Werle: Völkerstrafrecht

Gerhard Werle (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Law) has published the second edition of Völkerstrafrecht (Mohr Siebeck 2007). Here's the abstract:

Die erste Gesamtdarstellung des Völkerstrafrechts in deutscher Sprache liegt nunmehr in komplett überarbeiteter und aktualisierter Fassung vor. Behandelt werden die Grundlagen und der Allgemeine Teil des Völkerstrafrechts sowie die einzelnen Völkerrechtsverbrechen, nämlich Völkermord, Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit, Kriegsverbrechen und das Verbrechen der Aggression. Internationale Rechtsprechung und Schrifttum sind auf aktuellem Stand berücksichtigt. Einbezogen sind die neuesten Entwicklungen des Völkerstrafrechts, insbesondere die erste Verfahrenspraxis des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofes, die Errichtung hybrider Strafgerichte und die Implementierung des Völkerstrafrechts in staatlichen Strafrechtsordnungen.

Sixth Committee: Concluding Meetings

The Sixth Committee concluded its work for its sixty-second session on Monday. Here are the UN press releases describing that meeting and the one meeting held the previous week:

November 19, 2007 - RECOMMENDING 13 MORE TEXTS, SIXTH COMMITTEE ASKS GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO STRONGLY URGE STATES TO PUNISH UNITED NATIONS OFFICIALS, EXPERTS FOR CRIMES COMMITTED ON MISSION

November 12, 2007 - LEGAL COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS ASSEMBLY TO ASK UNITED STATES, HOST COUNTRY, TO CONTINUE MEASURES TO AID FUNCTIONING OF UNITED NATIONS MISSIONS

Address by Higgins to the Sixth Committee

On Friday, November 2, Judge Rosalyn Higgins, President of the International Court of Justice, addressed the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly. The topic was the judicial determination of relevant facts. Higgins's address is now available here.

Laucci: The Annotated Digest of the International Criminal Court, 2004-2006

Cyril Laucci has published The Annotated Digest of the International Criminal Court, 2004-2006 (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2007). Here's the abstract:

The Annotated Digest of the International Criminal Court (2004-2006) is the first volume of an annual or biennial series, depending on the volume of decisions issued. It compiles a selection of the most significant legal findings contained in the public decisions rendered by the International Criminal Court since its first decisions in July 2004 until 31 December 2006. More than 230 decisions have been reviewed for the preparation of the present volume.

Gutman, Rieff, & Dworkin: Crimes of War

Roy Gutman, David Rieff, & Anthony Dworkin have published a revised and updated edition of Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know (W.W. Norton 2007). Here's the abstract:

Originally published in 1999, this A-to-Z guidebook of wartime atrocities has received worldwide acclaim and has been translated into eleven languages. Now substantially updated, with sixteen new entries, this concise guide to the broken rules of war remains unique and essential. More than 140 distinguished experts from the media, military, law, and human rights groups examine recent conflicts in light of international humanitarian law, including: Afghanistan (Patricia Gossman), the Congo (Gerard Prunier), terrorism (Anthony Dworkin), Guantánamo (Mark Huband), Darfur (John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen), occupation (George Packer), independent contractors (Peter Singer), war and insurgency (John Burns), and detention and interrogation (Dana Priest). Christiane Amanpour writes on Bosnian paramilitaries, Jeremy Bowen on Chechnya, and Gwynne Roberts on Saddam Hussein. Through case studies, definitions of key terms, and explanations of what is legal and what is not - illuminated by 150 stunning duotone photographs - Crimes of War reveals what every citizen should know about war and the law.

New Issue: Indian Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Indian Journal of International Law (Vol. 47, no. 2, 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Mohammed Saif-Alden Wattad, Revisiting Plessy & Brown - 'Dignity' A Recipe for Humiliation: Why 'Separate But Equal' Cannot Be Equal? A Theory of Legal Thinking
• G.S. Sachdeva, Challenges in Air Law
• Manoj Kumar Sinha, Respect of Human Rights in Time of State of Emergency: International and National Perspectives
• L.O. Taiwo, The Imperatives of Reforming the United Nations Security Council in the Post Cold War Era
• Syed Jafar Alam, Towards a New Discourse: Human Rights in Islam and Vice Versa

Bradford & Linn: Global Governance Reform

Colin I. Bradford Jr. (Brookings Institution) & Johannes F. Linn (Brookings Institution) have published Global Governance Reform: Breaking the Stalemate (Brookings Press 2007). Here's the abstract:

The current system of international and financial institutions is proving inadequate to meet many of today's most important challenges, such as terrorism, poverty, nuclear proliferation, financial integration, and climate change. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and United Nations were founded at the end of World War II, and their structures of voting and representation have become obsolete - they do not reflect today's balance of economic and political power.

