ASIL Private International Law Prize

The Private International Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law has issued a call for nominations for the ASIL Private International Law Prize. Here's the call:

The Private International Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law invites submissions for this year’s ASIL Private International Law prize. The prize is given for the best text on private international law written by a young scholar. Essays, articles, and books are welcome, and can address any topic of private international law, can be of any length, and may be published or unpublished, but not published prior to 2015. Submitted essays should be in the English language. Competitors may be citizens of any nation but must be 35 years old or younger on December 31, 2014. They need not be members of ASIL. This year, the prize will consist of a $400 stipend to participate in the 2016 ASIL Annual Conference, and one year’s membership to ASIL. The prize will be awarded by the Private International Law Interest Group based upon the recommendation of a Prize Committee. Decisions of the Prize Committee on the winning essay and on any conditions relating to this prize are final. Submissions to the Prize Committee must be received by June 1, 2016. Entries should be submitted by email in Word or pdf format. They should contain two different documents: a) the essay itself, without any identifying information other than the title; and b) a second document containing the title of the entry and the author’s name, affiliation, and contact details. Submissions and any queries should be addressed by email to Private International Law Interest Group Co-Chair Cristian Gimenez Corte (cristiangimenezcorte@gmail.com). All submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail.

Conference: Twenty-Sixth Investment Treaty Forum Public Conference

The British Institute of International and Comparative Law will host the Twenty-Sixth Investment Treaty Forum Public Conference on May 19, 2016. The theme is: "The Role of Proportionality in International Investment Law." The program is here. Here's the idea:

This conference addresses the continuing debate about the role of the principle of proportionality in international investment law. In particular, this conference will look at some of the key issues raised by invocations of proportionality in investment treaty arbitration, including identifying the positive basis for invoking proportionality in investment treaty arbitration (custom? general principle?); antecedents of the principle in domestic law and other areas of international law; and the practical meaning of proportionality in investor-state arbitration, whether as part of claims, elements of defence, or calculation of compensation. In addition, the conference will feature a moderated debate between the authors of two recent monographs on the role of proportionality in investment law.

New Issue: Revue trimestrielle des droits de l'homme

The latest issue of the Revue trimestrielle des droits de l'homme (No. 106, April 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Frédéric Krenc, La liberté d’expression vaut pour les propos qui « heurtent, choquent ou inquiètent ». Mais encore ?
• Céline Ruet, Sentiments et droits de l’homme - Philosophie des sentiments moraux et jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme
• Natalie Fricero, Le droit à une procédure civile contradictoire dans la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme
• Aurore Garin, Non bis in idem et Convention européenne des droits de l’homme - Du nébuleux au clair-obscur : état des lieux d’un principe ambivalent
• Geoffroy Lebrun, De l’utilité de l’article 47 de la Charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne
• Antonin Crinon, La servitude domestique en France et au Royaume-Uni au regard de la Convention européenne des droits de l’homme
• Anne-Catherine Rasson, La protection juridictionnelle des droits fondamentaux de l’enfant : une utopie ?
• Christophe Maubernard, Le dilemme du don de sang : entre égalité des donneurs et santé des receveurs (obs/s. C.J.U.E., arrêt Geoffrey Léger, 29 avril 2015)
• Frédéric Sudre, Tolérance zéro pour la gifle du policier (obs/s. Cour eur. dr. h., Gde Ch., Bouyid c. Belgique, 28 septembre 2015)

New Issue: International Peacekeeping

The latest issue of International Peacekeeping (Vol. 23, no. 2, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Roger Mac Ginty & Oliver Richmond, The fallacy of constructing hybrid political orders: a reappraisal of the hybrid turn in peacebuilding
• Anastasia Shesterinina & Brian L. Job, Particularized protection: UNSC mandates and the protection of civilians in armed conflict
• Kristoffer Lidén, Nona Mikhelidze, Elena B. Stavrevska & Birte Vogel, EU support to civil society organizations in conflict-ridden countries: A governance perspective from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus and Georgia
• Kathleen M. Jennings, Blue Helmet Havens: Peacekeeping as Bypassing in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Werner Distler, Intervention as a social practice: knowledge formation and transfer in the everyday of police missions

New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added two interviews to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law in commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the International Court of Justice. They were with Judge Ronny Abraham on “La Cour internationale de Justice à l'aube de son soixante-dixième anniversaire” and Philippe Couvreur on “Le déroulement du procès devant la Cour internationale de Justice.”

