'Nuff said

(Taking context-optional note of thought-provoking quotes)

'Melbourne University Professor of Law Tim McCormack said he was frustrated on a number of levels about the Zentai case.'

–  An article in the Melbourne-based daily newspaper The Age, reporting on the today's decision in which the High Court of Australia ruled against the extradition to Hungary of Charles Zentai, a 90-year-old, Hungary-born Australian citizen accused of murdering a Jewish teenager in Budapest in 1944. (Other allegations against him here.) Hungary had sought Zentai's transfer, pursuant to the Hungary-Australia extradition treaty, to stand trial for a "war crime." But the judgment in Minister for Home Affairs of the Commonwealth v Zentai disallowed extradition for the reason that this offense was not prohibited under Hungarian law at the time in question. Thus our colleague Tim McCormack (below; prior posts), who advises the International Criminal Court on international humanitarian law, explained to The Age:

'The Hungarians didn’t choose the right offence to request the extradition.'

McCormack noted that a request on a charge of murder would not have posed the same problem, and added that Australia itself could prosecute but has not chosen to do so.

On November 17

On this day in ...
... 1231 (780 years ago today), Elizabeth, daughter of the King of Hungary and widow of the regent of Thuringia, in what is now central Germany, died at age 24. She'd been betrothed as a very young child, married at age 14, and, by the 20th year of life, had borne 3 children. After the birth of the last child, she learned that her husband had died of illness while taking part in a crusade. A year later, in 1228, Elizabeth -- who, as a devotee of the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi was already active in alms-giving and other charitable work (image credit) -- renounced worldly possessions, founded a Franciscan hospital, and nursed the sick till her own death. She was canonized a saint of the Roman Catholic Church in 1235.

(Prior November 17 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On November 2

On this day in ...
... 1956 (55 years ago today), Imre Nagy, Premier of Hungary, denounced the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact and sought U.N. aid as anti-Soviet demonstrations continued throughout his country. (Prior IntLawGrrls post.) Within days, "at 4:15 a.m. on November 4, 1956, Soviet forces launched a major attack on Hungary aimed at crushing, once and for all, the spontaneous national uprising that had begun 12 days earlier." (credit for photo, made in 1956 in Budapest, of Hungarian revolution flag -- Soviet insignium has been cut out of it)

(Prior November 2 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On July 13

On this day in ...
... 1878, the month-long Congress of Berlin, which had been dominated by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, ended with the signing of the Treaty of Berlin. This treaty supplanted a bilateral Russia-Turkey pact earlier in the year with changes necessary to avoid a crisis involving Russia and Britain. Russia did not fare well in the new agreement. The Berlin treaty, which also dealt with Austro-Hungarian claims in southeastern Europe, "failed to consider adequately the aspirations of the Balkan peoples themselves and, thereby, laid the foundation for future crises in the Balkans." (credit for 1881 painting by Anton von Werner of diplomats at the Congress of Berlin)

(Prior July 13 posts are here, here, here, and here.)

On February 4

On this day in ...
... 1973, teams of inspectors known as the International Commission of Control and Supervision began monitoring a truce in the U.S.-Vietnam War, pursuant to an agreement reached a few days earlier at peace talks in Paris. The commission included delegates from Hungary, Poland, Canada and Indonesia. Sporadic fighting would continue, ending "with the fall of Saigon in April 1975 and the reunification of the country under communist rule."

(Prior February 4 posts are here, here, and here.)

On December 14

On this day in ...

... 1955, by Resolution 109, the U.N. Security Council admitted 16 new member states to the United Nations. Simultaneously admitted were Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon (today, Sri Lanka), Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, and Spain. The vote was 8-0-3; abstaining were Belgium, China, and the United States.

(Prior December 14 posts are here and here.)

On October 23

On this day in ...

... 1983 (25 years ago today), in the midst of civil war in Lebanon, bombs in Beirut devastated barracks of American and French armed forces, killing 241 American servicemembers, nearly all of them Marines, and 58 parachutistes. Although President Ronald Reagan "insist[ed] Marines will remain," the United States withdrew all troops from the country within months. (credit for photo of the President and 1st Lady Nancy Reagan reviewing caskets of U.S. troops who died in the bombing)

... 1989, in 1 country that had led movements in Eastern Europe away from the Warsaw Pact and toward market economies, Hungary became a republic by proclamation of interim President Mátyás Szűrös. The declaration came on the 33d anniversary of the unsuccessful uprising against Soviet control. Free elections would be held the following year. Hungary (flag at left) became a member of NATO in 1999 and of the European Union in 2004.

