Toyoda: Theory and Politics of the Law of Nations

Tetsuya Toyoda (Akita International Univ.) has published Theory and Politics of the Law of Nations: Political Bias in International Law Discourse of Seven German Court Councilors in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2011). Here's the abstract:

Emergence of the modern science of international law in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is usually attributed to Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) and other “founders of international law.” Based on the belief that “all seventeenth and eighteenth-century writers of international law had their own particular political context in mind when writing about the law of nations,” this book sheds light on some worldly aspect of the early writers of the law of nations (i.e., the former name for international law). Studied here are the writings of seven German court councilors, namely, Samuel Rachel (Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp), Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (Hannover), Adam Friedrich Glafey (Saxony), Johann Adam Ickstatt (Würzburg-Bamberg), Samuel von Cocceji (Prussia), Johann Jacob Moser (Würtemberg and Hessen-Homburg) and Emer de Vattel (Saxony).

Parent: Uniting States: Voluntary Union in World Politics

Joseph M. Parent (Univ. of Miami - Political Science) has published Uniting States: Voluntary Union in World Politics (Oxford Univ. Press 2011). Here's the abstract:

Ever since the birth of the modern nation-state at the Peace of Westphalia, the essential lodestars for governments have been sovereignty (including of a monopoly over the use of force) and territorial integrity. Given how elemental sovereignty and territorial integrity are to states, why would a government ever willingly disintegrate or give up its sovereignty to unite with another state as the junior partner?

Despite such a considerable intellectual barrier, modern history features many examples of states that have either broken apart voluntarily or merged into others. In Unifying States, international relations scholar Joseph Parent focuses on the latter phenomenon: voluntary unions. As he stresses, they occur rarely, but they do in fact happen. Indeed, the most famous example is the United States itself, in the Articles of Confederation era. Neither constructivists nor liberals, both of whom stress the positive benefits of economic convergence, can explain why union occurs so rarely. Nor can realists--who hold that in an anarchic world order, states must prize their autonomy above all else--explain why states enter into larger unions that erode their sovereignty. Parent begins from a realist perspective, yet realizes that traditional realist theory cannot account for this very real phenomenon. Instead, he contends that voluntary unions can--and do--occur in extreme circumstances. When states are painted into the same corner by events, they can balance against a threatening power by uniting with each other. Parent applies his thesis to a series of important historical cases--passage of the US Constitution, Swiss unification, the semi-merger of Sweden and Norway, and Bolivar's failed attempt to unite 'Gran Colombia'--before examining the grandest unification effort ever, the European Union. After explaining how this happened, Parent utilizes his theory to show the limits that the EU now faces as it struggles to extend the scope of unification. In sum, Uniting States is an authoritative account of a historical phenomenon that scholars have been unable to adequately explain via the main schools of international relations thought.

Ford & Cohen: Rethinking the Law of Armed Conflict in an Age of Terrorism

Christopher Ford (Hudson Institute) & Amichai Cohen (Ono Academic College - Law) have published Rethinking the Law of Armed Conflict in an Age of Terrorism (Lexington Books 2011). Contents include:

• Christopher A. Ford, Introduction: Rethinking Armed Conflict in an Age of Terrorism
• Ariel Zemach, The Law that Turned Against Its Drafters: Guerrilla-Combatants and the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions
• Jeremy Rabkin, The Strange Pretensions of Contemporary Humanitarian Law
• Steven David, Targeted Killing: The Israeli Experience
• Yuval Shany, Guarding the Guards in the War on Terrorism
• John H. Shenefield, The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Puzzle: We Know How We Got Here—Now, What Do We Do?
• Amichai Cohen, Terrorism-related Adjudication
• Elizabeth Samson, Necessity, Proportionality, and the Distinction in Non-Traditional Conflicts: The Unfortunate Case Study of the Goldstone Report
• Juan Carlos Gomez Ramirez, Confronting Terrorism: Human Rights Law, or the Law of War?
• Christopher A. Ford, Living in the 'New Normal': Modern War, Nonstate Actors, and the Future of Law
• Amichai Cohen, Some Conclusions and Thoughts for the Future

Iriye, Goedde, & Hitchcock: The Human Rights Revolution: An International History

Akira Iriye (Harvard Univ. - History), Petra Goedde (Temple Univ. - History), & William I. Hitchcock (Univ. of Virginia - History) have published The Human Rights Revolution: An International History (Oxford Univ. Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Between the Second World War and the early 1970s, political leaders, activists, citizens, protestors. and freedom fighters triggered a human rights revolution in world affairs. Stimulated particularly by the horrors of the crimes against humanity in the 1940s, the human rights revolution grew rapidly to subsume claims from minorities, women, the politically oppressed, and marginal communities across the globe. The human rights revolution began with a disarmingly simple idea: that every individual, whatever his or her nationality, political beliefs, or ethnic and religious heritage, possesses an inviolable right to be treated with dignity. From this basic claim grew many more, and ever since, the cascading effect of these initial rights claims has dramatically shaped world history down to our own times.

