Jus cogens: Recent Developments in International Law

Recent Scholarship: This Week in Public International Law Scholarship

A juscogens.net feature, This Week in Public International Law Scholarship highlights new and notable books and articles concerning public international law. For comments or suggestions, please contact [email protected].

Books:

Ulrich Beyerlin, Peter-tobias Stoll, and Rudiger Wolfrum (eds.), Ensuring Compliance With Multilateral Environmental Agreements

Damian Chalmers, Christos Hadjiemmanuil, Giorgio Monti, and Adam Tomkins, European Union Law : Text and Materials

Piet Eeckhout and Takis Tridimas, The Yearbook of European Law 2005 : Volume 24

Jochen Prantl, The UN Security Council and Informal Groups of States

Shirley V. Scott, International Law And Politics: Key Documents

Andreas Zimmermann, Christian Tomuschat, Karin Oellers-Frahm, Christian J. Tams, and Tobias Thienel, The Statute of the International Court of Justice: A Commentary

Articles:

Vanderbilt Law Review, Volume 59, Number 1, January 2006

• Allison Marston Danner, WHEN COURTS MAKE LAW: HOW THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS RECAST THE LAWS OF WAR

Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 28, Number 1, February 2006

• Hurst Hannum, Human Rights in Conflict Resolution: The Role of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in UN Peacemaking and Peacebuilding
• Rachel Lorna Johnstone, Feminist Influences on the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies
• Jan Klabbers, The Right to be Taken Seriously: Self-Determination in International Law
• Clay Collins, The Human Rights of Stateless Persons David Weissbrodt

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Volume 13, Number 1, Winter 2006

LECTURES

• Jillaine Seymour, The Earl Snyder Lecture in International Law The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: A Great Mistake?
• Cheryl Saunders, The George P. Smith Lecture in International Law The Use and Misuse of Comparative Constitutional Law

Fordham International Law Journal, Volume 29, Number 3, February 2006

"TRANSNATIONAL LEGAL THEORY AND PRACTICE"

• Martin S. Flaherty, "EXTERNAL" VERSUS "INTERNAL" IN INTERNATIONAL LAW
• Chandra Lekha Sriram, WRONG-SIZING INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE? THE HYBRID TRIBUNAL IN SIERRA LEONE
• Donald J. Kochan, SOVEREIGNTY AND THE AMERICAN COURTS AT THE COCKTAIL PARTY OF INTERNATIONAL LAW: THE DANGERS OF DOMESTIC JUDICIAL INVOCATIONS OF FOREIGN AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
• John B. Quigley, TOWARD MORE EFFECTIVE JUDICIAL IMPLEMENTATION OF TREATY-BASED RIGHTS

European Human Rights Law Review (United Kingdom), Issue 2, 2006

• Sir Nigel Rodley and Matt Pollard, Criminalisation of Torture: State Obligations under the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
• Hazel Fox, Q.C., State Immunity and the International Crime of Torture
• Jim Murdoch, The Impact of the Council of Europe's "Torture Committee" and the Evolution of Standard-setting in Relation to Places of Detention
• Danny Friedman, Torture and the Common Law

ILSA Journal of International and Comparative Law, Volume 12, Number 1, Fall 2005

• Ida L. Bostian, Cultural Relativism in International War Crimes Prosecutions: The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
• Obasi Okafor-Obasi, The International Criminal Court and Human Rights Enforcement in Africa
• Alexandra R. Harrington, Victims of Peace: Current Abuse Allegations Against U.N. Peacekeepers and the Role of Law In Preventing Them in the Future
• Jeffrey Loan, Note, Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain: Extraterritorial Abduction and the Rights of Individuals Under International Law

Brooklyn Journal of International Law, Volume 31, Number 2, 2006

• Yuval Shany, How Supreme is the Supreme Law of the Land? Comparative Analysis of the Influence of International Human Rights Treaties Upon the Interpretation of Constitutional Texts by Domestic Courts
• Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto, Walking an International Law Tightrope: Use of Military Force to Counter Terrorism--Willing the Ends
• Mark A. Summers, Immunity or Impunity? The Potential Effect of Prosecutions of State Officials for Core International Crimes in States Like the United States that Are Not Parties to the Statute of the International Criminal Court
• Daniel Moeckli, The Selective "War on Terror": Executive Detention of Foreign Nationals and the Principle of Non-Discrimination

International Courts & Tribunals at a Glance

International Courts & Tribunals at a Glance, a juscogens.net weekly feature, aims to provide timely notice of recent happenings and trial developments in an organized, central location and an unbiased, objective manner. For comments or suggestions, please contact [email protected].

International Court of Justice

Application Instituting Proceedings:

Application Instituting Proceedings Concerning Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina v. Uruguay)

• APPLICATION (very large pdf file- 99 mb - 572 pages)
• Request for Provisional Measures of Protection
• Argentina institutes proceedings against Uruguay and requests the Court to indicate provisional measures (ICJ Notice) ---"In the late afternoon of 4 May 2024 Argentina seised the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of a dispute between itself and Uruguay concerning alleged breaches by Uruguay of obligations incumbent upon it under the Statute of the River Uruguay, a treaty signed by Argentina and Uruguay on 26 February 1975."

