I would like to continue the theme of the emerging convergence of investment arbitration and international trade. In my previous posts (discussed here and here) I discussed the prospect of using trade remedies to enforce investment arbitration awards. Another key example of convergence addresses the emerging trend of relying on investment arbitration to enforce international trade rights. ...
I think it is fair to say that when Kevin and I agree on a legal question, there is a good chance there is a lunar eclipse happening or some other rare astronomical phenomenon occurring somewhere. But since both of us think that the U.S. has no international legal basis to deny a visa to Iran's new UN ambassador, this "fair...
Event The British Institute of International and Comparative Law and Cambridge University Press invite you to the International and Comparative Law Quarterly Annual Lecture 2014, to be held at Charles Clore House at 5.30-7.30pm on Tuesday 20th May. Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart of Merton College, Oxford will deliver a lecture entitled: ‘Legal Transplant and Undue Influence: Lost in Translation or a Working Misunderstanding’,...
I fully concur with Julian's recent post about the United Nations Headquarters Agreement. There is no question that the US decision to deny Aboutalebi a visa violates the Agreement itself. But I've seen suggestions, most notably by my friend John Bellinger, that the US is not violating domestic US law because the 1947 United Nations Headquarters Agreement Act (scroll down) contains a "security...
According to Reuters, the U.S. is thinking hard about denying a visa to Iran's new U.N. Ambassador, thus preventing him from taking up his post in New York. The new ambassador, Hamid Abutalebi, apparently participated in the Iranian takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran back in 1979. Although nothing is official yet, it looks like the U.S. is going...
Back in 2007, Messrs David Rivkin and Lee Casey's Wall Street Journal op-ed helped popularize the term "lawfare" among U.S. conservatives, who have used the term to decry legal tactics that challenged US policy in the war on terrorism. As they defined it then: The term "lawfare" describes the growing use of international law claims, usually factually or legally meritless, as a tool...
This July and August, we are bringing back our Emerging Voices symposium! If you are a doctoral student or in the early stages of your career (e.g., post-docs, junior academics or early career practitioners within the first five years of finishing your final degree) and would like to share your research with our readers, please send a 200-word summary of your...
Here is the ICJ's decision in "Whaling in the Antarctic" (Australia v. Japan, New Zealand intervening). Here is the Registry's summary. The vote was unanimous on jurisdiction, and then 12-4 on the rest in Australia's favor with judges Owada, Abraham, Bennouna, Yusuf dissenting. There was one aspect of the decision that went in favor of Japan (13-3) but that aspect of...
Just in time for the odd Sunday filing deadline, the government of the Philippines announced that it had submitted its memorial in its arbitration with China under UNCLOS. Ignoring a possible backlash from China, the Philippine government transmitted the document, called a “memorial” in international arbitration parlance, on Sunday to the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration where a five-member tribunal operating...
Just follow the lead of Henry Okah, a Nigerian national recently convicted in South Africa (under universal jurisdiction) of terrorism-related offences in the Niger delta. Here are the key paragraphs from the trial court's decision: [28] The correctness of copies of 3 journals kept by the accused in his own handwriting was admitted. In these journals the accused made notes in from...
Events The Cardozo School of Law is hosting a panel on Privacy, Security, and Secrecy after Snowden on April 2, 2014 - 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., moderated by our own Deborah Pearlstein. From the website: Edward Snowden's recent disclosures about the NSA's surveillance activities have raised important national security and civil liberty questions: How effective is the NSA's surveillance? What are its costs...
On Monday, the International Court of Justice will announce its long-awaited judgment in Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan). The judgment (scheduled for 10 a.m. Hague time) comes almost four years after Australia first filed its application way back in May 2010 (here is one of many prior posts where I complained about the length of time this judgment has...