New Issue: Rivista di Diritto Internazionale

The latest issue of the Rivista di Diritto Internazionale (Vol. 99, no. 1, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Articoli
• P. Picone, L’insostenibile leggerezza dell’ art. 51 della Carta dell’ ONU
• F. Munari, Sui limiti internazionali all’applicazione extraterritoriale del diritto europeo della concorrenza
• S. Vezzani, L’autonomia dell’ordinamento giuridico dell’Unione Europea. Riflessioni all’indomani del parere 2/13 della Corte di giustizia
• Note e Commenti
• C. Cipolletti, La privazione della cittadinanza nel contrasto ai foreign terrorist fighters e il diritto internazionale
• M. Sarzo, Giurisdizione internazionale e judicial policy nella sentenza della Corte internazionale di giustizia nel caso del genocidio (Croazia c. Serbia)
• Panorama
• M. Lando, The Road along the San Juan River is paved with Good Intentions: Provisional Measures and the Quest for Compliance in the Costa Rica/Nicaragua Joined Cases
• G. Della Morte, Bilanciamento tra libertà di espressione e tutela della dignità del popolo armeno nella sentenza Perinçek c. Svizzera della Corte europea dei diritti umani
• D. Rudan, L’obbligo di disporre il riconoscimento giuridico delle coppie dello stesso sesso: il caso Oliari e altri c. Italia

New Volume: Anuario Español de Derecho Internacional

The latest volume of the Anuario Español de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 31, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Estudios Doctrinales
• Romualdo Bermejo García & Cesáreo Gutiérrez Espada, Del programa nuclear de la República Islámica de Irán y de su evolución (política y derecho)
• Valentín Bou Franch, El crimen internacional de esclavitud sexual y la práctica de los «matrimonios forzados»
• Juan Jorge Piernas López, La Corte Penal Internacional y las jurisdicciones nacionales a la luz del principio de complementariedad
• Bénédicte Real, Los países BRICS en un mundo globalizado: ¿algo más que actores económicos?
• Ana Cristina Gallego Hernández, La ley española de tratados de 2014
• Consuelo Ramón Chornet, Sobre el impacto de la crisis de refugiados en la PCSD de la Unión Europea. Referencia a la contribución de España
• Notas
• Carlos Ruiz Miguel, El principio y derecho de autodeterminación y el pueblo del Sahara Occidental
• Christina Binder, El Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos y el Derecho de los Tratados, ¿Fragmentación o Unidad?
• Maricruz Díaz de Terán Velasco, La transversalidad de género. Valoraciones a partir de algunos documentos de las Naciones Unidas
• Francesco Seatzu, Sulla convenzione dell’organizzazione degli stati americani sui diritti delle persone anziane

New Issue: Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Comercial Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Comercial Internacional/Latin American Journal of International Trade Law (Vol. 3, no. 2, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Luis F. Gomez-Alfaro, Sovereign Debt Restructuring in Latin America: Fixing the Pari Passu Clauses
• Kholofelo Kugler, Guarding Foreign Investment in South Africa’s Private Security Sector: The GATS Version
• Henok Birhanu Asmelash, Tobias A. Lehmann & Luis Montilla, NML Capital v. Republic of Argentina: A Law and Economics Analysis of the Pari Passu Clause
• Kenneth I. Ajibo, Confidentiality in International Commercial Arbitration: Assumptions of Implied Duty and a Proposed Solution
• Laure Burrus, Circulation of the International Arbitration Clause: French and Swiss Cases
• Anne Sophie Gidoin, Lessons from the First Round of ICC Panel Determinations Made Under ICANN’s Community Objections Procedure

Gregg: The Human Rights State: Justice Within and Beyond Sovereign Nations

Benjamin Gregg (Univ. of Texas, Austin - Government) has published The Human Rights State: Justice Within and Beyond Sovereign Nations (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press 2016). Here's the abstract:

The nation state operates on a logic of exclusion: no state can offer citizenship and legal rights to all comers. From the logic of exclusion a state derives its sovereign power. Yet this exclusivity undermines the project of advancing human rights globally. That project operates on a logic of inclusion: all people, regardless of citizenship status or territorial location, would everywhere be recognized as bearers of human rights. In practice, human rights are afforded, if at all, then only to citizens of those few states that sometimes regard human rights as moral necessities of domestic commitments—or for states that find that stance politically expedient for the moment.

