Saturday, August 11, 2012

Abbott, Genschel, Snidal, & Zangl: Orchestration: Global Governance through Intermediaries

Kenneth W. Abbott (Arizona State Univ. - Law), Philipp Genschel (Jacobs Univ. Bremen - Political Science), Duncan Snidal (Univ. of Oxford - International Relations), & Bernhard Zangl (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München - Political Science) have posted Orchestration: Global Governance through Intermediaries. Here's the abstract:
This paper develops a conceptual framework for analyzing orchestration, a mode of governance that is widely used by international organizations (IGOs) and other governance actors, but rarely identified or analyzed. IGOs engage in orchestration when they enlist intermediary actors on a voluntary basis, by providing them with ideational and material support, to address target actors in pursuit of IGO governance goals. Orchestration is thus both indirect (because the IGO acts through intermediaries) and soft (because the IGO lacks control over intermediaries). These features distinguish orchestration from traditional hierarchical governance, which addresses targets directly through hard instruments; from governance through collaboration with targets, which is direct but soft; and from delegation, which is indirect but hard. The paper elaborates the concept of orchestration, identifies patterns and techniques of orchestration, and advances hypotheses regarding the conditions under which governance actors in general and IGOs in particular can be expected to rely on orchestration.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Smith: The Rise and Fall of War Crimes Trials: From Charles I to Bush II

Charles Anthony Smith (Univ. of California, Irvine - Political Science) has published The Rise and Fall of War Crimes Trials: From Charles I to Bush II (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:
This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the politics of war crimes trials. It provides a systematic and theoretically rigorous examination of whether these trials are used as tools for political consolidation or whether justice is their primary purpose. The consideration of cases begins with the trial of Charles I of England and goes through the presidency of George W. Bush, including the trials of Saddam Hussein and those arising from the War on Terror. The book concludes that political consolidation is the primary concern of these trials – a point that runs contrary to the popular perception of the trials and their stated justification. Through the consideration of war crimes trials, this book makes a contribution to our understanding of power and conflict resolution and illuminates the developmental path of war crimes tribunals.

Hamilton, García-Bolívar, & Otero: Latin American Investment Protections: Comparative Perspectives on Laws, Treaties, and Disputes for Investors, States and Counsel

Jonathan C. Hamilton (White & Case LLP), Omar E. García-Bolívar (BG Consulting), & Hernando Otero have published Latin American Investment Protections: Comparative Perspectives on Laws, Treaties, and Disputes for Investors, States and Counsel (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2012). Here's the abstract:
Latin American Investment Protections provides a unique country-by-country discussion of legal protections, dispute resolution and arbitration relating to foreign investment in Latin America. Topics include relevant local laws, legal stability regimes (often overlooked), related State institutions, treaties for the protection of foreign investments, international arbitration and other dispute resolution mechanisms and foreign investment disputes involving investment in Latin America.

New Issue: Netherlands International Law Review

The latest issue of the Netherlands International Law Review (Vol. 59, no. 2, August 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Eki Yemisi Omorogbe, The African Union, Responsibility to Protect and the Libyan Crisis
  • Eva Rieter, Provisional Measures: Binding and Persuasive? Enabling Human Rights Adjudicators to Follow Up on State Disrespect
  • Andria Naudé Fourie, The World Bank Inspection Panel's Normative Potential: A Critical Assessment, and a Restatement
  • Patrick Dumberry, Is Turkey the 'Continuing' State of the Ottoman Empire Under International Law?

Gaines, Olsen, & Sørensen: Liberalising Trade in the EU and the WTO: A Legal Comparison

Sanford E. Gaines (Aarhus Universitet), Birgitte Egelund Olsen (Aarhus Universitet), & Karsten Engsig Sørensen (Aarhus Universitet) have published Liberalising Trade in the EU and the WTO: A Legal Comparison (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
This comparison of EU and WTO approaches to common trade-liberalisation challenges brings together eighteen authors from Europe and America. Together they explore fundamental legal issues, such as the role of general principles of law, the role of the judiciary in the development of law, the effect of the principle of non-discrimination and the elimination of non-discriminatory barriers to trade. The contributions also examine the most recent developments in trade law across a full range of trade issues, including TBT and SPS, services, intellectual property, customs rules, safeguards, anti-dumping and government procurement. Adopting a comparative perspective throughout, this volume sheds light on today's trade law and suggests paths forward for each system through the perennial tensions between open, non-discriminatory trade and strongly held national values and objectives.

