Monday, December 31, 2012

Mowbray: Linguistic Justice: International Law and Language Policy

Jacqueline Mowbray (Univ. of Sydney - Law) has published Linguistic Justice: International Law and Language Policy (Oxford Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:

Globalization and migration are producing societies of increasing linguistic diversity. At the same time, English is achieving unprecedented global dominance, smaller languages are becoming 'extinct' at an alarming rate, and ethnic tensions in countries from Belgium to Tibet continue to centre on questions of language. Against this background, the issue of how to ensure justice between speakers of different languages becomes a pressing social concern. Matters of 'linguistic justice' are therefore drawing increasing scholarly attention across a range of disciplines.

How does international law contribute to linguistic justice? This book explores that question by conducting a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of international law on language, analysing the many disparate fields of international law which affect language use both directly (human rights, cultural heritage laws, and EU legislation, for example) and indirectly (international trade law and international labour standards, among others). Moving beyond the technical analysis of legal provisions, the book explores the conceptual framework which underpins international law on language, unearthing underlying assumptions and ideas about what constitutes a 'just' language policy from a legal perspective. In doing so, the book draws on the methodology of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, whose ideas of 'habitus' and 'field' offer a way of understanding the changing significance of language to human identity, and the way in which language becomes a focal point for the exercise of social power. This analysis reveals the limitations of contemporary international law on language, and charts a course towards the achievement of greater 'linguistic justice'.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Gorman: The Emergence of International Society in the 1920s

Daniel Gorman (Univ. of Waterloo - History) has published The Emergence of International Society in the 1920s (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:
Chronicling the emergence of an international society in the 1920s, Daniel Gorman describes how the shock of the First World War gave rise to a broad array of overlapping initiatives in international cooperation. Though national rivalries continued to plague world politics, ordinary citizens and state officials found common causes in politics, religion, culture and sport with peers beyond their borders. The League of Nations, the turn to a less centralized British Empire, the beginning of an international ecumenical movement, international sporting events and audacious plans for the abolition of war all signaled internationalism's growth. State actors played an important role in these developments and were aided by international voluntary organizations, church groups and international networks of academics, athletes, women, pacifists and humanitarian activists. These international networks became the forerunners of international NGOs and global governance.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Helfer: The Effectiveness of International Adjudicators

Laurence R. Helfer (Duke Univ. - Law) has posted The Effectiveness of International Adjudicators (in Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication, Karen J. Alter, Cesare Romano & Yuval Shany eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This chapter, forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication, provides an analytical overview of the burgeoning literature on the effectiveness of international courts and tribunals (ICs). It considers four dimensions of effectiveness that have engendered debates among scholars or received insufficient scrutiny. The first dimension, case-specific effectiveness, evaluates whether the litigants to a specific dispute change their behavior following an IC ruling, an issue closely linked to compliance with IC judgments. The second variant, erga omnes effectiveness, assesses whether IC decisions have systemic precedential effects that influence the behavior of all states subject to a tribunal’s jurisdiction. The third approach, embeddedness effectiveness, evaluates the extent to which ICs anchor their judgments in domestic legal orders, enabling national actors to remedy potential treaty violations at home and avoid the need for international litigation. The fourth type, norm-development effectiveness, considers how IC decisions contribute to building a coherent body of international jurisprudence. For each dimension of effectiveness, the chapter reviews recent studies, identifies contested or under-analyzed issues, and suggests avenues for future research.

Friday, December 28, 2012

New Issue: Journal of Private International Law

The latest issue of the Journal of Private International Law (Vol. 8, no. 3, December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Vaughan Black, Simplifying Court Jurisdiction in Canada
  • Maud Piers & Johan Erauw, Application of the Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts in Arbitration
  • Dan Jerker B. Svantesson, Time for the Law to Take Internet Geolocation Technologies Seriously
  • Lorna Gillies, Creation of Subsidiary Jurisdiction Rules in the Recast of Brussels I: Back to the Drawing Board?
  • Chukwuma Samuel Adesina Okoli & Gabriel Omoshemime Arishe, The Operation of the Escape Clauses in the Rome Convention, Rome I Regulation and Rome II Regulation
  • Jennifer Paton, The Correct Approach to the Examination of the Best Interests of the Child in Abduction Convention Proceedings Following the Decision of the Supreme Court in Re E (Children) (Abduction: Custody Appeal)

Eagleton-Pierce: Symbolic Power in the World Trade Organization

Matthew Eagleton-Pierce (Univ. of Exeter - International Relations) has published Symbolic Power in the World Trade Organization (Oxford Univ. Press 2013). Here's the abstract:
Questions of power are central to understanding global trade politics and no account of the World Trade Organization (WTO) can afford to avoid at least an acknowledgment of the concept. A closer examination of power can help us to explain why the structures and rules of international commerce take their existing forms, how the actions of countries are either enabled or disabled, and what distributional outcomes are achieved. However, within conventional accounts, there has been a tendency to either view power according to a single reading - namely the direct, coercive sense - or to overlook the concept entirely, focusing instead on liberal cooperation and legalization. In this book, Matthew Eagleton-Pierce shows that each of these approaches betray certain limitations which, in turn, have cut short, or worked against, more critical appraisals of power in transnational capitalism. To expand the intellectual space, the book investigates the complex relationship between power and legitimation by drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu's notion of symbolic power. A focus on symbolic power aims to alert scholars to how the construction of certain knowledge claims are fundamental to, and entwined within, the material struggle for international trade. Empirically, the argument uncovers and plots the recent strategies adopted by Southern countries in their pursuit of a more equitable trading order. By bringing together insights from political economy, sociology, and law, Symbolic Power in the WTO not only enlivens and enriches the study of diplomatic practice within a major multilateral institution, it also advances the broader understanding of power in world politics.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 353 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:
  • Volume 353
    • Johan Meeusen, Le droit international privé et le principe de non-discrimination
    • Vera Gowlland-Debbas, The Security Council and Issues of Responsibility under International Law

Webb: Regional Challenges to the Law of State Immunity

Philippa Webb (King's College London - Law) has posted Regional Challenges to the Law of State Immunity. Here's the abstract:
State immunity is an area of the law where a unified, universal approach is critical to the fulfilment of its goals. Those goals are well-summarised by the 2009 Naples Resolution of the Institut de droit international: immunities are ‘conferred to ensure an orderly allocation and exercise of jurisdiction in accordance with international law in proceedings concerning states, to respect the sovereign equality of states and to permit the effective performance of the functions of persons who act on behalf of states’. Each of these goals requires a common understanding of the scope of state immunity. Without such an understanding, we could be faced with competing claims to jurisdiction, inter-state disputes over the limits of sovereignty, and the disruption of international relations.

Joyner: What if Iran Withdraws from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty? Part II: What Would the Legal Implications Be?

Daniel H. Joyner (Univ. of Alabama - Law) has posted an ESIL Reflection on What if Iran Withdraws from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty? Part II: What Would the Legal Implications Be?

Oswald & Winkler: Copenhagen Process Principles and Guidelines on the Handling of Detainees in International Military Operations

Bruce "Ossie" Oswald (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) & Thomas Winkler (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark) have posted an ASIL Insight on Copenhagen Process Principles and Guidelines on the Handling of Detainees in International Military Operations.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

New Issue: Internationales Handelsrecht

The latest issue of Internationales Handelsrecht (2012, no. 6) is out. Contents include:
  • Phillip Hellwege, UN-Kaufrecht oder Gemeinsames Europäisches Kaufrecht?

New Volume: Yearbook of Polar Law

The latest volume of the Yearbook of Polar Law (Vol. 4, 2012) is out. The table of contents is here.

