GPIL – German Practice in International Law

Published: 16 April 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 19 January 2020, Germany hosted a “Conference on Libya” in Berlin in order “to create new political impetus and rally international support for finding a solution to the conflict in Libya.” The conference was attended by the Governments of Algeria, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, the Republic of the Congo, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States, and High Representatives of the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the League of Arab States. The leaders of the two main warring factions – the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli and the self-styled Libyan National Army with its headquarters in Benghazi – were also present in Berlin but did not formally take part in the conference. (more…)

Published: 14 April 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

Since mid-2014, Yemen has been gripped by a devastating civil war between the Houthi rebels and the government of President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi which is backed by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In September 2014, the Houthi rebels captured the capital Sana’a and have been controlling large areas of northern Yemen ever since. In January 2015, the Houthis declared that President Hadi was deposed and established their own government in Sana’a, dissolved parliament and took over the government institutions located in the north. President Hadi fled first to the port city of Aden in the south of the country and later to Saudi Arabia. (more…)

Published: 09 April 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

Throughout the year, Germany makes numerous statements on international law. Not all of 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…)

It is with great sadness that we share the news of Rudolf Dolzer’s passing on 3 April 2020. Rudolf Dolzer was Director of the Institute for Public International Law at the University of Bonn from 1996 to 2009. He was a titan of general international law and a pioneer of international investment law. We say goodbye to a truly exceptional human being and a remarkable international jurist. Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family.

Rudolf Dolzer

(20 March 1944 – 3 April 2020)

Category: News

Published: 08 April 2020 Authors: Sebastián Mantilla Blanco and Stefan Talmon

With 52 parties, the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is one of the most important multilateral investment treaties. Germany signed the ECT on 17 December 1994 and ratified it on 16 December 1997. The ECT has a prominent place in the German investment treaty landscape. By March 2020, German investors had been  party to 25 ECT arbitration proceedings and Germany had appeared as a respondent in three ECT arbitrations. The European Union (EU) and its Member States, including Germany, were leading an effort to amend and modernise the ECT. In response to a parliamentary request for information, the Federal Government on 21 February 2020 clarified several aspects of the German position on the future of the ECT. (more…)

Published: 06 April 2020 Authors: Stefan Talmon and Philip Wimmer

On 26 July 2019, the Higher Regional Court in Munich sentenced Ahmad Zaheer D. to two years’ probation for, inter alia, the war crime of outrages upon human dignity. At the same time, the Court found that the beating of three enemy prisoners during interrogation did not amount to the war crime of inhuman treatment of protected persons under international humanitarian law. Handing down the relatively lenient sentence, the Court considered in favour of the accused that he had made a full confession, had cooperated with the police authorities, had no other criminal record, and had made every effort to integrate in Germany. It also took into account that the crimes occurred long ago and that the accused was just 21 years old at the time of the crimes. (more…)

Published: 25 March 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon and Tobias Weiss

On 13 January 2020, the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart sentenced Syrian national Abdul Jawad al-Khalaf to life imprisonment for several crimes committed in Syria in 2012 and 2013, including membership of a foreign terrorist organization and war crimes against persons. The Court found that in November 2012 the accused had founded the terrorist organization “Mohamed Ibn Abd Allah” which sought to overthrow the Syrian Government under President Assad and reorganize the Syrian State under Sharia law. In March 2013, the accused and his fighters had participated in the conquest of the provincial capital Raqqa. On 4 March 2013, the accused took part in the storming of the governor’s palace in Raqqa and the capture of at least 40 supporters of the Assad Government, including the provincial governor and party leader, as well as policemen and civil servants. Of those captured, at least 19 were subsequently sentenced to death by a Sharia court and executed at a garbage dump near the city of Tabqa in the presence of the accused. The Court found that the accused had killed at least two prisoners himself. (more…)

Published: 24 March 2020 Author: Stefan Talmon

On 14 July 2015, Iran, the P5+1 countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and Germany – and the European Union (EU) agreed on a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) that sought to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme would be exclusively peaceful. Under the JCPoA, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years. For the next 15 years, Iran was to enrich uranium only up to 3.67%. Iran also agreed not to build any new heavy-water facilities for the same period of time. Uranium-enrichment activities were to be limited to a single facility using first-generation centrifuges for 10 years. Other facilities were to be converted to avoid proliferation risks. To monitor and verify Iran’s compliance with the agreement, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was to have regular access to all Iranian nuclear facilities. The JCPoA provided that, in return for Iran verifiably abiding by its commitments, the nuclear-related economic sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, the EU and the United States would be lifted. In its resolution 2231 (2015) the UN Security Council endorsed the JCPoA and lifted all nuclear-related sanctions. As a result of the JCPoA, on 16 January 2016 the EU and the United States lifted some of their unilateral nuclear-related economic sanctions on Iran. (more…)

Published: 20 March 2020 Authors: Carl-Philipp Sassenrath and Stefan Talmon

In 2011, uprisings in Yemen sparked a complex political military crisis that has been ongoing ever since. Since March 2015, a coalition of Arab States led by Saudi Arabia has supported the Yemeni Government under President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi in a conflict with the Houthi armed movement and other domestic and regional actors. The coalition, which is comprised of eight other Arab States, receives intelligence, logistical support and weapons from the United States and the United Kingdom. Other States are also reported to have sold arms to the conflicting parties. The Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, which was established in 2017 by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at the request of the Human Rights Council, concluded that all parties to the conflict have violated international law. In order to strengthen international accountability, the German Federal Government had lobbied for the establishment of the Group of Eminent Experts.

In their 2018 political agreement establishing a coalition government, the ruling parties in Germany set out their policy with regard to the conflict in Yemen and the export of arms as follows: (more…)

Published: 09 March 2020; Revised: 22 July 2020 Authors: Stefan Talmon and Mary Lobo

On 27 November 2019, the Governments of Turkey and Libya signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which purported to delimit the boundaries of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the two States the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The public disclosure of this document prompted protests from several other States, especially Greece and Cyprus, as the area that had purportedly been delimited between Turkey and Libya included sea areas also claimed by these two States as part of their continental shelf and EEZ. (more…)