The contributors to this volume look at the wave of human rights legislation emerging out of World War II, including the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Nuremberg trial, and the Geneva Conventions, and the expansion of human rights activity in the 1970s and beyond, including the anti-torture campaigns of Amnesty International, human rights politics in Indonesia and East Timor, the emergence of a human rights agenda among international scientists, and the global campaign female genital mutilation. The book concludes with a look at the UN Declaration at its 60th anniversary. Bringing together renowned senior scholars with a new generation of international historians, these essays set an ambitious agenda for the history of human rights.

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 7, no. 1, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Charles E. Joern & Daniel L. Kiselbach, New Consumer Product Safety Laws in Canada and the United States: Business on the Border
• Patricio Diaz Gavier & Fernando Pierola, Related Parties and Customs Valuation: Guidance Derived from the Panel Report Thailand-Cigarettes
• James J. Nedumpara, Antidumping Proceedings and ‘Zeroing’ Practices: Have We Entered the Endgame?
• Nathan Cunningham & Junlei Peng, WTO Case Analysis, Suggestions and Impacts: China – Measures Related to the Exportation of Various Raw Materials
• Michael G. McManus, The Domestic Industry Requirement of Section 337 at the US International Trade Commission

Flauss & Touzé: Contentieux international des droits de l'homme et choix du forum

Jean-François Flauss & Sébastien Touzé have published Contentieux international des droits de l'homme et choix du forum : Les instances internationales de contrôle face au forum shopping (Bruylant 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Le présent ouvrage est le fruit d’une table ronde organisée en décembre 2009 à l’Institut international des droits de l’homme dans le cadre des cérémonies célébrant son quarantième anniversaire. Partant du constat de la multiplication des juridictions internationales accessibles aux individus s’estimant victimes d’une violation de leurs droits et libertés fondamentaux, cette étude aspire à mettre en lumière l’attitude adoptée par les Cours internationales face à la possibilité du « forum shopping » ou de la multiplication des voies de droit ouvertes aux requérants.

Si la multiplicité des prétoires comporte des avantages tels qu’un accès accru à la justice internationale pour les victimes, elle emporte cependant le risque d’une jurisprudence « disparate », d’une mise en oeuvre de stratégies contentieuses et, in fine, d’une interprétation conventionnelle dont la cohérence pourrait, à terme, être remise en cause. A travers leur texte de base et leur jurisprudence respectifs, les organes juridictionnels internationaux tentent d’encadrer leurs relations mutuelles, contribuant ainsi à faire du risque de fragmentation du droit un outil d’enrichissement mutuel.

Reposant sur l’étude des mécanismes instaurés au plan européen, interaméricain et africain, par les organes conventionnels des Nations Unies, ainsi que par les juridictions des États-Unis en application de l’Alien Tort Statute, les contributions éclairent les enjeux actuels et les solutions retenues en matière de litispendance internationale.

Martinez: The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law

Jenny S. Martinez (Stanford Univ. - Law) has published The Slave Trade and the Origins of International Human Rights Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:

There is a broad consensus among scholars that the idea of human rights was a product of the Enlightenment but that a self-conscious and broad-based human rights movement focused on international law only began after World War II. In this narrative, the nineteenth century's absence is conspicuous--few have considered that era seriously, much less written books on it. But as Jenny Martinez shows in this novel interpretation of the roots of human rights law, the foundation of the movement that we know today was a product of one of the nineteenth century's central moral causes: the movement to ban the international slave trade. Originating in England in the late eighteenth century, abolitionism achieved remarkable success over the course of the nineteenth century. Martinez focuses in particular on the international admiralty courts, which tried the crews of captured slave ships. The courts, which were based in the Caribbean, West Africa, Cape Town, and Brazil, helped free at least 80,000 Africans from captured slavers between 1807 and 1871. Here then, buried in the dusty archives of admiralty courts, ships' logs, and the British foreign office, are the foundations of contemporary human rights law: international courts targeting states and non-state transnational actors while working on behalf the world's most persecuted peoples--captured West Africans bound for the slave plantations of the Americas. Fueled by a powerful thesis and novel evidence, Martinez's work will reshape the fields of human rights history and international human rights law.

