Saturday, February 24, 2018

Fikfak & Hooper: Parliament’s Secret War

Veronika Fikfak (Univ. of Cambridge - Law) & Hayley Hooper (Univ. of Oxford - Law) have published Parliament’s Secret War (Hart Publishing 2018). Here's the abstract:
The invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the Coalition Government's failure to win parliamentary approval for armed intervention in Syria in 2013, mark a period of increased scrutiny of the process by which the UK engages in armed conflict. For much of the media and civil society there now exists a constitutional convention which mandates that the Government consults Parliament before commencing hostilities. This is celebrated as representing a redistribution of power from the executive towards a more legitimate, democratic institution. This book offers a critical inquiry into Parliament's role in the war prerogative since the beginning of the twentieth century, evaluating whether the UK's decisions to engage in conflict meet the recognised standards of good governance: accountability, transparency and participation. The analysis reveals a number of persistent problems in the decision-making process, including Parliament's lack of access to relevant information, government 'legalisation' of parliamentary debates which frustrates broader discussions of political legitimacy, and the skewing of debates via the partial public disclosure of information based upon secret intelligence. The book offers solutions to these problems to reinvigorate parliamentary discourse and to address government withholding of classified information. It is essential reading for anyone interested in war powers, the relationship between international law and domestic politics, and the role of the Westminster Parliament in questions of national security.

Conference: International Law on Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Environmental Protection in Times of Disorder and Contestation

On February 28, immediately preceding the European Society of International Law's 2018 Research Forum at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, ESIL's Interest Group on International Environmental Law Conference will hold a conference on “International Law on Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Environmental Protection in Times of Disorder and Contestation.” The program is here.

Call for Papers: Law-Making in multi-level settings – federalism, Europe, and beyond

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Law-Making in multi-level settings – federalism, Europe, and beyond," to take place September 20-21, 2018, in Antwerp. The call is here.

Call for Papers: The Belt and Road Initiative and Global Governance

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "The Belt and Road Initiative and Global Governance," to take place August 31, 2018, in Brussels. The call is here.

New Issue: International Relations

The latest issue of International Relations (Vol. 32, no. 1, March 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Stephen M Walt, US grand strategy after the Cold War: Can realism explain it? Should realism guide it?
  • Christopher Coker, Still ‘the human thing’? Technology, human agency and the future of war
  • Merran Hulse, Actorness and trade negotiating outcomes: West Africa and the SADC Group in negotiations for Economic Partnership Agreements
  • Haro L Karkour, Unipolarity’s unpeacefulness and US foreign policy: consequences of a ‘coherent system of irrationality’
  • Eugenio Cusumano & Stefano Ruzza, Security privatisation at sea: Piracy and the commercialisation of vessel protection
  • Richard Shapcott, Global justice: Shaped rather than found

New Issue: International Journal of Transitional Justice

The latest issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (Vol. 12, no. 1, March 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: Beyond Borders: A New Regional Architecture of Transitional Justice?
    • Pierre Hazan, Beyond Borders: The New Architecture of Transitional Justice?
    • Geoffrey Lugano, Counter-Shaming the International Criminal Court’s Intervention as Neocolonial: Lessons from Kenya
    • Adam Branch, Dominic Ongwen on Trial: The ICC’s African Dilemmas
    • Franziska Boehme, ‘We Chose Africa’: South Africa and the Regional Politics of Cooperation with the International Criminal Court
    • Matiangai Sirleaf, The African Justice Cascade and the Malabo Protocol
    • Ian Rowen & Jamie Rowen, Taiwan’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee: The Geopolitics of Transitional Justice in a Contested State
    • Anja Mihr, Regime Consolidation through Transitional Justice in Europe: The Cases of Germany, Spain and Turkey
    • Ilya Nuzov, The Dynamics of Collective Memory in the Ukraine Crisis: A Transitional Justice Perspective
    • Denisa Kostovicova, Seeking Justice in a Divided Region: Text Analysis of Regional Civil Society Deliberations in the Balkans
  • Review Essay
    • Rachel Kerr, Tyrannies of Peace and Justice? Liberal Peacebuilding and the Politics and Pragmatics of Transitional Justice

Geraets: Accession to the World Trade Organization: A Legal Analysis

Dylan Geraets (Mayer Brown) has published Accession to the World Trade Organization: A Legal Analysis (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018). Here's the abstract:

This detailed and perceptive book examines the extent and scope of how rules for accession to the WTO may vary between countries, approaching the concerns that some countries enter with a better deal than others. Dylan Geraets critiques these additional ‘rules’ and aims to answer the question of whether new Members of the WTO are under stricter rules than the original Members, whilst analysing the accession process to the multilateral trading system.

Taking an integrated approach, the author combines the results of a Mapping Exercise of all 36 Protocols of accession with a legal analysis of the decisions by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body involving Protocols of Accession. In doing so, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the issue of Member-specific ‘WTO-Plus’ commitments in Protocols of Accession. Whilst addressing the institutional and historical aspects of the WTO accession process, it provides a vital update to the existing scholarship on WTO accession, offering coverage of all accessions including those of Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Liberia.

