Topic 1

In a number of recent judgements, the European Court of First Instance (CFI) has considered actions seeking annulment of two European Community measures adopted pursuant to different counter-terrorism regimes established by the United Nations Security Council. A Community Regulation transposing the sanctions regime created by Security Council Resolution 1267 (1999) into Community law and directly linked to the list maintained by the UN Sanctions Committee has only been subjected to limited review.

In September 2005, the UN Independent Inquiry Committee ('IIC' or 'Volcker Inquiry

From October 2005 to July 2006, Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants were tried for crimes against humanity in the first of several planned trials before the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) -- a judicial institution originally created by the Iraqi Interim Governing Council on December 10, 2003, and later approved by the democratically elected Iraqi National Assembly on August 11, 2005.

On November 14, 2006, a criminal complaint[1] was filed in a German court against senior U.S. officials, including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, high ranking military officers, and several former government lawyers alleging torture and war crimes at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay Prison Camp.

Background

On September 12, 2006, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) sanctioned the decision of the European Community (EC) and member states to bring actions for damages against certain cigarette manufacturers in United States courts. The decision grew out of the companies' unsuccessful attempt to have the European Court of First Instance preclude any such lawsuits.

In Hamdan v.

On October 14, 2006, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1718 (2006), reacting to the announcement on October 9, 2006, by North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK) that it had conducted an underground nuclear weapon test.

Background

The October 9, 2006 announcement by North Korea (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK) that it had successfully conducted an underground test of a nuclear weapon raises questions about the status of such testing under international law.[1] This Insight examines the international legal norms that could apply to su