This discouraging reality in the first decades of the twenty-first century prompts the question: What political arrangement might better conduce the local embrace and enduring practice of human rights? In The Human Rights State, Benjamin Gregg challenges the conviction that the nation state can only have a zero-sum relationship with human rights: national sovereignty is possible or human rights are possible, but not both, not in the same place, at the same time. He argues that the human rights project would be more effective if established and enforced at local levels as locally valid norms, and from there encouraged to expand outward toward overlaps with other locally established and enforced conceptions of human rights grown in their own local soils.

Proposing a metaphorical human rights state that operates within or alongside a nation state, Gregg describes networks of activists that encourage local political and legal systems to generate domestic obligations to enforce human rights. Geographic boundaries and national sovereignties would remain intact but diminished to the extent necessary to extend human rights to all persons, without reservation, across national borders, by rendering human rights an integral aspect of the nation state's constitution.

New Issue: Revue Générale de Droit International Public

The latest issue of the Revue Générale de Droit International Public (Vol. 120, no. 1, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Dossier: La lutte contre Daech
• Franck Latty, Le brouillage des repères du jus contra bellum. A propos de l'usage de la force par la France contre Daesch
• François Alabrune, Fondements juridiques de l'intervention militaire française contre Daech en Irak et en Syrie
• Fabien Gouttefarde, L'invocation de l'article 42.7 TUE ou la solidariste militaire européenne à l'épreuve de la guerre contre le terrorisme

Kloke: Der Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen als Weltgesetzgeber

Theresia M. Kloke has published Der Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen als Weltgesetzgeber – eine kritische Betrachtung aus völkerrechtlicher Sicht (Duncker & Humblot 2016). Here's the abstract:

Unter dem Eindruck der Ereignisse des 11. September 2001 ist der UN-Sicherheitsrat mit S/Res 1373 (2001) und S/Res 1540 (2004) legislativ tätig geworden. Dieses Vorgehen findet jedoch – dem herkömmlichen Verständnis der Eingriffsbefugnisse unter Kapitel VII folgend – keine Grundlage in der UN-Charta. Ebenso wenig lässt sich derzeit aus den Reaktionen der Generalversammlung sowie den staatlichen Stellungnahmen zu den Themenkomplexen Terrorismus, Massenvernichtungswaffen und Klimawandel eine »spätere Übung« der Staatengemeinschaft i.S.d. Art. 31 Abs. 3 lit. b WVRK analog ableiten, welche die ursprüngliche Rechtswidrigkeit des Organhandelns obliterieren würde. Das »weltgesetzgebende« Einschreiten des Sicherheitsrats ist mithin auch mehr als eine Dekade nach Verabschiedung der ersten Legislativresolution als ultra vires zu bewerten. Es gilt deshalb aufzuzeigen, welche Konsequenzen der Befund zeitigt und wie sich ggf. zukünftiges Handeln strukturgleicher Art in rechtlich vertretbarer Weise gestalten könnte.

Brammertz & Jarvis: Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence at the ICTY

Serge Brammertz (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) & Michelle Jarvis (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) have published Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence at the ICTY (Oxford Univ. Press 2016). Here's the abstract:

Although sexual violence directed at both females and males is a reality in many on-going conflicts throughout the world today, accountability for the perpetrators of such violence remains the exception rather than the rule. While awareness of the problem is growing, more effective approaches are urgently needed for the investigation and prosecution of conflict-related sexual violence crimes. Upon its establishment in 1993, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) began the challenging task of prosecuting the perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence crimes, alongside the many other atrocities committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.

This book documents the experiences, achievements, challenges, and fundamental insights of the OTP in prosecuting conflict-related sexual violence crimes at the ICTY over the past two decades. It draws on an extensive dossier of OTP documentation, court filings, trial exhibits, testimony, ICTY judgements, and other materials, as well as interviews with current and former OTP staff members. The authors provide a unique analytical perspective on the obstacles faced in prioritizing, investigating, and prosecuting conflict-related sexual violence crimes. While ICTY has made great stridesin developing international criminal law in this area, this volumeexposes the pressing need for determined and increasingly sophisticated strategies in order to overcome the ongoing obstacles in prosecuting conflict-related sexual violence crimes. The book presents concrete recommendations to inform future work being done at the national and international levels, including that of the International Criminal Court, international investigation commissions, and countries developing transitional justice processes. It provides an essential resource for investigators and criminal lawyers, human rights fact-finders, policy makers, rule of law experts, and academics.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: Pauwelyn's The Rule of Law without the Rule of Lawyers?

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on Joost Pauwelyn's article The Rule of Law without the Rule of Lawyers? Why Investment Arbitrators are from Mars, Trade Adjudicators from Venus. The symposium includes an introduction by Donald McRae and responses by Freya Baetens, Gabrielle Marceau, Catherine Quinn, and Juan Pablo Moya Hoyos, Robert Howse, Catherine A. Rogers, and Giorgio Sacerdoti.

Henriksen & Larssen: Political Rationale and International Consequences of the War in Libya

Dag Henriksen (Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy) & Ann Karin Larssen (Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy) have published Political Rationale and International Consequences of the War in Libya (Oxford Univ. Press 2016). Contents include:

• Tom Farer, U.S. Intervention in the Libyan Civil War: Are There Lessons to be Learned?
• François Heisbourg, The War in Libya: The Political Rationale for France
• Christina J.M. Goulter, The UK Political Rationale for Intervention and its Consequences
• Ann Karin Larssen, Russia: the Principle of Non-intervention and the Libya Case
• Sheng Ding, The Political Rationale of China's Deliberately Limited Role in the Libyan Civil War
• Ranj Alaaldin, The Role and Impact on the Arab League
• Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, The Rationale and Implications of Qatar's Intervention in Libya
• Jean-Marc Rickli, The Political Rationale and Implications of the United Arab Emirates' Military Involvement in Libya
• Dag Henriksen, The Political Rationale and Implications of Norway's Military Involvement in Libya
• Robert C. Egnell, The Swedish Decision to Participate in Operation Unified Protector
• Peter Viggo Jakobsen, The Danish Libya campaign: out in Front in Pursuit of Pride, praise and Position
• Ryan C. Hendrickson, The Role and Impact on NATO
• Thomas G. Weiss, Libya, R2P, and the United Nations
• Sigmund Simonsen, The Role and Impact on R2P and International Law
• Linnéa Gelot, The Role and Impact on the African Union
• George Joffé, The Impact of the War on Libya

Cannizzaro: The Present and Future of Jus Cogens

Enzo Cannizzaro (Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" - Law) has published The Present and Future of Jus Cogens (Sapienza Università Editrice 2015). This is the first volume of the Gaetano Morelli Lectures. Contents include:

• Enzo Cannizzaro, Preface
• Giorgio Gaja, Introduction
• Christian Tomuschat, The Security Council and Jus Cogens
• Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Le jus cogens, les mots et les choses. Où en est le droit impératif devant la CIJ près d’un demi-siècle après sa proclamation?
• Enzo Cannizzaro, On the Special Consequences of a Serious Breach of Obligations Arising out of Peremptory Rules of International Law
• Béatrice I. Bonafé, La violation d’obligations envers la communauté internationale dans son ensemble et la compétence juridictionnelle de la Cour internationale de Justice

Lectures: International Procedural Law: Common Principles or General Principles

On May 26-27, 2016, the Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche at the Facoltà di Giurisprudenza of the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" will host the third Gaetano Morelli Lectures. The topic is "International Procedural Law: Common Principles or General Principles." The program is here.

de Guttry, Capone, & Paulussen: Foreign Fighters under International Law and Beyond

Andrea de Guttry (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna), Francesca Capone (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna), & Christophe Paulussen (T.M.C. Asser Instituut) have published Foreign Fighters under International Law and Beyond (Asser Press 2016). Contents include:

• Andrea de Guttry, Francesca Capone & Christophe Paulussen, Introduction
• Edwin Bakker & Mark Singleton, Foreign Fighters in the Syria and Iraq Conflict: Statistics and Characteristics of a Rapidly Growing Phenomenon
• Marcello Flores, Foreign Fighters Involvement in National and International Wars: A Historical Survey
• Francesco Strazzari, Foreign Fighters as a Challenge for International Relations Theory
• Ross Frenett & Tanya Silverman, Foreign Fighters: Motivations for Travel to Foreign Conflicts
• Gabriel Weimann, The Emerging Role of Social Media in the Recruitment of Foreign Fighters
• Dallin Van Leuven, Dyan Mazurana & Rachel Gordon, Analysing the Recruitment and Use of Foreign Men and Women in ISIL through a Gender Perspective
• Fabrizio Coticchia, The Military Impact of Foreign Fighters on the Battlefield: The Case of the ISIL
• Emanuele Sommario, The Status of Foreign Fighters under International Humanitarian Law
• Robert Heinsch, Foreign Fighters and International Criminal Law
• Francesca Capone, Child Soldiers: The Expanding Practice of Minors Recruited to Become Foreign Fighters
• Daniele Amoroso, Armed Opposition Groups’ (and Foreign Fighters’) Abidance by International Human Rights Law: The Issue of Compliance in Syria and Iraq
• Sandra Krähenmann, The Obligations under International Law of the Foreign Fighter’s State of Nationality or Habitual Residence, State of Transit and State of Destination
• Andrea de Guttry, The Role Played by the UN in Countering the Phenomenon of Foreign Terrorist Fighters
• Alex Conte, States’ Prevention and Responses to the Phenomenon of Foreign Fighters Against the Backdrop of International Human Rights Obligations
• Gilles de Kerchove and Christiane Höhn, The Regional Answers and Governance Structure for Dealing with Foreign Fighters: The Case of the EU
• Matteo E. Bonfanti, Collecting and Sharing Intelligence on Foreign Fighters in the EU and its Member States: Existing Tools, Limitations and Opportunities
• Annalisa Creta, Towards Effective Regional Responses to the Phenomenon of Foreign Fighters: The OSCE Toolbox
• Linda Darkwa, The African Union and the Phenomenon of Foreign Fighters in Africa
• Christophe Paulussen & Eva Entenmann, National Responses in Select Western European Countries to the Foreign Fighter Phenomenon
• Aaron Y. Zelin & Jonathan Prohov, How Western Non-EU States Are Responding to Foreign Fighters: A Glance at the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand’s Laws and Policies
• Daveed Gartenstein-Ross & Bridget Moreng, MENA Countries’ Responses to the Foreign Fighter Phenomenon
• Laura Van Waas, Foreign Fighters and the Deprivation of Nationality: National Practices and International Law Implications
• Francesca Vietti & Mike Bisi, Caught in the Crossfire: The Impact of Foreign Fighters on Internally Displaced Persons, Asylum Seekers and Refugees from Syria and Iraq
• Andrea de Guttry, Francesca Capone and Christophe Paulussen, Concluding Remarks

Nylund: Child Soldiers and Transitional Justice

Bo Viktor Nylund has published Child Soldiers and Transitional Justice: Protecting the Rights of Children Involved in Armed Conflicts (Intersentia 2016). Here's the abstract:

In a political climate that holds limited promise for addressing the issue of child recruitment, Child Soldiers and Transitional Justice: Protecting the Rights of Children Involved in Armed Conflicts challenges the trend towards a narrow focus on recruitment and use of the child, and seeks to contribute to more effective prevention and responses that offer the child a chance of recovery, reconciliation and reintegration.

This book adapts existing theoretical frameworks of transitional justice in order to analyse child recruitment, with a view to demonstrating how a society can address the issue in a holistic way. It systematises relevant knowledge across a wide range of legal fields to allow for greater understanding of the law and principles, and a more informed basis for practical engagement with transitional justice mechanisms.

Delving deep into the travaux préparatoires of each of the fundamental legal instruments, the author analyses their evolution, spanning humanitarian law, human rights law, criminal law, and other aspects of public law, including peace agreements and action plans developed with armed groups and forces. He provides a particular focus on and in-depth analysis of the Lubanga case, and its implications for other components of transitional justice. The findings highlight arguments for placing child recruitment firmly on the transitional justice agenda.

By considering child recruitment against a transitional justice framework, the book allows a detailed understanding of the distinct but complementary components – rule of law, criminal justice, historical justice, reparatory justice, institutional justice, and participatory justice – and reveals the untapped potential in interactions between different areas of transitional justice.

Bachand: Les théories critiques de droit international aux Etats-Unis et dans le monde anglophone

Rémi Bachand (Université du Québec à Montréal - Law) has published Les théories critiques de droit international aux Etats-Unis et dans le monde anglophone (Pedone 2015). Here's the abstract:

Le champ académique du droit, spécialement celui du droit international, 1—présente une particularité importante si on le compare aux autres sciences sociales. Cette particularité, qu'on remarque dans sa littérature et plus encore dans son enseignement, est qu'on y parle très peu de théorie(s). Alors que les relations internationales et la sociologie, par exemple, ne négligent pas cet aspect de leur discipline propre, le droit international semble en cultiver la rareté. C'est à ce manque notamment qu'entend remédier l'auteur, dans ce riche cours donné à l'Institut des Hautes Études Internationales.