Friday, February 23, 2018

New Issue: International Peacekeeping

The latest issue of International Peacekeeping (Vol. 25, no. 2, 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Denis M. Tull, The Limits and Unintended Consequences of UN Peace Enforcement: The Force Intervention Brigade in the DR Congo
  • Niklas I. M. Nováky, The Credibility of European Union Military Operations’ Deterrence Postures
  • Rasmus Brun Pedersen, Bandwagon for Status: Changing Patterns in the Nordic States Status-seeking Strategies?
  • Arif Saba & Shahram Akbarzadeh, The Responsibility to Protect and the Use of Force: An Assessment of the Just Cause and Last Resort Criteria in the Case of Libya
  • Philipp Münch & Alex Veit, Intermediaries of Intervention: How Local Power Brokers Shape External Peace- and State-Building in Afghanistan and Congo
  • Michał Pawiński, Unintended Consequences of Military Cohesion

New Issue: Global Environmental Politics

The latest issue of Global Environmental Politics (Vol. 18, no. 1, February 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Forum
    • Elizabeth R. DeSombre, Individual Behavior and Global Environmental Problems
  • Research Articles
    • Marjanneke J. Vijge, The (Dis)empowering Effects of Transparency Beyond Information Disclosure: The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in Myanmar
    • Jeff D. Colgan, Climate Change and the Politics of Military Bases
    • Jo-Kristian S. Røttereng, The Comparative Politics of Climate Change Mitigation Measures: Who Promotes Carbon Sinks and Why?
    • Andreas Kokkvoll Tveit, Norms, Incentives, or Deadlines? Explaining Norway’s Noncompliance with the Gothenburg Protocol
    • Joshua C. Gellers & Chris Jeffords, Toward Environmental Democracy? Procedural Environmental Rights and Environmental Justice
  • Research Note
    • Jean-Frédéric Morin, Andreas Dür, & Lisa Lechner, Mapping the Trade and Environment Nexus: Insights from a New Data Set
  • Book Review Essay
    • Mark Henderson, China’s Environment: Views from Above, Below, and Beyond

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Palombino: Il diritto all'acqua: una prospettiva internazionalistica

Fulvio Maria Palombino (Università di Napoli Federico II - Law) has published Il diritto all'acqua: una prospettiva internazionalistica (Mondadori Education, 2017). Here's the abstract:

Il diritto all'acqua, oltre a rappresentare per sua natura il prerequisito essenziale per la realizzazione di altri diritti, offre una lente formidabile attraverso cui osservare la dinamica delle fonti del diritto internazionale. Nato come diritto convenzionale, infatti, esso non solo penetra progressivamente nel corpus del diritto internazionale generale, ma si presta anche ad essere inquadrato secondo modelli concettuali nuovi, che sfuggono alle fonti tradizionali con cui l'internazionalista è solito confrontarsi. Di tutto ciò questo volume cerca di dare conto, attraverso un esame conciso e stringente della prassi.

By its very nature, the right to water, in addition to being an essential prerequisite for the realization of other rights, offers a formidable lens through which to observe the dynamics of international law sources: originating as a norm of treaty law, the right to water is indeed progressively entering the corpus of customary law. At the same time, it can also be framed according to new conceptual models that elude those traditional sources which international law scholars usually deal with. Moving from a concise and effective analysis of existing practice, the volume, written in Italian, aims at exploring all these issues.

Wuerth: Immunity from Execution of Central Bank Assets

Ingrid B. Wuerth (Vanderbilt Univ. - Law) has posted Immunity from Execution of Central Bank Assets (in The Cambridge Handbook of Immunities and International Law, Tom Ruys, Nicolas Angelet, & Luca Ferro eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
Central bank assets located in a foreign country make an attractive target for creditors seeking to satisfy a judgment against a state or its central bank. Over the past few decades important cases and legislation from around the world have considered the immunity from enforcement to which foreign central banks assets are entitled. This paper analyzes those developments and their significance for customary international law. It draws five conclusions. First, there is an overall—although not entirely uniform—trend toward more generous and more specific immunity from execution for the property of foreign central banks, including in Argentina, Belgium, China, France, Japan, and Russia. Second, customary international law requires that forum states provide immunity from execution for the currency reserves of foreign central banks, and arguably requires near absolute immunity for all central bank assets. Third, there is also a trend toward reciprocity, related to successful efforts by China and Russia to increase global protection from enforcement measures for central banks assets. Fourth, in the pending case by Iran against the United States before the International Court of Justice (Certain Iranian Assets), the United States will lose on the issue of the immunity from enforcement measures due the assets of Bank Markazi under customary international law, although the Court may resolve the case on other grounds. Fifth, the issue of central bank immunity from enforcement measures is likely to be of growing importance, in part because economic activity and investments by central banks are changing.

Ní Aoláin, Cahn, Haynes, & Valji: The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict

Fionnuala Ní Aoláin (Univ. of Minnesota - Law), Naomi Cahn (George Washington Univ. - Law), Dina Francesca Haynes (New England Law | Boston), & Nahla Valji (United Nations) have published The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict (Oxford Univ. Press 2018). Contents include:
  • Laura Sjoberg, Theories of War
  • Dubravka Zarkov, From Women and War to Gender and Conflict? Feminist Trajectories
  • Judith Gardam, The Silences in the Rules that Regulate Women during Times of Armed Conflict
  • Judy El-Bushra, How Should we Explain the Recurrence of Violent Conflict, and What Might Gender Have to do with it?
  • Jo Butterfield & Elizabeth Heineman, The Gendered Nexus Between Conflict and Citizenship in Historical Perspective
  • Patricia Justino, Violent Conflict and Changes in Gender Economic Roles: Implications for Post-Conflict Economic Recovery
  • Chris Dolan, Victims who are men
  • Dianne Otto, Women, Peace and Security: A Critical Analysis of the Security Council's Vision
  • Anne Marie Goetz & Rob Jenkins, Participation and Protection: Security Council Dynamics, Bureaucratic Politics, and the Evolution of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
  • Karen Engle, A Genealogy of the Centrality of Sexual Violence to Gender and Conflict
  • Kimberly Theidon, 1325 + 17 = ? Filling in the blanks of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
  • Naureen Chowdhury Fink & Alison Davidian, Complemenentarity and Convergence? Women, Peace and Security and Counterterrorism
  • Pramilla Patten, Unlocking the Potential of CEDAW as an Important Accountability Tool for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
  • Pablo Castillo-Diaz & Hanny Cueva-Beteta, The promise and limits of Indicators on Women, peace and security
  • Gina Heathcote, Humanitarian Intervention and Gender Dynamics
  • Patricia Viseur Sellers, (Re)Considering Gender Jurisprudence
  • Amrita Kapur, Complementarity as a Catalyst for Gender Justice in National Prosecutions
  • Valerie Oosterveld, Forced Marriage During Conflict and Mass Atrocity
  • Kristin Kalla, Advancing Justice and Making Amends through Reparations: Legal and Operational Considerations
  • Lucy Hovil, Colonialism Amina Mama
  • Conflict, Displacement and Refugees
  • Vasuki Nesiah, Gender and Forms of Conflict
  • The Moral Hazards of Dating the Security Council
  • Kathy L. Gaca, The Marital Rape of Girls and Women in Antiquity and Modernity
  • Amelia Hoover Green, "Mind the Gap:" Measuring and Understanding Gendered Conflict Experiences
  • Elish Rooney, Intersectionality: Working in Conflict
  • Patti Petesch, Agency and Gender Norms in War Economies
  • Lauren C. Ng & Theresa S. Betancourt, Risk and Resilience: The Physical and Mental Health of Female Civilians During War
  • Barbara Frey, The Gender Implications of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Conflict Situations
  • Christof Heyns & Tess Borden, Unmanned Weapons: Looking for the Gender Dimension
  • Sabrina M. Karim & Marsha Henry, Gender and Peacekeeping
  • Martina Vandenberg, Peacekeeping, Human Trafficking, and Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
  • Christine Bell, Women, Peace Negotiations and Peace Agreements: Opportunities and Challenges
  • Aili Mari Tripp, Women's Organizations and Peace Initiatives
  • Dyan Mazurana, Roxanne Krystalli & Anton Baaré, Gender and Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration: Reviewing and Advancing the Field
  • Pascha Bueno-Hansen, Decolonial feminism, gender and transitional justice in Latin America
  • Lisa Kindervater & Sheila Meintjes, Gender and Governance in post-conflict and democratizing settings
  • Sari Kouvo & Corey Levine, Who Defines the Red Lines? The Prospects for Safeguarding Women's Rights and Securing their Future in Post-Transition Afghanistan
  • Karima Bennoune, "That's Not my Daughter": The Paradoxes of Documenting Jihadist Mass Rape in 1990's Algeria and Beyond
  • Lejla Hadzimesic, Consequences of Conflict Related Sexual Violence on Post-Conflict Society: Case Study reparations in Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Donny Meertens, Colombia: Gender and Land Restitution
  • Maria Eriksson Baaz & Maria Stern, Knowing masculinities in Armed Conflict? Reflections from Research in the Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Monica McWilliams & Avila Kilmurray, Northern Ireland: The Significance of a Bottom-Up Women's Movement in a Politically Contested Society
  • Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Gendered Suffering and the Eviction of the Native: The Politics of Birth in Occupied East Jerusalem
  • Doris Buss & Jerusa Ali, Rwanda: Women's Political Participation in Post-Conflict State-Building
  • Ambika Satkunanathan, Sri Lanka: The Impact of Militarization on Women

Froehlich: A Fresh View on the Outer Space Treaty

Annette Froehlich (European Space Policy Institute) has published A Fresh View on the Outer Space Treaty (Springer 2018). Contents include:
  • Gordon Chung, Emergence of Environmental Protection Clauses in Outer Space Treaty: A Lesson from the Rio Principles
  • Giulia Pavesi, Legal Consequences of Environmental Pollution in Outer Space
  • Alexander Gairiseb, Intentional Destruction of Satellites in Relation to International Peace and Security
  • Eduardo Bressel Baratto, Peacekeeping Operations in Outer Space: Contradictions in Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty
  • Matteo Frigoli, Wild Military Operations in Outer Space: A Sword of Damocles Hanging over the Future of Space Environment and Space Activities
  • Zach Miller, Space Settlement and the Celestial Subjectivity Model: Shifting Our Legal Perspective of the Universe
  • Maria Baczyńska-Wilkowska, Outer Space Treaty During Fourth Industrial Revolution
  • Valentin Degrange, Into the Twenty-First Century: Integration of Principles of Global Governance in Space Law

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Li: Exclusion from Protection as a Refugee

Yao Li (Univ. of Potsdam - Law) has published Exclusion from Protection as a Refugee: An Approach to a Harmonizing Interpretation in International Law (Brill | Nijhoff 2017). Here's the abstract:
In Exclusion from Protection as a Refugee, Yao Li analyses Article 1F of the 1951 Refugee Convention. She argues that the exclusion clause is a quasi-punitive provision and must therefore be interpreted with due regard to (International) Criminal Law. Having developed an interpretation approach to consider external legal notions, Li provides a solution for all the relevant issues in the context of Article 1F, based on a “harmonizing interpretation”. The study therefore not only comprehensively examines the exclusion clause at the intersection of International Refugee Law and International Criminal Law, but also contributes to anti-fragmentation efforts in International Law.

