Calls for Papers

• As the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 Commission Report approaches, the recurring dispute over the boundaries of the post-9/11 national security state is once again in full swing. Governing Intelligence will move beyond the surveillance debate to start an interdisciplinary dialogue about the power and limits of intelligence agencies from a comparative and international perspective. The Stanford Journal of International Law seeks contributions by academics, practitioners, and policymakers in the form of approx. 10-15,000-word scholarly essays or 5,000-word white papers on either of the following topics: (a) National Intelligence & Transnational Threats; or, (b) Individual Rights & Intelligence Gathering. Please send a 1-2 page abstract of your essay or white paper in Word format, a C.V. of the author(s), and point of contact information to sjilboard [at] gmail [dot] com by 5:00PM PST on February 1, 2014. The full announcement, along with sub-topics and submissions instructions, can be found here.
• The British Branch of the International Law Association has issued a call for papers for the Spring Conference (May 23-24, 2014). The organizers are particularly interested in contributions that shed new light on the following foundational questions: the relationship between international, regional and domestic legal orders; the identification and development of customary international law; and the regulation of armed conflict. Re-examining foundations in the light of new information and modes of thinking leads naturally to the imagination of possible futures. In this respect we are also seeking papers that explore the relevance of new theoretical paradigms (for example, the idea of transnational law) or analyze issues of concern to present and future generations, such as combating climate change, preventing human trafficking, managing financial risk, encouraging businesses to respect human rights and promoting socially responsible investment.This conference will combine pace-setting panels with keynote speeches that will present a striking vision of lawmaking in the future. The organisers also welcome the submission of unsolicited proposals. These should be one page long and sent to ilaconf [at] kcl [dot] ac [dot] uk by 30 January 2014. The call can also be found here (.pdf).

Events

•  ALMA and the Radzyner School of Law of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) would like to invite you to the next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum. The session will be held on December 16, 2013.  In this session Dr. Ruvi Ziegler will present his new paper: Non refoulement Between Common Article 1 and Common Article 3. The article considers whether, in the context of armed conflicts, certain non-refoulement obligations of non-belligerent States can be derived from the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Following the lectures there will be an open round-table discussion, all of which will be conducted in English. Those who wish to participate are asked to register in advance at forum [at] alma-ihl [dot] org. More information can be found here.

Announcements

• ASIL’s Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict has submitted a reminder for its call for the Richard R. Baxter Military Writing Prize (.pdf). Deadline for submission is December 31, 2013.
• The GlobalTrust Project at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, directed by Professor Eyal Benvenisti, invites candidates interested in exploring themes related to this project, to apply. There is one post-doctoral fellowship ($25,000 per one year), two doctoral fellowships ($20,000 per year, up to three years) and two visiting fellowships ($1,500 per month, between 3-6 months). The application deadline (for the academic year of 2014-2015) is 1 February, 2014. For more information about the project, click here. Click here for information about the fellowships.

Last week’s events and announcements can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us.

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Middle East

• Iran and six world powers clinched a deal to curb the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for initial sanctions relief, signalling the start of a game-changing rapprochement that would reduce the risk of a wider Middle East war, though a “tough road ahead” awaits those working to turn the interim accord into a comprehensive agreement. Duncan weighed in with his thoughts here.
• Rebels led by al Qaeda-linked fighters have seized Syria’s largest oilfield, cutting off President Bashar al-Assad’s access to almost all local crude reserves.

Asia

• North Korea has confirmed through Swedish officials in Pyongyang that it has detained a US citizen, after reports that an 85-year-old California man was pulled off a plane as he was about to leave the country.
• China has tested its first stealth combat  drone, citing online photos of an aircraft resembling a shrunken US B2 bomber and hailing the advance toward Western-level technology.
• A Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden has been charged with murder and fraud three months after his conviction for treason was overturned.
• Rising diplomatic tension between Australia an Indonesia spread into the corporate world when a state-owned Indonesian firm suspended talks with Australian cattle farmers, citing trust issues between the neighbors.
• The United States has sharply criticised China’s move to impose new rules on airspace over islands at the heart of a territorial dispute with Japan, calling it a “destabilising attempt to alter the status quo in the region,” though China defends its actions. Julian posted about it here.

