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Russia’s foreign minister has told the UN that Ukraine’s proposed peace plan and the latest proposals to revive the Black Sea grain initiative were “not realistic”. Sergei Lavrov spoke at a press conference on 23 September after a week of intense global diplomacy at the annual gathering of world leaders at UN headquarters in New York where Ukraine and its western allies sought to drum up support for Kyiv. “It is completely not feasible,” Lavrov said of a 10-point peace blueprint promoted by Kyiv. “It is not possible to implement this. It’s not realistic and everybody understands this but, at...

Amnesty International has accused Ukraine of war crimes during its ongoing military conflict with invading Russian forces. The humanitarian organization said in a release on Wednesday that the Ukrainian military's tactics "violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians" by operating weapons out of bases established in residential areas while civilians are present.

How an Americanist devoted to destroying international alliances became the US envoy to the UNIn the heat of the battle over the Florida vote after the 2000 US presidential election, a burly, mustachioed man burst into the room where the ballots for Miami-Dade County were being tabulated, like John Wayne barging into a saloon for a shoot-out. "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count," drawled John Bolton. And those ballots from Miami-Dade were not counted.Now that same John Bolton has been named by President Bush as the US ambassador to the UN. "If I were...

The European Union warned Israel Thursday against applying sovereignty over portions of Judea and Samaria, vowing to “closely monitor” Israeli moves in the area. In a statement released Thursday afternoon, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell noted the deal between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chief Benny Gantz for the formation of a unity government, expressing a willingness to cooperate with the new Israeli government in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, while cautioning the Jewish state against altering the status quo in Judea and Samaria. “The European Union takes note of the political agreement that could...

Two developments in the past few weeks suggest that America’s China policy is on a cusp.The more publicly discussed event involves the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Dewey, which conducted a freedom of navigation operation near Mischief Reef in the Spratlys island group.This is the first freedom of navigation action conducted by the Trump administration. It is the first true freedom of navigation conducted since at least 2012.By contrast, the Obama administration had undertaken a handful of “innocent passage” activities in the South China Sea, which failed to demonstrate the critical issues at stake.The actions carried out in the previous administration...

Jeffrey Epstein crony Ghislaine Maxwell is so impossible to find that a Manhattan judge has taken the rare step of allowing her to be served with a new lawsuit — by email, according to a federal court filing Friday. Lawyers for Epstein sex-assault-accuser Annie Farmer had griped to federal Judge Debra Freeman that they’ve been trying to find the disgraced British socialite to serve her with the complaint, filed in November, but that she’s done such a good job of hiding that they haven’t been able to get to her, court documents show. “Plaintiff has attempted to locate and personally...

UN Global Compact: What Happens Next? by Judith Bergman June 28, 2019 at 5:00 am https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14391/un-global-compact-next This initiative [to "present a global plan of action against hate speech and hate crimes on a fast-track basis"] should be deeply concerning and is likely to serve only to silence critics of the UN, including its agenda on migration and the GCM. The EU, for its part, according to statements by Hungary and Austria, does not appear to agree that implementing the Global Compact should be up to every EU member state. Instead, the EU is working on making it legally binding, even...

Scholar defends letter accusing Pope of heresy: Church is facing ‘most serious crisis’ in history ROME, May 7, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The recent open letter to all Catholic bishops accusing Pope Francis of heresy and urging the world’s episcopate to investigate these charges has provoked admiration and opposition among leading Catholics and drawn considerable attention in the secular media.  Notable responses to the letter have come from Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, Fr. Brian Harrison, O.S., and Fr. Thomas Weinandy, O.F.M. Capuchin. The letter has also left many Catholics with questions: are the signatories accusing Pope Francis of being a formal heretic?...

No court can ever force the president to allow any alien to enter the country. No such lawsuit could ever have legitimate standing, and no such decision could have any constitutional moorings. If we don’t understand that, we are no longer a sovereign Republic. Monday night, Jon Tigar, an Obama-appointed judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, a forum chosen by the ACLU, penned what is essentially an op-ed expressing his desire that Trump’s order on asylum be temporarily enjoined. His desire is just as binding as my desire to place an injunction on...

Swiss voters have clearly rejected a proposal to give the neutral country’s laws priority over international law, a move that critics claimed would have deeply damaged its global standing and hurt its economy. Some 63 percent of voters in a national referendum on Sunday voted against the “Swiss law, not foreign judges” measure, according to the second round of projections by broadcaster SRF. The measure, backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), called for a provision to be added to the national constitution giving it explicit precedence over international agreements. Where there is a clash between the two, Switzerland...