Popa: Patterns of Treaty Interpretation as Anti-Fragmentation Tools

Liliana Popa has published Patterns of Treaty Interpretation as Anti-Fragmentation Tools: A Comparative Analysis with a Special Focus on the ECtHR, WTO and ICJ (Springer 2018). Here's the abstract:
This book investigates whether treaty interpretation at the ECtHR and WTO, which are sometimes perceived as promoting ‘self-contained’ regimes, could constitute a means for unifying international law, or, conversely, might exacerbate the fragmentation of international law. In this regard, the practice of the ICJ on treaty interpretation is used for comparison, since the ICJ has made the greatest contribution to the development and clarification of international law rules and principles. Providing a critical analysis of cases at the ICJ, ECtHR and WTO, both prior to and since the adoption of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the book reveals how the ECtHR and WTO apply the general rules of treaty interpretation in patterns which are similar to those used by the ICJ to address difficulties in interpreting the text of treaties. Viewed in the light of the ECtHR’s and WTO’s interpretative practices, both the VCLT’s general rules of interpretation and the ICJ’s interpretative practice serve to counteract the fragmentation of international law.

Mačák: Silent War: Applicability of the Jus in Bello to Military Space Operations

Kubo Mačák (Univ. of Exeter) has posted Silent War: Applicability of the Jus in Bello to Military Space Operations (International Law Studies, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
There are no molecules of air that could carry sound waves in the vacuum of outer space. Accordingly, space warfare may well become the first type of war whose signature sound would be—silence. But does the law of armed conflict (jus in bello) fall silent in times of Silent War? This article addresses the uncertainty at the heart of this issue. First, it delineates the relevant conceptual framework by examining the factual notion of “military space operations,” and its relationship with the legal concept of “armed conflict,” as well as the overlap between the potentially applicable bodies of law. It then argues in favor of the general applicability of the jus in bello to military space operations while distinguishing this issue from the separate question of whether war in outer space can be justified. Finally, it considers the four specific dimensions of applicability of the relevant law: material, personal, temporal, and geographic. The article concludes that the jus in bello applies to space operations generally and clarifies the situations, persons, times, and places to which this body of law applies.

Call for Papers: New Perspectives in International Legal Theory

The American Society of International Law’s International Legal Theory Interest Group has issued a call for papers for a roundtable on “New Perspectives in International Legal Theory,” to be held during the Interest Group's business meeting at the ASIL Annual Meeting, April 4-7, 2018. Here's the call:

The American Society of International Law’s (ASIL) International Legal Theory Interest Group will use its business meeting at the ASIL Annual Meeting (April 4-7, 2018) to hold a roundtable on “New Perspectives in International Legal Theory.” The Roundtable will afford an opportunity for up to three scholars to present and receive feedback on unpublished papers on topics related to international legal theory. Other interest group members will have an opportunity to read the selected papers in advance of the roundtable to facilitate a vibrant conversation.

Scholars wishing to participate should submit a one-page abstract to the Interest Group’s chair, Evan Criddle (ejcriddle@wm.edu), by March 1, 2018. With the abstract submission, applicants should include their contact information, professional title, institutional affiliation, and number of years teaching in the academy. Preference will be given to scholars who have been teaching at an academic institution in the United States for seven years or fewer. Successful applicants must commit to deliver their draft paper for circulation to the interest group no later than March 20, 2018.

Call for Papers: Complicity and Exclusion from Asylum

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Complicity and Exclusion from Asylum." Sponsored by the Refugee Law Initiative, the workshop will be held at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law on June 29, 2018. The call is here.

New Issue: Trade, Law and Development

The latest issue of Trade, Law and Development (Vol. 9, no. 2, Winter 2017) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Roy Santana, 70th Anniversary of the GATT: Stalin, The Marshall Plan, and the Provisional Application pf The GATT 1947
    • Yong-Shik Lee, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: A Commentary on Developing/Developed Country Divide and Social Considerations
    • Gregory Messenger, Sustainable Development and the Commodities Challenge: The Eventual ‘Greening’ of the World Trade Organisation?
    • Peter Hilpold, The ‘Politicisation’ of the EU Development Policy
    • Ilaria Espa, Re-Assessing Mineral Export Restraints as Industrial Policy Instruments: What Role, If Any, For The WTO Subsidy Law?
    • Vyoma Jha, Sunny Skies Ahead? Political Economy of Climate, Trade and Solar Energy in India
  • Notes and Comments
    • Ritwik Bhattacharya, Three Viewpoints on China’s Non-Market Economy Status
    • Aditya Sarmah, Renewable Energy and Article III:8(A) of the GATT: Reassessing the Environment-Trade Conflict on Light of the ‘Next Generation’ Cases

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Slobodian: Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism

Quinn Slobodian (Wellesley College - History) has published Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (Harvard Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:
Neoliberals hate the state. Or do they? In the first intellectual history of neoliberal globalism, Quinn Slobodian follows a group of thinkers from the ashes of the Habsburg Empire to the creation of the World Trade Organization to show that neoliberalism emerged less to shrink government and abolish regulations than to redeploy them at a global level. Slobodian begins in Austria in the 1920s. Empires were dissolving and nationalism, socialism, and democratic self-determination threatened the stability of the global capitalist system. In response, Austrian intellectuals called for a new way of organizing the world. But they and their successors in academia and government, from such famous economists as Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises to influential but lesser-known figures such as Wilhelm Röpke and Michael Heilperin, did not propose a regime of laissez-faire. Rather they used states and global institutions—the League of Nations, the European Court of Justice, the World Trade Organization, and international investment law—to insulate the markets against sovereign states, political change, and turbulent democratic demands for greater equality and social justice. Far from discarding the regulatory state, neoliberals wanted to harness it to their grand project of protecting capitalism on a global scale. It was a project, Slobodian shows, that changed the world, but that was also undermined time and again by the inequality, relentless change, and social injustice that accompanied it.

