On September 8, 2015, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (the Court) upheld an award by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) granting ConocoPhillips ownership of Venezuela state oil company PDVSA’s 50% share of the Sweeney, Texas refinery. After PDVSA failed to supply its partner with crude oil according to the joint venture agreement, ConocoPhillips announced it would exercise its contractual right to buy out Venezuela. In response, PDVSA commenced arbitration under the ICC Rules on Arbitration. The arbitral panel ruled that ConocoPhillips was indeed...
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 September 8, 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) issued its decision in Ivo Taricco and Others, finding that by preventing the imposition of effective and dissuasive penalties in cases of serious VAT fraud, Italian law is liable to affect the financial interests of the European Union. The case concerned the criminal proceedings in Italy against Mr. Taricco and others that arose from a criminal conspiracy to acquire goods VAT free and below market price, thus distorting the market. According to the press release, the Court stated that member states must...
On September 7, 2015, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (the Court) made public its decision (only available in Spanish and originally decided on June 22, 2015) in Granier and Others v. Venezuela, ordering Venezuela to reinstate the broadcasting license of news outlet Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). According to a news report, Venezuela’s former government under Hugo Chavez had refused to reissue the license, “on grounds it backed a brief 2002 coup and its frequency was needed for a public service channel.” In 2013, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR)...
On September 4, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada (the Court) decided that villagers from Ecuador can enforce a $9.5 billion judgment against the Chevron Corporation through its Canadian subsidiary, Chevron Canada. In 2003, the villagers instituted legal proceedings against Texaco, which has since merged with Chevron, alleging that their commercial activities had caused “extensive environmental pollution that has, in turn, disrupted the lives and jeopardized the futures of its residents.” An Ecuadorian court found for the villagers in 2011, awarding $17.2 billion; a judgement which was...
On September 4, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District (the Court) held that the United Nations Convention against Torture (CAT) protected a transgender immigrant from deportation to Mexico. Edin Avendano-Hernandez, a transgender woman from Mexico, had petitioned the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) to withhold her removal to Mexico based on the physical and sexual abuse by police and military officers she experienced there. The Court agreed with the BIA’s finding that Avendano-Hernandez’s felony conviction for driving under the influence and causing bodily harm to...
On September 2, 2015, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and MasterCard announced a new partnership designed to utilize global technology in development assistance. According to the press release, the “collaborative effort [that] will develop inclusive payment systems to support small-scale farmers and poor families” by providing “credit or money to households for purchases of basic needs and farming inputs on local markets, thereby supporting local economies and putting financial tools in the hands of economically marginalized communities.” The Kakuma refugee camp...
On August 31, 2015, U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jose Cabranes held in EM Ltd. v. Banco Central de la Republica Argentina (BCRA) that Argentina’s central bank has the ability to invoke its sovereign immunity to avoid liability in a suit brought by U.S. investment firms because no exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) applied in the case. It overruled the District Court’s finding that BCRA had waived its sovereign immunity because Argentina imputed its waiver of sovereign immunity for a Fiscal Agency Agreement (which included the bonds in question) on...
On August 28, 2015, the UN Security Council welcomed the signatures of South Sudan’s President Kiir and Riek Machar Teny, who signed on behalf of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition, on the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan. The Security Council stated that the signing of the agreement is “the first step in reversing the difficult political and economic situation, and humanitarian, and security catastrophe resulting from this crisis, calls upon the parties, with support from the United Nations and international community, to fully implement...
On August 27, 2015, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a statement regarding a $1,700,100 settlement reached with Swiss bank UBS “for 222 apparent violations of the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 594.” According to the settlement notice, UBS processed transactions involving securities held in the U.S. for a client who had been designated by OFAC in 2001 as a person who commits, threatens to commit, or supports terrorism. Even though UBS reacted to sanctions that Switzerland imposed against the client by placing blocks and restrictions on...
On August 27, 2015, the European Court of Human Rights (the Court) ruled in Parillo v. Italy that a ban prohibiting a woman from donating embryos resulting from in vitro fertilization to scientific research was not a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court found Article 8 applicable to the facts of the case because “the applicant’s ability to exercise a conscious and considered choice regarding the fate of her embryos concerns an intimate aspect of her personal life and accordingly relates...