New Issue: Revue Générale de Droit International Public

The latest issue of the Revue Générale de Droit International Public (Vol. 117, no. 4, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Charles-Emmanuel Côté, Les difficultés d'application du principe d'unité de l'Etat fédéral dans le droit de la responsabilité de l'Etat: retour sur le(s) livre(s) d'André Mommeja et Maurice Donot
• Charalambos Apostolidis, Le souverain, la règle, l'exception
• Aurore Laget-Annamayer & Jean-Marc Sorel, Le meccano de l'euro: les multiples contraintes d'une monnaie pas comme les autres
• Audrey Soussan, A propos de l'articulation des consentements étatiques aux conventions originaires et aux conventions d'amendement

Saul: Terrorism as a Transnational Crime

Ben Saul (Univ. of Sydney - Law) has posted Terrorism as a Transnational Crime (in Handbook of Transnational Criminal Law, N. Boister & R. Currie eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Early efforts to confront transnational terrorism through national extradition laws created a risk of impunity for egregious offenders, which eventually stimulated greater transnational criminal cooperation and prompted an attempt by the international community to standardize rules in this area. This article considers how the international community has pursued transnational criminal cooperation against terrorism through a variety of legal means: numerous 'sectoral' treaties; efforts to draft a comprehensive international treaty; regional conventions; UN Security Council measures; war crimes liabilities; and debate about an emerging international customary law crime. However, the definition and repression of terrorism involves difficult social and political judgments about who is entitled to use violence, against whom, and for what purposes. Depending on the scope of the international definition of terrorism and any exceptions to it, the criminalization of terrorism risks empowering the state – including autocratic ones – at the expense of other (legitimate) political claims to violence.

Nordquist, Moore, & Skaridov: International Energy Policy, the Arctic and the Law of the Sea

Myron H. Nordquist, John Norton Moore & Alexander S. Skaridov have published International Energy Policy, the Arctic and the Law of the Sea (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2014). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The economic health of the global economy is directly tied to international energy policies, and none are more important than those of Russia, which is now the world’s largest petroleum export nation. At the same time, oil and gas are finite resources and new sources of supply must be found. It is certain that the Arctic will be one of the areas of greatest interest. Wherever the energy resource originates, the law of the sea regime will be critical in the movement from source to market. Thus, this book on International Energy Policy, the Arctic and the Law of the Sea is especially timely. The content is based on presentations made in St. Petersburg, Russia in June, 2004. The perspectives of Russia, China and the United States are discussed in depth by some of the world’s foremost authorities. The special significance of the Caspian Sea routes for export and the consequences of the opening of a Northwest Passage due to global warming are among the unique issues covered in this volume.

Verdirame: Rescuing Human Rights from Proportionality

Guglielmo Verdirame (King's College London – Law) has posted Rescuing Human Rights from Proportionality (in Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, Cruft, Liao, Renzo eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The principle of proportionality has enjoyed extraordinary success over the last decades: it has become a staple of international and constitutional adjudication on fundamental rights; it has been espoused by civil and common law judges alike, and described as the “principle of principles” and the “ultimate rule of law”. But what does proportionality mean for the idea of human rights? Can it be based on anything other than a utilitarian conception of rights?

Conference: Shifting Centres of Gravity in European Human Rights Protection

On March 6-7, 2014, the University of Iceland Human Rights Institute will hold a conference on “Shifting Centres of Gravity in European Human Rights Protection,” in Reykjavík. The program is here. Here's the idea:

The protection of human rights in Europe is at crossroads. The European Union (EU) is increasingly prioritising fundamental rights, for example by giving the Charter of Fundamental Rights the status of primary law and through the treaty-based obligation of accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Accession, once it takes place, expands the mandate of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and is likely to bring about fundamental structural changes to the system of human rights protection in Europe, as decisions of the ECtHR will be binding on the EU and its courts. However, pulling in a somewhat different direction than developments in EU law, the political momentum for bringing the responsibility for the protection of ECHR rights ‘home’ to the member states has been growing ever stronger. This repositioning of the centre of gravity of human rights protection is beginning to take shape in two new Protocols to the ECHR, which emphasise the principle of subsidiarity and the margin of appreciation enjoyed by the member states (Protocol No. 15), and introduce a preliminary reference procedure under the ECHR (Protocol No. 16). Finally, and in light of the crisis created by the overwhelming case-load of the ECtHR, the Brighton Declaration of 2010 has put the long-term review of the Court’s fundamental nature and role on the agenda before the end of 2019. Overall, therefore, the future of human rights in Europe faces major structural changes which could have significant consequences for access to justice and the quality of protection provided to victims of human rights violations.

