Kopela: Climate Change and the International Maritime Organization: Another Breakthrough at the Marine Environment Protection Committee?

Sophia Kopela (Lancaster Univ. - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on Climate Change and the International Maritime Organization: Another Breakthrough at the Marine Environment Protection Committee?

Maupain: The Future of the International Labour Organization in the Global Economy

Francis Maupain (formerly, International Labour Organization) has published The Future of the International Labour Organization in the Global Economy (Hart Publishing 2013). Here's the abstract:

The International Labour Organization was created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended the First World War, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice. As the oldest organisation in the UN system, approaching its 100th anniversary in 2019, the ILO faces unprecedented strains and challenges. Since before the financial crisis, the global economy has tested the limits of a regulatory regime which was conceived in 1919. The organisation's founders only entrusted it with balancing social progress with the constraints of an interconnected open economy, but gambled almost entirely on tools of persuasion to ensure that this would happen. Whether that gamble is still capable of paying-off is the subject of this book, by a former ILO insider with an unrivalled knowledge of its work.

The book forms part of a broader inquiry into the relevance of founding institutional principles to today's context, and strives to show that the bet made on persuasion may yet pay off. In part, the text argues that there may be little alternative anyway, showing that the pathways to more binding solutions are fraught with difficulty. It also shows the ILO's considerable future potential for promoting effective, universal regulations by extending its tools of persuasion in as yet insufficiently explored directions. Starting with an examination of how the organisation's institutional context differs from 93 years ago, the author goes on to evaluate the prospects of numerous proposals put forward today, including the trade/labour linkage, but going beyond this.

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 30, no. 5, October 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Luke Nottage, International Commercial Arbitration in Australia: What’s New and What’s Next?
• S.I. Strong, Collective Consumer Arbitration in Spain: A Civil Law Response to US-Style Class Arbitration
• Phillip Landolt, The Inconvenience of Principle: Separability and Kompetenz-Kompetenz
• Rowan Platt, The Appeal of Appeal Mechanisms in International Arbitration: Fairness over Finality?
• Anders Nilsson & Oscar Englesson, Inconsistent Awards in Investment Treaty Arbitration: Is an Appeals Court Needed?
• Anton Asoskov & Alyona Kucher, Are Russian Courts Able to Keep Control over the Unruly Horse?
• Nassib G. Ziadé, The ‘Arab Spring’ and Arab Approaches to International Arbitration
• Herman Verbist, New Belgian Arbitration Law of 24 June 2013 and New CEPANI Arbitration Rules of 1 January 2013

Hoffmann: Trying Communism Through International Law? - the Experiences of the Hungarian Historical Justice Trials

Tamás Hoffmann (Corvinus Univ. of Budapest) has posted Trying Communism Through International Law? - the Experiences of the Hungarian Historical Justice Trials (in The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials, Kevin Heller & Gerry Simpson eds., 2013). Here's the abstract:

This chapter aims to critically analyse the attempts of the Hungarian judiciary to address crimes committed during the 1956 revolution through the use of international law. These so-called historical justice trials undertook to uncover the true history of the mass atrocities perpetrated against civilians suppressed during the communist regime and bring the perpetrators to justice. However, the Hungarian judiciary proved unable to apply international criminal law, which led to a series of contradictory judgments that left the general populace confused. Coupled with the absence of a popular desire to confront the country’s past, the predominantly technical approach of the trials not only could not fulfil their purpose but might have exacerbated the general indifference. This chapter will thus have a two-fold goal: to demonstrate the inherent problems associated with the direct application of international criminal law in a domestic legal environment, and to tell the story of an unsuccessful attempt to substitute criminal procedures for social reconciliation.

Workshop: Politics and Principle in International Legal Theory

Today and tomorrow, November 14–15, 2013, the University of Michigan Law School will host the Second Annual American Society of International Law–European Society of International Law–Rechtskulturen Workshop on International Legal Theory. The theme is "Politics and Principle in International Legal Theory." The program is here.

