BIICL: Standards of Compensation and Measures of Value in International Investment Arbitration

On March 2, David Herlihy (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom), Mark Kantor (Arbitrator, Washington, D.C.), Irmgard Marboe (Univ of Vienna), James Nicholson (FTI Consulting), Thierry Senechal (International Chamber of Commerce), and Noah Rubins (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) will speak on Standards of Compensation and Measures of Value in International Investment Arbitration at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.

Gauri: The Cost of Complying with Human Rights Treaties: The Convention on the Rights of the Child and Basic Immunization

Varun Gauri (World Bank) has posted The Cost of Complying with Human Rights Treaties: The Convention on the Rights of the Child and Basic Immunization (Review of International Organizations, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The determinants of compliance with human rights treaties likely vary according to the right in question, yet heterogeneity in the pathways through which ratification affects various human rights outcomes has received limited attention. This paper first develops an account of treaty compliance that incorporates the intrinsic benefits to the state of compliance, regime costs associated with certain rights, the political costs that NGOs, judges, and others are able to impose for non-compliance, and the fiscal and economic costs of compliance. The paper argues that for child survival rights, fiscal and economic costs are likely to be dispositive, and that as a result richer countries are more likely to comply. The paper then uses an instrumental variable approach to investigate whether ratification of the Convention of the Rights of the Child was associated with stronger effort at the country level on child survival rights. It finds that ratification of the CRC was correlated with a subsequent increase in immunization rates, but only in upper middle and high income countries.

Akande: Prosecuting Aggression: The Consent Problem and the Role of the Security Council

Dapo Akande (Univ. of Oxford - Law) has posted Prosecuting Aggression: The Consent Problem and the Role of the Security Council. Here's the abstract:

This paper focuses on the conditions which ought to exist before the International Criminal Court can exercise jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. In particular, it addresses (i) whether the Court should be competent to exercise jurisdiction where the alleged aggressor State has either not accepted the amendment on aggression, or is not a party to the ICC Statute and (ii) whether ICC jurisdiction on aggression should be made dependent on the prior approval of the United Nations Security Council. The first issue is referred to here as the “consent problem” and the second the “Security Council problem/issue”.

d'Aspremont: Multilateral Versus Unilateral Exercises of Universal Criminal Jurisdiction

Jean d'Aspremont (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Multilateral Versus Unilateral Exercises of Universal Criminal Jurisdiction. Here's the abstract:

This Article draws a distinction between two types of exercises of universal criminal jurisdiction with a view to demonstrating that one of them is deeply detrimental to domestic IHL enforcement mechanisms. This Article especially zeroes in on contemporary unilateral exercises of universal criminal jurisdiction and argues that their unilateral character deprives domestic enforcement procedures of their legitimacy and efficacy. This Article begins by distinguishing between unilateral and multilateral uses of criminal universal jurisdiction. Once these two different exercises of universal jurisdiction have been sufficiently spelled out, this Article explains why unilateral exercises of universal jurisdiction and the absence of conventional basis do not, per se, stir any problems of legality. The last part of this Article shows that unilateral exercises of universal jurisdiction, while not generating any problem of legality, fuel problems of legitimacy because of the discourse that generally accompany such proceedings as well as the impossibility to relate such exercises to the consent of the State of nationality of the accused or that where the crime was committed. On this occasion, it is shown that the perceived illegitimacy of unilateral exercises of jurisdiction can prove harmful to the legitimacy and efficacy of domestic IHL enforcement procedures as a whole.

Recent Book Reviews at Global Law Books

Global Law Books has recently posted the following book reviews:

• Fontanelli, Filippo (Ed); Martinico, Giuseppe (Ed); Carrozza, Paolo (Ed) , "Shaping Rule of Law Through Dialogue. International and Supranational Experiences" - Reviewer: Castellví Laukamp, Luis
• Steven Wheatley, "The Democratic Legitimacy of International Law" - Reviewer: Venzke, Ingo
• Carcano, Andrea , "L’occupazione dell’Iraq nel diritto internazionale" - Reviewer: Sossai, Mirko
• Danny Nicol, "The Constitutional Protection of Capitalism" - Reviewer: Losada Fraga, Fernando
• Decaux, Emmanuel , "Les formes contemporaines de l’esclavage" - Reviewer: Allain, Jean

Grisel: L’application extraterritoriale du droit international des droits de l’homme

Guillaume Grisel has published L’application extraterritoriale du droit international des droits de l’homme (Helbing Lichtenhahn 2010). Here's the abstract:

Les obligations de l’Etat en matière de droits de l’homme s’étendent-elles au-delà de ses frontières ? Le sujet prend une importance considérable actuellement: interventions militaires à l’étranger, opérations de paix, centres de détention à l’étranger, mouvements séparatistes soutenus par un Etat étranger, éloignement des étrangers, entraide internationale, exequatur de décisions étrangères violant les droits de l’homme... Ces thèmes, et d’autres, sont abordés dans l’ouvrage sous l’angle du Pacte ONU II, de la CEDH et de la Convention et la Déclaration américaines, dans une approche comparative et systématique. L’ouvrage analyse en détail la jurisprudence et la pratique internationales relatives à ces instruments.

