Jurisdiction

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A Study in Contrasting Jurisdictional Methodologies: The International Court of Justice’s February 2021 Judgments in Iran v. USA and Qatar v. UAE

February 15, 2021

The International Court of Justice issued two significant Decisions on Jurisdiction in early February: its 3 February 2021 Judgment in Iran v. United States (where the Court accepted jurisdiction over a dispute in which Iran alleged that the United States breached the 1955 Treaty of Amity between these two States) [hereafter, Iran v. US Judgment on Preliminary Objections], and the 4 February 2021 Judgment in Qatar v. United Arab Emirates (UAE) (where the Court declined jurisdiction over a dispute in which Qatar alleged that the United Arab Emirates breached the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) [hereafter, Qatar v. UAE Judgment on Preliminary Objections].  The Court voted overwhelmingly to reject the United States' preliminary objections (on three objections, unanimously, and on three other objections, by a vote of 15 to 1) in Iran v. United States (para. 114 of the Iran v. US Judgment), but voted on a more narrow majority to accept the UAE's two preliminary objections (by 11 votes to 6) in Qatar v. UAE (para. 115 of the Qatar v. UAE Judgment).

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ECtHR Grand Chamber Declares Admissible the Case of Ukraine v. Russia re Crimea

January 15, 2021

Yesterday the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights rendered its admissibility decision in the interstate claim brought by Ukraine against Russia regarding systematic human rights violations allegedly committed by the latter in Crimea. This is one of several interstate cases brought by Ukraine against Russia; others deal, for example, with the situation…

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The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko Before the European Court of Human Rights

November 25, 2020

In more extraterritoriality news, the Guardian recently reported that the widow of Alexander Litvinenko, who was killed in London in 2006 by Russian agents using a radioactive poison, has revived the claim she had previously filed against Russia before the European Court of Human Rights: The widow of Alexander Litvinenko has submitted…

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Secondary Sanctions: A Weapon Out of Control? Part I: Permissibility of the sanctions under the law of jurisdiction

September 30, 2020

Lately, the US has increasingly been ‘weaponizing’ economic sanctions to push through a foreign policy agenda. Making use of the centrality of the US in the global economy, it has forced foreign states and their firms to choose between halting trade with US sanctions targets or forfeiting access to the lucrative US market. In addition, the US…

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Immunities and Compromissory Clauses: Making Sense of Enrica Lexie (Part II)

August 27, 2020

In Part I of this post, we discussed how the Arbitral Tribunal, in its recently-released award in the Enrica Lexie case, approached the question of incidental jurisdiction over questions of immunity. While the Tribunal’s jurisdiction, under Article 288 UNCLOS, was limited to ‘dispute[s] concerning the interpretation or application of th[e] [Law of the Sea] Convention’…

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