International Law in Domestic Courts

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

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

On May 15, 2007, President George W. Bush "urge[d] the Senate to act favorably on U.S. accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea during this session of Congress."[1] In doing so, the President identified four benefits to U.S. interests when the U.S. joins the Convention.

As a party to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), the United States has an obligation to ensure that a detained national of another party to the treaty is informed of the right to contact his or her consulate and request consular assistance.[1] The notification requirement of Article 36 of the VCCR has been at the center of a series of U.S.

Recently, David Hicks, an Australian interned for over five years in Guantanamo Bay, became the first individual sentenced under the newly-constituted Military Commission process. Hicks pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally providing material support to al-Qaeda in the context of an armed conflict against the U.S.[1] and will be repatriated to Australia to serve a further nine months of imprisonment.

On March 5, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its opinion in Sinochem International Co. Ltd. v. Malaysia International Shipping Corporation,[1] one of only a few Supreme Court decisions to deal squarely with the doctrine of forum non conveniens. The Court held that federal district courts need not establish jurisdiction prior to dismissing transnational litigation on the basis of forum non conveniens.

On February 20, 2007, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an important decision in long-running litigation brought by detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba military facility.[1] Disposing of a score of consolidated appeals involving 63 foreign nationals, the two-judge majority in Boumediene v.

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.