China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative continues to expand its project financing activities to around 147 countries in the world as of this writing. This exceptional global footprint, undertaken primarily through sovereign lending or sovereign-driven financing, puts China in a privileged position of international responsibility to ensure respect, protection, and fulfillment of human rights in global business activities. This post shows that China’s numerous international human rights treaty obligations and unilaterally-assumed legally binding commitments under its Universal Periodic Review already encompass specific obligations upon China to act under duties to prevent and redress human rights impacts in its Belt and Road Initiative. The 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice in Legal Consequences Arising from the Practices and Policies of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Including East Jerusalem reiterated the Court's pronouncement that "international human rights instruments are applicable in respect of acts done by a State in the exercise of its jurisdiction outside its own territory." (para. 99 of 2024 Advisory Opinion). To the extent that China…
Extraterritorial Application
Page 1 of 34
ICJ Delivers Advisory Opinion on the Legality of Israel’s Occupation of Palestinian Territories
Yesterday, the International Court of Justice delivered its groundbreaking advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. (The Court’s opinion and all of the individual opinions of the judges are available here.) The bottom line of the AO is that the…
A Quick Take on the European Court’s Climate Change Judgments
Today the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered a monumental trio of decisions – two admissibility decisions and one judgment – on climate change. In Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, the Court, by 16 votes to 1 (Judge Eicke dissenting), set forth new principles on standing (victim…
Wieder and Guarnieri v UK: A Justifiably Expansive Approach to the Extraterritorial Application of the Right to Privacy in Surveillance Cases
In September last year, a Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in Wieder and Guarnieri v. the United Kingdom (nos. 64371/16 and 64407/16), which became final in December. The judgment is an important contribution to the ever-growing international case law on the extraterritorial application of human rights. Briefly, the Court…
The Mariupol Test: Analysing the Briefs of Third States Intervening in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia
The interstate case of Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia is currently pending on its merits before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights. It is one of the most complex and politically momentous cases ever to be heard by the Court. Russia is no longer participating in the proceedings, and will not comply with…
- Page 1 of 34
- Last