This conference will explore these themes from the perspective that current developments call for a critical assessment of classical approaches to the three-dimensional relationship between the ECHR, EU law and national law; of the theories and tools utilised to navigate this relationship; and of the effects current developments may have on victims and vulnerable groups.

New Volume: Spanish Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Spanish Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 17, 2011-2012) is out. Contents include:

• Yolanda Gamarra Chopo, History of the Historiography of Spanish Textbooks and Treatises on International Law of the 19th Century
• Victor L. Gutierrez Castillo & Juan J. Garcia Blesa, The Environmental Protection Regimes Governing Maritime Renewable Energies in the EU and Their Implementation in the Marine and Coastal Areas of the South of Spain
• Francesco Seatzu, Civil Society Participation in the Interamerican Development Bank’s Activities and Operations: Enhancing Democratic Accountability?
• Marta Sosa Navarro, A Hybrid Strategy to Prosecute the Waging of War

Whytock: Foreign State Immunity and the Right to Court Access

Christopher A. Whytock (Univ. of California, Irvine - Law) has posted Foreign State Immunity and the Right to Court Access (Boston University Law Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article explores the tension between the foreign state immunity doctrine and the right to court access and it proposes a strategy for mitigating that tension. Part I explains the origins, evolution, and justifications of the foreign state immunity doctrine, according to which states are generally immune from suit in other states’ courts.

Part II traces the more recent emergence of the right to court access, according to which a person is entitled to a hearing by an independent court for the determination of a legal claim. The right to court access, whether or not it has become a legally binding rule of international law, is widely accepted and increasingly legalized. Therefore, one important criterion for normative evaluation of the foreign state immunity doctrine is its impact on court access.

Part III uses a combination of doctrinal and empirical analysis to elucidate the tension between these two doctrines. This part shows that beyond the truism that the foreign state immunity doctrine can deny court access in the forum state regardless of the merits, it can also preclude court access in third states, even when there would be no court access in the foreign state. It then uses statistical analysis of an original dataset of more than 350 foreign state immunity decisions by U.S. district court judges to shed light on how the court access consequences of the foreign state immunity doctrine play out in real-world litigation. U.S. district courts frequently deny court access on foreign state immunity grounds; both foreign nationals and U.S. nationals, and both individuals and businesses, are affected; and the likelihood of meaningful court access in the foreign state is often low when court access is denied in the United States.

Part IV argues that so far international and regional courts have done more to exacerbate than to mitigate the tension between the foreign state immunity doctrine and the right to court access. It therefore develops a strategy for mitigating the impact of the foreign state immunity doctrine on court access — one that takes seriously both the underlying functions of foreign state immunity and the importance of court access.

Conference: Preferential Trade Agreements and World Economic Order

On March 6-8, 2014, the International Economic Law Interest Group of the European Society of International Law and the Institut für Völkerrecht und Europarecht at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen will co-host a conference on "Preferential Trade Agreements and World Economic Order," in Göttingen. The program is here. Here's the idea:

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as well as the Canadian-European Trade Agreement (CETA) are just the more prominent examples of a more general tendency to establish preferential trade agreements. Prospects, challenges and concerns of these agreements as well as their potential impact on the international economic order and on the World Trade Organization in particular will be discussed at an international conference, which is convened jointly by the interest group on international economic law of the European Society of International Law and the Institute for International Law and European Law – which organizes the event.

Busche & Schubbe: Die Humanitäre Intervention in der ethischen Beurteilung

Hubertus Busche (FernUniversität in Hagen - Philosophy) & Daniel Schubbe (FernUniversität in Hagen - Philosophy) have published Die Humanitäre Intervention in der ethischen Beurteilung (Mohr Siebeck 2013). Here's the abstract:

Angesichts der jüngsten Geschichte von Ländern, in denen schwerwiegende und umfassende Menschenrechtsverletzungen gegen die eigene Bevölkerung begangen wurden und werden, bleibt die Frage nach dem Sinn und der möglichen Legitimität sogenannter Humanitärer Interventionen von brennender Aktualität. Darf die Staatengemeinschaft, um durch Regierungsgewalt hervorgerufenes verheerendes Leid zu beenden, ihrerseits Gewalt gegen einen souveränen Staat anwenden? Und darf sie das möglicherweise sogar dann, wenn sie kein UN-Mandat hierfür besitzt? Der vorliegende Band wirft diese und benachbarte Fragen systematisch auf und sucht Antworten. Im Unterschied zu den weitreichenden politischen Diskussionen um Nutzen und Nachteil der humanitären Intervention sowie zu den zahlreichen völkerrechtlichen Beurteilungen ihrer Legitimität versammelt er Stellungnahmen renommierter Experten, in denen eine weitgehend ethische Beurteilung der humanitären Intervention versucht wird. Missbrauchs- und Fehlschlagsrisiken werden ebenso mitreflektiert wie die Dilemmata der Humanitären Intervention zwischen Politik, Völkerrecht und Ethik. Mit Beiträgen von: Lothar Brock, Hubertus Busche, Michael Haspel, Christoph Conrad Henke, Otfried Höffe, Sabine Jaberg, Skadi Krause, Wolfgang Lienemann, Jean-Christophe Merle, Peter Schaber, Bernhard Sutor, Véronique Zanetti

Wolf: The Caroline Case: Von der Aktualität eines verkannten locus classicus

Julia Wolf has published The Caroline Case: Von der Aktualität eines verkannten locus classicus (Nomos 2014). Here's the abstract:

Websters berühmt gewordene Formel und der ihr zugrundeliegende Fall Caroline (1837) erfahren in Staatenpraxis und Völkerrechtswissenschaft eine doppelte Fehlinterpretation. Zum Nachweis dieser These arbeitet die Autorin zunächst den historisch bisher kaum beachteten Sachverhalt nebst seiner Vorgeschichte auf. Der Analyse des Notenwechsels zwischen den USA und Großbritannien (1837-1842) nimmt sich diese Arbeit ebenso an wie einer Auswertung der Rezeption des Falles in den Werken des klassischen Völkerrechts.

Mit einer Neuinterpretation zeigt die Autorin schließlich die wahre Aktualität des Falles auf sowie die aus ihm abzuleitende Rechtsregel für eine 1837 wie heute umstrittene Fragestellung des Völkerrechts.

Kemmerer: Towards a Global History of International Law? Editor's Note to a Review Symposium

Alexandra Kemmerer (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) has posted Towards a Global History of International Law? A Review Symposium on Bardo Faßbender, Anne Peters (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (2012), Editor's Note (European Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In the fall of 2012, Oxford University Press announced the publication of ‘The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law,’ edited by Bardo Faßbender and Anne Peters. Not only was there the promise that the volume would provide ‘an authoritative and original overview of the origins, concepts, and core issues of international law’, the publisher also stressed the editors’ ‘global and interdisciplinary approach’.

Five authors were invited to submit their reflections on the pathbreaking volume. Three of them are international lawyers, one also a scholar of Islamic law, and two are historians with particular expertise on Russia and Egypt, respectively. In their work, they employ methods and tools from anthropology, sociology, political science – and yet the focus lies still with law and history. All contributions address the editors’ explicit intention to ‘overcome Eurocentrism’ – and all of them are rather skeptical about that claim not being merely a symbolic gesture, with strong traces of Eurocentrism still prevalent in the book. Their critical assessments are, however, not repetitive. Each contribution responds to the challenges of material and epistemic Eurocentrism from a distinct position and perspective, shaped by the author’s disciplinary background and regional expertise. The contributors share an explicit and reflexive positionality and situatedness that might be a necessary starting point for any future endeavor to research and write global histories of international law.

Howse, Langille, & Sykes: Animal Welfare, Public Morals and Trade: the WTO Panel Report in EC – Seal Products

Rob Howse (New York Univ. - Law), Joanna Langille (Univ. of Toronto - Law), & Katie Sykes (Thompson Rivers Univ. - Law) have posted an ASIL Insight on Animal Welfare, Public Morals and Trade: the WTO Panel Report in EC – Seal Products.

Job Opening: Nottingham - Human Rights Law Centre (Research Associate/Fellow)

The Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham School of Law is accepting applications for the position of Research Associate/Fellow (Fixed term). The announcement is here.

