Search Results for: 2013-02-15

The ongoing conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine continues to raise significant issues of international law and policy. My earlier contribution focused on the jurisdiction and substantive law of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Here I address the ongoing litigation before the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court). Because the crime of genocide can be [...]

The Parliament of Kyrgyzstan passed a bill modeled after Russia’s “foreign agents” law on Thursday, increasing the government’s oversight of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The law will require anyone receiving foreign donations to label themselves a “foreign representative” and follow tighter guidelines when documenting their activities. The bill specifically targets NGOs receiving foreign funding, and it requires [...]

The Fact-Finding Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concluded on Monday that there were no reasonable grounds to determine that toxic chemicals were used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in October 2017 at Al-Yarmouk in the Syrian Arab Republic.  In its report, OPCW found that [...]

The Associated Press (AP) released an exclusive report Thursday revealing a secret US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spying program that targeted top Venezuelan officials, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, despite the program’s potential illegality under international law. According to AP, the program, internally referred to as Operation Money Badger, has been ongoing since at least [...]

The current conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine raises significant issues of international law and policy. This is part one in an anticipated two-part series that will discuss some of the relevant legal questions before the International Criminal Court (ICC; Part I) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ; Part II).  With both courts located in [...]

Australia is the only Western democracy not to have a Human Rights Act in its legal system or constitution. Instead, Australia has a patchwork of rights, leaning on individual legislation, such as the Anti-Discrimination Act of 1977, implied rights, common law, and state-by-state legislation. As noted by the Australian Human Rights Commission,  “There are five [...]

For years, Sri Lanka has occupied the international spotlight for one of its contentious laws—the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The PTA was introduced in 1979 during the Sri Lankan Civil War using the emergency law provisions in Part II of the Public Security Ordinance. While similar laws exist in other nations, showing widespread acceptance [...]

Within the past 12 months, Jacinda Ardern has resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister, former Australian PM Julia Gillard’s famous “misogyny speech” celebrated its tenth anniversary, and the high-profile retrial against Australian Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of colleague Brittany Higgins was dropped for posing a “significant and unacceptable risk” to [...]

The situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate, with news received on July 25 that four activists have been executed. The executions are the first carried out in Myanmar for several decades. The government mouthpiece, the Global New Light of Myanmar, claimed that the activists’ crimes were “giving directions, making arrangements, committing conspiracies for brutal and [...]

The Singapore Court of Appeal Tuesday rejected an appeal against the execution of Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian national who was convicted of illegally importing 42.72 grams of diamorphine in 2009. Nagaenthran’s death penalty arises out of the Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA), which provides for the mandatory death penalty in cases involving over 15 grams [...]