Schill, Tams, & Hofmann: International Investment Law and History

Stephan W. Schill (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law), Christian J. Tams (Univ. of Glasgow - Law), & Rainer Hofmann (Univ. of Frankfurt - Law) have published International Investment Law and History (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018). Contents include:
  • Stephan W. Schill, Christian J. Tams & Rainer Hofmann, International investment law and history: An introduction
  • Andreas Kulick, Narrating narratives of international investment law: History and epistemic forces
  • Jason Yackee, The first investor-state arbitration? The Suez Canal dispute of 1864 and some reflections on the historiography of international investment law
  • Heather Bray, Understanding change: Evolution from international claims commissions to investment treaty arbitration
  • Kate Miles, History and international law: Method and mechanism ‑ empire and ‘usual’ rupture
  • Jörg Kammerhofer, The challenges of history in international investment law: A view from legal theory
  • Mona Pinchis-Paulsen, Resolving challenges to historical research: Developing a project to define fair and equitable treatment
  • Jean Ho Qing Ying, The evolution of contractual protection in international law: Accessing diplomatic archives, discovering diplomatic practice, and constructing diplomatic history
  • Yuliya Chernykh, The gust of wind: The unknown role of Sir Elihu Lauterpacht in the drafting of the Abs-Shawcross Draft Convention
  • Taylor St. John, Enriching law with political history: A case study on the creation of the ICSID Convention
  • Muin Boase, A genealogy of censurable conduct: Antecedents for an international minimum standard of investor conduct

Conference: The Parisian Peace Treaties (1919-1920) and the Emergence of Modern International Law

The Institute for the History of International Law@Tilburg and the Department of Roman Law and Legal History of the University of Leuven, under the auspices of the Journal of the History of International Law, have organized a conference on "The Parisian Peace Treaties (1919-1920) and the Emergence of Modern International Law," to take place May 17, 2018, at Tilburg University. The program is here. Registration is here.

New Issue: International Review of the Red Cross

The latest issue of the International Review of the Red Cross (Vol. 98, no. 903, December 2016) is out. The theme is: "Detention: Addressing the human cost." Contents include:
  • Vincent Bernard, Out of Sight, out of Mind? Exposing the human cost of detention
  • Interview with Abdoulaye Kaka: General of the Police and Head of the Central Counterterrorism Agency in Niger
  • Roger Mayou, Prisoners’ objects: The collection of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum
  • Andrew Coyle, Catherine Heard, & Helen Fair, Current trends and practices in the use of imprisonment
  • Megan Comfort, Tasseli McKay, Justin Landwehr, Erin Kennedy, Christine Lindquist, & Anupa Bir, The costs of incarceration for families of prisoners
  • Andrew Thompson, “Restoring hope where all hope was lost”: Nelson Mandela, the ICRC and the protection of political detainees in apartheid South Africa
  • Vincent Ballon, Overcrowding: Nobody's fault? When some struggle to survive waiting for everyone to take responsibility
  • Roy Panti Valenzuela, Glimmers of hope: A report on the Philippine Criminal Justice System
  • Julio César Magán Zevallos, Overcrowding in the Peruvian prison system
  • Jonathan Luke Austin & Riccardo Bocco, Becoming a torturer: Towards a global ergonomics of care
  • Paul Hathazy & Markus-Michael Müller, The crisis of detention and the politics of denial in Latin America
  • Rachael Bedard, Lia Metzger, & Brie Williams, Ageing prisoners: An introduction to geriatric health-care challenges in correctional facilities
  • Tilman Rodenhäuser, Strengthening IHL protecting persons deprived of their liberty: Main aspects of the consultations and discussions since 2011
  • Zelalem Mogessie Teferra, National security and the right to liberty in armed conflict: The legality and limits of security detention in international humanitarian law
  • Thomas Forster, International humanitarian law's old questions and new perspectives: On what law has got to do with armed conflict
  • Djemila Carron, When is a conflict international? Time for new control tests in IHL

Kolb: The UN Security Council Members' Responsibility to Protect: A Legal Analysis

Andreas S. Kolb has published The UN Security Council Members' Responsibility to Protect: A Legal Analysis (Springer 2018). Here's the abstract:
This book examines the hard legal core, if any, of the “Responsibility to Protect (R2P)” concept with regard to the commitment to take collective action through the UN Security Council. It addresses the question of whether public international law establishes a duty on the part of the individual Security Council members to collectively take the necessary action to prevent atrocities (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing). To this end, it offers an interpretation of provisions in multilateral conventions, such as the undertaking to prevent genocide in Article 1 of the Genocide Convention and the undertaking to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions in common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, analyses the UN Charter framework for Security Council action, and explores whether the recognition of the international responsibility to protect has prompted the emergence of a new norm for general international law.

