Weekend Roundup: May 17 – 23, 2014

This week on Opinio Juris, Duncan shared his initial reactions on the DOJ charges against Chinese military officials over cyberespionage targeting US industries and Chimène Keitner examined the indictments from the perspective of foreign official immunity.

Julian looked into the aftermath of China’s decision to move an oil rig to a disputed area of the South China Sea. He argued that Taiwanese investors might be better off invoking the China-Vietnam BIT rather than the Taiwan-Vietnam Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement to claim compensation following anti-Chinese riots, and discussed what form Vietnam’s reported legal action could take.

ICC news came from Kevin and Kristen, with Kevin updating us on a constitutional amendment before the Ukrainian Parliament that would enable ratification of the Rome Statute, and posting a quote from Judge Van den Wyngaert’s dissent in Katanga in anticipation of Katanga’s sentencing. Kristen discussed the implications of Security Council veto on the referral of the situation in Syria to the ICC.

Guest posts this week touched upon a variety of topics: Christopher Gevers reported back from this week’s hearings at the South African Constitutional Court in a landmark universal jurisdiction case involving alleged crimes against humanity committed in Zimbabwe in 2007. Tyler Cullis, meanwhile, reviewed to what extent the US would be legally and politically able to ease sanctions against Iran as part of a nuclear deal. In the last guest post of the week, Gabor Rona commented on the recent Serdar Mohammed v Ministry of Defence case on detention in a non-international armed conflict.

Finally, Deborah shared her views on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s hearings on the AUMF, and as every week, you could also count on us to wrap up the news and list events and announcements.

Many thanks to our guest contributors and have a nice weekend!