Saturday, May 24, 2014

New Volume: ISIL Year Book of International Humanitarian and Refugee Law

The latest volume of the ISIL Year Book of International Humanitarian and Refugee Law (Vol. 11, 2011) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Pablo Antonio Fernández-Sánchez & Francesco Seatzu, The Application of the American and European Conventions of Human Rights in Time of War or other Public Emergencies: Some Highlights and Comparisons
    • Mohammad Naqib Ishan Jan & Abdul Haseeb Ansari, The Care of Wounded and Sick and the Protection of Medical Personnel in the Time of Armed Conflicts
    • P. Ishwara Bhat, International Humanitarian Law and Multiculturalism
    • B. C. Nirmal, Implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention and the Indian State Practice
    • Manoj Kumar Sinha, Development of International Criminal Law: A Long Journey
    • Anupam Jha, First Anatomy of the Rome Statute during Kampala Conference: A Critical Evaluation
    • Anuradha Rajesh Saibaba, India and the International Criminal Court: Re-Invigorating and Re-Visiting the Non-Ratification Debate
    • Md. Mostafa Hosain, Complementary Jurisdiction of the ICC: A Method to Ensure Effective Prosecution of Perpetrators of the Most Serious Crimes
    • U.C. Jha, Depleted Uranium Weapons
    • James C. Simeon, Article 1F(a) Exclusion and the Determination of those who are "Undeserving" of Convention Refugee Status in International Law
    • Nafees Ahmad, Refugee: The Semasiology of Definitional Dilemma
    • Kirsty Welch, The Fitness for Purpose of the 1951 Refugee Definition in the Context of Modern Forms of Persecution: A Case Study on Human Trafficking
  • Shorter Articles
    • V. Seshaiah Shasthri, "Self Referrals" by States and Criminal Prosecutions before the International Criminal Court
    • Nour Mohammad, International Refugee Law Standards: Rohingya Refugee Problems in Bangladesh

Friday, May 23, 2014

Couveinhes Matsumoto: L'effectivité en droit international

Florian Couveinhes Matsumoto (Ecole normale supérieure) has published L'effectivité en droit international (Bruylant 2014). Here's the abstract:
Parler de l’effectivité d’une règle ou d’une catégorie juridique (par exemple d’un État, d’une nationalité ou d’un recours), c’est viser la situation de fait censée concorder avec la signification de cette règle ou de cette catégorie juridique. Mais c’est également suggérer que la survenance de certaines situations de fait (par exemple l’occupation d’un territoire ou la sécession d’un groupe autonomiste) implique nécessairement qu’une qualité juridique particulière leur soit attribuée et que des conséquences juridiques déterminées en soient tirées. L’ouvrage démontre que cette prétendue équivalence scientifique du fait et de sa signification juridique est une invention positiviste, qui joue un rôle rhétorique mais ne rend pas compte de l’application des règles internationales formulées grâce aux termes « effectif/ité ». Appliquer de telles règles consiste en effet toujours à évaluer certains faits au regard de certaines valeurs pour en tirer certaines conséquences juridiques. Les faits pertinents, les valeurs à la lueur desquelles ils doivent être jugés, et les conséquences juridiques devant en être tirées ne s’imposent pas scientifiquement, mais sont choisis en fonction de ce que requiert la réalisation effective d’objectifs politiques et d’impératifs éthiques.

Gostin & Sridhar: Global Health and the Law

Lawrence O. Gostin (Georgetown Univ. - Law) & Devi Sridhar (Univ. of Oxford) have posted Global Health and the Law (New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 370, pp. 1732-1740, 2014). Here's the abstract:

The last two decades have brought revolutionary changes in global health, driven by popular concern over AIDS, novel influenzas, and maternal mortality. Given the rapid globalization that is a defining feature of today’s world, the need for a robust system of global health law has never been greater. Global health law has been defined as the legal norms, processes, and institutions designed primarily to attain the highest possible standard of physical and mental health for the world’s population. Global health law is not an organized legal system, with a unified treaty monitoring body, such as the World Trade Organization. There is, however, a network of treaties and “soft” law instruments that powerfully affect global health — many of which arise under the auspices of the World Health Organization. See Lawrence O. Gostin, GLOBAL HEALTH LAW (Harvard University Press, 2014).

The WHO is the most important institution for negotiating international health agreements. Despite WHO’s normative powers, modern international health law is remarkably thin, with only two major treaties adopted since the agency’s creation, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the International Health Regulations. Despite the potential of “soft” and “hard” instruments to set norms and mobilize multiple actors, global health law-making has major limitations: states are loath to constrain themselves and, therefore, often reject international law or agree only to weak norms; high-income states are reluctant to finance capacity building in lower-income states or provide un-earmarked funding to WHO; and compliance mechanisms are often weak or non-existent. However, global health law, despite its limitations, remains vital to achieving global health with justice.