A dozen migrants from Honduras filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against Pres Trump, DHS, and others, claiming a violation of their due process under the Fifth Amendment.....that "no person… shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." A recent PBS report cited former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who ruled in 1993 case that "it is well established that the Fifth Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in a deportation proceeding." Twelve Honduran nationals, including six children, are listed as...

As Russian and Syrian forces prepare an offensive to take the last remaining rebel stronghold, some refugees from Idlib province say Syrian rebels are stopping their families from fleeing the fighting.

“The Turkish attacks and invasion against Afrin, canton of the autonomous Region of Rojava – Northern Syria, part of the sovereign State of Syria, are an aggression violating international law”, said author and economist Thomas Benedikter. Author and economist Thomas Benedikter spoke to the ANF about the Turkish state’s invasion operation against Afrin that has left one month behind amid intensifying attacks and clashes. Remarking that Afrin has been one of the most safe and stable regions in Syria during the 7 years of war in Syria, Benedikter recalled that the region has welcomed and accommodated hundreds of thousands of...

In recent weeks, some 130 Israeli companies and another 60 international corporations have received letters from the current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jordan’s Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, warning them that they are being “blacklisted” for “acting contrary to international law and UN decisions." According to Yediot Aharonot, the list in question includes well-known Israeli companies spanning different sectors, from food to services, pharmaceuticals to hi-tech. All of them, however, have one thing in common: They operate in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, or the Jordan Valley. Yediot Aharonot reported that the companies are currently considering taking...

Germany on Friday lashed out at Washington over new sanctions against Russia that target the planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe. The new penalties, approved by the US Senate on Thursday, include a paragraph that threatens to penalize European companies that push ahead with energy export programs with Russia. Those include the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would pump Russian gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany. “It is strange that in the sanctioning of Russia’s behavior, with regards to the US elections for instance, that the European economy should become a target of American sanctions. That...

The 120-nation Nonaligned Movement headed by Iran accused the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday of violating international law by ruling that nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets can be paid to victims of attacks linked to the country. A communiqué issued by the NAM’s Coordinating Bureau follows an Iranian appeal to the United Nations last week to intervene with the U.S. government to prevent the loss of their funds. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the ruling an “outrageous robbery, disguised under a court order.” The NAM, comprising mainly developing countries, called the U.S. waiver of “the sovereign...

Yesterday, Loretta Lynch announced before the United Nations that the Attorney General's Office, in collaboration with several US Cities will for a global law enforcement initiative called the Strong Cities Network. This is the implementation of UN rules and laws on US soil bypassing Congress and circumventing the Constitution. Find the transcript here, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch Announces the Launch of the Strong Cities Network at the United Nations General Assembly http://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-loretta-e-lynch-announces-launch-strong-cities-network-united-nations Launch of Strong Cities Network to Strengthen Community Resilience Against Violent Extremism http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/launch-strong-cities-network-strengthen-community-resilience-against-violent-extremism

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969 (VCLT) is the main instrument that regulates treaties. It defines a treaty and relates to how treaties are made, amended, interpreted, how they operate and are terminated. It does not aim to create specific substantive rights or obligations for parties – this is left to the specific treaty (i.e. the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations creates rights and obligations for States in their diplomatic relations). VCLT governs treaties irrespective of its subject matter or objectives – e.g.: treaties to regulate conduct of hostilities (Geneva Conventions on 1949); treaties setting up...

How dare they try to get in the way of a perfectly good appeasement agreement? The audacity! “Iranian FM Zarif to U.S. Senators: You Are Ignorant Of International Law,” Tehran Times, March 10, 2015: “ TEHRAN – The Iranian foreign minister on Monday reacted to an open letter to Iran’s leaders by 47 U.S. Republican senators who had warned Tehran that any nuclear deal that the Islamic Republic signs with President Barack Obama’s administration won’t last after Obama leaves office. Mohammad Javad Zarif said the letter lacks “legal validity” and shows that the signatories of the letter are “ignorant of...

The Cornell Law Review has just published my new article, “Three International Courts and Their Constitutional Problems.” The article considers the constitutionality of joining the International Criminal Court in light of largley forgotten debates over two prior international tribunals: the Mixed Commissions for the slave trade in the early 19th century, and the International Prize Court in the early 20th Century. The U.S. ultimately signed onto both projects, but only after changing their scope or jurisdiction to comport with constitutional concerns. The paper lies at the intersection of international law, constitutional law, and foreign relations. But really its a federal...