In addition to my posts here (see below), I have several pieces over the last week discussing different aspects of the South China Sea award up at various outlets across the web universe (I know, I know, I need to stop writing about this topic, but indulge me just a little longer). To briefly recap my various takes, here is a quick...
Event For its 10-year anniversary the Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law (ICL Journal) will host a conference dedicated to its very scope: The one day event to be held on 23 September 2016 at Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) will focus on the concept of International Constitutional Law. Keynote lectures will be presented by Frederick Schauer and...
The American Branch of the International Law Association has sent us the following call for submissions for an "Emerging Voices Panel" that they have added to this October's International Law Weekend. (Not to be confused with Opinio Juris' Fourth Annual Emerging Voices Symposium, which will be starting later this month). ILW is an excellent conference and I am sure this will...
[Dr. Frederick Cowell is a Lecturer in Law at Birkbeck College, University of London School of Law.] On the 6th of July the UK’s Iraq Enquiry report was finally published having taken almost seven years to complete. The process, chaired by a leading former British civil servant, Sir John Chilcot, aimed to look at the causes and consequences of the 2003...
[Liu Haiyang is a research fellow at the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, Nanjing University, China. This post was submitted to Opinio Juris under the auspices of the Chinese Initiative on International Law, an NGO with a mandate of promoting a better understanding of international law, particularly international criminal law and justice.] The ad hoc Arbitral Tribunal established...
Much to many observers’ surprise, the first country to take aggressive action in response to the UN Convention for the Law of the Sea tribunal’s award this week was Taiwan. New Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s government issued a blistering statement stating that the arbitral award was unacceptable and that it has no “legally binding force on the ROC.” It noted...
I have been mildly obsessed with the dispute between the Philippines and China for over three years now. It touches on so many areas of my research interest: international courts, China, and the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. So I am almost sad that the dispute, at least for legal purposes, finally ended today with the arbitral...
The much-anticipated long awaited South China Sea Arbitration award on the merits is here! It is a slam-dunk, complete, utter, massive, total legal victory for the Philippines on all counts (lots of metaphors here, none are quite sufficient). Essentially, the tribunal ruled in favor of almost all of the Philippines' claims in the arbitration. Perhaps the most headline friendly result:...
Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world: Africa Violent clashes in South Sudan claimed the lives of two Chinese U.N. peacekeepers, bringing to three the number of troops China has lost in the past two months as it ramps up its engagement in peacekeeping efforts. Al Shabaab Islamist militants rammed a car packed...
In the second installment of episode 1 in this multi-blog series on the updated Commentaries, Professor Sean Murphy responds to Jean-Marie Henckaerts first post on locating the commentaries in the international legal landscape. Sean D. Murphy, Professor of International Law at George Washington University and Member of the U.N. International Law Commission, considers the role of the ICRC commentaries as a...
Did you hear the one about Judge de Gurmendi, the President of the ICC, taking bribes for from 2004 on to ensure Omar al-Bashir's indictment? The president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is facing calls to resign after it emerged that she may have received financial rewards said to be in millions of dollars to ensure the indictment of Sudanese President...
[Dr. Joanna Nicholson is a Researcher at PluriCourts – Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order at the University of Oslo.] For a crime to amount to a crime against humanity, it must be shown to have been part of a bigger picture, namely part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population....
