On May 25, 2019, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) issued a provisional measures order to the Russian Federation to release two Ukrainian warships, a naval auxiliary ship, and their servicemen. This case adds to the jurisprudence concerning the Tribunal's institutional authority to issue a provisional measures order under Article 290(5) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

On June 21, 2019, the International Law Organization (ILO) adopted the groundbreaking Convention No. 190 concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (C190) and the accompanying Recommendation on the same topic (R206). ILO conventions are legally binding instruments, once ratified by states, while recommendations provide advice and guidance. The result of two years of negotiations by ILO members—governments, workers’ representatives, and employers’ organizations—is an international treaty setting out standards that are aimed at ending violence and harassment in the world of work. In its “Women, Business and the Law 2018” study, the World Bank reports that there is a lack of legal protection against harassment at work in 70 percent of the countries in the Middle East and North Africa, half of the economies in East Asia and the Pacific, and one-third of those in Latin America and the Caribbean, affecting an estimated 500 million working-age women.

On May 6, 2019, the Appeals Chamber (AC) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) delivered its judgment in Jordan's appeal of the December 11, 2017 decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber (PTC) in Prosecutor v. Al-Bashir. The first and second grounds of appeal concerned whether Jordan had complied with its duty to cooperate with the request of the Court to arrest and surrender Al-Bashir. The third ground of appeal concerned whether the PTC abused its discretion in referring Jordan's noncompliance to the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (ASP) and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Prior to the judgment, ICC PTCs had created divergent jurisprudence regarding the immunity of incumbent heads of state before international courts.

On April 14, 2018, Protocol 16 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms received sufficient ratifications and entered into force on August 1, 2018. The Protocol, for the first time, enabled the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to provide advisory opinions for the states that ratified the Protocol.

On November 27, 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (hereafter the ECtHR or the Court) delivered a judgment in the case of Alekseyev and Others v. Russia. The judgment is one of the latest episodes in a series of applications launched by well-known Russian LGBT+ activist Nikolay Alekseyev. In the judgment, the Court unanimously found violations of several articles of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), including the right to nondiscrimination.

On July 25, 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU, the Court) rendered its judgment in the case C-528/16, Confédération paysanne and Others. It is a landmark decision in that the Court essentially decided that genome-edited organisms are “genetically modified organisms” (GMOs) governed by the EU's regulatory framework on GMOs without exception.

On September 2, 2019, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Appeals Chamber delivered its judgment in the Situation on the Registered Vessels of the Union of Comoros, the Hellenic Republic and the Kingdom of Cambodia case, Case No. ICC-01/13 OA 2, and rejected the appeal filed by the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I's decision on the November 15, 2018 “Application for Judicial Review by the Government of the Union of Comoros.” As noted in the ICC's press release, “a referral was received by the Office of the Prosecutor from the authorities of the Union of the Comoros, a State Party to the Rome Statute, in relation to an attack on 31 May 2010 by the Israeli Defence Forces on the Humanitarian Aid Flotilla bound for the Gaza strip. On 6 November 2014, the Prosecutor issued her decision not to investigate the attack. On 16 July 2015, Pre-Trial Chamber I, by majority, requested the Prosecutor to reconsider the 6 November 2014 decision not to investigate the attack. Subsequently, on 29 November 2017 the Prosecutor filed her decision, which she considered to be final, reaffirming her previous decision not to investigate the attack. On 15 November 2018, Pre-Trial Chamber I directed the Prosecutor to reconsider her decision of 6 November 2014 not to investigate the attack in light of the specific directions of the Pre-Trial Chamber's 16 July 2015 decision. The Prosecutor then appealed this decision.” The Appeals Chamber confirmed the Pre-Trial Chamber's decision, directing that the OTP must reconsider its decision regarding the Comoros referral by December 2, 2019. The Appeals Chamber found that the Pre-Trial Chamber “did not err in reviewing whether a decision of a Prosecutor that she considered to be ‘final’ subsequently to a first request for reconsideration does actually amount … to a proper ‘final decision.’” The Appeals Chamber did maintain that the “ultimate decision” regarding whether or not to initiate an investigation remains with the OTP.