New Issue: Review of International Studies

The latest issue of the Review of International Studies (Vol. 39, no. 5, December 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Intervention and the Ordering of the Modern World
• John MacMillan, Intervention and the ordering of the modern world
• Christian Reus-Smit, The concept of intervention
• Edward Keene, International hierarchy and the origins of the modern practice of intervention
• John MacMillan, Historicising intervention: strategy and synchronicity in British intervention 1815–50
• Richard Little, Intervention and non-intervention in international society: Britain's responses to the American and Spanish Civil Wars
• Robbie Shilliam, Intervention and colonial-modernity: decolonising the Italy/Ethiopia conflict through Psalms 68:31
• Lee Jones, Sovereignty, intervention, and social order in revolutionary times
• Susan L. Woodward, The long intervention: continuity in the Balkan theatre
• Toby Dodge, Intervention and dreams of exogenous statebuilding: the application of Liberal Peacebuilding in Afghanistan and Iraq
• David Williams, Development, intervention, and international order
• George Lawson & Luca Tardelli, The past, present, and future of intervention

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

The latest volume of the Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs (Vol. 29, 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Fiammetta Borgia & Paolo Vargiu, When Investment Law Takes over: Towards a New Legal Regime to Regulate Asia Pacific’s Submarine Cables Boom
• Hsu-hua Chou, Bargaining for Mijiu Tax Reduction in the Shadow of WTO Law: Challenges for Taiwan and Lessons from Cases against Japan and Korea
• Paul J. Davidson, The Cross-Straits Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement: Legal Issues
• Eric Franckx, CITES as an Alternative for Effective Fisheries Management in the Asia-Pacific Region
• Hamamoto Shotaro, Multilateral Treaties and Recognition of States - The Japanese Case Law on the Applicability of the Berne Convention and the Patent Cooperation Treaty between Japan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
• Natalie Klein, From Eco-Terrorism to Eco-Tourism: Assessing Effective Regulatory Tools and Regimes in Marine Management
• Josef Mrázek, The Use of Force and Expanded Conceptions of Self-Defence
• Vasilka Sancin, Innovative Arbitration Agreements to Resolve Border Disputes and the Role of Regional International Organizations: Can the Example of Slovenia-Croatia Arbitration Agreement Be Followed in the Asia Pacific?

New Issue: Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies

The latest issue of the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies (Vol. 3, no. 2, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Ilia Maria Siatitsa & Maia Titberidze, Human Rights in Armed Conflict: Ten Years of Affirmative State Practice within United Nations Resolutions
• Tilman Rodenhäuser, Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Armed Groups in Other Situations of Violence: The Syria Example
• Michael T. Wotherspoon, Mexico’s Drug War, International Jurisprudence, and the Role of Non-International Armed Conflict Status
• Mika Hayashi, The Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Clearance of Cluster Munition Remnants: Whose Responsibility, and How to Ensure Effective Implementation?
• Tom Moerenhout, The Obligation to Withhold from Trading in Order Not to Recognize and Assist Settlements and their Economic Activity in Occupied Territories

New Issue: Rivista di Diritto Internazionale

The latest issue of the Rivista di Diritto Internazionale (Vol. 96, no. 3, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Articoli
• C. Favilli, Ancora una riforma delle norme sulla partecipazione dell’Italia alla formazione e all’attuazione delle politiche dell’Unione Europea
• L. Magi, Concorrenza tra meccanismi di garanzia di accordi commerciali: proposte di coordinamento
• R. Nigro, Immunità degli Stati esteri e diritto di accesso al giudice: un nuovo approccio nel diritto internazionale?
• Note e Commenti
• M.C. Vitucci, La decisione d’appello del Tribunale per il Libano nel caso Ayyash e il controllo sulla legittimità degli atti del Consiglio di sicurezza
• E. Cimiotta, L’istituzione in Senegal delle Camere straordinarie africane
• N. Lazzerini, Il contributo della sentenza Åkerberg Fransson alla determinazione dell’ambito di applicazione e degli effetti della Carta dei diritti fondamentali dell’Unione Europea
• O. Feraci, Questioni internazionalprivatistiche in tema di cross-border collective redress nello spazio giuridico europeo
• Panorama
• A. Tancredi, Sulla liceità dell’intervento su richiesta alla luce del conflitto in Mali
• O. Feraci, L’attuazione della cooperazione rafforzata nell’Unione Europea: un primo bilancio critico
• S. Marino, Cooperazione amministrativa e circolazione delle persone: verso il riconoscimento automatico degli atti di stato civile?