Africa

• After the defeat of M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, UN peacekeepers are trying to learn more about one of their next targets in a region overrun by armed groups – the Allied Democratic Forces, Islamist extremists blamed for kidnapping at least 300 people in the past year.
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo arrested a senior opposition politician after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant accusing him of trying to influence the war crimes trial of former presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. Kevin offers his word of caution here and over at Justice in Conflict, a post here.

Europe

• Developed countries and fast-growing economies have reached a last-minute compromise to avert a breakdown of UN climate talks in Warsaw, working towards the inking of a new UN pact in 2015 to slow down global warming.
• The U.N. maritime tribunal, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, ordered Russia to release a Greenpeace ship and 30 people arrested in a protest against Russian Arctic oil drilling, most of whom have just been released from detention on bail.
• Three women enslaved for 30 years in a London house were beaten and subjected to psychological abuse, in one of the worst cases of domestic servitude to emerge in Britain.

Americas

• The United States criticized a proposal by Nicaragua’s ruling party to remove presidential term limits, which could allow Washington’s former Cold War adversary Daniel Ortega to stay in power indefinitely.
• Twitter Inc said it has implemented a security technology that makes it harder to spy on its users and called on other Internet firms to do the same, as Web providers look to thwart spying by government intelligence agencies.

Calls for Papers

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Middle East

• Israel has secretly detained a suspected al-Qaeda biological weapons expert for more than three years, court documents disclosed, after the man appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to free him.
• The president of Iraqi Kurdistan has called on Turkey’s Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara, in a show of support for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s bid to overcome a three-decade conflict.
• US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Israel later this week to discuss a proposed deal between world powers and Iran on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Asia

• Australia’s spy agencies attempted to listen in on the mobile phone conversations of Indonesia’s president and targeted the mobile phones of his wife and senior ministers, citing documents leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
• Pakistan has announced that it would put former military ruler Pervez Musharraf on trial for treason, punishable by death or life imprisonment, for imposing emergency rule in 2007.
• Commonwealth leaders have agreed on steps to tackle high debt and poverty as they staged a show of unity after a summit in Sri Lanka dominated by a bitter dispute over war crimes.
• A senior Sri Lanka’s minister has said the government will not allow an international probe into alleged war crimes during its 27-year ethnic conflict, despite mounting pressure from abroad.
• China will loosen its decades-old one-child policy by allowing two children for families with one parent who was an only child and will abolish a much-criticized labour camp system, its ruling Communist Party said.

Africa

• Former members of the Seleka rebel group have shot dead a Central African Republic judge and his assistant, a para-military police official has said.
• The UN Security Council has rejected an African demand to suspend the International Criminal Court trial of Kenya’s president and his deputy for one year.
• According to the UN, at least 460,000 people in Sudan’s Darfur region have been displaced this year as a result of tribal violence and rebel-government battles.
• The UN via its Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, has found that squalid conditions, poor food and overcrowding in Ghana’s prisons amount to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”

Europe

• French President Francois Hollande has called for a complete halt to Israel’s settlement activities on land the Palestinians want for a future state.
• EJIL: Talk! offers commentary on the United Kingdom Supreme Court’s recent decision in the R. v. Mohammed Gul case defining terrorism in times of armed conflict.
• OnNovember 14, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its judgment in Armin Maletic and Marianne Maletic v lastminute.com GmbH and TUI Österreich GmbH and defined the concept of “international character of consumer contracts.”
• The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a request from the Polish government to exclude the press and public from a hearing next month into whether Poland hosted a secret CIA jail on its soil.