Trachtman: International Legal Control of Domestic Administrative Action

Joel P. Trachtman (Tufts Univ. - The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) has posted International Legal Control of Domestic Administrative Action. Here's the abstract:

International law increasingly is designed to constrain the regulatory activities of countries where these activities have external effects on other countries. While countries retain the right to regulate, it is a qualified right, with a number of restrictions under international trade, investment, finance, human rights, and other areas of international law. The restrictions are often nuanced: while maintaining maximum policy autonomy, countries agree to international legal rules that establish increasingly complex preconditions for national regulatory action. In some cases, preconditions are formulated so as to establish procedural predicates for national action. These varying types of preconditions are often designed to be met through determinations and procedures of domestic administrative agencies, and so they form a particular variety of global administrative law: they are means by which international law harnesses and guides national administrative decision-making in order to take into account the concerns of foreign countries. This article develops a framework for evaluation of the choice among alternative methods by which the regulatory activities of countries are constrained, and examines how these methods are used in several important examples of international legal control of domestic administrative processes.

New Issue: International & Comparative Law Quarterly

The latest issue of the International & Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 63, no. 1, January 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Elizabeth B Crawford & Janeen M Carruthers, Connection and Coherence Between and Among European Instruments in the Private International Law of Obligations
• Veronika Bílková, Belligerent Reprisals in Non-International Armed Conflicts
• Nicholas Doyle, The ASEAN Human Rights Declaration and the Implications of Recent Southeast Asian Initiatives in Human Rights Institution-Building and Standard-Setting
• Jack Wass, The Court’s In Personam Jurisdiction in Cases Involving Foreign Land
• Yoshiko Naiki, The Dynamics of Private Food Safety Standards: A Case Study on the Regulatory Diffusion of Globalg.A.P.
• Marek Szydło, Constitutional Values Underlying Gender Equality on the Boards of Companies: How Should the EU Put These Values into Practice?
• Shorter Articles and Notes
• David Kenny, Re Flightlease: The ‘Real and Substantial Connection’ Test for Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Fails to Take Flight in Ireland
• Julie Maher, Eweida and Others: A New Era for Article 9?

ASIL Event: "Careers in International Organizations"

Later today, January 29, 2014, the American Society of International Law will host a program on "Careers in International Organizations." It will be live streamed here. Here's the idea:

Working at an international organization offers unique insight into how international law is made through the convergence of national interests, personal dynamics, global realities, and constantly evolving norms. But how does a lawyer enter these labyrinths? What is it like to work in them? How do you get the assignments that advance your career once inside? And where do you go from there? Panelists at this event sponsored by ASIL's New Professionals Interest Group will share the perspectives they have gained from the United Nations, the World Bank, the Organization of American States, and other international organizations, answering these questions and ones posed by the audience.

Schofield, Lee, & Kwon: The Limits of Maritime Jurisdiction

Clive Schofield (Univ. of Wollongong), Seokwoo Lee (Inha Univ.), & Moon-Sang Kwon (Kyunghee Univ.) have published The Limits of Maritime Jurisdiction (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2013). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The Limits of Maritime Jurisdiction, edited by Clive Schofield, Seokwoo Lee, and Moon-Sang Kwon, comprises 36 chapters by leading oceans scholars and practitioners devoted to both the definition of maritime limits and boundaries spatially and the limits of jurisdictional rights within claimed maritime zones. Contributions address conflicting maritime claims and boundary disputes, access to valuable marine resources, protecting the marine environment, maritime security and combating piracy, concerns over expanding activities and jurisdiction in Polar waters and the impact of climate change on the oceans, including the potential impact of sea level rise on the scope of claims to maritime zones. The volume therefore offers critical analysis on a range of important and frequently increasingly pressing contemporary law of the sea issues.