Kruckenberg: The UNreal world of human rights: An ethnography of the UN Committee in the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Lena J. Kruckenberg has published The UNreal world of human rights: An ethnography of the UN Committee in the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Nomos 2012). Here's the abstract:
‘UNreal world’ breathes new life into the ethnography of international law at a time, when transnational actors challenge its traditional principles. The study investigates the multi-actor relations and micro-practices that constitute international human rights monitoring, through an in-depth exploration of the work of the oldest amongst the UN human rights treaty bodies, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). As the study focuses on the practices of (re)constructing, interpreting, and evaluating human rights in a quasi-judicial and politicised context, it analyses human rights monitoring from an embedded micro-perspective rather than functionalist macro-perspective. The author traces three groups of actors through their experiences of the ‘UN-real world’ of one of CERDs semi-annual sessions: state representatives, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and the members of the Committee. Vivid accounts and detailed analyses illuminate the tacit knowledge and subterranean diplomacy through which international human rights law evolves as a ‘gentle civiliser’ of states.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Öberg: Processing Evidence and Drafting Judgments in International Criminal Trial Chambers

Marko Divac Öberg (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) has posted Processing Evidence and Drafting Judgments in International Criminal Trial Chambers (Criminal Law Forum, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
International criminal trials are usually very complex, lengthy and heavy on evidence. This complicates the Trial Chamber’s fact finding task and hampers its ability to issue a reasoned written judgment without undue delay. The present article examines the specific challenges of drafting an international criminal trial judgment, with the main focus being on mastering the huge amounts of evidence. It further provides practical recommendations on how to deal with these challenges.

Monday, December 24, 2012

New Issue: Chinese Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chinese Journal of International Law (Vol. 11, no. 4, December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Editorial Comments
    • Sienho Yee, The Dynamic Interplay between the Interpreters of Security Council Resolutions
  • Articles
    • Huang Yao, Universal Jurisdiction over Piracy and East Asian Practice
    • Nina H. B. Jørgensen, Child Soldiers and the Parameters of International Criminal Law
    • Bjørn Kunoy, The Ambit of Pactum de Negotiatum in the Management of Shared Fish Stocks: A Rumble in the Jungle
  • Comments
    • Erik Franckx, Fisheries in the South China Sea: A Centrifugal or Centripetal Force?
    • Zou Keyuan, How Coastal States Claim Maritime Geographic Features: Legal Clarity or Conundrum?
    • Dimitris Xenos, The Issue of Safety of Media Professionals and Human Rights Defenders in the Jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee
    • Daniel Seah, The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia: The Issue of Non-Intervention and its Accession by Australia and the USA

New Issue: Ethics & International Affairs

The latest issue of Ethics & International Affairs (Vol. 26, no. 4, Winter 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Essay
    • Oran R. Young, Arctic Stewardship: Maintaining Regional Resilience in an Era of Global Change
  • Special Section: Safeguarding Fairness In Global Climate Governance
    • Jonathan Pickering & Steve Vanderheiden, Introductory Note
    • Jonathan Pickering, Steve Vanderheiden, & Seumas Miller, “If Equity's In, We're Out”: Scope for Fairness in the Next Global Climate Agreement
    • David Schlosberg, Climate Justice and Capabilities: A Framework for Adaptation Policy
    • Steve Vanderheiden, Coaxing Climate Policy Leadership

Sunday, December 23, 2012

New Volume: Indian Journal of International Economic Law

The latest volume of the Indian Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 5, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Pallavi Kishore, A Development Reading of India’s Cases in the World Trade Organization
  • Eve Mizerak, When 90% Of The Loans Are Exceptions To The Rule, There Is No Rule: Navigating Through Post-Financial Crisis Regulation And Wall Street’s Caveat Emptor Defense
  • Dorothy Shapiro, A Competition Act by India, for India: The First Three Years of Enforcement Under the New Competition Act
  • Enrico Baffi, Public Goods and Contract Standard Clauses : A New Approach

New Issue: Journal of World Intellectual Property

The latest issue of the Journal of World Intellectual Property (Vol. 15, nos. 5-6, December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Shamnad Basheer, The Invention of an Investment Incentive for Pharmaceutical Innovation
  • Chaminda Nalaka Wickramasinghe & Nobaya Ahmad, Influence of Demographic and Technical Profile on Success of Independent Inventors in Sri Lanka

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Kelley & Pevehouse: An Opportunity Cost Theory of US Treaty Behavior

Judith Kelley (Duke Univ. - Political Science) & Jon Pevehouse (Univ. of Wisconsin - Political Science) have posted An Opportunity Cost Theory of US Treaty Behavior. Here's the abstract:
What factors influence whether the US participates in global treaty-based cooperation? Traditional explanations hold that states act based on their national interest and, for the US this means that as long as two-thirds of senators are convinced that the benefits of the treaty outweigh the costs, the US should participate in the treaty. However, at times the US fails to join treaties that appear to have the support of the requisite 2/3 of senators, or even quite uncontroversial treaties. This has long ago earned the senate a reputation as “the graveyard of treaties.” This paper argues that this occurs because the constitutional advice and consent process imposes opportunity costs for both the president and the senate in terms of senate floor time, and that these costs slow down the process significantly or even block it completely. A statistical analysis of all multilateral treaties after 1967 shows that while, as expected, the traditional political and treatyspecific factors influence a treaty’s success in the senate, so do opportunity cost. This means that the president and the senate do not simply consider each treaty on its own merits; rather treaties may be sidelined due to the opportunity costs associated with dealing with them.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Call for Papers: The Changing Face of Global Governance: International Institutions in the International Legal Order (Update)

I previously noted that the International Law Association - British Branch has issued a call for papers for its annual conference, to take place at the University of Oxford, April 12-13, 2013. The theme is: "The Changing Face of Global Governance: International Institutions in the International Legal Order." The deadline for the call has been extended from January 15 to January 31, 2013.

Workshop: Fundamental Rights in Europe: A Matter for Two Courts

The Oxford Brookes University School of Law will host a workshop on "Fundamental Rights in Europe: A Matter for Two Courts," on January 18, 2013. Here's the idea:
The aim of this workshop is to bring together scholars, judges and policy makers to discuss the legal framework for the protection of fundamental rights in Europe. This event will reflect on the relationship between the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. It will examine the current state of accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and consider the legal implications of the accession for the protection of the fundamental rights of EU and non-EU citizens. It will explore this theme from a number of different angles and as such it is divided into four main streams: employment rights, citizenship and migration, fundamental rights versus fundamental freedoms and access to justice.

New Issue: Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 45, no. 4, October 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Fatou B. Bensouda, 2012 Jonathan I. Charney Lecture: Reflections from the International Criminal Court Prosecutor
  • Adeno Addis, Imagining the Homeland from Afar: Community and Peoplehood in the Age of the Diaspora
  • Perry S. Bechky, Microinvestment Disputes
  • George K. Foster, Recovering Protection and Security: The Treaty Standard’s Obscure Origins, Forgotten Meaning, and Key Current Significance
  • S.I. Strong, Arbitration of Trust Disputes: Two Bodies of Law Collide

New Issue: Journal of the History of International Law

The latest issue of the Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (Vol. 14, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Ian Hunter, ‘A Jus gentium for America’. The Rules of War and the Rule of Law in the Revolutionary United States
  • Ignacio de la Rasilla y del Moral, The Fascist Mimesis of Spanish International Law and its Vitorian Aftermath, 1939–1953
  • Giulio Bartolini, The Impact of Fascism on the Italian Doctrine of International Law
  • Mark Somos, Selden’s Mare Clausum. The Secularisation of International Law and the Rise of Soft Imperialism