New Issue: Journal of World Investment & Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Investment & Trade (Vol. 17, no. 2, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• José E. Alvarez, ‘Beware: Boundary Crossings’ – A Critical Appraisal of Public Law Approaches to International Investment Law
• Patrick Dumberry, State of Confusion: The Doctrine of ‘Clean Hands’ in Investment Arbitration After the Yukos Award

Ingber: International Law Constraints as Executive Power

Rebecca Ingber (Boston Univ. - Law) has posted International Law Constraints as Executive Power (Harvard International Law Journal, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The use of international law to understand domestic authority has a long pedigree. It is also the subject of heated debate, which focuses predominantly on the extent to which international law can or should serve as a limit on political actors, in particular the President, and the extent to which it can be invoked to expand our understanding of domestic individual rights. Yet there is another significant dynamic at work in this interplay between international and domestic law. This is the invocation of international law not as a constraining force on government actors, but as an enabling force within the domestic system. This Article explores the U.S. Executive’s invocation of international law to support expansive interpretations of statutory or constitutional grants of authority; to narrow domestic prohibitions on executive action and narrow protections for individuals; and to justify the displacement of the ordinary operation of domestic legal rules, at times exchanging the domestic legal architecture for a more permissive framework based in international law.

Despite these dramatic effects, this “empowerment phenomenon” often goes unnoticed. In and of itself, the existence of international law empowerment is not inherently problematic. The dangers lie in the lack of attention and understanding paid to how it operates. In its most aggressive form, the empowerment phenomenon can result in an executive branch released from traditional statutory and constitutional constraints, free to act up to the limits of international law norms that the Executive itself asserts the authority to interpret. The hazards in this phenomenon lie in multiple factors: the insufficiency of international law itself as a sole check in the domestic legal realm; the discretion the Executive exercises over international law through its interpretive power; and the frequent lack of expertise and engagement with international law by those charged with checking executive authority. This Article examines the mechanisms through which the empowerment phenomenon operates, and navigates the tension between granting the Executive sufficient flexibility on the international plane and reining in that authority when it threatens to undermine fundamental domestic constraints.

Wu & Zou: Arbitration Concerning the South China Sea: Philippines versus China

Shicun Wu (National Institute for South China Sea Studies) & Keyuan Zou (Univ. of Central Lancashire - Law) have published Arbitration Concerning the South China Sea: Philippines versus China (Ashgate 2016). Contents include:

• Shicun Wu & Keyuan Zou, Philippines v. China Arbitration Case Concerning the South China Sea: An Introduction
• Shicun Wu, Competing Claims over the South China Sea Islands and the Way Forward: A Chinese Perspective on the Philippine-China Arbitration Case
• Anthony Carty, The South China Sea Disputes Are Not Yet Justiciable
• Donald R. Rothwell, Conciliation and Article 298 Dispute Resolution Procedures under the Law of the Sea Convention
• Michael Sheng-ti Gau, The Legal Status of Maritime Features in the Sino-Philippine South China Sea Arbitration: Admissibility and Jurisdiction
• Qiang Ye, Does China’s Position Paper on the South China Sea Arbitration Constitute a Preliminary Objection?
• Jun Zhao & Jiang Li, The Arctic Sunrise Case and Its Implications for China
• Keyuan Zou & Xinchang Liu, The U-Shaped Line and Historic Rights in the Philippines v. China Arbitration Case
• Ted L. McDorman, The Law of the Sea Convention and the U-Shaped Line: Some Comments
• Yann-huei Song, The South China Sea Arbitration Case Filed by the Philippines against China: Arguments Concerning Submerged Features, Low Tide Elevations and Islands
• Robert Beckman & Leonardo Bernard, The Significance of Offshore Geographic Features to Maritime Claims
• Kuan-Hsiung Wang, Fishery Resources Management in a Disputed Maritime Zone: A Political and Legal Analysis
• Nong Hong, Law Enforcement in a Disputed Maritime Zone: A Political and Legal Analysis
• Sam Bateman, The Impact of the Arbitration Case on Regional Maritime Security

Inaugural Issue: European Journal of International Security

The inaugural issue of the European Journal of International Security (Vol. 1, no. 1, February 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Vincent Pouliot, Hierarchy in practice: Multilateral diplomacy and the governance of international security
• Elke Krahmann, Choice, voice, and exit: Consumer power and the self-regulation of the private security industry
• John M. Owen, Springs and their offspring: the international consequences of domestic uprisings
• Jef Huysmans, Democratic curiosity in times of surveillance
• Denise Garcia, Future arms, technologies, and international law: Preventive security governance
• Alex J. Bellamy, The humanisation of security? Towards an International Human Protection Regime

New Issue: Global Responsibility to Protect

The latest issue of Global Responsibility to Protect (Vol. 8, no. 1, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Sarah Hewitt, Overcoming the Gender Gap: The Possibilities of Alignment between the Responsibility to Protect and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
• Arturo C. Sotomayor, Mexico and the R2P Challenge: The Commitment Trap
• Nathalie Tocci, On Power and Norms: Libya, Syria and the Responsibility to Protect
• Yasmine Nahlawi, The Responsibility to Protect and Obama’s Red Line on Syria

Call for Papers: International Business Law Scholars’ Roundtable

The Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law at Brooklyn Law School has issued a call for papers for a Scholars’ Roundtable, to be held October 14, 2016. Here's the call:

Call for Papers

2016 International Business Law Scholars’ Roundtable at Brooklyn Law School

The Dennis J. Block Center for the Study of International Business Law will sponsor a Scholars’ Roundtable on October 14, 2016 at Brooklyn Law School. Scholars writing in a diverse range of fields related to international business, economic, and financial law are invited to submit proposals to present works in progress for an intense day of discussion with other scholars in the field. Participants will be expected to read all papers in advance of the Roundtable and offer commentary on each of the presentations.

Scholars selected for the Roundtable will receive a $500 stipend from Brooklyn Law School to defray the cost of attendance.

Requirements for Submission

• Applicants must hold a fulltime tenured, tenure-track, or visitor/fellowship position at a law school or university. Scholars from outside the U.S. are encouraged to apply.


• Scholars who anticipate holding a faculty appointment in the 2017-2018 academic year are also welcome.


• Applicants should submit a 2-5 - page proposal, abstract, or summary of the paper. All papers presented must be unpublished at the time of the Roundtable. Papers that have been accepted for publication but are not yet in print are welcome.


• Possible topics include:
  
  - Conflicts of laws / private international law
  - Corporate law, securities, and international banking
  - Dispute resolution and arbitration
  - International business transactions
  - International economic law (e.g. trade and investment)
  - International intellectual property
  - International taxation
  - International trade
  - Law and development
  - “Mega-regional” economic integration agreements (e.g. TPP, T-TIP, CETA)
  - Regulation of corrupt business practices

Applicants should submit a proposal to Julian Arato (julian.arato@brooklaw.edu) and Robin Effron (robin.effron@brooklaw.edu) by June 5, 2016. Scholars selected to present at the Roundtable will be notified by July 1, 2016.

Workshop: Jurisdiction and Admissibility in Investment Treaty Arbitration

On April 29, 2016, the University of Bologna and the Scottish Centre for International Law at the University of Edinburgh will hold a workshop on "Jurisdiction and Admissibility in Investment Treaty Arbitration," in Bologna. The program is here.

Mouyal: International Investment Law and the Right to Regulate: A Human Rights Perspective

Lone Wandahl Mouyal (Univ. of Copenhagen - Law) has published International Investment Law and the Right to Regulate: A Human Rights Perspective (Routledge 2016). Here's the abstract:

The book considers the ways in which the international investment law regime intersects with the human rights regime, and the potential for clashes between the two legal orders. Within the human rights regime states may be obligated to regulate, including a duty to adopt regulation aiming at improving social standards and conditions of living for their population. Yet, states are increasingly confronted with the consequences of such regulation in investment disputes, where investors seek to challenge regulatory interferences for example in expropriation claims. Regulatory measures may for instance interfere with the investment by imposing conditions on investors or negatively affecting the value of the investment. As a consequence, investors increasingly seek to challenge regulatory measures in international investment arbitration on the basis of a bilateral investment treaty.

This book sets out the nature and the scope of the right to regulate in current international investment law. The book examines bilateral investment treaties and ICSID arbitrations looking at the indicative parameters that are granted weight in practice in expropriation claims delimiting compensable from non-compensable regulation. The book places the potential clash between the right to regulate and international investment law within a theoretical framework which describes the stability-flexibility dilemma currently inherent within international law. Lone Wandahl Mouyal goes on to set out methods which could be employed by both BIT-negotiators and adjudicators of investment disputes, allowing states to exercise their right to regulate while at the same time providing investors with legal certainty.

