EDPS on the EU’s counter-terrorism policy

The EDPS adopted an opinion yesterday on the Commission’s Communication of 20 July 2010 entitled “The EU Counter-Terrorism Policy: main achievements and future challenges. This opinion aims at “contributing to more fundamental policy choices in an area where the use of personal information is at the same time crucial, massive and particularly sensitive.” According to [...]

European General Court says creation of UN ombudsman post does not solve due process concerns in UN listings regime in Kadi II (Case T‑85/09)

The General Court (the former Court of First Instance) stated that the considerations of the European Court of Justice “remain fundamentally valid” even after the creation of the focal point and the Office of the Ombudsperson because they “cannot be equated with the provision of an effective judicial procedure for review of decisions of the [...]

Articles

The Escalating Ties Between Middle Eastern Terrorist Groups and Criminal Activity Remarks by David T. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Domestic Terror: the Worry about Homegrown Plots,” Newsweek, November 20, 2009. Peter Fromuth has posted an ASIL Insight on The [...]

EU implementation of the UN restrictive measures against al Qaeda

On 22 December 2009 the Council adopted a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 881/2002 imposing certain specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaida network and the Taliban. Following the judgment of the ECJ in the Kadi case on 3 September 2008, the Regulation had to [...]

US removes Vinck and Barakaat international from domestic terrorist list, but not Kadi and Sayadi

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) removed Patricia Rosa Vinck, Barakaat International, and Barakaat International Foundation from its Specially Designated Nationals List on November 3, having found that Vinck and the two entities no longer present a significant threat of supporting terrorism.  Today’s action was taken in conjunction with [...]

Academic articles of interest

Amos N.Guiora – Religious Extremism: A Fundamental Danger Nikos Lavranos – Judicial Review of UN Sanctions by the European Court of JusticeDevika Hovell – A House of Kadis? Recent Challenges to the UN Sanctions Regime and the Continuing Response to the ECJ Decision in KadiLiza Goitein – Preventive Detention in a Different Kind of WarNISS [...]

CFI follows Kadi in Othman v Council and Commission (Case T-318/01)

Othman, better known as Abu Qatada, has been designated by the Sanctions Committee of the Security Council of the United Nations as being associated with Usama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. his name was added to the summary list on 19 October 2001, and then included in the list in the Community regulation. He [...]

Council of Europe Commitee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights calls on Obama to hold perpetrators of torture accountable

Read the working document by Mrs. Herta Däubler-Gmelin for the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, entitled: The state of human rights in Europe: the need to eradicate impunity here. In passing she says the following on the release of the torture memo’s: I should like to commend the new US [...]

Scholarship: EU Law, International Law and Economic Sanctions Against Terrorism after Kadi

A new paper on Kadi was posted at SSRN: EU Law, International Law and Economic Sanctions Against Terrorism: The Judiciary in Distress? P. Takis TridimasQueen Mary University of London, School of Law Jose A. Gutierrez-FonsQueen Mary University of London, School of Law Fordham International Law Journal, ForthcomingQueen Mary School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper [...]

European Commission proposals in response to Kadi

The European Commission has presented its eagerly anticipated proposal to amend the EC Regulation No 881/2002 implementing the UN ‘terrorist list’ in response to the ECJ’s Kadi and Al-Barakaat ruling of September 2008. COM(2009) 187 final summarizes the new procedure to the Council as follows: Upon notification by the UN Sanctions Committee of a new [...]