New Issue: Journal of International Economic Law

The latest issue of the Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 15, no. 4, December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, JIEL Debate: Methodological Pluralism and its Critics in International Economic Law Research
  • Han-Wei Liu & John Maughan, China's Rare Earths Export Quotas: Out of the China-Raw Materials Gate, But Past the WTO's Finish Line?
  • Bin Gu, Applicability of GATT Article XX in China – Raw Materials: A Clash within the WTO Agreement
  • Véronique Fraser, Horizontal Mechanism Proposal for the Resolution of Non-Tariff Barrier Disputes at the WTO: An Analysis
  • Weihuan Zhou, US – Clove Cigarettes and US – Tuna II (Mexico): Implications for the Role of Regulatory Purpose under Article III:4 of the GATT

New Issue: Revista Electrónica de Estudios Internacionales

The latest issue of the Revista Electrónica de Estudios Internacionales (No. 24, December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Estudios
    • Javier Chinchón Álvarez, El concepto de impunidad a la luz del Derecho internacional: Una aproximación sistémica desde el Derecho internacional penal y el Derecho internacional de los derechos humanos
    • Eloísa González Hidalgo & Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez, El derecho a la autonomía como contenido emergente del derecho a la participación política de las minorías nacionales en Europa
    • Héctor Olásolo Alonso, El principio de complementariedad y las estrategias de actuación de la Corte Penal Internacional en la fase de examen preliminar: ¿Por qué la Corte Penal Internacional mantiene su examen preliminar, pero no abre una investigación, sobre la situación en Colombia?
    • Rosa Riquelme Cortado, El Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales. Comunicaciones de personas o grupos como piedra angular
    • Romualdo Bermejo García & Rosana Garciandía Garmendia, La expropiación de YPF (Repsol) a la luz del Derecho Internacional
    • Jaume Ferrer Lloret, La insoportable levedad del Derecho internacional consuetudinario en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Internacional de Justicia: El caso de las inmunidades jurisdiccionales del Estado
    • Cástor Miguel Díaz Barrado, La responsabilidad de proteger en el Derecho Internacional contemporáneo: Entre lo conceptual y la práctica internacional
    • Millán Requena Casanova, La solución de controversias en los modelos de APPRI: Cláusulas tradicionales y nuevas tendencias
    • Valentín Bou Franch, Los crímenes sexuales en la jurisprudencia internacional
    • Javier Lion Bustillo, ¿Por qué participan algunos Estados europeos en las operaciones de paz en el Líbano?
  • Notas
    • William Fernando Martínez Luna, El artículo 4.3 del Reglamento Roma I. Una verdadera cláusula de excepción
    • Luis González Vaqué, El Tribunal General de la UE clarifica el concepto de actos impugnables por los particulares según el artículo 263(4) TFUE: La sentencia “Microban”
    • Pablo La Porte, La práctica internacional de las disculpas de estado: España, Marruecos y el Rif en el centenario del protectorado (1912-2012)
    • Marina Lostal Becerril, La Protección de bienes culturales en el Tribunal Penal Internacional para la ex Yugoslavia
    • José Abu-Tarbush, Palestina: Retomando la iniciativa

Ronen: International legal positivism in a post modern world – international humanitarian law

Yael Ronen (Sha'arei Mishpat College) has posted International legal positivism in a post modern world – international humanitarian law (in International Legal Positivism in a Post-Modern World, Jean d’Aspremont & Jörg Kammerhofer eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

International legal scholarship presents important critique of positivist approaches to international humanitarian law (IHL), insofar as ‘positivism’ is read to mean unity of sources, recognizing as law only those norms which are generated by a pre-set legal procedure, independent of any inherent value. It is often contended that if state practice on the battlefield is the yardstick to be used to identify rules of IHL, then IHL is in a precarious state, given the prevalence of contrary practice, which puts into doubt the existence of law in the first place, or, where the law had been established, suggests that it has been modified. In addition, it is said that positivist approaches hamper the ability of IHL to address contemporary realities and challenges, such as the massive involvement of non-state actors in armed conflicts. Classical legal positivism thus encounters difficulties in conceptualizing IHL in a manner which retain the latter’s effectiveness and authority. This chapter evaluates these claims in light of developments in the theory of sources and in its application specifically to IHL.

Part 2 of this chapter addresses some preliminary questions on the role of positivism in IHL. Parts 3, 4 and 5 examine the challenges to a positivist account of IHL in the context of the specific sources of international law – treaties, custom and general principles. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight some of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the sources of law as they are manifested in present-day IHL.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 23, no. 4, November 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Editorial
    • JHHW, Slouching towards the Cool War; Catalonian Independence and the European Union; Roll of Honour; In this Issue; A Personal Statement
  • Articles
    • Jens David Ohlin, Nash Equilibrium and International Law
    • Mark Neocleous, International Law as Primitive Accumulation; Or, the Secret of Systematic Colonization
  • Critical Review of International Governance
    • Laurence Boisson de Chazournes & Edouard Fromageau, Balancing the Scales: The World Bank Sanctions Process and Access to Remedies
    • Arman Sarvarian, Common Ethical Standards for Counsel before the European Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights
  • Critical Review of International Jurisprudence
    • Julianne Kokott & Christoph Sobotta, The Kadi Case: Constitutional Core Values and International Law – Finding the Balance?
  • Roaming Charges: Places of Kitsch: Orlando California
  • Realizing Utopia: Reflections on Antonio Cassese’s Vision of International Law
    • JHHW, Antonio Cassese: Head in the Clouds, Feet on the Ground
    • Marko Milanovic, On Realistic Utopias and Other Oxymorons: An Essay on Antonio Cassese’s Last Book
    • Hélène Ruiz Fabri, Enhancing the Rhetoric of Jus Cogens
    • Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Back to the Future of a Multilateral Dimension of the Law of State Responsibility for Breaches of ‘Obligations Owed to the International Community as a Whole’
    • Iain Scobbie, ‘All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up’: Some Critical Reflections on Professor Cassese’s ‘The International Court of Justice: It is High Time to Restyle the Respected Old Lady’
    • Philip Alston & Colin Gillespie, Global Human Rights Monitoring, New Technologies, and the Politics of Information
    • Francesco Francioni, From Utopia to Disenchantment: The Ill Fate of ‘Moderate Monism’ in the ICJ Judgment on The Jurisdictional Immunities of the State
    • Orna Ben-Naftali, Sentiment, Sense and Sensibility in the Genesis of Utopian Traditions
    • Isabel Feichtner, Realizing Utopia through the Practice of International Law
  • Impressions
    • B. S. Chimni, The Self, Modern Civilization, and International Law: Learning from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule

New Volume: Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs

The latest volume of the Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs (Vol. 28, 2010) is out. Contents include:
  • Leading Articles
    • Sujin Chan, Beyond Special and Differential Treatment: Key Trends of Importance to East Asian Regionalism
    • Caroline Ehlert & Christine Kaufmann, The Dutch Trial at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia – Involving the Cambodians in the Process
    • Eliza Mik, Evaluating the Impact of the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic
    • Communications in International Contracts on Domestic Contract Law - The Singapore Example
    • Miyazaki Takashi, Recognition of States and Governments in International Law: Theory and Practice
    • Raul (Pete) Pedrozo, Sovereignty Claims over the Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo/Takeshima)
    • H.A. Strydom, Refining the Scope of State Obligations for Treaty-Based Human Rights
    • Violations in Respect of Violence against Women: The Meaning of the 2009 Gonzales Ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
    • Anastasia Telesetsky, Rule of Marine Capture versus Rule of Cooperation in the East China Sea: Exploring Options for Regional Ecosystem Restoration
    • Emilio E. Varanini, Running Soft Convergence into the Ground: The Case for an International Antitrust Treaty
  • Essays and Recent Developments
    • Loo Choon Chiaw, Chia Foon Yeow & Wu Yanjuan, The Taiwan Government Sues Two Individuals for the return of a Sum of USD29.8 Million (The Papua New Guinea Case)
    • Francesco Seatzu, The Right to Social Security under Article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

New Volume: Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law

The latest volume of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (Vol. 16, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Markus Krajewski & Christopher Singer, Should Judges be Front-Runners? The ICJ, State Immunity and the Protection of Fundamental Human Rights
  • Michael Wood, The Immunity of Official Visitors
  • Volker Roeben, Responsibility in International Law
  • John H. Dingfelder Stone, Assessing the Existence of the Right to Translation under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
  • Maya Hertig Randall, Human Rights Within a Multilayered Constitution: The Example of Freedom of Expression and the WTO
  • Mirka Möldner, Responsibility of International Organizations - Introducing the ILC's DARIO
  • Adele J. Kirschner & Katrin Tiroch, The Waters of Euphrates and Tigris: An International Law Perspective
  • Daniela Wehlend, Improving Compliance Mechanisms of the International Waste Trade Regime by Introducing Economic Compliance Incentives

New Volume: Anuario Argentino de Derecho Internacional

The latest volume of the Anuario Argentino de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 20, 2011) is out. Contents include:
  • Doctrina
    • Sandra M. Blanco, Diversos Aspectos de la Determinación de la Ley del Estatuto Personal, Influencia en la Personalidad Jurídica de la Persona Física Desde su Comienzo Hasta su Extinción
    • María Elena Caballero, Libre Circulación de los Profesionales Liberales en El Mercosur
    • Miryam Colacrai, La Política Antártica Argentina y su Compromiso con el Tratado Antártico
    • Facundo M. Gómez Pulisich, Contribución al Análisis de la Opinión Consultiva de la Corte Internacional de Justicia Concerniente a la Conformidad con el Derecho Internacional de la Declaración Unilateral de Independencia Relativa a Kosovo
    • Alberto Van Klaveren, Política Internacional y Derecho Internacional el Análisis de Los Regímenes Internacionales
  • XXIIIº Congreso Argentino de Derecho Internacional “Juan Varisco Bonaparte - Jorge Alberto Giner” Asamblea General Ordinaria de la Asociación Argentina de Derecho Internacional - 2011. Facultad De Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales de la Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Santa Fe, 10, 11 y 12 de Noviembre de 2011
    • María Elsa Uzal, Palabras de Apertura de la Señora Presidente de la Asociación Argentina de Derecho Internacional – AADI

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

New Issue: Mealey's International Arbitration Report

The latest issue of Mealey's International Arbitration Report (Vol. 27, no. 12, December 2012) is out.

New Issue: Journal of International Maritime Law

The latest issue of the Journal of International Maritime Law (Vol. 18, no. 3, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Paul Todd, Ransom, Piracy and Time Charterparties
  • Manuel Franco, Multimodal Transport after the Rotterdam Rules : will it work this Time?
  • Vincent P. Cogliati-Bantz, My Platform, my State : the Principality of Sealand in International Law

New Issue: International Studies Quarterly

The latest issue of the International Studies Quarterly (Vol. 56, no. 4, December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Etel Solingen, Of Dominoes and Firewalls: The Domestic, Regional, and Global Politics of International Diffusion
  • Fabian Barthel & Eric Neumayer, Competing for Scarce Foreign Capital: Spatial Dependence in the Diffusion of Double Taxation Treaties
  • Stephen Bell, The Power of Ideas: The Ideational Shaping of the Structural Power of Business
  • Jacqueline Best, Ambiguity and Uncertainty in International Organizations: A History of Debating IMF Conditionality
  • Apichai W. Shipper, Influence of the Weak: The Role of Foreigners, Activism, and NGO Networks in Democratizing Northeast Asia
  • Moonhawk Kim, Ex Ante Due Diligence: Formation of PTAs and Protection of Labor Rights
  • Zeev Maoz & Belgin San-Akca, Rivalry and State Support of Non-State Armed Groups (NAGs), 1946–2001
  • Kishore Gawande & Christopher Magee, Free Riding and Protection for Sale
  • James R. Hollyer & B. Peter Rosendorff, Leadership Survival, Regime Type, Policy Uncertainty and PTA Accession
  • Gary Uzonyi, Mark Souva & Sona N. Golder, Domestic Institutions and Credible Signals
  • Stephanie J. Rickard, A Non-Tariff Protectionist Bias in Majoritarian Politics: Government Subsidies and Electoral Institutions
  • Lucy M. Goodhart & Anastasia Xenias, Guns and Money in the Open Economy: The Exchange Rate and the Demand for Arms Imports
  • Julia Gray & Philip B.K. Potter, Trade and Volatility at the Core and Periphery of the Global Economy
  • Virginia Page Fortna & Reyko Huang, Democratization after Civil War: A Brush-Clearing Exercise
  • Alejandro Quiroz Flores, A Competing Risks Model of War Termination and Leader Change
  • Joe Weinberg, Do Majoritarian Electoral Systems Favor Consumers: Identifying Cross-National Consumer Bias
  • Mark A. Abdollahian, Travis G. Coan, Hana Oh & Birol A. Yesilada, Dynamics of Cultural Change: The Human Development Perspective
  • Indra De Soysa & Paul Midford, Enter The Dragon! An Empirical Analysis of Chinese versus US Arms Transfers to Autocrats and Violators of Human Rights, 1989–2006

De Schutter, Swinnen, & Wouters: Foreign Direct Investment and Human Development: The Law and Economics of International Investment Agreements

Olivier De Schutter (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food), Johan Swinnen (KU Leuven - Economics), & Jan Wouters (KU Leuven - Law) have published Foreign Direct Investment and Human Development: The Law and Economics of International Investment Agreements (Routledge 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
This book presents original research that examines the growth of international investment agreements as a means to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and considers how this affects the ability of capital-importing countries to pursue their development goals. The hope of countries signing such treaties is that foreign capital will accelerate transfers of technologies, create employment, and benefit the local economy through various types of linkages. But do international investment agreements in fact succeed in attracting foreign direct investment? And if so, are the sovereignty costs involved worth paying? In particular, are these costs such that they risk undermining the very purpose of attracting investors, which is to promote human development in the host country? This book uses both economic and legal analysis to answer these questions that have become central to discussions on the impact of economic globalization on human rights and human development. It explains the dangers of developing countries being tempted to 'signal' their willingness to attract investors by providing far-reaching protections to investors' rights that would annul, or at least seriously diminish, the benefits they have a right to expect from the arrival of FDI. It examines a variety of tools that could be used, by capital-exporting countries and by capital-importing countries alike, to ensure that FDI works for development, and that international investment agreements contribute to that end.