Cases under deliberation:

Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro)

    Case Resources
   
    Oral Pleadings:

• Serbia and Montenegro: Mr. Radoslav Stojanović, Mr. Ian Brownlie (CR 2006/38 - Public sitting held on Tuesday 2 May 2006, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Higgins presiding)
• Serbia and Montenegro: Mr. Ian Brownlie, Mr. Olujić, Mr. Obradović, Mr. Cvetković (CR 2006/39 - Public sitting held on Tuesday 2 May 2006, at 3 p.m., at the Peace Palace, President Higgins presiding)
• Serbia and Montenegro: Mr. Cvetković, Mr. Brownlie (CR 2006/40 - Public sitting held on Wednesday 3 May 2006, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Higgins presiding)
• Serbia and Montenegro: Ms. Fauveau-Ivanović (CR 2006/41 - Public sitting held on Thursday 4 May 2006, at 10 a.m., at the Peace Palace, President Higgins presiding)
• Serbia and Montenegro: Ms. Fauveau-Ivanović (CR 2006/42 - Public sitting held on Thursday 4 May 2006, at 3 p.m., at the Peace Palace, President Higgins presiding)

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Overview of Court Proceedings

Court Schedule

ICTY Weekly Press Briefing (3 May 2024)

Appeals Chamber Confirms Sentences Against Mladen Naletilic and Vinko Martinovic (3 May 2024)

From the ICTY, "In its Judgement, the Appeals Chamber dismissed the vast majority of the grounds of appeal raised by both sides. The Appeals Chamber also set aside, in part, a few of the convictions entered by the Trial Chamber against Naletilic and Martinovic. However, taking into account the particular circumstances of this case as well as the form and degree of the participation of the accused in the crimes affirmed on appeal, as well as the seriousness of those crimes, the Appeals Chamber found that the sentences imposed by the Trial Chamber against them were within the range that a reasonable Trial Chamber could have ordered. It therefore confirmed their sentences to 20 and 18 years' imprisonment, respectively."

• Prosecutor v. Mladen Naletili, Vinko Martinovi, Case No. IT-98-34-A, JUDGEMENT, 3 May 2024

Address by Carla Del Ponte, Prosecutor of the ICTY, at the International Conference (5 May 2024)

• "Establishing the Truth in the Aftermath of Conflict: Current Initiatives and Perspectives in the Western Balkans"

Blagoje Simic Granted Temporary Provisional Release (5 May 2024)

From the ICTY, "The Appeals Chamber granted Blagoje Simic’s motion for temporary provisional release to attend memorial services for his mother in Samac, a border town in the north of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Blagoje Simic will be provisionally released from 10 to 25 May 2006....    On 25 October 2003, Blagoje Simic was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment for crimes against Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat civilians in Bosanski Samac. At the time, Simic was the highest ranking civilian official in the Bosanski Samac municipality. Both the prosecution and defence appealed the judgement. The Appeals Chamber's decision is pending."

• Prosecutor v. Blagoje Simic, Case No. IT-95-9-A, DECISION ON MOTION OF BLAGOJE SIMIC FOR PROVISIONAL RELEASE FOR A FIXED PERIOD TO ATTEND MEMORIAL SERVICES FOR HIS MOTHER, 5 May 2024

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)

Daily Journal

Daily Case Minutes

Judicial Calendar

Latest Decisions

Closing arguments in Mpambara‘s Trial (4 May 2024)

From the ICTR, "On 2 and 3 May 2006, the Prosecution and the Defence in the case of Jean Mpambara, the former bourgmestre of Rukara commune in Kibungo prefecture, presented their final submissions before Trial Chamber I of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The Prosecution called for the conviction of the Accused and the imposition of a life imprisonment sentence. It argued that evidence presented in court proved that he truly committed genocide. It added that the evidence shows that the Accused organized and executed killings which occurred in Rukara commune, including at the Gahini Hospital and Rukara Parish, during which more than 2,500 persons were killed. The Prosecution further argued that Mpambara took part in a number of massacres of Tutsi civilians in Rukara commune in eastern Rwanda, between 7 and 16 April1994. The Defence called for Mpambara’s acquittal, arguing that his implication in the terrible crimes of which he is accused was not proven by the Prosecutor. It added that the evidence shows that the Accused never committed the crimes, and that the witnesses called by the Prosecutor were unreliable."

• The Prosecutor v. Jean Mpambara, Case No. ICTR-2001-65-I, AMENDED INDICTMENT

The Special Court for Sierra Leone

Court Schedule

Court Summary, Week Ending 5 May 2024

Prosecutor v. Charles Ghankay Taylor, Case No. SCSL-03-1-PT, Decision on Confidential Prosecution Motion for Immediate Protective Measure For Witnesses and for Non-Public Disclosure and Urgent Request for Interim Measures AND on Confidenital Prosecution Motion for Leave to Substitute a Corrected and Supplemented List as Annex A of the Confidential Prosecution Motion for Immediate Protective Measures for Witnesses and for Non-Public Disclosure and Urgent Request for Interim Measures (5 May 2024)

International Criminal Court (ICC)

Hearing Schedule

Situations & Cases:

Situation in Democratic Republic of Congo

• Prosecution's Final Observations on Disclosure (2 May 2024)
• Observations of the Defence relating to the system of disclosure in view of the Confirmation Hearing (2 May 2024)
• Registrations in the record of material presented at the ex parte closed hearing of 2 February 2024 (3 May 2024)

Situation in Uganda

• Prosecutor's Submission of Information on Further Unsealing of Documents of the Record (3 May 2024)

International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea

Statements of the President

• The 28th Doherty lecture ‘Fighting Terrorism at Sea: Options and Limitations under International Law’ (13 April 2024)