New Issue: ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin

The latest issue of the ICC International Court of Arbitration Bulletin (Vol. 18, no. 2, 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Albert Jan van den Berg, New York Convention of 1958: refusals of enforcement
• Giuditta Cordero Moss, Form of arbitration agreements: current developments within UNCITRAL and the writing requirement of the New York Convention
• William Park, Respecting the New York Convention
• Gabrielle Kaufman-Kohler & Victor Bonnin, Arbitrators as conciliators: a statistical study of the relation between an arbitrator’s role and legal background

Brown Weiss, Jackson, & Bernasconi-Osterwalder: Reconciling Environment and Trade (Second Edition)

Edith Brown Weiss (Georgetown Univ. - Law), John H. Jackson (Georgetown Univ. - Law), & Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder (Center for International Environmental Law) have published the second edition of Reconciling Environment and Trade (Marintus Nijhoff Publishers 2008). Here's the abstract:

The volume focuses on five cases, all of which remain cornerstone trade-environment cases of the WTO. The subject matter of these cases reflects five basic issues in the clash between trade and the environment: public health, air pollution/ozone depletion, food safety, destruction of endangered species, and biosafety. These five issues surface dramatically in international disputes over tobacco, reformulated gasoline, beef growth hormones, commercial fishing methods, and genetically modified organisms. In the second edition of this book, Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder joins the original editors to update and contextualize the five case studies in new introductions to each section. These introductions provide an overview of developments since the first edition, including subsequent related cases. The second edition also includes updated bibliographic materials. In their penetrating analyses of these cases and their vast implications, the authors take into account the entire disciplines of both trade law and environmental law, noting especially the points of friction between the multilateral instruments in each field and the developing jurisprudence of the WTO Dispute Settlement with regard to the exceptions specified in Article XX of the GATT. The articulated standpoints of all parties—governments and NGOs on both sides of the controversy—are probed for “agendas,” whether stated or unstated. No one involved in international trade or environmental activism can afford to ignore this vital publication. The information it provides (on WTO jurisprudence, on current and pending environmental initiatives, on the science behind the disputes), no less than the fresh and convincing analysis it holds forth, make it an essential tool for understanding some of the most crucial issues in international law today.

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 62, no. 3, Summer 2008) is out. Contents include:

• Darren Hawkins, Protecting Democracy in Europe and the Americas
• Stefanie Walter, A New Approach for Determining Exchange-Rate Level Preferences
• Daniel Verdier, Multilateralism, Bilateralism, and Exclusion in the Nuclear Proliferation Regime
• Jeffrey Kucik & Eric Reinhardt, Does Flexibility Promote Cooperation? An Application to the Global Trade Regime
• Kerry A. Chase, Protecting Free Trade: The Political Economy of Rules of Origin
• Halvard Buhaug, Lars-Erik Cederman, & Jan Ketil Rød, Disaggregating Ethno-Nationalist Civil Wars: A Dyadic Test of Exclusion Theory

Baudenbacher & Busek: The Role of International Courts

Carl Baudenbacher (Univ. of St. Gallen - Law) & Erhard Busek (formerly, Vice Chancellor, Republic of Austria) have published The Role of International Courts (German Law Publishers 2008). Contents include:

• Carl Baudenbacher, Introduction
• Ruth MacKenzie, Introduction: From Diplomacy to Judging in International Law
• Wilhelmina Thomassen, Legitimacy of International Court Rulings
• Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, From Trade Diplomacy to judging in International Trade Law
• Eric A. Posner, Diplomacy, Arbitration, and International Courts
• Merit E. Janow, The WTO Appellate Body
• Georg Ress, Introduction: Access to International Courts
• Peter Jann, Access to International Courts
• Frank Montag, Access for Private Parties to the EU Courts
• Marco Bronckers, Private Appeals to WTO Law – an Update
• Jean-Paul Costa, The European Court of Human Rights
• Carl Baudenbacher, Introduction: Methods of Interpretation – Judicial Dialogue
• Giorgio Sacerdoti, Methods of Interpretation by the Appellate Body of the WTO
• Allan Rosas, Methods of Interpretation – Judicial Dialogue
• Miguel Poiares Maduro, The European Court of Justice
• Carl Baudenbacher, Introduction: Acceptance and Criticism of Judgments
• Hjalte Rasmussen, Acceptance and Criticism of International Courts’ Rulings
• Christiaan Timmermans, Judicial activism and judicial restraint
• Ian S. Forrester, Europe des Juges. Recent criticism of ECHR and ECJ judgments; the American debate on judicial activism versus judicial restraint
• J. Clifford Wallace, The United States Courts