New Issue: Journal du Droit International

The latest issue of the Journal du Droit International ("Clunet") (Vol. 141, no. 2, Avril-Mai-Juin 2014) is out. Contents include:
  • Doctrine
    • Vincent Chetail, Les relations entre droit international privé et droit international des réfugiés : histoire d’une brève rencontre
    • Éric Fongaro, L’anticipation successorale à l’épreuve du « règlement successions »
    • Catharine Titi, Les clauses de stabilisation dans les contrats d’investissement : une entrave au pouvoir normatif de l’état d’accueil ?
  • Variétés
    • Hugues Fulchiron, La lutte contre le tourisme procréatif : vers un instrument de coopération internationale ?
    • Denis Alland, Dialogue sur la reconnaissance d’État (à propos d’un ouvrage récent)

New Issue: Review of International Political Economy

The latest issue of the Review of International Political Economy (Vol. 21, no. 4, 2014) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: Assets or Liabilities? Banks and the Politics of Foreign Ownership versus National Control
    • Rachel A. Epstein, Introduction: Assets or liabilities? The politics of bank ownership
    • Michel Goyer & Rocio Valdivielso del Real, Protection of domestic bank ownership in France and Germany: The functional equivalency of institutional diversity in takeovers
    • Huw Macartney, From Merlin to Oz: The strange case of failed lending targets in the UK
    • Rachel A. Epstein, When do foreign banks ‘cut and run’? Evidence from west European bailouts and east European markets
    • Jana Grittersová, Transfer of reputation: Multinational banks and perceived creditworthiness of transition countries
    • Dorothee Bohle, Post-socialist housing meets transnational finance: Foreign banks, mortgage lending, and the privatization of welfare in Hungary and Estonia
    • Aneta B. Spendzharova, Banking union under construction: The impact of foreign ownership and domestic bank internationalization on European Union member-states’ regulatory preferences in banking supervision
    • Shawn Donnelly, Power Politics and the Undersupply of Financial Stability in Europe

Conference: 21st Century Borders: Territorial Conflict and Dispute Resolution

On June 13, 2014, the Centre for International Law and Human Rights at the Lancaster University Law School will hold a conference on "21st Century Borders: Territorial Conflict and Dispute Resolution." The program is here. Registration is here. Here's the idea:
21st Century borders are coming under increasing strain with the recent annexation of the Crimea and disputes over islands and maritime delimitation in Asia, amongst others. This conference, organised by the Centre for International Law and Human Rights at Lancaster University Law School will explore the causes and dynamics of contemporary territorial disputes as well as mechanisms to resolve them.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Stahn & Harwood: Why Reports about the Death of R2P May be Premature

Carsten Stahn (Leiden Univ. - Law) & Catherine Harwood (Leiden Univ. - Law) have posted an ESIL Reflection on Why Reports about the Death of R2P May be Premature.

New Issue: Indian Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Indian Journal of International Law (Vol. 53, no. 3, July-September 2013) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Michael Wood, International Law and the Use of Force: What Happens in Practice?
    • Antonius Prijadi Soesilo Wibowo, ASEAN Treaty on MLA and Applicability of CRC Convention in Indonesia and Malaysia
    • Syed Ashfaq Hussain, Piracy Jure Gentium: The Challenge of Enforcement
    • Srinivas Burra, India and the Protocols Additional to the Geneva Conventions 1949
  • Shorter Articles
    • Katariina Simonen, Is There A Role for Justice in the Security Council? A Short Discussion of Two Influential Views on Justice in Western and Eastern Philosophical Thinking and their Concrete Application to the Security Council

New Issue: Global Policy

The latest issue of Global Policy (Vol. 5, no. 2, May 2014) is out. Contents include:
  • Research Articles
    • Jean-Marc Coicaud & Ibrahim Tahri, Nationally Based Data: Challenges for Global Governance (and Global Policy)
    • Janet Benshoof, The Other Red Line: The Use of Rape as an Unlawful Tactic of Warfare
    • Nick Sitter & Tom Parker, Fighting Fire with Water: NGOs and Counterterrorism Policy Tools
    • Jürgen Braunstein, The Novelty of Sovereign Wealth Funds: The Emperor's New Clothes?
    • Pietro Maffettone, Reciprocity, Equality and International Justice
    • Iavor Rangelov, Democracy or Stability? European Approaches to Justice in Peace and Transitional Processes
    • Pablo Policzer & Antonio Franceschet, Democratizing Constitutions: The Promotion of International Democracy after the 2009 Honduran Coup
  • Special Section - When Does Civil Society Matter in Global Policy? The Cases of Trade and Arms Control
    • Mathias Koenig-Archibugi, Introduction: Civil Society Influence on Global Policy
    • Mario Pianta, Slowing Trade: Global Activism Against Trade Liberalization
    • Dirk De Bièvre, A Glass Quite Empty: Issue Groups' Influence in the Global Trade Regime
    • Keith Krause, Transnational Civil Society Activism and International Security Politics: From Landmines to Global Zero
    • Javier Alcalde, Human Security and Disarmament Treaties: The Role of International Campaigns
  • Survey Article
    • Suresh Nanwani, Directions in Reshaping Accountability Mechanisms in Multilateral Development Banks and Other Organizations
  • Practitioner Commentary
    • Katrin Suder, Lea Thiel & Julian Kirchherr, Enhancing Capital Availability for Startups: A Toolkit for Policy Makers
  • Response to Articles
    • Phedon Nicolaides, Can the Euro Area's Economic Governance be Reformed?
    • Paul van den Noord, EMU will Succeed Even Without a Federal State

de Guttry, Sommario, & Zhu: China's and Italy's Participation in Peacekeeping Operations: Existing Models, Emerging Challenges

