Saturday, August 25, 2012

Ailincai: Le Suivi du respect des droits de l'homme au sein du Conseil de l'europe : Contribution à la théorie du contrôle international

Mihaela Ailincai (l'Université de Reims - Law; Université Pierre Mendes France (Grenoble II) - Centre d'Etudes sur la Sécurité Internationale et les Coopérations Européennes) has published Le Suivi du respect des droits de l'homme au sein du Conseil de l'europe : Contribution à la théorie du contrôle international (Pedone 2012). Here's the abstract:

Le Conseil de L'Europe est le cadre d’une prolifération relativement récente des procédures qualifiées de « suivi », en particulier dans le domaine des droits de l'homme. Cette évolution intrigue, parce qu’elle laisse apparaître que l’Organisation investit désormais massivement dans d’autres modalités de protection des droits de l'homme que l’option juridictionnelle qu’elle a initialement privilégiée. Le terme même de « suivi » interpelle parce qu’il n’a pas de signification juridique précise. L’auteur avance que le suivi constitue une modalité de contrôle non contentieux, caractérisée par sa continuité dans le temps et le fait qu’elle vise à fournir aux Etats une assistance dans la mise en oeuvre des normes européennes.

Or, le juriste est porté à croire que l’efficacité des mécanismes de contrôle est proportionnelle au degré de contrainte qui leur est inhérent. Cette opinion incite à privilégier les méthodes de contrôle fondées sur la sanction ou encore le contrôle juridictionnel qui débouche sur des décisions juridiquement contraignantes.

A l’inverse, ce postulat pourrait encourager à nourrir une certaine indifférence à l’égard du suivi, qui privilégie une approche « adoucie » du contrôle.

L’auteur tente de montrer que le suivi incite à nuancer quelque peu l’enthousiasme provoqué par les modes autoritaires de mise en oeuvre du droit, dont il fait ressortir les limites. En ce sens, le suivi se conçoit à la fois comme une alternative crédible face au contrôle de droit commun exercé unilatéralement par les Etats et comme un complément fertile au contrôle juridictionnel.

Capps: Lauterpacht’s Method

Patrick Capps (Univ. of Bristol - Law) has posted Lauterpacht’s Method (British Yearbook of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
Hersch Lauterpacht’s method for international legal science, which he calls progressive interpretation, is reconstructed here. This method takes as its starting point the claim that international law should be functionally oriented towards two ideals – the establishment of peace between nations and the protection of fundamental human rights. It is the need to anchor his idealism to the ‘realities of international life’ (e.g. state practice) which provides the basis for his important, and highly plausible, method for the study of international law. That is, progressive interpretation articulates the international community’s on-going attempts to express preferred normative goals which are immanent within the day-to-day workings of the international legal system. International legal doctrine is the institutional expression of the international community’s fundamental normative commitments, it is not simply that which is considered ideally just. Alongside a reconstruction of Lauterpacht’s method, two substantive contributions are made. The first traces the connections between progressive interpretation and more recent legal philosophers who adopt an interpretivist methodology, such as Ronald Dworkin. The second reconsiders Lauterpacht’s qualified constitutive theory and shows how his method reveals it to be a plausible legal doctrine, despite a relative lack of supporting state practice, and in the face of considerable academic criticism.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Akande: Classification of Armed Conflicts: Relevant Legal Concepts

Dapo Akande (Univ. of Oxford - Law) has posted Classification of Armed Conflicts: Relevant Legal Concepts (in International Law and the Classification of Conflicts, E. Wilmshurst ed., 2012). Here's the abstract:
This chapter provides an overview of how and why international law classifies situations of violence for the purpose of application of international humanitarian law. The chapter examines the distinction between international and non-international armed conflicts as well as the distinction between armed conflicts and situations of violence that do not qualify as armed conflicts. The chapter examines the history of the distinction between the two categories of armed conflict, the consequences of the distinction and whether the distinction still has validity. The chapter discusses the meaning of the concepts of ‘international armed conflict’ and ‘non-international armed conflict’, including the legal standards by which such qualifications are to be made. Particular attention is paid to foreign intervention in non-international armed conflicts, extraterritorial hostilities by one State against a non-state armed group and conflicts in which multinational forces are engaged. The chapter provides an overview of those legal concepts that are relevant to an undertanding of the case studies discussed in the other chapters of the book.

