The Syrian opposition, the Syrian National Coalition, is willing to negotiate a peace agreement, but they demand that President Al-Assad cannot be a part of any deal going forward. Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has blamed al-Qaeda affiliated groups for yesterday's deadly blasts in Damascus, and called on the UN to do more to fight terrorism. Japan's Prime Minister Abe is in...
After 15 months, the UN has finally responded to the Haiti Cholera claims brought by lawyers representing over 5000 victims. For background on this massive and tragic case, see my post here. The UN’s rejection was communicated to the claimants' lawyers via this two page letter which relies on a brief reference to the Convention on Privileges and Immunities in support of...
As this Voice of America report notes, the Philippine government is determined to forge ahead with its UNCLOS arbitration, even though China is refusing to participate in the arbitration. This seems to be a sensible strategy, at least from a legal point of view, because it is plainly within its legal rights to do so. But would a one-party arbitration be...
Yesterday, Myanmar held peace talks between ethnic groups in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in an attempt to resolve the ongoing Kachin conflict. British Prime Minister David Cameron suggested to diverting hundreds of millions of pounds sterling from foreign aid into security and defense. A French General appointed to head the EU's mission to Mali urged the EU to equip the "very impoverished" Malian forces,...
An Israeli soldier has caused outrage because of a photo posted to Instagram showing what appears to be a Palestinian child in the crosshairs of his rifle. Chinese government officials considered using a drone to target a suspected drug lord hiding in Myanmar. In other drone news, the United Arab Emirates has signed a contract with the US to purchase approximately $200 million worth of American-made...
I noted a few days ago that the OTP made a serious legal error when it suggested that Libya's challenge to the admissibility of the case against Saif could succeed even if Libya had to try Saif in absentia. Fortunately, the OTP has recognized its mistake and withdrawn its submission: The Prosecution wishes to retract its reference to the possibility of...
Breaking news: China has rejected arbitration under Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea with the Philippines, dealing a heavy blow to the future of dispute settlement under UNCLOS (h/t China Law Prof Blog). According to this China Daily report, "Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Ma Keqing had an appointment with officials from the Philippines' Foreign...
Over at the International Economic Law and Policy Blog, Rob Howse brings daily updates of the Seal hearings at the WTO. The New Zealand government has decided to go ahead with plans to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products, but the enactment of the actual legislation could be postponed depending on the outcome of the WTO and arbitration cases pending against similar Australian...
The Australian political world is all abuzz at the prospect of Assange running for the Senate in the upcoming federal election, which will be held on September 14. It's not completely clear whom he'll run against, but he will register as a voter in my home state of Victoria and intends to start a new political party, surprisingly entitled the...
The International Peace Institute (where, in full disclosure, I am spending part of my sabbatical as a Senior Visiting Advisor) has just released a new report entitled Peace, Justice and Reconciliation in Africa. The report, which will be of interest to those who follow the ICC and transitional justice issues, is available here. The report makes two recommendations: 1) The African Union's...
There is an interesting discussion by Stephen Walt over at Foreign Policy on why academic writing is so bad. It is a subject academics are reluctant to discuss, yet there is no doubt that much of what passes as legal scholarship is dull, disagreeable, undigestable. Here's Walt's take: The first problem is that many academics (and especially younger...
Bangladesh has amended its war crimes statute to allow the retrial of cases from 1971 amid protests. Human Rights Watch is concerned that the amendments will threaten the legitimacy of the tribunal. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is proposing changes to its rules of procedure in order to strengthen the Inter-American system of human rights. ASIL has posted a new Insight on the International Law Issues in the Department...