Triffterer: Commentary on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Observers' Notes, Article by Article (Second Edition)

Otto Triffterer (Univ. of Salzburg - Law) has published the second edition of Commentary on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: Observers' Notes, Article by Article (Hart Publishing 2008). Here's the abstract:

On 1st July 2002, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force enabling the ICC, as laid down in the Preamble to the Statute, to affirm "that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished and that their effective prosecution must be ensured by taking measures at national level and by enhancing international cooperation". In the second edition of their Commentary, Otto Triffterer and a number of eminent legal practitioners and scholars in the field of international criminal law give a detailed article-by-article analysis of both the Statute as well as the "Elements of Crime" and the "Rules of Procedure and Evidence", adopted by the Assembly of States Parties in 2002, and the "Regulations of the Court", adopted by the Judges of the ICC in 2004. The second edition is a substantially revised and significantly amended version of the first edition of 1999, considering the jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as well as other international, "semi-international" or national courts and the relevant literature since 1999. The Commentary will be an invaluable aid to all practitioners and scholars dealing with the Rome Statute and the jurisdiction established by its "Complementarity Regime".

Society of International Economic Law Inaugural Conference Papers (Update)

Three weeks ago, I noted that papers for the Society of International Economic Law's Inaugural Conference, July 15-17, are being posted here. Sixteen papers have been posted since my initial post (too many for me to list individually here), so it's worthwhile to check back at that website to see the latest.

New Issue: Criminal Law Forum

The latest issue of Criminal Law Forum (Vol. 19, no. 2, June 2008) is out. Contents include:

• Jonathan Clough, Now you see it, now you don’t: digital images and the meaning of "possession"
• Alexander Zahar, Legal Aid, Self-Representation, and the Crisis at the Hague Tribunal

ICTY: Appeals Chamber Judgment in the Case Against Naser Orić

Today, the ICTY Appeals Chamber rendered its judgment in the case (No. IT-03-68) against Naser Orić, former commander of Bosnian Muslim forces in Srebrenica (case information sheet here). The defendant had appealed his June 30, 2006, conviction on two counts of war crimes for failing to "discharge [his] duty as a superior to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the occurrence" of murder and cruel treatment. The Prosecutor appealed Orić's acquittal on other charges, as well as the sentence imposed. (Trial Chamber judgment here; summary here; press release here). Orić was sentenced to two years imprisonment.

In today's judgment (summary here; press release here; full judgment not yet available online), the Appeals Chamber reversed the Trial Chamber and acquitted Orić of all the crimes of which he had been convicted. The Appeals Chamber faulted the Trial Chamber for not making the findings necessary for the defendant's conviction on a theory of command responsibility. Specifically, the Appeals Chamber noted the absence of findings that Orić's "only identified subordinate, Atif Krdžić," was responsible for crimes and that "Orić knew or had reason to know that Atif Krdžić was about to or had committed crimes." The Court rejected the Prosecution's appeals. The press release notes: "The Presiding Judge emphasized that before the International Tribunal a Chamber has to decide solely based on the evidence brought before it by the parties. The Appeals Chamber had explicitly asked the Prosecution whether it could point to additional evidence not assessed by the Trial Chamber [that would establish Orić's criminal liability on the basis of his command responsibility]. However, the Prosecution was not in a position to do so."

UPDATE: The judgment is now available here. So too are the declaration of Judge Shahabuddeen, the partially dissenting opinion and declaration of Judge Liu, and the separate and partially dissenting opinion of Judge Schomburg.

Conference: The World Ocean in Globalization: Challenges for Marine Regions

The Fridtjof Nansen Institute will host an international conference on marine affairs and the Law of the Sea, August 21-23, 2008, in Oslo. The theme is "The World Ocean in Globalization: Challenges for Marine Regions." Background on the conference and its concept is here. The program is here. Why attend?

In connection with its 50th anniversary, the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI) convenes this international conference on marine affairs and law of the sea, to provide an independent and qualified forum for the exchange of views, analyses and comments on challenges for seas and marine regions, and their resources, in the face of increasing globalization.

This is the third international conference organized by the FNI to discuss challenges for the international cooperation on oceans and seas in general, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in particular. The previous conferences were held in 1983, following up on the adoption of the Convention, and in 1998, addressing implementation aspects following the entry into force of the Convention.