New Volumes: Recueil des Cours

Volumes 346 and 348 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law are out. Contents include:

• Volume 346
• Mariko Kawano, The Role of Judicial Procedures in the Process of the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes
• Volume 348
• M. Bogdan, Private International Law as Component of the Law of the Forum. General Course on Private International Law
• R. Baratta, La reconnaissance internationale des situations juridiques personnelles et familiales

New Issue: L'Observateur des Nations Unies

The latest issue of L'Observateur des Nations Unies (# 29, 2010-2) is out. The theme is "Le secret." Contents include:

• Première partie : Secret et transparence, approche onusienne
• Daniele Ganser, Stop Lying: Why the United Nations must Fail if Member States Mislead the Security Council. A Case Study of the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis
• Simon Chesterman, "The United Nations has no Intelligence"
• Hélène Tudela, L'enregistrement et la publication des traités conclus par les organisations internationales
• Deuxième partie : Secret et transparence, études sectorielles
• Thomas Deleuil, La confidentialité des enquêtes et des poursuites devant la Cour pénale internationale et l'action du Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies
• Mamoud Zani, La notion de secret à la lumière de la procédure 1503 du Conseil économique et social de l'ONU
• James Harrison, Recent Developments to Promote Transparency and Public Participation in Investment Treaty Arbitration
• Ian Blackshaw, Settling International Trade Secrets Disputes through the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization
• Troisième partie : Secret et transparence, approche étatique
• Sudha Setty, No Place for Secrets: Balancing National Security Interests and the Need for Transparency of the Law
• Steven D. Schwinn, State Secrets, Open Justice, and the Criss-crossing Evolution of Privilege in the United States and United Kingdom

New Issue: Arbitration International

The latest issue of Arbitration International (Vol. 27, no. 4, 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Bernard Hanotiau, Consent to Arbitration: Do We Share a Common Vision?
• Stephen M. Schwebel, Is Neer Far From Fair and Equitable?
• Philomena Cleobury & Christopher Style, Jivraj v. Hashwani: Public Interest and Party Autonomy
• Elliot Friedman, Enforcement of International Arbitration Awards in New York – If You Take Them There, You Can Collect from Anywhere
• Massimo V. Benedettelli, ‘Communitarization’ of International Arbitration: A New Spectre Haunting Europe?
• Andrew D. Mitchell & Sebastian M. Wurzberger, Boxed In? Australia’s Plain Tobacco Packaging Initiative and International Investment Law
• Andrew Tweeddale, Arbitration under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 and Enforcement of an Award

Call for Submissions: Journal of International Law and International Relations

The Journal of International Law and International Relations has issued a call for submissions for its spring 2012 issue. Here's the call:

Call for Submissions

Spring 2012

Deadline for Submissions: January 17th, 2012

The Journal of International Law and International Relations (JILIR) invites submissions from scholars of International Law and/or International Relations for its Spring 2012 issue. The Journal is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that seeks to develop interdisciplinary discourse at the nexus of these two dynamic disciplines.

JILIR welcomes submissions on the wide variety of topics in the intellectual space jointly occupied by International Law and International Relations. In addition to accepting scholarly research articles, JILIR has renewed acceptance of book reviews.

Please send submissions to submissions@jilir.org, as attachments in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format, with the author’s name removed from the document for the purposes of anonymous review. Please include the author’s full contact information (name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, telephone number, and e-mail address) in the body of the e-mail. JILIR prefers articles under 20,000 words in length (the equivalent of 40 journal pages) including text and footnotes. JILIR will not publish articles exceeding 30,000 words (the equivalent of 60 journal pages) except in extraordinary circumstances.

Book reviews should be insightful, critical reviews of recent manuscripts in either discipline, between 750 and 1,500 words (including quotations).

Submissions must be received by January 17, 2012 to be considered for publication.

New Issue: Mealey's International Arbitration Report

The latest issue of Mealey's International Arbitration Report (Vol. 26, no. 12, December 2011) is out.