Condon & Sinha: The Role of Climate Change in Global Economic Governance

Bradly J. Condon (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México - Law) & Tapen Sinha (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México - Risk Management and Insurance; Univ. of Nottingham - Business) have published The Role of Climate Change in Global Economic Governance (Oxford Univ. Press 2013). Here's the abstract:

Climate change presents an unprecedented global challenge, and impacts upon a wide range of human economic activity. The issue of how to address climate change in developing countries has provoked international political controversy and the urgent need for effective international responses has become increasingly apparent. The Role of Climate Change in Global Economic Governance addresses the growing number of legal and economic issues that arise with respect to climate change, combining analysis from economic, financial, and legal perspectives.

The book assesses how the World Trade Organization, international investment law, and the international intellectual property rights regime approach the economic issues raised by climate change. The authors analyse how climate change regulation interacts with international economic law, and consider how financial instruments and insurance can mitigate the risks posed by climate change and facilitate adaptation. It breaks new ground in considering the financial sector's response to climate change, looking at how market mechanisms and risk insurance can reduce its economic cost.

van den Berg: International Arbitration: The Coming of a New Age

Albert Jan van den Berg (Hanotiau & van den Berg) has published International Arbitration: The Coming of a New Age (Wolters Kluwer 2013). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This volume collects the articles emanating from the twenty-first Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) held in Singapore in 2012. It opens with a thought-provoking keynote address on the present Golden Age of arbitration and its potential weaknesses and covers both practical and theoretical topics addressed by renowned arbitration practitioners and scholars. Two principal themes are addressed. The first deals with various aspects of the arbitration proceedings – from the agreement to arbitrate and the commencement of proceedings (with an introduction to i- and e-arbitration) to the evidence-collecting phase, the tribunal’s decision and the issue of legal and arbitration costs. The second examines the interaction between legal orders and national courts and arbitration; the need for and role of ethical codes of behaviour; the balance between investment protection and “policy space”; the future of ICSID; and the role of technological tools in arbitration. The volume closes with the report of a judicial debate among eleven senior judges addressing issues in the application of the 1958 New York Convention.

Conference: 4th Biennial Conference of the Asian Society of International Law

Later this week, on November 14-16, 2013, the Asian Society of International Law will hold its 4th Biennial Conference, hosted by the Indian Society of International Law in New Delhi. The theme is "Asia and International Law in the Twenty-First Century: New Horizons." The program is here.

New Issue: Leiden Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (Vol. 26, no. 4, December 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Volker Nerlich, Daring Diversity – Why There Is Nothing Wrong with ‘Fragmentation’ in International Criminal Procedure
• International Legal Theory - Symposium: Expertise, Uncertainty, and International Law
• Anna Leander & Tanja Aalberts, Introduction: The Co-Constitution of Legal Expertise and International Security
• Oliver Kessler & Wouter Werner, Expertise, Uncertainty, and International Law: A Study of the Tallinn Manual on Cyberwarfare
• Anna Leander, Technological Agency in the Co-Constitution of Legal Expertise and the US Drone Program
• Gavin Sullivan & Marieke de Goede, Between Law and the Exception: The UN 1267 Ombudsperson as a Hybrid Model of Legal Expertise
• International Law and Practice
• Karine Bannelier & Theodore Christakis, Under the UN Security Council’s Watchful Eyes: Military Intervention by Invitation in the Malian Conflict
• Phil C.W. Chan, A Keen Observer of the International Rule of Law? International Law in China’s Voting Behaviour and Argumentation in the United Nations Security Council
• Hague International Tribunals: International Court of Justice
  • Yoshifumi Tanaka, Reflections on the Territorial and Maritime Dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia before the International Court of Justice
• Hague International Tribunals: International Criminal Courts and Tribunals - Symposium: Expertise, Uncertainty, and International Law
• John Jackson & Yassin M’Boge, Integrating a Socio-Legal Approach to Evidence in the International Criminal Tribunals
• Justice T. A. Doherty, Evidence in International Criminal Tribunals: Contrast between Domestic and International Trials
• John Jackson & Yassin M’Boge, The Effect of Legal Culture on the Development of International Evidentiary Practice: From the ‘Robing Room’ to the ‘Melting Pot’
• Yvonne McDermott, The Admissibility and Weight of Written Witness Testimony in International Criminal Law: A Socio-Legal Analysis
• Rosemary Byrne, Drawing the Missing Map: What Socio-legal Research Can Offer to International Criminal Trial Practice
• Christian M. De Vos, Investigating from Afar: The ICC’s Evidence Problem