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 8, no. 1, 2013) is out. Contents include:
  • Christian Pitschas & Hannes Schloemann, WTO Customs Valuation Agreement: Customs Value of Goods Imported as Gifts
  • Seung-ho Kim, Trade Governance is Working, but the WTO Needs a Shot in the Arm
  • Manu Thadikkaran, Local Working Requirement: Reconciling TRIPS Agreement with the Paris Convention
  • Gary N. Horlick, History of the One/Three Formula for WTO Antidumping

Tran: Les obligations de vigilance des États parties à la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme

Hélène Tran has published Les obligations de vigilance des États parties à la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme (Bruylant 2012). Here's the abstract:
Dernière étape de la sophistication du droit de la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme, la vigilance conduit à transcender toute approche classique des obligations des états. Elle permet une lecture renouvelée de ses évolutions les plus audacieuses, au moyen d’une mise en perspective dynamique, inscrite dans le cadre global de l’ordre juridique international.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

New Volume: Israel Yearbook on Human Rights

The latest volume of the Israel Yearbook on Human Rights (Vol. 42, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • International Law Conference: “Non-International Armed Conflict in the 21st Century” United States Naval War College Newport, Rhode Island 21 - 23 June 2011
    • John F. Murphy, Will-o’-the Wisp? The Search for Law in Non-International Armed Conflicts
    • Michael N. Schmitt, The Status of Opposition Fighters in a Non-International Armed Conflict
    • Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, Methods and Means of Naval Warfare in Non-International Armed Conflicts
    • Bill Boothby, Differences in the Law of Weaponry When Applied to a Non-International Armed Conflict
    • John Cerone, International Law and International Enforcement Action in Libya
    • William K. Leitzau, Detention of Terrorists in the 21st Century
    • Yoram Dinstein, Concluding Remarks on Non-International Armed Conflicts
  • Special Issues
    • Rein Müllerson, Regime Change: Contextual Analysis
    • Arne Willy Dahl, New Technologies in Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency Operations

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 356 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:
  • Volume 356
    • Jeffrey Talpis, Succession Substitutes
    • Evelyne Lagrange, L’efficacité des normes internationales concernant la situation des personnes privées dans les ordres juridiques internes

de Brouwer, Ku, Römkens, & van den Herik: Sexual Violence as an International Crime: Interdisciplinary Approaches

Anne-Marie de Brouwer (Tilburg Univ. - Law), Charlotte Ku (Univ. of Illinois - Law), Renée Römkens (Aletta), & Larissa van den Herik (Leiden Univ. - Law) have published Sexual Violence as an International Crime: Interdisciplinary Approaches (Intersentia 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
This edited volume focuses on developments in recognizing, investigating, and prosecuting cases of sexual violence in (post-)conflict situations from an interdisciplinary angle. The investigation and prosecution of these cases raises new and challenging questions as to how to build evidence, but also how to address victims’ concerns in that process. It addresses innovations and challenges of empirical and other new kinds of social scientific, archival and medical data collection techniques; the development of evidence in relation to charges ranging from sexual violence as a war crime, crime against humanity to genocide; evidentiary and procedural achievements and challenges involved in prosecuting sexual victimization in international courts; and how to create awareness of sexual violence crimes in order to recognize such crimes and to prevent them in the future.

Call for Submissions: Revista Española de Relaciones Internacionales

The Revista Española de Relaciones Internacionales has issued a call for submissions for its upcoming volume, which will focus on the theme "The Enlargement of the European Union." Here's the call:

La Revista Española de Relaciones Internacionales (RERI) ha abierto el plazo para la remisión de contribuciones para su número 5. El tema principal será "La ampliación de la Unión Europea" en homenaje al 40 aniversario de la primera ampliación y la próxima entrada de la República de Croacia a la Unión en 2013.

La fecha límite para la remisión de artículos, notas o reseñas es el 1 de abril.

Más detalles contactando con nuestro equipo editorial a través de reri@difusionjuridica.es.

The Spanish Review of International Relations (Revista Española de Relaciones Internacionales, RERI) is now considering submissions for its 5th volume. The central theme will be "The Enlargement of the European Union" as a tribute to the 40th anniversary of the First enlargement and the entry of the Republic of Croatia in 2013.

Deadline for articles, notes and book reviews: 1st of April.

For more details, please contact our editor at reri@difusionjuridica.es.

New Issue: International Studies Review

The latest issue of International Studies Review (Vol. 14, no. 4, December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Richard J. Harknett & Hasan B. Yalcin, The Struggle for Autonomy: A Realist Structural Theory of International Relations
  • Frank Grundig, Jon Hovi, Arild Underdal & Stine Aakre, Self-Enforcing Peace and Environmental Agreements: Toward Scholarly Cross-Fertilization?
  • Monika Bauhr & Naghmeh Nasiritousi, How Do International Organizations Promote Quality of Government? Contestation, Integration, and the Limits of IO Power
  • Peter Wilson, The English School Meets the Chicago School: The Case for a Grounded Theory of International Institutions
  • Johan Hellman, The Occurrence of Mediation: A Critical Evaluation of the Current Debate

Monday, December 17, 2012

New Issue: Global Society

The latest issue of Global Society (Vol. 27, no. 1, 2013) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: Cosmopolitanism and Global Citizenship
    • Catherine Goetze, Introduction
    • Theresa Scavenius, National Responsibility and Global Poverty
    • Andrea Schlenker, Cosmopolitan Europeans or Partisans of Fortress Europe? Supranational Identity Patterns in the EU
    • Heike Brabandt & Steffen Mau, Liberal Cosmopolitanism and Cross-Border Mobility: The Case of Visa Policies
    • Sofia Laine, Possibilities for Cosmopolitan Emancipation among Local Poor and Minority Youth in Transnational Political Events
    • Catherine Goetze, The Particularism of Cosmopolitanism
    • Catherine Goetze, Conclusion

New Issue: Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy

The latest issue of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy (Vol. 15, nos. 3-4, July-December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Howard S. Schiffman, Culture, Conservation and Competition: Orange Roughy and the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization
  • Colin T. Reid, Towards a Biodiversity Law: The Changing Nature of Wildlife Law in Scotland
  • Sonali Senaratna Sellamuttu, Sanjiv de Silva, Nidhi Nagabhatla, C. Max Finlayson, Chiranjibi Pattanaik & Narendra Prasad, The Ramsar Convention's Wise Use Concept in Theory and Practice: An Inter-Disciplinary Investigation of Practice in Kolleru Lake, India

Ambos & Stegmiller: Prosecuting International Crimes at the International: Criminal Court: Is There a Coherent and Comprehensive Prosecution Strategy?

Kai Ambos (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen - Law) & Ignaz Stegmiller (Franz von Liszt-Institut für internationales Recht und Rechtsvergleichung) have posted Prosecuting International Crimes at the International: Criminal Court: Is There a Coherent and Comprehensive Prosecution Strategy? (Crime, Law and Social Change, Vol. 58, No. 4, 2012). Here's the abstract:
The authors analyze the so far published selection and strategy papers of the Office of the Prosecutor (“OTP”) of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) with a view to their consistency, coherence and comprehensiveness. Given the high number of communications and referrals to the ICC a focused strategy setting out the criteria for situation and case selection and prioritization should be one of the priorities of the Prosecutor. Thus far the Office has developed a strategic framework guided by four fundamental principles: focused investigations, positive complementarity, the interests of the victims and the impact of the OTP’s work. These four principles are critically evaluated by the authors in light of the ICC Statute and existing case law. In particular the positive complementarity approach, focusing on the cooperation with national jurisdictions and enhancing their own capacity to prosecute, is to be welcomed and reflects a realistic prosecutorial policy approach. The cooperation between the OTP and Germany in the prosecution of the leadership of the FDLR is a good case in point. Only such a close interaction with national jurisdictions enables the ICC to contribute to the further closing of the impunity gap. Yet, the OTP must still more precisely define its position with regard to the criteria used for the selection of situations and cases. Thus, a priority for the new Prosecutor should be the drafting of a more precise and comprehensive strategy, integrating the already existing policy and strategy papers as well as drawing on lessons learned.

