New Issue: Legal Issues of Economic Integration

The latest issue of Legal Issues of Economic Integration (Vol. 44, no. 3, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Antoine Martin & Bryan Mercurio, The IMF and Its Shifting Mandate Towards Capital Movements and Capital Controls: A Legal Perspective
• Adam Hyams & Gonzalo Villalta Puig, Preferential Trade Agreements and the World Trade Organization: Developments to the Dispute Settlement Understanding
• Roderic O’Gorman, The Failure of the Troika to Measure the Impact of the Economic Adjustment Programmes on the Vulnerable
• Shafi U. Khan Niazi, Re-Launch of the Proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) in the EU: A Shift in Paradigm
• Simon López Artetxe, Is Health Really the First Thing in Life?

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 34, no. 3, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Sundaresh Menon, Adjudicator, Advocate, or Something in Between? Coming to Terms with the Role of the Party-Appointed Arbitrator
• Neil Kaplan, Winter of Discontent
• Chiann Bao, Third Party Funding in Singapore and Hong Kong: The Next Chapter
• Nicolas Wiegand, Can Asia Cut the Costs?
• Mel Andrew Schwing, The KLRCA I-Arbitration Rules: A Shari’a-Compliant Solution to the Problems with Islamic Finance Dispute Resolution in Singapore and Malaysia?
• João Ribeiro & Stephanie Teh, The Time for a New Arbitration Law in China: Comparing the Arbitration Law in China with the UNCITRAL Model Law
• Fan Yang, ‘How Long Have You Got?’: Towards a Transparent and Streamlined System for Enforcing Foreign Arbitral Awards in China
• Harshad Pathak & Pratyush Panjwani, Parallel Proceedings in Indian Arbitration Law: Invoking Lis Pendens
• Mariel Dimsey, Hong Kong’s Year in Review: A Résumé of 2016 Arbitration Developments
• John Bang & David MacArthur, Korean Arbitration Act Amended to Adopt Key Features of 2006 Model Law Amendments

New Issue: Revue Québécoise de Droit International

The latest issue of the Revue Québécoise de Droit International (Vol 29, no. 1, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Études
• Serge Théophile Bambaranuméro, La justiciabilité des infractions des forces armées dans les opérations de paix
• Jean Paul Bidiasnuméro, Le recours à la légitime défense par les organisations régionales dans la lutte contre le terrorisme
• Abdelwahab Biad & Elsa Edynak, L’arbitrage relatif à l’aire marine protégée des chagos (Maurice c. Royaume-Uni) du 18 Mars 2015 : une décision prudente pour un litige complexe
• Frédéric Lasserre & Yenny Vega Cárdenas, L’entrée en vigueur de la convention de New York sur l’utilisation des cours d’eau internationaux : quel impact sur la gouvernance des bassins internationaux ?
• Herman Blaise Ngameni, Le droit international pénal à l’épreuve des régimes politiques africains
• Rodrigue Ngando Sandjè, Le traité Germano-Douala du 12 Juillet 1884 : Étude contemporaine sur la formation des contrats dans l’ordre juridique intemporel
• Notes et commentaires
• Marta Torre-Schaub, L’affirmation d’une justice climatique au prétoire (Quelques propos sur le jugement de la Cour du district de la Haye du 24 Juin 2015)

Kierulf: Disarmament under International Law

John Kierulf (formerly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark) has published Disarmament under International Law (McGill-Queen's Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

Russia’s annexation of Crimea and involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine has in many respects set back post-Cold War improved relations between Russia, the United States, and Europe. The continued war in Syria threatens the security and stability of many countries in the Middle East and attacks by ISIS and other terrorist organizations are causing increased fear and instability in Iraq and in neighbouring countries. In many areas negotiations on disarmament and arms control are at a standstill.

In Disarmament under International Law, John Kierulf examines and discusses how disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation of both conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction are regulated in existing treaties and conventions. From his perspective as a former disarmament negotiator, Kierulf explains the United Nations’ disarmament machinery and procedures, and describes the UN’s essential role in promoting disarmament. Underlining the continued and serious threat posed by nuclear weapons, Kierulf appeals for increased and effective international efforts to reduce their number and ultimately eliminate them.

