Owner: International Law Observer URL:http://internationallawobserver.eu/ Join Date: Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:54:05 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog dedicated to reports, commentary and the discussion of topical issues of public international law as well as EC/EU-Law. Site statistics:Click here
Hail to the Chief 2008-10-08 14:38:12 Tomorrow the European Parliament is expected to approve a motion tabled by the Committee for Constitutional Affairs, which will adopt a flag, an anthem and a motto for the Union. Not surprisingly, the flag will be the well-known blue banner with the twelve stars. Equally unsurprising, the anthem will be based on the ‘Ode to [...] Read more:Chief
Senator McCain and Senator Obama on humanitarian intervention 2008-10-08 11:59:26 With hardly one month until the 2008 presidential election in the US, yesterday’s second debate between SenatorMcCain
and Senator Obama
was a rather unspectacular event, at least from a substantive political point of view. There was little the average follower of the presidential election hadn’t heard already. However, from the perspective of international law [...] Read more:humanitarian
, intervention
Human Rights and Business: Global Witness v. Afrimex (UK) Ltd. 2008-10-08 06:00:36 UK National Contact Point under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises delivered in late August an important decision in GlobalWitness
v. Afrimex (UK) Ltd. Global Witness alleged that Afrimex paid taxes to rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo and employed insufficient due diligence on the supply chain, sourcing minerals from mines that [...] Read more:Rights
, Business
, Human Rights
Heller on the OTP of the ICC 2008-10-08 02:32:21 For those with an interest in international criminal law Professor Jon Heller of University of Auckland has posted a highly recommendable paper on SSRN titled “Situational Gravity Under the Rome Statute”. In it, Heller criticises the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) for the ICC and the way it decides which cases receives its attention. Heller [...]
In the Name of Human Rights Education 2008-10-07 15:57:23 Thomas Hammarberg, Human Rigts Commissioner of the Council of Europe, yesterday released a call for more human rights education in schools. The call rests on the premise that human rights become more effective when people are actually aware of them. This seems a fair and perhaps rather evident idea. However, I am not sure Hammaberg [...] Read more:Rights
, Human Rights
, Education
What will the US Supreme Court Look Like in the Future? 2008-10-07 15:30:24 Jess Bravin of the Wall Street Journal has a brief but very interesting and useful guide to what the US SupremeCourt
may look like following November’s presidential election. Interestingly, it is called into question whether it is a good idea to have a former constitutional scholar (Obama) to appoint justices to the Court.
[...] Read more:Supreme Court
, Future
EU Commission puts forward an enhanced minimum standard for maternity leave 2008-10-07 10:34:30 On Friday 3 October, the European Commission
published a proposal on the extension and the improvement of the EU law framework on maternity leave (COM(2008) 600/4).
The proposal forms part of a package of measures aimed at helping women to align their work with their family life. More specifically, according to Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, [...]
Further Integration in Light of the Crisis 2008-10-07 02:33:08 Although the current world-wide financial crisis is indeed a bad one, it could just be that it might lead to a few good outcomes. One such outcome could be, according to Tony Barber of the Financial Times’ Brussels Blog, further European integration. It certainly appears that the dismal economic situation in Iceland has lead to [...] Read more:Further
, Crisis
The Israeli Supreme Court in another battle in the “war on terror” 2008-10-06 12:22:56 The Court
’s judgment in the case of HCJ 1355/08 Shorfa v Defense Minister (judgment of 28 September 2008) concerning a petition against the Defense Minister’s decision under Regulation 84(2)(b) of the Defense Regulations (State of Emergency) 1945, to issue a confiscation order against a container full of clothes and backpacks that was delivered to a [...] Read more:Israeli
, Supreme
, Supreme Court
Illegal settlements and property-rights under regimes that violate international law 2008-10-29 17:05:21 Some very interesting papers have recently been made public by Yael Ronen, who specialises in the fields of international humanitarian and human rights law in the OPT. She has made a number of substantive contributions in her recent work on previously untrodden grounds. All three of her relatively recent papers are (from an objective perspective) [...] Read more:property
, violate
ECOWAS Ruling against Slavery 2008-10-29 16:08:35 Although last year saw the marking of the bicentennial of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, slavery sadly remains a widespread problem in many countries. This week, however, the Community Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) found that the government of Niger did not do enough to protect [...] Read more:against
, Slavery
Kenyan Commission Recommends an International Crimes Tribunal 2008-10-28 02:18:23 The Commission
of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence (CIPEV) established to investigate the violence witnessed after the 27 December 2007 elections in Kenya officially presented its much-anticipated report to President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on 15 October 2008. The CIPEV, or Waki Commission, was vested with a mandate to ‘investigate the facts and [...] Read more:Kenyan
, International
, Crimes
, Tribunal
The Occupation of the Gaza Strip and the continued renouncement of responsibility 2008-10-24 09:12:57 A recent judgment of the Israeli Supreme Court in the case of HCJ 10265/05 Physicians for Human Rights v Defense Minister (judgment of 7 October 2008) reexamines a number of questions concerning not only the status of the Gaza Strip
and Israel’s obligations towards the local population. Equally, the Court’s reluctance to address the violations [...]