Kaul & Jha: Shifting Horizons of Public International Law: A South Asian Perspective

J.L. Kaul (Univ. of Delhi - Law) & Anupam Jha (Univ. of Delhi - Law) have published Shifting Horizons of Public International Law: A South Asian Perspective (Springer 2018). Contents include:
  • J.L. Kaul & Anupam Jha, Changing Horizons of International Law: A South Asian Perspective
  • Anupam Jha, Ujjwala Sakhalkar, & Brijesh Kumar Singh, UN Security Council: South Asian Perspective and Challenges Ahead
  • Uday Shankar, Socio-Economic Rights in South Asia
  • Shashi Kumar, Indigenous People in South Asia and International Law
  • Bipin Kumar, Regional Trade in South Asia: An International Legal Analysis
  • Divesh Kaul, The Conundrums of Trade Barriers in Preferential Trading: Prospects from SAARC
  • Stellina Jolly, A Legal Analysis of Linking Human Right Approach to Access to Water and Sharing of Trans-Boundary Rivers in South Asia
  • Vinai Kumar Singh, UNCLOS Dispute Settlement System and India
  • Raju Prasad Chapagai & Pankaj Kumar Karn, Accountability for Conflict-Era Human Rights Violations in Nepal: An Appraisal of Strategic Human Rights Litigation
  • Muthukuda A. Dona Shiroma Jeeva S. Niriella, Contribution to Peace and Security in the World: Sri Lankan Perspective
  • M. Zahurul Haque, International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) (Bangladesh): The Issues of Fairness and Transparency
  • Madhu Bhatti, Rules of State Responsibility: A South Asian Perspective
  • Anupam Jha, International Criminal Court: Baby Steps in South Asia
  • Leena Kumari & Anupam Jha, Privileges and Immunities of Diplomats and Consuls: South Asian Perspective
  • Vivek Sehrawat, Changing Horizons of Modern Weaponry in South Asia: A Legal Survey

Monday, February 19, 2018

Carty & Nijman: Morality and Responsibility of Rulers: European and Chinese Origins of a Rule of Law as Justice for World Order

Anthony Carty (Beijing Institute of Technology - Law) & Janne Nijman (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) have published Morality and Responsibility of Rulers: European and Chinese Origins of a Rule of Law as Justice for World Order (Oxford Univ. Press 2018). Contents include:
  • Anthony Carty & Janne Nijman, Introduction: The Moral Responsibility of Rulers: Going Back Beyond the Liberal 'Rule of Law' for World Order
  • Joseph Canning, The Universal Rule of Law in the Thought of the Late Medieval Jurists of Roman and Canon Law
  • Susan Longfield Karr, 'The Law of Nations is Common to all Mankind': Jus gentium in Humanist Jurisprudence
  • Andrew RC Simpson, 'Cleare as is the Summers Sunne'? Scottish Perspectives on Legal Learning, Parliamentary Power and the English Royal Succession
  • Xavier Tubau, Humanism, the Bible, and Erasmus' Moral World Order
  • Anthony Pagden, Legislating for the 'Whole World that is, in a Sense, a Commonwealth': Conquest, Occupation, and the Obligation to 'Defend the Innocent'
  • Anthony Carty, Cardinal Richelieu between Vattel and Machiavelli
  • John Witte Jr., The Universal Rule of Natural Law and Written Constitutions in the Thought of Johannes Althusius
  • Christoph Stumpf, Hugo Grotius and the Universal Rule of Law
  • Peter Goodrich, Aquatopia: Lines of Amity and Laws of the Sea
  • Janne Nijman, A Universal Rule of Law for a Pluralist World Order: Leibniz's Universal Jurisprudence and his Praise of the Chinese Ruler
  • Aihe Wang, Moral Rulership and World Order in Ancient Chinese Cosmology
  • Chun-chieh Huang, 'Humane Governance' as the Moral Responsibility of Rulers in East Asian Confucian Political Philosophy
  • Hu Henan, Bridging the Western and Eastern Traditions: A Comparative Study of the Legal Thoughts of Hugo Grotius and Lao Zi
  • Emily Cheung & Maranatha Fung, The Hazards of Translating Wheaton's 'Elements of International Law' into Chinese: Cultures of World Order Lost in Translation
  • Tian Tao, Chinese Intellectuals' Discourse of International Law in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century
  • Patrick Sze-lok Leung & Anthony Carty, The Crisis of the Ryukyus 1877-1882: Confucian World Order Challenged and Defeated by Western/Japanese Imperial International Law
  • Anna Baka and Lucy Qi, Lost in Translation in the Sino-French War in Vietnam: From Western International Law to Confucian Legal Semantics: A Comparative-Critical Analysis of Chinese, French, and American Archives
  • Patrick Sze-Lok Keung & Bijun Xu, The Sino-Japanese War and the Collapse of the Qing and Confucian World Order in the Face of Japanese Imperialism and European Acquiescence
  • Jing Tan & Anthony Carty, Confucianism and Western International Law in 1900: Li Hongzhang and Sir Ernest Satow Compared: The Case Study of the Crisis of Russia in Manchuria 1900-1

Gasbarri: Beyond the Either/Or Paradigm in the Formation of Customary International Law by International Organizations

