Harvard International Law Journal

The oldest and most-cited student-edited journal of international law, the Harvard International Law Journal covers a wide variety of topics in public and private international law.

Foreign Courts

Ukranian Arms Ship released by Somalian Pirates

Filed Under: Digest

On February 11, 2008, the Ukrainian arms freighter ‘Faina’ returned to the Kenyan Port of Mombasa with twenty sailors. The ship had been captured by Somali Pirates in the Gulf of Aden region more than four months ago, and was released after a ransom of $3.2 Million was para-dropped onto the ship by its owner. The capture of the ship was of particular concern to the international community because it was carrying arms including T-72 tanks, grenade launchers, antiaircraft guns, and substantial ammunition.  For more information on this story click here.

Pirates have attacked more than 130 merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden region in 2008. In an unrelated event five suspected Somali pirates have been extradited to Netherlands for the failed attempt to hijack the Dutch Cargo Freighter ‘Samanyulo’ on 2nd January 2009. They will be prosecuted before the Dutch criminal courts and could face up to nine years of imprisonment if found to be guilty with the group leaders punishment extending up to 12 years. For more information on this story click here.     

In another piracy-related event in the Gulf of Aden, the US Navy arrested seven suspected pirates on February 11, 2009, who were attempting to hijack the tanker ‘Polaris’. The seven suspects were taken aboard the USS Vella Gulf, which has been patrolling the area since January 2009 in responnse to the heightened piracy threat in the region. The US Navy intends to hand over the suspects to Kenya, which is setting up a new court system to try foreign pirates. For more information please click here.

Slovakia Agrees to Enforce Sentences

Filed Under: Digest

Slovakia has entered into an enforcement of sentences agreement with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), allowing for persons convicted before the Tribunal to serve their sentences in Slovak prisons.  The agreement is the second signed by the ICTY this year, and was signed by Mr. Štefan Harabin, the Slovak Minister of Justice, and Mr. Hans Holthuis, the ICTY Registrar, at the ICTY in The Hague. Slovakia is the fifteenth European country to enter into such an agreement.  More information can be found here.

Ugandan Tribunals To Try Rebels

Filed Under: Digest

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni declared that rebel leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army will be tried by local Ugandan tribunals rather than handed over to the International Criminal Court.  The local court system emphasizes compensation and apologies, rather than punishment.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the five Ugandan rebel leaders after President Museveni requested the body investigate their crimes, leading some to claim that Museveni used ICC indictments as a mechanism for exerting pressure on the rebels to agree to a peace settlement.  Uganda is obliged under international law to send the accused men to the Hague for trial. The decision to try the rebels locally has “opened a rift” between African governments that believe ICC trials should be subordinate to local peace deals and reconciliation and countries which trumpet the ICC as responsible for international justice.  Museveni, asserting Uganda’s right to withdraw from the ICC process, contends that his decision is driven by the desires of the victims and the leaders of those areas affected by the conflict to use “traditional justice.”  Critics respond that Museveni’s actions undermine the credibility of the ICC and the international criminal justice system.

For the full story click here and here.

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Prison Guards Found Guilty by Bosnian Court

Filed Under: Digest

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has found two Bosnian Serbs guilty of crimes against humanity for mistreatment of non-Serb detainees at a detention center in the Bosnian town of Foča.  Mitar Rašević and Savo Todović, prison guards at the Foča correctional facility during the Balkan wars in the mid-1990s, were sentenced prison terms of 8.5 years and 12.5 years, respectively.

Rašević and Todović were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), then transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s national court system for trial.  Although the ICTY still tries the most senior leaders, the ICTY has begun transferring lower-ranking defendants to national courts.  This is seen as significant progress in the ICTY’s attempts to strengthen rule of law by forging a partnership with the national judiciary.  So far, the ICTY has transferred ten defendants in six cases to Bosnia and Herzigovina’s national courts.

More information can be found here.

Belize Government Must Respect Mayan Property Rights, Supreme Court Says

Filed Under: Digest

Basing its decision on the domestic law of Belize as well as international law in Cal v. Attorney General, the Supreme Court of Belize has held that the national government must recognize and respect the land ownership claims of indigenous Mayan peoples and therefore refrain from any act that might affect the value, use, or enjoyment of this property.

The full text of the decision is available here.