Today, the Convention has 155 parties and is widely accepted as an established legal and policy framework for the world ocean. It is now 25 years since the Convention was adopted - an anniversary that can serve as a good occasion to assess the state of affairs that the Convention aims at regulating.

In the past quarter-century, however, various aspects of globalization - affecting also on the use of the seas - have likely had more impact on the state of the marine environment and resources than all human activities have had in the entire span of human history before. Against this backdrop, the conference has three thematic foci:

• Challenges posed by globalization
• Interaction between global and regional regulatory and policy responses
• Technology and science: Interface with ocean law and policy development

Through these themes, the conference will address several key issue-areas, including high-seas fishing and international navigation in particular.

Luban: Fairness to Rightness: Jurisdiction, Legality, and the Legitimacy of International Criminal Law

David Luban (Georgetown Univ. - Law) has posted Fairness to Rightness: Jurisdiction, Legality, and the Legitimacy of International Criminal Law. Here's the abstract:

This paper investigates the legitimacy of international criminal trials and defends them against objections grounded in the principle of legality. The argument begins with the observation that the center of gravity in international criminal tribunals lies in the trials themselves more than the punishments inflicted. Such often-discussed aims as giving victims a voice or creating a historical record of mass atrocities are goals of the trial process, not the punishment. Often, it is the spectacle of a former leader brought before a court for politically-motivated atrocities that captures the public imagination; the trial itself has a theatrical or didactic component. That is not an objection to the trials, if they are conducted fairly. But the use of the trial as political theater puts pressure on its fairness. This paper argues that the aim of the trials is norm projection: trials are expressive acts broadcasting the news that mass atrocities are, in fact, heinous crimes and not merely politics by other means. The trials are meant to project the message that atrocities are crimes, not political deeds that exist "beyond good and evil," a vision that underlies traditional amoralist concepts of raison d'tat or Kriegsraison.

The second principal thesis of the paper is that the legitimacy of the tribunals comes from the fairness of their procedures and punishments, not their political pedigree. The legal and political arguments for the jurisdictional authority of international bodies to establish tribunals are only partly satisfactory, and insufficient on their own to legitimize the tribunals. Tribunals bootstrap themselves into legitimacy by the quality of justice they deliver; their rightness depends on their fairness. The clearest example is the Nuremberg Tribunal. Established by victorious allies with jurisdiction only over the Axis powers, it had to prove that it was no show trial, and the clearest evidence was the acquittals it produced.

The final sections of the paper address the concern that international tribunals characteristically violate the principle of legality, in two ways: they are generally established only after the crimes they try are committed, and they sometimes read the law broadly, from a victim-centered point of view, rather than narrowly, as the legality-based rule of lenity in criminal law would require. The paper argues that the two motivating arguments behind the principle of legality - concern about fair notice, and concern about despotic abuse of the power to punish - are less compelling in international criminal law than they are in domestic law. As for the fair-notice rationale: the more horrendous the deeds, the less fairness requires formal notice of potential criminal liability. As for the government abuse rationale: there is simply much less danger of government abuse in international criminal law than in domestic legal systems, because ICL arises from weak, decentralized institutions rather than strong, concentrated ones. Skeptics point to the free-floating, cosmopolitan character of the tribunals in order to attack their legitimacy. But exactly the same facts demonstrate that the worry about abuses of the legal process by holders of state power is not a powerful one.

ICC: Trial Chamber Orders Lubanga Released

Today, a Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court ordered the release of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the first person arrested and transferred to the Court. (Decision here; press release here.) The Trial Chamber had previously determined (on June 13th) that the Prosecutor had not disclosed potentially exculpatory evidence to the accused, as required by the Court's Statute. Apparently, even following that decision, the Prosecutor and the Court were not able to agree on a satisfactory mechanism for judicial review of the contested evidence. That led to today's decision, in which the Chamber concluded: "[T]he Chamber's Decision [of June 13th] stayed the proceedings sine die because of the present impossibility of trying the accused fairly. It follows that the detention of the accused cannot be justified in order to ensure his appearance at trial or to safeguard the investigation, because the trial (which was the result of the investigation) has been stayed. Furthermore, in the absence of the prospect of a trial, the accused cannot be held in custody or subjected to provisional release as purely preventative measures to deter him from committing further crimes." In addition to its decision to order Lubanga's release, the Trial Chamber today also granted the Prosecutor leave to appeal its June 13th decision. (Decision on leave to appeal here.) The Trial Chamber stayed its release order pending that appeal.