On September 17

On this day in ...
... 1936, Ettie Annie Rout (right) died of "a 'self-administered' quinine overdose" in Cook Islands, 59 years after she'd been born in Tasmania. Rout grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, where her work as a typist for courts and commissions of inquiry "gave her a wide range of experiences on social issues." Later she worked as a writer and in business, but became best known as a health activist, concerned about the spread sexually transmitted diseases. Her emphasis on the problem, while she was a volunteer nurse during World War I, drew praise in France criticism in New Zealand. New Zealand also banned her Safe Marriage: A Return to Sanity (1922), "a contraceptive and prophylactic manual for women." Britain published it -- prompting a bishop to proclaim her

the most wicked woman in Britain.

... 1374, by means of the Pact of Koszyce, named after the city whose coat of arms is at left, Ludwik the Great, King of Poland and Hungary, granted certain privileges to the Polish nobles in exchange for their promise that he could "occupy the Polish throne should one of his daughters have no male heirs."

On July 20

On this day in ...
... 1953 (55 years ago today), Frances E. Willis became the 1st woman U.S. Foreign Service Officer to be appointed an Ambassador. Previously an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Vassar College, Dr. Willis, who'd earned her Ph.D. at Stanford, was appointed Ambassador to Switzerland. She presented her credentials on October 9 and served until May 5, 1957. Willis later served as Ambassador to Norway, from 1957 to 1961, and Ambassador to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, from 1961 to 1964. The 3d woman ever to be a Foreign Service Officer, upon her appointment to that position on August 29, 1927, she was appointed a Career Ambassador on March 20, 1962. Willis, who died in 1983, was honored on the postage stamp above right.
... 1928 (80 years ago today), Hungary decreed that all traveling people -- then called Gypsies -- were to forsake their nomadic life and traditional clothing and adopt instead permanent dwellings and "modern European dress." Those born in Hungary who obeyed the decree were to be granted rights to vote and own property and to be required to serve in the military; the foreign-born were ordered to leave the country within a month or face imprisonment. Roma people, as they are called today, continue to face discrimination in Europe. (credit for 1902 photo of Gypsy camp in Hungary)

Go On! ESIL conference in Budapest

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia of interest.) "The Power of International Law in Times of European Integration" is the theme for the Biennial Research Forum of the European Society of International Law, to be held September 28 and 29 in Budapest, Hungary. Opening the conference will be Sorbonne Law Professor Hélène Ruiz Fabri (left), ESIL President and IntLawGrrls' own Olympe de Gouges. Panel chairs include Professor Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva; Judge Ineta Ziemele, European Court of Human Rights; Professor Anne Peters, University of Basel; and Professor Iulia Motoc, University of Bucharest.
Presenters include: Zsuzsa Csergo, "Negotiating Boundaries: Language of Inclusion and Exclusion"; Ieva Kalnina, "Assessment of Citizenship Policy in the European Context"; Daphné Richmond, "The New New Peacekeepers? Private Military Companies and the Future of Peacekeeping Operations"; Ann Pauwels, "NATO as a Peacekeeper"; Dessislava Cheytanova, "Separatism or Legitimate Aspirations to Independence"; Agnes Hurwitz, "Where Have the Refugees Gone?"; Mercedes Guinea Llorente, "Tales of 'Civilisation': Transfer of Values through the Eastern Neighbourhood Policy"; Barbara Delcourt, "Peut-on réellement considérer que l'action de l'UE au Kosovo participe d'une stratégie de construction d'un Etat et quelle est la place réservée au droit international dans la mise en place de ce projet?"; Milica Matijević, "Multiculturalism as a Foundation for a New Legal System: The Case of Kosovo"; and Fernanda Fernandez Jankov and Vesna Čorič, "The legality of uti posseditis in the Kosovo's dissolution."
Full program here; registration here.