Chapaux: Sahara occidental: Quels recours juridictionnels pour les peuples sous domination étrangère ?

Vincent Chapaux has published Sahara occidental: Quels recours juridictionnels pour les peuples sous domination étrangère ? Western Sahara: Which legal remedies for peoples under foreign domination ? (Bruylant 2010). Here's the abstract:

Il est difficile de nier, en droit, que les Sahraouis constituent un peuple qui possède le droit à l’autodétermination. Le droit dérivé des Nations Unies ainsi que l’avis de la Cour internationale de justice sont extrêmement clairs sur ce point. Outre ce droit fondamental, les juristes reconnaissent aux Sahraouis (en tant que personnes, peuple ou État) de nombreux autres droits dont ils soulignent régulièrement l’importance: droits de la personne, droit pénal international, droit sur les ressources naturelles, etc. La multitude des droits reconnus aux Sahraouis contraste cependant avec la rareté de leur mise en application dans les prétoires de par le monde. A tel point que l’on en vient à se demander si ce ne sont pas les systèmes judiciaires nationaux et internationaux eux-mêmes qui en seraient la cause, en ce qu’ils ne fourniraient pas de cénacle approprié à la mise en oeuvre des droits que leurs systèmes juridiques respectifs prétendent offrir. Le colloque organisé le 12 octobre 2009 à l’Université Libre de Bruxelles avait pour objectif de mettre cette hypothèse à l’épreuve en dressant un vaste panorama des juridictions susceptibles de contribuer à l’application des droits reconnus aux Sahraouis. L’approche était pragmatique. Elle visait à isoler les solutions concrètes que ces juridictions pouvaient offrir à un conflit qui s’éternise. La rencontre visait également, sur le plan plus général et théorique, à poser une réflexion sur le rôle politique que le droit peut jouer pour les peuples vivant sous domination étrangère. Le présent ouvrage rassemble les actes de cette journée. Ils ont également été publiés dans la Revue belge de droit international, vol. 2010/1.

It is hard to deny : Sahrawis have the right to self determination. The decisions of the United Nations along with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice made that clear more than 30 years ago. Besides that, the Sahrawis are granted as having numerous other rights deriving from human right law, international criminal law, natural resources law, ... The wide range of Sahrawis rights contrasts however with the paucity of their implementation in courtrooms around the world. So much so that one wonders if the domestic and international judicial systems themselves should be held responsible, in that they do not provide the appropriate means to ensure the implementation of the rights that their respective legal systems claimto offer. The symposium organized at the Université Libre de Bruxelles aimed to put this hypothesis to the test by providing a broad overview of the different courts which, around the world, may contribute to the implementation of the rights of the Sahrawis. The approach was of a pragmatic kind. The aim was to isolate the solutions that the judicial world can offer to a conflict that drags on. At amore general and theoretical level, thismeeting tried to offer a reflection on the political role that law can play for peoples living under foreign domination. This volume brings together the proceedings of this symposium. They have also been published in the Revue belge de droit international, vol. 2010/1.

Orford: International Authority and the Responsibility to Protect

Anne Orford (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) has published International Authority and the Responsibility to Protect (Cambridge Univ. Press 2011). Here's the abstract:

The idea that states and the international community have a responsibility to protect populations at risk has framed internationalist debates about conflict prevention, humanitarian aid, peacekeeping and territorial administration since 2001. This book situates the responsibility to protect concept in a broad historical and jurisprudential context, demonstrating that the appeal to protection as the basis for de facto authority has emerged at times of civil war or revolution - the Protestant revolutions of early modern Europe, the bourgeois and communist revolutions of the following centuries and the revolution that is decolonisation. This analysis, from Hobbes to the UN, of the resulting attempts to ground authority on the capacity to guarantee security and protection is essential reading for all those seeking to understand, engage with, limit or critique the expansive practices of international executive action authorised by the responsibility to protect concept.