Andrea de Guttry (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna - Law), Emanuele Sommario (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna - Law) & Lijiang Zhu (China Univ. of Political Science and Law - Law) have published China's and Italy's Participation in Peacekeeping Operations: Existing Models, Emerging Challenges (Lexington Books 2014). Contents include:
  • Romano Prodi, Foreword
  • Andrea de Guttry, Emanuele Sommario & Lijiang Zhu, Introduction
  • Fabrizio Coticchia, A Remarkable Evolution. Italy’s Participation in PKOs: Figures and Trends
  • Jiaxiang Hu, China’s Participation in PKOs: Figures and Trends
  • Alessandro Polsi, Reasons for Italy’s Active Engagement in PKOs: Political, Cultural and Moral Implications
  • Zonglin Zhang, What Reasons Lie Behind the Decision to Work in a PKO? The Psycho-Social Motivations of Chinese Troops and Police Forces
  • Fabrizio Battistelli, Postmodern Motivation and the Morale of Peacekeepers
  • Sanzhuan Guo, Peacekeeping Decision Making Process and Modality of Financing in China
  • Filippo Cinoglossi, Decision-Making Process and Modalities of Financing Participation in PKOs: The Italian Experience
  • Andrea de Guttry, Attitudes of China and Italy Towards Regional PKOs. Are Past Differences Becoming Less Relevant?
  • Manon Derriennic, Italy and China’s commitment to Africa’s Peace and Security Architecture
  • Mariangela Bizzarri & Jessica Colombo, Mainstreaming Gender Issues and Fighting against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Peacekeeping Operations: What Has Been Done so Far by Italy and PRC?
  • Annalisa Creta, From Peacekeeping to Stabilization: The Local Counterparts’ Capabilities Development Paradigm
  • Umberto Rocca, Training the Police Component of PKOs: CoESPU, an Italian Experience
  • Radek Khol, Training the Civilian Component: the European Union Experience
  • Fabio Caffio, Keeping the Peace at Sea: Chinese and Italian Practices in Anti-Piracy Operations
  • Giulio Bartolini, The Legal Framework Applicable to National Military Personnel Deployed in Peacekeeping Operations: The Italian Experience
  • Lijiang Zhu, The Legal Framework Applicable to National Personnel Deployed in UN Peacekeeping Operations: The Chinese Experience
  • Luc Verhey, Parliamentary Involvement With Military Missions Abroad: Experiences in Europe
  • Alberto di Martino, Crimes Committed by Peacekeepers: Immunity v. Principles of Criminal Jurisdiction. A Brief Outline
  • Emanuele Sommario, Responsibility Under International Law for Human Rights Violations Committed by UN Peacekeepers: Reconsidering Issues of Attribution

Call for Papers: Access for Humanitarian Action: Legal and Operational Challenges in Assisting and Protecting People Affected by Armed Conflict

A call for papers has been issue for the 9th annual Minerva/ICRC conference on international humanitarian law, to take place November 3-4, 2014, in Jerusalem. The theme is: "Access for Humanitarian Action: Legal and Operational Challenges in Assisting and Protecting People Affected by Armed Conflict." Here's the call:

Conference Call For Papers

The 9th Annual Minerva/ICRC Conference on International Humanitarian Law

"Access for Humanitarian Action: Legal and Operational Challenges in Assisting and Protecting People Affected by Armed Conflict"

3-4 November 2014, Jerusalem

The Minerva Center for Human Rights Faculty of Law and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Delegation in Israel and the Occupied Territories

INTRODUCTION: The Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Israel and the Occupied Territories are organizing an international conference that seeks to explore some of the most pressing issues surrounding humanitarian action in situations of armed conflict. The conference, the ninth in the series of annual Minerva/ICRC international conferences on International Humanitarian Law (IHL), with the cooperation of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, is scheduled for 3-4 November 2014 in Jerusalem.

Recipients of this call for papers are invited to submit proposals to present a paper at the conference. Authors of proposals selected for the conference will be offered full or partial coverage of flight and accommodation expenses.

Submission deadline: 1 July 2014

BACKGROUND: Armed conflicts, whether international or non-international, invariably generate tremendous human cost. Humanitarian action attempts to reduce the vulnerabilities of people exposed to violence and deprivation. That objective cannot be attained without access to the affected populations. Under international law, the parties to an armed conflict bear the primary responsibility for ensuring the basic needs of the civilian populations under their control. At the same time, impartial humanitarian organizations have a right to offer their services, in particular when the needs remain unanswered. While the provision of such services is subject to the consent of the party concerned, consent cannot be withheld in the face of persistent basic needs. Moreover, the law requires that parties to an armed conflict, as well as third parties, allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of impartial humanitarian relief schemes that have been agreed to, and which remain subject to control.

Although central to the very concept of international humanitarian law, humanitarian action faces today multiple and often overlapping challenges which threaten to undermine its purpose and to erode its effectiveness. Some challenges are of a political nature, for example when humanitarian action is blocked because it is perceived as favoring one party to an armed conflict over another. Some are related to the nature of modern-day armed conflicts, for example their fragmentation to a multitude of armed groups controlling different pockets of territory, making it a highly complex endeavour to manage security risks for the provision of relief. Some challenges have to do with the characteristics of those providing assistance, for example when the participation of military forces in relief operations leads to humanitarian operations being perceived as pursuit of military or political agendas. Others still have to do with the legal rules governing humanitarian access to theatres of hostilities.

While conventional and customary IHL establishes the framework of, and conditions for, humanitarian access, there remains troubling ambiguity surrounding the concrete implications of the rights and obligations of state and non-state parties to an armed conflict, as well as of third states and other actors responding to the humanitarian needs of the people affected by the conflict. For example, who exactly is entitled to offer services and under which conditions? Or, can the requirement of state consent be waived under certain circumstances, and if so under which conditions? When would withholding consent be arbitrary and what are the consequences of that? Whose consent should be sought when the central government loses control over an area? Furthermore, it is necessary to have a better understanding of the scope and limitations of the right of supervision that the parties to both international and non-international armed conflicts are allowed to exercise on relief operations. While such a right may include the search of relief consignments or the supervision of their delivery, it must not impede the rapid deployment of a relief operation. What are the concrete implications of the parties' obligation to "facilitate" the passage of humanitarian relief? And in which circumstances can the denial of humanitarian access constitute a crime under international law? The conditions for carrying out humanitarian action are also an area where further clarification is needed, especially with regard to non-international armed conflicts, as there are very few rules of treaty or customary IHL that regulate this issue.

