Topic 1

Introduction

On July 17, 2007, Rwanda notified the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that it plans to import the HIV-drug TriAvir from the Canadian company Apotex and will not enforce any patents granted in that respect in Rwanda.[1] Two months later, Canada issued a compulsory license allowing Apotex to use nine patented inventions for manufacturing and exporting TriAvir to Rwanda.

On August 2, 2007, Russian explorers in a submersible planted their national flag on the seabed below the North Pole in symbolic support of Russia's 2001 claim relating to its extended continental shelf. This claim was first made on December 20, 2001 in the context of Russia's submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in accordance with Article 76(8) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In a 94-page judgment issued October 8, 2007, the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court) found unanimously that Honduras, not Nicaragua, has sovereignty over four disputed islands in the Caribbean Sea.

Update to ASIL Insight Vol. 10, Issue 19

In the second week of September 2007, leading U.S. military and diplomatic officials provided long-awaited reports to Congress and the President on U.S. political and military activities in Iraq. These hearings focused attention on how much progress U.S. counterinsurgency (COIN) efforts have made in Iraq. Although debate surrounding these events centered on the question of the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the testimony and hearings connect the ongoing attempts by the U.S. government to adjust to the challenges presented by waging COIN campaigns.

Update: The Mercosur Exemption Reversed – Conflict between WTO and Mercosur Rulings and Its Implications for Environmental Values (December 31, 2008)

In its previous session, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Permanent Mission of India to the United States v.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) recently decided Copland v. United Kingdom,[1] in which the ECHR expanded the basis and extent of protection for personal data in a variety of settings, including the workplace. The European Union's Data Protection Directive already mandated very broad protection for such data in EU member states. This decision may further widen the gulf between U.S.

On May 8, 2007, the German Constitutional Court (the "Bundesverfassungsgericht") handed down a decision on the question of whether Argentina could invoke necessity under general international law as an affirmative defense against claims brought in German courts by private individuals for the country's default on sovereign bonds in early 2002.[1] While the Court accepted that necessity was recognized as precluding the wrongfulness of a breach of internation