There’s never a boring year in international law and 2013 turned out to be particularly eventful: Syria, major cases in front of national and international courts, a possible nuclear deal with Iran, and turmoil in Eastern Europe, Egypt, and South Sudan, to name but a few reasons. This post is not an attempt to log all that we have written about...
China's East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) has spawned tons of media commentary, so much so that I have had little to add and can barely keep up with all the coverage. Still, there is one small legal point that bears some further discussion. While I think the U.S. is correct as a matter of policy to push...
I've been so distracted with my own projects and with China's ADIZ that I forgot to note that Russia has been in violation of its obligations under UNCLOS since at least December 2. But that's OK, it seems that everyone else has forgotten this fact as well. December 2 was the date set by the International Tribunal for the Law of...
The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the ICC just released its 2013 Report on Preliminary Examination Activities. There is much to chew over in the report, but what is most striking is the OTP's slow-walking of its preliminary examination into crimes committed in Afghanistan. The OTP divides preliminary examinations into four phases: (1) initial assessment, which filters out requests for...
It looks like Russia is not going to comply with last week's ITLOS ruling, ordering it to release the Arctic Sunrise and its passengers upon payment of a bond. Russia is not going to comply with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea's Friday ruling regarding the Arctic Sunrise vessel operated by Greenpeace, Russian presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov...
[Craig H. Allen is the Judson Falknor Professor of Law at the University of Washington in Seattle.] The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) dealt a blow to the Russian Federation on November 22nd, when it ordered Moscow to release the Arctic Sunrise and the remainder of the Greenpeace protestors who were on the vessel when Russia seized it...
I don't have any insights to offer on the big news this weekend, that legally-non binding-UNSC-resolution-violating agreement in Geneva. But I did want to note one other big sort-of-law news item from the other side of the world: China's announcement that it is drawing an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, including over the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku...
[This Post has been updated]. One of the main benefits of attending a conference (rather than just reading descriptions of its proceedings), is the chance to have face-to-face exchanges with individuals you normally never get a chance to meet. One of the unusual aspects of the Asian Society of International Law is that it draws lawyers from many different Asian...
November 5, 2013 is U.S. National Treaty Day. Well, not really, but it might as well be given how much treaties are going to be in the news tomorrow. For starters, the United States Supreme Court hears oral argument in the case of Bond v. United States (for the pleadings, see SCOTUS blog's as-always-excellent round-up). As we've blogged previously (a lot), the case...
I refer, of course, to the British Navy's use of the music of Britney Spears to scare off Somali pirates: In an excellent case of "here's a sentence you won't read every day", Britney Spears has emerged as an unlikely figurehead in the fight against Somali pirates. According to reports, Britney's hits, including Oops! I Did It Again and Baby One More Time, are being employed by...
Wim Muller, an associate fellow in international law at Chatham House, takes issue with my observation that China's rejection of Annex VII UNCLOS Arbitration may have influenced Russia's similar rejection of UNCLOS proceedings in the Greenpeace arbitration. Other commenters take issue with my further claim that Russia's rejection is another "body blow" to ITLOS dispute settlement. I offer my ("typically...
[Update below] It looks like China has started a trend. In a surprising statement (at least to me), Russia has announced it will not participate in the ITLOS arbitration brought by the Netherlands related to the detention of Greenpeace activists last month. “The Russian side has informed the Netherlands and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea that it...
