Mitchell & Hawkins: China's Currency and IMF Issues

Andrew D. Mitchell (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) & Jennifer K. Hawkins have posted China's Currency and IMF Issues (in The Renminbi’s Changing Status and the Chinese and Hong Kong Financial System(s), David Donald ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

China’s currency policy is one of the most hotly debated subjects in recent international monetary history. This chapter sets out the current legal framework at the International Monetary Fund (“IMF” or “Fund”) governing its members’ exchange rate policies, and the global system of exchange rates. In doing this, the chapter notes the rationale underlying the current framework, assesses the IMF-consistency of China’s policies, and reviews proposed reforms of the framework. We conclude that it would not appear that China is in breach of its obligations under Article IV, Section 1, but that legitimate concerns have been raised over the adequacy of Section 1 with regards to members’ obligations and the Fund’s oversight role.

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 51, no. 1, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Sabeh El Leil v. France (Eur. Ct. H.R.), with introductory note by Gilles Cuniberti
• Situation in Kenya, Prosecutor v. Muthaura, Kenyatta & Ali (Int’l Crim. Ct.), with introductory note by Elizabeth Stubbins Bates
• Garcia v. Texas (U.S. Sup. Ct.), with introductory note by David P. Stewart
• Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) et al. v. United States (Inter-Am. Comm’n H.R.), with introductory note by Amy Senier
• Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, with introductory Note by Bonita C. Meyersfeld
• Hong Kong Arbitration Ordinance, with introductory note by Lee Tin Yan
• International Energy Forum Charter, with introductory note by Jorge Kamine

New Issue: Nordic Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law (Vol. 81, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Thomas Kleinlein, Between Myths and Norms: Constructivist Constitutionalism and the Potential of Constitutional Principles in International Law
• William E. Conklin, The Exclusionary Boundary of the Early Modern International Community
• Simon Marsden, Direct Public Access to EU Courts: Upholding Public International Law via the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee
• Ida Elisabeth Koch, Twelve Years of Poverty in Denmark - A Human Rights Perspective
• Marina Mancini, A Brand New Definition for the Crime of Aggression: The Kampala Outcome

Myint: Governing International Rivers: Polycentric Politics in the Mekong and the Rhine

Tun Myint (Carleton College - Political Science) has published Governing International Rivers: Polycentric Politics in the Mekong and the Rhine (Edward Elgar Publishing 2012). Here's the abstract:

This important book employs the theory of polycentricity, a system with several centers as an analytical concept to explain the multilayered international environmental governance of river basins. It introduces a new methodological framework to deconstruct and investigate the dynamics of citizens, states and non-state actors in world politics via the context of river basin governance.

The methodology is tested through in-depth field-based case studies, illustrating how local citizens and industries in the Mekong and Rhine river basins participate in transnational environmental governance at both local and international levels. Tun Myint expertly presents both a methodology and theory to conceive polycentricity of world politics as a major intellectual milestone in theorizing world politics. Providing nuanced details of cases showing the challenges and feasibilities of incorporating multiple actors into a governance framework, the book provides careful analysis into the power of non-state actors.

New Issue: Journal du Droit International

The latest issue of the Journal du Droit International ("Clunet") (Vol. 139, no. 2, Avril-Mai-Juin 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Doctrine
• Thomas Clay, « Liberté, Égalité, Efficacité » : La devise du nouveau droit français de l’arbitrage (Première partie)
• Olivier Cachard, La Convention des Nations Unies sur le contrat de transport international de marchandises effectué entièrement ou partiellement par mer (Règles de Rotterdam)
• Thomas Schultz & David Holloway, Retour sur la comity, deuxième partie. La comity dans l’histoire du droit international privé
• Valérie Parisot, Vers une cohérence verticale des textes communautaires en droit du travail ? Réflexion autour des arrêts Heiko Koelzsch et Jan Voogsgeerd de la Cour de justice

Cafaggi: Enforcement of Transnational Regulation: Ensuring Compliance in a Global World

Fabrizio Cafaggi (European Univ. Institute - Law) has published Enforcement of Transnational Regulation: Ensuring Compliance in a Global World (Edward Elgar Publishing 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This book addresses the different mechanisms of enforcement deployed in transnational private regimes vis-à-vis those in the field of public transnational law.