Kurki: Causation in International Relations: Reclaiming Causal Analysis

Milja Kurki (Aberystwyth Univ. - International Politics) has published Causation in International Relations: Reclaiming Causal Analysis (Cambridge Univ. Press 2008). Here's the abstract:

World political processes, such as wars and globalisation, are engendered by complex sets of causes and conditions. Although the idea of causation is fundamental to the field of International Relations, what the concept of cause means or entails has remained an unresolved and contested matter. In recent decades ferocious debates have surrounded the idea of causal analysis, some scholars even questioning the legitimacy of applying the notion of cause in the study of International Relations. This book suggests that underlying the debates on causation in the field of International Relations is a set of problematic assumptions (deterministic, mechanistic and empiricist) and that we should reclaim causal analysis from the dominant discourse of causation. Milja Kurki argues that reinterpreting the meaning, aims and methods of social scientific causal analysis opens up multi-causal and methodologically pluralist avenues for future International Relations scholarship.

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 330 (2007) of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:

• Ch. P. Pamboukis (Univ. of Athens - Law), Droit international privé holistique: droit uniforme et droit international privé

Prescott & Triggs: International Frontiers and Boundaries: Law, Politics and Geography

Victor Prescott (Univ. of Melbourne - Geography) & Gillian D. Triggs (Univ. of Melbourne - Law & British Institute of International and Comparative Law) have published International Frontiers and Boundaries: Law, Politics and Geography (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2008). Here's the abstract:

International frontiers and boundaries separate land, rivers and lakes subject to different sovereignties. Frontiers are zones of varying widths and they were common many centuries ago. By 1900 frontiers had almost disappeared and had been replaced by boundaries that are lines. The divisive nature of frontiers and boundaries has formed the focus of inter-disciplinary studies by economists, geographers, historians, lawyers and political scientists. Scholars from these disciplines have produced a rich literature dealing with frontiers and boundaries. The authors surveyed this extensive literature and the introduction reveals the themes which have attracted most attention.

Following the introduction the book falls into three sections. The first section deals systematically with frontiers, boundary evolution and boundary disputes. The second section considers aspects of international law related to boundaries. It includes chapters dealing with international law and territorial boundaries, maps as evidence of international boundaries and river boundaries and international law. The third section consists of seven regional chapters that examine the evolution of boundaries in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, islands off Southeast Asia and Antarctica.

Shany & Broude: The Shifting Allocation of Authority in International Law: Considering Sovereignty, Supremacy and Subsidiarity

Yuval Shany (Hebrew Univ. - Law) & Tomer Broude (Hebrew Univ. - Law) have published The Shifting Allocation of Authority in International Law: Considering Sovereignty, Supremacy and Subsidiarity (Hart Publishing 2008). Here's the abstract:

International law is fragmented and complex, and at the same time increasingly capable of shaping reality in areas as diverse as human rights, trade and investment, and environmental law. The increased influences of international law and its growing institutionalization and judicialization invites reconsideration of the question how should the authority to make and interpret international law be allocated among states, international organizations and tribunals, or in other words, "who should decide what" in a system that formally lacks a central authority? This is not only a juridical question, but one that lies at the very heart of the political legitimacy of international law as a system of governance, defining the relationship between those who create the law and those who are governed by it in a globalizing world.

In this book, leading international legal scholars address a broad range of theoretical and practical aspects of the question of allocation of authority in international law and debate the feasibility of three alternative paradigms for international organization: Sovereignty, Supremacy and Subsidiarity. The various contributions transcend technical solutions to what is in essence a problem of international constitutional dimensions. They deal, inter alia, with the structure of the international legal system and the tenacity of sovereignty as one of its foundations, assess the role of supremacy in inter-judicial relations, and draw lessons from the experience of the European Union in applying the principle of subsidiarity.