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 35, no. 4, November 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Monti Narayan Datta & Kevin Bales, Slavery in Europe: Part 1, Estimating the Dark Figure
• Mijke de Waardt, Are Peruvian Victims Being Mocked?: Politicization of Victimhood and Victims' Motivations for Reparations
• Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, From Architecture to Geometry: The Relationship Between the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and Organs of the African Union
• Laurie Nathan, The Disbanding of the SADC Tribunal: A Cautionary Tale
• Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Right to Development and Global Governance: Old and New Challenges Twenty-Five Years On
• Jaclyn Ling-Chien Neo, Calibrating Interpretive Incorporation: Constitutional Interpretation and Pregnancy Discrimination Under CEDAW
• Nazila Ghanea, Intersectionality and the Spectrum of Racist Hate Speech: Proposals to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• Başak Çalı, Anne Koch, & Nicola Bruch, The Legitimacy of Human Rights Courts: A Grounded Interpretivist Analysis of the European Court of Human Rights
• Ergun Özbudun & Füsun Türkmen, Impact of the ECtHR Rulings on Turkey's Democratization: An Evaluation

Conference: 2014 Joint ASIL Annual Meeting and ILA Biennial Conference (Registration Open)

On April 7-12, 2014, the American Society of International Law and the American Branch of the International Law Association will host a joint conference, which will comprise the 108th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law and the 76th Biennial Conference of the International Law Association. The theme is "The Effectiveness of International Law." Registration is now open. Here's the idea:

International law today touches on nearly every aspect of our lives, from the price of practically everything we purchase, to the health of the environment that surrounds us, to our ability to communicate seamlessly worldwide. These encounters serve as daily reminders that, as Louis Henkin famously put it, "almost all nations observe almost all principles of international law and almost all of their obligations almost all of the time."

Yet at the same time, there are regular reminders that not all nations, groups, or individuals observe all principles of international law or all of their obligations all of the time. International law violations such as human rights abuses, trade law breaches, and law of armed conflict violations remain all too common.

When, how, and why is international law most effective? Are there greater challenges to effectiveness in some areas of international law practice than in others? If so, what are they, and how can they be addressed? What role do domestic and international courts play in enforcing international law and thus enhancing its effectiveness? Does the increasingly intertwined transnational economy offer tools that may be used to enforce international law against states and individuals, or does it instead make international law more vulnerable by making evasion of national authority simpler? Do the challenges facing international law vary in different parts of the world, and, if so, how might those challenges be met? What role do non-state actors—non-governmental organizations and corporations chief among them—play in making international law more or less effective? And what role should they play?

The 2014 joint ASIL Annual Meeting and ILA Biennial Conference will address these questions.

Conference: From Gettysburg to Guantánamo: 150 Years of the Lieber Code and the Law of Armed Conflict

On November 21, 2013, the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law will host a conference on "From Gettysburg to Guantánamo: 150 Years of the Lieber Code and the Law of Armed Conflict." The program is here. Here's the idea:

Drafted by Columbia Professor Francis Lieber and signed by President Lincoln in 1863 as General Order No. 100, the Lieber Code regulated the conduct of U.S. soldiers during wartime. While the Code was limited to Union forces, the rules were based on customary law of the time and strongly influenced subsequent international codification of the law of armed conflict. The Code grappled with issues involving the regulation of armed conflicts between states and non-state groups that remain pressing today. This conference celebrating its 150th anniversary will explore the origins and import of the Lieber Code in its Civil War context, its impact on the development of international humanitarian law, and its continued significance to modern challenges in armed conflict.