At a more general level, to what extent are parties to both international and non-international armed conflicts bound to accept humanitarian actions in territories under their control? While the relevant provisions of the two Additional Protocols stipulate that relief actions "shall be undertaken" when the population lacks supplies essential for its survival, thereby clearly establishing a legal obligation, they further provide that such obligation is subject to the agreement of the state concerned. It would thus appear that a balance has to be found between two apparently contradicting requirements. How to strike this balance in practice is a profound and difficult question.

The rights and obligations of actors carrying out humanitarian activities is another issue that warrants further analysis. For instance, to what extent are humanitarian organizations entitled to enjoy freedom of movement in their activities? What are the correlative right of the parties to armed conflicts to temporarily restrict their freedom for reasons of imperative military necessity? And what is the role of third states, including states whose territory is used for the transit of relief operations? In an international armed conflict, the Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I provide (in Articles 23 and 70(2) respectively) that "each High Contracting Party", meaning not only those participating in a conflict, must allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of all relief consignments, equipment and personnel. This raises questions about the interaction between the consent to humanitarian access given by the parties to the armed conflict and the obligations of third states to facilitate such access. For example, what is the meaning of Article 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 70(2) of Additional Protocol I not mentioning consent? Could this imply that humanitarian organization do not require consent for carrying out their activities from such third states? And what can be made of the fact that a similar obligation does not appear in the law governing non-international armed conflicts.

When considering specifically occupied territories, particular questions arise with respect to humanitarian access as regulated under occupation law. This includes for example the application of Article 59 of the Fourth Geneva Convention dealing with relief schemes to an inadequately supplied population in the occupied territory. How does the obligation of the occupying power to agree to relief schemes and to facilitate them compared to the relief actions mentioned by Article 70 of Additional Protocol I, which speaks of relief actions that "shall be undertaken" for populations in other than occupied territories? To what extent must consent by an occupying power be sought? Or, what does the obligation to facilitate relief schemes concretely mean?

Finally, a number of more practical issues surrounding relief operations in armed conflicts should be examined. For instance, the challenge that recent armed conflicts pose to health-care personnel, facilities and beneficiaries is one of the most serious, yet often unrecognized, humanitarian challenges in the world today, resulting in a lack of medical attention for the wounded and sick. Although acts that hinder the delivery of health care often violate basic principles of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and although numerous efforts have been undertaken by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement over decades to put an end to these acts, the problem nonetheless persists.

The pressing nature of many of these issues warrants an academic debate that would touch upon the application of core humanitarian law principles to a complicated reality. Such a debate is intended to sharpen legal issues, clarify existing standards and propose future directions for strengthening the law governing humanitarian access.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: Researchers interested in addressing these and other questions related to the conference topic are invited to respond to this call for papers with a 1-2 page proposal for an article and presentation, along with a brief CV. Proposals should be submitted by email to the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (mchr@savion.huji.ac.il) no later than 1 July 2014.

Applicants should expect notification of the committee's decision by the end of July 2014. Written contributions (of approx. 10-25 pages) based on the selected proposals will be expected no later than 16 October 2014. The Israel Law Review (a Cambridge University Press publication) has expressed interest in publishing selected full length papers based on conference presentations, subject to its standard review and editing procedures.

CONFERENCE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE:

Prof. Yuval Shany, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Chair)

Mr. Anton Camen, ICRC, Israel and the Occupied Territories

Adv. Danny Evron, Minerva Center for Human Rights, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Adv. Miya Keren-Abraham, ICRC, Israel and the Occupied Territories

Adv. Mikhail Orkin, ICRC, Israel and the Occupied Territories

Dr. Yael Ronen, Israel Law Review

Mr. Charles Shamas, Mattin Group, Ramallah

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Conference: Colloque Annuel de la SFDI (Reminder)

The 2014 annual conference of the Société française pour le droit international will take place at the Université Jean Moulin – Lyon III, tomorrow, May 22, through Saturday, May 24. The theme is "Droit international et développement." The program is here.

Lecture: Cot on "Ethics in International Disputes"

The European Society of International Law, together with the law firm Stibbe, will co-organize a lunchtime lecture entitled "Ethics in International Disputes." This lecture will be delivered by Judge Jean-Pierre Cot (Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea), on Tuesday, June 3, 2014, at noon, at the office of Stibbe, Central Plaza, Loksumstraat 25 Rue de Loxum, 1000 Brussels. A light sandwich lunch will be available. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required as space is limited. Please register at this website by May 27, 2014.

