22 August 2012
After 18 years of negotiations, the Russian Federation joined the World Trade Organization as its 156th member on 22 August 2012. The country will now lower its import duties, limit its export duties and grant greater market access to other WTO members. Moreover, Russia will be subject to the WTO’s dispute settlement system.
Source: BBC | Russia's entry to World Trade Organization hailed by EU
14 September 2011
Given the need for cooperation in order to address the threats caused by climate change, Anna Spain argues that climate change demands new ways of understanding our approaches to resolving international disputes. This challenge is briefly explored in a blogpost on IntLawGrrls and more elaborately discussed in her article “Beyond Adjudication: Resolving International Resource Disputes in an Era of Climate Change“.
Source: http://intlawgrrls.blogspot.com
27 July 2011
On 4 July 2011, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) permitted Greece to intervene as a non-party in the Jurisdictional Immunities of the State case (Germany v Italy) under Article 62 of the ICJ Statute. The case concerns a claim by Germany that Italian courts have failed to respect the sovereign immunity of Germany in domestic cases regarding serious violations of international humanitarian law by Germany during World War II. Germany also alleges that Italian courts have breached international law by enforcing the judgment of the Greek courts in the Distomo massacre case in Italy. The Greek request for intervention concerned this latter aspect of the case and was opposed by neither of the two parties. Dapo Akande posted a blog about this decision at EJIL:Talk!.
Link to the decision: (pdf)