Lorenzo Gasbarri (Univ. College London) has posted Beyond the Either/Or Paradigm in the Formation of Customary International Law by International Organizations (in International Organizations and the Formation of Customary International Law, Jean d’Aspremont & Sufyan Droubi eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This paper proposes a theoretical framework for the role of international organizations in the formation of customary international law that rejects their traditional conceptualization as double-faced entities. Under this paradigm, organizations are either considered as fora for the development of the practice and the opinio iuris of States, or as independent actors that autonomously contribute to the formation of customary international law. The aim of the following pages is to describe an alternative framework to reconcile these two faces of the same coin. It will be shown that one approach does not exclude the other, and the adoption of one perspective is only motivated by specific purposes that do not rule out the relevance of the other view. The paper first describes the either/or paradigm in order to read the work of the International Law Commission and of the International Court of Justice. Later, it describes three ‘anomalies’ of this paradigm that concern the development of so-called ‘objective regimes’ (Section 3). Finally, section 4 builds a theoretical framework on the role of international organizations in the formation of customary international law that acknowledges their dual (and not double) nature.

Call for Papers: The EU and its Partners in Global Governance: Trade, Investment, Tax and Sustainable Development

The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies at KU Leuven have issued a call for papers for a conference on "The EU and its Partners in Global Governance: Trade, Investment, Tax and Sustainable Development," to take June 14-15, 2018, in Hong Kong. The call is here.

Conference: Spring Meeting of the ABA Section of International Law

The 2018 Spring Meeting of the American Bar Association Section of International Law will take place April 17-21 in New York City. The program is here.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: Donaldson's "The Survival of the Secret Treaty"

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on Megan Donaldson's “The Survival of the Secret Treaty: Publicity, Secrecy, and Legality in the International Order.” The symposium includes an introduction by Ashley S. Deeks and contributions by Danae Azaria and Ashley S. Deeks.

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 13, no. 2, 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Martijn Schippers, A Series of Sales: Determining the Customs Value Under the Union Customs Code
  • Dennis Muhambe, The Paradox of the Nairobi Ministerial Decision on Export Competition: Lessons for the Future
  • Frank Altemöller, Bilateralism and Unilateralism: The Future of International Trade Relations?
  • Ming Du, How to Define ‘Public Morals’ in WTO Law? A Critique of the Brazil - Taxation and Charges Panel Report
  • Jeong Cheol Cho, Overview of the Korean Classification Regime and Notable Matters (Part I)

New Issue: Review of International Political Economy

The latest issue of the Review of International Political Economy (Vol. 25, no. 1, 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Stephen Bell & Andrew Hindmoor, Are the major global banks now safer? Structural continuities and change in banking and finance since the 2008 crisis
  • Knut Blind, Axel Mangelsdorf, Crispin Niebel & Florian Ramel, Standards in the global value chains of the European Single Market
  • Timothy Blackwell & Sebastian Kohl, The origins of national housing finance systems: a comparative investigation into historical variations in mortgage finance regimes
  • Julia Calvert, Constructing investor rights? Why some states (fail to) terminate bilateral investment treaties
  • Matthew Alford & Nicola Phillips, The political economy of state governance in global production networks: change, crisis and contestation in the South African fruit sector
  • Erik Peinert, Periodizing, paths and probabilities: why critical junctures and path dependence produce causal confusion

Chandrasekhara Rao & Gautier: The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: Law, Practice and Procedure

P. Chandrasekhara Rao (formerly, Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) & Philippe Gautier (Registrar, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) have published The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: Law, Practice and Procedure (Edward Elgar Publishing 2018). Here's the abstract:
This authoritative guide to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea provides a timely assessment of its activities over the past two decades. P. Chandrasekhara Rao and Philippe Gautier’s comprehensive book delivers a detailed and extensive analysis of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction, the procedural rules governing cases before it and its contribution to the development of the law of the sea. Through a thorough examination of the Tribunal’s judicial practice, as well as referencing primary sources such as treaties and statutes, the authors demonstrate that the Tribunal has fulfilled the role entrusted to it by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Utilising a practice-orientated approach, this methodical analysis reveals that the Tribunal has successfully developed its own working methods in handling cases, whilst establishing itself as a judicial institution with the ability to discharge its functions efficiently and cost-effectively, and most importantly, determines that its jurisprudence has contributed to the development of a coherent and progressive interpretation of the law of the sea.

Sunday, February 18, 2018

New Issue: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

The latest issue of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (Vol. 18, no. 1, February 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: Achieving 1.5 °C and Climate Justice
    • Kate Dooley, Joyeeta Gupta, & Anand Patwardhan, INEA editorial: Achieving 1.5 °C and climate justice
    • Joyeeta Gupta & Karin Arts, Achieving the 1.5 °C objective: just implementation through a right to (sustainable) development approach
    • Bård Lahn, In the light of equity and science: scientific expertise and climate justice after Paris
    • Jane A. Flegal & Aarti Gupta, Evoking equity as a rationale for solar geoengineering research? Scrutinizing emerging expert visions of equity
    • Turaj S. Faran & Lennart Olsson, Geoengineering: neither economical, nor ethical—a risk–reward nexus analysis of carbon dioxide removal
    • Kate Dooley & Sivan Kartha, Land-based negative emissions: risks for climate mitigation and impacts on sustainable development
    • Harald Winkler, Niklas Höhne, Guy Cunliffe, Takeshi Kuramochi, Amanda April, & Maria Jose de Villafranca Casas, Countries start to explain how their climate contributions are fair: more rigour needed
    • Christian Holz, Sivan Kartha, & Tom Athanasiou, Fairly sharing 1.5: national fair shares of a 1.5 °C-compliant global mitigation effort
    • Sander Chan, Paula Ellinger, & Oscar Widerberg, Exploring national and regional orchestration of non-state action for a < 1.5 °C world

New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added new lectures to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. They were given by Roberta Lea Brilmayer on “Cultural Relativism: The Basic Problem and Some Complexities” and by Hélène Tigroudja on “La réparation des violations des droits de l'homme : pratique des organes régionaux et universels.”