New Issue: International Affairs

The latest issue of International Affairs (Vol. 90, no. 3, May 2014) is out. Contents include:
  • British foreign policy and the national interest
    • Timothy Edmunds, Jamie Gaskarth, & Robin Porter, Introduction: British foreign policy and the national interest
    • Alexander Evens, Organizing for British national strategy
    • Tomothy Edmunds, Complexity, strategy and the national interest
    • Jonathan Gilmore, The uncertain merger of values and interests in UK foreign policy
    • Jamie Gaskarth, Strategizing Britain's role in the world
  • John R. Deni, Maintaining transatlantic strategic, operational and tactical interoperability in an era of austerity
  • Nick Ritchie, Waiting for Kant: devaluing and delegitimizing nuclear weapons
  • John Borrie, Humanitarian reframing of nuclear weapons and the logic of a ban
  • Catherine Jefferson, Origins of the norm against chemical weapons
  • David B. Roberts, British national interest in the Gulf: rediscovering a role?
  • Andrew M. Dorman, More than a storm in a teacup: the defence and security implications of Scottish independence

New Issue: Review of International Studies

The latest issue of the Review of International Studies (Vol. 40, no. 3, July 2014) is out. Contents include:
  • William E. Scheuerman, Cosmopolitanism and the world state
  • Martin J. Bayly, The ‘re-turn’ to empire in IR: colonial knowledge communities and the construction of the idea of the Afghan polity, 1809–38
  • Mark Langan, A moral economy approach to Africa-EU ties: the case of the European Investment Bank
  • George E. Mitchell & Hans Peter Schmitz, Principled instrumentalism: a theory of transnational NGO behaviour
  • Caroline Fehl, Unequal power and the institutional design of global governance: the case of arms control
  • Simon Koschut, Emotional (security) communities: the significance of emotion norms in inter-allied conflict management
  • Ryan Griffiths, Secession and the invisible hand of the international system
  • Il Hyun Cho & Seo-Hyun Park, Domestic legitimacy politics and varieties of regionalism in East Asia
  • Bruno Charbonneau, The imperial legacy of international peacebuilding: the case of Francophone Africa

Sacerdoti: General Interests of Host States in International Investment Law

Giorgio Sacerdoti (Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi - Law) has published General Interests of Host States in International Investment Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2014). Contents include:
  • Giorgio Sacerdoti, The application of BITs in time of economic crisis: limits to their coverage, necessity and the relevance of WTO law
  • Mara Valenti, The protection of general interests of host states in the application of the fair and equitable treatment standard
  • Anna De Luca, Indirect expropriations and regulatory takings: what role for the 'legitimate expectations' of foreign investors?
  • Friedl Weiss, Trade and investment law: what relations?
  • Jurgen Kurtz, On the evolution and slow convergence of international trade and investment law
  • Michele Barbieri, Sovereign wealth funds as protected investors under BITs and the safeguard of the national security of host states
  • Pia Acconci, The integration of non-investment concerns as an opportunity for the modernization of international investment law: is a multilateral approach desirable?
  • Antonietta Di Blasé, Intellectual property protection in investment agreements and public concerns
  • Agostina Latino, Up-keeping non-economic values in development assistance. Does the World Bank practice what it preaches? Answers from the Inspection Panel
  • Martina Guidi, The protection of indigenous peoples concerns in the World Bank-funded projects
  • Paola Mariani, The future of BITs between EU member states: are intra-EU BITs compatible with the internal market?
  • Elsa Milanesi, European Union restrictions to the free movement of capital vs. BITs guarantees: learning from the European Court of Justice case law
  • Alessando Perfetti, Ensuring the consistency of the EU investment policy within the EU external action: the relevance of non-trade values
  • Emanuela Pistoia, Non-financial concerns in the lending policy of the European Investment Bank in context
  • Claudio Dordi, The protection of general interests of host states in regional agreements in the Asia-Pacific area
  • Arno Dal Ri & Paulo De Alcântara Veloso, Domestic policies and international investment agreements in MERCOSUR countries
  • Federico Ortino & Domenico Di Pietro, Italy's treaty practice and case law: what balance between investors' protection and general interests of states?
  • Matilde Recanati, Diplomatic intervention and state-to-state arbitration as alternative means for the protection of foreign investments and host states' general interests: the Italian experience

Perez: The Hybrid Legal-Scientific Dynamic of Transnational Scientific Institutions

Oren Perez (Bar-Ilan Univ. - Law) has posted The Hybrid Legal-Scientific Dynamic of Transnational Scientific Institutions (European Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
The objective of the present article is to develop a better understanding of the institutional dynamic of transnational regulatory scientific institutions (RSIs). RSIs play a significant role in the transnational regulatory process by mediating between the scientific community and policy-making bodies. I argue that RSIs have a hybrid structure involving both political-legal and epistemic authority. The hybrid structure of RSIs, their capacity to exert both normative and epistemic authority, constitutes an innovative response to the demand of modern society for scientific certainty and to the scarcity of normative power in the international domain. This hybrid nature has a triple structure, involving three complementary pairs: law~science, law~non-law, and science~pseudoscience. I examine the way in which RSIs cope with the challenge of maintaining their epistemic and legal authority against the tensions generated by their hybrid structure. The discussion of hybrid authority is related to the problem of scientific uncertainty. I examine this theoretical argument drawing on an in-depth analysis of three RSIs that reflect the institutional diversity of the RSI network: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), and the European Committee of Homeopaths (ECH). I conclude with a discussion of some of the policy issues associated with the institutional design of RSIs. The policy discussion refers first to the risk posed by RSIs' hybrid structure to their internal stability; and second to some potential adverse social impacts which need to be considered alongside RSIs' projected benefits.

