Since its 3 February 2025 Executive Order, the United States has engaged in a series of decisions to either pause or entirely remove funding for various international organizations and agencies within the United Nations system, including withdrawing from the World Health Organization, withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, the 90-day pause in contributions to the World Food Programme, among others, while ordering the United States Secretary of State to conduct a mass review of the United States' membership in "all international intergovernmental organizations of which the United States is a member and provides any type of funding or other support, and all conventions and treaties to which the United States is a party, to determine which organizations, conventions, and treaties are contrary to the interests of the United States and whether such organizations, conventions, or treaties can be reformed." (Section 3(b) of 3 February 2025 Executive Order). As the largest sovereign donor to the United Nations (estimated at one-third of the total UN system budget, or approximately US$20 billion…
State Immunity
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Kerajaan Malaysia v. Lawyers for Liberty: At the Confluence of Fake News and Extraterritoriality
The dangers caused by the proliferation of misinformation – or ‘fake news’ – via social media platforms and instant messaging services are not easy to counteract. By the internet’s very nature, online communications are difficult to regulate as information shared by users in one jurisdiction can be easily made available to users in many others. In some cases,…
The law and politics of creation of the micro religious Bektashi state in Albania
On 21 September 2024, the New York Times reported Albania’s plan to create the State of Bektashi. Bektashi is a Muslim Shiite Sufi order founded in the 13th century in Turkey with its headquarters based in Albania since 1930. On 22 September 2024, Mr Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania announced…
Two Case Studies of Clandestine Operations, Attribution and Functional Immunity for Ordinary Crimes
In this post, I want to briefly analyze two recent high-profile developments. The first is the mass prisoner exchange (if that’s the right term) between Russia and Western states that happened some two weeks ago. That exchange involved the release of political prisoners by Russia, and several Russian secret agents by the West. One possible…
Iran’s Tryst With the Terrorism Exception and State Immunity
Introduction On June 27, 2023, Iran instituted proceedings against Canada before the International Court of Justice (“the Court/ICJ”), contending a violation of its jurisdictional immunity and immunity from measures of constraint. A detailed statement of the jurisdictional and substantive issues raised in the case can be found in a previous blog…
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