New Issue: Asian Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Asian Journal of International Law (Vol. 2, no. 2, July 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Yoshinobu Takei, Law and Policy for International Submarine Cables: An Asia-Pacific Perspective
  • Ahmad Ali Ghouri, Determining Hierarchy Between Conflicting Treaties: Are There Vertical Rules in the Horizontal System?
  • Mavluda Sattorova, Defining Investment Under the ICSID Convention and BITs: Of Ordinary Meaning, Telos, and Beyond
  • Huong Ly Luu, Regional Harmonization of Competition Law and Policy: An ASEAN Approach
  • Zuxing Zhang, A Deconstruction of the Notion of Acquisitive Prescription and Its Implications for the Diaoyu Islands Dispute
  • Davinia Aziz, Global Public-Private Partnerships in International Law
  • Andrew Garwood-Gowers, China and the “Responsibility to Protect”: The Implications of the Libyan Intervention

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Parrish: An Emerging Trend?: State Court International Human Rights Litigation

Austen Parrish (Southwestern Law School) has posted An Emerging Trend?: State Court International Human Rights Litigation (UC Irvine Law Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
The brief symposium contribution explores human rights litigation in U.S. state courts under state law. Faced with higher hurdles to successfully asserting Alien Tort Statute claims in U.S. courts and reluctant to re-embrace more traditional international lawmaking, human rights advocates have begun to experiment with alternative strategies for redressing human rights violations. One strategy involves state court litigation. Some commentators believe that state courts may prove more amenable to enforcing and advancing human rights. This symposium contribution explores the parallels between the recent wiliness to consider state court litigation to remedy human rights violations occurring abroad and other state court strategies, particularly those implicating environmental rights. After exploring the reasons behind the interest in state courts, the contribution explains why the move to state court litigation is unlikely to prove beneficial for the human rights movement. Over the long-term, relying on state courts will place human rights advocacy in a weaker position. State court litigation – similar to its federal analogue – is likely to prove a poor substitute for more traditional, multilateral, and collaborative international lawmaking.

New Issue: Journal of Conflict & Security Law

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict & Security Law (Vol. 17, no. 2, Summer 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: Cyber War and International Law
    • Mary Ellen O’Connell, Cyber Security without Cyber War
    • Russell Buchan, Cyber Attacks: Unlawful Uses of Force or Prohibited Interventions?
    • Nicholas Tsagourias, Cyber attacks, self-defence and the problem of attribution
    • Michael Schmitt, Classification of Cyber Conflict
    • Yoram Dinstein, The Principle of Distinction and Cyber War in International Armed Conflicts
    • David Turns, Cyber Warfare and the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities

Conference: ASIL 2012 Midyear Meeting and Research Forum

The American Society of International Law's 2012 Midyear Meeting and Research Forum will take place October 19-21 at the headquarters of the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta and at University of Georgia School of Law in Athens. I noted the call for papers for the Research Forum here. The program is here. Registration and other details are available here.

Nmehielle: Africa and the Future of International Criminal Justice

Vincent O. Nmehielle (Univ. of the Witwatersrand - Law) has published Africa and the Future of International Criminal Justice (Eleven International Publishing 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
Africa and the Future of International Criminal Justice examines critical issues concerning Africa as a place in which international criminal accountability mechanisms have played, and still continue to play a prominent role in the efforts to deal with and to tackle impunity for atrocity crimes. It interrogates important questions relating to Africa’s importance to international criminal justice as exemplified by the activities of international criminal accountability mechanisms. Some examples are the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court (ICC).The contributions in the volume discuss the contentions about whether Africa is particularly targeted for international justice accountability experiments as well as the politics of international criminal justice. International politics continue to shape Africa’s relationship with international justice mechanisms and initiatives as demonstrated by the recent concerns of the African Union about the activities of the ICC in Africa. This publication clarifies that the ICC, as a permanent global international criminal accountability mechanism needs Africa and that Africa needs the ICC for full and effective realization of the normative prescriptions of the Rome Statute in Africa. In this regard the publication places the complementarity principle of the Rome Statute at the centre to enable Africa to take credible ownership of justice for atrocity crimes on the continent.

Illy: L'OMC et le régionalisme: Le régionalisme africain

Ousseni Illy has published L'OMC et le régionalisme: Le régionalisme africain (Larcier 2012). Here's the abstract:

Le régionalisme et l’universalisme ont toujours entretenu des rapports complexes dans les relations internationales. La volonté du second de mettre sous contrôle le premier – sans jamais y être parvenu véritablement – remonte notamment au lendemain de la Première Guerre mondiale, où le régionalisme, à travers les alliances, a été indexé par les Américains et de nombreux intellectuels comme l’une des causes ayant entraîné la guerre.

Le présent ouvrage analyse ces rapports dans un domaine particulier des relations internationales, à savoir celui du commerce international. L’analyse est faite à la lumière des accords commerciaux régionaux africains et transafricains afin de mettre en exergue l’apport et l’insertion du régionalisme commercial africain dans le système commercial multilatéral de l’OMC. L’auteur y défend en particulier l’idée selon laquelle un régionalisme commercial africain bien compris – signifiant par là le démantèlement effectif des obstacles au commerce intra-africain – aiderait à une meilleure insertion de l’Afrique dans le commerce mondial.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Cohen: Globalization and Sovereignty: Rethinking Legality, Legitimacy, and Constitutionalism

Jean L. Cohen (Columbia Univ. - Political Science) has published Globalization and Sovereignty: Rethinking Legality, Legitimacy, and Constitutionalism (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:
Sovereignty and the sovereign state are often seen as anachronisms; Globalization and Sovereignty challenges this view. Jean L. Cohen analyzes the new sovereignty regime emergent since the 1990s evidenced by the discourses and practice of human rights, humanitarian intervention, transformative occupation, and the UN targeted sanctions regime that blacklists alleged terrorists. Presenting a systematic theory of sovereignty and its transformation in international law and politics, Cohen argues for the continued importance of sovereign equality. She offers a theory of a dualistic world order comprised of an international society of states, and a global political community in which human rights and global governance institutions affect the law, policies, and political culture of sovereign states. She advocates the constitutionalization of these institutions, within the framework of constitutional pluralism. This book will appeal to students of international political theory and law, political scientists, sociologists, legal historians, and theorists of constitutionalism.

Sands & Peel: Principles of International Environmental Law (Third Edition)

Philippe Sands (University College London - Law) & Jacqueline Peel (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) have published the third edition of Principles of International Environmental Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:
The third edition of this classic textbook offers comprehensive and critical commentary on international environmental law. It fully covers the key topics of the course and is clearly structured to include the history and framework in which international environmental law exists, key areas of regulation and implementation, links to other areas of law and future developments. It has been updated to incorporate all the latest developments in treaty and case law. Extensive feedback on previous editions results in a restructuring of material, including a new part focused on linkage to other areas of international law including human rights, international trade and foreign investment. There is also a new chapter on future developments charting the directions in which the subject is moving. Specialist authors writing on oceans, seas and fisheries and biodiversity add to the expertise of the two principal authors for an authoritative overview of the subject.

New Issue: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für internationales und europäisches Recht

The latest issue of the Schweizerische Zeitschrift für internationales und europäisches Recht (Vol. 22, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Aktuell
    • Christian Tomuschat, Die Erklärung von Brighton
  • Aufsätze
    • Ludwig Gramlich & Cornelia Manger-Nestler, Die «Europäisierung» von Aufsichts- und Regulierungsstrukturen im Telekommunikations-, Finanz- und Energiesektor – im Konflikt mit WTO-Recht?
    • Eveline Schneider Kayasseh, Das Recht Saudi-Arabiens und der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate – Tradition und Moderne
  • Praxis
    • Andreas Bucher, Jurisprudence suisse en matière de droit international privé de la famille et des successions
    • Jürg Borer, Spruchpraxis zum EU-Wettbewerbsrecht (2011/2012)
    • Paolo Michele Patocchi & Xavier Favre-Bulle, Case Notes on International Arbitration

Evans: The Right to Reparation in International Law for Victims of Armed Conflict

Christine Evans (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) has published The Right to Reparation in International Law for Victims of Armed Conflict (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:
In this evaluation of the international legal standing of the right to reparation and its practical implementation at the national level, Christine Evans outlines State responsibility and examines the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice, the Articles on State Responsibility of the International Law Commission and the convergence of norms in different branches of international law, notably human rights law, humanitarian law and international criminal law. Case studies of countries in which the United Nations has played a significant role in peace negotiations and post-conflict processes allow her to analyse to what extent transitional justice measures have promoted State responsibility for reparations, interacted with human rights mechanisms and prompted subsequent elaboration of domestic legislation and reparations policies. In conclusion, she argues for an emerging customary right for individuals to receive reparations for serious violations of human rights and a corresponding responsibility of States.

New Issue: Revue Générale de Droit International Public

The latest issue of the Revue Générale de Droit International Public (Vol. 116, no. 1, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, L'influence des droits de l'homme sur la stucture du droit international, la hiérarchisation de l'ordre juridique international
  • Tarek Majzoub & Fabienne Quillere, Le statut du Comité arabe des droits de l'homme : un organe sous influence?
  • Pierre-François Laval, A propos de la juridiction extraterritoriale de l'Etat. Observations sur l'arrêt Al-Skeini de la Cour européenne des droits de l'homme du 7 juillet 2011
  • Nicolas Bueno, Analyse economique du droit international des traités: interprétation, réserve et violation revisitées
  • Habib Gherari, L'OMC à bout de souffle. Quelques observations sur la 8ème Conférence ministérielle

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Benvenisti & Downs: Prospects for the Increased Independence of International Tribunals

Eyal Benvenisti (Tel Aviv Univ. - Law) & George W. Downs (New York Univ. - Politics) have posted Prospects for the Increased Independence of International Tribunals (German Law Journal, Vol. 12, No. 5, 2011). Here's the abstract:
In this essay we draw upon the theoretical and empirical literatures on the evolution of court independence within modern democratic states to identify aspects of their political environments that have fostered judicial independence at the domestic level. We then extend that analysis to examine the role that these or similar factors are likely to play in facilitating the independence and legitimacy of international tribunals at the global level. We focus on two such broad aspects of the global environment not normally associated with the independence of international tribunals: the extent of political division between states that are parties to an international tribunal (interstate competition), and the extent of political division within states between state executives and national courts (inter-branch competition). We suggest further that the conditions that facilitate independence have increased in recent years and are likely to continue to do so.

New Issue: Indian Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Indian Journal of International Law (Vol. 52, no. 1, January-March 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • James Nedumpara, Corporate Tax Reform Proposals in the United States: What Lessons Can Be Learnt from the past GATT/WTO Jurisprudence?
    • Jasmeet Gulati, Challenges Before International Technology Transfer: Maximising the Principle of Sustainable Development
    • Abdul Haseeb Ansari, Rio-Principle 10 and Environment Impact Assessment: A Study with reference to The Malaysian Practice
  • Recent Developments & Shorter Articles
    • A. Jayagovind, Look-at v. Look-through: Legal Implications of Vodafone Judgment

New Issue: Human Rights Law Review

The latest issue of the Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 12, no. 2, June 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Elizabeth Wicks, The Meaning of ‘Life’: Dignity and the Right to Life in International Human Rights Treaties
    • Murray Wesson, Disagreement and the Constitutionalisation of Social Rights
    • Damian A. Gonzalez-Salzberg, Do Preliminary Objections Truly Object to the Jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights? An Empirical Study of the Use and Abuse of Preliminary Objections in the Court’s Case Law
    • Cathryn Costello, Courting Access to Asylum in Europe: Recent Supranational Jurisprudence Explored
  • Short Articles and Recent Developments
    • Frederick Cowell & Angelina Milon, Decriminalisation of Sexual Orientation through the Universal Periodic Review
    • Andrew Trotter, Innocence, Liberty and Provisional Release at the ICTY: A Post-Mortem of ‘Compelling Humanitarian Grounds’ in Context
    • Steve Peers, The ‘Opt-out’ that Fell to Earth: The British and Polish Protocol Concerning the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 51, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorisation of the Investigation Into the Situation in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire (Int’l Crim. Ct.), with introductory note by Scott W. Lyons
  • Şahin v. Turkey (Eur. Ct. H.R.), with introductory note by Chris Jenks
  • Dallah Real Estate & Tourism Holding Co. v. Ministry of Religious Affairs, Government of Pakistan (U.K. Sup. Ct.), with introductory note by Nassib G. Ziadé
  • Figueiredo Ferraz Consultoria E Engenharia de Projeto Ltda. v. Republic of Peru (2d Cir.), with introductory note by Charles Owen Verrill, Jr.
  • Arbitral Tribunal Constituted Under Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Republic of Mauritius v. United Kingdom, Reasoned Decision on Challenge, with introductory note by Jeremy K. Sharpe
  • Scarlet Extended SA v. Société Belge des Auteurs, Compositeurs et E´ diteurs SCRL (SABAM) (E.C.J.), with introductory note by Virginia Keyder
  • Decisions Pursuant to Article 87(7) of the Rome Statute on the Refusal of the Republic of Malawi and the Republic of Chad to Comply With the Cooperation Requests Issued by the Court With Respect to the Arrest and Surrender of Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir (Int’l Crim. Ct.) & African Union Response, with introductory note by Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Alvarez: Are International Judges Afraid of Science?: A Comment on Mbengue

