On October 5, 2016, the International Court of Justice ruled that it did not have jurisdiction over three separate but substantively similar cases between the Marshall Islands and India, Pakistan, and the U.K. According to the press releases for the rulings for India, Pakistan, and the U.K., the Court found that no dispute existed between the parties and that it subsequently could not proceed to the merits of the case. The cases were based on the alleged failure of the latter three countries to fulfil obligations concerning negotiations relating to the cessation of the nuclear arms race...
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 2, 2016, the people of Colombia narrowly rejected a peace deal negotiated between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in a national referendum by a vote of 50.2 to 49.8. In the wake of the vote, both the government and the FARC expressed that they were “not interested in more war.” The agreement would have ended a war that has led to “220,000 people . . . killed in the fighting, and six million . . . displaced” by providing amnesty for rank and file FARC militants and reduced sentences for those suspected of war crimes. The deal was...
On September 29, 2016, the Singapore Court of Appeal ruled in Sanum Investments Limited v. Lao People’s Democratic Republic that the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between the People’s Republic of China and Laos applied to Macau, finding that Macao-based company Sanum Investments could seek redress through the BIT against the Laos government for its claim of capital investment benefit losses through unfair taxes. The BIT did “not expressly state whether it would or would not in due course apply to Macau” when it was signed in 1993, and Macao became a territory of China in 1999. A main...
On September 29, 2016, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that “Och-Ziff Capital Management Group has agreed to pay nearly $200 million to the SEC to settle civil charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).” In a parallel proceeding, Och-Ziff settled with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and “agreed to pay a criminal penalty of more than $213 million in connection with a widespread scheme involving the bribery of officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Libya.” Between the two proceedings, Och-Ziff will pay approximately $412...
On September 29, 2016, the European Court of Human Rights dismissed an appeal in McKevitt and Campbell v. the United Kingdom, which was based on the infamous 1998 Omagh Bombing that killed 29 people in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in what has been called the single worst atrocity of the Troubles. According to the press release, the defendants argued that the first instance court should have applied a criminal, rather than civil, standard of proof against them due to the severity of the claims. Additionally, they claimed that the admission of testimony by a U.S. FBI agent was unfair as...
On September 28, 2016, the U.S. Congress voted overwhelmingly to overturn President Barack Obama’s veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). Catalyzed by the families of those killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Senate voted 97–1 and the House voted 348–77 for the override. Issuing a statement on the matter, Obama expressed “deep sympathy for the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks,” but argued that “[e]nacting JASTA into law, however, would neither protect Americans from terrorist attacks nor improve the effectiveness of our...
On September 27, 2016, in The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, Trial Chamber VIII of the International Criminal Court (ICC) found Al Mahdi guilty of war crimes based his destruction of cultural property in Timbuktu, Mali. According to the press release, the Chamber sentenced Al Mahdi to nine years' imprisonment after he “admitted guilt to the war crime consisting in attacking 10 historic and religious monuments.” The Chamber considered a number of factors in determining the sentence, particularly that “all the sites but one were UNESCO World Heritage sites.” According to...
On September 22, 2016, the compliance panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) circulated a report on the EC and Certain Member States — Large Civil Aircraft dispute that assessed the state of compliance by the EU (referred to as the EC or European Communities in the context of the WTO) and certain member states with a previous ruling by the Appellate Body (AB). The AB’s report upheld the initial panel report, which found that the EU was providing subsidies to Airbus through certain measures that caused serious prejudice to the interests of the United States within the meaning...
On September 20, 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) handed down a ruling in European Federation for Cosmetic Ingredients v. Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills that addressed restrictions on cosmetic products containing ingredients tested on animals. According to the press release, the Court ruled that introducing products with ingredients that have been tested on animals to “the EU market may be prohibited where that testing has been conducted outside the EU in order to market the product in third countries and where the results of that...
On September 20, 2016, outgoing UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered an address to the UN General Assembly touching on a number of matters, including a commitment to provide a compensation package for the victims of the Haitian cholera outbreak tied to the UN’s actions there. According to commentary on the developments, this pledge is an about-face from the UN’s previous stance of refusing to provide compensation to the victims. Commentators have attributed the UN’s shift in policy to a report by the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and possibly a recent ...