Paddeu: A Genealogy of Force Majeure in International Law

Federica I. Paddeu (Univ. of Cambridge - Law) has posted A Genealogy of Force Majeure in International Law (British Yearbook of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
The majority of legal systems of the world contain rules regulating the consequences of supervening events in the continued performance of obligations. International law regulates these consequences through a number of different provisions, force majeure being one of them. This notion, addressed as a defence to state responsibility in few texts of the early writers of international law, became fully established in the 19th century. The practice of that century affected the development of force majeure into a situation-based rule requiring impossibility of performance. Article 23 of the ILC Articles on State Responsibility reflects this development. This articles traces the development of force majeure as a relevant notion in the field of state responsibility and tests the codification work undertaken by the ILC against these developments. The article also distinguishes force majeure from other legal notions which serve to regulate the consequences of supervening events.

Inaugural Volume: Perspectiva Iberoamericana sobre la Justicia Penal Internacional

The inaugural volume of Perspectiva Iberoamericana sobre la Justicia Penal Internacional (Vol. 1, 2011) is out. Contents include:
  • Carmen Lamarca Pérez, Algunas reflexiones sobre el carácter complementario de la Corte Penal Internacional
  • Héctor Olásolo Alonso, Aplicación práctica del análisis de admisibilidad de situaciones: la situación en la República de Kenia
  • Enrique Carnero Rojo, Humanos y la justicia internacional
  • Raúl Eduardo Sánchez Sánchez, La definición del crimen de agresión
  • José Ricardo de Prada Solaesa, Crímenes de Derecho Internacional. Crímenes contra la humanidad
  • Isabel Lirola Delgado, Los crímenes de lesa humanidad: Elementos definitorios
  • Alejandro Valencia Villa, Los crímenes de lesa humanidad: Su calificación en América Latina y algunos comentarios en el caso Colombiano
  • Ezequiel Malarino, El crimen contra la humanidad de desaparición forzada de personas en la Jurisprudencia Argentina: Algunos problemas en relación con el principio de legalidad penal
  • José A. Guevara, Problemas, y posibles soluciones, que presenta la aplicación por los Tribunales Mexicanos de la categoría de delitos de lesa humanidad
  • José Luis Rodríguez-Villasante y Prieto, La responsabilidad de los superiores jerárquicos militares y no militares a la luz de la Legislación Notarial del Estado de que se trate y de la experiencia internacional
  • Patricia Faraldo Cabana, La responsabilidad por mando en el Código Penal Español
  • Paulina Vega González, El papel de las víctimas en procedimientos internacionales
  • Ximena Medellín, El papel de las víctimas ante el sistema interamericano de protección de los Derechos Humanos
  • Asdrúbal Aguiar, Régimen de reparaciones por atentados graves a los Derechos Humanos
  • Christian G. Sommer, Reparaciones a las víctimas en el Derecho Internacional
  • Javier Dorado, Reparaciones a las víctimas de violaciones graves de los Derechos Humanos constitutivas de delitos de genocidio, lesa humanidad y/o crímenes de Guerra
  • Manuel Olli Sesé, Reparaciones a las víctimas de violaciones graves de los Derechos Humanos constitutivas de delitos de genocidio, lesa humanidad y/o crímenes de guerra
  • Diana Esther Guzmán, El derecho a la reparación en el sistema universal de protección de los Derechos Humanos y su aplicación en el Derecho Penal Internacionala
  • Thomas M. Antkowiak La Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos y sus reparaciones centradas en la víctima
  • Enrique Gil Botero, El principio de reparación integral en Colombia a la luz del Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos
  • Uldi Teresa Jiménez, El esquema de reparación acogido por la Sala de Conocimiento de Justicia y Paz de Bogotá en el caso de la masacre paramilitar de Mampuján
  • Davi de Paiva Costa Tangerino, Reparaciones por violaciones graves sistemáticas o generalizadas de Derechos Humanos en Brasilia
  • Milagros Betancourt, La conferencia de Revisión del Estatuto de Roma
  • Leonardo Filippini, La persecución penal en la búsqueda de justicia
  • Pablo F. Parenti, El juzgamiento de crímenes de Estado en Argentina

Cardona Llorens et al.: Estudios de Derecho internacional y Derecho europeo en homenaje al profesor Manuel Pérez González

Jorge Cardona Llorens, Jorge Pueyo Losa, José Luis Rodríguez-Villasante y Prieto, & José Manuel Sobrino Heredia have published Estudios de Derecho internacional y Derecho europeo en homenaje al profesor Manuel Pérez González (Tirant lo Blanch 2012). The table of contents is here.