Talmon: Über Grenzen: Kolloquium zum 70. Geburtstag von Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum

Stefan Talmon (Universität Bonn - Law) has published Über Grenzen: Kolloquium zum 70. Geburtstag von Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum (Duncker & Humblot 2012). Contents include:
  • Martin Nettesheim, Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum zum 70. Geburtstag
  • Andreas Pohlmann, Compliance über Grenzen. Integritätsmanagement in global operierenden Unternehmen
  • Jörn Axel Kämmerer, Das Völkerrecht des Kolonialismus: No peace between the lines?
  • Philipp Molsberger, Grenzen und Chancen des Rechtsstaatsdialogs.Funde und Folgerungen in China
  • Stefan Talmon, Die Grenzen der Völkerrechtsrezeption in Deutschland
  • Wolfram Hertel, Vergessene Grenzen in der Nordsee
  • Alexander Proelß, Grenzen der Zuständigkeit der Unionsorgane am Beispiel von »Erika III«
  • Martin Nettesheim, An den Grenzen der Legitimität. Euro-Krisenbewältigungspolitik und EU-Entwicklungsperspektiven
  • Wolfgang Graf Vitzthum, George über Grenzen

Greschek: Die evolutive Auslegung völkerrechtlicher Verträge am Beispiel des GATT

Eva Greschek has published Die evolutive Auslegung völkerrechtlicher Verträge am Beispiel des GATT (Peter Lang Publishing 2012). Here's abstract:
Diese Arbeit thematisiert die evolutive, also die einen völkerrechtlichen Vertrag insgesamt weiterentwickelnde Auslegung. Somit bewegt sie sich an der Schnittstelle zwischen einem voluntaristischen und einem den Legislativcharakter multilateraler Verträge betonenden Völkerrechtsverständnis. Am Beispiel des Allgemeinen Zoll- und Handelsabkommens (GATT) wird dabei das komplexe Verhältnis zwischen Welthandel und Umweltschutz dargelegt. Den entscheidenden Wendepunkt in der Wechselbeziehung von Welthandel und Umweltschutz markiert die Rechtsprechung des Appellate Body im Shrimps-Meeresschildkröten-Fall aus dem Jahr 1998. In dieser Entscheidung machte die WTO-Rechtsmittelinstanz deutlich, dass das GATT ein dynamisches Vertragswerk darstellt, das nur im Zusammenhang mit dem umweltvölkerrechtlichen Umfeld zu verstehen ist. Auf diese Weise gelang es dem Streitbeilegungsorgan, den internationalen Handel weitgehend in Einklang mit einem zeitgemäßen Umweltschutz zu bringen. Dieser einschneidende und richtungsweisende Schiedsspruch wirft die Frage auf, ob und inwieweit die evolutive Auslegung von Verträgen in der Praxis anerkannt und ferner mit den gewohnheitsrechtlich geltenden Regeln der Wiener Vertragsrechtskonvention (WVRK) zu vereinbaren ist. So erörtert und analysiert die Untersuchung exemplarisch Entscheidungen internationaler Organe und beleuchtet sowohl Voraussetzungen als auch Grenzen einer evolutiven Auslegung.

Ngangjoh Hodu: Theories and Practices of Compliance with WTO Law

Yenkong Ngangjoh Hodu has published Theories and Practices of Compliance with WTO Law (Wolters Kluwer 2012). Here's the abstract:
Compliance with international institutional norms is often conceived as a yardstick with which to test the effectiveness of international law. However, the ongoing failure of the WTO regime to elicit compliance with its agreements has led many legal theorists to reject this view in favour of a ‘realism’ that describes an international system, void of any authority to enforce rules, in which egoistic states calculate their own interests in light of the existing distribution of power. An ‘institutionalist’ riposte, which insists on the capability of states to come together nonetheless to make binding rules that will determine their behaviour vis-à-vis each other, of necessity focuses on developing enforceable remedies when rules are not complied with. Confronting this stark and apparently intractable situation, this book applies social science theories to the question as to why nation-states comply or do not comply with international trade law obligations. The author examines various theories of compliance in the context of world trade law, and discusses ways in which a much more robust compliance with global trade rules may be ensured. In the course of the analysis numerous germane issues arise, including the following: the stalemate in the WTO judicial and political process; third party rights and WTO Law compliance; the role of arbitrators in determining reasonable period of time; contract theory; reputation costs; good faith obligations required by pacta sunt servanda; imposing remedies collectively; multilateral enforcement of DSB findings; and early determination of injuries once nullification and impairment have been established.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

New Issue: International Security

The latest issue of International Security (Vol. 37, no. 3, Winter 2012/13) is out. Contents include:
  • Stephen G. Brooks, G. John Ikenberry, & William C. Wohlforth, Don't Come Home, America: The Case against Retrenchment
  • James K. Sebenius & Michael K. Singh, Is a Nuclear Deal with Iran Possible? An Analytical Framework for the Iran Nuclear Negotiations
  • Jeffrey W. Knopf, Nuclear Disarmament and Nonproliferation: Examining the Linkage Argument
  • Aaron Rapport, The Long and Short of It: Cognitive Constraints on Leaders' Assessments of “Postwar” Iraq
  • Correspondence
    • Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson & Michael Beckley, Debating China's Rise and U.S. Decline

Friday, December 14, 2012

New Issue: Transnational Dispute Management

The latest issue of Transnational Dispute Management (2012, no. 7) is out. The table of contents is here.

Joyner: What if Iran Withdraws from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty? Part I: Can They Do That?

Daniel H. Joyner (Univ. of Alabama - Law) has posted an ESIL Reflection on What if Iran Withdraws from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty? Part I: Can They Do That?

New Issue: Rivista di Diritto Internazionale

The latest issue of the Rivista di Diritto Internazionale (Vol. 95, no. 4, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Articoli
    • P. Picone, Il ruolo dello Stato leso nelle reazioni collettive alle violazioni di obblighi erga omnes
    • L. Sbolci, L’invalidità degli atti dell’Unione Europea per violazione del diritto internazionale
    • G. Bartolini, L’operazione Unified Protector e la condotta delle ostilità in Libia
  • Note e Commenti
    • S. Tonolo, Principio di uguaglianza e operatività di norme di conflitto in tema di successione
    • O. Lopes Pegna, Breach of the Jurisdictional Immunity of a State by Declaring a Foreign Judgment Enforceable?
    • S. Migliorini, Immunità dalla giurisdizione e regolamento (CE) 44/2001: riflessioni a partire dalla sentenza Mahamdia
  • Panorama
    • A. Leandro, Sull’accertamento dell’esistenza di una controversia dinanzi alla Corte internazionale di giustizia
    • S. Marino, I diritti del coniuge o del partner superstite nella cooperazione giudiziaria civile dell’Unione Europea

d'Aspremont: Reductionist Legal Positivism in International Law

Jean d'Aspremont (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Reductionist Legal Positivism in International Law (Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This paper reflects on the possible role of legal positivism in (the cognition of) international law and makes three specific points. First, we need positivism, but only to the extent that it is assigned a few very limited functions. This is the idea of reductionism. Second, positivism should be stripped of all the straw men that are commonly attached to it: voluntarism, state-centricism, rigid and static theories of sources, theories of interpretation and techniques of content determination, etc. This is the idea of emancipation. Third, if restricted to one particular function and emancipated from such approximations, legal positivism can prove to be a useful approach to international law that complements — and can be complemented by — other existing approaches, and which, in that sense, does not claim any monopoly on the cognition of international law. This is the idea of ecumenism. Reductionism, emancipation, and ecumenism are the three prerequisites without which it is not possible to make sense of international legal positivism at all, and short of which international legal positivism cannot make sense of our complex world. They simultaneously constitute three steps that ought to be taken in order to move away from the straightjacket of classical legal positivism. The paper says a few words about each of them.

de Guttry, Gestri, & Venturini: International Disaster Response Law

Andrea de Guttry, Marco Gestri, & Gabriella Venturini have published International Disaster Response Law (T.M.C. Asser Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
This is the first scholarly work that addresses comprehensively the rising area of International Disaster Response Law, looking at it from different disciplines that are connected yet discrete (Public International Law, EU Law, Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law, Environmental Law, The law of international Organizations, etc.).

