Author: Stefan Talmon

Published: 21 September 2023  Author: Stefan Talmon

On 19 September 2023, some three years after an all-out war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh – an ethnic Armenian enclave that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan – Azerbaijan began military operations against what it called ‘illegal Armenian armed groups’ in Nagorno-Karabakh. Tensions had been building around the region for months after Azerbaijani troops blockaded the Lachin corridor, cutting off the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia. The tensions had given rise to a flurry of peace talks between the conflicting parties in Washington, Brussels and Moscow. (more…)

Published: 5 September 2023 Author: Stefan Talmon

Despite the fact that ‘Palestine’ was accorded non-member observer State status in the United Nations in 2012, enjoyed bilateral recognition from 139 States, and acceded to numerous multilateral treaties, Germany did not recognize a State of Palestine. German courts also regularly ruled that there was no Palestinian State and no Palestinian nationality. In an order of 19 January 2022, the Higher Regional Court of Berlin accepted for the first time ‘Palestine’ as a State of origin and – albeit indirectly – a Palestinian nationality for the limited purposes of private international law. (more…)

Published: 31 August 2023 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 15 July 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan), announced the signing of an air services agreement between Taiwan and Germany. The signing ceremony was conducted in a hybrid format. The document was signed at the Ministry of Transportation and Communication in Taipei by the Director General of the German Institute Taipei, Germany’s representation on the island. The signing was witnessed by the Minister of Transport and Communication and the Director-General of the Europe Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Parliamentary Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Steffen Bilger, delivered a congratulatory message via a prerecorded video. At the same time, the document was signed at the Taipei Representative Office in Berlin by Taiwan’s representative in Germany who was connected via video link. The agreement took effect immediately. (more…)

Published: 29 August 2023  Author: Stefan Talmon

On 13 July 2023, about one month after the unveiling of Germany’s first ever National Security Strategy (NSS), the Federal Government adopted its long-awaited comprehensive Strategy on China. The 64-page document aimed ‘to present the Federal Government’s views on the status of and prospects for relations with China’. In both, the Strategy on China and the NSS, China was identified as a ‘partner, competitor and systemic rival’. In a keynote speech at the annual China Forecast event of the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin in January 2022, the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, Tobias Lindner, had stated with regard to FUTURE Sino-German relations that ‘[w]e want to cooperate with China, wherever this is possible based on international law and within the framework of the rules based international order.’ International law and the rules-based international order thus featured prominently in the new China Strategy. (more…)

Published: 18 July 2023  Authors: Khaled El Mahmoud and Stefan Talmon

More than any other issue, the question of the delivery of German Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine dominated both the domestic political debate and the foreign policy debate in Germany in January 2023. In addition to the question of whether Germany itself would supply such tanks, there was also the question of whether Germany would grant EU and NATO member States, which had acquired such tanks from Germany, the permission to re-export them to Ukraine, as required by the so-called end-use certificates (EUC). (more…)

Published: 26 June 2023  Author: Stefan Talmon

On 14 June 2023, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and members of his cabinet unveiled Germany’s first ever National Security Strategy (NSS), entitled ‘Robust. Resilient. Sustainable. Integrated Security for Germany’. The 73-page document outlined the Federal Government’s approach to guaranteeing the country’s security and strengthening it against external threats. The NSS contained twenty-three references to ‘international law’, which was employed fourteen times in connection with ‘free international order’ or just ‘international order’. The ‘free international order’ thus emerged as a key novel concept of the new Strategy. (more…)

Published 30 May 2023 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 23 May 2021, Ryanair flight FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius was diverted by Belarusian air traffic control under the pretext of a dubious bomb threat. Upon landing at Minsk airport, one of the passengers on board, Belarusian blogger and political activist Roman Protasevich was arrested on charges of inciting unrest against the government of President Alexander Lukashenko. His partner, Sofia Sapega, was also arrested. Western States condemned the landing on false grounds as a serious attack on the rules governing civil aviation. (more…)

Published: 27 April 2023 Author: Stefan Talmon

Throughout the year, Germany makes numerous statements on international law. Not all these statements form part of a case study presented on GPIL. However, these statements may nevertheless be of interest to international lawyers. We therefore compile these statements on a monthly basis. (more…)

Published: 25 April 2023 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 7 December 2020, the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted a new Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime that allowed the EU to impose restrictive measures on individuals and entities responsible for serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide. The new regime provided for travel bans, asset freezes and a prohibition to make funds or economic resources available, either directly or indirectly, to listed human rights offenders. The EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime was first applied on 2 March 2021 against four Russian individuals involved in serious human rights violations in Russia. (more…)

Published: 20 April 2023 Author: Stefan Talmon

From 1884 to 1915, Germany was the colonial power in the territory of what is today Namibia. In 1904, the Herero and Nama tribes revolted against German colonial rule. The revolt was brutally crushed by imperial German troops. It is estimated that, between 1904 and 1908, some 65,000 Herero (80 per cent of the tribe’s population) and some 10,000 Nama (50 per cent of the tribe’s population) were killed, starved to death or died in camps. The events have been referred to as ‘the first genocide of the 20th century’. While Germany acknowledged its ‘moral and historical responsibility to Namibia’, it tried for a long time to avoid referring to the events as ‘genocide’. (more…)