Salles: Forum Shopping in International Adjudication: The Role of Preliminary Objections

Luiz Eduardo Salles (Barretto Ferreira e Brancher (BKBG)) has published Forum Shopping in International Adjudication: The Role of Preliminary Objections (Cambridge Univ. Press 2014). Here's the abstract:
Forum shopping, which consists of strategic forum selection, parallel litigation and serial litigation, is a phenomenon of growing importance in international adjudication. Preliminary objections (or a party's placement of conditions on the existence and development of the adjudicatory process) have been traditionally conceived as barriers to adjudication before single forums. This book discusses how adjudicators and parties may refer to questions of jurisdiction and admissibility in order to avoid conflicting decisions on overlapping cases, excessive exercises of jurisdiction and the proliferation of litigation. It highlights an emerging, overlooked function of preliminary objections: transmission belts of procedure-regulating rules across the 'international judiciary'. Activating this often dormant, managerial function of preliminary objections would nurture coordination of otherwise independent and autonomous tribunals.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 9, no. 6, 2014) is out. Contents include:
  • Duane W. Layton & Jeffery C. Lowe, The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the World Trade Organization: A Conflict Analysis under International Law
  • Clifford Sosnow, Peter Kirby, & Sean Stephenson, The Canada-European Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement and the Mining Sector: Key Issues and Opportunities
  • Patricio Díaz Gavier & Julio Guadalupe Báscones, On Article 8.1(b)(iv) of the Customs Valuation Agreement: When Is the Value of Certain Services Supplied by the Buyer Relevant for Customs Value (i.e., Engineering, Development, Artwork, Design Work, and Plans and Sketches)?
  • Corey L. Norton, Five Ways to Get in Trouble Buying from the United States
  • Terence P. Stewart, William A. Fennell, Stephanie M. Bell, & Nicholas J. Birch, The Special Case of China: Why the Use of a Special Methodology Remains Applicable to China after 2016
  • Leon Kanters, Friday the 13th or, How to Classify ‘Parts and Accessories’ in the European Union

Guzman & Meyer: Soft Law

Andrew T. Guzman (Univ. of California, Berkeley - Law) & Timothy Meyer (Univ. of Georgia - Law) have posted Soft Law (in The Research Handbook on the Economics of Public International Law, E. Kontorovich ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
In this chapter, for the Research Handbook on the Economics of Public International Law, we summarize the existing literature on international soft law. We then extend the insights developed therein to explain why states use international legislative institutions — intergovernmental bodies such as the UN General Assembly or the Conferences of the Parties to a number of multilateral treaties — to develop soft law rules. We contend that international legislative institutions do the bulk of their work in the form of soft law and argue that the move toward legislative soft law in international affairs reflects an effort to enhance international law’s effectiveness by weakening the status quo bias inherent in hard law rules to which each state bound must consent.

Moyn: Human Rights in Heaven

Samuel Moyn (Columbia Univ. - History) has posted Human Rights in Heaven (in Human Rights: Moral or Political?, Adam Etinson ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
Even in the stereotypically hospitable precincts of Anglo-American liberalism, philosophers largely disdained natural or "human" rights from approximately the 1790s to the 1970s; and even thereafter, it was really only John Rawls's move to consider the implications of rights for the international order (which he had neglected in reviving rights for the purposes of theorizing domestic justice) in the late 1990s that has sparked the interesting and contentious debate concerning the nature, foundation, and implications of "human rights" among philosophers today. This paper inquires into the value of that discussion for those interested in international and transnational human rights politics and largely finds it wanting, with special attention to the example of John Tasioulas's inaugural lecture as Quain Professor of Jurisprudence as well as Jeremy Waldron's recent call to shift from a "human concern" to a "human bearer" approach to the topic. At a minimum, my goal is to insist that philosophers have an honest answer to what broader purposes they are serving when they bring their unique skills to a fraught global debate - and what risks of their own they incur given the temptation of falling back on their talents for affirming normativity and clarifying norms rather than explaining what the rest of us do with them in a complex world of passion and force. Slightly more boldly, the point is to call for an alternative version of philosophy - including an alternative philosophy of human rights - that embraces the situation that outsiders acknowledge as an unavoidable condition: caught in the rough and tumble or outright strife of politics, in a historically constituted world, that even philosophy cannot escape.

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 36, no. 2, May 2014) is out. Contents include:
  • Monti Narayan Datta & Kevin Bales, Slavery in Europe: Part 2, Testing a Predictive Model
  • Alicia Ely Yamin & Ole Frithjof Norheim, Taking Equality Seriously: Applying Human Rights Frameworks to Priority Setting in Health
  • Margareta Matache, The Deficit of EU Democracies: A New Cycle of Violence Against Roma Population
  • Rachel Murray & Elizabeth Mottershaw, Mechanisms for the Implementation of Decisions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
  • Jean-Philippe Thérien & Philippe Joly, “All Human Rights for All”: The United Nations and Human Rights in the Post-Cold War Era
  • Siobhán Mullally & Clíodhna Murphy, Migrant Domestic Workers in the UK: Enacting Exclusions, Exemptions, and Rights
  • Carmel Williams, Toni Ashton, & Chris Bullen, Using Health Rights to Design Aid-Funded Health Programs so They First do no Harm
  • Ann Linnarsson & Vanessa Sedletzki, Independent Human Rights Institutions for Children: An Actor for the Protection of Children’s Rights During Armed Conflict?