New Volume: Annuaire français de droit international

The latest volume of the Annuaire français de droit international (Vol. 56, 2010) is out. Contents include:

• G. Andreone & G. Cataldi, Regards sur les évolutions du droit de la mer en Méditerranée
• S. Szurek, La composition des juridictions internationales permanentes : de nouvelles exigences de qualité et de représentativité
• I. Moulier, La crise dans la péninsule coréenne et ses répercussions internes et internationales
• M. Didat, Le consul honoraire : parent pauvre du droit international ?
• C. Bories, La convention du patrimoine mondial à l’aube de son 40e anniversaire : un colosse aux pieds d’argile ?
• G. Giraudeau, Les compétences internationales des entités territoriales autonomes
• S. Garibian, Le recours au droit international pour la répression des crimes du passé : Regards croisés sur les affaires Touvier (France) et Simón (Argentine)
• W. Czaplinski, L’immunité de l’État devant la Cour suprême polonaise : l’affaire Natoniewski

Rathbun: Trust in International Cooperation: International Security Institutions, Domestic Politics and American Multilateralism

Brian C. Rathbun (Univ. of Southern California - International Relations) has published Trust in International Cooperation: International Security Institutions, Domestic Politics and American Multilateralism (Cambridge Univ. Press 2011). Here's the abstract:

Trust in International Cooperation challenges conventional wisdoms concerning the part which trust plays in international cooperation and the origins of American multilateralism. Brian C. Rathbun questions rational institutionalist arguments, demonstrating that trust precedes rather than follows the creation of international organizations. Drawing on social psychology, he shows that individuals placed in the same structural circumstances show markedly different propensities to cooperate based on their beliefs about the trustworthiness of others. Linking this finding to political psychology, Rathbun explains why liberals generally pursue a more multilateral foreign policy than conservatives, evident in the Democratic Party's greater support for a genuinely multilateral League of Nations, United Nations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Rathbun argues that the post-World War Two bipartisan consensus on multilateralism is a myth, and differences between the parties are growing continually starker.

Ikenberry, Mastanduno, & Wohlforth: International Relations Theory and the Consequences of Unipolarity

G. John Ikenberry (Princeton Univ. - Politics and Woodrow Wilson School), Michael Mastanduno (Dartmouth College - Government), & William C. Wohlforth (Dartmouth College - Government) have published International Relations Theory and the Consequences of Unipolarity (Cambridge Univ. Press 2011). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The end of the Cold War and subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in a new unipolar international system that presented fresh challenges to international relations theory. Since the Enlightenment, scholars have speculated that patterns of cooperation and conflict might be systematically related to the manner in which power is distributed among states. Most of what we know about this relationship, however, is based on European experiences between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, when five or more powerful states dominated international relations, and the latter twentieth century, when two superpowers did so. Building on a highly successful special issue of the leading journal World Politics, this book seeks to determine whether what we think we know about power and patterns of state behaviour applies to the current 'unipolar' setting and, if not, how core theoretical propositions about interstate interactions need to be revised.

Keitner: The Forgotten History of Foreign Official Immunity

Chimène I. Keitner (Univ. of California - Hastings College of the Law) has posted The Forgotten History of Foreign Official Immunity (New York University Law Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The immunity of foreign officials from legal proceedings in U.S. courts has drawn significant attention from scholars, advocates, and judges in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Samantar v. Yousuf, 130 S.Ct. 2278 (2010), which held that foreign official immunity is governed by the common law rather than the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). The common law of foreign official immunity, which the Samantar Court did not define, operates at the intersection of international law and domestic law, and it implicates the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and judicial branches. Conflicting visions of the substance and process of common law immunity have already emerged in the wake of the Samantar opinion, and will continue to compete until the Supreme Court revisits this issue in a future case. At stake is not only the ability of suits to proceed against foreign officials, but also the relationship between the executive branch and the judiciary in matters affecting foreign affairs.

The original research presented in this Article yields two striking observations. First, a claim that the defendant acted in his official capacity did not operate as an automatic barrier to adjudication on the merits; foreign officials who were neither diplomatic officials nor heads of state were “on the same footing” as any other foreigner with respect to their “suability.” Second, the Executive believed that it did not have constitutional authority to instruct a court to dismiss a private suit on immunity grounds. Although twenty-first century advocates might make policy arguments for blanket immunity or absolute Executive discretion, such choices are not consistent with — let alone compelled by — the eighteenth-century practices and understandings recovered here.