Americas

• The US Department of Defense announced that media entities and other would-be observers will not be allowed to sit in on the first session of the Periodic Review Board, a parole-style hearing process for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
• The United States military is considering a mission to train Libyan security personnel with the goal of creating a force of 5,000 to 7,000 conventional soldiers and a separate, smaller unit for specialized counterterrorism missions.
• The US has been quietly offering as much as $10 million since January for information about the attack on a diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Middle East

• The UN said it had halted work on all but one of its 20 Gaza building projects as a result of an Israeli ban on importing building materials into the Palestinian enclave.
• The UN estimates that about 9.3 million people in Syria, or about 40 percent of the population, need humanitarian assistance owing to the country’s ongoing civil conflict.
• The Nobel Peace Prize-winning OPCW, the international body tasked with ensuring Syria’s chemical weapons are eliminated, has enough money to fund its mission only until the end of this month, and needs more funds soon for the destruction of poison gas stocks next year.
• The Syrian political opposition has agreed to participate in international peace talks in Geneva, but only if certain preconditions are met, the Syrian National Coalition has said in a statement.
• Israeli negotiators have told their Palestinian counterparts that the Separation Wall that cuts through the occupied West Bank will serve as the border of a future Palestinian state.

Asia

•  A trial in Bangladesh, which brought death sentences for 152 border guards accused of murder and arson in a mutiny in 2009, failed to meet international law standards, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said.
• Saudi Arabia, having largely abandoned hope that the United States will spearhead international efforts to topple the Assad regime, is embarking on a major new effort to train Syrian rebel forces and they’ve reportedly enlisted the help of Pakistan to do it.
• South Korea’s air force has asked for enhanced stealth capability for fighter jets set to be purchased, a government source briefed on the matter said on Monday, further bolstering the chances of Lockheed Martin winning the tender with its F-35s.

Africa

• The Democratic Republic of the Congo and defeated M23 rebels are to sign a peace deal  to end a 20-month revolt in the east of the vast African nation, where other militias still roam and millions are destitute despite great mineral wealth.
• After the success of the Congolese army and UN peacekeepers in defeating M23 rebels, the UN Security Council agreed that attention should now turn to tackling other armed groups in eastern DRC.
• Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan asked the national assembly to extend by six months a state of emergency in three northeastern states where the military is fighting a drawn out battle with Islamist militants.
• The Mauritanian news website Sahara Medias said it had received a claim of responsibility from al Qaeda’s regional wing for the killing of two French journalists in northern Mali.

Europe

• The Netherlands has asked an international court to order Russia to release 30 people detained during a Greenpeace protest against oil drilling in the Arctic.
• Also in The Netherlands, an alliance of privacy advocates, lawyers and journalists is taking the Dutch government to court over its links to overseas intelligence agencies.
• NATO is staging its biggest military exercise in seven years in the Baltic countries and Poland but its insistence that the drills are not aimed at sharpening defenses against a resurgent Russia have not convinced Moscow.

Americas

• Medical staff tasked with monitoring the health of prisoners held by the United States in Guantanamo Bay, secret CIA prisons and in Afghanistan were complicit in abuses against them, according to an independent report.
• Colombia’s government and Marxist FARC rebels reached a “fundamental agreement” on the guerrillas’ future in politics, one of the thorniest issues addressed in peace talks in Cuba, according to a joint statement.
• Colombia is preparing a letter of protest to Russia after two Russian bomber planes twice entered Colombian airspace without authorization when flying between Venezuela and Nicaragua.
• In May, the White House leaked word that it would start shifting drone operations from the shadows of the CIA to the relative sunlight of the Defense Department in an effort to be more transparent about the controversial targeted killing program. But six months later, the so-called migration of those operations has stalled, and it is now unlikely to happen anytime soon.
• US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that world powers had moved closer towards a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, but said that the US continued to be sceptical of the country willingness to act.