Breau: The Responsibility to Protect in International Law: An Emerging Paradigm Shift

Susan Breau (Univ. of Reading - Law) has published The Responsibility to Protect in International Law: An Emerging Paradigm Shift (Routledge 2016). Here's the abstract:

This book will consider a rapidly emerging guiding general principle in international relations and, arguably, in international law: the Responsibility to Protect. This principle is a solution proposed to a key preoccupation in both international relations and international law scholarship: how the international community is to respond to mass atrocities within sovereign States. There are three facets to this responsibility; the responsibility to prevent; the responsibility to react, and the responsibility to rebuild.

This doctrine will be analysed in light of the parallel development of customary and treaty international legal obligations imposing responsibilities on sovereign states to the international community in key international law fields such as international human rights law, international criminal law and international environmental law. These new developments demand academic study and this book fills this lacuna by rigorously considering all of these developments as part of a trend towards assumption of international responsibility. This must include the responsibility on the part of all states to respond to threats of genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansings and large-scale war crimes. The discussion surrounding aggravated state responsibility is also explored, with the author concluding that this emerging norm within international law is closely related to the responsibility to protect in its imposition of an international responsibility to act in response to an international wrong.

Kessedjian: Le droit international collaboratif

Catherine Kessedjian (Université Panthéon-Assas Paris II - Law) has published Le droit international collaboratif (Pedone 2016). Here's the abstract:

Le titre de cet ouvrage surprendra probablement le lecteur. Il est inspiré par une école de pensée aux Etats-Unis d’Amérique qui a initié une nouvelle manière d’aborder la norme juridique pour les professionnels du droit. C’est la première fois que le qualificatif « collaboratif » est appliqué au droit international. Il est destiné à montrer l’évolution du droit positif que l’on peut déjà constater, mais aussi à opérer en tant que discours performatif. Sur chaque aspect abordé dans le présent recueil (pluralisme juridique, gouvernance, rôle de la société civile, coopération, notamment) le droit collaboratif existe déjà, au moins en émergence, et s’avère riche de promesses pour la société internationale du XXIème siècle. Le droit collaboratif est à l’origine une méthode d’application du droit positif permettant de créer un esprit de coopération entre les parties à une transaction ou à une opération juridique, transformant les acteurs en agents de coopération afin de réduire les antagonismes et construire un terrain où les intérêts divergents peuvent devenir convergents. Si l’on étend cette méthode à la création normative, la société va favoriser les normes les plus proches du sujet, c’est-à-dire les normes bottom-up par rapport à celles imposées d’en haut. C’est à cette condition que la norme sera mieux acceptée par le sujet. C’est en cela que le pluralisme juridique, admettant la coexistence de normes d’origine privée avec celles de source publique, participe au droit collaboratif.

Call for Papers: Historicising International (Humanitarian) Law? Could we? Should we?

The Hugo Valentin Centre at the Uppsala University and the Stockholm Center for International Law and Justice have issued a call for papers for a conference on "Historicising International (Humanitarian) Law? Could we? Should we?," to be held October 6-8, 2016. Here's the call:

Call for Papers and Sessions

During the last couple of decades, law has broken its conceptual isolation. Through interventions by authors such as Martti Koskenniemi and David Kennedy, a new critical way of looking at law has brought the field closer to the social sciences. Critical geographers such as Arnulf Becker Lorca show how to broaden the geographical understanding of law. Much, though not all, of this discussion is about the laws of war, and it is also through this subject that professional historians enter this field of study.

So: should we historicise law? Could we, in a workable way?

The Hugo Valentin Centre at the Uppsala University together with Stockholm Center for International Law and Justice invite scholars within both law, history, and the other humanities and social sciences to take part in an international conference on 6-8 October 2016. The conference is open for professional scholars and doctoral students (or comparable).

The call for papers and sessions is open until May 30th, 2016.

There will be no fee, but on the other hand, no subsidies are available. Hotel rooms and food will be available for reasonable prices (see below).

Key speakers are  Alexander Gillespie (NZ), Mark Klamberg (Sweden), Arnulf Becker Lorca (UK/USA), Marc Neocleous (UK), Daniel Segesser (Switzerland) (more names are forthcoming).

If you want to present a paper, or organise a session, please contact Mats Deland: mats.deland@valentin.uu.se

The event is organized in cooperation with the Stockholm Center for International Law and Justice, and receives financial support from Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish research council).