Topic 1

           On January 10, 2003, North Korea announced (a) that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), effective immediately, and (b) that its withdrawal from the NPT left it free from the binding force of its Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

 

On December 15, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed separate complaints originally filed on April 29, 1999 by Serbia and Montenegro against eight NATO member states (Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom), asking the ICJ to hold each of the respondent states responsible for international law violations stemming from the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in March-April 1999.  According to the Court's unanimous Judgments, Serbia and Montenegro lacks standing to sue before the ICJ. [1]

The U.N. Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change has issued a lengthy report setting out a broad framework for collective security. [1]   It touches on several issues of international law and organization, including some important ones that are the focus of this Insight.  

 

On November 10, a dispute-settlement panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) condemned the United States for banning online gambling. [1]   It did so at the request of one of the smallest countries in the world, Antigua and Barbuda.  The case was triggered when in 2000 a U.S. court sentenced Jay Cohen, a U.S. national and founder of the World Sports Exchange, to 21 months in jail for selling gambling services to U.S. citizens from the island of Antigua, in violation of the 1961 Wire Communications Act. 

 

On 1 November 2004, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia issued its decision on whether Slobodan Milosevic has a right to continue to act as his own lawyer in his war crimes trial at The Hague. [1]   The decision has important implications for the trial of Saddam Hussein before the Iraqi Special Tribunal and future trials involving former leaders accused of international crimes.

 

The Initial Decision to Permit Milosevic to Act as His Own Lawyer  

 

One of the lead items on the agenda at the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting on 25 November 2004 will be to determine whether Iran is in compliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), and if not, whether to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for possible enforcement action.

 

According to news reports, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has transferred about a dozen non-Iraqi prisoners out of Iraq in the past 18 months. Their destination has not been made known. The news reports say that the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has prepared a draft legal opinion that would authorize the CIA to take Iraqis out of the country for brief periods of interrogation, and permanently to remove persons deemed to be illegal aliens under "local immigration law." [1]