Events

• The Leitner Center for International Law at Fordham University is hosting Global Rights and Local Challenges: Disability, Inclusive Education and Rural Environments, a panel discussion that will highlight the backdrops of rural poverty and educational underdevelopment as barriers to inclusion and to education for persons with disabilities. A film screening of In the Shadow of the Sun will follow the event on Friday, November 15th at Fordham Law School in New York. More information can be found here (along with a trailer for the film).
• As a reminder, the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, the Roger Hertog Program on Law and National Security, and the Lieber Society of the American Society of International Law present: From Gettysburg to Guantanamo: 150 Years of the Lieber Code and the Law of Armed Conflict, a conference on November 21st at Columbia Law School. Drafted by Columbia Professor Francis Lieber and signed by President Lincoln in 1863 as General Order No. 100, the Lieber Code regulated the conduct of U.S. soldiers during wartime. While the Code was limited to Union forces, the rules were based on customary law of the time and strongly influenced subsequent international codification of the law of armed conflict. The Code grappled with issues involving the regulation of armed conflicts between states and non-state groups that remain pressing today. This conference celebrating its 150th anniversary will explore the origins and import of the Lieber Code in its Civil War context, its impact on the development of international humanitarian law, and its continued significance to modern challenges in armed conflict. Confirmed speakers can be found here, the conference schedule here.

Announcements

• The International Court of Justice wishes to appoint 2 Law Clerks each of whom will provide research and other legal assistance to one of the judges of the Court. For administrative purposes, the Law Clerks are attached to the Department of Legal Matters. Under the supervision of the judge to whom he or she will be specifically assigned, the Law Clerk will provide such judge with legal research and related assistance with regard to cases pending before the Court. The Law Clerk may also be required to provide legal assistance and support to a judge ad hoc participating in a particular case. In coordination with his or her judge, the Law Clerk may also from time to time be called upon to perform some specific legal tasks for the Registry. More information can be found here. Deadline for submission of applications is November 15th.
• The International Criminal Court (ICC) Moot Court Competition will take place from 19 until 23 May 2014 in The Hague, the Netherlands. The ‘City of Peace and Justice’ will welcome over 250 students from 50 universities and over 30 different countries for this large scale moot court, simulating the proceedings of the ICC. The Competition brings together students of diverse backgrounds and cultures from both Member States and Non-Member States alike, and is the perfect instrument for the development and promotion of international criminal justice. The Competition enhances knowledge about the Rome Statute, especially within countries that have yet to ratify it, and it stimulates interaction between future top legal minds originating  both from Member States and Non-Member States. Participating universities from Non-Member States this year include teams from the USA, Iran, India, Russia, Israel, China and Palestine. More information can be found here. If you have any questions, or want to become involved in the Competition, contact the organizers at grotiuscentre [at] cdh [dot] leidenuniv.nl.
• ALMA (Association for the Promotion of International Humanitarian Law has established an Upcoming IHL events page on ALMA’s website. The web page includes information about current and future events from all over the world (divided by regions).
• The American Society of International Law’s Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict is calling for submissions for the Francis Lieber Prize. Both monographs and articles (including chapters in books of essays) are eligible for consideration, as the prize is awarded to the best submission in each of these two categories.
• • Criteria: Any work in the English language published during 2013 or whose publication is imminent at the time of submission may be nominated for this prize. The re-submission of works which have already been considered for this prize is not allowed.  Entries may address such topics as the use of force in international law, the conduct of hostilities during international and non‑international armed conflicts, protected persons and objects under the law of armed conflict, the law of weapons, operational law, rules of engagement, occupation law, peace operations, counter‑terrorist operations, and humanitarian assistance.  Other topics bearing on the application of international law during armed conflict or other military operations are also appropriate.
  • Age Limit:       Competitors must be 35 years old or younger on 31 December 2013. They need not be members of the American Society of International Law.  Multi-authored works may be submitted if all the authors are eligible to enter the competition.  Should a multi-authored submission win the competition, the cash component of the prize shall be divided, pro rata, between the authors. Submissions from outside the United States are welcomed.
  • Submission:     Submissions, including a letter or message of nomination, must be received by 20 January 2014.  Three copies of books must be submitted.  The electronic submission of articles is encouraged.  Authors may submit their own work.  All submissions must include contact data (e‑mail, fax, phone, address).  The Prize Committee will acknowledge receipt of the submission by e‑mail. Printed submissions must be sent to:Professor Iain Scobbie, School of Law, Williamson Building, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester  M13 9PL, United Kingdom. Electronic submissions must be sent to: iain [dot] scobbie [at] manchester [dot] ac.uk. Please indicate clearly in the subject line that the email concerns a submission for the Lieber Prize.
  • Prize:   The Selection Committee will select one submission for the award of the Francis Lieber Prize in the book category and one in the article category. The Prizes consist of $500, a certificate of recognition, and a year’s membership of the American Society of International Law.  The winner of the Lieber Prize in both categories will be announced at the American Society of International Law’s Annual Meeting in April 2014.

