In 1995, a former Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, Stephen R. Bond, in an article, noted that the users of international commercial arbitration “almost invariably” mentioned the fact that the arbitral proceedings and the resulting award do not enter into the public domain as a feature which attracted parties to it.[1] Whether confidentiality is an essential feature of international arbitration cannot be stated with certainty, considering how the New York Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration do not expressly recognize it.Read More »
India took military action at eight terrorist launch-pads across the LOC in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). India chose to tag the attack as a ‘surgical strike’, thus, implying the remedial nature of its action. It is to be noted that India in its official announcement did not deem it to be an act in retaliation to the Uri attacks but a military measure against the increasing incursions by non-state actors in the territory of India.
To look at the act from a layman’s point of view in light of prevalent international notions of territorial sovereignty, war, and military action, it seems to be a deliberate attempt of entering the territory of another state and carrying out targeted killings. Now that Pakistan has not owned up to it, that is, it has blatantly denied that any such measure was taken by the Indian army, it has reduced the measure to a general ceasefire violation, which is not uncommon in the region. Also, it means that the repercussions bilaterally will not be unforeseeable or grave. But, since top Indian officials have endorsed the act it comes under the purview of state practice under international law from India’s end. This calls for a pertinent question, whether India’s surgical strike was legal under international law?Read More »
International Law Square 