Pavoni: Environmental Jurisprudence of the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights: Comparative Insights

Riccardo Pavoni (Univ. of Siena - Law) has posted Environmental Jurisprudence of the European and Inter-American Courts of Human Rights: Comparative Insights. Here's the abstract:

This chapter discusses several critical aspects of the environmental jurisprudence which has emerged in the European and Inter-American human rights systems. Despite the present quantitative and qualitative differences, the overall purpose is to determine whether the doctrines developed by the regional courts overseeing the systems in question militate in favour of a future, broad convergence of the respective case law relevant to environmental protection. The chapter first assesses the Inter-American case law relating to participatory environmental rights. In addition to the procedural rights to environmental information, participation and access to justice, this notion is broadly understood as encompassing the fundamental freedoms of thought, expression and association that protect the activities of environmental activists and associations. Indeed, the main lessons to be learned by the European system from its Inter-American counterpart arise in the area of participatory environmental rights. To illustrate this point, an in-depth review of the development, purpose and scope of procedural environmental rights under the ECtHR case law is carried out. Next, the chapter explains why, despite certain ambiguities emerging from relevant practice, the Inter-American system is decidedly more prone to public interest environmental litigation than its European equivalent. The purpose is to set the stage for the ensuing appraisal of certain environmental landmarks that characterize the Inter-American jurisprudence on indigenous peoples.

New Volume: Hague Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Hague Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 25, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Private International Law
• Chris Thomale, Private International Law sans frontières
• Micah R. Thorner & Kay Jagath Rommerts, Hague Conference on Private International Law—Work in 2012
• Peter D. Trooboff & Frederike E.M. Stikkelbroeck, Reflections on the Hague Conference on Private International Law at 140—20 Years Forward
• International Criminal Law
• Mihail Vatsov, Security Council Referrals to the ICC and EU Fundamental Rights: A Test for ECJ’s Stance in Kadi I
• Public International Law
• Juliette McIntyre, Declaratory Judgments of the International Court of Justice
• Nuwan Peiris, ARA Libertad from ITLOS: How Provisional a Provisional Measure Should Be?
• Emanuel Castellarin, Le gel des avoirs d’une banque centrale étrangère comme réaction décentralisée à un fait internationalement illicite: rétorsion ou contre-mesure?
• International Investment Law and Arbitration
• Heather L. Bray, The Neer Rumour
• Yanying Li & Camille M. Ng, The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2012
• Gerard J. Meijer & Camilla M.L. Perera-De Wit, Fostering Stability and Confidence in the Financial Markets—A Global Affair: P.R.I.M.E. Finance

McCormick & Michanick: The Transformation of Intergovernmental Satellite Organisations: Policy and Legal Perspectives

Patricia K. McCormick (Wayne State Univ. - Communication)) & Maury Mechanick (White & Case LLP) have published The Transformation of Intergovernmental Satellite Organisations: Policy and Legal Perspectives (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2013). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The Transformation of Intergovernmental Satellite Organisations: Policy and Legal Perspectives offers a multifaceted analysis of the complex policy and legal issues associated with the privatisation or restructuring of the world’s preeminent intergovernmental satellite organisations, INTELSAT, INMARSAT and EUTELSAT. Maury Mechanick, Christian Roisse, and David Sagar, each of whom were directly involved in these undertakings, provide a unique perspective on the critical issues involved, while Frans von der Dunk and Patricia McCormick offer a broader contextual assessment of their significance. The contributors’ insights regarding the restructuring of these satellite organisations and the intergovernmental organisations which oversee public services represent valuable reflections on those developments, as well as on changes occurring following privatisation regarding those entities’ ownership profiles and service provisions.

