Lecture: Reisman on "Before Victims Become Victims: Preventing Genocide and Mass Murder"

On January 15, 2008, W. Michael Reisman (Yale Univ. - Law) will give the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center's Klatsky Seminar in Human Rights at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. The topic will be "Before Victims Become Victims: Preventing Genocide and Mass Murder." Here's a précis of the lecture:

One of the world's leading experts in international law, Professor Reisman will criticize the ex-post punishment approach that has been taken toward genocide and mass killing, instead of an ex ante effective policy of prevention. Examining contemporary case studies, including Darfur and Burma, he will discuss how international law and international institutions can be used to identify situations ripe for genocide and to intervene at an early stage before they devolve into mass atrocities.

Anderson: Modern Law of the Sea: Selected Essays

David Anderson (formerly, Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) has published Modern Law of the Sea: Selected Essays (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2007). Here's the abstract:

These collected essays examine different aspects of the modern law of the sea. They address many key provisions in the United Convention on the Law of the Sea, including its historical development, the substantive rules governing navigation, resources, the regime of the high seas, maritime jurisdiction, the protection of the marine environment and the delimitation of maritime boundaries, as well as the settlement of disputes. The essays also review the Implementation Agreement of 1994 concerning deep seabed mining and the Implementation Agreement of 1995 concerning Straddling and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. The author presents purely personal views on many negotiations and cases in which he participated. The essays, written between 1988 and 2006, will be of interest to everyone involved in the law of the sea.

New Volume: Asian Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Asian Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 12, 2005-2006) is out. Contents include:

• Mary George, Maritime terrorism and security challenges in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore
• Katak B. Malla, UN Security Council reform and global security
• Jaemin Lee, The United Nations Security Council and the International Court of Justice: Co-operation, co-existence, and co-involvement
• Naazima Kamardeen, The erosion of community rights to intellectual property: An Asian perspective
• Ramses Amer & Nguyen Hong Thao, Vietnam’s border disputes: Legal and conflict management dimensions

Johnston: The Historical Foundations of World Order: The Tower and the Arena

The late Douglas M. Johnston (Univ. of Victoria - Law) has posthumously published The Historical Foundations of World Order: The Tower and the Arena (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2007). Here's the abstract:

In The Historical Foundations of World Order: The Tower and the Arena, Douglas M. Johnston has drawn on a 45 year career as one of the world’s most prolific academics in the development of international law and public policy and 5 years of exhaustive research to produce a comprehensive and highly nuanced examination of the historical precursors, intellectual developments, and philosophical frameworks that have guided the progress of world order through recorded history and across the globe, from pre-classical antiquity to the present day. By illuminating the personalities and identifying the controversies behind the great advancements in international legal thought and weaving this into the context of more conventionally known history, Johnston presents a unique understanding of how peoples and nations have sought regularity, justice and order across the ages. This book will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers, from lawyers interested in the historical background of familiar concepts, to curriculum developers for law schools and history faculties, to general interest readers wanting a wider perspective on the history of civilization.

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 322 (2006) of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2007) is out. Contents include:

• E. Loquin (l'Université de Bourgogne, Dijon), Les règles matérielles internationales
• Yoram Dinstein (Tel Aviv Univ.), The Interaction between Customary International Law and Treaties

New Volume: Israel Yearbook on Human Rights

The latest volume of the Israel Yearbook on Human Rights (Vol. 37, 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Yoram Dinstein, The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg
• Stewart Kaye, Threats From the Global Commons: Problems of Jurisdiction and Enforcement
• Michael N. Schmitt, The United States Supreme Court and Detainees In the War on Terror
• Robert P. Barnidge, Jr., Should National Security Trump Human Rights in the Fight Against Terrorism?
• Gloria Gaggioli & Robert Kolb, A Right to Life in Armed Conflicts? The Contribution of the European Court of Human Rights
• Alberto M. Aronovitz, May Private Claims be Advanced Through the European Court of Human Rights?
• Nicholas Rostow, Gaza, Iraq, Lebanon: Three Occupations under International Law
• Michael H. Hoffman, Can Military Manuals Improve the Law of War?
• Jean-Marie Henckaerts, The ICRC Customary International Humanitarian Law Study - A Rejoinder to Professor Dinstein
• Fania Domb, Judgments of the Supreme Court of Israel Relating to the Administered Territories

Aust: Modern Treaty Law and Practice

Anthony Aust (Univ. of London) has published the second edition of Modern Treaty Law and Practice (Cambridge Univ. Press 2007). Here's the abstract:

On the publication of its first edition, this textbook was welcomed as the definitive study of treaty law written from the viewpoint of an experienced practitioner. As with the first, this edition aims to provide the student and practitioner with a full understanding of the law and updates existing information and refines previous arguments. New to its scope of examination is the study of the use of memorandums of understanding (MOUs) in litigation, the treaty-making capacity of entities such as the Vatican, Taiwan and Palestine, and the effect of hostilities on treaties. Given their increasing importance, there is also a new chapter on international organisations, including an attempt to explain the sometimes baffling roles in treaty-making played by the European Community and European Union. Students and practitioners alike will find this an invaluable guide to this increasingly important subject.