Stone: Controlling Institutions: International Organizations and the Global Economy

Randall W. Stone (Univ. of Rochester - Political Science) has published Controlling Institutions: International Organizations and the Global Economy (Cambridge Univ. Press 2011). Here's the abstract:

How is the United States able to control the IMF with only 17 per cent of the votes? How are the rules of the global economy made? This book shows how a combination of formal and informal rules explains how international organizations really work. Randall W. Stone argues that formal rules apply in ordinary times, while informal power allows leading states to exert control when the stakes are high. International organizations are therefore best understood as equilibrium outcomes that balance the power and interests of the leading state and the member countries. Presenting a new model of institutional design and comparing the IMF, WTO, and EU, Stone argues that institutional variations reflect the distribution of power and interests. He shows that US interests influence the size, terms, and enforcement of IMF programs, and new data, archival documents, and interviews reveal the shortcomings of IMF programs in Mexico, Russia, Korea, Indonesia, and Argentina.

Hennette-Vauchez & Sorel: Les droits de l'homme ont-ils constitutionnalisé le monde ?

Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez (l'Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense - Law) & Jean-Marc Sorel (l'Université Paris I Panthéon - Sorbonne - Law) have published Les droits de l'homme ont-ils constitutionnalisé le monde ? Réflexions à l'occasion du 60eme anniversaire de la convention européenne des droits de l'homme (Bruylant 2011). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

La Convention européenne des droits de l’homme fait incontestablement partie des grandes réussites juridiques européennes. En 60 ans, elle aura réussi à faire oublier les conditions éminemment (géo)politiques de sa naissance, à étendre son emprise de 15 à 47 pays européens, et à développer des concepts et des techniques jurisprudentiels propres au droit européen des droits de l’homme. Surtout, elle aura joué un rôle central dans l’affirmation de l’existence d’un droit autonome des droits de l’homme. Une telle réussite n’est pas imputable à la seule jurisprudence européenne mais elle a aussi partie liée avec un projet savant. Plutôt que de revenir sur la jurisprudence européenne ou les jurisprudences nationales relatives au droit de la CEDH, c’est sur ce projet savant que le présent ouvrage se propose d’opérer un retour réflexif : qui en sont les auteurs ? Quelle en est l’histoire ? Quelles en sont les principales caractéristiques ? On s’intéressera en particulier à un aspect de ce projet savant : son attachement à affirmer la dimension « constitutionnelle » de la Convention européenne comme de la Cour de Strasbourg. Cherchant à cerner le sens alors accordé au paradigme de la « constitutionnalisation » (ou à dévoiler le rôle central de l’ambiguïté maintenue de l’expression), l’ouvrage propose ici une mise en perspective critique en l’interrogeant depuis d’autres points de vue où il prospère aussi, notamment le droit international, le droit constitutionnel, le droit communautaire et la science politique.

Jeangène Vilmer: Pas de paix sans justice ? Le dilemme de la paix et de la justice en sortie de conflit armé

Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer (McGill Univ. - Law) has published Pas de paix sans justice ? Le dilemme de la paix et de la justice en sortie de conflit armé (Les Presses de Sciences Po 2011). Here's the abstract:

En sortie de conflit armé, faut-il poursuivre ceux qui ont commis des crimes de guerre, des crimes contre l'humanité, voire un génocide, ou les intégrer au processus de transition au nom de la paix ? Les poursuivre risque de déstabiliser la société ; mais ne pas le faire peut mener au même résultat, une paix achetée par l'impunité risquant d'être provisoire.

L'auteur examine ce dilemme à la lumière de l’histoire du droit pénal international, de Nuremberg à nos jours, et à l’aide de nombreux exemples, des Balkans à la Libye en passant par le Rwanda et le Darfour. Il s’interroge sur le rôle des tribunaux internationaux : sont-ils une condition de la paix (pas de paix sans justice) ou au contraire un obstacle (pas de justice sans paix) ? Ont-ils un effet dissuasif ? Peut-on dépasser le dilemme ? Se pose aussi la question des relations qu’entretiennent deux acteurs majeurs de la scène internationale : le Conseil de sécurité, organe politique chargé du maintien de la paix et de la sécurité, et la Cour pénale internationale, organe judiciaire chargé de poursuivre les auteurs des crimes les plus graves. La Cour pénale internationale est-elle vraiment indépendante du Conseil de sécurité et, surtout, doit-elle l’être ?

