The Russian Constitution was adopted by a referendum on December 12, 1993. It was inspired by Western constitutional traditions and internationally recognised democratic and human rights values. The Constitution established three core features of the Russian constitutional order, all breaking with the Soviet past:

• • The Constitutional provisions on the foundations of the constitutional system, the protection of human rights, and constitutional review are unchangeable and cannot be amended, except via the summoning of a new Constitutional Assembly/national referendum (art. 135).

• • The Constitution established a strongly monist approach to international law, integrating it into the Russian legal order and giving priority to duly ratified international treaties and agreements to override conflicting domestic laws (art. 15(4)).

• • The Russian Constitutional Court enjoys exclusive competence to interpret the Constitution via binding precedents.

On June 8, 2018, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) delivered its eagerly anticipated judgment on the appeal of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo against his conviction by Trial Chamber III in March 2016 for war crimes (murder, rape, and pillage) and crimes against humanity (murder and rape). Bemba's conviction was notable for the variety of “firsts” it gave rise to for the ICC. As a former vice-president of the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and president of the Mouvement de libération du Congo (MLC), he became the most senior leader to be successfully convicted by the ICC. His conviction was the first in which an individual was found responsible for the commission of crimes pursuant to command responsibility under Article 28 of the Rome Statute. Of particular significance was the fact that this was the first conviction at the ICC for acts of rape and sexual violence committed against women and men. Finally, this was the first case in the history of international criminal law where members of the defense team were arrested, tried, and convicted of crimes against the administration of justice during the course of the trial. The trial judgment was heralded as “a turning point in the ICC's history” following the debacles in the Lubanga, Katanga, Chui, and Kenya cases. However, we now have a new addition to the list of firsts: with the Appeals Chamber's majority judgment (decided 3-2), Bemba becomes the first accused to have his conviction overturned in full.

On July 11, 2013, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) adopted the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (Transparency Rules). The new Transparency Rules are the product of three years of negotiations in UNCITRAL. The Transparency Rules will be available in two forms: (1) as part of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, for use in arbitrations conducted under those rules, and (2) as a free-standing set of rules, available for use in arbitrations conducted under other arbitral rules, such as the Rules of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), or in ad hoc proceedings. The Transparency Rules, as well as the new version of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules that incorporates the Transparency Rules, will come into effect on April 1, 2014. The Transparency Rules are for use only in treaty-based investor-State arbitration – not in traditional commercial arbitration.

On December 29, 1996, the Guatemalan government and guerrillas of the Unidad Revoludonaria Nadonal Guatemalteca (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity) (URNG) signed an “Accord for a Firm and Lasting Peace,” formally ending Central America's longest and bloodiest internal armed conflict. According to estimates by Guatemalan human rights groups, brutal counterinsurgency campaigns by the army and civil defense groups took over 100,000 lives, resulted in the “disappearance” of some 40,000 others, and produced hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons.