Scobbie: The Function of War in the International Community

Iain Scobbie (Univ. of Manchester - Law) has posted The Function of War in the International Community (in Fundamental Concepts for International Law: The Construction of a Discipline, Jean d'Aspremont & Sahib Singh eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Collective security has been described as the central myth of liberal internationalism and the cornerstone of the international legal order since the creation of the League of Nations. This paper locates of the doctrine collective security within its historical and political context. It gives an account of some competing views regarding resort to armed force which arise from different political perspectives regarding the function of conflict in international relations. It concludes by considering if contemporary developments regarding the use of force might be seen to prefigure a retrogressive and fundamental shift in the nature and understanding of collective security.

Deeks: Intelligence Communities and International Law: A Comparative Approach

Ashley Deeks (Univ. of Virginia - Law) has posted Intelligence Communities and International Law: A Comparative Approach (in Comparative International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

How must states’ intelligence communities (ICs) approach their international law obligations? From the perspective of international law itself, the answer is fairly clear: ICs must comply with those international obligations that their states assume. Yet intelligence activities – recruiting foreign assets, conducting electronic surveillance on foreign leaders, and undertaking covert actions to influence political and economic conditions abroad – look very different from traditional statecraft and often appear, at least at first glance, to be in tension with international law constraints. Most states neither proclaim the legality nor concede the illegality of their intelligence activities under international law, seeming to prefer the ambiguity of the status quo.

This lack of certainty about the precise status of various intelligence activities in international law fosters conditions under which states can choose – and have chosen – different paths through the thicket. This chapter compares how certain states’ ICs approach their international law obligations. The United Kingdom asserts that its IC’s activities comply with international law. The United States is far more circumspect about whether its IC uniformly complies with international law. The United States even acknowledges that its domestic law authorizes some violations of international law, but employs various compensatory techniques to minimize overt international law violations.

New Issue: Arbitration International

The latest issue of Arbitration International (Vol. 31, no. 4, December 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Agora: International Commercial Arbitration (2nd edition) by Gary B. Born
• Foreword by Thomas W. Walsh
• Book Reviews by John M. Townsend, Bernard Rix, Teresa Cheng, Nadia Darwazeh, and Michael Hwang
• Articles
• Miriam Driessen-Reilly, Private damages in EU competition law and arbitration: a changing landscape
• Claudia Pharaon, The extent of arbitrators’ power to order class arbitration
• Recent Developments
• Sharad Bansal & Divyanshu Agrawal, Are anti-arbitration injunctions a malaise? An analysis in the context of Indian law
• Massimo V. Benedettelli, Human rights as a litigation tool in international arbitration: reflecting on the ECHR experience
• Varun N. Ghosh, An uncertain shield: res judicata in arbitration
• Rohan V. Tigadi & Aditya Pratap Singh, Indian Premier League and XIX Commonwealth Games take arbitrability of fraud in India by storm
• Raúl Pereira de Souza Fleury, Umbrella clauses: a trend towards its elimination

Haeck, Ruiz-Chiriboga, & Burbano Herrera: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Theory and Practice, Present and Future

Yves Haeck (Ghent Univ. - Law and Human Rights Centre), Oswaldo Ruiz-Chiriboga (Ghent Univ. - Human Rights Centre), & Clara Burbano Herrera (Ghent Univ. - Human Rights Centre; Harvard Univ. - François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights) have published The Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Theory and Practice, Present and Future (Intersentia 2015). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Along with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights serves as the main watchdog for the promotion and protection of fundamental rights in the Americas. Drawing on the case law of the Court, this volume analyses crucial developments over the years on both procedural and substantive issues before the Inter-American Court. The book discusses access to legal aid, third party interventions, positive obligations and provisional measures, the evaluation of evidence and the use of external referencing by the Court, the protection of vulnerable groups, including indigenous peoples, migrants, women and children. It also explores other contemporary issues such as coerced statements, medical negligence, the use of force, amnesties, forced disappearances, the right to water, judicial protection in times of emergency, the relation of the Inter-American Court with national courts and with other international jurisdictions like the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court, and with national courts, reparations and revisions of cases by the Inter-American Court, and present-day challenges to the Inter-American system of human rights. Due to its multifaceted and comprehensive character, this scholarly volume is an essential reference work for both legal scholars and practitioners working with regional human rights systems in general and with the Inter-American human rights system in particular.

New Issue: Review of International Studies

The latest issue of the Review of International Studies (Vol. 42, no. 1, January 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Nicolas Guilhot, The Kuhning of reason: Realism, rationalism, and political decision in IR theory after Thomas Kuhn
• Samuel Knafo, Bourdieu and the dead end of reflexivity: On the impossible task of locating the subject
• Matthew Fluck, Theory, ‘truthers’, and transparency: Reflecting on knowledge in the twenty-first century
• Milan Babík, ‘X’ ten years on: The fictions of George F. Kennan’s recent factual representations
• Naomi Head, A politics of empathy: Encounters with empathy in Israel and Palestine
• Leonie Holthaus & Jens Steffek, Experiments in international administration: The forgotten functionalism of James Arthur Salter
• Shmuel Nili, Liberal global justice and social science
• Astrid H.M. Nordin, Futures beyond ‘the West’? Autoimmunity in China’s harmonious world
• Morten Skumsrud Andersen, Semi-cores in imperial relations: The cases of Scotland and Norway

Workshop: The Future of Transatlantic Economic Governance in the Age of the BRICS

Today and tomorrow, December 11-12, 2015, the International Economic Law Interest Groups of the American and European Societies of International Law, together with the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, will hold a joint works-in-progress workshop in Heidelberg. The workshop theme is: "The Future of Transatlantic Economic Governance in the Age of the BRICS." The program is here.

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 32, no. 6, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Bernard Hanotiau, Non-signatories, Groups of Companies and Groups of Contracts in Selected Asian Countries: A Case Law Analysis
• Kateryna Bondar, Annulment of ICSID and Non-ICSID Investment Awards: Differences in the Extent of Review
• David Kwok, Pro-enforcement Bias by Hong Kong Courts: The Use of Indemnity Costs'
• Jennifer Kirby, Efficiency in International Arbitration: Whose Duty Is It?
• Damien Nyer, The Investment Chapter of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement

New Issue: Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 48, no. 4, October 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Symposium: This Is Not a Drill: Confronting Legal Issues in the Wake of International Disasters
• E. Katchka, Challenges for “Affected States” in Accepting International Disaster Aid: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
• Arnold N. Pronto, Understanding the Hard/Soft Distinction in International Law
• Kirsten Nakjavani Bookmiller, Professional Standards and Legal Standard Setting: INSARAG, FMTs, and International Disaster Relief Volunteers
• Nathan E. Clark, Imagery and Expectations for International Disaster Response
• Anastasia Telesetsky, Beyond Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility: Corporate Human Rights Obligations to Prevent Disasters and to Provide Temporary Emergency Relief
• Giulio Bartolini, Attribution of Conduct and Liability Issues Arising from International Disaster Relief Missions: Theoretical and Pragmatic Approaches to Guaranteeing Accountability
• Emily Hammond, Nuclear Power, Risk, and Retroactivity
• Lincoln L. Davies & Alexis Jones, Fukushima’s Shadow
• Joseph P. Tomain, The Democratization of Energy

Sand & Wiener: Towards a New International Law of the Atmosphere?

Peter H. Sand (Univ. of Munich - Law) & Jonathan B. Wiener (Duke Univ. - Law) have posted Towards a New International Law of the Atmosphere? (Goettingen Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Inclusion of the topic ‘protection of the atmosphere’ in the current work programme of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) reflects the long overdue recognition of the fact that the scope of contemporary international law for the Earth’s atmosphere extends far beyond the traditional discipline of ‘air law’ as a synonym for airspace and air navigation law. Instead, the atmospheric commons are regulated by a ‘regime complex’ comprising a multitude of economic uses including global communications, pollutant emissions and diffusion, in different geographical sectors and vertical zones, in the face of different categories of risks, and addressed by a wide range of different transnational institutions. Following several earlier attempts at identifying crosscutting legal rules and principles in this field (by, inter alia, the International Law Association, the UN Environment Programme, and the Institut de Droit International), the ILC has now embarked on a new codification/restatement project led by Special Rapporteur Shinya Murase – albeit hamstrung by a highly restrictive ‘understanding’ imposed by the Commission in 2013. This article assesses the prospects and limitations of the initial ILC reports and debates in 2014 and 2015, and potential avenues for progress in the years to come.

Special Issue: Sustainable Energy Investments and National Security: Arbitration and Negotiation Issues

The latest issue of the Journal of World Energy Law & Business (Vol. 8, no. 6, December 2015) focuses on "Sustainable Energy Investments and National Security: Arbitration and Negotiation Issues." Contents include:

• Special Issue: Sustainable Energy Investments and National Security: Arbitration and Negotiation Issues
• Paolo Davide Farah, Sustainable energy investments and national security: arbitration and negotiation issues
• Fernando Dias Simões, Powered by expertise: selecting arbitrators in energy disputes
• Jun Xiao, How can a prospective China–EU BIT contribute to sustainable investment: in light of the UNCTAD Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development
• Qinglin Zhang, Analysis of the impact on sustainable development by investment regulations in the Energy Charter Treaty
• Paolo Davide Farah & Riccardo Tremolada, Offshore natural gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean in relation to the European Union: a legal perspective through the lenses of MedReg
• Haifeng Deng, Paolo Davide Farah, & Anna Wang, China’s role and contribution in the global governance of climate change: institutional adjustments for carbon tax introduction, collection and management in China

Bohrer: International Criminal Law’s Millennium of Forgotten History

Ziv Bohrer (Bar-Ilan Univ. – Law) has posted International Criminal Law’s Millennium of Forgotten History (Law and History Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article challenges the consensus that International Criminal Law (ICL) was “born” at Nuremberg, exposing ICL’s true history, which spans centuries. Jurists regard pre-WWII cases of penal enforcement of the laws of war (i.e. pre-WWII war crime prosecutions) as unrelated to present-day ICL, because, presumably, these cases are: (1) rare, (2) domestic measures that (3) lack a common doctrine. That is false. ICL’s development, from the late Middle-Ages until WWII, has been grounded on a transnational doctrine which considered as international “outlaws” (punishable by all) violators of the laws of war (war criminals) and of certain additional international laws (from which “crimes against humanity” and “crimes against peace” developed). Remnants of this doctrine are still present in ICL. Penal action against violators was non-negligible and the forums that executed it were not mere domestic organs. After presenting ICL’s centuries-long history and the causes of its pretermission, the article concludes that this forgotten past must be acknowledged. The current narrative falsely depicts ICL as an abnormal system, recently created in violation of basic principles of criminal justice. Furthermore, it encourages the disregard of most ICL cases (those conducted at the State level). Hence, this “false history” leads to unjustifiable questioning of ICL’s legitimacy and effectiveness.

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 10, nos. 11-12, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Pablo Muñiz, Preferential Origin Disputes: Is the Good Faith Defence under EU Law Being Eroded?
• M.R. Rajmohan, Bounty Hunter Reward System: A Necessary Management Evil? – A Case Study of Sri Lanka Customs
• Yannis Xenakis, Strengthening the Fight against Customs Fraud in the EU: New European Parliament and Council Regulation Amending Regulation 515/1997
• James J. Nedumpara, Causation in Trade Remedy Actions: Problems with the ‘But for’ Test
• Pablo González Bianchi & Juan David Barbosa Mariño, The Customs Valuation Treatment of Advertisement with regard to Imported Goods
• Lotfi Ayadi, Gaël Raballand, & Golvine de Rochambeau, Fraud Risks in Customs Bonded Warehouses in Tunisia
• Mehnaz Bhaur, Pakistan’s Trade Performance in Two Decades of the WTO Regime: Implications for the Future

New Issue: Transnational Dispute Management

The latest issue of Transnational Dispute Management (2015, no. 6) is out. The table of contents is here.

Workshop: A New World Order? Internationalism and Legal Imagination in Inter-War Europe

On December 17, 2015, the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law will host a workshop on "A New World Order? Internationalism and Legal Imagination in Inter-War Europe." The program is here. Here's the idea:

The cataclysm of the Great War, the birth of democratic nation-states upon the ruins of monarchic empires, and efforts to found the League of Nations challenged contemporary legal theorists to restate, re-frame – or indeed to found anew – the principles of European internationalism. The urgent agendas of this extraordinarily intense period of legal innovation included attempts to think beyond unlimited state sovereignty, articulations of the legal and institutional tools for an organized system of internationalism, and reformulations of natural law or positivism to support these efforts. The seminar explores the transformations and innovations in the political and legal discourses of the time, as well as their embeddedness in the substantive and methodological frameworks of the tradition. A particular focus is on mapping the state of art in the inter-war history of European legal thought, including possibilities for a trans-national approach, and on its echoes in our own times.

New Issue: Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy

The latest issue of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy (Vol. 18, no. 4, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith & Lynette A. Hart, Exploring the Borderlands Between Wild and Non-Wild Animals: Wildlife Law and Policy in Transition
• Sophie Riley, Model Codes for Humane Treatment of Animals: Australian Law and Policy on Lethal Control of Pests
• Laura A. Watt, The Continuously Managed Wild: Tule Elk at Point Reyes National Seashore
• Suzanne Barber, Nonhuman Animal Welfare in China: Evolving Rhetorical Strategies for Changing Law and Policy
• Victor J. Krawczyk & Monica A. Hamilton-Bruce, The Origins of Compassion for Animals: Legal Privileging of Non-Wild Animals in Late Georgian Britain
• Kristen Denninger Snyder, The Common Hippopotamus in the Wild and in Captivity: Conservation for Less Charismatic Species
• Jennifer Brewer, Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith & Nicholas S.J. Watts, Adapting the Law of Fish and Wildlife to the Science of Climate Change

New Volume: Yearbook of Polar Law

The latest volume of the Yearbook of Polar Law (Vol. 7, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Memoriam: In Memory of Kári Á Rógvi
• Address to Open the 7th Polar Law Symposium by the Honourable Justice Alan Blow OAM, Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania
• Akiho Shibata, Japan and 100 Years of Antarctic Legal Order: Any Lessons for the Arctic?
• Ben Saul & Tim Stephens, Responsive Antarctic Law-Making in the Asian Century
• Bjarni Már Magnússon, China as the Guardian of the International Seabed Area in the Central Arctic Ocean
• Gram Mortensen, Arctic Mining: The Case of Greenland Bent Ole
• Cécile Pelaudeix, China’s interests in the Arctic and the EU’s Arctic policy: towards a proactive EU foreign policy?
• Zia E Madani, Possible Challenges on the Path towards Iranian Active Scientific Research Presence in the Antarctic: An International Legal Approach
• Michael Johnson, The Consequences of the ICJ Decision in the Whaling Case for Antarctica and the Antarctic Treaty System
• Nikolas Sellheim, Seal Hunting in the Arctic States. An Analysis of Legislative Frameworks, Incentives and Histories
• Natalia Loukacheva, The Arctic Economic Council – the Origins
• Adam Stępień, Internal Contradictions and External Anxieties: One ‘Coherent’ Arctic Policy for the European Union?
• Matti Niemivuo, Human and Fundamental Rights of the Sámi
• Mauro Mazza, Energy, Environment and Indigenous Rights: Arctic Experiences Compared
• Elena Gladun & Gennady Chebotarev, Legal Measures for Efficient Environmental Regulations of Oil and Gas Industry in Western Siberia
• Victoria Hermann, Climate Change, Arctic Aesthetics, and Indigenous Agency in the Age of the Anthropocene
• Timo Koivurova, Can We Conclude an Arctic Treaty? – Historical Windows of Opportunity
• David Leary, The IMO mandatory international code of safety for ships: charting a sustainable course for shipping in the polar regions?
• Jill Barrett, International governance of the Antarctic – participation, transparency and legitimacy
• Denzil GM Miller, CCAMLR Conservation Measures: How the Chairman’s Statement Works
• Alan D. Hemmings, Sanjay Chaturvedi, Elizabeth Leane, Daniela Liggett & Juan Francisco Salazar, Nationalism in Today’s Antarctic
• Indi Hodgson-Johnston, The Laws of Territorial Acquisition as Applied to Claims to Antarctic Territory: A Review of Legal Scholarship
• Brendan Gogarty, Conceptions and (mis)Conceptions of Science in International Treaties; the ICJ Whaling Case in Context
• AJ (Tony) Press, The Antarctic Treaty System: future mining faces many mathematical challenges
• Julia Jabour, Why has there been a ‘long peace’ in Antarctica?

ESIL Lecture Series (Video)

The European Society of International Law has posted on YouTube additional videos in the ESIL Lecture Series. (ESIL has its own YouTube Channel.) The lectures are:

• Giorgio Sacerdoti, "Le rôle de l’Organe d’appel dans la construction du droit international économique," Centre de droit international et transnational (CDIT) de la Faculté de droit de l’Université Laval, September 17, 2015
• Fausto Pocar, "Freedom of Movement and the Migration Issue in the European Context," Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, October 5, 2015
• Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, "The European Court of Human Rights Facing Europe in Crisis," European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg, October 16, 2015
• Christine Bell, "The Role of Human Rights in Peace Settlements – A Twenty-Five Year History: Northern Ireland’s Past and Current Struggles in Global Perspective," Queen’s University of Belfast, November 23, 2015

New Volume: African Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the African Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 20, 2013-2014) is out. Contents include:

• Abdulqawi A. Yusuf, The Twentieth Anniversary of the Yearbook
• Djacoba L. Tehindrazanarivelo, Introduction
• Marcelo Kohen, Discours de Bienvenue
• Edward Kwakwa, Opening Remarks
• Olufemi Elias, Opening Remarks
• Table Ronde I. Paix, Securite et Droits de L’Homme
  • Fatsah Ouguergouz, L’Organisation Panafricaine et la Question des Droits de L’Homme : Un Regard Retrospectif
  • Mutoy Mubiala, Africa and International Criminal Justice
  • Djacoba L. Tehindrazanarivelo, Les Relations Entre L’Union Africaine et L’Organisation des Nations Unies : La Question du Financement des Operations Regionales de Maintien de la Paix
  • Table Ronde I. Debats Sous la Presidence de Pierre-Marie Dupuy
• Table Ronde II. Les Frontieres en Afrique
• Mamadou Hébié, Les Accords Conclus Entre Puissances Coloniales et Entites Politiques Africaines : Quelques Elements pour Reconsiderer la Decision de la CIJ en L’Affaire de La Frontiere Terrestre et Maritime (Cameroun v. Nigeria; Guinee Equatoriale (Intervenant))
• Georges Abi-Saab, Comments on ICJ Judgment (Burkina Faso / Republic of Mali)
• Marcelo Kohen, Conclusions du Moderateur sur les Presentations du Docteur Mamadou Hebie et du Professeur Georges Abi-Saab
• Table Ronde II. Debats, Sous la Presidence de Marcelo Kohen
• Table Ronde III. L’Afrique et L’Avenir du Droit International
• Abdulqawi A. Yusuf, The Emergence of an African Public Law and Its Potential Impact on International Law
• Olajumoke O. Oduwole, Revisiting the Non-Participation of African Countries in the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism: Does It Still Matter?
• Edward Kwakwa, The Contribution of Africa to the Development of International Trade and Intellectual Property Law

Ngane: The Position of Witnesses before the International Criminal Court

Sylvia Ntube Ngane has published The Position of Witnesses before the International Criminal Court (Brill | Nijhoff 2015). Here's the abstract:

The book is an evaluation of the doctrine and practice of international criminal courts and tribunals on the position of witnesses against a theoretically informed ideal of a cosmopolitan world order. It seeks to ascertain that there is a cosmopolitan international community, with shared values, that are instantiated in the international criminal tribunals, and that is what justifies the exercise of jurisdiction over witnesses who provide false testimony or engage in other forms of contempt of court. The book evaluates the practice of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Call for Submissions: Melbourne Journal of International Law

The Melbourne Journal of International Law has issued a call for submissions for the first issue of its seventeenth volume. Here's the call:

Call for Submissions

The Editors of the Melbourne Journal of International Law (‘MJIL’) are now inviting submissions on areas of interest in international law for Volume 17(1), to be published in July 2016.

For consideration for inclusion in the print issue of 17(1), authors should submit on or before January 31, 2016.

About MJIL

MJIL, Australia’s premier generalist international law journal, is a peer-reviewed academic journal based at Melbourne Law School in the University of Melbourne. MJIL publishes innovative scholarly research and critical examination of issues in international law.

MJIL’s coverage extends beyond public international law to articles addressing private international law, the intersection of international law with domestic law, global governance, and associated areas of transnational law.

MJIL will also consider interdisciplinary work which substantially contributes to international legal scholarship. If authors are uncertain whether their proposed topic is eligible for inclusion in MJIL they should contact the editors at law-mjil@unimelb.edu.au.

Timing of Submissions

MJIL accepts submissions on a rolling basis and will publish advance electronic copies of articles prior to print publication from 17(1) onwards.

The submissions deadline for consideration in Volume 17(1) is January 31, 2016. As MJIL will be publishing a special issue for issue 17(2), authors are encouraged to submit early so as to incorporate any revisions prior to print deadlines for 17(1).

Form of Submissions

MJIL accepts submissions in the form of articles, commentaries, case notes and book reviews. Articles should be in the vicinity of 10,000 words in length (excluding footnotes) and be an original and detailed contribution to international law scholarship. For instructions on submitting, please visit Instructions for Authors.

Submissions Process

All articles, case notes and commentaries published in MJIL undertake a double blind refereeing process, involving at least two experts in that area of law. The editors endeavour to decide on whether submissions will proceed to refereeing within two weeks of receipt. Although MJIL does not require exclusive submission, the Editors will not consider pieces that have been accepted or published elsewhere.

Review essays will be reviewed solely by the Editors prior to publication. Publishers’ suggestions for books to be reviewed should be sent to law-mjil@unimelb.edu.au, and hard copies of publications can be mailed to:

Melbourne Journal of International Law
Melbourne Law School
The University of Melbourne
VIC 3010 AUSTRALIA

Once accepted, authors will be contacted with more details on the editing and publication process. For further information, please contact the Editors at law-mjil@unimelb.edu.au.

Rayfuse: Research Handbook on International Marine Environmental Law

Rosemary Rayfuse (Univ. of New South Wales - Law; Lund Univ. - Law) has published Research Handbook on International Marine Environmental Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2015). Contents include:

• Robin Churchill, The LOSC Regime for Protection of the Marine Environment – Fit for the Twenty-first Century?
• Yoshifumi Tanaka, Principles of International Marine Environmental Law
• James Harrison, Actors and Institutions for the Protection of the Marine Environment
• David Osborn, Land Based Pollution and the Marine Environment
• Henrik Ringbom, Vessel-source Pollution
• David L. VanderZwaag, The International Control of Ocean Dumping: Navigating from Permissive to Precautionary Shores
• Michael Lodge, Protecting the Marine Environment of the Deep Seabed
• Joanna Mossop, Reconciling Activities on the Extended Continental Shelf with Protection of the Marine Environment
• Nengye Liu, Protection of the Marine Environment from Offshore Oil and Gas Activities
• Marie Bourrel, Protection and Preservation of the Marine Environment from Seabed Mining Activities on the Continental Shelf: Perspectives from the Pacific Islands Region
• Alexander Proelss & Katherine Houghton, Protecting Marine Species
• Dire Tladi, Conservation and Sustainable use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Towards an Implementing Agreement
• Glenn Wright, Julien Rochette & Elizabeth Druel, Marine Protected Areas in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction
• Robin Warner, Environmental Assessment in Marine Areas beyond National Jurisdiction
• Anna Maria Hubert, Marine Scientific Research and the Protection of the Seas and Oceans
• Nilufer Oral, Forty Years of the UNEP Regional Seas Programme: From Past to Future
• Tore Henriksen, Protecting Polar Environments: Coherency in Regulating Arctic Shipping
• David Vousden, Large Marine Ecosystems and Associated New Approaches to Regional, Transboundary and ‘High Seas’ Management
• Hai Dang Vu, Towards a Regional Regime for the Establishment of a Network of Marine Protected Areas in the South China Sea
• Tim Stephens, Ocean Acidification
• Karen N. Scott, Geoengineering and the Marine Environment

Shany: Questions of Jurisdiction and Admissibility before International Courts

Yuval Shany (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem - Law) has published Questions of Jurisdiction and Admissibility before International Courts (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

This examination of the jurisdiction of international courts and the admissibility of cases before them analyses jurisdictional and admissibility rules in light of the roles assumed by international courts in international life and in light of the roles that jurisdictional and admissibility rules play in promoting the effectiveness and legitimacy of international courts. The theory pursued views jurisdiction as a form of delegation of power (the power to exercise judicial power and decide the law) and regards admissibility as a framework for deciding upon the propriety of exercising such power. On the basis of this theoretical framework, the author critically evaluates the exercise of judicial discretion in the existing case law of a variety of international courts, distinguishing between the category-based case selection implicit in jurisdictional rules and the case-by-case analysis and selection implicit in rules on admissibility.

Fitzmaurice: Whaling and International Law

Malgosia Fitzmaurice (Queen Mary, Univ. of London - Law) has published Whaling and International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

Whales are regarded as a totemic symbol by some nations and as a natural marine resource by others. This book presents a complex picture of legal problems surrounding the interpretation of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and the role of its regulatory body, the International Whaling Commission. Contemporary whaling is about the competing interests of whaling nations (which are in the minority), non-whaling nations (which are in the majority) and indigenous peoples. Whales are covered by many international conventions, which has led to a very fragmented legal situation and does not necessarily ensure that whales are protected. This is one of the paradoxes of the contemporary international legal regime which are explored in this book. The book also examines the contentious issue of the right of indigenous peoples to whaling and questions whether indigenous whaling is very different from commercial practices.

Call for Papers: The United Nations Security Council: Contemporary Threats to Its Legitimacy and Performance

Professor Bruno Fassbender (Universität St. Gallen) has issued a call for papers directed at junior scholars for a conference on "The United Nations Security Council: Contemporary Threats to Its Legitimacy and Performance," to take place May 22-25, 2016. Here's the call:

Call for Papers

International Conference "The United Nations Security Council:

Contemporary Threats to its Legitimacy and Performance"

May 22nd to 25th, 2016, in Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland

The conference “The United Nations Security Council: Contemporary Threats to its Legitimacy and Performance” will take place from 22 to 25 May, 2016 at the Conference Centre Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland, the venue of choice for Congressi Stefano Franscini (ETH Zurich). The aim of the conference is critically to take stock of, and to further develop, the debates of the last twenty years regarding the composition and decision‐making process as well as the substantive work of the UN Security Council (UNSC). In doing so, the conference will take into account recent events and developments in international law and international politics, embed them in the context of the history of the UN, and analyse them using state of the art theoretical frameworks from international legal theory, political science, and political philosophy. Participants are invited to discuss three main topics: (1) the theoretical and conceptual framework for an examination of the UNSC and its work, (2) the composition and decision‐making of the UNSC and the ongoing debate regarding its reform, and (3) the mandate and substantive work of the UNSC. One of the conference panels is specifically dedicated to contributions of junior scholars.

Junior scholars of international law, international relations, or political philosophy are invited to ‘re‐imagine’ the UNSC by addressing any of the following topics:

(1)  Theory and Concepts

• Global constitutionalism and critical approaches to international law as related to the work and status of the UNSC
• Issues of democracy, the rule of law, and legitimacy, as related to the work and status of the UNSC

(2) UN Security Council Reform

• Law and politics in the debate on UNSC reform
• Increasing the inclusiveness of the UNSC for global civil society

(3) The Mandate and Work of the UN Security Council

• North‐South relationships in the work of the UNSC
• Human rights and gender in the work of the UNSC
• Securing the non‐use of force as a central responsibility of the UNSC

Interested young scholars are invited to submit an abstract outlining the topic (title), methodology, and main theses of the proposed paper. Abstracts must not exceed 800 words. Please submit the abstract electronically to lehrstuhl.fassbender@unisg.ch. The deadline is January 29, 2016. Please add to the abstract a current CV. Based on a choice among the abstracts, a number of young scholars will be invited to present a paper. Travel expenses as well as board and lodging will be covered for each of them. 

Call for Papers: Law between Global and Colonial: Techniques of Empire

The Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Helsinki has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Law between Global and Colonial: Techniques of Empire," to be held October 3-5, 2016. Here's the call:

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Law between Global and Colonial: Techniques of Empire”

University of Helsinki, (3-5 October 2016)

The Conference Law Between Global and Colonial: Techniques of Empire proposes to discuss the legal languages and techniques through which colonial powers ruled non-European territories and populations throughout the modern age. The aim of the Conference is to examine in detail the juridical practices and discourses of colonial powers when they exercised their supremacy over colonial subjects and disciplined them. Given the complexity and variety of these legal strategies and without neglecting the classical the study of “law of nature and nations”, we intend to move beyond it in order to explore a hybrid normative body consisting of ad-hoc colonial laws, commercial laws and domestic laws adapted to colonial contexts. What came to be called the “empire of free trade”, for instance, operated largely through a commercial law (sometimes, though not always called “lex mercatoria”) that possessed features of both international and domestic law.

Although the focus of the conference is historical, the interest feeding it lies in the present. With the great numbers of people moving about in Europe, Asia and Africa as migrants, guest workers, refugees and displaced persons, territorial states have often used methods and techniques that resemble those with which colonial populations once were treated. With research showing a sharp rise in world inequality, the conference poses the question whether legislative techniques and institutions inherited from the imperial past, once again see the light of day in the present.

How was the “law of nations” understood when it was used for imperial purposes? Would domestic laws apply to colonial expansion? What laws might govern the groups concerned – indigenous population, settlers, slaves, indentured servants, subjects of third nations? What was the role of the idiom of international law in Europe’s colonial expansion? To what extent was colonial rule organised by domestic laws of a special character? How did special colonial laws and the “law of nature and nations” relate to each other? To what extent did any of these laws open an avenue to contesting colonial governance? How far did such techniques extend beyond the end of the period of formal colonialism and even decolonization?

To answer such questions, the relations between global and domestic laws in imperial expansion and colonial governance ought to be studied.

Keynote speakers: Lauren Benton, Isabel. V. Hull, Luigi Nuzzo

The conference will close the four and a half-year period of the Finnish Academy research project on “International Law, Religion and Empire” at the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, University of Helsinki. Members: Martti Koskenniemi, Paolo Amorosa, Mónica García-Salmones, Manuel Jimenez and Walter Rech.

Interested participants should submit an abstract of no more than 600 words, in Word format accompanied by a brief (2-3 sentences) scholarly biography by March 1st, 2016 to both Mónica García-Salmones (monica.garcia@helsinki.fi) and Paolo Amorosa (paolo.amorosa@helsinki.fi).

Accepted participants will be required to submit full papers, in Word format, of no more than 8000 words by August 31st, 2016.

The conveners will cover meals for the duration of the conference for accepted participants. Travel and accommodation expenses are to be met by the participants.

Deadlines: Submission of Abstracts March 1st, 2016

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by June 1st, 2016

Final papers must be submitted by August 31st, 2016

Call for Submissions: Beyond Borders: Regional Dimensions and Dynamics of Transitional Justice

The International Journal of Transitional Justice has issued a call for submissions for a special issue on "Beyond Borders: Regional Dimensions and Dynamics of Transitional Justice." Here's the call:

Special Issue 2017 - Call for Papers

Beyond Borders: Regional Dimensions and Dynamics of Transitional Justice

The International Journal of Transitional Justice invites submissions for its 2017 special issue entitled ‘Beyond Borders: Regional Dimensions and Dynamics of Transitional Justice', to be guest edited by Pierre Hazan.

Dr. Hazan is an international expert on transitional justice and international criminal justice. He has collaborated with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and served as a UN expert with the special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. He currently is a Special Advisor on Transitional Justice with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. His book, Judging War, Judging History: Behind Truth and Reconciliation, received the Georges Dreyfus Prize.

Historically, transitional justice has focused either on states dealing with legacies of past human rights violations or on international standards and good practices for dealing with those legacies, as embodied by the UN. Little attention has been paid to the regional dimensions of transitional justice, despite the fact that states tend to compensate for their weaknesses by strengthening regional institutions and empirical evidence that demonstrates these institutions’ importance.

In this Special Issue, we encourage new thinking on the concept of regionalism: What new purchase does this perspective bring to our understanding of transitional justice? Which factors shape regional institutions and how they are used? And how does regionalism shape transitional justice mechanisms?

From an institutional perspective, regional political bodies such as the African Union and the European Union, as well as regional courts such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, play a major role in norm and standard setting. They create new human rights instruments, set major judicial precedents and in some cases act as key donors.

Regional institutions’ importance is also increasing as regions often face transnational challenges, particularly in terms of human rights violations that cross borders, which cannot be addressed solely at the national level. This is even more the case for states that have split apart and where civil society organizations seek to establish regional mechanisms like truth commissions to deal with past crimes, as with the REKOM initiative in the former Yugoslavia.

At the same time, the very concept of a ‘region’ is subject to debate. From a societal and cultural perspective, the borders of a region are arbitrarily defined. Is Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa or the Balkans a region? Yet, the populations within a given region often share in common parts of their history (such as colonialism) and certain cultural elements (such as ubuntu) that may influence the way transitional justice tools in the region are shaped, addressed and marketed to them.

These commonalities may give rise to an emulation process, through which states import some of the transitional justice features adopted in other countries that are perceived as relevant to their national contexts, while contesting others. For example, is the hostility towards the International Criminal Court in Africa in part a result of past history, when law was used as an instrument of domination by colonial powers?

In short, from an institutional and a societal and cultural perspective, the way transitional justice interferes or interfaces with borders – by crossing or ignoring them or by being unable to do so – happens in multiple ways within Africa, the Americas and Europe, in the global North and South. But what does it mean for regions without such regional institutions, such as Asia and the Middle East? In these cases, is a regional transitional justice approach a pertinent category? If not, how do or should countries engage with transitional justice experiences beyond their borders?

We expect this Special Issue to yield divergent views on central questions that will enrich our understanding of and engagement with this critical topic. Below are some key questions we have identified, which are only illustrative and do not exhaust the range of issues that deserve greater attention:

• Do regional political or judicial institutions play an important role in shaping transitional justice tools and, if so, do they contribute to a feeling of ownership in transitional societies?
• Is transitional justice the product of Judeo-Christian culture, or is it universal? If it is universal, why does it appear to be less developed in the Middle East and North Africa and in Asia?
• Is the need to deal with the violent past universal, or is it a reflection of western ethnocentrism?
• Are there significant differences in approaches to transitional justice in different regions? If yes, what explains these differences?
• Is the way in which transitional justice tools are used in different regions a reflection of specific regional challenges?
• Can and should (official) regional truth commissions be created despite the political obstacles?
• How should we understand the role of religion and religious leaders in transitional justice efforts in different regions?
• How do national, regional and international contexts – legal, political, institutional or other – interact with transitional justice?
• To what extent is the legacy of law in a given region the result of radically different historical experiences (for example, law being a tool for enforcing domination in the colonies), and how does this influence the possibilities of pursuing transitional justice?
• To what extent is the European Union as a donor for transitional justice initiatives imposing a particular regional approach on recipient countries affected by different regional constraints?

The deadline for submissions is 1 July 2016.

Papers should be submitted online from the IJTJ webpage.

For questions or further information, please contact the Managing Editor at ijtj@csvr.org.za.

Call for Papers: The Force of Law in World Society

The Centre for the Politics of Transnational Law has issued a call for papers for the panel section "The Force of Law in World Society" at the 10th Pan-European Conference in International Relations, to be held September 7-10, 2016, in Izmir. Here's the call:

Call for Proposals

10th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, Izmir, Turkey, 7-10 September 2016

Section S44: The Force of Law in World Society

Section Chairs: Tanja E. Aalberts (CePTL/VU) & Nikolas M. Rajkovic (Tilburg Law School) 

Section description

A long-standing presumption of international theory has been that international law is both a symptom and cause of an evolving society of states. Yet, transformations since 1945 suggest perhaps a more radical evolution: where the increasingly transnational configuration of persons, goods, crime and wealth now strains the competences of the traditional inter-state form of legal organization. These empirical shifts are further enhanced by a normative turn beyond a sole focus on sovereignty as a fundamental norm of international society, towards more cosmopolitan values of human rights and world society, advocated by a plurality of actors. Together this suggests that the formalism of international law, as a state-centric normative framework, no longer constitutes the world of international legality but rather represents a world of cooperation in a universe of heterogeneous juridical practices. Accordingly, international law now interacts with, rather than controls, other juridical practices and projects that are engaged in legal ordering with often competing purposes. As a result, increasingly novel forms of socio-legal organization are disrupting political and legal categories that used to form the basis of modern international order. These categories traditionally separate domestic from international affairs, public from private issues, and law from politics. This trend speaks to a broader issue of the changing meaning of boundaries in this latest era of globalization.

Closer scrutiny suggests new patterns of socio-legal organization are realigning legal ordering considerably beyond what the inter-state model has long insisted was global legal reality. With other values, norms, actors, practices, scales, geographies, and technologies involved in the contemporary international ordering the question arises: what is the status and force of law in world society and how does it operate? This section will explore how formal and informal legal practices are mutating the normative horizons and structures of global legal rule beyond (or in interaction with) the inter-state model. This runs from debates about the legal justifications of military humanitarian intervention, to Guantanamo Bay as a distinct juridical space, to the increasing “private” power Foreign Investment and Trade Treaties vis-a-vis public law, to the seeming jurisdictional immunity of “global value chains”, to whether rights should be re-conceptualized as governmental technologies, and to whether and how disciplinary characterizations should now shift from referencing international order to more accurately global or transnational legal order. Moreover, technological innovations notwithstanding, this section wonders to what extent this is a late twentieth century phenomenon, or how we can trace the roots of a heterogeneous global legal order in the nineteenth century expansion of international society or even the Age of Discovery.

Against this background, this section will host panels concerned with theorizing and evaluating the force of law within world society. Approaching this theme from various angles and perspectives, the panels together aim to (i) develop new conceptualizations that articulate different modes of the force of law (ii) combine theoretical engagements with empirical analyses; and (iii) engage in a crossdisciplinary debate

Submission

The section is particularly interested in papers that discuss one of the following panel themes:

(1) The Changing Architecture of Legal Rule in World Society

(2) Lex Imperialism: Regimes as Informal World Empires

(3) The Historical Sociology of the Global Legal Order

(4) Law, Technology and the New Global Security Law

(5) The ICC and the Criminalization of World Society

(6) Saving the soul of Human Rights

We invite you to submit a paper abstract for one of these themes. Please indicate for which theme you submit your abstract by including the number in the proposal title (e.g. “paper title” [P1]). We also welcome full panel proposals that speak to the overall theme of the section.

The 5 panels for this section will be selected on the basis of the most interesting proposals that together make the most challenging and coherent panels.

Deadline for submission of abstracts (max. 200 words): 08 January 2016

For submission please register here

For more information visit here

For any questions regarding this section please contact the section chairs at t.e.aalberts@vu or N.M.Rajkovic@uvt.nl

Please note that only abstracts that are submitted via the online submission system Conftool can be considered for inclusion in the conference programme.

EJIL Call for Poems and Photographs

The European Journal of International Law welcomes the submission of poems and photographs. Here's the call:

In addition to its cutting-edge scholarship, the European Journal of International Law features two rubrics which aim to remind us, as academics and human beings, of the ultimate subject of our scholarly reflections, the world and the people who inhabit it.

The Last Page, which is literally the last page of each issue, features poems which reflect in some way, direct or indirect, the world in which we live, the world we strive to change for the better, the world with its many contradictions that international law seeks to address.

Roaming Charges features photographs of places – the world we live in – and photographs of people – who we are, the human condition. We seek photos which have some ambiguity, and which relate in some way both to current circumstances, without falling into easy clichés of photojournalism, and to something, like human dignity, which is more unchanging and enduring. For more information, please read the Roaming Charges Introduction in the Journal.

EJIL welcomes submissions of poems and photographs. Please send your contributions to ejil@eui.eu.

New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added three lectures to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. They were given by Djamchid Momtaz on “La sécession en droit international”; August Reinisch on “The Evolution of WTO Dispute Settlement”; and Michael Wood on “International Law and the Use of Force: What Happens in Practice?”