Reform of these international institutions is critically important but is currently in stalemate. A new push is needed from the leaders of major countries, acting together through a reformed G-8 that includes emerging market economies such as China, India, Brazil, and others. Moreover, since global challenges are interrelated, they demand integrated approaches, with greater coordination among international institutions. Editors Colin Bradford and Johannes Linn argue that without reconstituting the G-8 summit into a larger, more representative group of leaders, with a new mandate to provide strategic guidance to the system of international institutions, the world will fall further behind in addressing global challenges. The path to global reform is defined by the need to act in connected, congruent, and combined ways on summit reform and international institutional reform if either is to increase the capacity to meet those challenges.

Conference: Prisoners in War

Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War will host a conference on Prisoners in War at the University of Oxford, December 10-12, 2007. The program is here. The conference will focus on the following questions:

• How have legal and moral standards pertaining to Prisoners of War and detainees evolved over time, and under what circumstances have they changed?
• What are the specific challenges to the Geneva Conventions in contemporary conflicts?
• What legal, moral and institutional solutions can be found?

New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 18, no. 4, September 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Symposium: Genocide, Human Rights and the ICJ
• Stephan Wittich, Permissible Derogation from Mandatory Rules? The Problem of Party Status in the Genocide Case
• Claus Kreß, The International Court of Justice and the Elements of the Crime of Genocide
• Paola Gaeta, On What Conditions Can a State Be Held Responsible for Genocide?
• Antonio Cassese, The Nicaragua and Tadić Tests Revisited in Light of the ICJ Judgment on Genocide in Bosnia
• Marko Milanovic, State Responsibility for Genocide: A Follow-Up
• Andrea Gattini, Breach of the Obligation to Prevent and Reparation Thereof in the ICJ's Genocide Judgment
• Lorand Bartels, The Trade and Development Policy of the European Union
• Yannick Radi, The Application of the Most-Favoured-Nation Clause to the Dispute Settlement Provisions of Bilateral Investment Treaties: Domesticating the ‘Trojan Horse’

Mitchell: The Legal Basis for Using Principles in WTO Disputes

Andrew D. Mitchell (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) has posted The Legal Basis for Using Principles in WTO Disputes (Journal of International Economic Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article argues that the use of principles in WTO dispute resolution is both necessary and desirable. However, Panels and the Appellate Body (WTO Tribunals) have often ignored principles or not clearly identified the legal basis for their use. This article establishes a framework for the use of principles (in particular principles of WTO law, principles of customary international law, and general principles of law) in WTO dispute settlement. Broadly, WTO Tribunals can use principles drawn from these categories to interpret WTO provisions, based on Article 3.2 of the DSU, and Articles 31 and 32 of the VCLT. This follows most directly from a teleological approach to interpretation, but principles also feature under subjective and textual approaches to interpretation. WTO Tribunals may also use certain principles in a non-interpretative manner. Indeed, this may be necessary, particularly to address procedural issues. Precisely how a principle may be used depends on its type, content and status.

WTO: Appointment of Appellate Body Members Blocked

We previously reported that the committee tasked with selecting new Appellate Body members put forward four names - those of Lilia Bautista (Philippines), Jennifer Hillman (United States), Shotaro Oshima (Japan), and Zhang Yuejiao (China) - to the Dispute Settlement Body for its approval at the DSB's November 19th meeting. At that meeting, on Monday, Taiwan blocked the appointments when it objected to the agenda item pertaining to them. When other members refused to remove the item, Taiwan indicated that it would block consensus on the agenda as a whole, and so the meeting was suspended. Taiwan's mission in Geneva stated that it refused to accede to the agenda item "because we have deep concerns on the question of impartiality and qualification of one of the recommended candidates to serve the Appellate Body." Presumably that candidate is the Chinese national, Zhang Yuejiao. As in other international organizations, China and Taiwan have had a number of spats at the WTO since they became members (respectively) on December 11, 2001 and January 1, 2002. (Taiwan was admitted as a "Separate Customs Territory," though it is no less a member because of that designation.) Presumably, China will not withdraw its candidate, so it will be interesting to see what it takes to get Taiwan to withdraw its objection.