Last week’s events and announcements can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us.

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Middle East

• Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has said he is open to peace talks but insisted that they would not go ahead unless foreign nations stopped supporting rebel fighters.
• Reuters has an Insight about starvation being used in Syria as a “war tactic” and Foreign Policy offers a glimpse inside of a Syrian refugee camp.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered officials to press ahead with plans to build 3,500 more homes for Jewish settlers, hours after Israel freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of U.S.-brokered peace efforts.

Asia

• The Pakistani government has been criticized for lowering civilian casualty numbers of US drone strikes to 67, contradicting its past calculations (around 400) and estimates by independent organizations (London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates at least 300, while Washington-based New America Foundation claims 185)
• Former Khmer Rouge leader Nuon Chea has denied all charges against him on the last day of a trial for leaders of the Cambodian regime widely blamed for the deaths of some 1.7 million people.
• Der Spiegel has a story on the rising tensions in the Kashmir region.

Africa

• The trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on charges of crimes against humanity is unlikely to start next month as planned, after prosecutors said they did not object to a delay.
• Congolese government troops have entered the eastern border town of Bunagana as M23 rebels abandoned what was the last significant town they were holding.
• Four Frenchmen held hostage in the Sahara desert by al Qaeda-linked gunmen for three years flew home and were reunited with their families, with Paris dismissing media reports it had paid a ransom for their release.

Europe

• European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has warned against nationalism, xenophobia and racism ahead of European Parliament elections next year, when anti-EU and protest parties are expected to do well.
• Turkey has for the first time connected its European and Asian sides by opening a railway tunnel that fulfils a vision first proposed by an Ottoman sultan about 150 years ago.
• Britain approved a new system of regulating its press, a move newspapers said was draconian and threatened freedom of speech but which former victims of press excess described as long overdue

Americas

• The UN has said the US has pledged not to spy on its communications after a report showed the National Security Agency had gained access to the UN video conferencing system.
• American and German officials sought to overcome tension between their governments following reports that the U.S. National Security Agency monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone and that Obama officials knew about it.
• Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld a controversial media law that government proponents applauded as an effort to reduce market concentration but opponents viewed as state meddling aimed at quieting dissent.

Worldwide

• In other news about spying, Foreign Policy covers what went down in the world of spying this week, including the NSA hacking Google and Yahoo accounts, the US allegedly spying on the Pope, Julian Assange’s newest tactics and the Russians, teddy bears and G20 leaders.

