between the countries. The Court held that Costa Rica has sovereignty over the whole northern part of Isla Portillos, including its coast, except for Harbor Head Lagoon and the sandbar separating it from the Caribbean Sea; that...