Viñuales & Bentolila: The Use of Alternative (Non-Judicial Means) to Enforce Investment Awards Against States

Jorge E. Viñuales (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies - Law) & Dolores Bentolila have posted The Use of Alternative (Non-Judicial Means) to Enforce Investment Awards Against States (in Diplomatic and Judicial Means of Dispute Settlement : Assessing their Interactions, L. Boisson de Chazournes, M. Kohen & J.E. Viñuales eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
As a rule States comply with investment awards. Yet, in some cases, the enforcement of such awards has proved to be difficult. This chapter focuses on the interaction between judicial and non-judicial means of enforcing investment awards. Specifically, it analyses a variety of “alternative” or “non-judicial” means that can be used either as a supplement to the judicial framework for enforcement or on a stand-alone basis, when judicial enforcement has been pursued unsuccessfully.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Schiffbauer: Vorbeugende Selbstverteidigung im Völkerrecht

Björn Schiffbauer (Universität zu Köln - Institute for International Peace and Security Law) has published Vorbeugende Selbstverteidigung im Völkerrecht (Duncker & Humblot 2012). Here's the abstract:
Gestattet das Völkerrecht den Staaten einen gewaltsamen Erstschlag als »vorbeugende Selbstverteidigung«? Wenn ja, unter welchen Voraussetzungen? Auf diese auch weltpolitisch brisanten Fragen möchte der Autor eine völkerrechtliche Antwort geben. Dies geschieht in sukzessiven logischen Einzelschritten: Zunächst werden bestehende begriffliche Konfusionen beseitigt, der Untersuchungsgegenstand exakt definiert sowie der aktuelle Diskussionsstand dargestellt. Sodann wird mit Hilfe zuvor hergeleiteter theoretischer Rahmenbedingungen das Völkervertrags- und Gewohnheitsrecht der letzten 200 Jahre ausgewertet. Beachtung finden dabei auch bislang kaum thematisierte, jedoch völkerrechtlich vorgegebene Methoden wie der rechtslinguistische Vergleich aller fünf autoritativen Sprachfassungen von Art. 51 SVN. Die Gesamtanalyse ergibt, dass vorbeugende Selbstverteidigung legal ist, wenn ein Angriff zeitlich unmittelbar bevorsteht oder die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines jederzeitigen Angriffs evident ist.

Marcano & Fidler: Ballplayer: Pelotero—Major League Baseball, Human Rights, and the Globalization of Baseball

Arturo J. Marcano (ESPN Deportes) & David P. Fidler (Indiana Univ., Bloomington - Law) have posted an ASIL Insight on Ballplayer: Pelotero—Major League Baseball, Human Rights, and the Globalization of Baseball.

Jessup & Rubenstein: Environmental Discourses in Public and International Law

Brad Jessup (Australian National Univ.) & Kim Rubenstein (Australian National Univ.) have published Environmental Discourses in Public and International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
This collection of essays examines the development and application of environmental laws and the relationship between public laws and international law. Notions of good governance, transparency and fairness in decision-making are analysed within the area of the law perceived as having the greatest potential to address today's global environmental concerns. International trends, such as free trade and environmental markets, are also observed to be infiltrating national laws. Together, the essays illustrate the idea that in the context of environmental problems being dynamic and environmental changes appearing suddenly, laws become difficult to design and effect. Typically, they are also devised within a conflicted setting. It is in this changeable and discordant context that environmental discourses such as precaution, justice, risk, equity, security, citizenship and markets contribute to legal responses, present legal opportunities or hinder progress.