New Issue: International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (Vol. 28, no. 3, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Suzanne Lalonde, The Arctic Exception and the IMO’s PSSA Mechanism: Assessing their Value as Sources of Protection for the Northwest Passage
• Julien Rochette & Raphaël Billé, Bridging the Gap between Legal and Institutional Developments within Regional Seas Frameworks
• Bjarni Már Magnússon, Is there a Temporal Relationship between the Delineation and the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical Miles?
• Scott D. MacDonald, The SUA 2005 Protocol: A Critical Reflection
• Nengye Liu, Criminal Liability for Vessel-Source Pollution in China: Law and Practice
• Jens T. Theilen, What’s in a Name? The Illegality of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

Moore: Foreign Affairs Litigation in United States Courts

John Norton Moore (Univ. of Virginia - Law) has published Foreign Affairs Litigation in United States Courts (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2013). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Foreign Affairs Litigation in United States Courts collects essays by some of the nation’s top foreign affairs and international law experts to offer discussions on foreign sovereign immunity and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, human rights litigation, foreign affairs taking actions with the Court of Federal Claims, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, and the Hague Convention on Choice of Court Agreements.

This is an indispensable resource for attorneys and government officials focused on the role of the courts in foreign affairs, actions against foreign governments in United States courts, the Act of State Doctrine, foreign sovereign immunity, the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, foreign affairs takings actions in the Court of Federal Claims, and choice of court in international litigation.

New Issue: Global Society

The latest issue of Global Society (Vol. 27, no. 4, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Thomas Moore, International Relations as Juridical Life: Rethinking ‘the International’ in International Theory
• Eamon Aloyo, Democratising Transitional Justice: Transitional Trade-offs and Constituting the Demos
• Jonathan C. Agensky, Dr Livingstone, I Presume? Evangelicals, Africa and Faith-Based Humanitarianism
• Judith Renner & Alexander Spencer, De-antagonising the Other: Changing Constructions of the Taliban and the Possibility of Reconciliation
• Kristina Hahn & Anna Holzscheiter, The Ambivalence of Advocacy: Representation and Contestation in Global NGO Advocacy for Child Workers and Sex Workers
• Jonathan Grix & Donna Lee, Soft Power, Sports Mega-Events and Emerging States: The Lure of the Politics of Attraction

Karstedt: Contextualizing Mass Atrocity Crimes: Moving Toward a Relational Approach

Susanne Karstedt (Univ. of Leeds - Law) has published Contextualizing Mass Atrocity Crimes: Moving Toward a Relational Approach (Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Vol. 9, pp. 383-404, 2013). Here's the abstract:

Contemporary mass atrocities and genocides hold two general lessons: First, even in the course of these violent decades, genocides are rare events, and mass atrocities are not. Second, contemporary mass violence evolves in macro- and microcontexts that shape particular trajectories of conflict and violence. As the international community assumes responsibility for protecting victims and prosecuting perpetrators in contemporary high-risk environments, it is important to contextualize extreme violence and genocide and to understand the microrelational structure and dynamics of mass atrocity events. This article discusses two conceptual turns—atrocity crimes and extremely violent societies—and identifies three trajectories that move beyond an exceptionalist perspective on mass atrocities. Dynamic concentration of deterrence is suggested as a microrelational strategy for both protection and prosecution in contemporary humanitarian crises.

Call for Papers: International Institutions: Law and Governance

The International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for a works-in-progress workshop, to take place February 7-8, 2014, at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. The theme is "International Institutions: Law and Governance." Here's the call:

The International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law will hold a works-in-progress workshop on Friday, February 7th and Saturday, February 8th, 2014, at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at the workshop, please submit an abstract to David Gartner (David.Gartner@asu.edu), Justin Jacinto (jjacinto@curtis.com), and Julian Arato (arato.julian@gmail.com) by the end of the day on December 2. Abstracts should be a couple of paragraphs long but not more than one page. Papers should relate to the topic of international institutions and governance.

Papers selected for presentation are due no later than January 24th, as they will be pre-circulated. Papers should not yet be in print so that authors will have time to make revisions based on the comments from the workshop.

The workshop's format will be as follows. Each paper will be introduced by the commentator, after which the author will have the opportunity to respond if he or she wishes. The floor will then be opened up for discussion. The workshop will be conducted on the assumption that everyone has read all of the papers in advance. One need not present a paper or comment on a paper to participate. Registration for the workshop will open in January.

