On 17 December 2020 the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that a Decree by the Flemish Region that requires animals to be stunned prior to slaughter to reduce their suffering does not contravene European law. This judgement is a serious threat to the freedom of religion in Europe.
On 10 September Advocate General Hogan delivered his much anticipated Opinion in an important case concerning ritual slaughter pending before the Court of Justice of the EU. The case concerns the judicial review of a Decree by the Flemish Region that requires animals to be stunned prior to slaughter to reduce their suffering, thereby effectively prohibiting the slaughter of animals according to Jewish and Muslim rites. The case was brought before the Belgian Constitutional Court, which decided to stay the proceedings and request the CJEU to give a preliminary ruling on the compatibility of the Flemish legislation with European law. AG Hogan suggests that the Flemish Law proscribing slaughter of animals without stunning, including religious slaughter rites, is incompatible with EU law. He proposes that Member States should be allowed to adopt stricter rules than those contained in EU law on animal slaughter, but the prescribed derogation protecting religious rites must be protected.
It is often argued that the Mandate for Palestine ended with the withdrawl of the British on 15 May 1948. In this article Dr. Matthijs de Blois cogently argues that this is a misconception under international law.
The new Israeli government intends to extend Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria (the so-called West Bank). The media cry out ‘illegal annexation’ but is this a question of annexation? How can one annex what you’re entitled to?
The lawfare against Israel has many faces. Next to the case pending before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) (Palestine vs. USA) and the investigation started by the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), a communication has been submitted by Palestine against Israel to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). In…
The freedom of religion is being threatened under the pretence of animal welfare.
In a Judgment of 2 September 2019 the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court orders the Prosecutor to reconsider her decision not to investigate the Gaza flotilla case. The wanderings of this case through the avenues and alleys of the procedural provisions of the Rome Statute of the ICC seems to become a journey without end.
President Trump’s recent proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights has attracted much criticism. The prohibition on the use of force to acquire territory is an important foundation of modern international law, but it does not mean that wars of aggression cannot have territorial consequences.
By Dr. Matthijs de Blois, senior fellow at thinc. Introductie On 8 January 2019, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations – Clingendael – has sent a Policy Brief to the Permanent Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Dutch Parliament, entitled: ‘Wie wind zaait, zal storm oogsten: bezetting en de Staat Israël’. In this Policy…
On the 21st of December 2017 the UN GA again adopted a resolution on Jerusalem within a month of its previous resolution on the same topic . The most recent resolution came in response to the speech of the President of the United States on the 6th of December 2017, in which he recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced the removal of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv and its relocation to Jerusalem.