König, et al.: International Law Today

Doris König (Bucerius Law School), Peter-Tobias Stoll (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen - Law), Volker Röben (Swansea Univ. - Law), & Nele Matz-Lück (Max-Planck Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht) have published International Law Today: New Challenges and the Need for Reform? (Springer 2008). Here's the abstract:

This collection of essays is based upon presentations given at a symposium on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Professor Rüdiger Wolfrum in December 2006. The contributions cover a wide range of contemporary issues of international law such as state responsibility, crisis management, unity of law, deep sea genetic resources, liability for environmental damage in Antarctica, human rights and intellectual property, and the protection of minorities. They all strive to contribute to the current state of academic discussion on different aspects of international law and offer valuable approaches to the solution of the relevant problems.

Contents include:

• Tobias Stoll, Responsibility, Sovereignty and Cooperation - Reflections on the “Responsibility to Protect”
• Markus Benzing, Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect in International Criminal Law
• Volker Röben, Managing Risks to Global Stability: the UN Security Council’s New-found Role Post Iraq
• Michael Köbele, Comment on the Contribution by Volker Röben
• Nele Matz-Lück, Promoting the Unity of International Law: Standard-Setting by International Tribunals
• Holger Hestermeyer, Where Unity Is at Risk: When International Tribunals Proliferate
• Doris König, Genetic Resources of the Deep Sea - How Can They Be Preserved?
• Silja Vöneky, The Liability Annex to the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty
• Karen Kaiser, The Strange Case of Human Rights and Intellectual Property: Is There a Way to Reconcile Dr. Jekyll with Mr. Hyde?
• Rainer Grote, The Struggle for Minority Rights and Human Rights: Current Trends and Challenges
• Nicola Wenzel, Minority Rights as Group-Protective Rights: A Challenge for the International Law of Human Rights

Rau: The Arbitrator and Mandatory Rules of Law

Alan Scott Rau (Univ. of Texas, Austin - Law) has posted The Arbitrator and Mandatory Rules of Law (American Review of International Arbitration, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

An endless literature exhorts us to ask whether international arbitrators have some sort of a duty or obligation to enforce rules of mandatory law. Such an abstract inquiry - untethered from the positive law implications of arbitral failure, or the pragmatic constraints that push individual behavior in one direction or another - seems obviously to elide just about all the interesting questions. Should, it is asked, arbitrators consider themselves as nothing more than the servant of the parties? Do their allegiances lie with the parties that appoint them, or the states that support them? Should they see their role as merely being concerned to keep a deal going without concern for the public interest - or should they perhaps identify themselves instead as statesmanlike jurists whose first dedication is to the law?

I examine in some detail a number of important concrete cases that have raised these questions, and try to understand them through the lens of two fairly straightforward priorities that ought to drive the engine - fidelity to the expectations of the contracting parties, and concern for the enforceability of the resulting award.

It can never, for example, be the case that in any arbitral proceeding party autonomy can be trumped - not, at least, in any interesting sense. (I am necessarily leaving to one side, then, cases where it is sought to use the arbitration mechanism as a tool to facilitate the parties' involvement behavior universally thought to be abhorrent).

Against this backdrop of his role as the parties' agent, our arbitrator is also likely to self-consciously define himself as a positivist who understands rules of law not as the residue of some system or structure to be decoded, but instead as the command of a sovereign. And so he is not encouraged to consider any matters divorced from the consequences of his behavior A vacated or unrecognized award is after all a fiasco, a sign of fecklessness or irresponsibility that hardly enhances market credibility: Precisely who, he will ask, is likely to be looking over his shoulder?

The apparent tension between the two parts of this paper - between the arbitrator's solicitude with respect to the ex ante expectations of the parties, and his attentiveness with respect to the ultimate fate of his award - can readily be overstated. With some common sense and ingenuity, it can be minimized even further.

Cummins: Digest of United States Practice in International Law, 2006

Sally J. Cummins (Office of the Legal Adviser, U.S. Dep't of State) has published Digest of United States Practice in International Law, 2006 (Oxford Univ. Press 2007). Here's the abstract:

This annual compilation of documents and commentary highlighting significant developments in public and private international law, and is an invaluable resource for practitioners and scholars in the field. Each annual edition compiles excerpts from documents such as treaties, diplomatic notes and correspondence, legal opinion letters, judicial decisons, Senate committee reports and press releases. All of the documents which are excerpted in the Digest are selected by members of the Legal Adviser's Office of the U.S. Department of State, based on their judgments about the significance of the issues, their potential relevance to future situations, and their likely interest to practitioners and scholars. In almost every case, the commentary to each excerpt is accompanied by a citation to the full text.