Conforti, Vezzani, & Zagrebelsky on the ECHR

Recently, the Italian Society of International Law posted three essays on the European Convention on Human Rights. They are:

• Benedetto Conforti, L’adhésion de l’Union Européenne à la Convention Européenne des Droits de l’Homme
• Simone Vezzani, L’Unione europea e i suoi Stati membri davanti ai giudici di Strasburgo: una valutazione critica del meccanismo del co-respondent
• Vladimiro Zagrebelsky, La irragionevolezza della legge italiana sulla procreazione assistita nel giudizio della Corte

Fassbender & Peters: The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law

Bardo Fassbender (Universität der Bundeswehr München - Law) & Anne Peters (Universität Basel - Law) have published The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law provides an authoritative and original overview of the origins, concepts, and core issues of international law. The first comprehensive Handbook on the history of international law, it is a truly unique contribution to the literature of international law and relations. Pursuing both a global and an interdisciplinary approach, the Handbook brings together some sixty eminent scholars of international law, legal history, and global history from all parts of the world.

Covering international legal developments from the 15th century until the end of World War II, the Handbook consists of over sixty individual chapters which are arranged in six parts. The book opens with an analysis of the principal actors in the history of international law, namely states, peoples and nations, international organisations and courts, and civil society actors. Part Two is devoted to a number of key themes of the history of international law, such as peace and war, the sovereignty of states, hegemony, religion, and the protection of the individual person. Part Three addresses the history of international law in the different regions of the world (Africa and Arabia, Asia, the Americas and the Caribbean, Europe), as well as 'encounters' between non-European legal cultures (like those of China, Japan, and India) and Europe which had a lasting impact on the body of international law. Part Four examines certain forms of 'interaction or imposition' in international law, such as diplomacy (as an example of interaction) or colonization and domination (as an example of imposition of law). The classical juxtaposition of the civilized and the uncivilized is also critically studied. Part Five is concerned with problems of the method and theory of history writing in international law, for instance the periodisation of international law, or Eurocentrism in the traditional historiography of international law. The Handbook concludes with a Part Six, entitled "People in Portrait", which explores the life and work of twenty prominent scholars and thinkers of international law, ranging from Muhammad al-Shaybani to Sir Hersch Lauterpacht.

The Handbook will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students of international law. It provides historians with new perspectives on international law, and increases the historical and cultural awareness of scholars of international law. It aims to become the new standard reference work for the global history of international law.

New Volume: Hague Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Hague Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 24, 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Special Focus: Private International Law
• Hans van Loon, The Hague Conference on Private International Law: Asser’s Vision and an Evolving Mission
• Alex Mills, Rediscovering the Public Dimension of Private International Law
• Aukje A.H. van Hoek, Managing Legal Diversity – New Challenges for Private International Law
• Hans Corell, Looking Forward in the Spirit of Asser: Identifying Developments in the Global Society that Need to Be Addressed in International Law
• Micah R. Thorner & Abigail Ludwig, Hague Conference on Private International Law – Work in 2011
• Nino Sievi, Enforceability of International Choice of Court Agreements: Impact of the Hague Convention on the US and EU Legal System
• Public International Law
• Dovile Morkyte, International Law as a Legal Basis for Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention
• Charles Riziki Majinge, The Use of Force in International Law and the UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 & 1973 on Libya
• Elizabeth Campbell, Self-defence and the International Court of Justice: A Review of Recent ICJ Case Law and Opinions Concerning Article 51 of the UN Charter
• Noemi Gal-Or, Terrorism and the Non-State Actor in the 2011 Interlocutory Decision of the Appeals Chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon
• Kushtrim Istrefi & Zane Ratniec, Think Globally, Act Locally: Al-Jedda’s Oscillation between the Coherence of International Law and Autonomy of the European Legal Order e
• Mamoud Zani, L’Organisation internationale du Travail et le travail des enfants: a propos de la Convention n°182 sur les pires formes de travail des enfants
• International Investment Law and Arbitration
• Nikos Lavranos, Member States’ Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs): Lost in Transition?
• Taida Begić Šarkinović, Umbrella Clauses and Their Policy Implications
• Yael Ribco Borman, Treaty Shopping Through Corporate Restructuring of Investments: Legitimate Corporate Planning or Abuse of Rights?
• Ihab Amro, Review of a Foreign Arbitral Award by National Courts: A Comparative Study in Common Law and Civil Law Countries
• Yannick Radi, The Coherence of International Law: An Illustration by International Investment Law