New Issue: Review of International Studies

The latest issue of the Review of International Studies (Vol. 40, no. 1, January 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Josef Teboho Ansorge & Tarak Barkawi, Utile forms: power and knowledge in small war
• Pascal Vennesson, War under transnational surveillance: framing ambiguity and the politics of shame
• Seth Lazar, Necessity and non-combatant immunity
• Daniel R. Brunstetter, Trends in just war thinking during the US presidential debates 2000–12: genocide prevention and the renewed salience of last resort
• Megan Bradley, Rethinking refugeehood: statelessness, repatriation, and refugee agency
• Tudor A. Onea, Between dominance and decline: status anxiety and great power rivalry
• Inanna Hamati-Ataya, Transcending objectivism, subjectivism, and the knowledge in-between: the subject in/of ‘strong reflexivity’
• Hayley Stevenson, Representing Green Radicalism: the limits of state-based representation in global climate governance

Trachtman: The Economic Structure of the Law of International Organizations

Joel P. Trachtman (Tufts Univ. - The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) has posted The Economic Structure of the Law of International Organizations. Here's the abstract:

The essence of an international organization is the delegation of decision-making authority from individual states to the organization, which represents the collectivity of member states. The focus of this article is on the formal structure and function of international organizations, as distinct from international law per se. This article evaluates the reasons for creation of international organizations, as well as the reasons why particular structures of international organizations are utilized. It evaluates the relationship among assignment of subject matter authority, legislative capacity, adjudicative capacity, enforcement capacity, and membership. It examines how these features correspond to particular contexts of international cooperation.

Posner & Sykes: Voting Rules in International Organizations

Eric A. Posner (Univ. of Chicago - Law) & Alan O. Sykes (New York Univ. - Law) have posted Voting Rules in International Organizations. Here's the abstract:

International organizations use a bewildering variety of voting rules — with different thresholds, weighting systems, veto points, and other rules that distribute influence unequally among participants. We provide a brief survey of the major voting systems, and show that all are controversial and unsatisfactory in various ways. While it is tempting to blame great powers or the weakness of international law for these problems, we argue that the root source is intellectual rather than political — the difficulty of designing a voting system that both allows efficient collective decisions and protects the legitimate interests of members. We show how a new type of voting system — quadratic voting — could in theory resolve these problems, and while it may be too new or unusual to implement any time soon, it provides insights into the defects of the existing systems.

Conference: Debating "Transitional Cosmopolitanism" through Courts

On March 3-4, 2014, PluriCourts-Centre for the Study of the Legitimate Roles of the Judiciary in the Global Order at the University of Oslo Faculty of Law will host a conference on "Debating 'Transitional Cosmopolitanism' through Courts." The program is here. Here's the idea:

During the last decades, cosmopolitan justice has become one of the major fields of multidisciplinary research. Mostly starting from various reinterpretations of Kant’s Perpetual Peace, theories about cosmopolitan justice have emphasized either the relevance of centralized agencies, or have combined – alternatively – nation-state approaches showing a ‘universalist’ scope. Issues concerning the advancement of a cosmopolitan condition have also involved the role of the global civil society, civil disobedience and social activists and so on. Yet, little weight has been given to the assessment of the role of courts, either at the local or at the international level in the promotion of a "cosmopolitan law". This flaw may reflect a deep scholarly divergence in understanding the multi-faced aspects of post-national law, either regional (i.e. EU), international or – still in progress – cosmopolitan. Particularly in this latter case, the ever growing influence of international courts in adjudicating individual and state behaviors (as in the case of the ICJ and the ICC) requires the clarification of what is the philosophical and legal significance, if any, of cosmopolitan law.

One approach could be that of actualizing the Kantian idea of cosmopolitan law as the "right to hospitality" and to evaluate how this claim has been incorporated, for instance, in the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees as a principle of non-refoulement (United Nations, 1951). What is implied by the principle is that refugees and asylum seekers should not be repatriated when there is a danger to their lives and freedom. On this reading it can appear as if a definition of transitional cosmopolitan law must be capable of intersecting transitionality and cosmopolitanism along formal and substantive lines. Or, to be more specific, transitional cosmopolitan law should exhibit both backward and forward-looking conditions, that is, expanded notions of retributive and restorative functions and thus expand the scope of relevant transitions along a multi-level order. Moreover, it must show the "transformative" function of transitional justice law as oriented towards the construction of a unified world legal community through the action of courts. One very effective example of both this forward-looking transformative orientation towards a legally defined (regional) community is the function played by ECtHR judgments in transitional post-communist states.

In view of the above considerations, the primary goal of the conference will be not only to present a general framework through which to present the idea of "transitional cosmopolitanism", but also to analyze the role of Courts in the advancement of the cosmopolitan progression.