New Volume: Anuario Español de Derecho Internacional

The latest volume of the Anuario Español de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 29, 2013) is out. Contents include:
  • Estudios Doctrinales
    • Romualdo Bermejo García, La evolución del sistema monetario y financiero internacional a la luz de la reciente crisis financiera
    • Ángel J. Rodrigo Hernández, El pluralismo del constitucionalismo internacional
    • Eugenia López-Jacoiste Díaz, El control cuasi jurisdiccional del Panel de inspección del Banco Mundial
    • Alfonso J. Iglesias Velasco, Reflexiones sobre la implementación de los tratados internacionales por los tribunales domésticos: especial referencia a España
    • Francisco José Pascual Vives, El margen de apreciación nacional en los tribunales regionales de derechos humanos: una aproximación consensualista
  • Notas
    • Pilar Pozo Serrano, Los ataques letales selectivos en la política y la práctica de Estados unidos: análisis desde el derecho internacional
    • Yolanda Gamarra Chopo, La política de los derechos y las libertades en las reformas del sistema interamericano
    • Juan Jorge Piernas López, Estudio sobre la práctica de la corte Penal internacional en materia de investigaciones preliminares a la luz de la reciente remisión de la unión de comores
    • María Orozco Sáenz, La solucion de controversias en derecho del espacio ultraterrestre: análisis comparativo
    • Francisco Rubio Damián, El poder inteligente en las operaciones de la otan

Monday, May 19, 2014

Galbraith & Zaring: Soft Law as Foreign Relations Law

Jean Galbraith (Rutgers Univ., Camden - Law) & David T. Zaring (Univ. of Pennsylvania - Wharton School) have posted Soft Law as Foreign Relations Law (Cornell Law Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
The United States increasingly relies on “soft law” and, in particular, on cooperation with foreign regulators to make domestic policy. The implementation of soft law at home is typically understood to depend on administrative law, as it is American agencies that implement the deals they conclude with their foreign counterparts. But that understanding has led courts and scholars to raise questions about whether soft law made abroad can possibly meet the doctrinal requirements of the domestic discipline. This Article proposes a new doctrinal understanding of soft law implementation. It argues that, properly understood, soft law implementation lies at the intersection of foreign relations law and administrative law. In light of the strong powers accorded to the executive under foreign relations law, this new understanding will strengthen the legitimacy and legality of soft law implementation and make it less subject to judicial challenge. Understanding that soft law is foreign relations law will further the domestic implementation of informal international agreements in areas as different as conflict diamonds, international financial regulation, and climate change.

New Issue: Global Environmental Politics

The latest issue of Global Environmental Politics (Vol. 14, no. 2, May 2014) is out. Contents include:
  • Research Articles
    • Jennifer Hadden, Explaining Variation in Transnational Climate Change Activism: The Role of Inter-Movement Spillover
    • Zuhre Aksoy, Local–Global Linkages in Environmental Governance: The Case of Crop Genetic Resources
    • Ian D. Lloyd & Michael Oppenheimer, On the Design of an International Governance Framework for Geoengineering
    • Jørgen Wettestad, Rescuing EU Emissions Trading: Mission Impossible?
    • Jarrod Hayes & Janelle Knox-Hayes, Security in Climate Change Discourse: Analyzing the Divergence between US and EU Approaches to Policy
    • Mattias Hjerpe & Katarina Buhr, Frames of Climate Change in Side Events from Kyoto to Durban

Call for Program Suggestions: 2015 ASIL Annual Meeting

The American Society of International Law has issued a call for program suggestions for its 109th Annual Meeting, which will take place April 8-11, 2015, in Washington, DC. The conference theme is "Adapting to a Rapidly Changing World." Here's the call:

Adapting to a Rapidly Changing World

For better or worse, international law is confronting a period of profound change. Geopolitical developments—in particular, new assertions of economic, political, or military power by countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—have simultaneously aggravated latent territorial disputes and created the potential for unprecedented economic integration. Advances in technology have enabled cyber-conflicts and forged new tools for governmental coercion or control, while also facilitating the dissemination of information. Shared environmental challenges have presented new causes of human suffering or conflict, as well as new possibilities for global cooperation and assistance. And the increased role of non-state actors in international affairs has made more vocal the still unfulfilled demands on, for example, the universal recognition of the human rights of LGBT persons, the responsibilities associated with corporate conduct, and the protection of people from mass atrocities.

The 2015 ASIL Annual Meeting will ask how international law is adapting to a rapidly changing world. For example: Are the existing international legal regimes capable of meeting these challenges or will new regimes be required? Through what processes can we expect international law to adapt, and how might new norms emerge in the face of persistent disagreements or holdout problems? How is the legal order responding as the world moves from a unipolar system dominated by the United States to a more multipolar system? And what is the role or relevance of international law where it might be unable to resolve global issues?

The American Society of International Law, with its membership of scholars, practitioners, and students of international law from around the world, will explore these questions at the 2015 Annual Meeting.

Program Suggestions Sought

From April 8-11, 2015, the American Society of International Law will convene its 109th Annual Meeting. The ASIL Annual Meeting Committee (chaired by Monica Hakimi, Natalie Reid, and Samuel Witten) welcomes suggestions from practitioners, academics, and students on topics encompassed within the meeting's theme, "Adapting to a Rapidly Changing World."

The aim of the 2015 Annual Meeting is to promote a rigorous discussion, among international lawyers with different backgrounds and perspectives, on the question of how international law is adapting to a rapidly changing world. To this end, the Program Committee will rely on the submissions process to identify relevant topics and knowledgeable speakers. Drawing on session suggestions, the Program Committee will create a program with the following goals in mind:

  • Coverage of a wide-breath of timely topics of interest to ASIL members;
  • Participation by individuals from a variety of backgrounds;
  • A place in the program for some sessions organized by ASIL Interest Groups; and
  • A vibrant exchange of ideas through the use of innovative program formats.
The Program Committee will prioritize session proposals that involve non-traditional formats, such as interviews, question-and-answer roundtables, lectures, debates, poster sessions, or the use of multimedia or interactive audience participation features. In addition, the Program Committee intends to include two "New Voices" sessions that will provide a platform for junior scholars to present their work.

Please note that, even if your suggested session is included in some form in the final program, the Program Committee might significantly modify your initial proposal, including the proposed presenters, participants, or moderators, in order to satisfy the four overall goals identified above. The Program Committee might also combine multiple proposals together or modify your proposal to better fit the needs of the meeting agenda.