Conference: The International Criminal Court at Ten

On November 11-12, 2012, the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law will host a conference on "The International Criminal Court at Ten." The program is here. Here's the idea:

The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute will host a major international conference on November 11-12, 2012 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This international gathering follows immediately on the heels of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, and will precede the 11th session of the ICC ASP in The Hague, making it both timely and important.

The conference will begin with a day of remembrance honoring the victims of atrocity crimes and the memory of Whitney R. Harris in celebration of his 100th Birthday and will be followed by a symposium focused on the International Criminal Court's achievements and challenges to date, early jurisprudence and future directions of the Court, and discuss the U.S. position towards the Court.

Seminar: Principles of Shared Responsibility in International Law

On February 7-8, 2013, SHARES: The Research Project on Shared Responsibility in International Law will hold a seminar on "Principles of Shared Responsibility in International Law." The preliminary program is here. Here's the idea:

This SHARES Seminar will provide a critical review of the principles of international responsibility, as these have been formulated by the International Law Commission (ILC), from the perspective of shared responsibility.

The International Law Commission recognized in its work on the responsibility of states and the responsibility of international organizations that attribution of acts to one state or organization does not exclude the possible attribution of the same act to another state or organization. There is no doubt that under positive international law situations of shared responsibility may arise.

However, the ILC has provided little guidance regarding the allocation of responsibility or reparation in such cases. In such diverse areas as peacekeeping, counter-terrorism policy, refugee law and international environmental law, considerable uncertainty exists on the applicable principles of responsibility in situations when two or more actors contribute to a wrong.

The SHARES Project will organize a seminar that will discuss critically the main principles of responsibility, in order to enhance our understanding of what the principles of responsibility can offer in situations of shared responsibility, and where gaps can be found. The papers that will be presented will review for each of the established principles of responsibility (such as breach, attribution, circumstances precluding wrongfulness, reparation and so on) whether these principle are sufficiently attuned to questions that may arise in situations of shared responsibility.

Bodansky & Rajamani: The Evolution and Governance Architecture of the Climate Change Regime

Daniel Bodansky (Arizona State Univ. - Law) & Lavanya Rajamani (Centre for Policy Research) have posted The Evolution and Governance Architecture of the Climate Change Regime (in International Law and International Relations, Detlef Sprinz & Urs Luterbacher eds., 2nd ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This book chapter provides an historical and legal introduction to the UN climate change regime. It reviews the development of the regime, from the emergence of the climate change issue in the 1980s through the adoption of the 1992 UN Framework on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the 2001 Marrakech Accords, the 2007 Bali Action Plan, the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, the 2010 Cancun Agreements, and the 2011 Durban Platform. The chapter outlines the principal elements of the legal regime, and concludes with some brief observations about the future direction of the UN climate change regime.

Call for Applications: O’Brien Fellowships for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism

The Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at the McGill University Faculty of Law has issued a call for applications for the O'Brien Fellowships for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism. The call is here.

New Issue: Ocean Development & International Law

The latest issue of Ocean Development & International Law (Vol. 43, no. 4, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Yen-Chiang Chang, A Note on a Comparison of the Ocean Governance System Between Mainland China and Taiwan
• Dikdik Mohamad Sodik, The Indonesian Legal Framework on Baselines, Archipelagic Passage, and Innocent Passage
• Jasmine Coppens, Migrants in the Mediterranean: Do's and Don’ts in Maritime Interdiction
• Alexander Proelss & Chang Hong, Ocean Upwelling and International Law

New Issue: International Theory

The latest issue of International Theory (Vol. 4, no. 3, November 2012) is out. Contents include:

• John MacMillan, ‘Hollow promises?’ Critical materialism and the contradictions of the Democratic Peace
• James Brassett, Ben Richardson & William Smith, Private experiments in global governance: primary commodity roundtables and the politics of deliberation
• Milja Kurki & Hidemi Suganami, Towards the politics of causal explanation: a reply to the critics of causal inquiries
• Special Forum: Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics
• Jack Snyder & Leslie Vinjamuri, Principled pragmatism and the logic of consequences
• Toni Erskine, Whose progress, which morals? Constructivism, normative IR theory and the limits and possibilities of studying ethics in world politics
• Nicholas Rengger, Progress with Price?
• Richard M. Price, On the pragmatic and principled limits and possibilities of dialogue

Heller: "One Hell of a Killing Machine": Signature Strikes and International Law

Kevin Jon Heller (Univ of Melbourne - Law) has posted "One Hell of a Killing Machine": Signature Strikes and International Law (Journal of International Criminal Justice, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The vast majority of drone attacks conducted by the U.S. have been signature strikes – strikes that target “groups of men who bear certain signatures, or defining characteristics associated with terrorist activity, but whose identities aren’t known.” In 2010, for example, Reuters reported that of the 500 “militants” killed by drones between 2008 and 2010, only 8% were the kind “top-tier militant targets” or “mid-to-high-level organizers” whose identities could have been known prior to being killed. Similarly, in 2011, a U.S. official revealed that the U.S. had killed “twice as many ‘wanted terrorists’ in signature strikes than in personality strikes.”

Despite the U.S.’s intense reliance on signature strikes, scholars have paid almost no attention to their legality under international law. This article attempts to fill that lacuna. Section I explains why a signature strike must be justified under either international humanitarian law (IHL) or international human rights law (IHRL) even if the strike was a legitimate act of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter. Section II explores the legality of signature strikes under IHL. It concludes that although some signature strikes clearly comply with the principle of distinction, others either violate that principle as a matter of law or require evidence concerning the target that the U.S. is unlikely to have prior to the attack. Section III then provides a similar analysis for IHRL, concluding that most of the signature strikes permitted by IHL – though certainly not all – would violate IHRL’s insistence that individuals cannot be arbitrarily deprived of their right to life.

Bodansky: The Who, What, and Wherefore of Geoengineering Governance

Daniel Bodansky (Arizona State Univ. - Law) has posted The Who, What, and Wherefore of Geoengineering Governance. Here's the abstract:

The potential of geoengineering to reverse global warming rapidly and cheaply makes it alluring to groups across the political spectrum. But geoengineering also poses significant risks and raises the specter of technology gone awry. This article analyzes the basic governance issues raised by geoengineering, including the possible functions, forms, objects and agents of governance. It then explores these issues by focusing on four scenarios of particular concern: inadequate research funding, premature rejection, unilateral individual action, and unilateral state action.

Choudhury: Public Services and International Trade Liberalization: Human Rights and Gender Implications

Barnali Choudhury (Queen Mary, Univ. of London - Law) has published Public Services and International Trade Liberalization: Human Rights and Gender Implications (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:

Does public service liberalization pose a threat to gender and human rights? Traditionally considered essential services provided by a state to its citizens, public services are often viewed as public goods which embody social values. Subjecting them to market ideology thus raises concerns that the intrinsic social nature of these services will be negated. Moreover, as those most likely to be reliant on public services, public service liberalization may also further marginalize women. Nevertheless, states continue to increasingly liberalize public services. Barnali Choudhury explores the implications of public service liberalization. Using primarily a legal approach, but drawing from case studies, empirical research and gender theories, she examines whether liberalization under the General Agreement on Trade in Services and other liberalization vehicles such as preferential trade and investment agreements compromise human rights and gender objectives.

New Issue: Review of International Studies

The latest issue of the Review of International Studies (Vol. 38, no. 4, October 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Beate Jahn, Rethinking democracy promotion
• Theresa Squatrito, Conditions of democracy-enhancing multilateralism: expansion of rights protections in Europe?
• Joanne Wallis, A liberal-local hybrid peace project in action? The increasing engagement between the local and liberal in Timor-Leste
• Yong-Soo Eun, Why and how should we go for a multicausal analysis in the study of foreign policy? (Meta-)theoretical rationales and methodological rules
• Yong Wook Lee, Synthesis and reformulation of foreign policy change: Japan and East Asian financial regionalism
• Amir Lupovici, Ontological dissonance, clashing identities, and Israel's unilateral steps towards the Palestinians
• Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Security by any other name: negative security, positive security, and a multi-actor security approach
• Jonathan Bright, Securitisation, terror, and control: towards a theory of the breaking point
• Ewan Stein, Beyond Arabism vs. sovereignty: relocating ideas in the international relations of the Middle East
• Ty Solomon, ‘I wasn't angry, because I couldn't believe it was happening’: Affect and discourse in responses to 9/11

New Issue: Israel Law Review

The latest issue of the Israel Law Review (Vol. 45, no. 3, November 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Robin Geiß & Henning Lahmann, Cyber Warfare: Applying the Principle of Distinction in an Interconnected Space
• Tom Ruys, The XM25 Individual Airburst Weapon System: A ‘Game Changer’ for the (Law on the) Battlefield? Revisiting the Legality of Explosive Projectiles under the Law of Armed Conflict
• Deborah Housen-Couriel, Disruption of Satellite Transmissions ad Bellum and in Bello: Launching a New Paradigm of Convergence
• Eliav Lieblich, Show Us the Films: Transparency, National Security and Disclosure of Information Collected by Advanced Weapon Systems under International Law
• Anne Herzberg & Gerald M Steinberg, IHL 2.0: Is There a Role for Social Media in Monitoring and Enforcement?
• Anthony Grabiner, Sex, Scandal and Super-Injunctions – The Controversies Surrounding the Protection of Privacy

New Issue: World Trade Review

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 11, no. 4, October 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Matthew Kennedy, China's role in WTO dispute settlement
• Patricia Tovar, Preferential Trade Agreements and Unilateral Liberalization: Evidence from CAFTA
• Emily Barrett Lydgate, Sustainable development in the WTO: from mutual supportiveness to balancing

Sur: Les dynamiques du droit international

Serge Sur (Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris 2) - Law) has published Les dynamiques du droit international (Pedone 2012). Here's the abstract:

L'étude du droit international est souvent dominée par des approches militantes, idéologiques, qui ont exercé une influence croissante, y compris sur la doctrine. Ces approches tendent à une véritable mutation du droit international, appelé à devenir une morale internationale universelle, au service du droit humanitaire, des droits de l'homme, après avoir été mobilisé à celui du développement. Cette métamorphose mettrait au premier plan l'action des individus et des groupes, imposant en leur nom des obligations aux Etats, ainsi dépossédés d'un droit qui a été longtemps leur apanage.

S'il existe un fil rouge dans l'ensemble des textes ici regroupés, il est que cette métamorphose est plus apparente que réelle, et même qu'elle n'existe pas du tout. L'analyse positive du droit international montre que ses fondements n'ont nullement évolué, que l'engagement international de l'Etat en est toujours la base, et l'action des Etats le coeur. L'analyse positive est une méthode et non une idéologie. Elle ne prétend pas que le droit international est achevé ou parfait, ni perfectible, mais elle ne vise pas non plus à lui substituer un droit rêvé ou à se poser en législateur.

Le droit international ne saurait être seulement une discipline spéculative. Il est avant tout destiné à servir de cadre et d'instrument à l'action de ses sujets. « Un sage n'a pas d'idées » : sans aller jusqu'au bout de la logique de cet aphorisme chinois, un analyste doit rester modeste devant son objet et le garder à distance de ses intérêts, de ses préférences, de ses passions, de ses constructions. Il lui faut également écarter la tentation de laisser entendre que « le droit, c'est moi », ou de mettre une rhétorique de militant en faveur de thèses subjectives, ou d'avocat au service d'intérêts de lobbies.

New Issue: Climate Law

The latest issue of Climate Law (Vol. 3, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Erik Olbrei & Stephen Howes, A very real and practical contribution? Lessons from the Kalimantan Forests and Climate Partnership
• Amelia Thorpe, Too little, too soon? An assessment of Australian carbon capture and storage legislation against the new standards set for the Clean Development Mechanism
• Massimiliano Montini & Emanuela Orlando, Balancing climate change mitigation and environmental protection interests in the EU Directive on carbon capture and storage
• Kati Kulovesi, A new chapter in the UN climate change negotiations? First steps under the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action

New Issue: Europa Ethnica

The latest issue of Europa Ethnica (2012, nos. 3/4). Contents include:

• Alain Fenet, La question des minorités en France – entre déni et compromis
• Susanne Lesk, Aktuelle und zukünftige sprachenpolitische Strategien für die Bretagne. Möglichkeiten institutioneller Arbeit für regionalsprachliche Bewegungen
• Etienne Hammel, Situation socio-linguistique de l’Occitan
• Pierre Escudé, La langue occitane, entre société et école
• Igor Ahedo Gurrutxaga, Der baskische Nationalismus in Frankreich
• Astrid Hönigsperger, Sprachenpolitik in Friaul. Überlegungen zu Problemen bei der Umsetzung der Legge 482/1999
• Enikő Marton & László Vincze, Why Are Girls Interested More in Bilingualism? Gender effects on learning and using the minority language among majority language speakers in Finland and South-Tyrol

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. 75, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Joanna Lenart, ‘Fortress Europe’: Compliance of the Dublin II Regulation with the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
• Melanie Fink, Frontex Working Arrangements: Legitimacy and Human Rights Concerns Regarding ‘Technical Relationships’
• Kathleen McVay, Self-determination in New Contexts: The Self-determination of Refugees and Forced Migrants in International Law
• Sara Dehm, Sovereignty, Protection and the Limits to Regional Refugee Status Determination Arrangements

Goodman & Pegram: Human Rights, State Compliance, and Social Change: Assessing National Human Rights Institutions

Ryan Goodman (New York Univ. - Law) & Thomas Pegram (New York Univ. - Law) have published Human Rights, State Compliance, and Social Change: Assessing National Human Rights Institutions (Cambridge Univ. Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) – human rights commissions and ombudsmen – have gained recognition as a possible missing link in the transmission and implementation of international human rights norms at the domestic level. They are also increasingly accepted as important participants in global and regional forums where international norms are produced. By collecting innovative work from experts spanning international law, political science, sociology and human rights practice, this book critically examines the significance of this relatively new class of organizations. It focuses, in particular, on the prospects of these institutions to effectuate state compliance and social change. Consideration is given to the role of NHRIs in delegitimizing – though sometimes legitimizing – governments' poor human rights records and in mobilizing – though sometimes demobilizing – civil society actors. The volume underscores the broader implications of such cross-cutting research for scholarship and practice in the fields of human rights and global affairs in general.

New Issue: Human Rights & International Legal Discourse

The latest issue of Human Rights & International Legal Discourse (Vol. 6, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• M. Morel, Displaced in the Name of Sports: Human Rights Law Comes to the Rescue
• J. Letnar Černič, Fair Trial Guarantees before the Court of Arbitration for Sport
• K. De Beer, Let the Games Begin… Ambush Marketing and Freedom of Speech
• I. Truscan, Child Athletes Find Support in Human Rights Law to Tackle Punitive Forms of Training
• S. Hespel, J. Put, & M. Rom, Navigating the Maze. The Interrelation of International Standards for Juvenile Justice

Call for Papers: Inter-Institutional Relations in Global Law and Governance

A call for papers has been issued for the 9th Global Administrative Law Seminar, to take place in Viterbo, June 13-14, 2013. The seminar's theme is "Inter-Institutional Relations in Global Law and Governance." The call is here.

Roundtable: Humanitarian Crises and International Law: The Responsibility to Protect and Prosecute

On November 23, the University of Leeds School of Law will host a roundtable on "Humanitarian Crises and International Law: The Responsibility to Protect and Prosecute." The program is here. Here's the idea:

This roundtable discussion brings together scholars from law, politics and criminology to explore the challenges posed by ‘non-sovereign spaces’ to the international community, and for its agenda of protecting civilians, preventing human rights violations, and promoting security and justice in such spaces with de facto regimes. Professor William Schabas (Middlesex) will lead the discussion and will be seconded by renowned experts and scholars in the field.

With humanitarian crises mounting over the past two decades, the international community has shouldered a double responsibility: to protect civilians and victims, and to prosecute perpetrators of gross human rights violations and mass atrocity crimes. Contemporary humanitarian crises emerge where states and governments fail to protect their citizens, or worse, become and join perpetrators of human rights violations on a massive scale.

Both interventions to protect, and to prosecute are often situated in ‘non-sovereign spaces’, where mass violence is embedded in trajectories of long-term conflict. In this context questions arise as to the relationship between security and justice, between international law and international politics, and between different forms of intervention.

This roundtable event will address the problems in the emerging landscape of international responsibilisation from the perspective of international law, and through interdisciplinary lenses.

What is the responsibility of the international community in relation to de facto regimes, and what are the obligations of third states? How can violations of international human rights laws be prevented and prosecuted in such spaces? When is it legitimate to intervene where the consent of a State is lacking?

New Volume: Italian Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Italian Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 21, 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Symposium: The Libyan Crisis and International Law
• Natalino Ronzitti, NATO’s Intervention in Libya: A Genuine Action to Protect a Civilian Population in Mortal Danger or An Intervention Aimed at Regime Change?
• Luisa Vierucci, The No-Fly Zone Over Libya: Enforcement Issues
• Giuseppe Nesi, Recognition of the Libyan National Transitional Council: When, How and Why
• Giorgio Sacerdoti & Pia Acconci, The Security Council’s Asset Freeze Against Gaddafi’s Libya and Its Implementation in Italy
• Marina Mancini, The Day After: Prosecuting International Crimes Committed in Libya
• Ciaran Burke, Beyond Libya: Moral Norms in International Law and the Use of Force by States
• Focus: The ICJ Judgment in Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy: Greece Intervening)
• Benedetto Conforti, The Judgment of the International Court of Justice on the Immunity of Foreign States: A Missed Opportunity
• Riccardo Pavoni, An American Anomaly? On the ICJ’s Selective Reading of United States Practice in Jurisdictional Immunities of the State
• Carlos Espósito, Jus Cogens and Jurisdictional Immunities of States at the International Court of Justice: A Conflict Does Exist
• Mirko Sossai, Are Italian Courts Directly Bound to Give Effect to the Jurisdictional Immunities Judgment?

New Issue: International & Comparative Law Quarterly

The latest issue of the International & Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 61, no. 4, October 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Claude Chase, Norm Conflict Between WTO Covered Agreements—Real, Apparent or Avoided?
• Arif Bulkan, Disentangling the Sources and Nature of Indigenous Rights: A Critical Examination of Common Law Jurisprudence
• Ming-Sung Kuo, From Administrative Law to Administrative Legitimation? Transnational Administrative Law and the Process of European Integration
• Janeen Carruthers, Party Autonomy in the Legal Regulation of Adult Relationships: What Place for Party Choice in Private International Law?
• Jean Allain & Robin Hickey, Property and the Definition of Slavery
• Shorter Articles
• Stephen Bouwhuis, The Role of an International Legal Adviser to Government
• Jamie Trinidad, An Evaluation of Morocco's Claims to Spain's Remaining Territories in Africa

Tsutsui, Whitlinger, & Lim: International Human Rights Law and Social Movements: States' Resistance and Civil Society's Insistence

Kiyoteru Tsutsui (Univ. of Michigan - Sociology), Claire Whitlinger (Univ. of Michigan - Sociology), & Alwyn Lim (Univ. of Southern California - Sociology) have published International Human Rights Law and Social Movements: States' Resistance and Civil Society's Insistence (Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Vol. 8, pp. 367-396, 2012). Here's the abstract:

This review examines recent scholarship on the rise of international human rights law and proposes that social movements have played critical roles both in elevating the standards of human rights in international law and in leveraging these standards into better local practices. Institutionalization of universal human rights principles began in the immediate post–World War II period, in which civil society actors worked with powerful states to establish human rights as a key guiding principle of the international community and to ensure the actors' continuing participation in international human rights institutions. The subsequent decades saw various hurdles arise in international politics, but civil society actors skillfully used the small openings that they had gained to continue to advance the cause of human rights. They held powerful governments accountable to their lofty promises about human rights and worked with sympathetic governments in the UN system to continuously upgrade the standards of international human rights. They also leveraged human rights laws toward better local practices, taking advantage of new political opportunities created by human rights laws, using expanding international channels to increase flows of human and material resources, embracing globally legitimated vocabularies of human rights to frame their movements, and integrating the broad cultural effects of human rights laws to construct new social movement identity and actorhood. The review then points out some potential pitfalls of international human rights laws: professionalization of movement actors, which can undermine the impact of social movements and lead to less ambitious and transformative goals; privileging of some causes over others, which can lead to demobilization around certain issues; and overextending movement goals, which can give rise to strong backlash against human rights principles.

New Issue: Legal Issues of Economic Integration

The latest issue of Legal Issues of Economic Integration (Vol. 39, no. 4, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Report from the WTO: LAD Turns 30!
• Marco Bronckers & Sophie Goelen, 'Financial Liability of the EU for Violations of WTO Law: A Legislative Proposal Benefiting 'Innocent Bystanders'
• Saskia Lavrijssen & Annetje Ottow, Independent Supervisory Authorities: A Fragile Concept
• Angelos Dimopoulos, The Compatibility of Future EU Investment Agreements with EU Law

New Issue: Humanity

The latest issue of Humanity (Vol. 3, no. 3, October 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Dossier: Social Rights in the Twentieth Century
• Paul Betts & Małgorzata Mazurek, Preface: When Rights Were Social
• Katherine Lebow, The Conscience of the Skin: Interwar Polish Autobiography and Social Rights
• Sandrine Kott, The Forced Labor Issue between Human and Social Rights, 1947-1957
• Eric Allina, "No Real Freedom for the Natives": The Men in the Middle and Critiques of Colonial Labor in Central Mozambique
• Marco Duranti, Curbing Labour's Totalitarian Temptation: European Human Rights Law and British Postwar Politics
• Mark B. Smith, Social Rights in the Soviet Dictatorship: The Constitutional Right to Welfare from Stalin to Brezhnev
• Paul Betts, Socialism, Social Rights, and Human Rights: The Case of East Germany
• Roland Burke, Some Rights Are More Equal than Others: The Third World and the Transformation of Economic and Social Rights
• Matthew Hilton, International Aid and Development NGOs in Britain and Human Rights since 1945
• Frederick Cooper, Afterword: Social Rights and Human Rights in the Time of Decolonization

Noll: Analogy at War: Proportionality, Equality and the Law of Targeting

Gregor Noll (Lund Univ. - Law) has posted Analogy at War: Proportionality, Equality and the Law of Targeting (Netherlands Yearbook of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This text is an inquiry into how the international community is understood in and through international law. My prism for this inquiry shall be the principle of proportionality in international humanitarian law, relating expected civilian losses to anticipated military advantage. To properly understand proportionality, I have to revert to the structure of analogical thinking in the thomistic tradition. Proportionality presupposes a third element to which civilian losses and military advantage can be related. In a first reading, I develop how this tradition of thought might explain the difficulties contemporary IHL doctrine has in understanding proportionality. If military commanders misconceive the third element as the sovereignty of their own state, they will invariably apply the proportionality principle in a paternalistic manner. This would obviate the most rudimentary idea of equality among states and do away with the common of an international community. In a second reading, I shall explore whether this third element could instead be thought of as a demos, while retaining the existing framework of analogical thinking. My argument is that this secularizing replacement is possible. Practically, its consequence would be a radical change in the task of the responsible military commander determining proportionality. That commander would now need to rethink civilians endangered by an attack as a demos whose potentiality must be preserved.