Ohlin: Co-Perpetration: German Dogmatik or German Invasion?

Jens David Ohlin (Cornell Univ. - Law) has posted Co-Perpetration: German Dogmatik or German Invasion? (in The Law and Practice of the International Criminal Court: A Critical Account of Challenges and Achievements, Carsten Stahn ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The ICC's doctrine of co-perpetration is heavily influenced by German criminal law theory. To some judges and observers, the ICC’s importation of Claus Roxin’s famous Control Theory of Perpetration is evidence that the ICC is finally getting serious about criminal law theory. To critics, though, the application of a particularly Germanic interpretation of co-perpetration is evidence that one legal culture is having an outsized influenced on the direction of the court’s jurisprudence.

In order to understand and evaluate this complaint, it is necessary to situate the current doctrines within historical context, since in many respects the ICC’s doctrine of co-perpetration is a reaction against the modes of liability applied at the ICTY and the ICTR. After providing that historical context, this Commentary will analyze the foundations of the ICC doctrine, explain and evaluate the most notable objections to it, and consider alternate versions that could be applied by the ICC in place of Roxin’s Control Theory of Perpetration. The resulting picture suggests a growing influence of criminal law theory in The Hague as judges struggle to interpret Article 25 of the Rome Statute, a provision not known for its doctrinal sophistication.

The result is a set of ICC decisions that might even lay the groundwork for an emerging international Dogmatik, a sui generis discipline that could also be described as "international criminal law theory." Despite these positive efforts, though, the court has done insufficient work to justify its methodology (in particular its substantial reliance on German sources) and to properly ground its importation of domestic criminal law theory within a general theory of sources of international law. The following Commentary will detail this emerging trend and critically evaluate the positive and negative aspects of the ICC doctrine of co-perpetration.

Steger: Staatenimmunität und Kriegsverbrechen

Ruth Steger has published Staatenimmunität und Kriegsverbrechen: Das IGH-Urteil im Verfahren Deutschland gegen Italien vom 03.02.2012 (Peter Lang 2013). Here's the abstract:

Seit den 90er Jahren brachten zahlreiche Opfer von Wehrmachtsverbrechen, die bisher keine Entschädigung erhalten haben, Schadenersatzklagen gegen die Bundesrepublik Deutschland vor den Gerichten ihres Heimatstaates ein. Am 03.02.2012 fällte der IGH das lang erwartete Urteil im Fall Jurisdictional Immunities of the State, in dem er darüber befinden musste, ob und in welchem Umfang bei solchen Klagen wegen schweren Menschenrechtsverstößen vor fremden Gerichten Staatenimmunität zu gewähren ist. Die Autorin unterzieht dieses Urteil sowie die Theorien, die in der Literatur und Rechtsprechung bzw. im Verfahren vor dem IGH herangezogen werden, um eine Immunitätsausnahme bei schweren Menschenrechtsverletzungen zu begründen, einer umfassenden Analyse und zeigt Perspektiven für ein künftiges Wiedergutmachungsrecht auf. Im Anhang des Buches sind das IGH-Urteil sowie sämtliche Sondervoten abgedruckt.

French & Rajamani: Climate Change and International Environmental Law: Musings on a Journey to Somewhere

Duncan French (Univ. of Lincoln - Law) & Lavanya Rajamani (Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi) have published Climate Change and International Environmental Law: Musings on a Journey to Somewhere (Journal of Environmental Law, Vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 437-461, November 2013.). Here's the abstract:

This article considers how far the climate change regime is an exemplar of international environmental law as well as public international law. We focus on five issues: the nature and extent of differentiation in favour of developing countries, the role of soft law, the dynamics of decision-making in multilateral negotiations, the contribution of dispute settlement, and the impact of (and assumptions underlying) scholarly offerings in this field. This article argues that the climate regime has both benefited from normative developments elsewhere as well as contributed to such developments (for instance, as regards the use and absorption of soft law within the regime). The article concludes with a reflection on legal scholarship and climate change and seeks to externalise the challenges, demands, choices and values of those who contribute to the discussion, to recognise the benefit of diversity.