In order to suggest a session or paper to the Program Committee, please complete the Proposal Submission form by no later than Friday, June 27, 2014. The Program Committee will inform proposers by email about the status of their suggestion(s) by early September. Thank you very much for your interest in the 2015 Annual Meeting.

Lee: China and International Law in the 21st Century: Volume I Rising Dragon

Eric Yong Joong Lee (YIJUN Institute of International Law; Dongguk Univ. - Law) has published China and International Law in the 21st Century: Volume I Rising Dragon (YIJUN Press 2013). Contents include:
  • Yongmin Bian, Legal Autonomy of Tibet: A Chinese Lawyer's Perspective
  • Mincai Yu, China's Position on the Proliferation Security Initiative and Its Reappraisal
  • Lijiang Zhu, The Right of Ethnic Minorities to Free Interpretation in Criminal Proceedings under International Law: With Special Reference to China
  • Hui Wu & Dan Zhang, Territorial Issues on the East China Sea: A Chinese Position
  • Manjiao Chi, Finding out the' Achilles'Heels': Piracy Suppression under International Law and Chinese Law
  • Junwu Pan, Territorial Dispute between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea: A Chinese Lawyer's Perspective
  • Zewei Yang, The Present and Future of the Sino-South Korean Fisheries Dispute: A Chinese Lawyer's Perspective
  • Xiaoqin Zhu & Lin Dong, Legal Remedies for Marine Ecological Damage in China: As Illustrated by the Tasman Sea Oil Spills Case
  • Xiaoyi Jiang & Fahui Hao, Legal Issues for Implementing the Clean Development Mechanism in China
  • Congyan Cai, Human Rights Conditionality in International Economic Relations: A Chinese Lawyer's Perspective
  • Liang Zhang, Unprecedented RTA Practices between the Customs Territories of China
  • Zhichao Chen, The Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement: Deliberation on Economic, Political and Legal Aspects
  • Huan Qi, Investment Law in the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement
  • Zhongfa Ma & Yan Zhang, TRIPs Agreement and Enforcement of the Intellectual Property Rights in China
  • Part V: Civil Aviation and Space Development
  • Yu Gong, U.S.-E.U. Open Skies Deal and Its Implication for the Liberalization of International Air Transport Services: A Chinese Perspective
  • Yun Zhao, Disaster Management and the Tampere Convention
  • Yun Zhao, The Way Forward for Promoting Awareness of Space Law in Asia: A Proposal for Institutional Capacity Building
  • Yan Ling, Prevention of Outer Space Weaponization under International Law: A Chinese Lawyer's Perspective
  • Zhengxin Huo, Reshaping Private International Law in China: The Statutory Reform of Tort Conflicts

SFDI: Galerie des internationalistes

The Société française pour le droit international has posted the first biographies in its project Galerie des internationalistes, edited by Franck Latty (Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité - Law). The initial portraits are of: Jules Basdevant; Suzanne Bastid; René Cassin; Charles Chaumont; Edouard Clunet; Jean Dupuy; Thiébaut Flory; Victor-Yves Ghebali; André Gros; Max Huber; Guy Ladreit de Lacharrière; Louis Le Fur; Kéba Mbaye; Riccardo Monaco; Louis Renault; Paul Reuter; Charles Rousseau; Georges Scelle; Albert Thomas; and Nicolas Valticos. Here's the idea:

La Galerie des internationalistes de la SFDI a pour objectif de faire connaître au plus grand nombre la vie et l’œuvre des grandes figures francophones, publicistes comme privatistes, qui ont marqué de leur empreinte le droit international – sont seuls concernés les internationalistes décédés.

Chaque personnalité fait l’objet d’une brève biographie rédigée par un auteur (professeur, maître de conférences, docteur, doctorant) ayant répondu à l’appel à contributions publié sur le site de la SFDI. La biographie présente également l’apport doctrinal de l’internationaliste concerné. En outre, une bibliographie sélective, centrée sur les écrits de droit international les plus marquants, complète chaque portrait en renvoyant, dans la mesure du possible, vers des publications numériques, voire en mettant en ligne pour la première fois, avec l’accord de l’éditeur (Éditions A. Pedone, Économica, Larcier), des articles de revues ou de mélanges.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Johns: Theorizing the Corporation in International Law

Fleur E. Johns (Univ. of New South Wales - Law) has posted Theorizing the Corporation in International Law (in The Oxford Handbook of International Legal Theory, Florian Hoffmann & Anne Orford eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
The corporation has long been a feature of international legal practice and argument. However, relatively little by way of explicit theorization of the corporation has been done in international legal writing. Rather, this theorization has tended to take place as a dimension of practice, en route to some other scholarly or regulatory objective, and the corporate form has commonly been approached on the basis of its similarity to, or influence upon, some other feature or agent of the international legal order (or vice versa). This paper argues that the paragnostic way in which international lawyers have envisaged the corporation on the global plane has contributed to the sense of power, autonomy and coherence with which the corporation has been ‘naturally’ invested in much international legal writing, the promise the corporation is often deemed to hold for international legal renewal, and the influence that the corporate model has exerted as a benchmark for global decision-making across a range of settings. Through an oblique, analogical approach to corporations, international legal writing has kept alive the prospect of the corporate form delivering some regenerative supplement to the international legal order, even while routinely identifying the corporation with global legal dysfunction or deficiency. This chapter examines and compares patterns of thought along these lines in two areas of international legal doctrine, practice and scholarly work: international investment law and international human rights.