The Houston Young Lawyers Association, in collaboration with the New York State Bar Young Lawyers Section, the University of Houston Law Center, and the San Antonio, Austin, and Fort Bend young lawyers associations hosted a webinar panel discussion moderated by Anna DeMaggio, senior counsel to Orion, on international law and the war in Ukraine on July 25. The panel consisted of international law experts from Ukraine, specifically, Mykola Gnatovskyy, judge of the European Court of Human Rights; Mariia Bezdieniezhna, legal adviser to the Ukraine Embassy; Alexander Gudko, senior associate of Covington & Burling in New York; and Anton Korynevych, ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
The panel discussed the current docket of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, and specifically covered the two categories of cases: the individual claims by non-governmental organizations for alleged violations of human rights against states and interstate claims for protection of individuals’ rights. There are currently thousands of individual claims and four interstate claims on the docket of the court related to Russia and Ukraine.
The panel discussed an interstate case regarding Crimea, in which the court delivered its final unanimous judgment in June 2024, finding major violations of human rights by Russia in Crimea. The case covers all the complaints by Ukraine regarding Crimea and is considered one of the most comprehensive cases that dwells on the law of international conflict. Being the occupying power in Crimea, Russia did not apply international law during the occupation but instead chose to proclaim Crimea annexed by Russia. Therefore, none of the courts in Crimea may be considered as such established consistent with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Another case discussed was the case of Ukraine and the Netherlands, which started in 2013 during the invasion of Crimea, and now has been merged with the claims of other European states into one interstate case. The court is working on delivering the opinion on the merits of the case. Gnatovskyy also touched upon smaller cases, such as the case concerning the detention of Ukrainian seamen in the Kerch Strait, which is pending. To access the full webinar, go to https://youtu.be/aNwkqTfNbmQ?si=qPUWhd4S_cy5NjYL/.
Anna DeMaggio is a senior counsel at ORION, where she manages and oversees the company’s legal matters across multiple jurisdictions. Prior to her in-house practice, DeMaggio practiced commercial litigation and insurance defense at several law firms in Houston, chaired the Houston Bar Association and Houston Young Lawyers Association committees, and was nominated a lifelong Houston Young Lawyers Foundation fellow in 2022. She holds LL.B. and LL.M. degrees from the Kyiv T. Shevchenko National University Institute of International Relations, an LL.M. degree from the University of Chicago Law School, and is currently pursuing an MBA at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business.