Enforcement represents a key dimension in measuring the effectiveness and legitimacy of transnational private regulation. This detailed book shifts the focus from rule-making to enforcement and compliance, and moves from a vertical analysis to a comparative sectoral analysis. Both public and private transnational regulation fall under the scrutiny of the authors, and the book considers the effectiveness of judicial models of enforcement – under international law and through national courts – and of non-judicial means. Comparisons are drawn across sectors including international commercial law, labor law, finance, Internet regulation and advertising.

Haque: Law and Morality at War

Adil Ahmad Haque (Rutgers Univ., Newark - Law) has posted Law and Morality at War (Criminal Law and Philosophy, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article, written as part of a Special Issue on the legal philosophy of Jeremy Waldron, offers a general account of the relative scope of the morality of war, the laws of war, and war crimes. I propose an instrumentalist account of the laws of war, according to which the laws of war should help soldiers conform to the morality of war. The instrumentalist account supports Waldron’s conclusion that the laws of war justifiably prohibit attacks on civilians even if it turns out that some civilians lack a moral right not to be killed. Importantly, the instrumentalist account also offers what Waldron thinks impossible: a non-consequentialist defense of the failure of the laws of war to prohibit the killing of nonthreatening combatants. Finally, I argue that new war crimes can be broader than the morality of war as well as established laws of war and that many of the arguments for defining war crimes more narrowly than either the morality of war or the laws of war are unconvincing. In all of these ways, I hope to carry forward Waldron’s project of exploring the relationship between law and morality in war.

May & Forcehimes: Morality, Jus Post Bellum, and International Law

Larry May (Vanderbilt Univ. - Philosophy) & Andrew Forcehimes (Vanderbilt Univ.) have published Morality, Jus Post Bellum, and International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Contents include:

• Margaret Walker, Post-conflict truth telling: exploring extended territory
• Larry May, Reparations, restitution, and transitional justice
• Phil Clark, Addressing atrocity at the local level: community based approaches to transitional justice in Central Africa
• Jovana Davidovic, Timor-Leste and transitional justice: should we pursue international prosecutions for the crimes committed in East Timor in 1999?
• Joanna Kyriakakis, Justice after war: economic actors, economic crimes, and the moral imperative for accountability after war
• Mark A. Drumbl, Child soldiers, transitional justice, and the architecture of post bellum settlements
• C. A. J. Coady, Our soldiers, right or wrong: the postwar treatment of troops
• Robert Talisse, Democratization and just cause
• Seth Lazar, Skepticism about jus post bellum
• Robert Cryer, Law and the jus post bellum: counseling caution
• Andrew Forcehimes & Larry May, Conclusion

New Issue: Merkourios: Utrecht Journal of International and European Law

The latest issue of Merkourios: Utrecht Journal of International and European Law (Vol. 28, no. 74, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Alexander Lott, The Tagliavini Report Revisited: Jus ad Bellum and the Legality of the Russian Intervention in Georgia
• Jing Geng, The Legality of Foreign Military Activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone under UNCLOS
• Jonte van Essen, De Facto Regimes in International Law
• Laura Henderson, With (Great) Power Comes (Great) Responsibility: A Move Toward Greater Responsibility for States Exercising Power Abroad (Al-Jedda v the United Kingdom)
• Cedric Ryngaert, Clarifying the Extraterritorial Application of the European Convention on Human Rights (Al-Skeini v the United Kingdom)

Chander: Facebookistan

Anupam Chander (Univ. of California, Davis - School of Law) has posted Facebookistan (North Carolina Law Review, Vol. 90, p. 1807, 2012). Here's the abstract:

Who rules Facebookistan? Who makes the rules that govern the way a tenth of humanity connects on the Internet? The United States, France, China, or Mark Zuckerberg? Facebook represents a type of multinational corporation new to the world stage — one that raises issues different than those raised by earlier generations of multinational corporations. A review of international controversies involving Facebook reveals that Facebook has changed some of its policies as a result of pressures from governments around the world, while resisting other pressures. At the same time, Facebook has itself helped spur changes in the law, most evidently in helping undermine repressive governments. Ultimately, this Article finds that regulatory power is, de facto, dispersed across a wide array of international actors.

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 354 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:

• Volume 354
• Carolyn B. Lamm, Internationalization of the Practice of Law and Important Emerging Issues for Investor-State Arbitration (Opening Lecture)
• Adrian Briggs, The Principle of Comity in Private International Law
• William J. Davey, Non-discrimination in the World Trade Organization: The Rules and Exceptions

Steinberg, Herzberg, & Berman: Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding

Gerald M. Steinberg (NGO Monitor; Bar-Ilan Univ. - Political Studies), Anne Herzberg (NGO Monitor), & Jordan Berman have published Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-Finding (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2012). Here's the abstract:

This work outlines available resources and proposed standards for international NGO fact-finding missions: Chapter One presents an introduction to the issue of NGO fact-finding. Chapter Two discusses the problems caused by the lack of any generally-accepted guidelines for NGO fact-finding, in contrast with contexts where NGOs have achieved consensus. Chapter Three surveys proposed guidelines for human rights and humanitarian NGOs. In addition, this section examines United Nations fact-finding standards, as well as examples of internal fact-finding standards for major NGOs. Chapter Four analyzes the fact-finding standards used in five specific cases: the International Crisis Group (Kosovo, 1999), the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia (Georgia, 2008), United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Mapping Exercise on the Democratic Republic of Congo (1993-2003), Conflict Analysis Resource Center/University London study on Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (Colombia, 1988-2004), and Human Rights Watch (Lebanon, 2006). The final chapter offers conclusions and recommendations

New Issue: L'Observateur des Nations Unies

The latest issue of L'Observateur des Nations Unies (# 30, 2011-1) is out. The theme is "Le formalisme juridique dans le droit international du XXIème siècle." Contents include:

• Première partie – Critiques du formalisme Juridique
• Mohamed Bennouna, Le formalisme juridique : pour quoi faire ?
• Justin Desautels-Stein, The Knight of Faith and the Outlook of the Dead
• Deuxième partie - Les sources du droit international et le formalism juridique
• Jean d'Aspremont, La déformalisation en droit international et l’abandon de la théorie des sources dans la doctrine contemporaine
• Mathias Forteau, Les sources du droit international face au formalisme
• Troisième partie - La CIJ et le formalisme juridique
• Olivier Corten, La thèse de la déformalisation du droit international et ses limites : l’exemple de la jurisprudence de la Cour internationale de Justice
• Thomas Margueritte, Le formalisme juridique et la Cour internationale de justice, devoir prétorien ou outil de politique judiciaire ? L'exemple de l'affaire Géorgie/Russie
• Quatrième partie - Le droit international special et le formalism juridique
• Eric Naim-Gesbert, L'unification du droit international de l'environnement par la quête du mot juste
• Ayelet Berman, Harmonization Networks, Informal International Law, and Accountability
• Mamoud Zani, Le formalisme juridique dans la pratique de l’Organisation internationale du Travail : réflexions sur l’élaboration et la révision des normes internationales du travail
• Rémi Bachand & Claudine Bouvier, Critique du formalisme et préjugés disciplinaires : La conception de l'État dans les sentences argentines
• Anna Maria Smolinska, Du formalisme et des interactions entre les échelons universel et régional
• Actes de la Conférence inaugurale Prononcée par le Professeur Jean Salmon le 23 septembre 2011 à Aix en Provence Sous la présidence du Doyen Ahmed Mahiou
• Jean Salmon, L'Etat souverain aujourd'hui
• Compte rendu des débats, Retranscrits par Chloé Houdy et Tiphaine Demaria