Bonnitcha, Poulsen, & Waibel: The Political Economy of the Investment Treaty Regime

Jonathan Bonnitcha (Univ. of New South Wales - Law), Lauge N. Skovgaard Poulsen (Univ. College London - Political Science), & Michael Waibel (Univ. of Cambridge - Law) have published The Political Economy of the Investment Treaty Regime (Oxford Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

Investment treaties are some of the most controversial but least understood instruments of global economic governance. Public interest in international investment arbitration is growing and some developed and developing countries are beginning to revisit their investment treaty policies. The Political Economy of the Investment Treaty Regime synthesises and advances the growing literature on this subject by integrating legal, economic, and political perspectives. Based on an analysis of the substantive and procedural rights conferred by investment treaties, it asks four basic questions. What are the costs and benefits of investment treaties for investors, states, and other stakeholders? Why did developed and developing countries sign the treaties? Why should private arbitrators be allowed to review public regulations passed by states? And what is the relationship between the investment treaty regime and the broader regime complex that governs international investment? Through a concise, but comprehensive, analysis, this book fills in some of the many "blind spots" of academics from different disciplines, and is the first port of call for lawyers, investors, policy-makers, and stakeholders trying to make sense of these critical instruments governing investor-state relations.

Casolari: The Acknowledgment of the Direct Effect of EU International Agreements: Does Legal Equality Still Matter?

Federico Casolari (Università di Bologna - Law) has posted The Acknowledgment of the Direct Effect of EU International Agreements: Does Legal Equality Still Matter? (in The Principle of Equality in EU Law, L.S.Rossi & F. Casolari eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The founding Treaties of the European Union do not explicitly regulate the legal status or the internal effect of the international agreements concluded by the Union itself. Moreover, the diplomatic practice of the EU legislature has long shown significant resistance to expressly regulating in the text of such agreements the issue of their effectiveness in the legal systems of the respective contracting parties. As a consequence, it is the case law of the European Court of Justice that has tried to shed light on the issue as far as the EU legal order is concerned. In keeping with the common thread of this volume, this chapter carries out an analysis of the ECJ’s rulings on the direct effect of EU agreements through the prism of the EU twin principles of legal equality and non-discrimination, so as to point out the role that direct effect—and the relative ECJ case law—may play in contributing to strengthening the concrete implementation of those principles. Generally speaking, this chapter argues that a Janus-faced attitude towards the principles of equality and non-discrimination comes through in the case law of the ECJ applying the doctrine of direct effect to international agreements. More precisely, the chapter distinguishes two opposite approaches labelled ‘functionalist’ and ‘protective’. The former, it is argued, establishes a functional relationship between direct effect and the equality and non-discrimination principles. From this perspective, the Court’s affirmative finding of a direct effect may be conceived—to some extent—as one of the tools available at the EU level to strengthen a proper implementation of those principles. On the second approach, by contrast, the lack of direct effect of some international agreements entered into by the Union is justified with the need to prevent those principles from being jeopardized and, more generally, to protect EU law. The chapter also looks at the most recent practice of EU political institutions on the signing and conclusion of international agreements. By leading to the express denial of the direct effect of those agreements, that practice marks a significant shift away from the previous trend, a trend that, as mentioned, has so far been characterised by self-restraint of those EU institutions on the agreements’ internal legal effects. This trend is illustrated in light of the two aforementioned judicial approaches, and its possible consequences on the effective implementation of the equality and non-discrimination principles are weighed.

Schauer: On the Relationship between International Law and International Constitutionalism

Frederick Schauer (Univ. of Virginia - Law) has published On the Relationship between International Law and International Constitutionalism (Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law, Vol. 11, no. 1, 2017). Here's the abstract:

In some circles the idea of international constitutionalism, or international constitutional law, appears to provoke a considerable and perhaps unexpected degree of resistance, and indeed animosity. My goal on this occasion is to try to figure out why this attitude of scorn might exist, and in the process also to say something about the relationship between international law and international constitutionalism.

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 71, no. 3, Summer 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• J. Bradford Jensen, Dennis P. Quinn, & Stephen Weymouth, Winners and Losers in International Trade: The Effects on US Presidential Voting
• Joanne Gowa & Kristopher W. Ramsay, Gulliver Untied: Entry Deterrence Under Unipolarity
• Khusrav Gaibulloev, James A. Piazza, & Todd Sandler, Regime Types and Terrorism
• Andrew T. Little & Thomas Zeitzoff, A Bargaining Theory of Conflict with Evolutionary Preferences
• Research Notes
• Krzysztof J. Pelc, What Explains the Low Success Rate of Investor-State Disputes?
• s Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham & Katherine Sawyer, Is Self-determination Contagious? A Spatial Analysis of the Spread of Self-Determination Claims
• Aditya Dasgupta, Kishore Gawande, & Devesh Kapur, (When) Do Antipoverty Programs Reduce Violence? India's Rural Employment Guarantee and Maoist Conflict

Special Issue: Le TTIP – Partenariat Transatlantique de Commerce et d’Investissement (suite et fin)

The latest issue of Revue internationale de droit économique (Vol. 31, no. 1, 2017) focuses on "Le TTIP – Partenariat Transatlantique de Commerce et d’Investissement : Enjeux et perspectives pour le droit du commerce international (suite et fin)." The first part of this symposium is here. Contents include:

• Le TTIP – Partenariat Transatlantique de Commerce et d’Investissement
• Henri Culot, Comment le TTIP s’articulerait-il avec le droit de l’OMC ?
• Philippe Coppens, Le TTIP et le secteur non marchand

Kassoti: The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Challenge of Non-State Actors

Eva Kassoti (Hague Univ. of Applied Sciences - Law) has published The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Challenge of Non-State Actors (Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law, Vol. 11, no. 2, p. 177, July 2017). Here's the abstract:

The article examines how international constitutionalism has come to grips with the phenomenon of informal law-making by non-State actors. The article identifies two opposing trends within the constitutionalist camp in relation to the question of actor informality. The first strand argues that all normative utterances should be presumed to give rise to law, irrespective of authorship (‘presumptive law thesis’). The presumptive law thesis is discussed and rejected on the ground that it rests on a model of participation in decision-making that dramatically departs from the existing one. The article continues by exploring the second strand of constitutionalism, which advocates in favour of retaining the distinction between direct and indirect participation in international decision-making (’the formal/informal participation model’). It is argued that, while this strand of constitutionalism is convincing at the descriptive level, it does not really add much to our existing knowledge. The last part of the article addresses the meta-question of the added value of analysing the phenomenon of actor informality through the lens of constitutionalism. It is argued that, despite its shortcomings, the constitutionalist project bravely attempts to frame the inherently political debate on global governance in legal terms, thereby attesting to the continuing relevance of international law as a regulatory mechanism in modern international relations.

Jeutner: Irresolvable Norm Conflicts in International Law: The Concept of a Legal Dilemma

Valentin Jeutner (Univ. of Oxford - Law; Lund Univ. - Law) has published Irresolvable Norm Conflicts in International Law: The Concept of a Legal Dilemma (Oxford Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

Conventionally, international legal scholarship concerned with norm conflicts focuses on identifying how international law can or should resolve them. This book adopts a different approach. It focuses on identifying those norm conflicts that law cannot and should not resolve. The book offers an unprecedented, controversial, yet sophisticated, argument in favour of construing such irresolvable conflicts as legal dilemmas. Legal dilemmas exist when a legal actor confronts a conflict between at least two legal norms that cannot be avoided or resolved. Addressing both academics and practitioners, the book aims to identify the character and consequences of legal dilemmas, to distil their legal function within the sphere of international law, and to encourage serious theoretical and practical investigation into the conditions that lead to a legal dilemma.

New Issue: Humanity

The latest issue of Humanity (Vol. 8, no. 2, Summer 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Dossier on Transformative Occupations in the Modern Middle East
• Simon Jackson & A. Dirk Moses, Transformative Occupations in the Modern Middle East
• Simon Jackson, Transformative Relief: Imperial Humanitarianism and Mandatory Development in Syria-Lebanon, 1915–1925
• Jacob Norris, Transforming the Holy Land: The Ideology of Development and the British Mandate in Palestine
• Seth Anziska, Autonomy as State Prevention: The Palestinian Question after Camp David, 1979–1982
• Tareq G. Baconi, Politicizing Resistance: The Transformative Impact of the Second Intifada on Hamas’s Resistance Strategy, 2000–2006
• Nida Alahmad, Illuminating a State: State-Building and Electricity in Occupied Iraq
• Artemy M. Kalinovsky & Antonio Giustozzi, The Professional Middle Class in Afghanistan: From Pivot of Development to Political Marginality
• A. Dirk Moses, Empire, Resistance, and Security: International Law and the Transformative Occupation of Palestine

Chinkin & Kaldor: International Law and New Wars

Christine Chinkin (London School of Economics and Political Science) & Mary Kaldor (London School of Economics and Political Science) have published International Law and New Wars (Cambridge Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

International Law and New Wars examines how international law fails to address the contemporary experience of what are known as 'new wars' - instances of armed conflict and violence in places such as Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. International law, largely constructed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rests to a great extent on the outmoded concept of war drawn from European experience - inter-state clashes involving battles between regular and identifiable armed forces. The book shows how different approaches are associated with different interpretations of international law, and, in some cases, this has dangerously weakened the legal restraints on war established after 1945. It puts forward a practical case for what it defines as second generation human security and the implications this carries for international law.

Langford, Behn, & Lie: The Ethics and Empirics of Double Hatting

Malcolm Langford (Univ. of Oslo - Law), Daniel Behn (Univ. of Oslo - PluriCourts), & Runar Hilleren Lie (Univ. of Oslo - PluriCourts) have posted an ESIL Reflection on The Ethics and Empirics of Double Hatting.

Call for Papers: Human Dignity and Human Security in Times of Terrorism

The T.M.C. Asser Instituut has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Human Dignity and Human Security in Times of Terrorism - International (Human Rights) Law Challenges and Opportunities." Here's the call:

According to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2016, “a complex and rapidly changing set of dynamics in global terrorism” can be identified these days, with a considerable number of countries improving their GTI scores, but with many moderately affected countries also experiencing record levels of terrorism. Although “over 90 per cent of all terrorist deaths occurred in countries already engaged in some form of conflict whether internal or international” – with Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria suffering most – a lot of attention is focused on Europe, where “ISIL’s transnational tactics in combination with lone actor attacks inspired by the group drove an increase in terrorism to its highest levels ever.” This, in turn, has led to what Amnesty International has even termed a “disturbing “Orwellian” trend”, in which context “the boundaries between the powers of the state and the rights of individuals are being redrawn and Europe’s human rights framework, which was so carefully constructed after the Second World War, is being rapidly dismantled.”

On 12 December 2017 (provisional date), the T.M.C. Asser Instituut will organise an international conference on ‘Human Dignity and Human Security in Times of Terrorism: International (Human Rights) Law Challenges and Opportunities’. This conference will critically analyse human dignity and human security challenges in the lead up to terrorism and in the responses to terrorism (both legal frameworks and specific issues). It aims to map how human dignity and human security can be secured, and how law can constitute a source of trust, in times where Europe and the rest of the world continue to be plagued by terrorism.

More specific topics one could think of:

• UN Security Council Resolution 2178 and its implementation
• the new EU Directive on Combating Terrorism
• national emergency regimes: the new normal?
• administrative measures in the context of countering terrorism
• terrorism, mental health and the law of patient confidentiality
• the right to non-discrimination and its effect on radicalisation
• terrorism kill teams versus the protection of nationals abroad
• incitement to terrorism, a comparative analysis

The organisers invite the submission of abstracts addressing the above-mentioned themes. Abstracts (of maximum 1000 words) should be submitted to Dr. Christophe Paulussen, c.paulussen@asser.nl, by 23 September 2017. Please include your name, e-mail address and a CV. The authors of the selected abstracts will be invited to present during the conference, provisionally scheduled to take place on 12 December 2017.

Full papers (of around 10,000 words, including footnotes) are to be submitted by 1 March 2018. For their final paper, authors are expected to deliver a critical legal reflection, to make an explicit link to the concept of human dignity and human security, and to think out of the box. The organisers will collect the final papers in a book, which will be published by T.M.C. Asser Press and distributed by Springer in March 2019

The T.M.C. Asser Instituut carries out research on developments in international and European law and its potential for serving the cultivation of trust and respect in the global, regional, national and local societies in which the law operates. This conference and the ensuing book are activities of the institute’s research strand on ‘Human Dignity and Human Security in International and European Law’.

New Issue: African Journal of International and Comparative Law

The latest issue of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law (Vol. 25, no. 3, August 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Benedict Abrahamson Chigara, Incommensurabilities of the SADC Land Issue and Nozick's Entitlement Theory
• Richard Croucher, Mark Houssart & Didier Michel, The Mauritian Truth and Justice Commission: Legitimacy, Political Negotiation and the Consequences of Slavery
• Saloni Khanderia, The Compatibility of South African Anti-Dumping Laws with WTO Disciplines
• Amy Baker Benjamin, 9/11 as False Flag: Why International Law Must Dare to Care
• Andrew Schmulow, Financial Regulatory Governance in South Africa: The Move Towards Twin Peaks
• Zekarias Beshah Abebe, The African Court with a Criminal Jurisdiction and the ICC: A Case for Overlapping Jurisdiction?
• Monique Aziza, An Empirical Study of Human Trafficking Law in Cameroon: Victims Rarely Seek Justice and Traffickers Are Not Held Liable
• Olufemi Soyeju, Mitigating Legal Risks in Nigeria's Project Finance Market