Some of the key questions that the conference will address are:

• How can cosmopolitan law be defined?
• How can it be said to play a "transitional" function?
• Can we draw from key components of transitional justice law in order to define the properties of a transitional cosmopolitan law?
• How respectively human rights courts and criminal courts address the problem?

Resulting from the involvement of academics and judges, the foreseen outcome will be of a truly interdisciplinary discussion targeting philosophical, legal and applied/case studies.

New Issue: Leiden Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (Vol. 27, no. 1, March 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Carsten Stahn & Eric de Brabandere, The Future of International Legal Scholarship: Some Thoughts on ‘Practice’, ‘Growth’, and ‘Dissemination’
• International Legal Theory
• Joe Wills, The World Turned Upside Down? Neo-Liberalism, Socioeconomic Rights, and Hegemony
• International Law and Practice
• Zachos A. Paliouras, The Non-Appropriation Principle: The Grundnorm of International Space Law
• Cliff Farhang, The Notion of Consent in Part One of the Draft Articles on State Responsibility
• Helmut Philipp Aust, Alejandro Rodiles & Peter Staubach, Unity or Uniformity? Domestic Courts and Treaty Interpretation
• Liu Ying, The Applicability of Environmental Protection Exceptions to WTO-Plus Obligations: In View of the China – Raw Materials and China – Rare Earths Cases
• Emily Hay, International(ized) Constitutions and Peacebuilding
• Alessandra Pietrobon, Nuclear Powers' Disarmament Obligation under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: Interactions between Soft Law and Hard Law
• Hague International Tribunals: International Criminal Courts and Tribunals: Symposium: Expertise, Uncertainty, and International Law (Part 2)
  • John Jackson & Yassin M'Boge, Integrating a Socio-Legal Approach to Evidence in the International Criminal Tribunals (Part 2)
  • Robert Cryer, Witness Tampering and International Criminal Tribunals
  • Caroline Buisman, The Prosecutor's Obligation to Investigate Incriminating and Exonerating Circumstances Equally: Illusion or Reality?
  • Sarah M.H. Nouwen, ‘As You Set out for Ithaka’: Practical, Epistemological, Ethical, and Existential Questions about Socio-Legal Empirical Research in Conflict

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 68, no. 1, Winter 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Alexandre Debs & Nuno P. Monteiro, Known Unknowns: Power Shifts, Uncertainty, and War
• John S. Ahlquist, Amanda B. Clayton & Margaret Levi, Provoking Preferences: Unionization, Trade Policy, and the ILWU Puzzle
• Laurence R. Helfer & Erik Voeten, International Courts as Agents of Legal Change: Evidence from LGBT Rights in Europe
• T. Camber Warren, Not by the Sword Alone: Soft Power, Mass Media, and the Production of State Sovereignty
• Rebecca Adler-Nissen, Stigma Management in International Relations: Transgressive Identities, Norms, and Order in International Society
• Tana Johnson & Johannes Urpelainen, International Bureaucrats and the Formation of Intergovernmental Organizations: Institutional Design Discretion Sweetens the Pot
• Research Notes
• Eric Neumayer, Thomas Plümper & Mariaelisa Epifanio, The “Peer-Effect” in Counterterrorist Policies
• Stephen Chaudoin, Promises or Policies? An Experimental Analysis of International Agreements and Audience Reactions

Giesen: Private Military Companies im Völkerrecht

Stefan Giesen has published Private Military Companies im Völkerrecht (Nomos 2014). Here's the abstract:

Private Military Companies (PMCs) sind privatrechtlich organisierte Unternehmen, die im Umfeld von Konflikten tätig sind. Obwohl sich seit jeher Private an Konflikten beteiligen, ist die Beteiligung von Privatunternehmen in der Moderne ein junges Phänomen, mit dem sich Völkerrechtler erst seit wenigen Jahren befassen. Die Beteiligung von PMCs an Konflikten begründet viele neue Probleme und Herausforderungen, zum Beispiel im humanitären Völkerrecht, bei der Zurechnung und Haftung oder völkerrechtlichen Pflichten der Unternehmen selbst. Der Autor untersucht diese Fragen ausgehend von einer historischen Einordnung der PMCs und eingebettet in den Wandel der internationalen Verhältnisse. Er analysiert, welche Lösungen das bestehende Völkerrecht bietet und wo Ergänzungsbedarf besteht.

Call for Submissions: Transnational Legal Theory Symposium on Transnational Criminal Law

Transnational Legal Theory has issued a call for submissions for a special issue on "Transnational Criminal Law." Here's the call:

Transnational Legal Theory

Call for Papers Spring 2014:

A Symposium on Transnational Criminal Law

Transnational Legal Theory publishes high-quality theoretical scholarship that addresses transnational dimensions of law and legal dimensions of transnational fields, regulatory regimes and evolving normative-institutional arenas.

The journal is currently accepting submissions for a special symposium issue that addresses the potential and substance of Transnational Criminal Law (TCL), an evolving and still largely under-explored field of law. TCL is at the intersection of domestic, international and comparative criminal law and reaches deep into contemporary debates over conceptions of crime and illegality, social values and regulatory politics.

Submissions to the symposium may approach the topic from any number of angles, including (but not limited to):

• Theory and Definition
• What is transnational criminal law?
• What are the implications or added value of transnational criminal law to domestic criminal law?
• Actors and Participants
• Who benefits from regimes of transnational criminal law? Who is disadvantaged?
• Who has agency to define and shape transnational criminal law?
• How does culture inform the development or acceptance of transnational criminal law?
• Existing and Emerging Regulatory Regimes
• What issues arise related to legitimacy of such regimes?
• What problems would arise in the application of transnationalized criminal law with regards to, for example, effectiveness or enforcement?
• What trends are emerging in the politics of criminalization/decriminalization?
• Outlook and Prospects
• How do we address and resolve such issues?
• What will transnational criminal law regimes change over the next few years? Over the next decade?

We are inviting abstracts and/or full paper submissions for anonymous peer review. Abstracts outlining the direction of the planned submission are invited by Monday 17 February 2014 and final papers are due by Monday 28 April 2014. Abstracts and/or submissions as well as any inquiries should be directed to tlteditorial@hartpub.co.uk or PZumbansen@osgoode.yorku.ca.

New Issue: Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Institutions

The latest issue of Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Institutions (Vol. 20, no. 1, January-March 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Ramesh Thakur, Brian Job, Mónica Serrano, & Diana Tussie, The Next Phase in the Consolidation and Expansion of Global Governance
• The Global Forum
• John Gerard Ruggie, Global Governance and “New Governance Theory”: Lessons From Business and Human Rights
• Articles
• Thomas G. Weiss & Rorden Wilkinson, Global Governance to the Rescue: Saving International Relations?
• Kirsten Haack, Breaking Barriers? Women’s Representation and Leadership at the United Nations
• Phil Orchard, Revisiting Humanitarian Safe Areas for Civilian Protection
• Joel E. Oestreich, The United Nations and the Rights-based Approach to Development in India
• Thierry Tardy, Hybrid Peace Operations: Rationale and Challenges
• José Octavio Velázquez Gomar, Lindsay C. Stringer, & Jouni Paavola, Regime Complexes and National Policy Coherence: Experiences in the Biodiversity Cluster
• Blanca Torres Ramírez, Mexico and Climate Change: Was the Country a Multilateral Leader?

Cogan: Review of Bardo Fassbender and Anne Peters eds., The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law

ILR's editor Jacob Katz Cogan (Univ. of Cincinnati - Law) has posted Review of Bardo Fassbender and Anne Peters eds., The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law (American Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This is a brief review of The Oxford Handbook of the History of International Law, edited by Bardo Fassbender and Anne Peters (2012). In this volume, the editors explicitly seek to map a path "towards a global history of international law." By any measure, the book is a substantial achievement, and it will be widely and rewardingly consulted for many years to come. Yet even with all the knowledge assembled in its thousand-plus pages, the Handbook is unable to accomplish in full what it set out to achieve.

New Blog: AJIL Unbound

The American Journal of International Law has inaugurated its new blog - AJIL Unbound. Here's the first post:

The American Journal of International Law is pleased to introduce this experimental edition of AJIL Unbound. In this edition, we include the contributions emerging from the AJIL’s open Agora requesting short reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. It includes submissions that appear in the October 2013 issue of AJIL, Agora: Reflections on Kiobel, as well as a number of contributions that appear for the first time on the web. We hope to formally launch AJIL Unbound as an exciting new online publication and blog that will feature web-exclusive essays, symposia, and timely commentary on the latest developments in international law.