Qureshi: Trade Remedies: A Development Perspective

Asif Qureshi (Univ. of Manchester - Law) has published Trade Remedies: A Development Perspective (Routledge 2012). Here's the abstract:

Under the framework of the WTO Member States are allowed to respond to three types of imports which harm or have the potential of harming a domestic industry. The imports in question are those which either involve a State subsidy, for example an export subsidy from the State where the goods are being exported from; or where goods are being imported at a price that is less than the price they are being sold at in the exporting State (practice known as dumping); or where there is a sudden surge of imports which injure the domestic industry. With respect to each of these different types of imports under the WTO a Member is entitled to avail itself of certain trade remedies namely the imposition countervailing measures with respect to subsidised goods; anti-dumping measures with respect to dumped goods; and safeguard measures with respect to the situation where there is a sudden upsurge of imports.

The apparatus and framework within which trade remedies in the WTO can be imposed by a Member are highly technical, and trade remedies historically are rooted in developed States in particular the United States and Europe. However, many developing countries have now introduced legislation enabling them to use trade remedies, and have acted under the legislation. Trade remedies are of particular significance to developing economies both in terms of their need to respond to flows of imports as well as recipients of such responses. Indeed, such is the perceived importance of trade remedies in relation to developing countries that the Doha Round of trade negotiations have stalled as a consequence of disagreement between developed and developing countries over the particular design of the Special Safeguard Mechanism in the agricultural sector. This book approaches the issues relating to trade remedies from a developing country perspective. Drawing on the practice of a number of developing and developed countries the book explores how developing countries relate to trade remedies both as users of trade remedies as well being on the receiving end of such responses to their exports. The book clarifies what the issues, problems and perspectives are, or ought to be, relating to trade remedies in terms of advancing development and the spectrum of developing countries. The book looks at the following questions, among others:

• What is the appropriate threshold for the use of trade remedies for the differing developing countries? Should there be differing thresholds according to the level of development?
• How are developing countries affected by the divergence of trade remedies in Regional Trade Agreements?
• Do trade remedies empower developing countries with respect to multinational corporations and powerful States?
• What are the rent seeking/corruption aspects of trade remedies that particularly haunt developing countries?
• What kind of reforms need to be brought in trade remedies to particularly safeguard the interests of developing countries in their use and abuse?

New Issue: Journal of World Investment & Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Investment & Trade (Vol. 13, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• James Mathis & Eugenia Laurenza, Services and Investment in the EU - South Korea Free-Trade Area: Implications of a New Approach for GATS V Agreements and for Bilateral Investment Treaties
• Alexandra Bhattacharya, The Use of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (2001): A Review of Implementation Experiences in the Developing Countries
• Srilal M. Perera, Equity-Based Decision-Making and the Fair and Equitable Treatment Standard: Lessons From the Argentine Investment Disputes – Part I
• Pravakar Sahoo, Determinants of FDI in South Asia: Role of Infrastructure, Trade Openness and Reforms
• Christer Söderlund, Compensation under International Law in Cases of Treaty Breach Resulting in Impairment of Business Performance
• Bhawana Rawat & Shakeel Ahmad, Foreign Direct Investment in India’s Service Sector: A Case of Education Sector
• Jai S. Mah & Sunyoung Noh, A Comparative Analysis of the Patterns of Japanese and Korean Foreign Direct Investment in China

New Issue: Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 45, no. 2, March 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Renee M. Jones & Michelle Welsh, Toward a Public Enforcement Model for Directors’ Duty of Oversight
• Stuart Ford, A Social Psychology Model of the Perceived Legitimacy of International Criminal Courts: Implications for the Success of Transitional Justice Mechanisms
• Jedidiah Kroncke, Law and Development as Anti-Comparative Law

New Issue: African Journal of International and Comparative Law

The latest issue of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law (Vol. 20, no. 1, February 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Nicola Palmer, Transfer or Transformation?: A Review of the Rule 11 bis Decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
• Ifeonu Eberechi, Who Will Save these Endangered Species? Evaluating the Implications of the Principle of Complementarity on the Traditional African Conflict Resolution Mechanisms
• The African Human Rights System and the Issue of Minorities in Africa Solomon Dersso
• Pontian N. Okoli, Access to Justice and Fair Hearing: An Evaluation of Pre-Action Notice in Nigerian Jurisprudence
• Mwiza Jo Nkhata, The Role of Regional Economic Communities in Protecting and Promoting Human Rights in Africa: Reflections on the Human Rights Mandate of the Tribunal of the Southern African Development Community
• Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi, The Right to Privacy of People in or Presumed to be in Same-Sex Relationships in Uganda
• C. J. Tchawouo Mbiada, The Exhaustion of Internal Remedies in Administrative Law: A Comparative Analysis of the South African and the Cameroonian Requirements and Procedure

Pearson: International Law, Regulation and Resistance: Critical Spaces

Zoe Pearson (Univ. of Keele - Law) has published International Law, Regulation and Resistance: Critical Spaces (Routledge 2012). Here's the abstract:

International Law, Regulation and Resistance presents a critique of international law through an interdisciplinary analysis and engagement with the emerging literature from critical legal geography. The book draws upon existing critiques of international law to examine how different spaces affect the processes and substance of law. As well as drawing upon feminist and third world critiques that highlight the importance of looking for ‘alternative’ sites of norm production to counter the hegemonic tendencies of international legal regulation, key insights are provided by an examination of the literature on civil society actors (particularly in the context of feminist protest and activism) and regulation, which highlights the value of ‘soft power’ and connects norm production more broadly with social spaces and political processes. The book goes on to explores the ways in which our assumptions about law and legal institutions can shape and control the physical world and the organisation of space, in order to discover ways in which the complexities and diversities of international law could be embraced.

Benjamin B. Ferencz Essay Competition

The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law has issued a call for submissions for the inaugural Benjamin B. Ferencz Essay Competition. Details are here.

Finlay: Fairness and Liability in the Just War: Combatants, Non-combatants and Lawful Irregulars

Christopher J. Finlay (Univ. of Birmingham - Political Science and International Studies) has posted Fairness and Liability in the Just War: Combatants, Non-combatants and Lawful Irregulars (Political Studies, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Critics of non-uniformed ‘irregular’ warfare argue that it is unfair both to non-combatants and to enemy ‘regulars’. I dispute this view by outlining the ‘problem of in bello justice’, which concerns how the leaders of a people forced to fight a just war should distribute risks within their own population. In so far as all are the victims of aggression or unjust occupation, I argue, no citizens on the just side are morally liable to attack. But to benefit from the restraining effects of discrimination, some members must be rendered legally liable. Political leaders must therefore find the most appropriate distribution of the risk of harm: first, by deciding which and how many citizens to select as ‘combatants’; and second, by specifying how far to distance combatants from civilians. I identify four normative considerations that must be taken into account: each possible arrangement must (1) fulfil basic requirements of fairness domestically; then, between equally fair arrangements, leaders ought to determine which offers the most auspicious balance between (2) the goal of survival (of the society and as many of its members as possible) and (3) the goal of winning and, hence, eliminating the injustices that caused the war; finally (4) the arrangement should not be unfair to enemy combatants. On this basis, I argue that in spite of the increased risks it poses to civilians, limited ‘irregular’ warfare might be deployed legitimately against occupiers where using uniforms would render insurgents vulnerable to targeted assassination or arrest prior to actual combat.

