The June issue of International Legal Materials includes four international legal documents. The first is the reparations judgment from the International Court of Justice in the case concerning Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (Dem. Rep. Congo v. Uganda). The introductory note by Manual J. Ventura (Attorney General’s Department, Australia) suggests that the Court’s “judgment will likely become the benchmark for how all future cases of [its] kind will be adjudged.”

William E. Butler (Penn State Dickinson Law) translates and contextualizes six pieces of Russian legislation imposing economic sanctions on states as in response to sanctions imposed on Russia by foreign states or international organizations. He notes that Russia “retaliates almost reflexively against economic sanctions imposed by others specifically against Russia, seemingly with little regard for the self-imposed consequences of its actions.”

The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in Basfar v. Wong is expertly introduced by Eileen Denza (Former Legal Counsellor at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office). She explains that though the Court held that diplomats cannot evade allegations under the UK Modern Slavery Act by invoking diplomatic immunity, it is “too early to judge whether the judgment—which is apparently the first in the world to construe the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations in this way—will in fact be a turning point.”

Finally, Yong Gan (Wuhan University Institute of International Law) offers a translation and excellent review of the Supreme People’s Court of China policy on the enforcement of foreign judgments by Chinese courts, noting that it reflects progress made in practice over the past four decades, but notes that it remains to be tested.

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