In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Latin & South America

01 Apr

This is not surprising, although I doubt they have much a legal basis to resist enforcement. Ecuadorean officials are rejecting an international arbitration tribunal's ruling that it violated international law and must pay $700 million to the ChevronCorp. President Rafael Correa's administration is analyzing options for appeal under national and international law, Attorney General Diego Garcia said in a statement Wednesday. "This new effort...

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31 Mar

This is just the first round of a potentially huge investor-state arbitration claim filed by Chevron against Ecuador. $700 million now, but up to $27 billion later. (For some background, see here and here about a federal court's refusal to stay one of the arbitration proceedings.). Chevron Corp (CVX.N) won a three-year-old arbitration fight against Ecuador over a commercial dispute as...

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11 Mar

It is always unpleasant to get lectured by foreign governments about "violating international law", but this is something U.S. government officials should be used to.  Still, it must be galling for the new U.S. administration to be lectured by Brazil's president over U.S. non-compliance with a WTO ruling on cotton subsidies. The United States must comply with a World Trade Organization...

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12 Jan

The transcript for the oral argument in Abbott v. Abbott is out, raising the difficult question of what constitutes a right of custody within the meaning of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The treaty grants a parent the right to have a child returned to the child’s country of habitual residence if...

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03 Dec

[This is a guest post by Professor Greg Gordon of the University of North Dakota.  Professor Gordon is the Director of the UND Center for Human Rights and Genocide Studies, an expert on international criminal law and a past guest blogger at Opinio Juris.] Earlier this week, Spanish National Court Judge Balthazar Garzon initiated money laundering proceedings against the widow...

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25 Oct

My colleague Trey Childress has a nice summary of the recent decision by a federal court in Florida in Osorio v. Dole Food Company to refuse to enforce a $97 million Nicaraguan judgment. Here's the key excerpt of the decision: “the evidence before the Court is that the judgment in this case did not arise out of proceedings that comported...

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17 Oct

As everyone in the world probably knows by now, Dr. Karadzic's trial is set to begin on October 26th.  The current trial date is the culmination of two interrelated decisions by the Tribunal: the Trial Chamber's unsurprising decision not to require the Prosecution to trim its monstrous and completely unworkable indictment (choosing instead to impose insignificant time-limits on the prosecution's...

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10 Oct

I have no expertise in this area, so I'm not going to opine on the legality of Zelaya's ouster.  Two things, however, are worth noting.  First, the report that Julian mentions was not written by the Congressional Research Service -- a mistake that others on the right have made.  It was written by the Law Library of Congress.  Second, the...

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07 Aug

Last month the Eleventh Circuit in Valencia-Trujillo v. United States rendered an unusual decision that required the court to decide whether a state was acting "pursuant" to a treaty. If it was, the defendant had standing to pursue the action. If it was not, then he had no such standing. In extradition jurisprudence, the so-called “specialty rule” provides that...

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09 Jul

[Rene Uruena is Assistant Profesor and Director of the international law program at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. He is also a Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Global Governance Research, University of Helsinki.] Last year, Colombian armed forces bombed a guerrilla camp a couple of miles into Ecuadorian territory. After some diplomatic tension at the OAS, everyone made...

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30 Jun

After more than a decade of legal wrangling, Chile has finally ratified the Rome Statute.  Chile's accession means that every country in South America is now a member of the ICC -- a significant accomplishment. Congratulations, Chile!...

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