Hassler: UN Security Council Membership: The illusion of representativeness

Sabine Hassler (Univ. of the West of England - Law) has published Reforming the UN Security Council Membership: The illusion of representativeness (Routledge 2012). Here's the abstract:

There have been many calls for changes to the membership of the United Nations Security Council over the past fifty years, and the Council is now, more than ever, seen as out of step with current realities. The continuing failure to reflect changing realities directly affects the perception of legitimacy of Council decisions and actions. Increasingly, the Council is seen as run by, and for the benefit of, a handful of states. With it being ever less representative of the present UN membership, calls for changes to Council size, composition and membership have become louder. Although expansion generally meets with favourable comments, discussions soon begin to revolve around maximum numbers and equity and whether enlargement should affect both non-permanent and permanent seats. The most controversial point, unsurprisingly, remains the permanent member status and whether these seats should be retained, added to or disbanded. Discussions also get caught up in determining appropriate membership ratios and acceptable action thresholds with more cautious voices questioning whether enlargement to attain better representation could potentially debilitate the Council’s effectiveness and efficiency.

This book comprehensively examines the different proposals put forward for reforming the Security Council, analysing their objectives and exploring whether the implementation of their proposals would actually create a representative and more effective Security Council. The book places the discussion on reform of the Security Council membership in the context of its primary responsibility at the helm of the UN collective security system, considering issues such as the maintenance of international peace and security, humanitarian intervention and peacekeeping. It offers an inquiry into the Council’s constitutional set-up and how far that set-up still reflects the expectations and intentions of the founding nations, whilst remaining flexible enough to satisfy today’s, and possibly tomorrow’s, membership. Increasing dissatisfaction with the status quo calls for an inquiry into whether issues of composition and membership, voting powers and procedures constitute fundamental weaknesses that necessitate reform through UN Charter amendment, or whether adjustment in practice would be more constructive. The through the use of policy-oriented jurisprudence and elements of the International Law/International Relations theory this book examines both possibilities and explores how reform can best be realised.

von Bogdandy & Venzke: International Judicial Lawmaking: On Public Authority and Democratic Legitimation in Global Governance

Armin von Bogdandy (Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht) & Ingo Venzke (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) have published International Judicial Lawmaking: On Public Authority and Democratic Legitimation in Global Governance (Springer 2012). Contents include:

• Armin von Bogdandy & Ingo Venzke, Beyond Dispute: International Judicial Institutions as Lawmakers
• Marc Jacob, Precedents: Lawmaking Through International Adjudication
• Karin Oellers-Frahm, Lawmaking Through Advisory Opinions?
• Eyal Benvenisti & George W. Downs, Prospects for the Increased Independence of International Tribunals
• Stephan W. Schill, System-Building in Investment Treaty Arbitration and Lawmaking
• Ingo Venzke, Making General Exceptions: The Spell of Precedents in Developing Article XX GATT into Standards for Domestic Regulatory Policy
• Michael Ioannidis, A Procedural Approach to the Legitimacy of International Adjudication: Developing Standards of Participation in WTO Law
• Thomas Kleinlein, Judicial Lawmaking by Judicial Restraint? The Potential of Balancing in International Economic Law
• Christina Binder, The Prohibition of Amnesties by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
• Markus Fyrnys, Expanding Competences by Judicial Lawmaking: The Pilot Judgment Procedure of the European Court of Human Rights
• Milan Kuhli & Klaus Günther, Judicial Lawmaking, Discourse Theory, and the ICTY on Belligerent Reprisals
• Karin Oellers-Frahm, Expanding the Competence to Issue Provisional Measures – Strengthening the International Judicial Function
• Niels Petersen, Lawmaking by the International Court of Justice – Factors of Success
• Lorenzo Casini, The Making of a Lex Sportiva by the Court of Arbitration for Sport
• Armin von Bogdandy & Ingo Venzke, On the Democratic Legitimation of International Judicial Lawmaking