New Issue: Revista Española de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Española de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 70, no. 1, 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Estudios
    • Teresa Fajardo del Castillo, El acuerdo de París sobre el cambio climático: sus aportaciones al desarrollo progresivo del Derecho internacional y las consecuencias de la retirada de los Estados Unidos
    • Sergio Salinas Alcega, El acuerdo de París de diciembre de 2015: la sustitución del multilateralismo por la multipolaridad en la cooperación climática internacional
    • Mª J. Cervell Hortal, Sobre la doctrina «unwilling or unable state» (¿podría el fin justificar los medios?)
    • Pilar Jiménez Blanco, La ejecución forzosa de las resoluciones judiciales en el marco de los reglamentos europeos
    • Asier Garrido Muñoz, Los requisitos procesales en serio: la existencia de una «controversia internacional» en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Internacional de Justicia
    • Beatriz Campuzano Díaz, La derogatio fori en la Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial
    • María Jesús Elvira Benayas, Transposición al ordenamiento español de la Directiva 2014/60/ue sobre restitución de bienes que hayan salido de forma ilegal de un Estado miembro mediante la Ley 1/2017
    • Montserrat Pintado Lobato, Hacia una teoría china de las relaciones internacionales. Evolución, proyectos teóricos y pertinencia práctica
  • Foro. La perspectiva China del Derecho Internacional
    • Paolo Davide Farah, La perspectiva china del Derecho internacional
    • Manuel Montobbio, Teoría de las Relaciones Internacionales y ascenso global de China
  • Foro. El Reglamento europeo de insolvencia en España
    • Ángel Espiniella Menéndez, El nuevo Reglamento europeo de insolvencia y la propuesta de texto refundido de la ley concursal: encuentros y desencuentros
    • Elisa Carolina Torralba Mendiola, El Reglamento sobre procedimientos de insolvencia y su aplicación en España: algunas adaptaciones necesarias

New Issue: Journal du Droit International

The latest issue of the Journal du Droit International ("Clunet") (Vol. 145, no. 1, Janvier-Février-Mars 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Doctrine
    • Jean-Sylvestre Bergé, Contextualisation et circulation des situations : approche modale des phénomènes de gestation pour autrui à l’étranger
    • Béatrice Parance & Elise Groulx, Regards croisés sur le devoir de vigilance et le duty of care
    • Carine Brière, La codification du droit international privé monégasque
  • Variétés
    • Omar Kafi-Cherrat, La class action s’approche : à propos de la reconnaissance en Belgique des class action settlements américaines (Aff. Lernout & Hauspie)

Pitts: Boundaries of the International: Law and Empire

Jennifer Pitts (Univ. of Chicago - Political Science) has published Boundaries of the International: Law and Empire (Harvard Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

It is commonly believed that international law originated in relations among European states that respected one another as free and equal. In fact, as Jennifer Pitts shows, international law was forged at least as much through Europeans’ domineering relations with non-European states and empires, leaving a legacy still visible in the unequal structures of today’s international order.

Pitts focuses on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the great age of imperial expansion, as European intellectuals and administrators worked to establish and justify laws to govern emerging relationships with non-Europeans. Relying on military and commercial dominance, European powers dictated their own terms on the basis of their own norms and interests. Despite claims that the law of nations was a universal system rooted in the values of equality and reciprocity, the laws that came to govern the world were parochial and deeply entangled in imperialism. Legal authorities, including Emer de Vattel, John Westlake, and Henry Wheaton, were key figures in these developments. But ordinary diplomats, colonial administrators, and journalists played their part too, as did some of the greatest political thinkers of the time, among them Montesquieu and John Stuart Mill.

Against this growing consensus, however, dissident voices as prominent as Edmund Burke insisted that European states had extensive legal obligations abroad that ought not to be ignored. These critics, Pitts shows, provide valuable resources for scrutiny of the political, economic, and legal inequalities that continue to afflict global affairs.

New Issue: Human Rights Law Review

The latest issue of the Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Tara L Van Ho & Mohammed K Alshaleel, The Mutual Fund Industry and the Protection of Human Rights
  • Jastine C Barrett, Balancing Pragmatism and Principle: UNICEF, Child Rights and Child Génocidaires
  • Peter Cumper & Tom Lewis, Empathy and Human Rights: The Case of Religious Dress
  • Koen Lemmens, ‘Irreligious’ Cartoons and Freedom of Expression: A Critical Reassessment
  • Noam Peleg, Marginalisation by the Court: The Case of Roma Children and the European Court of Human Rights
  • Lisa Grans, The Istanbul Convention and the Positive Obligation to Prevent Violence
  • Sarah Trotter, ‘Living Together’, ‘Learning Together’, and ‘Swimming Together’: Osmanoğlu and Kocabaş v Switzerland (2017) and the Construction of Collective Life
  • Salvatore Caserta, The Contribution of the Caribbean Court of Justice to the Development of Human and Fundamental Rights