On August 19, 2014, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (the Court) issued its Advisory Opinion on the “Rights and Guarantees of Children in the Context of Migration and/or in need of International Protection” (the Opinion). This key Opinion is the first time that the Court has addressed states’ obligations to protect the rights of migrant children, in response to a joint submission by four members of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The Court of Cassation's decision in Sonatrach v. Migeon follows its 1984 decision in Eurodif Corporation v. Islamic Republic of Iran [23 I.L.M. 1062 (1984)] in helping Formulate a more cogent French position on sovereign immunity. In the Eurodif case, the Court of Cassation established that a state is not entitled to sovereign immunity from execution when the activity from which the claim arises is of an economic or commercial nature and the assets subject to execution relate to that activity. The Sonatrach decision goes beyond Eurodif in distinguishing between immunity of execution granted to a sovereign state and that granted to a state enterprise.

On December 20, 2019, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands published its judgment in The State of the Netherlands v. Urgenda. The judgment is largely a discussion of questions of Dutch law, but contains several conclusions that are relevant from an international law perspective. In particular, the Court held that on the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the Netherlands has a positive obligation to take measures for the prevention of climate change and that it was required to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 25 percent by the end of 2020, compared with 1990 levels.

The issue of how a government comes to power generally falls within the domestic domain and is not a concern of international law. However, the African Union (AU, established 2002), like its predecessor the Organisation for African Unity (OAU, 1963–2002), views coups as significant threats to the peace, security, stability, and development of African states. To shape change, the AU codified the anti-coup policy that the OAU had progressively adopted from 1997, and broadened it into a normative framework.