Brunnée, Doelle, & Rajamani: Promoting Compliance in an Evolving Climate Regime

Jutta Brunnée (Univ. of Toronto - Law), Meinhard Doelle (Dalhousie Univ. - Law), & Lavanya Rajamani (Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi) have published Promoting Compliance in an Evolving Climate Regime (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

As the contours of a post-2012 climate regime begin to emerge, compliance issues will require increasing attention. This volume considers the questions that the trends in the climate negotiations raise for the regime's compliance system. It reviews the main features of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, canvasses the literature on compliance theory and examines the broader experience with compliance mechanisms in other international environmental regimes. Against this backdrop, contributors examine the central elements of the existing compliance system, the practice of the Kyoto compliance procedure to date and the main compliance challenges encountered by key groups of states such as OECD countries, economies in transition and developing countries. These assessments anchor examinations of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing compliance tools and of the emerging, decentralized, 'bottom-up' approach introduced by the 2009 Copenhagen Accord and pursued by the 2010 Cancun Agreements.

Conference: Ten Years of International Criminal Court

Today, May 14, 2012, the Amsterdam Law Forum will host a conference on "Ten Years of International Criminal Court." The program is here. Here's the idea:

Amsterdam Law Forum, VU University’s student-edited journal on international law, is hosting its third annual conference: Ten Years of International Criminal Court. This conference marks the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the Rome Statute of the ICC. Amsterdam Law Forum brings together a number of leading academics and practitioners in the field of international criminal law to discuss the achievements of the ICC, the challenges it has faced internally and externally over the past decade and what the road should be for the next ten years ahead. Featured speakers are ICC Judges Eketerina Trendafilova and Howard Morrison, Professor William Schabas, Guénaël Mettraux and more.

ILR: Five Years On

Saturday marked the fifth anniversary of the International Law Reporter's inaugural post.

The idea behind ILR was straightforward - to post the latest and most interesting news and information on scholarship, events, and ideas in international law and related fields. An obvious corollary was that reports should reflect the wide range of scholarship out there - in terms of viewpoint, scholarly discipline, type of publication, and language. Another was that ILR's coverage must encompass the full scope of contemporary international law subjects. In other words, the assumption was that folks interested in international law needed to know not only what was going on in their own particular specialty and in their own particular country but also what was going on in seemingly unrelated substantive areas and unfamiliar disciplines and in journals and books published in different languages and in different parts of the world.

I have tried hard to do all this, but I know that there is always room for improvement. Suggestions are most welcome. And though I cannot guarantee that I will post everything I receive, I encourage you to contact me with announcements of events and publications.

New Issue: Amsterdam Law Forum

The latest issue of the Amsterdam Law Forum (Vol. 4, no. 2, Spring 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Scientific Articles
• Hitomi Takemura, Reconsidering the Meaning and Actuality of the Legitimacy of the International Criminal Court
• Sana Ghouse, John Coughlan, & Richard Smith, The Legacy of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal: Maintaining the Status Quo of Cambodia's Legal and Judicial System
• Azin Tadjdini, The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Regional Challenges to International Law and Security
• Léon Dijkman, Do You Want To Know A Secret? The decline of legal accountability in modern democracies and Wikileaks’ answer to it
• Britta van Beers, TV Cannibalism, Body Worlds and Trade in Human Body Parts: Legal-philosophical reflections on the rise of late modern cannibalism
• Discussion Section
• Timo Behr, The EU’s Mediterranean Policies after the Arab Spring: Can the Leopard Change its Spots?
• Frederiek de Vlaming, The Yugoslavia Tribunal and the Selection of Defendants
• Milena Sterio, Piracy Off the Coast of Somalia: The Argument for Pirate Prosecutions in the National Courts of Kenya, The Seychelles, and Mauritius