Jose E. Alvarez (New York Univ. - Law) has posted Are International Judges Afraid of Science?: A Comment on Mbengue (Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This article considers and critiques the proposition that international adjudicators are afraid or avoid determinations of scientific fact because of their discomfort with the technical expertise involved or the probabilistic judgments required of such fact-finding. It argues that this contention ignores the endemic fact-finding challenges faced by international tribunals generally, that the uncertainties attributed to “scientific” evidence are actually prevalent throughout the judicial process, that adjudicators are actually quite familiar with probabilistic judgments, and that structural constraints on courts and arbitrators and adjudicators’ own backgrounds affect how well fact-finding occurs, irrespective of whether it involves science. Finally, it suggests that to the extent international judges and arbitrators avoid confronting and answering head-on facts subject to scientific proof this may actually be a good thing.

Monday, August 6, 2012

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 34, no. 3, August 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • John D. Ciorciari, Institutionalizing Human Rights in Southeast Asia
  • Hun Joon Kim, Local, National, and International Determinants of Truth Commission: The South Korean Experience
  • Dominque Clément, Human Rights in Canadian Domestic and Foreign Politics: From “Niggardly Acceptance” to Enthusiastic Embrace
  • Sarah B. Snyder, Exporting Amnesty International to the United States: Transatlantic Human Rights Activism in the 1960s
  • Eva Sobotka & Peter Vermeersch, Governing Human Rights and Roma Inclusion: Can the EU be a Catalyst for Local Social Change?
  • Janine Natalya Clark, Fieldwork and its Ethical Challenges: Reflections from Research in Bosnia
  • David P. Forsythe, The UN Security Council and Response to Atrocities: International Criminal Law and the P-5
  • Sonia Tascon, Considering Human Rights Films, Representation, and Ethics: Whose Face?

Heller: The International Commission of Inquiry on Libya: A Critical Analysis

Kevin Jon Heller (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) has posted The International Commission of Inquiry on Libya: A Critical Analysis (in International Commissions: The Role of Commissions of Inquiry in the Investigation of International Crimes, Jens Meierhenrich ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This chapter provides a critical assessment of the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya, established by the United Nations Human Rights Council in February 2011 to investigate violations of international law committed in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. The chapter is divided into four sections. Section I provides a brief summary of the Commission’s creation, investigation, and findings. Section II assesses whether the Commission’s mandate and methods satisfied international standards of independence and impartiality. Section III raises a number of questions about the legal framework the Commission applied. Finally, Section IV asks whether, in light of the facts it found and the law that it applied, the Commission’s legal conclusions withstand analysis.

Raustiala: Institutional Proliferation and the International Legal Order

Kal Raustiala (Univ. of California, Los Angeles - Law) has posted Institutional Proliferation and the International Legal Order (in Interdisciplinary Perspectives on International Law and International Relations: The State of the Art, Jeffrey L. Dunoff & Mark A. Pollack eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Since the cataclysm of World War II, the international order has grown increasingly institutionalized. Hundreds of international organizations and tens of thousands of treaties now exist, many with widespread – and in some cases nearly universal – membership. Compared to earlier eras, the international system today is far more densely populated by rules and institutions.

This forthcoming chapter explores institutional density, the conflict and competition such density inevitably creates in an anarchical system of states, and the different ways international lawyers and political scientists address these issues. Is a dense international order a significant problem, a welcome development, or a largely superficial phenomenon? Is density an inadvertent outgrowth of intensifying interdependence, or a deliberate strategy? How does density vary – by issue area, over time, and across regions? These questions represent important lines of thinking that are either under way or incipient in the growing literature on institutional density.

Part I (“The Rise of Institutional Density”) looks at the empirics of institutional density. Part II (“Density: Two Optics”) surveys the emerging scholarship in law and political science. Part III (“The Debate Over Density”) explores some fundamental questions at the heart of this emerging research field. Part IV concludes.

Benvenisti & Downs: Distributive Politics and International Institutions: The Case of Drugs

Eyal Benvenisti (Tel Aviv Univ. - Law) & George W. Downs (New York Univ. - Politics) have posted Distributive Politics and International Institutions: The Case of Drugs. Here's the abstract:
WTO drug policy is of particular interest to political economists and international legal theorists interested in the distributive politics of international institutions because it embodies so many of what are believed to be the pathologies of globalization. Coercion and brinksmanship by the most powerful developed states has meant that a shared collective purpose among participants is almost totally absent. The policies of the drug regime are widely believed to be redistributive upward to the benefit of only a handful of developed states, and many aspects of the regime are arguably economically inefficient as well. There has been a continued prevalence of extra-institutional bargaining associated with the drug regime since its formation that has taken place outside the formal WTO process and unconnected to any process of collective or democratic decision making. Finally, provisions of the drug regime designed to provide the populations in poor states with broad access to drugs in an emergency have proved difficult to implement in a timely fashion.

New Volume: Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law

The latest volume of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (Vol. 14, 2011) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Annyssa Bellal & Louise Doswald-Beck, Evaluating the Use of Force During the Arab Spring
    • Amichai Cohen & Yuval Shany, Beyond the Grave Breaches Regime: The Duty to Investigate Alleged Violations of International Law Governing Armed Conflicts
    • Sean Watts, Domestic Investigations of Suspected Law of Armed Conflict Violations: United States Procedures, Policies and Practices
    • Aoife O'Donoghue, Splendid Isolation: International Humanitarian Law, Legal Theory and the International Legal Order
    • George Cadwalader Jr., The Rules Governing the Conduct of Hostilities in Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949: A Review of Relevant United States References
  • Current Developments
    • Mohbuba Choudhury, Aleksandra Bojovic & Louise Arimatsu, Year in Review 2011
    • Chris De Cock, Operation Unified Protector and the Protection of Civilians in Libya
    • Jelena Pejic, The ECtHR’s Al-Jedda Judgment: Implications for IHL
    • Beth Van Schaack, The Killing of Osama bin Laden and Anwar Al Aulaqi: Uncharted Legal Territory
    • Helen Durham & Phoebe Wynn-Pope, Protecting the ‘Helpers’: Humanitarians and Health Care Workers During Times of Armed Conflict
  • Forum: Reflections on 9/11 and IHL
    • Dieter Fleck, International Humanitarian Law A Decade After September 11: Developments and Perspectives
    • W. Hays Parks, Perspective and the Importance of History
    • Charles Garraway, Can the Law of Armed Conflict Survive 9/11?
    • Rob McLaughlin, ‘Terrorism’ as a Central Theme in the Evolution of Maritime Operations Law Since 11 September 2011
    • Matthew C. Waxman, Temporality and Terrorism in International Humanitarian Law
    • Vijay M. Padmanabhan, Legacy of 9/11: Continuing the Humanization of Humanitarian Law
    • Charles J. Dunlap Jr., The Mottled Legacy of 9/11: A Few Reflections on the Evolution of the International Law of Armed Conflict

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Robinson: A Cosmopolitan Liberal Account of International Criminal Law

Darryl Robinson (Queen's Univ. (Canada) - Law) has posted A Cosmopolitan Liberal Account of International Criminal Law. Here's the abstract:

In this article, I present a framework for evaluating and developing international criminal law (ICL). It seeks to reconcile two prominent approaches -- the liberal critique and the critique of the liberal critique -- to formulate a more careful liberal account suitable for novel questions arising in ICL. I agree that we cannot simply transplant familiar articulations of fundamental principles from national legal systems, because the unusual contexts faced by ICL (such as collective violence, inverted moralities, and criminal states) may confound the assumptions underpinning those articulations. However, this novelty does not mean we can abandon culpability and legality. Instead we must explore what the underlying commitment to the individual might entail in these contexts.

The proposed framework can generate new questions and point to new solutions for current controversies in ICL, such as the principle of legality, command responsibility, or superior orders. As an interesting byproduct, the endeavor of examining criminal law in “abnormal” situations and under alternative forms of human governance can teach us about our theory of the “normal” situations. ICL presents a new set of problems, which may expose unnoticed parameters and subtleties in concepts such as moral choice, fair warning, or authority.