Weaknesses in the banking system of a country, whether developing or developed, can threaten financial stability both within that country and internationally. The need to improve the strength of financial systems hasattracted growing international concern. The Communique issued at the close of the Lyon G-7 Summit in June 1996 called for action in this domain. Several official bodies, including the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision, the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, have recently been examining ways to strengthen financial stability throughout the world.

Over the past two decades, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted a number of principles concerning the conduct of international relations. In the preambular paragraphs of the declaration annexed to this resolution, specific principles are reaffirmed. They are: the Declaration on Principles of Interna-tional Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations [9 I.L.M. 1292 (1970)], the Definition of Aggression [13 I.L.M. 710 (1974)], and the Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes [21 I.L.M. 449 (1982)]. The Declaration for 6n the Enhancement of the Effectiveness of the Principle of Refraining from the Threat or Use of Force is the culmination of 10 years of work, and represents the most recent set of guidelines.

An ad hoc arbitral tribunal convened pursuant to Article 287 and Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) delivered its award on the merits on August 14, 2015 in Arctic Sunrise (Netherlands/Russia). The award was unanimous on all holdings and included no separate opinions. In addition to establishing the Tribunal’s jurisdiction and admissibility of the claims, the Tribunal also found that Russia had violated its obligations under UNCLOS by detaining the Arctic Sunrise, a Dutch-flagged vessel, and the thirty people (Arctic 30) on board on September 19, 2013; by failing to comply with an earlier order on provisional measures; and by failing to pay its share of the arbitral expenses.

In the joint cases of Tele2 Sverige AB v. Post-och telestyrelsen and Secretary of State for the Home Department v. Tom Watson, Peter Brice, and Geoffrey Lewis (the Decision), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that member states are precluded from adopting legislation that allows a general and indiscriminate retention of all traffic and location data. While targeted retention of data is allowed for the specific objective of fighting serious crime, retention must be proportionate and access to the data must be limited to what is strictly necessary. To ensure that this is achieved, adequate safeguards must be set in place and access to the data must be subject to prior review by a court or independent administrative body.

Over the course of the period from the end of 2022 to early 2023, requests for advisory opinions on climate change were, for the first time, made to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR).