On April 21, 2022, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a judgment finding the illegality of Colombia's measures and actions in the Nicaraguan exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the case Alleged Violations of Sovereign Rights and Maritime Spaces in the Caribbean Sea. The dispute primarily concerned the Court's jurisdiction based on the American Treaty on Pacific Settlement (Pact of Bogotá) Article XXXI and a coastal state's rights over its maritime zones under customary international law.

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was originally conceived as a means of fully harmonizing data protection law across the territory of the European Union. As a regulation, the GDPR has direct and uniform effect in member state law without the need for member states to adopt national implementing laws. However, as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) acknowledged in its well-known 2021 Facebook Ireland judgment, the GDPR as finally adopted contains a number of optional provisions that allow member states a margin of discretion to limit or expand its scope.

On March 24, 2020, Benin notified the African Union Commission that it was withdrawing from the optional aspect of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (Court) that entitled non-governmental organizations and individuals to bring cases directly to the Court. Benin withdrew due to perceived interference by the Court in a domestic commercial transaction and numerous decisions against Benin involving political opposition, with the state noting “serious incongruities.” Benin also indicated its intention to attempt to reform the Court at the next African Union Summit.

During the winters of 1897 and 1898, from the window of his Parisian hotel, Camille Pisarro painted one of his first urban scenes, Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain (the Painting). The Painting marks a significant deviation from Pissarro's prior works, which primarily consisted of au plein air country landscapes. In addition to the Painting's art historical significance, it has now become one of Pissarro's most infamous paintings. Currently sitting in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (TBC) in Madrid, this artwork has been the subject of a decades-long court battle over its ownership. After the Nazis assumed control of Germany, the original owner forcibly surrendered the Painting in order to obtain exit visas for her family. Decades later, the heirs of the original owners attempted to recover the Painting under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). After this decades-long litigation, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a procedural issue: what choice-of-law rule a court should apply in an FSIA case raising state claims.

Under 28 U.S.C. §1782(a), the U.S. Congress permits federal district courts to order testimony or the production of documents “for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.” For the past two decades, U.S. Courts of Appeals have been split over whether 28 U.S.C. §1782 applies to private international commercial arbitrations. On June 13, 2022, in a unanimous opinion delivered by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Supreme Court of the United States held that it does not. To the extent that §1782(a) may apply to investor-state arbitrations, the Court held that the scope of the statute is limited to adjudicative bodies imbued with governmental or intergovernmental authority. Access to U.S. discovery procedures has thereby been narrowed significantly in the context of international arbitration.

On December 20, 2021, the U.K. Supreme Court (the Supreme Court) delivered a unanimous decision in the highly publicized Maduro Board v. Guaidó Board litigation. The decision partially overturned that of the England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) and is an important decision on both issues raised in the case: the recognition of governments and the “Act of State” doctrine. The first of those is examined in more detail in this note.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in Kigali, Rwanda on April 13, 2022 by the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for the Home Department, Priti Patel, and the Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Vincent Biruta. It is part of the UK Government's strategy to deal with asylum seekers, particularly those deemed to arrive “irregularly,” under which Rwanda will take responsibility for those deported in return for payments from the United Kingdom, including an upfront payment of £120 million. The United Kingdom will also pay the processing and integration costs for each relocated person.

On July 25, 2022, the first Article 25 Arbitration Appeal award was issued. The Article 25 mechanism is being used while Appellate Body appointments are still blocked. The substance of the case concerned a dispute between the European Union and Turkey regarding a localization requirement whereby Turkey required foreign producers to commit to localize in Turkey their production of certain pharmaceutical products and where producers did not commit to doing so, relevant products were no longer reimbursed by the Turkish Social Security Institution. Ultimately, the arbitral panel found that the localization requirement was not justifiable under GATT (and consequently that the panel below had not erred in its judgment).