I was delighted to comment on an important new report by Rosana Garciandia and Philippa Webb on State Responsibility for Modern Slavery at the UN on January 31. Contemporary forms of slavery continue to be a major challenge in the 21st century. International law prohibits slavery, human trafficking and forced labour, and states are generally committed to eliminating these human rights abuses....
Two posts this week addressed different legal aspects of the current political crisis in Venezuela. Kevin Jon Heller kicked off the week with a post on the advantages of Venezuela adopting the aggression amendments to the ICC Statute in light of the recent saber rattling by certain states to enforce, through military means if necessary, Juan Guaidó’s claim to the...
[Carlos Lopez is a Senior Legal Adviser at the International Commission of Jurists] The world trade regime is in crisis. Embattled by attacks on its core elements by powerful trading and economic powers, the institutional framework of rules and mechanisms that govern most of world trade are pushed towards a reform path (some would call it “modernization”). The directions of reform...
Back by popular demand, the "Weekend Roundup" will return next weekend. In the meantime, check out Part I and Part II of Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli's excellent post on "An Analysis of the Legal Obligations of the ELN Guerrilla and Third States in the Aftermath of the Attack Against a Colombian Police Academy."...
Statelessness as a phenomenon has been in the news of late – from the impact of statelessness on the Rohingya, to the potential revocation of nationality of 4 million in India’s Assam state, and the grant of citizenship to some survivors of a dramatic rescue of a Thai football team. It is estimated that there are approximately 10 million individuals...
[Kingsley Abbott is ICJ's Senior Legal Adviser for Global Redress and Accountability] The documentation of serious human rights violations in Myanmar by civil society, UN bodies and journalists, has played a critical role in raising awareness of the situation and eliciting responses from the international community. As it became clear that violations are likely to amount to crimes under international law including...
On January 4th, the Lima Group – an informal gathering of 14 states seeking multilateral solutions to the humanitarian, democratic, and economic crisis in Venezuela – issued its latest statement, on the upcoming inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President of Venezuela (see here for Spanish version). The statement called for the non-recognition of the legitimacy of Maduro’s government and called...
During colonial times, the Spanish empire lost around 1500 warships carrying priceless riches from the gold and silver mines of the Andes and the Sierra Madre. Under international law, these sunken warships are immune from state jurisdiction and generally remain state property even after sinking. In the past decade, international law has sought to regulate their preservation and salvaging, both...
[Martti Koskenniemi is Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights. He was a member of the Finnish diplomatic service from 1978-1994 and of the International Law Commission (UN) in 2002-2006. He is a member of the Institut de Droit International and a Fellow of the...
The recent nominations for judicial posts at the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) have caused outrage. However, the frustration expressed regarding the lack of adequate representation of women on the international stage is not new. The issue is not just one of gender representation but also crucially of access to justice. This is therefore an opportune time...
[Michael Byers holds the Canada Research Chair in Global Politics and International Law at the University of British Columbia. He was previously a Professor of Law at Duke University and a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford.] Jutta Brunnée has always shaped my thinking on international law. I was a student in one of her very first classes and have been reading...
[Jutta Brunnée is Professor of Law and Metcalf Chair in Environmental Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. This essay is based on a keynote presentation given at the annual conference of the Canadian Council on International Law in Ottawa, on November 2, 2018. It draws in part on Jutta Brunnée, “Multilateralism in Crisis,” forthcoming in American Society of International Law,...