New Issue: European Journal of International Relations

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Relations (Vol. 23, no. 1, March 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Audra Mitchell, Is IR going extinct?
• Kavi Joseph Abraham & Yehonatan Abramson, A pragmatist vocation for International Relations: The (global) public and its problems
• Jonathan Luke Austin, We have never been civilized: Torture and the materiality of world political binaries
• Chengxin Pan & Oliver Turner, Neoconservatism as discourse: Virtue, power and US foreign policy
• Catherine Baker, The ‘gay Olympics’? The Eurovision Song Contest and the politics of LGBT/European belonging
• Rahel Kunz & Julia Maisenbacher, Women in the neighbourhood: Reinstating the European Union’s civilising mission on the back of gender equality promotion?
• Robin Dunford, Peasant activism and the rise of food sovereignty: Decolonising and democratising norm diffusion?
• McKenzie F. Johnson, Institutional change in a conflict setting: Afghanistan’s Environment Law
• Yagil Levy, Control from within: How soldiers control the military
• Daniel C. Thomas, Beyond identity: Membership norms and regional organization

New Issue: African Journal of International and Comparative Law

The latest issue of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law (Vol. 25, no. 1, February 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Tomasz P. Milej, Striking the Right Balance Between the Interests of the Foreign Investors and the Host State – A Case Study of the Tanzania-Germany BIT 50 Years After Its Conclusion
• Nelson Ojukwu-Ogba, In Search of Financial Stability in Nigeria: From Legislation to Effective Regulation of Banks
• Tapiwa V. Warikandwa & Patrick C. Osode, Exploring the World Trade Organisation's Trade and Environment/Public Health Jurisprudence as a Model for Incorporating a Trade–Labour Linkage into the Organisation's Multilateral Trade Regime: Should African Countries Accept a Policy Shift?
• Charles Manga Fombad, Designing Institutions and Mechanisms for the Implementation and Enforcement of the Constitution: Changing Perspectives in Africa
• Nana Tawiah Okyir, Toward a Progressive Realisation of Socio-economic Rights in Ghana: A Socio-legal Analysis
• Rofiah O. Sarumi & Ann E. Strode, Using International Law to Protect Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa – An Audit of HIV/AIDS-Specific International Standards Relevant to Children Affected by HIV/AIDS

Moelle: The International Responsibility of International Organisations

Moritz P. Moelle (Federal Foreign Office, Germany) has published The International Responsibility of International Organisations: Cooperation in Peacekeeping Operations (Cambridge Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

The International Responsibility of International Organisations addresses the joint responsibility of organisations for violations of international law committed during the deployment of peacekeeping operations. More specifically, it inquires if and under which circumstances - in terms of the notion of control - international organisations can be jointly responsible. The author analyses the practice of international organisations (the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States) on an inter-institutional level, as well as in the field in the form of five case studies. The likelihood and distribution of responsibility between international organisations engaged in peacekeeping operations is affected by the different layers of applicable primary norms (Security Council mandates, internal law of the organisations, international humanitarian and human rights law). Although external pressure may contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of holding international organisations jointly responsible, any substantial measures and mechanisms can only be implemented with the participation of states and international organisations.

Salvadego: Struttura e funzioni della necessità militare nel diritto internazionale

Laura Salvadego (Università degli studi di Ferrara - Law) has published Struttura e funzioni della necessità militare nel diritto internazionale (G. Giappichelli Editore 2016). Here's the abstract:

Questo studio si prefigge di individuare la cornice unitaria di riferimento della regola relativa alla necessità militare nel diritto internazionale. Se ne vogliono chiarire la natura giuridica, la struttura e le funzioni in ogni ambito del diritto internazionale in cui essa viene in gioco. D'altra parte, la necessità militare è considerata nei diversi ambiti del diritto internazionale attinenti all'impiego della forza armata in accezioni piuttosto diverse fra loro, e non appare sempre agevole coglierne le peculiarità operative oltre che le correla-zioni funzionali con altre regole del diritto internazionale nei diversi ambiti in cui essa opera.

Stavrinaki: Le régime des procédures de communications individuelles dans le système des traités des Nations Unies

Tina Stavrinaki has published Le régime des procédures de communications individuelles dans le système des traités des Nations Unies (Pedone 2016). Here's the abstract:

La construction empirique du système des traités des Nations Unies relatif aux droits de l’homme s’est fondée sur un consensus entre les Etats dont les comités établis par les traités font partie.

Neuf instruments onusiens relatifs aux droits de l’homme confient à leur organe de traité respectif l’examen des plaintes individuelles et font état de l’émergence d’un droit de recours international. Entre les procédures issues de deux Pactes et les procédures de traités spécialisés, un vaste dispositif normatif est mis à la disposition des justiciables. La multitude des procédures conventionnelles de communication individuelle offre une diversité de choix aux particuliers et aux groupes de particuliers et selon certains met en danger l’unité du droit international des droits de l’homme étant donné que les mêmes allégations peuvent faire l’objet de plus d’une procédure.

En s’affirmant garants de l’objet et du but des traités onusiens relatifs aux droits de l’homme, ainsi que de l’effectivité du recours individuel, les organes de traités renforcent leur rôle en tant qu’organes de contrôle et encouragent une judiciarisation implicite de la procédure contentieuse. Cependant, à défaut d’outils institutionnels permettant d’imposer aux Etats parties les obligations découlant de la procédure de communications individuelles, les organes des traités sont obligés de chercher le bon dosage entre fermeté et diplomatie sans pour autant être en mesure d’assurer la coopération des Etats parties.

La présente étude est la première qui examine de manière synthétique toutes les procédures de communications individuelles établies en vertu de traités onusiens relatifs aux droits de l’homme. L’organisation et l’évolution du système des traités des Nations Unies composent la toile de fond de cette réflexion, permettant au lecteur de comprendre le fonctionnement et l’interaction des comités et de réfléchir à la problématique récurrente concernant leur avenir. Outre l’examen exhaustif des questions procédurales, qui constitue un outil de travail pour les praticiens, cette étude analyse, d’une part, la contribution des organes de traités à l’évolution du droit international et éclaire, d’autre part, les rapports entre les comités et les cours régionales des droits de l’homme.

Bültermann: Das Völkerrecht als Mittel zur Lösung ethnischer Konflikte

Lennart Bültermann has published Das Völkerrecht als Mittel zur Lösung ethnischer Konflikte: Eine Untersuchung anhand von Georgien und den De-facto-Staaten Abchasien und Südossetien (Nomos 2017). Here's the abstract:

Die Konfrontation mit den Resultaten der realistischen Schule der Internationalen Beziehungen führte zu einem Perspektivwechsel in der Völkerrechtswissenschaft, die sich nunmehr verstärkt der Untersuchung des realen Einflusses völkerrechtlicher Normen widmet. Hierzu leistet die Arbeit einen Beitrag, indem sie unter Heranziehung der Erkenntnisse der empirischen Konflikt- und Gerechtigkeitsforschung den Einfluss des Völkerrechts auf die Prävention und Lösung ethnischer Konflikte gewichtet. Hierfür werden die empirischen Befunde in einen entscheidungstheoretischen Rahmen gesetzt, mit dessen Hilfe sich der Einfluss sowohl des eigentlichen Norminhalts als auch des Normdesigns auf ethnische Konflikte bestimmen lässt. Der Autor beschäftigt sich mit Fragen normativer Effektivität jenseits klassischer Durchsetzungsmechanismen.

The confrontation with the results of the realist school of thoughts in international relations led to a change of perspective in international legal studies. Scholars now increasingly commit themselves to the study of the real-world impact of international law. The present book contributes to this by drawing on the results of empirical research on justice and ethnic conflict in order to identify the influence that international law exerts on the prevention and solution of such conflicts. For this purpose those results are set into a decision-theoretical framework that allows for determining the effect of the relevant legal rules' normative content as well as of their normative design. The author is working on questions concerning the effectiveness of legal norms beyond traditional enforcement mechanisms.

Nollkaemper & Plakokefalos: The Practice of Shared Responsibility in International Law

André Nollkaemper (Universiteit van Amsterdam - Law) & Ilias Plakokefalos (Universiteit Utrecht - Law) have published The Practice of Shared Responsibility in International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2017). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This is the third book in the series Shared Responsibility in International Law, which examines the problem of distribution of responsibilities among multiple states and other actors. In its work on the responsibility of states and international organisations, the International Law Commission recognised that attribution of acts to one actor does not exclude possible attribution of the same act to another state or organisation. Recognising that the applicable rules and procedures for shared responsibility may differ between particular issue areas, this volume reviews the practice of states, international organisations, courts and other bodies that have dealt with the issue of international responsibility of multiple wrongdoing actors in a wide range of issue areas, including energy, extradition, investment law, NATO-led operations and fisheries. These analyses jointly assess the fit of the prevailing principles of international responsibility and provide a basis for reform and further development of international law.

New Issue: International Security

The latest issue of International Security (Vol. 41, no. 3, Winter 2016/17) is out. Contents include:

• Alastair Iain Johnston, Is Chinese Nationalism Rising? Evidence from Beijing
• Preventing and Responding to Cyberattacks
• • Joseph S. Nye Jr., Deterrence and Dissuasion in Cyberspace
  • Rebecca Slayton, What Is the Cyber Offense-Defense Balance? Conceptions, Causes, and Assessment
  • Vipin Narang, Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation: How States Pursue the Bomb
  • Daniel Sobelman, Learning to Deter: Deterrence Failure and Success in the Israel-Hezbollah Conflict, 2006–16
• Correspondence
• Richard W. Maass & Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, NATO Non-expansion and German Reunification
• Nicholas D. Anderson & Nina Silove, Perspectives on the Pivot

d'Aspremont: The Two Cultures of International Criminal Law

Jean d'Aspremont (Univ. of Manchester - Law; Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted The Two Cultures of International Criminal Law (in The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law, Kevin Jon Heller, Frederic Megret, Sarah Nouwen, Jens David Ohlin, & Darryl Robinson eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This chapter argues that the expansionism of international criminal law has, in the last decade, undergone some dramatic changes. In particular, it demonstrates that the advent of the International Criminal Court (hereafter the ICC) has brought about a severe alteration in how the expansionism of international criminal law is thought and practiced. This claim is articulated around the following contentions. It is argued that from Nuremberg to Rome, the modes of legal reasoning associated with the sources of international law provided the main avenues for the expansion of international criminal law. Because such an expansionist strategy is traced back to the trials of war criminals by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, the expansionist use of the sources of international law is what is called here the Bavarian culture of international criminal law. It is further argued that the codification conducted by the Statute of the International Criminal Court did not put an end to the expansionism of international criminal law but made it rests on hermeneutic modes of interpretation instead. The resort to hermeneutics rather than modes of legal argumentation associated with the sources of international law with a view to pursuing the progressive expansion of international criminal law is what is called here the Roman culture of international criminal law. This chapter thus tells the story of this shift from the Bavarian culture to the Roman culture of international criminal law, that is from sources-based to interpretation-based expansionism. It simultaneously argues that such cultural revolution was made possible by the rewriting of one of the foundational principles which the field had given to itself, namely the principle of legality.

Bruno, Palombino, & Amoroso: Migration and Development: Some Reflections on Current Legal Questions

Giovanni Carlo Bruno (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), Fulvio Maria Palombino (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II - Law), & Daniele Amoroso (Università degli Studi di Cagliari - Law) have published Migration and Development: Some Reflections on Current Legal Questions (CNR edizioni 2016). Contents include:

• Giovanni Carlo Bruno, Fulvio Maria Palombino, & Daniele Amoroso, Preface
• Francesca Galgano, Should Europe Be Looking into Turkey’s Byzantine Past to Discover Its Own Future?
• Francesco Luigi Gatta, The EU Development Policy and Its Impact on Migration
• Stefano Montaldo, Regular Migrants’ Integration between European Law and National Legal Orders: a Key Condition for Individual and Social Development
• Laura Messina, Migration and Development: The Case of People Displaced by Development and States’ Obligation to Respect Their Human Rights
• Fulvia Staiano, The Undesirable Worker Fiction: Demand-Based Labour Migration Schemes and Migrant Workers’ Socio-Economic Rights
• Beatrice Gornati, Limits to the Implementation of International Law Instruments on Labour Migration: a Focus on ILO’s Praxis
• Salvatore Fabio Nicolosi, The “Asylum Payers”: Questioning the Asylum Seekers’ Obligation to Contribute to the Costs of Their Reception under International and European Union Law
• Elena Gualco, Unaccompanied Minors Seeking for Protection in the European Union: Will a Fair and Adequate Asylum System Ever See the Light?
• Alessandro Rosanò, Something Old, Something New, Something Balanced, Something Blue: the EU Blue Card Directive, Brain drain, and the Economic Development of the EU and the Sending Countries
• Martina Guidi, More Development of Third States and Less Migration towards the EU Member States: Is This a New Dual Aim of the EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreements?

Conference: WTO@20

The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization and the National Law University, Delhi will hold a WTO@20 Conference in New Delhi on February 16-18, 2017. The program is here. Here's the idea:

WTO@20 Conference 2017, New Delhi

16-18 February, 2017

The Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), together with National Law University, Delhi, is organizing the WTO@20 Conference in New Delhi on 16-18 February 2017 to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the WTO. Five highly successful conferences as part of the WTO@20 series have already been held at Florence (Italy), Seoul (South Korea), Beijing (China), Cancun (Mexico), and Cambridge (USA). The Conference in New Delhi (India) will be the final event of the series.

Coming at a time when the world has witnessed significant developments in the areas of global cooperation and economic relations, the Conference will reflect on the current state and the future prospects of the multilateral trade regime, in general, and its legal disciplines, in particular. Over the course of three days, the WTO@20 Conference in New Delhi will bring together leading practitioners, adjudicators, business leaders, policymakers, diplomats, and academics working in the field of international trade and law. Details about the Conference, including the program and registration information, are available on the Conference website: http://ciipc.org/wto20

The Conference will feature a keynote speech by Mr Arvind Subramanian, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, on India's role and interests in the multilateral trade regime. The keynote will be followed by a roundtable discussion titled "The New Global Politics: Is There Space for Trade Multilateralism?"

The Conference sessions will develop on six main themes:

• The WTO and trade in services;
• The evolution of, and challenges posed by, trade remedy disputes at the WTO;
• Addressing non-trade concerns at the WTO;
• The role of the WTO in international intellectual property governance;
• The WTO dispute settlement system and other areas of global governance; and
• Developing countries' participation in WTO dispute settlement.

For further details please visit the Conference website or email the Organizers at wto20conference@nludelhi.ac.in

Workshop: Law and Colonial Violence

A workshop on "Law and Colonial Violence" will be held February 14, 2017, at Queen Mary University of London. I noted the call for papers here. The program is here.

Achiume: The SADC Tribunal: Socio-Political Dissonance and the Authority of International Courts

Tendayi Achiume (Univ. of California, Los Angeles - Law) has posted The SADC Tribunal: Socio-Political Dissonance and the Authority of International Courts (in How Context Shapes the Authority of International Courts, Karen J. Alter, Laurence R. Helfer & Mikael Rask Madsen eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In 2007, the Tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) heard its first case: a group of white farmers led by a Zimbabwean named Mike Campbell sued the Zimbabwean government, alleging that its uncompensated seizure of their farms constituted unlawful racial discrimination. The decision the Tribunal issued in this case (Campbell) went on to trigger intense backlash from the government headed by Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, paving the way for a remarkable curtailment of the Tribunal’s authority. Ultimately, Zimbabwe — specifically the Mugabe regime — succeeded in stripping the Tribunal of both private access and its jurisdiction over human rights.

This Chapter pursues three objectives. The first is to demonstrate that central to understanding the Mugabe regime’s curtailment of the SADC Tribunal’s authority is an account of Campbell’s engagement with the socio-political context of southern Africa. To make my case, I introduce the concept of socio-political dissonance — a state that results when a legal decision contradicts or undermines deeply held norms that a given society or community forms on the basis of its social, political and economic history. I propose that socio-politically dissonant decisions alienate constituencies with significant influence over the authority of international courts, leaving these courts more vulnerable to successful backlash attempts by disgruntled litigants. In Campbell the SADC Tribunal advanced a vision of racial equality and postcolonial land reform that was socio-politically dissonant for the SADC region. This dissonance alienated SADC member states and limited the potential buffer civil society actors could offer the Tribunal in the face of the Mugabe regime’s indefatigable backlash efforts. My analysis of the SADC case suggests that comprehensive understanding of the relationship between contextual factors and authority of inter-national courts requires reckoning with the subjective beliefs, perceptions and motivations underlying key audience practices.

The second objective is to propose that SADC offers an example of circumstances under which judges have some potential to mediate how contextual factors beyond their control shape the authority of international courts. This Chapter argues that the judges on the SADC Tribunal avoidably facilitated the subsequent contraction of their Tribunal’s authority, and briefly suggests that alternative approaches were available to the judges that would have diminished the backlash threat. As a result, this Chapter contributes to the broader literature on the authority of international courts in the following way. Other scholars have mapped political constraints on international judicial lawmaking, and more recently scholars have begun exploring socio-political constraints on this process. My analysis of the SADC Tribunal provides a vivid example from outside of Europe of socio-political constraints on international judicial law-making, which if ignored may have direct implications for the authority of international tribunals.

The final objective of my chapter is to offer a novel analysis of the international law doctrine on race-conscious post-colonial land reform in southern Africa, which is at the heart of Campbell. Scholars to date have taken for granted the legal soundness of the SADC Tribunal’s application of international human rights law in Campbell, which can be read to preclude race-conscious land reform even where this reform seeks to undo racialized land ownership structures rooted in colonial policy in the region. I challenge Campbell’s racial discrimination analysis, arguing that a more nuanced approach is required by international human rights law and for southern Africa. Doing so initiates what must be a larger project more fully to understand international law’s relation-ship to post-colonial land reform and racial equality in southern Africa.

Call for Papers: Righting Wrongs: Enforcing Human Rights, Administering International Criminal Justice

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Righting Wrongs: Enforcing Human Rights, Administering International Criminal Justice," to be held March 10, 2017, at Westminster Law School. Here's the call:

Westminster Law School will host a conference exploring the nexus between human rights and international criminal justice from the perspective of the institutions of international criminal justice. In particular, the conference seeks to untangle the relationship between international human rights law and international criminal law in the investigation, prosecution and judgment of international crimes.

This could include topics such as the use of international human rights standards in the prosecutorial process, defining international crimes, recourse to amnesties and immunities, and any other issue related to the theme of the conference, i.e. is recourse to international human rights standards, including international human rights law, useful in the administration of international criminal justice? Do institutions of international criminal justice usefully contribute to international human rights law and, if so, how; if not, why not?

The conference opens with a roundtable discussion on the use of international human rights standards in the administration of international criminal justice. Confirmed speakers include:

• Professor Robert Cryer, University of Birmingham
• Mr Rogier Bartels, Legal Officer, Chambers of the International Criminal Court
• Mr Manoj Sachdeva, Trial Lawyer, Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

Call for papers

Proposals are invited from practitioners, academics and doctoral students, and from the perspectives of law and political science. Panel papers will be selected on the basis of an abstract of approx 250 words. Abstracts should include paper title, author’s name, email address and affiliation.

Submit proposals by Friday 10 February 2017 to Dr Marco Longobaro on m.longobardo1@westminster.ac.uk

Notification on the outcome of submission is Monday 13 February 2017 via email.

Call for Submissions: Comparative and International Perspectives on Mediation in Insolvency Matters

Transnational Dispute Management has issued a call for submissions for a TDM special issue on "Comparative and International Perspectives on Mediation in Insolvency Matters." The call is here.

Call for Submissions: China's One Belt, One Road: Economic Changes, Power Shifts and Prospects / Consequences for the World or Arbitration

Transnational Dispute Management has issued a call for submissions for a TDM special issue on "China's One Belt, One Road: Economic Changes, Power Shifts and Prospects / Consequences for the World or Arbitration." The call is here.

New Issue: Journal of World Investment & Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Investment & Trade (Vol. 18, no. 1, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Stephan W. Schill, The Constitutional Frontiers of International Economic Law
• Adjudicating Environmental Disputes Through Investment Treaty Arbitration
• Daniel Behn & Ole Kristian Fauchald, Special Issue: Adjudicating Environmental Disputes Through Investment Treaty Arbitration: An Introduction
• Daniel Behn & Malcolm Langford, Trumping the Environment? An Empirical Perspective on the Legitimacy of Investment Treaty Arbitration
• Amelia Keene, The Incorporation and Interpretation of WTO-Style Environmental Exceptions in International Investment Agreements
• Jeff Sullivan & Valeriya Kirsey, Environmental Policies: A Shield or a Sword in Investment Arbitration?
• Graham Mayeda, Integrating Environmental Impact Assessments into International Investment Agreements: Global Administrative Law and Transnational Cooperation
• Markus Gehring; Sean Stephenson & Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Sustainability Impact Assessments as Inputs and as Interpretative Aids in International Investment Law

Chaisse: The Regulation of the Global Water Services Market

Julien Chaisse (Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong - Law) has published The Regulation of the Global Water Services Market (Cambridge Univ. Press 2017). Contents include:

• Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Foreword
• Julien Chaisse, Introduction
• N. Jansen Calamita, Are investments in water different? Sectoral economics, investment treaty architecture, and the role of governance
• Fernando Dias Simões, The erosion of the concept of public service in water concessions: evidence from investor-state arbitration
• Aline Baillat, International investment agreements and water resources management
• Bryan Mercurio & Antoine Martin, Water is not medicine: the tension between access to water and intellectual property rights in the area of water technologies
• Chien-Huei Wu & Helen Hai-Ning Huang, Right to water in the shadow of trade liberalization
• Markus Krajewski, Protecting the human right to water through the regulation of multinational enterprises
• Leila Choukroune, Water and sanitation services in international trade and investment law: for a holistic human rights based approach
• Shintaro Hamanaka, Foreign governmental suppliers' investment: profit or aid? The case study of a Japanese city water bureau
• Bryan Druzin, The drip, drip of depletion: solving the tragedy of the commons in global water usage
• Panagiotis Delimatsis, The regulation of water services in the European Union internal market
• Christoph Herrmann, External competences of the EU in the field of water services trade and regulation
• Sufian Jusoh, Hayatunnisah Sulaiman, Suzarika Sahak & Karamjit Singh, Fragmentation of water policies in ASEAN: potential role of the ASEAN community
• Anatole Boute, Water management in Central Asia: the role of energy, trade and investment law
• Pierre Sauvé, Conclusion: 'Blue Gold' regulatory and economic challenges

New Issue: Leiden Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (Vol. 30, no. 1, March 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Eric De Brabandere & Ingo Venzke, The Leiden Journal of International Law at 30
• International Legal Theory
• Patricia Popelier & Catherine Van de Heyning, Subsidiarity Post-Brighton: Procedural Rationality as Answer?
• Tor-Inge Harbo, Introducing Procedural Proportionality Review in European Law
• International Law and Practice
• Seunghwan Kim, Non-Refoulement and Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: State Sovereignty and Migration Controls at Sea in the European Context
• Federico Ortino, Investment Treaties, Sustainable Development and Reasonableness Review: A Case Against Strict Proportionality Balancing
• Federica I. Paddeu, Use of Force against Non-state Actors and the Circumstance Precluding Wrongfulness of Self-Defence
• Susannah Willcox, Climate Change and Atoll Island States: Pursuing a ‘Family Resemblance’ Account of Statehood
• Hague International Tribunals: International Court of Justice
• Kenneth J. Keith, Challenges to the Independence of the International Judiciary: Reflections on the International Court of Justice
• International Criminal Courts and Tribunals
• Alison Bisset, The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination in Truth Commission-Administered Accountability Initiatives
• Harry Hobbs, Towards a Principled Justification for the Mixed Composition of Hybrid International Criminal Tribunals
• Nidal Nabil Jurdi, The Complementarity Regime of the International Criminal Court in Practice: Is it Truly Serving the Purpose? Some Lessons from Libya
• Joanna Kyriakakis, Corporations before International Criminal Courts: Implications for the International Criminal Justice Project
• Joris van Wijk & Barbora Holá, Acquittals in International Criminal Justice: Pyrrhic Victories?
• Review Essay
• Florian F. Hoffmann, Twin Siblings: Fresh Perspectives on Law in Development (and Vice Versa)

Workshop: Neutrality in the History of International Law

On March 30, 2017, the European Society of International Law's Interest Group on the History of International Law will hold a workshop on the occasion of the ESIL 2017 Research Forum. The theme is: "Neutrality in the History of International Law." The program is here.

Sadoff: Bringing International Fugitives to Justice: Extradition and its Alternatives

David A. Sadoff has published Bringing International Fugitives to Justice: Extradition and its Alternatives (Cambridge Univ. Press 2016). Here's the abstract:

A novel and robust framework for the operational and legal analysis of recovering fugitives abroad, Bringing International Fugitives to Justice addresses how States, working alone, in cooperation, or with third-party intervention, strive to secure the custody of fugitives in order to bring them to justice - for prosecution or punishment purposes - while evaluating the lawfulness of those pursuit efforts. The book introduces redefined terms and new concepts to add precision to the discourse; sets forth comprehensive typologies, including of extradition arrangements and impediments; and provides a mapping to account for the full range of means and methods - extradition, collateral and remedial approaches to extradition, and full-scale and fallback alternatives to extradition -by which international fugitives can be retrieved. The study considers the judicial, diplomatic, and policy consequences of reliance on the more aggressive or controversial alternatives, proffering recommendations that, if adopted, could facilitate the recovery of fugitives while minimizing associated risks.

New Volume: New Zealand Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 12, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Articles and Commentaries
• Sanja Nenadic, The Lawfulness of New Zealand’s Military Deployment to Iraq: “Intervention by Invitation” Tested
• Stephen Eliot Smith, Reviving the Obligatory Abstention Rule in the UN Security Council: Reform from the Inside Out
• Hugh Goodwin, Jurisdictional Headache: Finding a Solution to the Layers of Trade Governance between New Zealand and China
• Mariela Maidana-Eletti, The Promises and Perils of the TBT Agreement: Food Quality, Food Labelling and Market Access
• Jia Meng, Holding Sovereignty Ransom: The German Constitutional Court and a Sovereign’s Inability to Act During Financial Crises
• Amy Maguire, The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Self-Determination in Australia: Using a Human Rights Approach to Promote Accountability

Tissier-Raffin: La qualité de réfugié de l'article 1 de la Convention de Genève à la lumière des jurisprudences occidentales

Marion Tissier-Raffin has published La qualité de réfugié de l'article 1 de la Convention de Genève à la lumière des jurisprudences occidentales (Bruylant 2016). Here's the abstract:

Comment est aujourd’hui interprétée la qualité de réfugié, et quelles sont les personnes qui se voient reconnaître cette qualité dans les États à l’étude ? Tel est l’objet de la recherche ici menée.

Au terme d’une analyse comparative des interprétations jurisprudentielles et des arguments qui les sous-tendent, l’étude menée montre que deux mouvements contradictoires se dégagent. Tout d’abord, un mouvement de convergence dans l’interprétation de la qualité de réfugié dans tous les pays à l’étude lorsque les craintes de persécutions invoquées sont individuelles. En effet, tous les États accordent communément la qualité de réfugié aux individus qui craignent des persécutions individuelles. Ils reconnaissent ainsi de plus en plus largement, au-delà du motif premier et traditionnel des persécutions politiques et religieuses, les motifs de persécutions sociales. Ensuite, se dégage un second mouvement contradictoire de divergences dans l’interprétation de la qualité de réfugié lorsque les craintes de persécutions invoquées sont de nature collective. Ces divergences portent autant sur l’interprétation des persécutions collectives s’appuyant sur la race, la nationalité, que sur les nouveaux motifs d’appartenance à un groupe social tels que celui des enfants ou des jeunes hommes en âge de se battre. Et ces divergences se manifestent autant quand les menaces de persécutions ont lieu en temps de paix qu’en temps de guerre.

Au final, il ressort donc que le visage du réfugié a changé depuis le début des années 1990. Dans tous les pays à l’étude, le réfugié statutaire reste une victime de persécutions individuelles. Toutefois, il n’est plus seulement un dissident politique ou religieux comme auparavant ; il est de plus en plus un ou une dissidente sociale. Ensuite, les personnes sollicitant la qualité de réfugié sont également des victimes anonymes et innocentes de persécutions collectives. Toutefois, elles ne se voient pas reconnaître communément la qualité de réfugié dans tous les États à l’étude.

New Issue: Michigan Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Michigan Journal of International Law (Vol. 37, no. 4, Summer 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Laurence R. Helfer & Ingrid B. Wuerth, Customary International Law: An Instrument Choice Perspective
• Catherine Renshaw, Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia: Uncovering the Dynamics of State Commitment and Compliance
• Shana Tabak, Ambivalent Enforcement: International Humanitarian Law at Human Rights Tribunals

New Issue: Columbia Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 55, no. 1, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Jonathan Remy Nash, Doubly Uncooperative Federalism and the Challenge of U.S. Treaty Compliance
• Katharine G. Young, Rights and Queues: Distributive Contests in the Modern State

New Issue: Ocean Development & International Law

The latest issue of Ocean Development & International Law (Vol. 48, no. 1, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Bjarni Már Magnússon, Can the United States Establish the Outer Limits of Its Extended Continental Shelf Under International Law?
• Bill Hayton, When Good Lawyers Write Bad History: Unreliable Evidence and the South China Sea Territorial Dispute
• Zoe Scanlon, Incorporating Taiwan in International Fisheries Management: The Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement Experience
• Min Gyo Koo, Belling the Chinese Dragon at Sea: Western Theories and Asian Realities
• Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi, The Mauritian Piracy Act: A Comment on the Director of Public Prosecutions v Ali Abeoulkader Mohamed Decision

Conference: ESIL 2017 Research Forum

The European Society of International Law's 2017 Research Forum will take place March 30-31, 2017, at the University of Grenada. The program is now available here.

Haque: Law and Morality at War

Adil Ahmad Haque (Rutgers Univ. - Law) has published Law and Morality at War (Oxford Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

The laws are not silent in war, but what should they say? What is the moral function of the law of armed conflict? Should the law protect civilians who do not fight but help those who do? Should the law protect soldiers who perform non-combat functions or who may be safely captured? How certain should a soldier be that an individual is a combatant rather than a civilian before using lethal force? What risks should soldiers take on themselves to avoid harming civilians? When do inaccurate weapons become unlawfully indiscriminate? When does 'collateral damage' to civilians become unlawfully disproportionate? Should civilians lose their legal rights by serving, voluntarily or involuntarily, as human shields? Finally, when should killing civilians constitute a war crime? These are the questions that Law and Morality at War answers, contributing to a cutting-edge international debate.

Drawing on the concepts and methods of contemporary moral and legal philosophy, the book develops a normative framework within which the laws of war and international criminal law can be evaluated, criticized, and reformed. While several philosophical works critically examine the moral status of civilians and combatants, this book fills a gap, offering both an account of the laws of war and war crimes, and proposing how the law could be improved from a moral point of view.

Bower: Norms Without the Great Powers

Adam Bower (Univ. of St. Andrews - International Relations) has published Norms Without the Great Powers: International Law and Changing Social Standards in World Politics (Oxford Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

Can multilateral treaties succeed in transforming conduct when they are rejected by the most powerful states in the international system? In the past two decades, coalitions of middle-power states and transnational civil society groups have negotiated binding legal agreements in the face of concerted opposition from China, Russia, and - most especially - the United States. These instances of a so-called 'new diplomacy' reflect a deliberate attempt to use the language of international law to bypass great power objections in establishing new global standards. Yet critics have frequently derided such treaties as utopian and counter productive because they fail to include those states allegedly most capable of effectively managing complex international cooperation. Thus far no study has offered a systematic, comparative study of the promise, and limits, of multilateralism without the great powers. Norms Without the Great Powers addresses this gap through the presentation of a novel theoretical account and detailed empirical evidence regarding the implementation of two archetypal cases, the antipersonnel Mine Ban Treaty and International Criminal Court. Both treaties have substantially reshaped expectations and behaviour in their respective domains, but with important variation in the extent and breadth of their impact. These findings provide the impetus for assessing the prospects for similar strategies on other topics of contemporary global concern. T.

Call for Papers: Rethinking the World Order: International Law and International Relations at the End of the First World War

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Rethinking the World Order: International Law and International Relations at the End of the First World War," to be held August 31-September 1, 2017, at the European Studies Centre, St Antony’s College, Oxford. Here's the call:

Rethinking the World Order:
International Law and International Relations
at the End of the First World War

Oxford, 31 August – 1 September 2017
(Apply by 31 March 2017)

The horrors of the Great War and the desire for peace shaped scholarship in International Law and International Relations (IR) during the late 1910s—a stimulating time for both disciplines. Scholars observed and analysed political events as they unfolded but also took an active part, as governmental advisors or diplomatic officials, in devising the new international order. The Paris Peace Conference and the subsequent birth of the League of Nations as well as the Permanent Court of International Justice served as testing grounds for new legal and political concepts. The end of the First World War was in many ways a milestone for both disciplines, prompting scholars to reflect on the consequences of the war on society, politics, and the world economy. How could another world war be avoided in the future? How could states be held accountable for violations of international law? What were the preconditions for peaceful international governance? These questions led to pioneering research on issues such as arbitration, sanctions, revision of treaties, supra-national governance, disarmament, self-determination, migration, and the protection of minorities. At the same time, the study of International Law and IR also advanced in terms of methodology and teaching, including new professorships, journals, conferences and research centres.

A century later, it is a good moment to reflect upon disciplinary histories and revisit some of the theoretical and practical debates that shaped the period from 1914 to 1945. The workshop conveners are particularly (but not exclusively) interested in the following research questions:

• Was the First World War a watershed moment for the development of International Law and IR?
• Which were the key debates in both disciplines? And how can they be re-interpreted today?
• What were the connections and/or dividing lines between the two disciplines?
• Did International Law and IR evolve similarly across different countries?
• Who were the principle actors, both individuals and institutions, in the respective fields?
• Which role did International Law and IR respectively play in shaping ‘real-world’ policy? And to what extent were theoretical developments shaped by political events?
• How did ideas float between academia and politics?
• How successful were non-governmental organisations—such as academic societies, arbitration clubs, political pressure groups, League of Nations clubs, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), etc.—in achieving their goals?

The two-day interdisciplinary workshop will be held at the European Studies Centre (ESC) at St Antony’s College, Oxford, from 31 August to 1 September 2017. We invite abstracts from early career researchers and advanced postgraduate students in history, law, IR and other related disciplines to share their research in a multi-disciplinary environment. By facilitating this exchange we hope to open new avenues of research and to encourage new approaches to the history of both disciplines. We are planning to have six panels, one keynote address, and an open plenary session that allows all participants to pitch their research projects.

Please submit your proposal (including a title, 300 words abstract, and a short bio) to jan.stoeckmann@new.ox.ac.uk by 31 March 2017. Successful applicants will be notified by 30 April 2017. We are currently working on logistical details, including reimbursements and publication plans, and will keep you updated.

The convenors are Dr Gabriela Frei, British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Junior Research Fellow in History Jesus College, Oxford, and Jan Stöckmann, DPhil Candidate in History New College, Oxford.

Lectures: Rethinking the Doctrine of Customary International Law

On May 26-27, 2017, the Dipartimento di Scienze Giuridiche at the Facoltà di Giurisprudenza of the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" will host the fourth Gaetano Morelli Lectures. The topic is "Rethinking the Doctrine of Customary International Law." The program is here.

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 35, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• New developments and open issues concerning off-Earth mining: Interpretative and law-making challenges in light of the current legal regime
• Introduced by Elena Carpanelli
• Tanja Masson-Zwaan & Neta Palkovitz, Regulation of space resource rights: Meeting the needs of States and private parties
• Steven Freeland, Common heritage, not common law: How international law will regulate proposals to exploit space resources

Voon & Sheargold: Australia, China, and the Co-Existence of Successive International Investment Agreements

Tania S.L. Voon (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) & Elizabeth Sheargold (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) have posted Australia, China, and the Co-Existence of Successive International Investment Agreements (in The China Australia Free Trade Agreement: A 21st Century Model, Colin Picker, Heng Wang & Weihuan Zhou eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The relationship between the bilateral investment treaty (‘BIT’) between Australia and China (1988) and the preferential trade agreement between those countries (‘ChAFTA’) (2015) provides an interesting case study of the co-existence of successive treaties under public international law. ChAFTA contains but a skeleton of an investment chapter, centred on national treatment and most-favoured nation obligations, yet with a range of substantive and procedural protections of policy space. The parties have agreed to negotiate a comprehensive investment chapter in the coming years. But the pre-existing BIT already contains standard investment protections including provisions on fair and equitable treatment and expropriation. Do those obligations continue to apply in the post-ChAFTA world? If so, are the regulatory protections in ChAFTA sufficient to protect the parties’ sovereign autonomy, despite their absence from the BIT itself? The answers to this puzzle lie at the intersection between the relevant general provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the ChAFTA provisions on its relationship to other treaties. A close reading of these different provisions suggests that the modern clarifications in ChAFTA are unlikely to affect the interpretation or application of the ‘old style’ Australia-China BIT, leaving the latter obligations in place without textual nuance, and Australia in particular open to an ISDS claim on the basis of those broad obligations.

New Volume: Anuario Argentino de Derecho Internacional

The latest volume of the Anuario Argentino de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 24, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Doctrina
• Ercilia Irene Adén, Control de Convencionalidad. El Valor de la Jurisprudencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos en el Caso “Hábeas Corpus Seleme”
• Leopoldo M. A. Godio, El Docente como Administrador en la Enseñanza Universitaria del Derecho Internacional ante el Desafío del Aula Virtual
• Nancy Rocío Ordóñez Penagos & María Laura Rosa Vilardo, Ley Aplicable a los Contratos Internacionales de Consumo en las Disposiciones de Dipr del Código Civil y Comercial de la Nación
• Carla Francisca Yacomini, La Búsqueda de Convergencias en la Elaboración de un Nuevo Instrumento Jurídico Vinculante en el Marco de la Convención de las Naciones Unidas Sobre el Derecho del Mar en Materia de Biodiversidad Marina en Áreas Fuera de la Jurisdicción Nacional
• XXVIIº Congreso Argentino de Derecho Internacional
• Luis Cruz Pereyra, Palabras de Apertura del XXVIIº Congreso Argentino de Derecho Internacional y de la Asamblea General Ordinaria 2015, del Vicepresidente de la Asociación Argentina de Derecho Internacional - AADI
• Relatos
• Javier Esteban Figueroa (Relator), La Cuestión de las Islas Malvinas: Desafíos y Potencialidades a Partir de Una Visión Integral Actual del Atlántico Sur
• Carolina Daniela Iud (Relatora), Contratos Internacionales en el Código Civil y Comercial Argentino 2014
• Julio César Córdoba (Relator), El Impacto de la Tecnología en el Acceso a la Documentación del Derecho Internacional
• Sebastián Alejandro Rey (Relator), Control de Convencionalidad por las Justicias Nacionales: Desafíos para la Aplicación del Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos

New Issue: Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Internacional (no. 5, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Dossier sobre refugiados e inmigración internacional
• Irene Victoria Massimino, Los refugiados y desplazados internos
• Barbara McCallin, Vivienda, Tierra y Propiedad en Situaciones de Desplazamiento Forzado: Una Llave para la Paz, Justicia y Soluciones Duraderas
• Anna Roberts, Eric A. Friedman & Mehgan Gallagher, Migración forzosa y derecho a la salud
• Antonio Morelli & Natalia Jiménez Alegría, Respuestas regionales al fenómeno migratorio: Europa y el continente americano
• Entrevista a Bill Frelick, Director del Programa de Refugiados de Human Rights Watch
• Artículos
• Hersch Lauterpacht, La tradición grociana del derecho internacional
• Hilary Charlesworth & Christine Chinkin, La nueva “arquitectura de género” de las Naciones Unidas. La creación de ONU Mujeres
• Entrevista
• Entrevista a Kevin Jon Heller

Conference: IBA Annual Conference on International Criminal Law

On February 4, 2017, the International Bar Association will hold it Annual Conference on International Criminal Law, in The Hague. The theme is: "The World in Crisis." The program is here.

New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 27, no. 4, November 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
  • JHHW, On My Way Out IV – Teaching; Emma Thomas – May the Force Be with You!; EJIL Roll of Honour; In this Issue
• EJIL: Keynote
• Philippe Sands, Reflections on International Judicialization
• Articles
• Vincent Chetail, Sovereignty and Migration in the Doctrine of the Law of Nations: An Intellectual History of Hospitality from Vitoria to Vattel
• Jan Martin Lemnitzer, International Commissions of Inquiry and the North Sea Incident: A Model for a MH17 Tribunal?
• Symposium: Focus on Asia
• Simon Chesterman, Asia’s Ambivalence about International Law and Institutions: Past, Present and Futures
• Melissa H. Loja, Status Quo Post Bellum and the Legal Resolution of the Territorial Dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands
• Zhiguang Yin, Heavenly Principles? The Translation of International Law in 19th-century China and the Constitution of Universality
• Symposium: Whaling in the Antarctic
• Enzo Cannizzaro, Whaling into a Spider Web? The Multiple International Restraints to States’ Sovereignty
• Jean d’Aspremont, The International Court of Justice, the Whales, and the Blurring of the Lines between Sources and Interpretation
• Stefan Raffeiner, Organ Practice in the Whaling Case: Consensus and Dissent between Subsequent Practice, Other Practice and a Duty to Give Due Regard
• Enzo Cannizzaro, Proportionality and Margin of Appreciation in the Whaling Case: Reconciling Antithetical Doctrines?
• Roaming Charges: Moments of Dignity: The Young and the Old
• Afterword: Robert Howse and His Critics
• Hélène Ruiz Fabri, The WTO Appellate Body or Judicial Power Unleashed: Sketches from the Procedural Side of the Story
• Bernard Hoekman, The World Trade Order: Global Governance by Judiciary?
• Andrew Lang, The Judicial Sensibility of the WTO Appellate Body
• Petros C. Mavroidis, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight: The Not So Magnificent Seven of the WTO Appellate Body
• Joost Pauwelyn, The WTO 20 Years On: ‘Global Governance by Judiciary’ or, Rather, Member-driven Settlement of (Some) Trade Disputes between (Some) WTO Members?
• Robert Howse, The WTO 20 Years On: A Reply to the Responses
• Re-lecture
• Anne-Charlotte Martineau, Georges Scelle’s Study of the Slave Trade: French Solidarism Revisited
• Oliver Lepsius, Hans Kelsen on Dante Alighieri’s Political Philosophy

Call for Submissions: Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal

The Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal has issued a call for submissions for its sixth volume (2018). The call has two components: the Convocatoria Pública para Artículos de Investigación and the VI Convocatoria del Certamen de Ensayos Blattmann, Odio Benito y Steiner.

New Issue: Revista Electrónica Cordobesa de Derecho Internacional Público

The latest issue of the Revista Electrónica Cordobesa de Derecho Internacional Público (2016, no. 1). Contents include:

• Julia Miralles de Imperial Pujol, El Grupo de Acción Financiera Internacional, La Controvertida Cuestión de la Toma de Decisiones
• Leopoldo Godio & Agustina Vázquez, Examen de las Empresas Multinacionales en el Derecho Internacional
• Neise Calixto Gonzalez Cadalso, El Diferendo del Esequibo en el Marco de la Integración Latinoamericana y del Caribe

Apaza Lanyi & Steinbach: Promoting Coherence between PTAs and the WTO through Systemic Integration

Pamela Apaza Lanyi (World Trade Organization) & Armin Steinbach (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods; Oxford Univ. - Nuffield College) have posted Promoting Coherence between PTAs and the WTO through Systemic Integration (Journal of International Economic Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) has resulted in a heterogeneous regime of trade rules applicable among WTO Members. The interplay between PTA and WTO rules has several implications, including risks of legal tensions and incoherence between both regimes, as well as between overlapping networks of PTAs. Consequently, adjudicative bodies both under regional PTAs and global WTO dispute settlement mechanisms are increasingly confronted with taking account of alien legal sources for the purpose of interpretation. Coherence between PTA and WTO rules thus depends on the degree to which adjudication at both levels – PTA and WTO – allows integration of alien legal sources. This paper explores the role of systemic integration as a method of interpretation under public international law allowing adjudicating bodies to deal with possible tensions and promote coherence within international trade law. It traces the various approaches to systemic integration pertaining to international trade rules as employed under both WTO and PTA adjudication. While systemic integration offers a public international law tool for reducing fragmentation of substantial law, there is heterogeneity in adjudicative practice regarding the readiness to employ systemic integration for the purpose of interpretation. The article identifies possible avenues through which future dispute settlement could exploit the potential for coherence through systemic integration, as well as elements which could be taken into consideration when integrating multilateral and preferential rules. It also provides insight on how PTAs could facilitate the application of systemic integration by adjudicating bodies at both levels.