International Legal News - 15 September 2025

The following media round up on international and foreign policy issues from around the world for the period of 8 September to 12 September 2025. Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates from the International Criminal Court, European Court of Human Rights, United Nations, European Union and other sources. Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.

Guernica 37 International Legal News

12 September 2025

Criminal charges issued against suspect in high-profile US assassination

Authorities from the US State of Utah have brought criminal charges against a 22-year-old suspected of assassinating the controversial and high-profile American political activist, Charlie Kirk.

According to an affidavit of probable cause published on the social media website X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, the suspect, Tyler Robinson has been charged with three offences: aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, and obstruction of justice.

For more on this story, see here.

To read an online publication of the affidavit, see here.

11 September 2025

Zambia: Acid Spill poses risk to health of local residents

On 18 February 2025, a dam in Chambishi, in the Copperbelt province, which held mining waste from the Chinese mining company, Sino-Metals Leach Zambia, burst its walls, releasing an acidic effluent into the Kafue river’s watershed.

The pollution has killed the river’s fish, burned maize and groundnut crops, and led to the desolation of local livestock, bringing an end to the livelihoods of local farmers, and undermining food security among the local populace who have also sustained other medical consequences from the spill.

Sino-Metals, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group, was reported to have apologized for the environmental emergency, promising a remedy.  However, six months after these events, an information issued by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that water samples from the area continue to host a variety of heavy metals that pose significant health risks, especially to children, the elderly and pregnant women.

A civil society coalition has called for a full clean-up and compensation for those affected by the pollution.

For more on this story, see here.

10 September 2025

US court refuses enforcement of annulled intra-EU award

Following recent stories already recorded here by G37 International News concerning the future of the Energy Charter, a US court has refused to enforce a Cypriot oil trader’s US$48 million Energy Charter Treaty award against Poland.

The US court in question has stated that it was bound to respect a prior judgment issued by a Swedish court to annul the award in accordance with EU case law which prohibits intra-EU investment arbitration.

For more on this story, see here.

9 September 2025

UK Government updates position on Gaza

In a story published by The Guardian Newspaper, it has been reported this week that Ministers of the UK Government have issued a series of policy updates concerning the situation in Gaza.

This update has firstly not concluded that the State of Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Further, communications have been made to Parliament that no British-made parts for F-35 jets sold to Israel have directly led to breaches of international humanitarian law. Calls for an independent audit of UK arms sales have been rejected, along with a proposal to amend the Crime and Policing Bill for England and Wales to facilitate the prosecution of foreign nationals in the UK courts suspected of war crimes, including deprivation of aid or the killing of aid workers.

The Government has also signaled that it is continuing to study the implications for British governmental policy in relation to a provisional finding by the UN International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) that has held Israel’s occupation of Palestine to be unlawful.

In a signal of continuing political concern and on the same day as this news story, 61 Parliamentarians wrote to the Prime Minister expressing concerns over the visit of the incumbent Israeli President to Downing Street, citing the UK’s ongoing obligations to prevent and punish genocide under the 1948 genocide convention.

For more on this story, see here.

8 September 2025

Blog Corner: Transitional Justice and the Special Tribunal for The Gambia

Practioners and legal scholars with a specialism and expertise in Transitional Justice may be interested in a recent post written by Marco Di Donato for EJIL: Talk! which looks at Transitional Justice in The Gambia.

The post examines the Special Tribunal for The Gambia, a hybrid court established by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to prosecute crimes committed under the authoritarian rule of Yahya Jammeh between 1994-2017. This Tribunal’s constitution is noteworthy, according to Di Donato, for being the first to be set up by a regional organisation, which raises a number of fascinating jurisdictional and operational questions.

To read this article, click here.