Cargill Incorporated (“Cargill”) is a US-based company that manufactures high fructose corn syrup (“HFCS”), a low-cost substitute for cane sugar that is used as a sweetener in soft drinks. Mexico, the world’s second largest per capita consumer of soft drinks, implemented various trade barriers to protect its domestic sugar cane industry from foreign-produced HFCS. In [...]

What do you do when a foreign state knocks on your door requesting the extradition of individuals facing criminal charges back home? If Karlheinz Schreiber comes to mind, then your answer might be, “No sweat, send him packing.” But the fact that Jószef Németh and his wife, Jószefne Németh, were Roma refugees living in Canada [...]

The Canadian government has had mixed results lately in defending itself against NAFTA claims. Recently, Canada agreed to provide compensation in the amount of $130 million to settle the claim of AbitibiBowater Inc. (“Abitibi”). TheCourt.ca commented on this settlement, and given that the actions of the Government of Newfoundland were so clearly in contravention of [...]

This week, the federal government announced a settlement of a claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Can T.S. 1994 No. 2 (“NAFTA”) by AbitibiBowater Inc. (“Abitibi”) against Canada as a result of the dispute between the company and Newfoundland. In 2008, the Newfoundland government hastily expropriated nearly all of Abitibi’s Newfoundland assets after [...]

Is the unilateral declaration of independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo in accordance with international law? The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in a 10-4 decision, answered this question in the affirmative in an advisory opinion to the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), titled Accordance with International Law of the [...]

International Court of Justice to Hold Special Elections to Replace Retiring Judges Recently, Justices Shi Jiuyong of China and Thomas Buergenthal of the United States announced their resignations from the International Court of Justice (“ICJ”), both before fulfilling the nine-year terms they were elected to. As a result, two special elections for their replacements will [...]

(The Court returns after a week transitioning from our 2009-2010 academic-year editorial team to our summer editors. We thank our readers for their patience during this break. From May 3 through to the end of August, we move to our summer publication schedule of three postings per week [usually Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays] with occasional [...]

Baltasar Garzon, universal jurisdiction’s singular Spanish exponent, has been indicted for exceeding his domestic judicial purview. As noted briefly in TheCourt.ca last week, Garzon, the investigating magistrate who began proceedings against, inter alia, General Augusto Pinochet, Argentinian “dirty war” generals, al Qaeda members, suspected Basque terrorists, and the “Bush Six”, has been brought to legal [...]

A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court denied leave to appeal in Slahi v. Canada (Justice), 2009 FCA 259, first canvassed on TheCourt.ca by Padraic Ryan here. My post aims to briefly examine the international law aspects of the case and their relation to the Charter. Slahi affirms the recent line of jurisprudence (culminating in Canada [...]

On January 27, 2010, the UK Supreme Court struck down two UK Orders in Council that formed the entirety of the country’s terror financing and asset-freezing law (Her Majesty’s Treasury v. Mohammed Jabar Ahmed and others; Mohammed al-Ghabra; Hani El Sayed Sabaei Youssef ([2010] UKSC 2 & [2010] UKSC 5). The Court held the laws [...]