Contents include:

• Tomer Broude & Yuval Shany, Introduction
• Thomas M. Franck, The Centripede and the Centrifuge: Principles for the Centralisation and Decentralisation of Governance
• W. Michael Reisman, On the Causes of Uncertainty and Volatility in International Law
• Dirk Pulkowski, Structural Paradigms of International Law
• Gareth Davies, Subsidiarity as a Method of Policy Centralisation
• Tomer Broude, Fragmentation(s) of International Law: On Normative Integration as Authority Allocation
• Brad R. Roth, State Sovereignty, International Legality and Moral Disagreement
• Robert L. Howse & Kalypso Nicolaidis, Democracy without Sovereignty: The Global Vocation of Political Ethics
• Andreas L. Paulus, Subsidiarity, Fragmentation and Democracy: Towards the Demise of General International Law?
• Nikolaos Lavranos, Towards a Solange-Method between International Courts and Tribunals?
• Iris Canor, Exercise in Constitutional Tolerance? When Public International Law Meets Private International Law: Bosphorus Revisited
• Amichai Cohen, Domestic Courts and Sovereignty
• Guy Harpaz, Regionalism, Economic Interdependence, Approximation of Laws and their Impact on Sovereignty, National Identity, and Legitimacy: The Euro-Med Case
• Moshe Hirsch, Conflicting Obligations in International Investment Law: Investment Tribunals’ Perspective
• André Nollkaemper, Multi-level Accountability: A Case Study of Accountability in the Aftermath of the Srebrenica Massacre
• Malcolm N. Shaw, Territorial Administration by Non-territorial Sovereigns

Arup: The World Trade Organization Knowledge Agreements

Christopher Arup (Monash Univ. - Business Law and Taxation) has published the second edition of The World Trade Organization Knowledge Agreements (Cambridge Univ. Press 2008). Here's the abstract:

The WTO intellectual property and services agreements (TRIPs and GATS) form the global legal framework in which governments now regulate trade in knowledge. This second edition analyses the provisions of the agreements and examines closely the thirteen years of implementation and revision. Gathering together the interpretations placed on the agreements by the WTO dispute settlement bodies, it reports on the initiatives taken by the members both to liberalise trade in knowledge and to shape international business regulation. Drawing on this, Christopher Arup assesses the future of the WTO as a global law-making institution. Three expanded case studies (legal services, genetic codes/essential medicines, and on-line media) illustrate the impact of the agreements and highlight the challenges faced by the WTO in reconciling free trade with social regulation.

Seyersted: Common Law of International Organizations

Finn Seyersted (Univ. of Oslo - Law) has published (posthumously) Common Law of International Organizations (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2008). Here's the abstract:

This work provides a comprehensive theory of the system of legal norms that are developed partly in the internal written (constitutional) law of intergovernmental organizations and partly through their consistent practice, and that are therefore common to intergovernmental organizations. The legal construction presented in this volume consists of the following main elements: As for all other self-governing communities all intergovernmental organizations possess their own internal law governing their relations with 1) the organs of the organization, 2) the officials and 3) the member states in their capacity as members of the organization. Some organizations exercise in addition extended (delegated) jurisdiction over states, other organizations and/or individuals. Secondly, as for other self-governing communities all intergovernmental organizations are subjects of public international law in their relations with other self-governing communities (states and other intergovernmental organizations), and in the case of extended jurisdiction, also in relations with individuals and private entities. Thirdly, as for all other self-governing communities possessing its own internal law (its distinct lex personalis), intergovernmental organizations enter into relations of a private law nature with both public and private entities. Governed by the rules on conflict of laws, these relations must be determined by assessing relevant 1) personal, 2) territorial and 3) organic connecting factors. Thus Common Law of Intergovernmental Organizations brings together all those elements pertaining to the theory of objective legal personality that have been presented in a scattered fashion, in bits and pieces. Common Law of Intergovernmental Organizations, starting out from the position of objective legal personality, is fully compatible with modern requirements of good governance and accountability of international organizations, and particularly adaptable to the ideal of “systemic integration” of legal regimes constituting internal law of the organization.

Staiger & Sykes: "Currency Manipulation" and World Trade

Robert W. Staiger (Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison - Economics) & Alan O. Sykes (Stanford Univ. - Law) have posted "Currency Manipulation" and World Trade. Here's the abstract:

Central bank intervention in foreign exchange markets may, under some conditions, stimulate exports and retard imports. In the past few years, this issue has moved to center stage because of the foreign exchange policies of China. China has regularly intervened to prevent the RMB from appreciating relative to other currencies, and over the same period has developed large global and bilateral trade surpluses. Numerous public officials and commentators argue that China has engaged in impermissible "currency manipulation," and various proposals for stiff action against China are now pending on Capitol Hill. This paper clarifies the theoretical relationship between exchange rate policy and international trade, and addresses the question of what content can be given to the concept of "currency manipulation" as a measure that may impair the commitments made in trade agreements. The analysis goes to the proper relationship between IMF obligations and WTO obligations and to the question whether trade measures can be an appropriate response to exchange rate policies. Our conclusions are at odds with much of what is currently being said in Washington. For example, it is often asserted that China's currency policies have real effects that are equivalent to an export subsidy. In fact, however, if prices are flexible the effect of exchange rate intervention parallels that of a uniform import tariff and export subsidy, which will have no real effect on trade, an implication of Lerner's symmetry theorem. With sticky prices, the real effects of exchange rate intervention and the translation of that intervention into trade-policy equivalents depend critically on how traded goods and services are priced. We show how the effects differ, according to whether exporters invoice in the local currency of the producer, in the currency of the buyer, or in a "vehicle" currency such as dollars. The real effects of China's policies are thus potentially quite complex, are not readily translated into trade-policy equivalents, and are dependent on the time frame over which they are evaluated (because prices are less "sticky" over a longer time frame). Accordingly, we are skeptical about many of the policy responses now under consideration in Washington both on economic and legal grounds.

Chesterman: UNaccountable? The United Nations, Emergency Powers, and the Rule of Law in Asia

Simon Chesterman (New York Univ. - Law, Singapore Programme) has posted UNaccountable? The United Nations, Emergency Powers, and the Rule of Law in Asia (in Emergency Powers in Asia, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This paper examines the use of the rule of law at the international level as a tool - and its application to those who wield it - with a particular emphasis on UN operations in Asia, notably Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Afghanistan. Section one examines the ways in which the rule of law has been used to stabilize conflict zones, focusing on the activities of the UN Security Council from the mid-1990s onwards and in particular on Timor-Leste. Section two considers the extent to which the rule of law has constrained the decisions and actions of the Council, focusing on accountability issues and the apparent compromise of these principles in Afghanistan. A concluding section will consider what light (if any) these operations shed on larger questions raised by the book, such as whether there are discernibly 'Western' or 'Asian' approaches to the role law plays in times of crisis. Of particular interest is the extent to which the United Nations can be said to reflect Western values, as is frequently alleged. A tentative conclusion is that there may be some rhetorical merit to this claim: Western states do largely set the agenda for the human rights framework that is commonly used to judge state actions. Nevertheless, the United Nations and the international system wield executive authority so infrequently and inconstantly that broad conclusions are not yet possible. More interesting, for the purposes of this book, is the manner in which internationally-administered 'emergency' powers demonstrate the willingness of even established democracies to invoke the rule of law instrumentally, as a tool to provide stability - and thus implicitly to compromise rule of law principles in the name of security.

Saurez: The Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf: Legal Aspects of Their Establishment

Suzette V. Suarez has published The Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf: Legal Aspects of their Establishment (Springer 2008). Here's the abstract:

The book provides an in-depth study of the legal aspects concerning the limits of the outer continental shelf. It addresses the interpretation and application of the respective rules and formulas. The complexity of interpreting and applying the respective rules stems from the fact that many terms in Article 76 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are not defined and require the combined application of law and science.

New Issue: Michigan Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Michigan Journal of International Law (Vol. 28, no. 4, Summer 2007) is out. Contents include:

• Dmitry Gololobov, The Yukos Money Laundering Case: A Never-Ending Story
• Pasha L. Hsieh, An Unrecognized State in Foreign and International Courts: The Case of the Republic of China on Taiwan
• Emmanuelle Jouannet, What Is the Use of International Law? International Law as a 21st Century Guardian of Welfare

Irwin, Mavroidis, & Sykes: The Genesis of the GATT

Douglas A. Irwin (Dartmouth College - Economics), Petros C. Mavroidis (Columbia Univ. - Law), & Alan O. Sykes (Stanford Univ. - Law) have published The Genesis of the GATT (Cambridge Univ. Press 2008). Here's the abstract:

This book is part of a wider project that aims to propose a model GATT that makes good economic sense without undoing its current basic structure. It asks: What does the historical record indicate about the aims and objectives of the framers of the GATT? To what extent does the historical record provide support for one or more of the economic rationales for the GATT? The book supports that the two main framers of the GATT were the United Kingdom and the United States; developing countries’ influence was noticeable only after the mid-1950s. The framers understood the GATT as a pro-peace instrument; however, they were mindful of the costs of achieving such a far-reaching objective and were not willing to allocate them disproportionately. This may explain why their negotiations were based on reciprocal market access commitments so that the terms of trade were not unevenly distributed or affected through the GATT.