New Issue: Journal of International Criminal Justice

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Vol. 9, no. 1, March 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Current Events
• Valentina Spiga, Non-retroactivity of Criminal Law: A New Chapter in the Hissène Habré Saga
• Articles
• Marko Milanović, Is the Rome Statute Binding on Individuals? (And Why We Should Care)
• Gideon Boas, Self-Representation before the ICTY: A Case for Reform
• Symposium: Indirect Perpetration: A Perfect Fit for International Prosecution of Armchair Killers?
• Gerhard Werle & Boris Burghardt, Foreword
• Thomas Weigend, Perpetration through an Organization: The Unexpected Career of a German Legal Concept
• Francisco Muñoz-Conde & Héctor Olásolo, The Application of the Notion of Indirect Perpetration through Organized Structures of Power in Latin America and Spain
• Kai Ambos, The Fujimori Judgment: A President’s Responsibility for Crimes Against Humanity as Indirect Perpetrator by Virtue of an Organized Power Apparatus
• Stefano Manacorda & Chantal Meloni, Indirect Perpetration versus Joint Criminal Enterprise: Concurring Approaches in the Practice of International Criminal Law?
• George P. Fletcher, New Court, Old Dogmatik
• Anthology
• Claus Roxin on Crimes as Part of Organized Power Structures
• Gerhard Werle, Boris Burghardt, & Claus Roxin, Introductory Note Crimes as Part of Organized Power Structures
• The German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) on Indirect Perpetration
• Gerhard Werle & Boris Burghardt, Introductory Note
• German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof), Judgment of 26 July 1994 Against Former Minister of National Defence Keßler and Others
• National Prosecution of International Crimes: Cases and Legislation
• Annyssa Bellal, The 2009 Resolution of the Institute of International Law on Immunity and International Crimes: A Partial Codification of the Law?
• Sabine Swoboda, Paying the Debts — Late Nazi Trials before German Courts: The Case of Heinrich Boere

Bamford: Principles of International Financial Law

Colin Bamford has published Principles of International Financial Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2011). Here's the abstract:

International financial law is a conceptually complex subject, with many transactions affected by the law of more than one country. This book provides a clear guide to the principles underlying common law financial transactions and the rules applied to them which have developed from a number of different practice areas. An understanding of these principles is necessary for lawyers to predict the reasoning the courts will apply in the case of disputes. It is also critical for those who are developing new financial products or security structures. The book will cover a number of separate topics, which fall into two categories, firstly concepts that underpin areas of legal rules, for example the legal character of an obligation to pay money, or the nature of a fiduciary duty, and secondly explanation of the evolution of particular legal structures, where an understanding of the structure is crucial to the practical task of using it such as the development of the legal structure of tradable bonds.

New Issue: Revista Española de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Española de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 62, no. 1, 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Estudios
• Carlos Bartolomé Jiménez Piernas, Los Estados fracasados y el Derecho internacional: el caso de Somalia
• Alberto do Amaral Júnior, El "diálogo" de las fuentes: fragmentación y coherencia en el Derecho internacional contemporáneo
• Luis María Cruz Ortiz de Landázuri, La reparación a las víctimas en el Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos
• Notas
• Davi de Pietri, La redefinición de la zona contigua por la legislación interna de los Estados

New Issue: Revue Générale de Droit International Public

The latest issue of the Revue Générale de Droit International Public (Vol. 114, no. 4, 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Habib Kazzi, Le principe de transparence dans les accords de l'OMC
• Sylvie Lorthois Louembet, Vers un traité international réglementant les transferts d'armes classiques en 2010
• S. El Boudouhi, La motivation de la jurispurdence récente de la Corte Suprema di Cassazione italienne sur les immunités juridictionnelles de l'Etat
• Yves Hamuli Kabumba, Incidence de la jurisprudence de la Cour Internationale de Justice sur les règles d'interprétation du statut de Rome, sur la qualification des faits et sur la preuve devant la Cour Pénale Internationale
• Hadi Azari, Le croisement de la compétence incidente et la compétence principale. A propos de l'ordonnance de la C.I.J. du 6 juillet 2010 dans l'affaire de l'Immunité juridictionnelle d'Etat (Allemagne c. Italie)
• Natacha Bach, La promotion avérée du pluralisme idéologique par le Comité des Droits de l'homme

