Courts & Tribunals

[Jelia Sane is studying for the English Bar at City University, London. She holds an LLM in Public International Law from University College London and has previously interned at the ICC, the Centre for Justice and International Law, and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.] The unanimous acquittal and subsequent release of Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui by Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal...

[Craig H. Allen is the Judson Falknor Professor of Law at the University of Washington in Seattle.] On December 15, 2012, one phase of the dispute between the Argentine Republic and the Republic of Ghana over the “seizure” of the Argentine frigate ARA Libertad while in a Ghanaian port came to an end, when the International Tribunal for the Law of...

I have a Forbes.com op-ed today providing a fuller version of my critique of Argentina's legal arguments over the ARA Libertad.  (It's worth noting that Argentina is actually heading toward yet another financial crisis spurred by a recent New York court decision, which I didn't have time to incorporate into this piece.) Last month, a court in Ghana detained the ARA Libertad, an Argentine...

The Associated Press has a confusing and muddled account of the consequences of Colombia's withdrawal from the Bogota Pact (American Treaty on Pacific Settlement), which had committed Colombia to the ICJ for disputes with other signatory states.  Here is where the AP account doesn't make much sense (or is flat out wrong): Legal experts, however, said [Colombian President] Santos’ announcement was unlikely,...

Still smarting from the ICJ's judgment last week awarding rights to Nicaragua over territorial waters claimed by Colombia, President Juan Manuel Santos announced that Colombia is withdrawing from the 1948 Bogota treaty granting jurisdiction to the ICJ to resolve disputes between signatories.   Since Colombia was obviously the host to the treaty's creation and (until now) had made no limitations...

I haven't blogged about Chevron lately, because there has not been much news to report. But I want to mention an excellent article discussing plaintiffs' efforts to force Chevron to pay at least part of the judgment. The article is written by a financial analyst associated with the investment website Seeking Alpha, so it has no particular ideological...

Contra Peter, there was one indisputable reference to international law in last night's U.S. presidential debate. Mitt Romney repeated his argument that Iran's president should be indicted for inciting genocide.  This idea has spawned quite a bit of reaction, especially from the lefty blogosphere. One typical reaction, from Greg Sargent, suggests that Romney is turning his back on his famously...

Argentina is, to put it bluntly, one of the world’s greatest sovereign deadbeats, defaulting on its sovereign bonds more than once as well as bearing the distinction of being the world’s number one respondent in ICSID arbitration claims (or at least close to number one).  Last week, the ongoing struggle between foreign creditors and Argentina found a new flashpoint as...

On September 19, the Supreme Court of Nevada ordered a new evidentiary hearing for Mexican national Carlos Gutierrez on his ability to overcome the State's procedural bars to further consideration of his death sentence.  I've posted a copy of the court's order here. Gutierrez was one of 51 Mexican nationals whose convictions and sentences were the subject of the ICJ's Avena decision....