No Impunity for Toxic Dump 2008-10-24 03:05:59 It is often asserted that developing countries lack the manpower and expertise to enforce environmental and health laws contributing to a “race to the bottom” in which companies and enterprises from the developed world flock to set up businesses under lax regulation and enforcement in the developing countries. Although such assertions are probably overstated, the [...]
ICC Appeals Chamber: Lubanga won’t be released (… yet) 2008-10-22 07:00:02 Yesterday the AppealsChamber
of the ICC delivered two judgments with regard to appeals of the prosecutor against decisions of the Trial Chamber in the case of Mr Lubanga Dyilo (we reported on this case earlier here, and here). The first judgment concerned an appeal against the Trial Chamber’s decision on the release of Thomas [...]
Amnesty briefs UN CAT about Israel’s human rights violations in the OPT 2008-10-21 17:15:46 Amnesty International has submitted a briefing to the Committee Against Torture in view of its consideration of Israel
’s fourth periodic report on its implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The briefing focuses on Amnesty International’s concerns about Israel’s failure to implement the Convention against Torture particu Read more:Amnesty
, briefs
A New World Order Take Two 2008-10-21 14:47:21 We have previously blogged about the effect of the current financial crisis on the influence of western countries and whether the crisis will change current power balances. Today’s NY Times has a good story on how the financial crisis, as it slowly makes its way into the real economy, affects countries like Russia, Iran and [...] Read more:World
, Order
, New World
EU loosens sanctions against Belarus and Uzbekistan 2008-10-19 18:38:37 The EU’s external relations with third countries have always offered excellent object lessons with respect to the omnipresent tension between the promotion of the EU’s essential moral values and the political and economic interests of its Member States.
Most recent evidence to this effect can be found in the 2897th External Relations meeting of the Council [...] Read more:against
, Belarus
Another new case for the International Court of Justice 2008-11-18 12:35:44 The list of cases pending before the InternationalCourt
of Justice
(ICJ) continues to grow. Yesterday (17 November 2008) a new case was added to the docket when the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRM) instituted proceedings against Greece. The case revolves around Greece’s objection to FYRM joining NATO which, according to FYRM, is [...]
Trial Chamber of the ICC lifts stay of proceedings in the case against Thomas Lubanga 2008-11-18 08:34:06 Today the International Criminal Court announced, that the TrialChamber
I lifted the stay of proceedings in the case “The Prosecutor v. Thomas
Lubanga Dyilo” (we reported earlier). AP has the story; press release of the ICC is available here.
Today, Trial Chamber I decided to lift the stay of proceedings in the case of The [...] Read more:lifts
, against
UN Special Rapporteur submits first report despite being barred from entering the OPT 2008-11-15 10:52:53 The recent conclusions to the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly has recalled a rather unsettling situation, where a UN Special
Rapporteur has been refused entry on sensitive ideological/political grounds having made supportable submissions on the factual situations in the region. On March 26, 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Falk [...] Read more:report
, despite
Darfur: Impact of ICC Warrant of Arrest Against Bashir to the Peace Processes 2008-11-14 07:42:24 The Office of the Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court has received a lot of critcism from diffrent sections of the world with regards Mr Moreno Ocampo’s application for a warrant of arrest against one the most ruthless dictators Africa has ever seen, President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan who is being accused of perpetrating war [...] Read more:Peace
, Darfur
, Warrant
, Arrest
What happens if a judge falls asleep during the trial? 2008-11-14 04:03:33 There appears to be confusion as to the legal principles relevant to allegations that a trial judge was not always fully conscious of the trial proceedings. A number of such allegations have been made in the cases before International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). In this way, the Court offered some guidance how to [...] Read more:asleep
Election of judges to the International Court of Justice 2008-11-10 05:22:35 Last week, the General Assembly and the Security Council elected five new members of the InternationalCourt
of Justice
(see press release). The elected judges
are: Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh (Jordan) and Ronny Abraham (France) who were both re-elected. Messrs. Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Brazil), Christopher Greenwood (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), [...] Read more:Election
A critical look at the ICC 2008-11-10 02:28:16 This week’s “Clip of the Week” is the first part of three of a documentary that takes a critical
look (to say the least) at the International Criminal Court: “Injustice for all: The International Criminal Court”. The documentary is made from the perspective of the United States, and although most of us have already heard [...]
Who Started What? 2008-11-07 06:15:09 If the picture of who started (not to say targeted what populations) August’s armed conflict between Russia and Georgia was not murky enough already, today’s NY Times has a report that will add even further uncertainty to the question. It is reported that a group of observers from the OSCE observed severe and what would [...]
Second Gitmo Conviction 2008-11-03 12:24:01 A military jury at the American Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has found Ali Hamza al-Bahlul guilty on charges of conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder and providing material support to terrorism. He is the second detainee to be found guilty at Gitmo following the trial of Salim Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden’s driver, who [...] Read more:Second
, Conviction
Recommend Site To A Friend
