Responding to the historically unprecedented proliferation of international criminal tribunals during the last two decades, scholars have engaged in a rich debate about the normative foundations of international criminal law (“ICL”). The retributive theory of punishment — which justifies punishment based on the culpability of the accused, rather than by reference its social benefits — has met with widespread skepticism in these discussions. Some have argued that unique features of international criminal justice — for example, the extreme selectivity of punishment or the lack of certain social or political preconditions — are a poor match for retributive theory. Others have ignored retributivism altogether, or afforded the theory only passing mention.
This Article counters the anti-retributivism strain by arguing that retributivism can indeed provide a meaningful framework for understanding ICL. First, I argue that in most respects retributive theory is no less plausible in the international setting than it is in the domestic setting. Understanding what claims retributive thinking might have upon ICL requires one to distinguish claims regarding the general justification required to defend punishment as a social practice — the core concern of retributivist theory — from the more specific questions of institutional design — such as whether and when to create an international criminal tribunal, and how to set enforcement priorities — that are most pertinent to ICL scholars I argue that, once these distinctions are sorted out, the anti-retributivist strain in ICL scholarship does little to engage retributivism’s core claim that desert is necessary to morally justified punishment and provides an inherently good (if not exclusive) reason to punish irrespective of potential social benefits.
I also argue that retributivism is more compatible than commonly supposed with current thinking about international criminal justice. The theory permits various models for engaging the compromises of real world institutions. It provides a powerful lens for understanding the design of ICL institutions such as the International Criminal Court (“ICC”), and is also compatible with dominant approaches to institutional decisions such as case selection and sentencing. Perhaps counter intuitively, retributivism can also supply a framework for sometimes favoring alternatives to the traditional criminal prosecutions pursued by international courts, or even for opposing ICL altogether.
Finally, I argue that choice of punishment philosophy has less practical significance for ICL than theorists often assume. In particular, I argue that the choice between retributivism and other competing theories does little to resolve important policy dilemmas dividing theorists of ICL, including whether prosecution should sometimes be abandoned for amnesty or other alternatives. This point supports a broader argument that ICL is simultaneously over-determined and underdetermined by traditional punishment theory: While the core of ICL is consistent with multiple theories of punishment, these theories provide only limited practical guidance on the most divisive questions.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Greenawalt: International Criminal Law for Retributivists
Friday, March 21, 2014
Wyler & Castellanos-Jankiewicz: Serious Breaches of Peremptory Norms
The contribution considers the extent to which the aggravated regime of international responsibility accommodates the scenario of several entities involved in the commission of serious breaches of peremptory norms. We explore this question by examining issues of shared responsibility in light of structural, substantive, and procedural aspects of serious breaches.
Clarke: Public-Private Partnerships and Responsibility under International Law: A Global Health Perspective
Partnerships between the public and private sectors are an increasingly accepted method to deal with pressing global issues, such as those relating to health. Partnerships, comprised of states and international organizations (public sector) and companies, non-governmental organizations, research institutes and philanthropic foundations (private sector), are forming to respond to pressing global health issues. These partnerships are managing activities that are normally regarded to be within the domain of states and international organizations, such as providing access to preventative and treatment measures for certain diseases or improving health infrastructure within certain states to better manage the growing risk of disease. While public-private partnerships may often prove successful, questions remain as to their international legal responsibility and accountability.
This book explores the issue of responsibility under international law in the context of global health public-private partnerships. By analysing their legal status of global health under international law, Lisa Clarke asks whether public-private partnerships have legal personality, and should be subject to rules of responsibility under international law. The book explores responsibility for the acts of partnerships under international law both in terms of partnerships themselves and the partners and/or partnership hosts. The book also considers the possibility of holding global health public-private partnerships responsible in domestic legal systems, and evaluates immunities some partnerships possess from the jurisdiction of domestic courts in certain states.
Riedel, Giacca, & Golay: Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law: Contemporary Issues and Challenges
Recent years have seen an expansion in the scale and importance of economic, social, and cultural rights within international law. This has led to the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in December 2008, giving individuals and groups the ability to bring complaints about violations of these rights before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In this context, this book assesses how effective efforts have been to realise international ESC rights, investigating the contemporary challenges obstructing their protection. It investigates the impact of the global financial crisis, the need for ESC rights to be implemented in a non-discriminatory manner, and the interrelationship between ESC rights and other international legal regimes. It provides a careful analysis of the new tools and indicators available to measure the progressive realisation of ESC rights.