New Issue: Journal of World Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Trade (Vol. 42, no. 3, June 2008) is out. Contents include:

• Reinhard Quick, Regulatory Cooperation—A Subject of Bilateral Trade Negotiations or Even for the WTO?
• Richard Bonsi, A.L. Hammett, & Bob Smith, Eco-labels and International Trade: Problems and Solutions at the WTO
• Shadan Farasat, India's Quest for Regional Trade Agreements: Challenges Ahead
• Kasturi Das, Select Issues and Debates around Geographical Indications with Particular Reference to India
• Erich Vranes, The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and its Compatibility with the GATS Disciplines on Financial Services
• Barbara Fliess & Joy A. Kim, Non-tariff Barriers Facing Trade in Selected Environmental Goods and Associated Services
• Tsai-Yu Lin, Exploring the Link Between Trade and Cultural Protection in the Context of Anti-dumping

Call for Papers: International Theory: A Journal of International Politics, Law and Philosophy

International Theory: A Journal of International Politics, Law and Philosophy, a new peer-reviewed journal from Cambridge University Press, has issued a call for papers. Here's a description of the journal:

International Theory (IT) promotes theoretical scholarship about the positive, legal, and normative aspects of world politics respectively. IT is open to theory of absolutely all varieties and from all disciplines, provided it addresses problems of politics, broadly defined and pertains to the international. IT welcomes scholarship that uses evidence from the real world to advance theoretical arguments. However, IT is intended as a forum where scholars can develop theoretical arguments in depth without an expectation of extensive empirical analysis.

IT’s over-arching goal is to promote communication and engagement across theoretical and disciplinary traditions. IT puts a premium on contributors’ ability to reach as broad an audience as possible, both in the questions they engage and in their accessibility to other approaches. This might be done by addressing problems that can only be understood by combining multiple disciplinary discourses, like institutional design, or practical ethics; or by addressing phenomena that have broad ramifications, like civilizing processes in world politics, or the evolution of environmental norms. IT is also open to work that remains within one scholarly tradition, although in that case authors must make clear the horizon of their arguments in relation to other theoretical approaches.

And here's the call for papers:

International Theory invites authors to submit original theoretically oriented articles on the positive, legal, and/or normative aspects of world politics. Because IT is multidisciplinary with a broad intended audience, contributions must be as accessible as possible to readers from a wide range of disciplines and theoretical traditions. Papers that are primarily empirical or policy oriented are not a good fit.

We will not review manuscripts that have already been published, are scheduled for publication elsewhere, or have been simultaneously submitted to another journal; this applies to both print and online formats. All articles will be peer-reviewed by anonymous referees drawn for our Editorial Board and, on their advice, from relevant scholars around the world. Referees for the previous calendar year will be acknowledged in the final issue of each volume.

IT will review articles up to 15,000 words (including notes and bibliography), although authors will be encouraged to trim their papers to fewer than 12,000 words before publication. Brevity is encouraged and shorter papers will be advantaged in acceptance decisions. Please include a word count with submission, along with an abstract of approximately 200 words which is not repeated from the paper itself.

References and citations should follow The Chicago Manual of Style. Citations in the text or footnotes should be limited to author’s family name and date, with complete bibliographic information appearing in a list of references at the end of the article. The one exception is for legal articles; while strongly encouraged to follow the author-date system, if that proves unworkable legal authors may substitute the European Journal of International Law guidelines (available at http://www.ejil.org/info/style-toc.html).

Either way, titles of journals should not be abbreviated in the list of references (author-date system) or in the footnotes (legal articles). Tables and figures should be placed on separate pages at the end of the article with their desired location indicated in the text. Authors should submit their manuscript in electronic form as a MS Word file in an email attachment to it.mershon@osu.edu. (Please do not submit the manuscript in PDF format). Authors should attach both a complete version of the manuscript as well as an anonymous version stripped of all identifying references to the author(s) that can be sent to reviewers.

If an electronic version is not available, one complete version of the paper and three copies of the anonymous version of the manuscript should be sent to:

International Theory
The Mershon Center
Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210
USA

Manuscripts will not be returned to authors.

Any questions about these procedures may be directed to the Editors at the address or email above.