Salah: L'irruption des droits de l'homme dans l'ordre économique international : mythe ou réalité ?

Mahmoud-Mohamed Salah (Université de Nouakchott - Law) has published L'irruption des droits de l'homme dans l'ordre économique international : mythe ou réalité ? (L.G.D.J. 2012). Here's the abstract:

Le thème de la protection des droits de l’homme connaît depuis quelques années une percée remarquable dans le discours des organisations internationales et des opérateurs économiques transnationaux. Nourrie par les évolutions récentes du droit international économique et des droits nationaux, cette percée alimente une intense réflexion sur l’irruption des droits de l’homme dans l’ordre économique international.

Le présent ouvrage en dresse un bilan exhaustif et critique, abordant, chaque fois, les questions posées dans leur double dimension théorique et pratique. Sa première partie traite de la prise en compte des droits de l’homme par ceux qu’on appelle communément les piliers de l’ordre économique international, à savoir : la BIRD, le FMI et l’OMC. L’auteur éclaire ici la logique sous-jacente à la dynamique de fonctionnement de chacun de ces piliers et montre, à la lumière de l’actualité récente, que leur pratique n’a pas fondamentalement changé.

La deuxième partie porte sur les problèmes soulevés par l’intégration des droits de l’homme dans les préoccupations des sociétés transnationales. Elle analyse à la fois les barrières que le droit des investissements oppose à cette intégration et les limites du recours aux instruments de la responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise en la matière. Des développements sont consacrés au faible degré d’ouverture des systèmes juridiques nationaux au contentieux transnational des droits de l’homme.

L’ouvrage s’adresse à la fois aux juristes et aux économistes, chercheurs ou praticiens, aux spécialistes des relations internationales, aux organisations internationales et à tous ceux qui s’intéressent à la dimension économique et sociale des droits de l’homme.

Bown & Mavroidis: One (Firm) is Not Enough: A Legal-Economic Analysis of EC-Fasteners

Chad P. Bown (World Bank) & Petros C. Mavroidis (Columbia Univ. - Law) have posted One (Firm) is Not Enough: A Legal-Economic Analysis of EC-Fasteners. Here's the abstract:
The WTO’s Appellate Body (AB) dealt with a number of issues for the first time in the Report of EC-Fasteners. Importantly, the AB discussed the consistency of the European Union (EU) regulation with the multilateral rules on the conditions for deviating from the obligation to calculate individual dumping margins. Although China formally won the argument, the AB may have opened the door to treat China as a non-market economy (NME) even beyond 2016 when China’s NME-status was thought to expire under the terms of China’s 2001 WTO Accession Protocol. The AB further dealt with numerous other issues ranging from statistical sampling to the treatment of confidential information. In handling its investigation, the EU authorities made a number of questionable decisions regarding the collection of information, and this aspect of the process was central to China’s legal challenges.

New Issue: Revue trimestrielle des droits de l'homme

The latest issue of the Revue trimestrielle des droits de l'homme (No. 91, July 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Françoise Tulkens, Sébastien Van Drooghenbroeck & Frédéric Krenc, Le soft law et la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme : questions de légitimité et de méthode
  • Catherine Haguenau-Moizard, La Cour suprême britannique et la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme : une nouvelle voix dans le dialogue des juges
  • Céline Ruet, Les droits individuels face au phénomène religieux dans la jurisprudence récente de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme
  • Agata de Laforcade, L’articulation entre les contrôles du Conseil constitutionnel français et de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme en matière pénale

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Jarillo Aldeanueva: Pueblos y democracia en Derecho Internacional

Álvaro Jarillo Aldeanueva has published Pueblos y democracia en Derecho Internacional (Tirant lo Blanch 2012). Here's the abstract:
Esta monografía da respuesta a preguntas tan actuales y controvertidas como: ¿qué es un pueblo?, ¿existe un derecho a la democracia?, ¿existe un derecho de secesión de los pueblos respecto del Estado? El autor combina la experiencia práctica al servicio de las Organizaciones Internacionales con la investigación académica, llegando a conclusiones de gran interés para los lectores interesados en casos como los de Kosovo, Georgia, Libia, Siria o Timor Oriental. La obra también analiza la relación entre los procesos electorales y la autodeterminación de los pueblos, prestando particular interés al caso de la ilegalización del entorno de Batasuna hasta la sentencia de Bildu y las nuevas actividades de Amaiur. Este libro, partiendo del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, ayuda a comprender conceptos esenciales de la convivencia democrática en el actual contexto internacional.

New Issue: Journal of African and International Law

The latest issue of the Journal of African and International Law (Vol. 5, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Kulwa Gamba, Least Developed Countries and Market Accessibility Rules for Agro-Food Exports: a Study of Tanzania
  • Beatrice Dengenesa, The Framework EAC-EU-EPAS in the Regime of World Trade Organization: A Threat or an Opportunity for the Tanzanian Economy?
  • Florence I. Mwenda, Statutory Rape and Protection of School Girls against Pregnancy in Tanzania: Law and Practice
  • Ine Nandi, Domestic Violence in Nigeria - A Panacea for Its Menace

Martinico & Pollicino: The Interaction Between Europe’s Legal Systems: Judicial Dialogue and the Creation of Supranational Laws

Giuseppe Martinico (Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales) & Oreste Pollicino (Bocconi Univ. - Law) have published The Interaction Between Europe’s Legal Systems: Judicial Dialogue and the Creation of Supranational Laws (Edward Elgar Publishing 2012). Here's the abstract:
This book examines the broad issue of the rapprochement between the legal systems of the EU and the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and asks whether the two systems are converging. While the literature on the issue of the national application of EC/EU law or that of ECHR norms is voluminous, a specific comparative analysis that takes into account the national judicial treatment of both laws has been lacking, until now.

New Issue: Journal of World Energy Law & Business

The latest issue of Journal of World Energy Law & Business (Vol. 5, no. 3, September 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • James A. Baker III, Energy, economy and other global challenges
  • Kim Talus, Scott Looper, & Steven Otillar, Lex Petrolea and the internationalization of petroleum agreements: focus on Host Government Contracts
  • Sylvain Bergès, How France shares the nuclear rent: a presentation of the NOME Act
  • Maximilian Kuhn & Mohammadjavad Jannatifar, Foreign direct investment mechanisms and review of Iran’s buy-back contracts: how far has Iran gone and how far may it go?
  • José Luis Herrera Vaca, The new legal framework for oil and gas activities near the maritime boundaries between Mexico and the U.S: comments on the Agreement between the United Mexican States and the United States of America concerning transboundary hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico
  • Carlos Bellorin Nuñez, Colombia’s regulatory and fiscal hydrocarbons regime: explaining Colombia’s success and the challenges ahead

Viñuales: The Environmental Regulation of Foreign Investment Schemes under International Law

Jorge E. Viñuales (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies - Law) has posted The Environmental Regulation of Foreign Investment Schemes under International Law (in Harnessing Foreign Investment to Promote Environmental Protection: Incentives and Safeguards, P.-M. Dupuy & J. E. Viñuales eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This chapter analyzes the important litigation risks arising for States as a result of the environmental regulation of foreign investment transactions. Legal commentators have traditionally framed this issue from the perspective of investment or trade law. The question is the extent to which a given environmental measure is consistent with investment or trade disciplines. This is of course not the only way to frame the issue. Instead of assuming that the framework of reference is either investment or trade law and the ‘object’ to be evaluated is the ‘environmental measure’, one could change the terms of the equation and assess the consistency of an ‘investment scheme’ with environmental disciplines. This change in perspective would have significant legal consequences. If ‘environmental measures’ are only permissible within the bounds set by investment (or trade) disciplines, then they are in practice subordinated to investment (or trade) protection. The main argument underlying this approach is the legal priority of international law over domestic law. A domestic (environmental) measure must be consistent with international (investment or trade) standards. But this approach does not take into account the possibility that at least some domestic environmental measures may be required or authorised (I shall use the term ‘induced’) by international environmental law. In this case, the rule giving priority to international law over domestic law would not apply and there would be no legal reason, as a matter of principle, to consider that an internationally-induced environmental measure inconsistent with an investment (or trade) discipline is illegal under international law. To the extent that the requirements of the applicable international environmental and investment (or trade) standards conflict with each other, their priority would have to be determined on the basis of a different set of conflict rules, which would not include the rule giving priority to international law over domestic law. As the chapter shows, this alternative model faces some important practical obstacles. But this is not to say that the scope for the environmental regulation of foreign investment schemes is not expanding through other avenues. Investment disciplines are increasingly being interpreted so as to leave considerable room for the accommodation of environmental considerations through a variety of legal concepts, such as environmental differentiation, the level of reasonableness expected from investors, the police powers doctrine or the scope of the necessity/emergency clauses.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

de Mestral & Lévesque: Improving International Investment Agreements

Armand de Mestral (McGill Univ. - Law) & Céline Lévesque (Univ. of Ottawa - Law) have published Improving International Investment Agreements (Routledge 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This book presents the reflections of a group of researchers interested in assessing whether the law governing the promotion and protection of foreign investment reflects sound public policy. Whether it is the lack of "checks and balances" on investor rights or more broadly the lack of balance between public rights and private interests, the time is ripe for an in-depth discussions of current challenges facing the international investment law regime.

Through a survey of the evolution in IIA treaty-making and an evaluation from different perspectives, the authors take stock of developments in international investment law and analyze potential solutions to some of the criticisms that plague IIAs. The book takes a multidisciplinary approach to the subject, with expert analysis from legal, political and economic scholars. The first part of the book traces the evolution of IIA treaty-making whilst the other three parts are organised around the concepts of efficiency, legitimacy and sustainability. Each contributor analyzes one or more issues related to substance, treaty negotiation, or dispute resolution, with the ultimate aim of improving IIA treaty-making in these respects.

New Issue: Transnational Dispute Management

The latest issue of Transnational Dispute Management (2012, no. 4) is out. The issue contains the proceedings of the "CILS - 7th Biennial Symposium on International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution." The table of contents is here.

Bacio Terracino: The International Legal Framework against Corruption: States' obligations to prevent and repress corruption

Julio Bacio Terracino (OECD) has published The International Legal Framework against Corruption: States' obligations to prevent and repress corruption (Intersentia 2012). Here's the abstract:
It is now unquestionable that corruption has become an issue of international concern. A complex set of substantive and procedural rules has emerged concerning the prevention and repression of corruption, representing the international legal framework against corruption. The present study begins by tracing the emergence of this framework and engages in a systematic analysis of its content, highlighting weaknesses and innovative aspects. What does international law require States to do in relation to corruption? What happens if States do not meet their international obligations? The responses to these questions constitute the core of this study.

New Issue: International Arbitration Law Review

The latest issue of the International Arbitration Law Review (Vol. 15, no. 1, 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Suvrajyoti Gupta, Injunction Raj: Whether Anti-arbitration Injunctions are a Threat to International Arbitration in India
  • Mark Goodrich, Arb-med: Ideal Solution or Dangerous Heresy?
  • Hong Lin Yu & Masood Ahmed, The New French Arbitration Law: An Analysis

New Issue: International & Comparative Law Quarterly

The latest issue of the International & Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 61, no. 3, July 2012) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Merris Amos, The Dialogue Between United Kingdom Courts and the European Court of Human Rights
    • Arwel Davies, State Liability for Judicial Decisions in European Union and International Law
    • Myriam Hunter-Henin, Why the French Don't Like the Burqa: Laïcité, National Identity and Religious Freedom
    • Jarrod Hepburn, The Duty to Give Reasons for Administrative Decisions in International Law
    • Beke Zwingmann, The Continuing Myth of Euro-Scepticism? The German Federal Constitutional Court Two Years After Lisbon
  • Shorter Articles
    • Peter Rowe, Is There a Right to Detain Civilians by Foreign Armed Forces During a Non-International Armed Conflict?

Monday, August 20, 2012

Jeng: Peacebuilding in the African Union: Law, Philosophy and Practice

Abou Jeng (Univ. of Warwick - Centre for Human Rights in Practice) has published Peacebuilding in the African Union: Law, Philosophy and Practice (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:
Particularly in the context of internal conflicts, international law is frequently unable to create and sustain frameworks for peace in Africa. In Peacebuilding in the African Union, Abou Jeng explores the factors which have prevented such steps forward in the interaction between the international legal order and postcolonial Africa. In the first work of its kind, Jeng considers whether these limitations necessitate recasting the existing conceptual structure and whether the Constitutive Act of the African Union provides exactly this opportunity through its integrated peace and security framework. Through the case studies of Burundi and Somalia, Jeng examines the structures and philosophy of the African Union and assesses the capacity of its practices in peacemaking. In so doing, this book will be of great practical value to scholars and legal practitioners alike.

Bailliet: Non-State Actors, Soft Law and Protective Regimes: From the Margins

Cecilia M. Bailliet (Univ. of Oslo - Law) has published Non-State Actors, Soft Law and Protective Regimes: From the Margins (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
By offering critical perspectives of normative developments within international law, this volume of essays unites academics from various disciplines to address concerns regarding the interpretation and application of international law in context. The authors present common challenges within international criminal law, human rights, environmental law and trade law, and point to unintended risks and consequences, in particular for vulnerable interests such as women and the environment. Omissions within normative or institutional frameworks are highlighted and the importance of addressing accountability of state and non-state actors for violations or regressions of minimum protection guarantees is underscored. Overall, it advocates harmonisation over fragmentation, pursuant to the aspiration of asserting the interests of our collective humanity without necessarily advocating an international constitutional order.

Alland: Anzilotti et le droit international public : Un essai

Denis Alland (Université Panthéon-Assas - Law) has published Anzilotti et le droit international public : Un essai (Pedone 2012). Here's the abstract:
Dionisio Anzilotti (1867-1950) est un des grands maîtres italien du droit international du début du XXème siècle auquel on continue de se référer constamment encore aujourd'hui. Or, s'il n'y a rien d'étonnant à ce que d'importants écarts se soient creusés entre la conception du droit international que cet auteur a développée et le droit international contemporain, la permanence de ses vues les plus essentielles même « en contrepoint », lorsqu'il s'agit de leur opposer des doctrines ou une pratique divergentes - est un phénomène aussi frappant que singulier. Dans ce qu'il veut être avant tout un essai et non une biographie intellectuelle exhaustive, Denis Alland entreprend de nous donner - à partir d'une vue d'ensemble de la construction d'Anzilotti, qui alliait l'efficacité à la simplicité - ce qu'il appelle « un certain prisme italien », c'est-à-dire quelques points de départ pour une réflexion sur les évolutions les plus saillantes de cette discipline. Ainsi, au travers d'une synthèse envisageant le droit international sous l'angle unique de son existence et de son efficacité, ce qui nous est proposé ici allie les perspectives philosophiques, théoriques et techniques dans un regard cursif ; partant de débats anciens mais jamais épuisés sur les mystère de la positivité du droit international pour se prolonger dans une répartition des rôles essentielle entre ce dernier et son indispensable complément qu'est le droit interne, et s'achevant finalement dans l'ultime test de l'effectivité qu'est la responsabilité internationale. Loin d'être un manifeste « rétro ». cet essai n'implique ni n'exclut aucune adhésion particulière aux vues d'Anzilotti, il invite à considérer de façon critique certaines des évolutions du droit international en ce début de XXIème siècle. Ainsi par exemple aux crises majeures du XIXème que furent les deux conflits mondiaux répondent les enjeux actuels du système de la paix et de la sécurité internationales, à la primitive exclusion de l'individu de la scène internationale répond l'actuelle promotion des droits internationaux de l'homme et celle de sa responsabilité pénale.

Ohlin: The Duty to Capture

Jens David Ohlin (Cornell Univ. - Law) has posted The Duty to Capture. Here's the abstract:
The duty to capture stands at the fault line between competing legal regimes that might govern targeted killings. If human rights law and domestic law enforcement procedures govern these killings, the duty to attempt capture prior to lethal force represents a cardinal rule that is systematically violated by these operations. On the other hand, if the Law of War applies then the duty to capture is fundamentally inconsistent with the summary killing already sanctioned by jus in bello. The following article examines the duty to capture and the divergent approaches that each legal regime takes to this normative requirement, and evaluates internal debates within these regimes over when a duty to capture might apply. At issue in these debates, regardless of the body of law that applies, is the scope and content of the concept of necessity, i.e. when is it truly necessary to target an individual with lethal force. The key question is whether a unified and trans-regime understanding of the concept could promote doctrinal unity across legal regimes. However, this article concludes that the concept of necessity stubbornly defies such attempts; necessity is a term of art with a distinct history and meaning in each body of law, and unification of these meanings can only come at the cost of betraying the fundamental precepts of one legal regime over the other. Part I begins by examining the scope of international humanitarian law and concludes that the current literature often unduly constrains its application; a new analysis is offered of the classification of armed conflicts, the level of organization required before a non-state actor can be a party to an armed conflict, and the legal geography of armed conflict. Part II examines the concept of necessity and concludes that military necessity (destruction of “life and limb” related to the war aim) is fundamentally incompatible with human rights law and its understanding of necessity as the least-restrictive means. Finally, Part III concludes that the IHL regime, and its permissive notion of military necessity, should apply when the state is acting as a belligerent against other co-equal belligerents, but that human rights law, and its more restrictive notion of necessity, should apply when the state acts as a sovereign over its own subjects. However, being a U.S. citizen does not automatically make an individual a "subject" under a sovereign, as opposed to a belligerent. Rather, this article concludes that belligerency is always a relationship between collectives, and that the relevant question is whether the United States stands in a relationship of belligerency to a non-state organization of which the individual is a member.

McCarthy: Reparations and Victim Support in the International Criminal Court

Conor McCarthy has published Reparations and Victim Support in the International Criminal Court (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:
Alongside existing regimes for victim redress at the national and international levels, in the coming years international criminal law and, in particular, the International Criminal Court, will potentially provide a significant legal framework through which the harm caused by egregious conduct can be addressed. Drawing on a wealth of comparative experience, Conor McCarthy's study of the Rome Statute's regime of victim redress provides a comprehensive exploration of this framework, examining both its reparations regime and its scheme for the provision of victim support through the ICC Trust Fund. The study explores, in particular, whether the creation of a regime of victim redress has a role to play as part of a system for the administration of international criminal justice and, more generally, whether it has such a role alongside other regimes, at the national and international levels, by which the harm suffered by victims of egregious conduct may be redressed.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

de la Rasilla del Moral: Constitutional Tempo in the Law that Dares Not Speak Its Name

Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral (European Univ. Institute - Law) has posted Constitutional Tempo in the Law that Dares Not Speak Its Name (Southwestern Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
In this work, which is part of an-going series on the building blocks of global constitutionalism, I elaborate upon the notion of constitutional tempo in international law, which I distinguish from other constitutional related figures like “constitutional moments”. I do so before introducing the on-going legislative reforms that are banning the judicial use of foreign and international law in a growing number of U.S. States and the contemporary debate on the use of foreign legal sources by the U.S. Supreme Court. I examine an array of factors behind today’s especially intense contemporary constitutional tempo in international law. I explain that they are related to a narrative of continuation with the past in international law, to the proliferation of international institutions and the fragmentation of the international legal order, to the rise of world constitutionalism, to the emergence of new transnational and non-state actors, to the horizontal pull of regional processes of integration (that include, but are not limited to the EU level, especially in a post-Lisbon Treaty scenario), to the on-going individualization of international law, to the pressing need to meet increasingly interdependent challenges in the age of globalization, to the legitimacy/democratic deficit of global governance and last, but not least, to the on-going paradigm shift in the study of law brought about by the contemporary challenge to the nation-state as the natural carrier of history.

New Issue: American Review of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the American Review of International Arbitration (Vol. 22, no. 4, 2011) is out. Contents include:
  • Thomas E. Carbonneau, Shattering the barrier of inarbitrability
  • Edna Sussman & Solomon Ebere, All’s fair in love and war—or is it? Reflections on ethical standards for counsel in international arbitration
  • Maud Piers, Spillovers of European consumer law: validity of arbitration agreements ... and beyond
  • Allen B. Green & Josh Weiss, Public policy and international arbitration in the European Union
  • Katharina Diel-Gligor, Competing regimes in international investment arbitration: choice between the ICSID and alternative arbitral systems