World Legal News Round Up for Saturday,  9 December 2017 News
World Legal News Round Up for Saturday, 9 December 2017

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

The High Court of South Africa [official website] ruled [decision, PDF] Friday that President Jacob Zuma’s [BBC profile] appointment of a State Prosecutor who would decide whether to reinstate corruption charges against was invalid.
[JURIST] Argentinian Judge Carlos Bonadio [CIJ backgrounder, in Spanish] ordered [text, PDF, in Spanish] the arrest of current senator and former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner [official website, in Spanish] on Thursday for her alleged involvement in a cover-up of Iran’s participation in a 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center [BBC backgrounder] that left 85 people dead

Kirchner served as president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015 before being elected senator.

Australia’s House of Representatives [official website] on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved [minutes] a bill [text, PDF] legalizing same-sex marriage, with just four votes in opposition.
The European Commission [official website] said Thursday that they plan [press release] to take Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic to the Court of Justice over their failure to accept their quota of refugees.
A group of UN human rights experts called [press release] Thursday for the Bahraini government to respect and guarantee Shia leader and cleric, Isa Qassim, his human rights.
The US House of Representatives [official website] voted 423-3 [roll call] on Wednesday to approveH.
Ethiopian officials have renewed their campaign of collecting intelligence against government critics abroad through the use of commercial spyware, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] said [press release] Wednesday.

According to Citizen Lab [website], an independent research group in Toronto, Ethiopia, along with other countries such as the US and UK, are spying [report] on government critics through a spyware company, Cyberbit [website], by attaching documents in emails disguised as Adobe Flash updates and PDF plugins.

The UN Human Rights Council [official website] on Tuesday approved a resolution [text, DOC] condemning systematic human rights violations against the Rohingya minority and the acts of violence committed by Myanmar security forces, calling instead for a peaceful resolution.

Thirty-three member-states were in favor of the resolution [press release] while nine abstained.

According to High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein [official profile], many Rohingya people are still fleeing their homes calling into question whether acts of genocide [JURIST report] are taking place.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [official profile] said [text] on Tuesday that Mexico’s proposed security legislation will not assist its armed forces in combating the war on drugs.

The Law on Internal Security [text, PDF, in Spanish] was approved by the Chamber of Deputies last month.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled [judgment] Wednesday that luxury brands can prohibit their distributors from selling products on third-party Internet sites like Amazon.

The ruling came from a decision referred to the court by the Higher Regional Court, Frankfurt am Main of Germany from a dispute between luxury beauty company, Coty Germany, and their distributor, Parfümerie Akzente, about sales on Amazon.

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday revived [order, PDF] a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] brought against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd [corporate website] by the Chinese online retailer’s shareholders last year.

The suit alleged that in addition to knowing about counterfeiters selling knock-off versions of luxury products on their website, Alibaba defrauded their shareholders by concealing information [Reuters report] regarding a meeting they had with China’s State Administration for Industry & Commerce [official website] in which the agency threatened to fine Alibaba if they continued to allow counterfeiters to conduct business on their website.

[JURIST] Spain’s Supreme Court [official website, in Spanish] on Tuesday withdrew [court order, PDF, in Spanish] a European arrest warrant seeking the deportation of Carles Puigdemont [profile], the former President of Catalonia, and four former Catalan officials.

The deposed officials fled to Belgium [JURIST report] after Spanish courts found the October Catalan independence referendum was unconstitutional and constituted acts of sedition by Catalan officials.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [official website] said [press release] Tuesday that he could not rule out that genocide is occurring in Myanmar against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Austria’s Constitutional Court [official website, in German] ruled [text, PDF, in German] Tuesday that a 2009 law that allowed same-sex couples to enter registered partnerships but not to get married was unconstitutional.
The US Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments in two cases Monday, including a Tenth Amendment challenge to a federal sports betting prohibition.

The first case, Christie v.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) [HRW backgrounder] government recruited former M23 rebel fighters to protect President Joseph Kabila [BBC profile] after protests broke out last December over his refusal to step down at the end of his constitutionally mandated two terms, Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported [text] Monday.
Judge Pablo Llarena of the Supreme Court of Spain [official website, in Spanish] on Monday ordered the continued detention [press release, in Spanish] of four members of the Catalan National Assembly [official website, in Spanish] while allowing six other members freed on bail.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson [official profile] on Sunday informed [statement] the UN of the US’ withdrawal from participation in the UN process to develop a Global Compact on Migration (GCM) [official website]

The GCM is the first, intergovernmentally negotiated agreement “to cover all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.”

Tillerson’s decision to withdraw cites “inconsistent” policy goals between the US and the GCM, as the GCM negotiation process will be based on the New York Declaration [text,PDF], a non-binding document adopted by the UN in 2016, which lists strict commitments that emphasize refugee and migrant assistance and immersion, specifically ensuring education and jobs.