Events

• On November 12, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut in The Hague will launch the International Crimes Database (ICD). This platform offers a comprehensive database on international crimes adjudicated by national, international and internationalized courts and will provide access to a range of information not just for lawyers and judges but also for students, academics, families and communities of victims of crimes, among others. The launch will include speeches from the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice, the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) – The Hague, ICD team members, the ICD steering committee, a presentation of the website itself, a keynote speech on international crimes by Judge Fausto Pocar (ICTY) and a reception for all those attending. If you would like to attend please send an e-mail to conferencemanager [at] asser [dot] nl before 7 November. The flyer can be found here and the announcement here.
• The Lieber Society Interest Group of the American Society of International Law is sponsoring a panel discussion from 5:30 – 7:00 pm on November 12th, in Washington, D.C. about the Court-Martial of US Army Sgt Bales for the murder of 16 Afghan civilians entitled “Military Justice, International Criminal Accountability and Cross-Cultural Contexts: US v. Bales“.  The case presents a unique opportunity to explore the challenges in both investigating and prosecuting a case involving crimes in a remote area of a war zone, differing cultural perceptions of accountability and justice, and the relationship between military justice and international criminal justice.Speakers include  Lt. Col Jay Morse, chief, Trial Counsel Assistance Program, US Army, and lead prosecutor in the Bales case; Ms. Morwari Zafar, Afghanistan Subject Matter Expert, Defense Intelligence Agency; Sandra Hodgkinson, Vice President, Chief of Staff of DRS Technologies; former Special Assistant (Chief of Staff) for Deputy Secretary of Defense and William J. Lynn, former Deputy Ambassador for War Crimes Issues, US Dept of State. It will be moderated by Jennifer Daskal, Assistant Professor of Law, Washington College of Law, American University.
• The Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Columbia Law School Human Rights Institute, the Roger Hertog Program on Law and National Security, and the Lieber Society of the American Society of International Law present: From Gettysburg to Guantanamo: 150 Years of the Lieber Code and the Law of Armed Conflict, a conference on November 21st at Columbia Law School. Drafted by Columbia Professor Francis Lieber and signed by President Lincoln in 1863 as General Order No. 100, the Lieber Code regulated the conduct of U.S. soldiers during wartime. While the Code was limited to Union forces, the rules were based on customary law of the time and strongly influenced subsequent international codification of the law of armed conflict. The Code grappled with issues involving the regulation of armed conflicts between states and non-state groups that remain pressing today. This conference celebrating its 150th anniversary will explore the origins and import of the Lieber Code in its Civil War context, its impact on the development of international humanitarian law, and its continued significance to modern challenges in armed conflict. Confirmed speakers can be found here, the conference schedule here.
• On November 28th, the London Review of International Law features a celebratory lecture by Gerry Simpson entitled “The Sentimental Life of International Law” at the London School of Economics. For more information, click here.
• ALMA and the Radzyner School of Law of the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) have announced the next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum. The session will be held on October 30, 2013, at 18:30. In this session Adv. Yaniv Roznai, PhD candidate at LSE will present his new paper: ”Cracking the Nuc” in the Legal Field: An Israeli Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities From an International Law Perspective.” More information, including about registration, can be found here.

Calls for Papers

• JURIST, the online legal news and commentary publication run by students and staff at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, is issuing a call for submissions for its ongoing Feature on ERISA. Deadline for thesis statements: November 1, 2013. Contributors should feel free to examine ERISA from any angle or perspective, so long as the entire piece contains a legal thesis that primarily addresses or incorporates ERISA.  At this time, please send a brief thesis statement of no more than 100 words to academiccommentary [at] jurist [dot] org by the aforementioned deadline of November 1, 2013.  Thesis statements will then be reviewed by JURIST’s commentary staff.  Successful final submissions will be between 1,000 and 1,500 words, will not have been previously published online or in print, and will not include footnotes.  Instead, submissions will include links to primary and secondary sources available online.
• The North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation is accepting submissions of articles related to International Law and National Security issues. Submissions will be considered for Issue 4 of Volume 39 to be published in Spring 2014. Authors are invited to attend the journal’s symposium on International Law issues in National Security on January 31, 2014. Submissions should be at least around 8,000 words and well-cited. Submissions and questions can be directed to NCILJ [at] unc [dot] edu. The submission deadline is December 31, 2013.

Announcements

• Transnational Dispute Management has published its new issue entitled: “Art and Heritage Disputes in International and Comparative Law.” In this TDM special on Art and Heritage Disputes in International and Comparative Law guest editors Prof. Hildegard Schneider (Maastricht University) and Dr. Valentina Vadi (Lancaster University) aim to identify, map and critically assess key themes and features of the numerous art and heritage disputes which have arisen in the past decades. In the introduction article the editors map the key features of these disputes and assess the contribution that these cases offer to the development of international law in both its public and private dimensions. A separate volume to be published early 2014 will focus on intangible heritage disputes.

Last week’s events and announcements can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us.