New Issue: Leiden Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (Vol. 24, no. 1, March 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Andrea Bianchi, Terrorism and Armed Conflict: Insights from a Law & Literature Perspective
• Sahim Singh, The Potential of International Law: Fragmentation and Ethics
• Efthymios Papastavridis, The Right of Visit on the High Seas in a Theoretical Perspective: Mare Liberum versus Mare Clausum Revisited
• Kosovo Symposium
• Theodore Christakis & Olivier Corten, Symposium: The ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Kosovo: Editors' Introduction
• Theodore Christakis, The ICJ Advisory Opinion on Kosovo: Has International Law Something to Say about Secession?
• Olivier Corten, Territorial Integrity Narrowly Interpreted: Reasserting the Classical Inter-State Paradigm of International Law
• Anne Peters, Does Kosovo Lie in the Lotus-Land of Freedom?
• Marcelo G. Kohen & Katherine Del Mar, The Kosovo Advisory Opinion and UNSCR 1244 (1999): A Declaration of ‘Independence from International Law’?
• Marc Weller, Modesty Can Be a Virtue: Judicial Economy in the ICJ Kosovo Opinion?
• Ralph Wilde, Self-Determination, Secession, and Dispute Settlement after the Kosovo Advisory Opinion
• Hurst Hannum, The Advisory Opinion on Kosovo: An Opportunity Lost, or a Poisoned Chalice Refused?
• International Court of Justice
• Kenneth Keith, Thomas Buergenthal: Judge of the International Court of Justice (2000–10)
• Andrea Gattini, The Dispute on Jurisdictional Immunities of the State before the ICJ: Is the Time Ripe for a Change of the Law?
• Martin Dawidowicz, The Effect of the Passage of Time on the Interpretation of Treaties: Some Reflections on Costa Rica v. Nicaragua
• Current Legal Developments
• Jorge E. Viñuales, Balancing Effectiveness and Fairness in the Redesign of the Climate Change Regime

Ben-Naftali: International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law

Orna Ben-Naftali (College of Management Academic Studies - Law) has published International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2011). Contents include:

• Orna Ben-Naftali, Introduction: Pas de Deux
• Yuval Shany, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law as Competing Legal Paradigm for Fighting Terror
• Marco Sassóli, The Role of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law in New Types of Armed Conflicts
• Marko Milanovic, Norm Conflicts, International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law
• Orna Ben-Naftali, PathoLAWgical Occupation: Normalizing the Exceptional Case of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and Other Legal Pathologies
• Andrea Gioia, The Role of the European Court of Human Rights in Monitoring Compliance with Humanitarian Law in Armed Conflict
• Ana Filipa Vrdoljak, Cultural Heritage in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
• Paola Gaeta, Are Victims of War Crimes Entitled to Compensation?
• Christine Bell, Post-conflict Accountability and the Reshaping of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law

Stegmiller: The Pre-Investigation Stage of the ICC: Criteria for Situation Selection

Ignaz Stegmiller has published The Pre-Investigation Stage of the ICC: Criteria for Situation Selection (Duncker & Humblot 2011). Here's the abstract:

With the first part of this study Ignaz Stegmiller provides an introduction to the problem of pre-investigations, the second part gives an overview of the OTP's structure.

Part III addresses how the selection process is performed. In this part, the complexity of pre-investigations is revealed. The three trigger mechanisms - State referrals, SC referrals, and the proprio motu mechanism - are illustrated, Self-referrals are critically analyzed and the author argues that the Prosecutor should use his proprio motu power more frequently. Perceptions of OTP's lack of independence must be rebutted. The proprio motu tool could have a great share in that, while the self-referral practice is associated with nepotism.

Part IV analyses the criteria used to select situations including Article 53. As regards admissibility, the two notions of complementarity and gravity can be distinguished. Bearing in mind the inactivity criterion, complementarity is basically analyzed in a threefold manner: (1) as a rule whereby situations and cases are admissible if the State remains inactive; (2) exceptions as found in articles 17 (1) (a)-(c), 20 (3), which can lead to inadmissibility; (3) in turn, article 17 (2), (3) provides "exceptions to the exceptions" if a State is unwilling or unable to genuinely carry out proceedings. Gravity is a very complex notion. The author differentiates two concepts: "legal" and "relative" gravity. Legal gravity must then be linked to article 53 (1) (b) and relative gravity is part of article 53 (1) (c)'s assessment of the "interest of justice." Only a broad application of the "interest of justice" gives the OTP the flexibility that it needs. Parts V and VI then summarize the most important results of this study.