This book clarifies and illuminate the multiple aspects of the law governing ESC rights, by bringing together all the different aspects of ESC rights, re-stating the challenges they face, and assessing the progress that has been made in expanding their adoption. After an introduction by the editors on ESC rights and the contemporary issues in their realization, the book contains over twenty essays on the main issues related to the progressive realization of ESC rights and their monitoring mechanisms. The authors of the chapters, both scholars and practitioners, take an interdisciplinary approach to move beyond the traditional analysis of ESC rights, contextualizing their discussions against wider contemporary international law challenges. In reflecting this diversity of perspectives, the book sheds light on the new methodologies for implementation and the many obstacles faced by the realization of ESC rights. It is invaluable reading for scholars, students, practitioners, and NGOs working with or studying ESC rights.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Tarsis & Varner: Reviewing the Agudas Chasidei Chabad v. Russian Federation, et al. Dispute
New Issue: Ethics & International Affairs
The latest issue of Ethics & International Affairs (Vol. 28, no. 1, Spring 2014) is out. Contents include:- Policy Brief
- Michael W. Doyle & Joseph E. Stiglitz, Eliminating Extreme Inequality: A Sustainable Development Goal, 2015–2030
- Essays
- Amartya Sen, The Contemporary Relevance of Buddha
- George R. Lucas, Jr., NSA Management Directive #424: Secrecy and Privacy in the Aftermath of Edward Snowden
- Roundtable: The International Rule of Law
- Ian Hurd, The International Rule of Law: Law and the Limit of Politics
- David Dyzenhaus, Hobbes on the International Rule of Law
- Christian Reus-Smit, International Law and the Mediation of Culture
- Rosa Brooks, Drones and the International Rule of Law
- Ruti Teitel, Kosovo to Kadi: Legality and Legitimacy in the Contemporary International Order
- Feature
- Toni Erskine, Coalitions of the Willing and Responsibilities to Protect: Informal Associations, Enhanced Capacities, and Shared Moral Burdens
New Issue: International Studies Quarterly
The latest issue of the International Studies Quarterly (Vol. 58, no. 1, March 2014) is out. Contents include:- Regimes and International Agreements
- Lauge N. Skovgaard Poulsen, Bounded Rationality and the Diffusion of Modern Investment Treaties
- Alexander Thompson & Daniel Verdier, Multilateralism, Bilateralism, and Regime Design
- Leonardo Baccini & Johannes Urpelainen, Before Ratification: Understanding the Timing of International Treaty Effects on Domestic Policies
- Heather Elko McKibben & Shaina D. Western, Levels of Linkage: Across-Agreement versus Within-Agreement Explanations of Consensus Formation among States
- Non-State Actors
- Bryan R. Early, Exploring the Final Frontier: An Empirical Analysis of Global Civil Space Proliferation
- Lori Poloni-Staudinger & Candice Ortbals, The Domestic Determinants of Transnational Activity: An Examination of Women's Groups in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany
- Trade and Globalization
- Mark S. Manger & Kenneth C. Shadlen, Political Trade Dependence and North–South Trade Agreements
- Wonjae Hwang & Hoon Lee, Globalization, Factor Mobility, Partisanship, and Compensation Policies
- Raymond Hicks, Helen V. Milner & Dustin Tingley, Trade Policy, Economic Interests, and Party Politics in a Developing Country: The Political Economy of CAFTA-DR
- Democratic Peace
- Johann Park & Michael Colaresi, Safe Across the Border: The Continued Significance of the Democratic Peace When Controlling for Stable Borders
- Douglas M. Gibler, Contiguous States, Stable Borders, and the Peace between Democracies
- Erik Gartzke & Alex Weisiger, Under Construction: Development, Democracy, and Difference as Determinants of Systemic Liberal Peace
- Balance of Power
- Scott Wolford, Power, Preferences, and Balancing: The Durability of Coalitions and the Expansion of Conflict
- Amitav Acharya, Power Shift or Paradigm Shift? China's Rise and Asia's Emerging Security Order
- Oisín Tansey, Evaluating the Legacies of State-Building: Success, Failure, and the Role of Responsibility
- Emizet F. Kisangani & Jeffrey Pickering, Rebels, Rivals, and Postcolonial State-Building: Identifying Bellicist Influences on State Extractive Capability
- Randolph M. Siverson & Richard A.I. Johnson, Politics and Parasites: The Contribution of Corruption to Human Misery
- Controversy: Global Governance
- Thomas G. Weiss & Rorden Wilkinson, Rethinking Global Governance? Complexity, Authority, Power, Change
- Craig N. Murphy, Global Governance over the Long Haul
- Mark Mazower, Response
