The Julian Assange Affair

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If Ecuador would not agree to its jurisdiction, this would contradict its self-proclaimed commitment to international law. The ICJ would, most probably, confirm the unlawfulness of granting diplomatic asylum, and will recall to Assange and his supporters once again what the Court already stated in 1950: Granting asylum cannot impede the administration of justice.: May the UK Terminate the Diplomatic Status of Ecuador’s Embassy? UPDATED
Written by Dapo Akande
Ecuador has announced that it is granting asylum to Julian phone number library Assange, the Wikileaks founder, who has taken refuge in the Ecuardor’s embassy in London. Assange sought refuge in the Embassy after the UK Supreme Court ruled a few weeks ago that he may be extradited to Sweden where he is wanted for trial on allegation of committing sexual offences. In this dispute there are some points in the UK’s favour. It is fairly clear that Assange is not covered by Refugee Convention and is therefore not entitled to asylum as a matter of international law. That Convention does not apply to persons in respect of which there are serious reasons to believe they have committed a serious non-political crime (Art. 1(F)(ii)). Furthermore, as Matthew Happold pointed out in a previous post, general international law does not provide for diplomatic asylum. Thus, States are not required to grant safe passage out of their territory to those who seek asylum in diplomatic premises within their territory (unless there is a specific treaty which provides for such an obligation, which there is not in this case).