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Middle East

• Yemen has taken control over hundreds of al-Qaeda inmates who tried to escape after they staged a mutiny in Sanaa prison.
• The Friends of Syria group of Western and Arab foreign ministers are meeting in London hoping to persuade opposition leaders to attend a peace conference in Geneva next month.

Asia

• Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urged President Barack Obama to end drone strikes in Pakistan a day after two reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights watch were released alleging international law violations and a couple days ahead of when the UN will discuss drone strikes in the General Assembly. Kevin has posted about some of the related discussion here.
• China and India signed a deal aimed at soothing tension on their contested border, as the two nuclear-armed giants try to break a decades-old stalemate on overlapping claims to long remote stretches of the Himalayas.
• Former residents of towns near the damaged Fukushima nuclear power station have been told they will be waiting years to return as the clean-up of radioactive contamination is behind schedule.

Africa

• A suicide attack has left two Chadian troops from the UN peacekeeping mission and a civilian dead in northern Mali.
• Four Somali pirates were sentenced to seven years each in prison by a Kenyan court that found them guilty of hijacking a fishing dhow in the Indian Ocean in 2010.
• Tunisian security forces have killed 10 Islamist militants near the border with Algeria during a three-day operation against gunmen who attacked police patrols in the remote northern region.

Europe

• Russia has replaced piracy charges against 30 Greenpeace activists with hooliganism charges, a related subject on which Julian also posted related to Russia’s rejection of the ITLOS proceedings between it and the Netherlands.
• The EU has agreed to restart membership talks with Turkey next month, ending a three-year freeze.
• US President Barack Obama had assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the US is not monitoring her communications, despite German claims to the contrary.
• In related news, The European Parliament called for U.S. access to a global financial database in Belgium to be suspended due to concerns that the United States is snooping on the European Union, not just combating terrorism.

Americas

• The United States has denied its drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan and elsewhere infringed international law and said it did all it could to avoid civilian casualties.
• American and Israeli officials have differed over Iran’s nuclear program, as Israel called for its effective dismantlement and the US suggested safeguards could show that it was peaceful rather than military.

Worldwide

• October 24 marks the entry into force of the United Nations Charter in 1945. Happy UN Day!

Your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Middle East

• The latest round of talks between Iran and world powers have concluded in Geneva, with Iran indicating a willingness to scale back uranium enrichment, as well as allowing for snap inspections of its nuclear sites as part of a new proposal to end a decade-long standoff with world powers.
• Egypt’s foreign minister acknowledged that relations with the US were in a “delicate” phase after it suspended some military aid in response to a July 3 coup.

Asia

• US military forces have captured Latifullah Mehsud, a senior commander with the Pakistani Taliban, according to the US State Department.
• Japanese authorities may have underestimated by 20 percent the radiation doses workers got in the initial phase of the Fukushima plant disaster, a Japanese newspaper reported citing a U.N. panel.

Africa

• Deputy Kenyan President William Ruto said he would continue to cooperate with the International Criminal Court despite a call from African leaders for his case and that of President Uhuru Kenyatta to be delayed.
• The UN has asked for more troops and helicopters so its peacekeeping mission in Mali can effectively stabilize the north of the country and protect civilians from attacks by Islamist extremist and armed groups.
• Lawfare offers a post about the backstory of Charles Taylor’s imprisonment in the United Kingdom.

Europe

• The European Commission has urged EU governments to reopen stalled membership talks with Turkey despite Ankara’s crackdown on protesters.
• More than 128 migrants have been rescued after their raft sank off the Mediterranean coast of Malta, amid a fresh appeal by the country’s prime minister to Europe to take action to manage the growing influx of refugees.
• The Netherlands was seeking answers after a Dutch diplomat was beaten in Moscow, the latest in a series of incidents testing relations between the two countries, including the recent arrest of Greenpeace activists from the Arctic Sunrise ship (flying under the Dutch flag), about which Germany’s Angela Merkel has also expressed concern.
• Prosecutors in Hungary charged a 92-year-old former interior minister with war crimes related to his suppression of civilians during the Hungarian uprising against Soviet rule in 1956.
• In a report commissioned ahead of an EU summit in December, Catherine Ashton (the EU foreign policy chief) said European governments should commit to cooperative projects in drones, a new satellite communications system, cyber defense and plugging a shortfall in air tankers.