Evans & Murray: The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights: The System in Practice 1986–2006

Malcolm Evans (Univ. of Bristol - Law) & Rachel Murray (Univ. of Bristol - Law) have published the second edition of The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights: The System in Practice 1986–2006 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2008). Contents include:

• Germain Baricako, Introduction: the African Charter and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
• Gino Naldi, The African Union and the regional human rights system
• Malcolm Evans & Rachel Murray, The reporting mechanism of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
• Frans Viljoen, Communications under the African Charter: procedure and admissibility
• Rachel Murray, Evidence and fact finding by the African Commission
• Bronwen Manby, Civil and political rights in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: Articles 1-7
• Kolawole Olaniyan, Civil and political rights in the African Charter: Articles 8-14
• Clive Baldwin & Cynthia Morel, Group rights
• Nobuntu Mbelle, The role of non-governmental organisations and national human rights institutions at the African Commission
• Fiona Adolu, A view from inside: the role of the Secretariat
• Rachel Murray, The special rapporteurs in the African system
• Bahame Tom Mukirya Nyanduga, Working groups of the African Commission and their role in developing the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
• Ibrahima Kane & Ahmed C. Motala, Creation of a new Court of Justice and Human Rights
• Fareda Banda, Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa

Pabst: Kulturgüterschutz in nicht-internationalen bewaffneten Konflikten

Friederike Pabst has published Kulturgüterschutz in nicht-internationalen bewaffneten Konflikten (Duncker & Humblot 2008). Here's the abstract:

Kulturgüter sind als sichtbare Zeugnisse einer Kultur Identifikationsträger von Völkern und Gesellschaften. Insbesondere in nicht-internationalen bewaffneten Konflikten, die zwischen Bevölkerungsgruppen aufgrund von religiösen, ethnischen oder sonstigen kulturellen Unterschieden ausbrechen, richten sich bewaffnete Angriffe auch gegen Kulturgüter als Symbole der kulturellen Identität der gegnerischen Konfliktpartei. Durch Völkervertrags- und Völkergewohnheitsrecht werden Kulturgüter als Teil des Kulturerbes auch in diesen bewaffneten Konflikten geschützt. Friederike Pabst behandelt umfassend die anwendbaren völkerrechtlichen Regeln des Kulturgüterschutzes und Möglichkeiten ihrer Durchsetzung, insbesondere durch das Völkerstrafrecht. Auch Angriffe gegen Kulturgüter können im Völkerstrafrecht den Tatbestand der Kriegsverbrechen erfüllen. Die praktische Bedeutung des Themas wird anhand von zwei Fallbeispielen deutlich - der Zerstörung von Kulturgütern in Kroatien im Jahr 1991 und der Zerstörung der Buddha-Statuen von Bamiyan im Jahr 2001.

SFRC: Report on the International Convention Against Doping in Sport

On Friday, June 27th, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee submitted its Report (Exec. Rept. 110-11) on the International Convention Against Doping in Sport (Treaty Doc. 110-14). The Committee favorably reported the Convention on June 24th, following a hearing on May 22nd. The Convention was transmitted to the Senate on February 6, 2008. The proposed resolution of advice and consent to ratification contains one understanding, one declaration, and one condition. The SFRC's report notes that "U.S. ratification is . . . important for a practical reason: The International Olympic Committee has stated that it will only award the Olympic Games to countries that are party to the Convention. The city of Chicago is among the finalists to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, but it would likely not be awarded the Games if the Convention is not ratified by the United States."

Malbon & Lawson: Interpreting and Implementing the TRIPS Agreement: Is It Fair?

Justin Malbon (Monash Univ - Law) & Charles Lawson (Griffith Univ. - Law) have published Interpreting and Implementing the TRIPS Agreement: Is it Fair? (Edward Elgar Publishing 2008). Contents include:

• Christopher Arup, TRIPS as Competitive and Cooperative Interpretation
• Graham Dutfield, Knowledge Diplomacy and the New Intellectual Property Fundamentalism
• Xu Yi-chong, Last Chance? Multilateralism, TRIPS and Developing Countries
• Jakkrit Kuanpoth, Intellectual Property Protection after TRIPS: An Asian Experience
• Ermias Tekeste Biadgleng, The Development-Balance of the TRIPS Agreement and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
• Charles Lawson & Jay Sanderson, The Evolution of the CBD’s Development Agenda that may Influence the Interpretation and Development of TRIPS
• Justin Malbon, TRIPS-plus Treaty Terms: Dealing with Coercion