On February 16, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed an action brought by Hungary and Poland challenging an EU regulation making disbursement of funding to the EU member states conditional on certain requirements, including respect for the rule of law. Specifically, the two states challenged the legal basis for the regulation. According to a press release from the Court, in dismissing the claims, the Court found that: “the regulation is intended to protect the Union budget from effects resulting, in a sufficiently direct way, from breaches of the principles of the...
International Law in Brief
International Law in Brief (ILIB) is a forum that provides updates on current developments in international law from the editors of ASIL's International Legal Materials.
On February 12, 2022, the U.S. Secretary of State, the Japanese Foreign Minister, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Minister of Foreign Affairs issued a joint statement regarding the “critical importance of strong U.S.-Japan-ROK trilateral cooperation as we seek to address the most pressing 21st Century challenges.” The statement focused on the importance of “trilateral cooperation” and emphasized the fact that the “three countries share[d] a common view of a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is inclusive, and shared respect for the rules-based international order.” In the joint statement,...
On February 9, 2022, The International Court of Justice in Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Uganda) issued its judgment, on the questions of reparations, fixing the amount of compensation “due from the Republic of Uganda to the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC] for the damage caused by the violations of international obligations by the Republic of Uganda, as found by the Court in its Judgment of 19 December 2005.” The judgment falls on the backdrop of a dispute concerning “acts of armed aggression" perpetrated by Uganda on...
On February 8, 2022, the European Court of Human Rights in case of Q and R v. Slovenia issued a judgment in favor of two grandparents arguing that the foster permission proceedings regarding their grandchildren had been prolonged and unfair. The Court denied the government's argument that “the restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 crisis [would] have understandably had an adverse effect on the processing of cases before the domestic courts,” holding instead that COVID-19 restrictions did not absolve the state of responsibility in regards to special diligence to urgent...
On January 24, 2022, The High Court of Namibia ruled against recognizing same sex marriage for two same sex couples who filed a consolidated application for declaratory relief and constitutional recognition of their same sex marriages in Namibia. In the 62-page decision, the Court held that precedent from the Supreme Court decision in Chairperson of the Immigration Selection Board v. Frank, which held that same-sex relationships are not legal in Namibia, “must be followed by the High Court, even if that decision is wrong.” Despite this holding, The High Court further held that the...
On January 13, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Israel's resolution addressing the problem of Holocaust denial. The resolution, “[b]earing in mind that Holocaust denial in its various forms is an expression of antisemitism,” focuses on the remembrance of the Holocaust as a key component in the prevention of further acts of genocide. The resolution continues all U.N. outreach programs on the Holocaust, as well as all relevant U.N. specialized agencies’ development and implementation of programs aimed at countering Holocaust denial and distortion. It also urges member states...
On January 19, 2022, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced that it will hold public hearings in the case of The Gambia v. Myanmar from February 21-28. The case was instituted by The Republic of The Gambia in 2019 based on the state's argument that the Myanmar military (the "Tatmadaw") and other Myanmar security forces have committed genocidal acts against the Rohingya people. The February hearings will focus on Myanmar's preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the ICJ and the admissibility of the Application.
On January 20, 2022, the First Section of the European Court of Human Rights issued its judgment in Milanković v. Croatia that there was no violation of Article 7 (no punishment without law) of the European Convention on Human Rights when Vladimir Milanković, in his role as Deputy Head of the Police Department, was convicted of war crimes on the basis of command responsibility for his role of failing to prevent those under his command from committing war crimes. According to a press release, the Court, after examining Milanković’s claims that the Basic Criminal Code had not...
On December 15, 2021, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a new directive on environmental crime. According to an EU press release, the proposal aims to oblige member states to take criminal measures to protect the environment more efficiently. The proposal, which aims to replace Directive 2008/99/EC, “sets new EU environmental criminal offences,” “clarifies existing definitions of environmental criminal offences,” proposes additional sanctions for environmental crimes, and aims to ensure effective investigations and criminal proceedings as well as to help “cross-border...
On December 10, 2021, Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP), submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and accused Myanmar Military Leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing of crimes against humanity. According to a MAP press release, MAP, in its submission, under Article 15 of the Rome Statute, presented evidences of systematic and wide-spread torture in Myanmar, and “urged the ICC to open a criminal investigation.” MAP is a human rights organization that works on “a small number of criminal cases against specific individuals.”