Une réflexion essentielle, en ce début de siècle, face au retour des guerres.

Jouannet: Qu'est ce qu'une société internationale juste ?

Emmanuelle Jouannet (l’Université Paris I - Law) has published Qu'est ce qu'une société internationale juste ? Le droit international entre développement et reconnaissance (Pedone 2011). Here's the abstract:

La société mondiale est devenue aujourd’hui une société postcoloniale et post-guerre froide. Ces deux circonstances expliquent qu’elle soit traversée par deux grands types d’injustices que Nancy Fraser avaient identifiés pour les sociétés internes.

D’une part, elle connaît des disparités économiques et sociales entre Etats qui ont donné lieu à des revendications très fortes dès les années 1950 avec les premières décolonisations. Ces inégalités, auxquelles participent désormais certains grands Etats émergents, demeurent criantes aujourd’hui et posent toujours le problème de l’écart entre égalité formelle et égalité réelle. D’autre part, elle est de plus en plus confrontée à des revendications d’ordre culturel et identitaire qui instaurent cette fois-ci une tension entre égalité et différence. Les Etats défavorisés, ceux qui se sentent stigmatisés, mais aussi les peuples autochtones, les ethnies, les minorités, les femmes aspirent aujourd’hui à la reconnaissance de leur égale dignité mais aussi de leurs identités et de leurs droits spécifiques ou même, pour certains, à la réparation des injustices nées de la violation de leurs identités et la confiscation de leurs biens ou de leurs terres.

Or, pour répondre à ces deux types de revendications, les sujets de la société internationale ont élaboré deux types de remèdes traduits en règles juridiques : le droit relatif au développement et le droit relatif à la reconnaissance. Ces deux droits ne sont pas des branches juridiques parfaitement autonomes et individualisées ni des ensembles de règles formalisés, ils sont imparfaits et suscitent de réelles difficultés en raison de leurs dark side, mais ils peuvent néanmoins être interprétés comme instaurant les premiers jalons de ce que pourrait être une société internationale plus juste qui soit à la fois équitable (réponse aux injustices socio-économiques) et décente (réponse aux injustices culturelles).

L’objectif de ce livre est à la fois de mettre en exergue une telle évolution et de la questionner en la remettant dans sa perspective historique et en la soumettant à une analyse critique de ses présupposés et de ses implications.

Otto: Targeted Killings and International Law

Roland Otto has published Targeted Killings and International Law: With Special Regard to Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (Springer 2012). Here's the abstract:

Existing international law is capable to govern the war on terror also in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. The standards generally applicable to targeted killings are those of human rights law. Force may be used in order to address immediate threats, preventive killings are permitted under strict preconditions but targeted killings are prohibited. In the context of armed conflicts, these standards are complemented by international humanitarian law as lex specialis. Civilians may only be targeted while directly taking part in hostilities and posing a threat to the adversary. Also in Israel and the Occupied Territory, these standards apply. Contrary to the Israeli Supreme Court 's view, international humanitarian law is not complemented by human rights law, but human rights law is to some degree complemented by international humanitarian law. According to these standards, many killings which would be legal according to the Israeli Supreme Court violate international law.

New Issue: Journal of Private International Law

The latest issue of the Journal of Private International Law (Vol. 7, no. 3, December 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Luca G Radicati di Brozolo, Arbitration and the Draft Revised Brussels I Regulation: Seeds of Home Country Control and of Harmonisation?
• Jerca Kramberger Škerl, European Public Policy (with an Emphasis on Exequatur Proceedings)
• José Antonio Moreno Rodriguez & María Mercedes Albornoz, Reflections on the Mexico Convention in the Context of the Preparation of the Future Hague Instrument on International Contracts
• Matthias Lehmann, Where Does Economic Loss Occur?
• Carmen Otero García-Castrillón, International Litigation Trends in Environmental Liability: A European Union–United States Comparative Perspective
• Sophie Neumann, Intellectual Property Rights Infringements in European Private International Law: Meeting the Requirements of Territoriality and Private International Law
• Thalia Kruger & Jinske Verhellen, Dual Nationality = Double Trouble?
• Katarina Trimmings & Paul Beaumont, International Surrogacy Arrangements: An Urgent Need for Legal Regulation at the International Level

