World Legal News Round Up for Saturday, 13 January 2018 News
World Legal News Round Up for Saturday, 13 January 2018

Here’s the international legal news we covered this week:

The Luxembourg Court of Cassation on Thursday reversed [judgment, in French] the conviction of “LuxLeaks” whistleblower Antoine Deltour who had leaked thousands of documents revealing tax breaks for major companies.
Eleven Guantánamo inmates filed a writ of habeus corpus [text, PDF] in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Thursday claiming that their indefinite detention is due toward President Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim stance.

The inmates argue they can only be kept at Guantánamo if their individual circumstances show that they would return to the battlefield.

EU Advocate General Melchior Wathelet advised [opinion, PDF] the European Court of Justice (ECJ) [official website] Thursday that the rights of same-sex spouses must be recognized by every member of the EU, even if a country’s government has not authorized same-sex marriage.

EU law [materials] permits the spouse of an EU citizen to obtain a residence permit for the EU member state where the spouse resides.

Russian metal tycoon Oleg Deripaska filed suit [complaint, PDF] in New York state court Wednesday against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates alleging fraud.
US President Donald Trump signed the International Narcotics Trafficking Emergency Response by Detecting Incoming Contraband with Technology, orINTERDICT Act [text, PDF], on Wednesday, with the purpose of affording border protection agents enhanced opioid screening technology.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [official profile], Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, on Wednesday condemned [press release] the rise in civilian casualties in the Eastern Ghouta region of Syria resulting from the recent increase in airstrikes and ground-based attacks by government forces and its allies, highlighting that all parties are “obliged under international law to distinguish between lawful military targets, and civilians and civilian objects.”

Zeid also expressed “grave concern” about the situation of an estimated two million people in the Idlib governorate of Syria where tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced due to increased clashes between government forces and its allies, and the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham alliance of armed opposition groups that controls much of the Idlib area.

Canada filed a 32-page complaint [text, PDF] against the US at the World Trade Organization (WTO) [official website] on Wednesday concerning certain laws, regulations and other measures in relation to US anti-dumping or countervailing duty investigations, reviews or other proceedings.

Canada alleges [press release] that the challenged laws, regulations and measures are inconsistent with US obligations under the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement [text], the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1994 (GATT) [PDFs] and the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU) [text].

Specifically, Canada challenges: 1) the liquidation of final anti-dumping and countervailing duties in excess of WTO-consistent rates; 2) the failure to refund cash deposits collected in excess of WTO-consistent rates; 3) retroactive provisional anti-dumping and countervailing duties following preliminary affirmative critical circumstances determinations; 4) the treatment of export controls such as export levies, export quotas, export restraints and export bans as financial contributions leading to additional improper investigations and/or countervailing duties; 5) the improper calculation of benefit in countervailing duty proceedings involving the provision of goods for less than adequate remuneration; 6) the practice of closing the evidentiary record before the preliminary determination thereby restricting interested parties from submitting factual information or other evidence, which would allow them to fully defend their interests in anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations; and 7) the inherent institutional bias present in the US International Trade Commission tie-vote provision leading to biased findings of injury or threat to injury to US industries that are inconsistent with Article X:3(a) of the GATT.

Myanmar prosecutors said Wednesday that two Reuters journalists have been charged with obtaining state secrets.

Journalists Wal Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on December 12, 2017, while investigating the government’s crackdown on the Rohingya minority group in the nation’s Rakhine region.

The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice issued an opinion [opinion PDF] Wednesday urging the court to void the EU’s fisheries agreement with the Kingdom of Morocco.
[JURIST] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights [official website] on Wednesday issued a unanimous advisory opinion [text, PDF, in Spanish] that member states “must recognize and guarantee all the rights that are derived from a family bond between people of the same sex.”

The ruling establishes [press release, PDF] that couples in same-sex marriages have the same family and financial rights as heterosexual couples.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] released a 72-page report [text] on Monday documenting widespread discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) individuals in Ghana both in public and private or family settings.
The Supreme Court of India ruled [judgment, PDF] Tuesday that the national anthem does not have to be played prior to screening of films in theaters.

An order on November 30, 2016, had required the playing of the national anthem before films in theaters.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday, announced [press release] the termination of the Temporary Protected Status [text] (TPS) for El Salvador.
The Supreme Court of India [official website] agreed [order, PDF] Monday to re-examine Section 377 [JURIST op-ed], which criminalizes sex between people of the same sex.