- Martha Finnemore, Dynamics of Global Governance: Building on What We Know
Tusan: “Crimes against Humanity”: Human Rights, the British Empire, and the Origins of the Response to the Armenian Genocide
In "'Crimes against Humanity': Human Rights, the British Empire, and the Origins of the Response to the Armenian Genocide," Michelle Tusan argues that this event proved crucial in the emergence of human rights justice as a central issue of the twentieth century. The response to the attempt by the Ottoman Empire to exterminate Christian minorities during World War I was rooted in nineteenth-century humanitarianism, which later was tested by imperial politics and the rise of new forms of visual media—forms that represented atrocity to a mass audience for the first time. Using official records, private papers, and silent film, Tusan explores the origin of modern human rights regimes by analyzing the central role played by the British Empire as an arbiter of justice during and immediately following the war—a time before international institutions had taken on the responsibility of prosecuting war criminals. The linking of the early practice of international human rights justice with the ideals and actions of a humanitarian movement that evolved in an imperial context reveals why the Armenian Genocide was labeled a crime against humanity at the time and continues to determine how the event is remembered today.
Aust: Circumstances Precluding Wrongfulness
This contribution assesses how the circumstances precluding wrongfulness set forth in Articles 20-27 of the 2001 Articles on State Responsibility and the 2011 Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations of the International Law Discussion cope with situations of "shared responsibility", i.e. in particular when multiple states and/or IOs try to rely on the circumstances in order to exonerate themselves for prima facie wrongful conduct. The contribution unearthes conceptual challenges for the application of the circumstances in such circumstances and pleads for a re-conceptualisation of the regime of "defences" which distinguishes between circumstances which genuinely justify conduct and circumstances which would only work as "excuses".
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Kratochwil: The Status of Law in World Society: Meditations on the Role and Rule of Law
Friedrich Kratochwil's book explores the role of law in the international arena and the key discourses surrounding it. It explains the increased importance of law for politics, from law-fare to the judicialization of politics, to human rights, and why traditional expectations of progress through law have led to disappointment. Providing an overview of the debates in legal theory, philosophy, international law and international organizations, Kratochwil reflects on the need to break down disciplinary boundaries and address important issues in both international relations and international law, including deformalization, fragmentation, the role of legal pluralism, the emergence of autonomous autopoietic systems and the appearance of non-territorial forms of empire. He argues that the pretensions of a positivist theory in social science and of positivism in law are inappropriate for understanding practical problems and formulates an approach for the analysis of praxis based on constructivism and pragmatism.
New Volume: Czech Yearbook of International Law
- Aslan Abashidze, The Process of Strengthening the Human Rights Treaty Body System
- Jaroslav Valerievich Antonov, Legal Instruments of E-democracy for the Development of Civil Society in International Practice
- Gabriela Augustínyová & Aiste Dumbryte, The Indispensable Role of Non-governmental Organizations in the Creation and Functioning of the International Criminal Court
- Helena Barancová, Current Lawmaking of the International Labour Organization with regard to EU Law
- Milan Bakes & Michael Kohajda, Legal Regulation of and Influence of International Institutions on Financial Markets
- Alexander J. Bělohlávek, Institutionalized Promotion and Protection of Investments in the Energy Sector
- Pavel Hamerník, The Non-state Adjudication of Disputes by the Court of Arbitration for Sport as an Inspiring Alternative for Effective Dispute Resolution
- Marie Karfíková & Zdeněk Karfík, The Role of Foundations at the Beginning of the 21st Century
- Lukás Klee & Ondřej Ručka, FIDIC: Significance in the Construction Industry
- Karel Klíma, The Phenomenon of the European Court of Human Rights' Influence on the Constitutional Systems of the Council of Europe Member States
- Libor Klimek, European Police Office (Europol): Past, Present and Future
- Oskar Krejčí, The European Union and NATO: Cooperation, Competition or Conjunction?
- Davorin Lapas & Robert Mrljić, International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs) as Participants in the International Lawmaking Process: Examples in Environmental and Space Law
- Jan Lhotský, The UN Mechanisms for Human Rights Protection: Strengthening Treaty Bodies in Light of a Proposal to Create a World Court of Human Rights
- Hana Marková & Nicole Grmelová, Institutional Framework of Combating Money Laundering in the European Union
- Pavel Mates & Jan Smíd, Can the Welfare State Be Lean?
- Daniela Nováčková, The Legal Instruments of EU Fiscal and Monetary Stability
- Zdeněk Nový, The Role of the UNIDROIT in the Unification of International Commercial Law with a Specific Focus on the Principles of International Commercial Contracts
- Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska, The Role of Non-governmental Organisations in Individual Communication Procedures before the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies
van Beers, Corrias, & Werner: Humanity across International Law and Biolaw
The concepts of humanity, human dignity and mankind have emerged in different contexts across international law and biolaw. This raises many different questions. What are the aims for which 'humanity' is mobilised? How do these aims affect the ensuing interpretations of this concept? What are the negative counterparts of humanity, mankind and human dignity? And what happens if a concept developed in one particular context is taken up in another? By bringing together research from international law, biolaw and legal theory, this volume answers such questions by analysing how the concepts overlap and contradict each other across the disciplines. The result is not an examination of what humanity is but rather what it does and what it brings about in a variety of contexts.
New Issue: Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
The latest issue of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights (Vol. 32, no. 1, 2014) is out. Contents include:
- Mohammad Fadel, Is There a Future for an Arab Human Rights Mechanism? Not Without Democracy
- Valeska David, Reparations at the Human Rights Committee: Legal Basis, Practice and Challenges
- Olga Martin-Ortega, Human Rights Due Diligence for Corporations: from Voluntary Standards to Hard Law at Last?
- Christina Beninger, The Effectiveness of Legislative Reform in Combating Domestic Violence: a Comparative Analysis of Laws in Ghana, Namibia and South Africa
- A.A. Cançado Trindade, The Universality of International Law, its Humanist Outlook, and the Mission of the Hague Academy of International Law
Roscini: Establishing State Responsibility for Historical Injustices: The Armenian Case
The article aims to identify a legal structure for the determination of state responsibility for historical injustices by using the deportations and mass killings of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire (1915-1916) as a case study. It first determines whether the conduct was unlawful at the time it was committed and concludes that the 1948 Genocide Convention cannot be applied retroactively to the events in question and that customary international law provided, at the time, that the treatment by a state of its subjects was within its domestic jurisdiction. The Ottoman Empire, however, breached a series of treaties that provided for the amelioration of the conditions and for the protection of Christian minorities in the Empire. The article then discusses whether the conduct was attributable to the state under the law of state responsibility in force at the time of the commissi delicti and argues that while the conduct of the Ottoman ministers, local authorities and the military can be attributed to the Ottoman Empire, the attribution of the actions of other entities and individuals involved in the killings is more problematic.
New Issue: Journal of International Economic Law
The latest issue of the Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 17, no. 1, March 2014) is out. Contents include:- Simon Lester, Finding the Boundaries of International Economic Law
- Aaron Cosbey & Petros C. Mavroidis, A Turquoise Mess: Green Subsidies, Blue Industrial Policy and Renewable Energy: The Case for Redrafting the Subsidies Agreement of the WTO
- Jan Wouters & Jed Odermatt, Comparing the ‘Four Pillars’ of Global Economic Governance: A Critical Analysis of the Institutional Design of the FSB, IMF, World Bank, and WTO
- Wenwei Guan, Consensus Yet Not Consented: A Critique of the WTO Decision-Making by Consensus
- Brian D. Kelly, Market Economies and Concurrent Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Remedies
- Rajib Pal, Has the Appellate Body’s Decision in Canada – Renewable Energy / Canada – Feed-in Tariff Program Opened the Door for Production Subsidies?
- Bin Gu & Tong Liu, Enforcing International Financial Regulatory Reforms
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Young: Universal Jurisdiction, the Alien Tort Statute, and Transnational Public Law Litigation after Kiobel
The Alien Tort Statute, enacted in 1789 as part of the first Judiciary Act, provides that “[t]he district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations. . . .” Although the statute lay dormant until the 1980s, the ATS has since become the font of transnational public law litigation in American courts. This litigation, frequently involving largely foreign parties and events, has become a form of civil-side universal jurisdiction. Like more traditional forms of universal jurisdiction, it allows American courts to hear human rights claims based on the enormity of the offense, even when the claims lack any significant ties to the United States. But unlike traditional universal jurisdiction, which is overwhelmingly a criminal phenomenon, the ATS places control over initiation and conduct of the litigation in private hands and engages the exceptional machinery of American civil justice.
The Supreme Court sharply limited ATS suits last year in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. This article defends the Court’s rejection of universal jurisdiction in Kiobel and assesses the future of human rights litigation in American courts. I make three main sets of arguments. First, I submit that the the scope of human rights litigation under the ATS is best viewed not as a sui generis problem of foreign relations law, as most lawyers and scholars have treated it, but within the more traditional federal courts framework of implied rights of action and federal common law. Kiobel’s concerns about extraterritorial application of the ATS fit comfortably within this framework, and they suggest that the Court will be extremely cautious about expanding the scope of ATS litigation in future cases. Second, I contend that scholarly exploration of the ATS’s terse text and limited history has reached the point of diminishing returns. The Framers of the First Judiciary Act could not have anticipated what ATS litigation would become, and they left us very few useful clues to answer, for example, whether aiders-and-abettors of human rights violations should be liable. The best hope for adequate answers to such questions lies with Congress, and the article proposes a number of reforms that should be addressed in a new statute amending or replacing the ATS. Third, I place the ATS in the context of broader debates about enforcement of international human rights. In this context, we confront two crucial questions of institutional design: reliance on supranational or national institutions, and public or private control of enforcement. I suggest that this debate, too, can be usefully informed by domestic debates about regulatory enforcement. But the international context affords a unique middle option, which is decentralized public enforcement of international human rights by national governments.
Govaere et al.: The European Union in the World: Essays in Honour of Marc Maresceau
The European Union in the World: Essays in Honour of Marc Maresceau provides a unique overview of state-of-the-art academic research in the rapidly developing area of EU external relations law from renowned academics and practitioners.
The book is dedicated to the academic career of Marc Maresceau, a world-renowned expert in EU external relations law. For many years, Prof. Maresceau has been a pioneer in EU enlargement and neighbourhood studies. In honour of his inestimable contribution to the field, editors Inge Govaere, Erwan Lannon, Peter Van Elsuwege, and Stanislas Adam have compiled contributions devoted to the following wide range of topics:
i) the legal-institutional framework of EU external action
ii) the external policies of the EU
iii) the EU’s bilateral relations with third countries
iv) the enlargement of the European Union
v) the European Neighbourhood Policy
With a special focus on the post-Lisbon legal framework of EU external action, the book builds further upon the implementation of the reforms initiated by the Lisbon Treaty to offer virtually all-encompassing analysis of EU external relations law by top-level specialists.
Clapham & Gaeta: The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Armed Conflict
Which human rights violations or war crimes allegations result in exclusion from the refugee regime? What human rights protections apply to someone declared an unlawful combatant? Which human rights obligations apply to the actions of armed forces acting abroad? Over the past ten years the content and application of international law in armed conflict has changed dramatically. An authoritative and comprehensive study of the role of international law in armed conflicts, this Oxford Handbook engages in a broad analysis of international humanitarian law, human rights law, refugee law, international criminal law, environmental law, and the law on the use of force. With an international group of expert contributors, this book has a global, multi-disciplinary perspective on the place of law in war.
The Handbook consists of 35 Chapters in seven parts. Part A provides the historical background and sets out some of the contemporary challenges. Part B considers the relevant sources of international law. Part C describes the different legal regimes: land warfare, air war fare, maritime warfare, the law of occupation, the law applicable to peace operations, and the law of neutrality. Part D introduces crucial concepts in international humanitarian law: weapons and the concepts of superfluous injury and unnecessary suffering, the principle of distinction, proportionality, genocide and crimes against humanity, grave breaches and war crimes, and internal armed conflict. Part E looks at fundamental rights: the right to life, the prohibition on torture, the right to fair trial, economic, social and cultural rights, the protection of the environment, the protection of cultural property, the human rights of the members of the armed forces, and the protection of children. Part F covers important issues such as: the use of force, terrorism, unlawful combatants, the application of human rights in times of armed conflict, refugee law, and the issues of gender in times of armed conflict. Part G deals with accountability issues including those related to private security companies and armed groups, as well as questions of state responsibility brought before national courts and issues related to transitional justice.
SIEL/CUP Prize for an Essay in International Economic Law
2014 SIEL/CUP Essay Prize
Terms and conditions
A prize has been established by the Society of International Economic Law and Cambridge University Press for the best essay submitted on any topic in any field of international economic law.
The competition is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students of any university or other tertiary education institution, and those who have graduated from a university or other tertiary education institution no earlier than five years before the submission deadline (ie those who graduated prior to 30 September 2009 are not eligible for the 2014 Prize). Members of the SIEL Executive Council may not submit entries. The essay must not have been previously published.
The prize consists of £200, as well as £300 of Cambridge University Press book vouchers and a three year subscription to the World Trade Review. The winning essay will be submitted to the World Trade Review for publication. Publication of the essay in the World Trade Review will be subject to the WTR’s normal review and decision procedure, but the WTR Editorial Board commits to expediting consideration with a view to early publication.
The prize will be awarded by the SIEL Executive Council on the recommendation of a Prize Committee drawn from its members and the Editorial Board of the World Trade Review. Decisions of the Prize Committee on the winning essay and on any conditions relating to this prize are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
For clarification, essays with a focus on international commercial arbitration or EU law will not be considered for this Prize.
Any queries should be addressed by email to Dr Lorand Bartels, University of Cambridge (lab53@cam.ac.uk).
Submission details
Entries must be written in English and should follow the style-sheet for the World Trade Review. Entries should not exceed 8,000 words, including references, footnotes, tables, appendices, etc.
Entries must be submitted in Word format with a cover sheet containing the title of the entry, name and contact details. The essay itself must contain no identifying information other than the title.
Entries should be submitted using this form.
The deadline for submission is 30 September 2014 (17:00 GMT). Essays may be submitted from 7 September 2014.
Call for Papers: ESIL International Legal Theory Interest Group Workshop
European Society of International Law
Interest Group on International Legal Theory
Workshop, held on the occasion of the Tenth ESIL Anniversary Conference
‘International Law and …’, Vienna, 3 September 2014
Call for Papers
Extra-Legal Dynamics of International Legal Theory
A long-standing challenge within international legal theory is to explain the central dy-namics and logic that shape the discipline. There is a trend to adopt two different modes of analysis. On the one hand, scholars focus on the discourse itself to map out and explain its argumentative techniques and rationales. On the other hand, scholars have looked to explanations found in extra-legal phenomena (e.g. politics, social movements). In either mode, scholars have increasingly turned to methodological and theoretical insights from a wide range of other disciplines (e.g. economics, history, linguistics, sociology, theology) and intellectual movements (e.g. structuralism, post-Marxism). As the literature’s analytical toolkit has expanded, so to have its sources: states, non-governmental organisations, social movements, and so forth, are all ripe for inquiry and tend to suggest an ever more complex and potentially indeterminate infrastructure of global regulation.
Submissions are encouraged that focus on either the historic development and disputes between particular methodological explanations of international law or potential methodological insights that might be considered from legal or inter-disciplinary sources.
Each submission should include:
– an abstract of no more than 400 words,
– the intended language of presentation,
– a short curriculum vitae containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, con-tact information and e-mail address.
Applications should be submitted to esil.igilt@gmail.com by 17 April 2014. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by 1 May 2014.
Selection will be based on scholarly merit and with regard to producing an engaging workshop, without prejudice to gender, seniority, language or geographical location. Please note that the ESIL Interest Group on International Legal Theory is unable to provide funds to cover the conference registration fee or related transport and accommodation costs.
The Co-ordinating Committee
Aeyal Gross, John D. Haskell, Jörg Kammerhofer, Robert J. Knox, Paavo Kotiaho, Umut Özsu, Akbar Rasulov and Mortimer Sellers
Monday, March 17, 2014
New Issue: Revista Tribuna Internacional
The latest issue of Revista Tribuna Internacional (Vol. 2, no. 4, 2013) is out. Contents include:- Juan Cristóbal Fernández Sanz, Marco jurídico actual de la piratería: un antiguo delito del Derecho Internacional del Mar
- Christian Finsterbusch, Las fuentes de la futura calificación del crimen de agresión por parte de la Corte Penal Internacional
- Felipe López Pérez & Nicolás López Pérez, Semántica y discursividad de la legislación chilena sobre temas migratorios. Una aproximación crítica
- Julieta Nicolao, Reflexiones sobre la política migratoria argentina e integración regional
Vadi: Cultural Heritage in International Investment Law and Arbitration
Can states adopt protectionist cultural policies? What are the limits, if any, to state intervention in cultural matters? A wide variety of cultural policies may interfere with foreign investments, and a tension therefore exists between the cultural policies of the host state and investment treaty provisions. In some cases, foreign investors have claimed that cultural policies have negatively affected their investments, thereby amounting to a breach of the relevant investment treaty. This study maps the relevant investor-state arbitrations concerning cultural elements and shows that arbitrators have increasingly taken cultural concerns into consideration in deciding cases brought before them, eventually contributing to the coalescence of general principles of law demanding the protection of cultural heritage.
Roscini: Cyber Operations and the Use of Force in International Law
The internet has changed the rules of many industries, and war is no exception. But can a computer virus be classed as an act of war? Does a Denial of Service attack count as an armed attack? And does a state have a right to self-defence when cyber attacked? With the range and sophistication of cyber attacks against states showing a dramatic increase in recent times, this book investigates the traditional concepts of 'use of force', 'armed attack', and 'armed conflict' and asks whether existing laws created for analogue technologies can be applied to new digital developments.
The book provides a comprehensive analysis of primary documents and surrounding literature, to investigate whether and how existing rules on the use of force in international law apply to a relatively new phenomenon such as cyberspace operations. It assesses the rules of jus ad bellum and jus in bello, whether based on treaty or custom, and analyses why each rule applies or does not apply to cyber operations. Those rules which can be seen to apply are then discussed in the context of each specific type of cyber operation. The book addresses the key questions of whether a cyber operation amounts to the use of force and, if so, whether the victim state can exercise its right of self-defence; whether cyber operations trigger the application of international humanitarian law when they are not accompanied by traditional hostilities; what rules must be followed in the conduct of cyber hostilities; how neutrality is affected by cyber operations; whether those conducting cyber operations are combatants, civilians, or civilians taking direct part in hostilities. The book is essential reading for everyone wanting a better understanding of how international law regulates cyber combat.
New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal
The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 9, no. 4, 2014) is out. Contents include:- Special Focus Issue: China’s Market Economy Status after 2016
- Theodore R. Posner, A Comment on Interpreting Paragraph 15 of China’s Protocol of Accession by Jorge Miranda
- Folkert Graafsma & Elena Kumashova, In re China’s Protocol of Accession and the Anti-Dumping Agreement: Temporary Derogation or Permanent Modification?
