Author: Rohan Sinha

Published: 24 October 2024  Authors: Rohan Sinha and Stefan Talmon 

In 2013, a new term entered German political discourse – ‘Völkerrecht des Netzes’, a term translated into English in official documents as ‘International Network Law’. Political parties expressed their wish for or their commitment to an ‘international network law’, and politicians vowed to work for an ‘international network law’. A translation better capturing the meaning of the term would have been ‘International Law of the Internet’ or ‘International Internet Law’ as the idea behind the term was that international law should be used to regulate the Internet, to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of citizens in the digital world and to augment opportunities for democratic participation in the global communications network. This led Germany, together with Brazil, to table a draft resolution at the UN General Assembly in December 2013 on ‘The right to privacy in the digital age’. The resolution, which was adopted unanimously, affirmed for the first time that ‘the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy.’ (more…)

Published: 22 October Author: Rohan Sinha 

On 19 May 2021, the Federal Government adopted a white paper setting out Germany’s engagement in international organisations. Published in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the white paper sought to outline how the multilateral order could be adapted to the changed conditions and address the challenges of the 21st century. With this document, the Federal Government aimed ‘to take a stand, declare its position and justify why and how Germany is more prepared than ever before to invest, both politically and materially, in multilateral cooperation and the mechanisms and institutions that facilitate this collaboration.’ (more…)

Published: 17 October 2024  Author: Rohan Sinha

In recent years, Germany has repeatedly been the target of Russian cyber attacks, including cyber espionage. Such cyber attacks are often part of disinformation campaigns, for example when websites or well-known social media accounts are hacked in order to spread false information. The intention is to destabilise the target country by sowing uncertainty among its population, influencing public opinion, emotionalising controversial debates, amplifying social tensions and stoking distrust in State institutions and the government. When such disinformation campaigns are State-sponsored, the Federal Government speaks of a ‘hybrid threat’. When States like Russia combine such operations with traditional military action, economic pressure and subversive activities, the Federal Government refers to this approach as ‘hybrid warfare’. (more…)

Published: 17 September 2024  Authors: Rohan Sinha and Stefan Talmon

On 15 December 2021, the Higher Regional Court of Berlin sentenced Russian national Vadim Krasikov (Vadim K.), alias Vadim Sokolov (Vadim S.), to life imprisonment for the murder of Tornike Khangoshvili (T. Ka.), a Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity, in central Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten park on 23 August 2019. The Court determined that Krasikov ‘had been commissioned by State authorities of the central government of the Russian Federation to eliminate the victim, among other things because of his role in the second Chechen war between 2000 and 2004 and as the leader of a Chechen militia.’ In an unprecedented act, the Court stated explicitly in its ruling that the murder ‘was an act of State terrorism.’ The Court held: (more…)

On 24 February 2021, the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz sentenced Eyad Al-Gharib to four years and six months in prison for his role as an officer of the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate. The Court found Al-Gharib guilty of aiding and abetting a crime against humanity by torture and grave deprivation of liberty under the German Code of Crimes against International Law (CCAIL). Section 7 of the CCAIL provides in the relevant parts: (more…)

Published: 06 July 2021 Author: Rohan Sinha

On 26 July 2019, the Higher Regional Court in Munich sentenced Ahmad Zaheer D., a former officer of the Afghan National Army, to two years’ probation for, inter alia, grievous bodily harm, coercion and attempted coercion, as well as the war crime of outrages upon human dignity. During the non-international armed conflict in Afghanistan between government forces and the Taliban in 2013/2014, the accused had mistreated three captured Taliban fighters during interrogation and had desecrated the dead body of a high-ranking Taliban commander. (more…)

Published: 05 January 2021 Authors: Rohan Sinha and Stefan Talmon

Nord Stream 2 is a 1,230 kilometre underwater natural gas pipeline project through the Baltic Sea. The pipeline passes through the territorial sea and/or Exclusive Economic Zone of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. The construction of the pipeline began in 2018 and by the end of 2019 the project was almost compete, having received all necessary construction permits from the coastal States. Upon completion, Nord Stream 2 will deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany, adding to the supply provided by the existing Nord Stream pipeline which runs largely parallel to it. The total export capacity of Nord Stream 2 is projected to be 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which is the same capacity as the already operational Nord Stream pipeline. (more…)

Published: 16 July 2020 Author: Rohan Sinha

Between 1998 and 2010, the Hellenic Republic issued various sovereign bonds, which were subject to Greek law and traded as book-entry securities at the Athens stock exchange. These securities were registered in the Greek Central Bank’s securities settlement system and could be purchased by participants in the securities settlement system, upon which the participants became the holders and creditors of these bonds. According to Greek law, the participants could grant rights to those bonds to third-party investors, although the transaction by which those rights were granted was effective only between the parties concerned and expressly did not operate to the benefit or detriment of the Hellenic Republic. (more…)

Published: 1 May 2020 Author: Rohan Sinha

On 10 July 2019, the Regional Court in Wiesbaden sentenced Ali Bashar Ahmad Zebari to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of Susanna Feldmann. The criminal trial attracted large public attention in Germany because, following the crime, the accused had fled to northern Iraq, from where he was repatriated to Germany under rather unusual circumstances. After an arrest warrant had been issued against the accused, he was traced to the autonomous region of Kurdistan-Iraq, where he was arrested on 8 June 2018 by Kurdish security forces at the request of the German Federal Police. The next day, the head of the Federal Police himself travelled to Iraqi Kurdistan to bring him back. The head of the Federal Police and two members of his staff met with Kurdish officials at Erbil International Airport “for reasons of protocol” while other federal officers who were accompanying him remained in the plane. According to the Federal Police, the Kurdish security forces delivered the accused right to the door of the plane and handed him over to Federal Police officers. He boarded the plane voluntarily and was brought back to Germany without being handcuffed or otherwise restrained. The Federal Government insisted that the police officers on board were present only to ensure aviation security. The operation was described as a “deportation”, rather than an extradition. The accused arrived back in Germany on 9 June 2018, where he was formally arrested. He was interrogated and brought before an investigating judge who ordered his pre-trial detention. The accused confessed the murder of the 14-year old schoolgirl but denied raping her. (more…)

Published: 4 February 2020 Authors: Rohan Sinha and Stefan Talmon

Under Germany’s Federal Elections Act persons who are under full guardianship and criminal offenders confined in a psychiatric hospital were disenfranchised from voting. Eight persons affected by these restrictions challenged their disenfranchisement in an electoral complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court. On 29 January 2019, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the relevant provisions in the Elections Act unconstitutional as they violated the constitutional principles of universal suffrage and the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of disability. However, the Federal Constitutional Court also confirmed that under constitutional law it may be generally justified to exclude disabled persons from exercising the right to vote if they must be considered not sufficiently capable of participating in the communications process between the people and State organs. This finding put the Federal Constitutional Court on a collision course with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee).

(more…)