Topic 1

Introduction

Introduction

On May 1, 2017, as the United States Supreme Court delivered its decisions on many of the term’s divisive questions, a unanimous opinion in Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela v. Helmerich & Payne International Drilling Co.[1]slipped through the headlines largely unnoticed.

In July 2017, a Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) of United Nations member states agreed to take the next step toward negotiating an international instrument to govern the marine biodiversity of the high seas.

The chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria, reported on April 4, 2017, produced 86 deaths and more than 300 injuries according to the initial reports.[1] The Fact-Finding Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was able to deploy in less than twenty-four hours, and later confirmed the incident,[2] even though Syria “categorically reject[ed] the false accusations and allegations of the Syrian Arab Army’s use of toxic chemical substances a

On June 15, 2016, the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, after decades of laborious negotiations.[1]

Introduction

In 2008, the United Nations Security Council acknowledged the need to establish a mechanism to carry out essential functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after their closure.[1] The Security Council underscored that impunity for individuals indicted by the Tribunals and still at large would be unacceptable, recognized the critical importance of continuing witness protection, and stressed that the archives of the Tribunals are UN pro

Introduction

Unlike in the United States, in the United Kingdom the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) for targeted killings has generally been “under the radar” due to the British government’s longstanding refusal to admit that any such policy exists.