- Matthew R. Nicely, Time to Eliminate Outdated Non-market Economy Methodologies
- Brian Gatta, Between ‘Automatic Market Economy Status’ and ‘Status Quo’: A Commentary on ‘Interpreting Paragraph 15 of China’s Protocol of Accession’
- Stewart Baker, Stephen Heifetz, & Andrew Bardi, Annual CFIUS Report Reflects Higher National Security Hurdle and Need for More Jurisdictional Guidance
- James J. Nedumpara, India’s Food Security Concerns and the WTO Bali Ministerial Decision
New Issue: International Affairs
The latest issue of International Affairs (Vol. 90, no. 2, March 2014) is out. Contents include:- Special Issue: The Great War
- Pierre Purseigle, The First World War and the transformations of the state
- Patricia Clavin, The Austrian hunger crisis and the genesis of international organization after the First World War
- Robert T. Foley, Dumb donkeys or cunning foxes? Learning in the British and German armies during the Great War
- Helen McCartney, The First World War soldier and his contemporary image in Britain
- Brendan Simms, Against a ‘world of enemies’: the impact of the First World War on the development of Hitler's ideology
- Ulrich Krotz, Three eras and possible futures: a long-term view on the Franco-German relationship a century after the First World War
- Martin Ceadel, The peace movement: overview of a British brand leader
- Alex Danchev, The angel of history
- Kate Kennedy, ‘A music of grief’: classical music and the First World War
- Joan Beaumont, ‘Unitedly we have fought’: imperial loyalty and the Australian war effort
- Peter Sluglett, An improvement on colonialism? The ‘A’ mandates and their legacy in the Middle East
New Issue: Air & Space Law
- Sofia Michaelides-Mateou & Chrystel Erotokritou, Flying into the Future with UAVs: The Jetstream 31 Flight
- Ruwantissa Abeyratne, The Aviation System Block Upgrades: Legal and Regulatory Issues
- Manu Mohan, Ray of Hope for Airline Alliances: Consideration of Out of Market Efficiencies by the European Commission
- Geoffrey Deasy, EU Competition Law Developments in the Aviation Sector from 4 July to 31 December 2013
Tams, Berster, & Schiffbauer: Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: A Commentary
The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) has a special standing in international law and international politics. For 60 years, the crime of genocide has been recognised as the most horrendous crime in international law, famously designated the 'crime of crimes'. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its adoption the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that 'genocide is the ultimate form of discrimination'. In the same context the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court described the Genocide Convention as a 'visionary and founding text for the Court'. The Convention has as such influenced the subsequent development of many different areas of international law. For example, the 1951 Advisory Opinion on the Genocide Convention enabled the International Court of Justice to shape the modern regime of reservations to treaties. More recently, the prohibition against genocide has become a crucial pillar of the regime of international criminal law developing since the 1990s, with genocide being one of the core crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the UN ad hoc tribunals, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and the permanent International Criminal Court.
In this work the 19 provisions of the Convention are analysed article-by-article, with abundant references to state practice and case law.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
New Issue: Columbia Journal of Transnational Law
The latest issue of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 52, no. 1, 2013) is out. Contents include:- Shirin Ebadi, Wolfgang Friedmann Conference Remarks
- Commentary on Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum
- Sarah H. Cleveland, The Kiobel Presumption and Extraterritoriality
- Paul L. Hoffman, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co.: First Impressions
- Anton Metlitsky, The Alien Tort Statute, Separation of Powers, and the Limits of Federal-Common-Law Causes of Action
- Michael D. Ramsey, Returning the Alien Tort Statute to Obscurity
- Michael N. Schmitt, Extraterritorial Lethal Targeting: Deconstructing the Logic of International Law
- Virginia Harper Ho, Of Enterprise Principles and Corporate Groups: Does Corporate Law Reach Human Rights?
- Adam Chilton & Dustin Tingley, Why the Study of International Law Needs Experiments
Conference: Sovereign Debt Restructurings: Bridging Economic Reality with Law
Cabanes: The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918–1924
The aftermath of the Great War brought the most troubled peacetime the world had ever seen. Survivors of the war were not only the soldiers who fought, the wounded in mind and body. They were also the stateless, the children who suffered war's consequences, and later the victims of the great Russian famine of 1921 to 1923. Before the phrases 'universal human rights' and 'non-governmental organization' even existed, five remarkable men and women - René Cassin and Albert Thomas from France, Fridtjof Nansen from Norway, Herbert Hoover from the US and Eglantyne Jebb from Britain - understood that a new type of transnational organization was needed to face problems that respected no national boundaries or rivalries. Bruno Cabanes, a pioneer in the study of the aftermath of war, shows, through his vivid and revelatory history of individuals, organizations, and nations in crisis, how and when the right to human dignity first became inalienable.