Gibney, et al.: The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past

Mark Gibney (Univ. of North Carolina, Asheville - Political Science), Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann (Wilfrid Laurier University - Global Studies & Political Science), Jean-Marc Coicaud (United Nations University), & Niklaus Steiner (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) have published The Age of Apology: Facing Up to the Past (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press 2008). Here's the abstract:

In a turnabout of the cynical belief that might makes right, nations now see fit to issue apologies to peoples and countries they have wronged. We live in an age that seeks to establish political truth, perhaps best exemplified by the creation of truth commissions in societies seeking to emerge from dictatorial pasts. The most noteworthy result of these efforts has been the near-universal realization that a society will not be able successfully to pass into the future until it somehow deals with the horrors of its past.

A number of Western states and institutions have sought to come to terms with their relationships to non-Western states and peoples. Powerful actors and institutions are apologizing to the relatively powerless. What do these apologies mean? Are they an indication of a new international order, either politically or as they relate to international law? Or are these apologies fleeting and insignificant? In The Age of Apology twenty-two law, politics, and human rights scholars explore the legal, political, social, historical, moral, religious, and anthropological aspects of Western apologies in an attempt to answer these questions. Conversely, a nonapology might be as important to study, and several chapters discuss the absence or refusal of apology and how this might be interpreted.

New Issue: Human Rights Law Review

The latest issue of the Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 7, no. 4, 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Ed Bates, State Immunity for Torture
• Jérémie Gilbert, Nomadic Territories: A Human Rights Approach to Nomadic Peoples’ Land Rights
• Anastasia Vakulenko, Islamic Dress in Human Rights Jurisprudence: A Critique of Current Trends
• United Nations and Regional Human Rights Systems: Recent Developments
• Stefania Errico, The Draft UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: An Overview
• Stefania Errico, The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is Adopted: An Overview
• Mark Gibney, Genocide and State Responsibility
• Claudia Martin, Catching Up with the Past: Recent Decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Addressing Gross Human Rights Violations Perpetrated During the 1970–1980s
• Alicia Hinarejos, Recent Human Rights Developments in the EU Courts: The Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Arrest Warrant and Terror Lists

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 7, nos. 4, November 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Salif Nimaga, An International Conscience Collective? A Durkheimian Analysis of International Criminal Law
• Antonis Antoniadis & Olympia Bekou, The European Union and the International Criminal Court: An Awkward Symbiosis in Interesting Times
• Noelle Quenivet, The Dissonance between the United Nations Zero-Tolerance Policy and the Criminalisation of Sexual Offences on the International Level
• Hitomi Takemura, Big Fish and Small Fish Debate: An Examination of the Prosecutorial Discretion

New Issue: International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (Vol. 22, no. 4, December 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Robin Churchill, Dispute Settlement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: Survey for 2006
• W.R. Edeson, An International Legal Extravaganza in the Indian Ocean: Placing the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission outside the Framework of FAO
• P. Bender & G. Lugten, Taxing Illegal Fishing (A Proposal for Using Taxation Law to Reduce Profiteering From IUU Fishing Offences)
• Warwick Gullett & Clive Schofield, Pushing the Limits of the Law of the Sea Convention: Australian and French Cooperative Surveillance and Enforcement in the Southern Ocean
• Sergei Vinogradov, Marine Pollution via Transboundary Watercourses An Interface of the "Shoreline" and "River-Basin" Regimes in the Wider Black Sea Region
• Sarah Dromgoole, United Kingdom: The Marine Historic Environment: Two White Papers and a Black Swan
• David M. Ong, Contemporary Maritime Piracy in Southeast Asia

Powell & Staton: Domestic Judicial Institutions and Human Rights Treaty Violation

Emilia J. Powell (Georgia Southern Univ. - Political Science) & Jeffrey K. Staton (Emory Univ. - Political Science) have posted Domestic Judicial Institutions and Human Rights Treaty Violation. Here's the abstract:

Democratic and autocratic states routinely violate their international agreements protecting human rights. Scholars typically study this phenomenon by focusing on ratification or compliance behavior separately. In our view, these behaviors are inherently linked, and our analysis should address the link explicitly. We consider how domestic judiciaries influence the joint choice to ratify and comply with international human rights regimes. Using data on the ratification status of states under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and states' torture practices, we find that the joint probability of being ratified under the CAT and violating its terms decreases in the effectiveness of a state's judiciary; and that the joint probability of not being ratified and engaging in behavior proscribed by the CAT increases in the effectiveness of a state's judiciary. The paper suggests that while effective judiciaries offer the promise of an enhanced international human rights law, it is in part a false one. Where judiciaries constrain, states are more likely to avoid these regimes and violate human rights anyway. Where judiciaries do not constrain, states are likely to join and ignore their obligations.

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 24, no. 6, December 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Michael J. Moser & Yu Jianlong, CIETAC and its Work: An Interview with Vice Chairman Yu Jianlong
• Greame Johnston, Bridging the Gap Between Western and Chinese Arbitration Systems: A Practical Introduction for Businesses
• Peter Yuen, Arbitration Clauses in a Chinese Context
• Mark Lin, Supreme People's Court Rules on PRC Arbitration Issues
• Peter Thorp, The PRC Arbitration Law: Problems and Prospects for Amendment
• Sally A. Harpole, The Combination of Conciliation with Arbitration in the People's Republic of China
• Friven Yeoh, The People's Courts and Arbitration: A Snapshot of Recent Judicial Attitudes on Arbitrability and Enforcement
• Kahtryn Sanger, Beatriz Segorbe, & Jill Niu, Arbitration in Greater China: Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan
• Andrew Aglionby, Arbitration Outside China: The Alternatives
• Kim M. Rooney, ICSID and BIT Arbitrations and China

New Issue: Arbitration International

The latest issue of Arbitration International (Vol. 23, no. 4, 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Symposium: Austrian Arbitration and Mediation
• Christoph Liebscher, Introduction
• Christoph Liebscher, Austria adopts the UNCITRAL Model Law
• Stefan Kröll, "First Experiences" with the New Austrian Arbitration Law
• Ali Yesilirmak, Provisional and Protective Measures under Austrian Arbitration Law
• Franz Schwarz, The New Vienna Rules
• Florian Haugeneder, The New Austrian Arbitration Act and the European Convention on International Commercial Arbitration
• Bettina Knötzl, Taking the Best from Mediation: The EC Mediation Directive and the Austrian Mediation Act
• Ank A. Santens, Expert Determination Clauses in Contracts Providing for International Arbitration: What Happens when the Expert's Decision is Not Final and Binding?
• Promod Nair, Surveying a Decade of the "New" Law of Arbitration in India

Workshop: Macklem on "What is International Human Rights Law?"

Patrick Macklem (Univ. of Toronto - Law) will give a talk today at the University of Texas School of Law's Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice on "What is International Human Rights Law? Three Applications of a Distributive Account."

Workshop: Bellinger on "The United States and International Law: Three Current Controversies"

John B. Bellinger, III (Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State) will give a talk today at the University of Michigan Law School International Law Workshop on "The United States and International Law: Three Current Controversies."

Milanovic: Lessons for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in the War on Terror

Marko Milanovic (Belgrade Centre for Human Rights) has posted Lessons for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in the War on Terror: Comparing Hamdan and the Israeli Targeted Killings Case (International Review of the Red Cross, Vol. 89, no. 866, p. 373, 2007). Here's the abstract:

The article examines and compares two recent judgments which provide some of the most valuable examples of the difficulties surrounding the application of international humanitarian law to the phenomenon of terrorism: the Hamdan judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Targeted Killings judgment of the Supreme Court of Israel. Both judgments deal with the thresholds of applicability of the law of armed conflict, as well as with the concept of unlawful combatancy and the relationship between human rights law and humanitarian law. Both judgments are at times inconsistent and lacking in analysis, with the Hamdan judgment in particular misinterpreting the relevant international authorities, including the Commentaries on the Geneva Conventions. Despite these flaws, or because of them, both of these judgments remain instructive. The purpose of this article is to present the lessons for the future that these two decisions might bring to ongoing debates on the impact of global terrorism on the law of armed conflict.