Bassiouni & Schabas: New Challenges for the UN Human Rights Machinery

M. Cherif Bassiouni (Depaul Univ. - Law) & William A. Schabas (Middlesex Univ. - Law) have published New Challenges for the UN Human Rights Machinery: What Future for the UN Treaty Body System and the Human Rights Council Procedures? (Intersentia 2012). Here's the abstract:

With the growth of the Treaty Body System, harmonization and coordination of working methods between the treaty bodies became a pressing issue. Commentators spoke of a crisis of the system - victim of its own success. In 2002 the UN Secretary-General (‘An agenda for future’) considered that the development of the system, among others, increased pressure on resources of both States and the secretariat and had implication on the ability of the States to continue to meet their reporting obligations, while the secretariat struggled to continue to provide quality service to all treaty bodies. The UN invited States to reflect on a number of reform initiatives that could help to modernize the system. The possibility of replacing the reporting obligations owed to each of the treaty bodies, with a single report was suggested. The UN also wished that strengthening and harmonization efforts could eventually lead to a single human rights Treaty Body, which was hoped, could enhance human rights protection at national level.

These suggestions were largely unacceptable to States parties, but the concept itself of having States submitting single reports to a single human rights mechanism was tried in the new Charter-based Universal Periodic Review mechanism of the new Human Rights Council set up in 2007. While the new procedure had little impact on the challenges to the separate Treaty Body System which continued to grow, increasing the need for its modernization; it certainly reinvigorated calls for a better coordination between the different elements of the UN Human Rights Machinery to avoid duplication of efforts that strains resources and lessens impact on the real situation of the rights holders at the national level.

This prompted the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, in 2009, to give a new impetus to the discussions started almost a decade ago, by addressing a renewed call on relevant stakeholders (States, Treaty Body members, national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations and academic entities) to initiate a process of reflection on ways of strengthening the Treaty Body System and by extension the UN Human Rights Protection System as a whole.

This impressive collection of essays is a response to the High Commissioner’s call, which joins initiatives by other stakeholders, from an academic perspective. The book has two parts: one presents reflections on the Treaty Body System and the second on the Human Rights Council Procedures.

New Issue: Review of European Community & International Environmental Law

The latest issue of the Review of European Community & International Environmental Law (Vol. 20, no. 2, July 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Articles on Forests and Climate Change
• Nidhi Srivastava, Changing Dynamics of Forest Regulation: Coming Full Circle?
• Ian Fry, If a Tree Falls in a Kyoto Forest and Nobody is There to Hear it, will it be Accounted for? An Insider's View of the Negotiations Surrounding Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry for the Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol
• Harro van Asselt, Integrating Biodiversity in the Climate Regime's Forest Rules: Options and Tradeoffs in Greening REDD Design
• Sophie Lemaitre, Indigenous Peoples' Land Rights and REDD: A Case Study
• Kate Dooley & Saskia Ozinga, Building on Forest Governance Reforms through FLEGT: The Best Way of Controlling Forests' Contribution to Climate Change?
• General Articles
• David R. Boyd, The Implicit Constitutional Right to Live in a Healthy Environment
• Mary Dobbs, Excluding Coexistence of GMOs? The Impact of the EU Commission's 2010 Recommendation on Coexistence
• Armelle Gouritin, The International Regime for the Compensation of Oil-pollution Damage: A Good Candidate to Have a Human Rights Law Approach?
• Case Note
• Günther Handl, Responsibilities and Obligations of States Sponsoring Persons and Entities with Respect to Activities in the Area: The International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea's Recent Contribution to International Environmental Law

New Issue: Netherlands International Law Review

The latest issue of the Netherlands International Law Review (Vol. 58, no. 3, December 2011) is out. Contents include:

• John Morijn, Reforming United Nations Human Rights Treaty Monitoring Reform
• Athanasios Yupsanis, Cultural Property Aspects in International Law: The Case of the (Still) Inadequate Safeguarding of Indigenous Peoples' (Tangible) Cultural Heritage
• Nadia Sanchez & Joyeeta Gupta, Recent Changes in the Nile Region May Create an Opportunity for a More Equitable Sharing of the Nile River Waters
• Md. Saiful Karim, Is There an International Obligation to Prosecute Pirates?
• Jörg Kammerhofer, Begging the Question? The Kosovo Opinion and the Reformulation of Advisory Requests