We seek readers’ input on what they would most like to see in AJIL Unbound. We hope that AJIL Unbound will enrich international law scholarship in at least three important ways:

1) Fostering debate and discussion;

2) Providing key source material such as images, court documents, and maps; and

3) Bringing you even more scholarly content that is both immediate and relevant.

The publication of the inaugural edition AJIL Unbound presents an opportunity to hear from you, our readers. Over the course of the next week, this blog will host its first virtual symposium: a series of thought-provoking blog posts from contributors to this most recent Agora. We also welcome readers’ suggestions of what they want to see in future editions of AJIL Unbound. Kindly send these suggestions to the editors in chief of AJIL at AJILUnbound@asil.org.

Be sure to bookmark AJIL Unbound, and stay tuned tomorrow for a blog entry by Anupam Chander!

Vacancy: Editor-in-Chief of The Military Law and the Law of War Review

The Military Law and the Law of War Review / Revue de Droit Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre is looking for a new editor-in-chief. Here's the announcement:

Vacancy

The Military Law and the Law of War Review / Revue de Droit Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre is looking for a new editor-in-chief.

Candidates should have a solid practical and/or academic background in the areas of law covered by the Review (military law, the law of war and other areas of law relevant to military lawyers), a good network of contacts with experts in these fields, the necessary academic skills (preferably prior experience as an editor or member of an editorial board) and the required language proficiency (very good English and preferably some knowledge of French, German, Spanish, Italian or Dutch).

The editor-in-chief is responsible for guiding work on the Review and steering its further development, in collaboration with the Review’s editorial board and with the support of the editorial assistants, its secretariat, and its other collaborators. This includes making proposals for topics to be covered (notably recent developments and any thematic issues or ‘agora’), approaching potential authors and following-up on promised contributions, organising the peer review process and taking final decisions on accepting submissions, doing some editing, and taking initiatives to promote the further dissemination and development of the Review. Further information can be obtained from the current editor-in-chief via brussels@ismllw.org.

The appointment will be for an initial period of one year, which may be extended thereafter. The post is non-renumerated but offers a rewarding academic experience and an opportunity for interesting contacts with many experts in the field as well as privileged participation in the activities of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War.

Persons interested in filling this position should send their application to the Review’s secretariat at brussels@ismllw.org by 28 February 2014.

About the Military Law and the Law of War Review

Founded in 1962 under the auspices of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War (the “Society”), the Military Law and the Law of War Review / Revue de Droit Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre (the “Review”) ranks among the oldest and well established publications at the international level in the area of military law, the law of war and security law. Initially entitled Revue de Droit Pénal Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre / Military Law and the Law of War Review, it changed to its current name in 1989. It is published by the Belgian Centre for Military Law and the Law of War, with the support of the Belgian Ministry of Defence.

The Review aims to serve as a leading forum for debate among legal practitioners (especially military and civilian legal advisors as well as military magistrates) and scholars on various aspects of military law and the law of war (both the ius ad bellum and ius in bello) and other issues relevant to military lawyers. It features articles, case notes, commentaries on recent legal developments, as well as book reviews. This mix of theory and practice is one of the hallmarks of the Review and aims to ensure a pragmatic and sound approach to the analysis of legal issues and a wide coverage of the key legal developments related to the military. Accordingly, the Review’s Editorial Board is composed of both practitioners, most of whom also have a solid academic background, and scholars having a sound grasp of the practical dimension of their field of study (see the Review’s website for the current composition of the editorial board).

As a distinct trait, the Review accepts contributions in six languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. All manuscripts are subject to a peer review process.

New Issue: Global Responsibility to Protect

The latest issue of Global Responsibility to Protect (Vol. 5, no. 4, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: R2P and International Theory
• Jennifer M. Welsh, Norm Contestation and the Responsibility to Protect
• Grant Marlier & Neta C. Crawford, Incomplete and Imperfect Institutionalisation of Empathy and Altruism in the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ Doctrine
• Chris Brown, The Antipolitical Theory of Responsibility to Protect
• Tim Dunne, Distributing Duties and Counting Costs
• Amitav Acharya, The R2P and Norm Diffusion: Towards A Framework of Norm Circulation