On October 22, 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rendered its judgment in the case of Skatteverket v. Hedqvist. In this important decision the CJEU sheds light on the value added tax (VAT) aspects of the use of bitcoins. Supplying bitcoins (or better, paying with bitcoins) does not constitute a VAT taxable service, so paying with bitcoins is not a barter transaction. The mere exchange of bitcoins into traditional currency (or vice versa) also remains outside the scope of VAT. The exchange service is VAT exempt.

How far can a country go in recruiting workers from neighboring countries to do the menial labor the country’s citizens are no longer willing to do and then–when they overstay their welcome, have children, and establish families over a period of decades—continue to deny them nationality and civil rights? Can these Gastarbeiter be turned into perpetual foreigners or must they be granted citizenship? How much has international human rights law impacted international law in restricting the freedom of sovereign states in this traditionally most discretionary domain? Are questions of nationality still within the exclusive domain of domestic jurisdiction?

State responsibility has been on the agenda of the International Law Commission since its earliest days. Nearly fifty years ago, in 1949, the Commission identified state responsibility as one of fourteen topics in international law ready for codification. Only in 1956, however, did the Commission, with F.V. Garcia Amador as special rapporteur, begin in earnest its state responsibility codification project. Garcia Amador, whose work focused on the responsibility of states toward aliens on their territory, submitted a number of reports through 1961, but limited discussion was devoted to the topic. A review of the early history of the Commission's state responsibility project, as well as other efforts at codification of this area of law, may be found in the ILC's 1969 Yearbook