Since the ICJ’s 2001 decision in LaGrand (Germany v US), the Court’s jurisprudence on provisional measures indicated under Article 41 of its Statute has expanded dramatically. This is for two reasons—both, in my mind, connected to LaGrand. In the first place, with the Court having declared its provisional measures binding, it was incumbent upon it to ensure their requirements were clear and predictable. In the second (and in view of …

In her recent contribution “Trump’s latest attack on international law”, Lena Riemer very accurately points out the threat to international customs and institutions posed by Trump and – currently – by his candidate for the US Supreme Court: Brett Kavanaugh. She demonstrates how Kavanaugh has repeatedly shown disrespect for humanitarian law and human rights in his career as a judge for the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of …

There has been a recent surge in the proliferation of data protection regulations globally, the most recent example of which is the General Data Protection Regulation. Since data protection laws across the world have become increasingly extra-territorial in their reach, there is a higher propensity for foreign entities to be affected by them.

The ICJ’s decision on Iran’s application for provisional measures in its high-profile proceedings against the United States of America for alleged violations of their 1955 Treaty of Amity was handed down on Wednesday. This tightly constrained and circumscribed stage of the proceedings, though only a precursor to the far more significant jurisdictional and merits stages—each of which has the potential to ask questions with lasting significance for international law and …

History is not unfamiliar with the rigours of tariff wars. Back in the 1930s, retaliatory tariff escalation led to the great depression, which in turn contributed to the Second World War. Leaders of the free world sought to revive the beleaguered global economy through free and fair trade. Years of negotiations aimed at increasing market access and curtailing protectionism culminated in the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The …

Bisher „ungedachte juristische Konstruktionen“ wünscht sich Bénédicte Savoy, wenn sie in ihrem jüngsten Werk über die Zukunft des (kolonialen) Kulturerbes nachdenkt. Doch wie ist eigentlich die Rechtslage an kolonialen Kulturobjekten? Bestehen Ansprüche zur Rückforderung solcher Güter? Diese Fragen hat unlängst der Deutsche Museumsbund in einem „Leitfaden zum Umgang mit Sammlungsgut aus kolonialen Kontexten“ aufgegriffen (S. 65 ff.). Befund der Analyse: Ansprüche auf Rückforderung kolonialer Kulturgüter bestehen weder nach deutschem Zivilrecht noch nach …

Dr. Kofi Annan, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, died recently. Many Kenyans took to social media to mourn the death of the African diplomat they had come to know through his efforts in curbing the 2008 post-election violence. Annan and the 2007 Election in Kenya The 2007 election in Kenya was charged and emotive. Mr. Raila Odinga, the then President Kibaki’s main challenger, had assembled an impressive …

With its judgment of 6 September 2018 (Navtej Johar v Union of India), the Indian Supreme Court has put an end to the criminalisation of same-sex acts between consenting adults, allowing the country’s LGBT+ community to celebrate a long overdue win after a nearly two decades lasting fight for legal recognition. The law in question, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), introduced in the 19th century under British colonial …

Völkerrechtsblog is proud to announce its support of a joint conference of the Working Group of Young Scholars in Public International Law (Arbeitskreis junger Völkerrechtswissenschaftler*innen – AjV) and the German Society of International Law (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht – DGIR) on the topic of