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Pauwelyn: The End of Differential Treatment for Developing Countries? Country Classifications in Trade and Climate Change Regimes

Joost Pauwelyn (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies - Law) has posted The End of Differential Treatment for Developing Countries? Country Classifications in Trade and Climate Change Regimes (Review of European Community & International Environmental Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
Is China or Russia a developing country? Whether a state gets classified as developed or developing has major consequences for development assistance, trade preferences, climate change commitments and a host of other obligations or privileges under domestic legislation and international treaties. With the rise of emerging countries and the financial crisis in much of the developed world, one of the major challenges for international cooperation is how to rethink the traditional dividing line between developed and developing countries. Such re-think is needed to build regimes that are both effective and equitable. In today’s context, treating all developing countries as a single group for all matters is neither effective nor equitable. Both in trade and climate change regimes, the trend during the last decade is one of further differentiation. This may be the end of differential treatment for developing countries as a single group. It is certainly not the end of differentiation between countries based on their development or other needs. On the contrary, we can expect more, not less, differentiation. Although this is overall a positive development, a number of risks arise, in particular: divide and rule strategies and a race to the bottom or lowest common denominator. These can be mitigated by using objective, evidence-based criteria for differentiation (rather than purely subjective or ad hoc ones) and by providing for a minimum of multilateral control and protection.

Joyner: The Security Council as a Legal Hegemon

Daniel Joyner (Univ. of Alabama - Law) has posted The Security Council as a Legal Hegemon (Georgetown Journal of International Law, Vol. 43, p. 225, 2012). Here's the abstract:
This article will examine the United Nations Security Council’s efforts to implement, preserve, and universalize the obligations of the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. This discussion will lead to questions regarding the Security Council’s role and authority in the international legal system, and ultimately to a consideration of how the international legal system can better guarantee that the Security Council does not exercise an unwarranted degree of legal power at the expense of the member states of the United Nations.

Roberts: The Next Battleground: Standards of Review in Investment Treaty Arbitration

Anthea Roberts (London School of Economics - Law) has posted The Next Battleground: Standards of Review in Investment Treaty Arbitration (International Council for Commercial Arbitration Congress Series, Vol. 16, p. 170, 2011). Here's the abstract:
We are witnessing growing calls by States, academics and NGOs for investment arbitral tribunals to recognize that they are engaged in a form of international judicial review and thus should adopt appropriate levels of deference when reviewing the legislative, executive and judicial acts of respondent States. Some draw on domestic public law comparisons, arguing that tribunals should adopt deferential standards of review when adjudicating upon governmental conduct. Others rely on international comparisons, invoking notions such as the margin of appreciation doctrine that some international courts adopt when reviewing State actions for conformity with international obligations. Whether and when investment treaty tribunals should adopt deferential standards of review represents the next battleground for those who conceptualize investment treaty arbitration as a form of global governance.

Bishop & Marchili: Annulment under the ICSID Convention

R. Doak Bishop (King and Spalding) & Silvia M. Marchili (King and Spalding) have published Annulment under the ICSID Convention (Oxford Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:

The book systematically describes the theory and practice of ICSID annulment proceedings by thoroughly analysing this mechanism in light of the annulment decisions rendered so far as well as the publications on the issue.

Organised to suit the needs of the practitioner, it outlines the recent trends in the area, providing the most up to date analysis of the subject. It also addresses key topics involving ICSID annulment such as the procedural issues which frequently arise in this type of proceedings, for example admissability of new evidence and arguments in annulment proceedings, res judicata in resubmitted cases.

The sections on each ground for annulment include an analysis of the applicable standard as well as a detailed description and study of each annulment decision that addressed the respective ground, creating an authoritative and complete resource.

New Volume: Finnish Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Finnish Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 21, 2010) is out. Contents include:
  • Symposium: The International Criminal Court and the Responsibility to Protect
    • Pekka Niemelä, The International Criminal Court and the Responsibility to Protect: Synergies and Tensions
    • David Chandler, Born Posthumously: Rethinking the Shared Characteristics of the ICC and R2P
    • Päivi Kaukoranta, Finnish Perspectives on the ICC and R2P
    • Frédéric Mégret, ICC, R2P, and the International Community’s Evolving Interventionist Toolkit
    • Sarah M. H. Nouwen, Complementarity in Practice: Critical Lessons from the ICC for R2P
    • Anne Orford, From Promise to Practice? The Legal Significance of the Responsibility to Protect Concept
    • Kofi Quashigah, The Future of the International Criminal Court in African Crisis and Its Relationship with the R2P Project
    • Benjamin N. Schiff, Lessons from the ICC for ICC/R2P Convergence
  • Debate: The Law of the Common: Globalization, Property and New Horizons of Liberation
    • John D. Haskell & Paavo Kotiaho, Introductory Note
    • Gunther Teubner, Societal Constitutionalism and the Politics of the Common
    • Antonio Negri, The Law of the Common
  • Articles
    • George Rodrigo Bandeira Galindo, Constitutionalism Forever
    • Dorota A. Gozdecka, Human Rights, Fundamental Rights and the Common Constitutional Traditions in the Protection of Religious Pluralism and Diversity in Europe – A Study in the Democratic Paradox
    • Robert Knox, Strategy and Tactics
    • Pamela Slotte, The Religious and the Secular in European Human Rights Discourse
    • Stellan Vinthagen, Legal Mobilization and Resistance Movements as Social Constituents of International Law

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Burbank: Whose Regulatory Interests? Outsourcing the Treaty Function

Stephen B. Burbank (Univ. of Pennsylvania - Law) has posted Whose Regulatory Interests? Outsourcing the Treaty Function (New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
In this article I describe the status quo in the area of foreign judgment recognition, with attention to the tension between domestic interests and international cooperation. Precisely because the future of the status quo is in doubt, I then consider current proposals for change, particularly the effort to implement the Hague Choice of Court Convention in the United States. Prominent among the normative questions raised by my account is whose interests, in addition to the litigants’ interests, are at stake – those of the United States, those of the several states, or those of interest groups waving a federal or state flag. A related question is whether, if the uniformity we seek is to be found in state rather than federal law, we can be, and be seen by other countries to be, serious about international cooperation. I describe in some detail the sequence of events that led to the Uniform Law Commissioners (“ULC”) becoming involved in the process of drafting legislation to implement the Choice of Court Convention. I also explore reasons why the ULC has been successful in securing the lion’s share of attention for its preferred approach to implementation, which the ULC calls “cooperative federalism,” but which has come to resemble cooperative redundancy. Recounting how, and offering suggestions why, the ULC ultimately rejected a package of compromises proposed by the State Department’s Legal Adviser, even though almost all compromises were in favor of the ULC, I conclude with observations about the ULC’s ambitions in the international arena. My argument is that, if the ULC were successful in taking over the negotiation or implementation of private international law treaties, international cooperation would be if not a fortuity, then not a priority, because we would have regressed to a position of privileging not just federal but state law uniformity over international uniformity. And the state law we privileged would be anything but “indigenous.”