Kingsbury & Straumann: The State of Nature and Commercial Sociability in Early Modern International Legal Thought

Benedict Kingsbury (New York Univ. - Law) & Benjamin Straumann (New York Univ. - Law) have posted The State of Nature and Commercial Sociability in Early Modern International Legal Thought. Here's the abstract:

Writing as the recognizable modern idea of the state was being framed, Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and Samuel Pufendorf (1632-1694) each took distinctive approaches to the problems of whether and how there could be any legal or moral norms between these states in their emerging forms. They differed in their views of obligation in the state of nature (where ex hypothesi there was no state), in the extent to which they regarded these sovereign states as analogous to individuals in the state of nature, and in the effects they attributed to commerce as a driver of sociability and of norm-structured interactions not dependent on an overarching state. This paper explores the differences between their views on these issues, differences which contributed to the development of the thought of later writers such as Emer de Vattel (1714-1767), David Hume (1711-1776), and Adam Smith (1723-1790), and eventually in more attenuated ways to the different empirical legal methodologies of Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and Georg Friedrich von Martens (1756-1821).

Petersdorf: Eigenverteidigung und aufgedrängte Pflichtverteidigung im formellen Völkerstrafrecht

Boris Petersdorf has published Eigenverteidigung und aufgedrängte Pflichtverteidigung im formellen Völkerstrafrecht (Nomos 2010). Here's the abstract:

In der Vergangenheit wurden die Täter völkerrechtlicher Verbrechen oftmals nicht strafrechtlich verfolgt. Diese „Kultur der Straflosigkeit“ wird durch Verfahren vor internationalen Strafgerichten zurückgedrängt. Solche Prozesse vor internationalen Gerichtshöfen sind mittlerweile nichts Ungewöhnliches mehr. Dies gilt, mit Einschränkungen, auch für Verfahren gegen tatsächliche oder vermeintliche Hauptverantwortliche, wie etwa Slobodan Milosevic, Vojislav Seselj und Radovan Karadzic, die sich vor dem Jugoslawientribunal selbst verteidigten und – zumindest im Gerichtssaal – ohne den Beistand professioneller Verteidiger auftraten. Die Arbeit widmet sich den in der Rechtsprechung anlässlich dieser Fälle kontrovers diskutierten Fragen nach dem Inhalt des Rechts auf Eigenverteidigung und nach den Umständen, bei deren Vorliegen dem Angeklagten ein Pflichtverteidiger auch gegen seinen Willen beigeordnet werden kann. Der Autor stützt sich auf rechtsvergleichende Überlegungen und berücksichtigt auch die internationalen Menschenrechtsstandards. Die Untersuchung richtet sich an Wissenschaftler und Praktiker des Völkerstrafrechts.

Conference: International Economic Law Research Symposium

The Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law International Economic Law Interest Group and the Sydney Centre for International Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney will host a research symposium on international economic law, February 25, 2011, in Sydney. The program is here.

Conference: 4th European Society of International Law Research Forum (Update)

The 4th European Society of International Law Research Forum will take place May 26-28, in Tallinn, Estonia. The theme is "International Law and Power Politics: Great Powers, Peripheries and Claims to Spheres of Influence in International Normative Order." I noted the call for papers here. The program is now available here.

Conference: ASIL Annual Meeting 2011 (Update)

The 105th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law will take place March 23-26, 2011, in Washington, DC. The theme is "Harmony and Dissonance in International Law." The program is now available here.

Call for Papers: Inaugural ASIL Research Forum

The American Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for its inaugural research forum. Here's the call:

Call for Scholarly Papers
The Inaugural ASIL Research Forum
November 4-5, 2011

The American Society of International Law calls for submissions of scholarly paper proposals for the inaugural ASIL Research Forum to be held at UCLA Law School on November 4-5, 2011.

The Research Forum is a new initiative of the Society aimed at providing a setting for the presentation and focused discussion of works in progress. The Spring Annual Meeting does this in part through its "works-in-progress" sessions, but the Research Forum aims to do this exclusively.

The Research Forum will be held in the fall and, as possible, coordinated as an integral part of the Fall ASIL Mid-Year Meeting. All ASIL members are invited to attend the Forum, whether presenting a paper or not.

Interested participants should submit a proposal (preferably 500, and no more than 1,000, words in length) summarizing the scholarly paper to be presented at the forum. Papers can be on any topic related to international and transnational law. Works-in-progress are particularly encouraged. Interdisciplinary projects, empirical studies, and jointly authored proposals are welcome. Submissions should be sent to 2011forum@asil.org by April 30. Proposals will be vetted anonymously by the Research Forum Committee with selections to be announced by June 15.

At present, it is the intent of the Research Forum Committee to organize the selected paper proposals around common issues, themes, and approaches. Discussants, who will comment on the papers, will be assigned to each cluster of papers.

The 2011 ASIL Research Forum Committee

Laura Dickinson (ASU) CoChair
Kal Raustiala (UCLA) CoChair
Mark Drumbl (Washington & Lee)
Nienke Grossman (Baltimore)
Mary Ellen O’Connell (Notre Dame)