Americas

• The Washington Post details that the US National Security Agency has had a much bigger role in targeted killings than previously known, garnered from information that has come to light with the recent leaks by Edward Snowden.
• The US government shutdown has come to an end after both houses of Congress approved a bill that averted a threatened default and reopened the federal government.
• Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, will be granted honorary Canadian citizenship. Reuters reports that many in Yousafzai’s hometown resent her.
• Venezuela and Guyana will meet to resolve the fate of a ship and crew hired by a U.S. oil exploration firm that Venezuela seized in waters disputed for more than a century by the South American neighbors.

Worldwide

• Nearly 30 million people are living in slavery across the globe, many of them men, women and children trafficked by gangs for sex work and unskilled labor, according to a global slavery index by the Walk Free Foundation.

Events

• The Cassese Initiative is pleased to inform you about its coming workshop on the topic “Enforced Disappearance: Challenges to Accountability under International Law”, which will be held at the European University Institute in Florence, on Friday 25 October 2013. Register here. From the organization: “Enforced disappearance remains one of the most heinous human rights violations. From the ‘political cleansing’ campaigns of oppressive regimes to the ‘war on terror’, hundreds of thousands of targeted opponents have disappeared without a trace, and their families left to live in uncertainty over their fate. Due to its complex nature as a multiple human rights violation and a very serious international crime, and the fact that it is, by definition, shrouded in secrecy, enforced disappearance poses particular problems with regard to accountability. Today, in spite of a framework which includes the 2007 United Nations Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, several international courts and monitoring bodies with competence over the violation, as well as the International Criminal Court, these problems persist and new challenges emerge in the fight against impunity.” More information can be found on their website, Facebook and/or Twitter pages.
• The Nineteenth Annual Herbert Rubin and Justice Rose Luttan Rubin International Law Symposium, entitled:“The Function of Judges and Arbitrators in International Law” Thursday, October 24, 2013 from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. The Symposium will examine the function of judges and arbitrators in international law. As the importance of formal international adjudication increases, more and more focus is placed on the role that its adjudicators play, and the functions they are meant to fulfill. One of the highlights of this year’s Symposium is the participation of PluriCourts, whose directors Andreas Føllesdal and Geir Ulfstein will be speaking. If you would like to register now, please click here.

Call for Papers

• The Centre for Global Governance Studies at Catholic University Leuven presents: The Rule of Law: A Strategic Priority of the European Union’s External Action (ROLA)–International Workshop on 27-28 February 2014 in Leuven (Belgium). Deadline for submission of abstracts: 30^th October 2013. From their announcement: ‘The Rule of Law – A Strategic Priority of the European Union’s External Action’ (ROLA) is an interdisciplinary Jean Monnet project conducted by the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies (GGS) and co-funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. The purpose of this project is to assess the importance of the rule of law as a strategic priority of the European Union (EU)’s external action as mandated by article 21 of the Treaty on European Union. ROLA aims to bring together scholars from various disciplines (inter alia law, economics, international relations and political science), officials from EU institutions and EU partner countries, and representatives from civil society. Generating theoretically and practically relevant findings for both researchers and practitioners, this project focuses on an increasingly important though still under-theorized and underexplored research topic: the EU’s strategic prioritization of the rule of law towards emerging powers.” Contact: matthieu [dot] burnay [at] ggs [dot] kuleuven.be A full call for papers in PDF format can be found here. For more information on the project: www.rola-ggs.eu

Announcements

• The annual Human Rights Essay Award Competition sponsored by the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law seeks to stimulate the production of scholarly work in international human rights law. The 2014 topic is Persons with Disabilities and International Human Rights Law. Participants have the flexibility to choose any subject related to the assigned topic. The best articles may be published in the American University International Law Review. The Academy will grant two Awards, one for the best article in English and one for the best article in Spanish. For detailed guidelines about the award please click here.

Last week’s events and announcements can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us.