New Issue: Revista Peruana de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of Revista Peruana de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 62, no. 146, May-August 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Óscar Maúrtua de Romaña, Las Malvinas
  • Luis Delgado-Aparicio Porta, Irán intenta ser nuclear
  • Augusto Hernández Campos, Naturaleza jurídica del crimen de agresión en el derecho internacional moderno: los elementos objetivos y subjetivos de la agresión
  • Zósimo Morillo Herrada, La diplomacia pública como ars subtilior de la comunicación
  • César Recuenco Cardoso, El derecho comunitario en los ordenamientos internos de los Estados miembros de una comunidad de países: la Comunidad Andina. Inconvenientes sobre su aplicación y alternativas para su eficacia

New Issue: Revista Española de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Española de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 64, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Estudios
    • Cástor Miguel Díaz Barrado, Tratados internacionales y conflictos armados: una cuestión siempre pendiente
    • Iván Manzano Barragán, La jurisprudencia del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos sobre orientación sexual e identidad de género
    • Milagros Álvarez Verdugo, ¿Hacia la armonización de los controles nacionales a la exportación nuclear?
    • Víctor Luis Gutiérrez Castillo, Estados árabes y derechos humanos: la recepción y aplicación de la norma internacional
    • Angel José Rodrigo Hernández, El principio de integración de los aspectos económicos, sociales y medioambientales del desarrollo sostenible
  • Notas
    • José Luis Pérez Triviño, La noción de intención en la definición de genocidio

New Issue: Revista de Derecho Económico Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista de Derecho Económico Internacional (Vol. 3, no. 1, December 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Artículos académicos
    • Alberto Madero Rincón, Hacia la certidumbre jurídica en la determinación de la norma aplicable en el comercio internacional: la congruencia entre los acuerdos comerciales y la Organización Mundial del Comercio
    • Luis Armando López Linaldi, La necesidad de crear un Órgano de Apelación para arbitrajes Inversionista-Estado en CIADI
    • Francisco F. Villanueva, El artículo XX (e) del GATT, ¿una cláusula social en el sistema jurídico de la Organización Mundial del Comercio?
  • Artículo Profesional
    • Francisco de Rosenzweig, México y su Ingreso al Acuerdo de Asociación Transpacífico
  • Comentarios
    • José Manuel Vargas, Comentario sobre Unión Europea – Calzado (China), Informe del Grupo Especial
    • Beatriz Huarte, Comentario sobre China – Partes de autos, Informe del Órgano de Apelación
    • Miguel Villamizar, Comentario sobre Comunidades Europeas – Productos de Tecnología de la Información, Informes del Grupo Especial

Call for Papers: The Legitimation and Delegitimation of Global Governance Organizations

The Changing Norms of Global Governance research group at the Institute of Intercultural and International Studies of the University of Bremen has issued a call for papers for a conference on "The Legitimation and Delegitimation of Global Governance Organizations," to take place September 11-13, 2013. Here's the call:

The Legitimation and Delegitimation of Global Governance Organizations

Academic Conference at the Universität Bremen

11-13 September 2013

When international organizations present themselves to their various audiences, they engage in a whole range of activities aimed at legitimizing what the institution is or does. This becomes evident, for instance, in the names given to organizational programmes (e.g. the WHO’s Health for All, UNESCO’s Education for All, the IAEA’s Atoms for Peace or the WWF’s Market Transformation Initiative) and committees (e.g. the United Nation’s Office for Partnerships or FIFA’s Ethics Committee). It also resonates in the public speeches of organizational leaders who recognize a need ‘to improve representation, voice and accountability’ (G20), call for organizational policies that provide ‘growth that lifts all boats’ (IMF), or describe their own organization as ‘open’, ‘rules-based’ and ‘built on democratic values’ (WTO). [1]

Elsewhere, we observe a broad range of efforts geared at delegitimizing international institutions in the eyes of the general public or particular segments of the latter. Some of these efforts originate from governments; others are driven by business actors, social movements or religious communities. Yet processes of legitimation and delegitimation do not only address the concrete practices and policies of global governance organizations, but also sustain or challenge global power structures (e.g. class, gender or economic structures) and are themselves driven by those structures. Seen in this way, studying legitimation is therefore one way of studying the contested politics of global governance more generally.

Moving beyond the academic preoccupation with legitimacy as a property of actors and institutions, the conference puts the dynamics of legitimation of global governance at the centre stage. Legitimation has a strategic, a normative and a performative dimension. It is instrumental in the sense that a major purpose of legitimation activities is to seek the recognition of those whose support an organization deems important to achieve its goals. It is normative in the sense that a core element of all legitimation activities is the appeal to norms and values shared by the audiences to whom legitimacy claims are voiced. And it has a performative dimension when practices of legitimation change or reproduce norms and strategies of legitimation.

Building on these broad ideas, the conference revolves around the following key themes and questions:

· Legitimation norms: Which norms and values (e.g. legality, justice, democracy, peace, growth) do various actors refer to in order to legitimize the identities and/or activities of global governance organizations? How does the content of such norms and values vary over time, across (types of) global governance organizations and across world regions? How do changes in the international system (e.g. rising powers) affect the set of norms and values against which global governance organizations are conventionally evaluated? And how is the contestation between different norms and values played out?

· The structure of legitimation discourses: Where does (de-)legitimation take place? How are legitimation discourses structured? Whose contributions count and on what terms? How do organization-specific discourses relate to each other? How are they connected to the broader social discourses in which they are embedded? And to what extent do the worldwide expansion of education (referred to by some as a ‘skill revolution’), the revolution in communication technologies and the mediation/mediatization of societies alter the nature, content and processes of legitimacy communication as well as the conditions under which legitimation discourses take place?

· Drivers and effects of (de-)legitimation: When and how do efforts at legitimizing global governance organizations succeed? Under which conditions can legitimacy claims be successfully challenged from the inside (e.g. diplomats, recalcitrant bureaucrats or NGO observers) or the outside (e.g. social movements, the business community or states that are not members of an international organizations)? With which repertoires and resources? And what are the major short-term and long-term effects of successful (de-)legitimation efforts for an international organization?

· Institutionalization of legitimacy management: How do global governance organizations internally organize and institutionalize their legitimacy management and how has this changed over time? How are particular legitimation strategies developed internally? How has the emergence and spread of social media changed the ways in which international organizations (seek to) manage their legitimacies?

· Opening up as a legitimation strategy: When and why do global governance organizations pick the specific legitimation strategy of opening up, i.e. increasing their transparency towards the public and opening their governance processes to non-state actors? How are organizations in different policy fields opening up? How is opening up presented as a legitimacy building measure to the organizations’ audiences? What are the micro-processes of opening up? How do changes in transparency and access interact with each other? Which actors are marginalized, which favoured through increasing participation and transparency?

Using a broad definition of global governance organizations, we are primarily interested in papers that deal with the dynamics of legitimation in relation to intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and their private transnational counterparts (e.g. IASB, ICANN, credit rating agencies, social and environmental certification schemes or transnational sports organizations). In addition, papers that focus on traditional international NGOs (e.g. Oxfam, Amnesty International or Greenpeace), on social movement organizations (e.g. Occupy) or on multinational corporations (e.g. WalMart) are also welcome. Contributions may come from a broad range of social science disciplines.

The conference will be organized by the research project Changing Norms of Global Governance and hosted by the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies (InIIS) at the Universität Bremen. We aim at a size of around 30 papers, with a combination of intense and workshop-style panel sessions and plenary sessions with invited speakers. Funds to cover travel reimbursement and accommodation will be available for a small number of participants, with preference given to young scholars and scholars from developing countries.

We invite abstracts of proposed papers (up to 500 words) to be submitted to globalnorms@iniis.uni-bremen.de until Friday, 15 February 2013. Notification of acceptance will be sent out by 31 March 2013, with full conference papers to be submitted three weeks in advance of the workshop (23 August 2013).

Workshop organizers: Klaus Dingwerth, Ina Lehmann, Ellen Reichel, Tobias Weise and Antonia Witt

[1] Citations are taken from Steven Bernstein, ‘Legitimacy in Intergovernment and Non-State Global Governance’, Review of International Political Economy 18 (2011), p. 18; Christine Lagarde, ‘Shared Prosperity in a Globalized Workd’, Public Speech at Universität Zürich, 7 May 2012; and Michael Strange, ‘Discursivity of Global Governance: Vestiges of “Democracy” in the World Trade Organization’, Alternatives 36 (2011), p. 247.