New Issue: Virginia Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Virginia Journal of International Law (Vol. 57, no. 2, Spring 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Anu Bradford, Stavros Gadinis, & Katerina Linos, Unintended Agency Problems: How International Bureaucracies Are Built and Empowered
• Rachel Brewster & Christine Dryden, Building Multilateral Anticorruption Enforcement: Analogies between International Trade & Anti-Bribery Law
• Ashley Deeks, Statutory International Law
• Aaron D. Simowitz, Legislating Transnational Jurisdiction
• Peter Vincent, Weathering the “Perfect Storm:” Welcoming Refugees While Protecting the United States at Home and Abroad

Call for Session Proposals: 2019 ASIL Annual Meeting (Reminder)

A reminder that the American Society of International Law has issued a call for session proposals for its 113th Annual Meeting, which will take place March 27-30, 2019, in Washington, DC. The conference theme is: "International Law as an Instrument." The deadline is July 16, 2018. Here's the call:

International Law as an Instrument

Actors on the international stage use a variety of tools to address their concerns, from climate change to economic development; from humanitarian crises to cross-border disputes; from commercial regulation to global trade. Governments and international organizations employ diplomacy and coercion, corporations use negotiation and persuasion, and non-governmental organizations engage in fact-finding and advocacy. And all of these actors affect and are affected by international law and use the international legal system to effectuate change and solve problems.

The 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) will focus on the distinctive ways international law serves as an instrument that national and international actors invoke and deploy, and by which they are constrained. How does international law shape the perceptions of the interests and problems of diverse global actors and help frame solutions? Is international legal language a useful medium for the development and dissemination of globalized norms? Under what conditions is international law most effective? Are international institutions effective instruments for addressing complex global challenges?

At the 2019 Annual Meeting, ASIL invites international lawyers from all sectors of the profession, policymakers, and experts from other fields to reflect on the different ways in which international law plays a role in identifying and resolving global problems.

Thematic Tracks:

• Criminal Law, Human Rights, Migration
• Dispute Resolution
• Foreign Relations and National Security Law
• Global Commons
• International Business
• International Peace and Security

Call for Session Proposals

To suggest a session to the Committee, please complete the form below by no later than July 16, 2018.

Click to Access Proposal Form

Inaugural Volume: AIIB Yearbook of International Law

The inaugural volume of the AIIB Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 1, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Peter Quayle & Xuan Gao, Introduction: Good Governance and Modern International Financial Institutions
• Part I: The Governance Role of the Boards of International Financial Institutions
• Stilpon Nestor, Board Effectiveness in International Financial Institutions: A Comparative Perspective on the Effectiveness Drivers in Constituency Boards
• Marie-Anne Birken & Gian Piero Cigna, Gender Diversity on Boards: A Cause for Multilateral Organizations
• Whitney Debevoise, International Financial Institution Governance: The Role of Shareholders
• Part II: The Governance Basis of International Financial Institutions
• Yan Liu, The Rule of Law in the International Monetary Fund: Past, Present and Future
• Natalie Lichtenstein, Governance of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Comparative Context
• Joan S. Powers, The Evolving Jurisprudence of the International Administrative Tribunals: Convergence or Divergence?
• Part III: The Governance Vocation of International Financial Institutions
• Catherine Weaver, Open Data for Development: The World Bank, Aid Transparency, and the Good Governance of International Financial Institutions
• Yifeng Chen, The Making of Global Public Authorities: The Role of IFIs in Setting International Labor Standards
• Pascale Hélène Dubois, J. David Fielder, Robert Delonis, Frank Fariello & Kathleen Peters, The World Bank’s Sanctions System: Using Debarment to Combat Fraud and Corruption in International Development
• 2017 AIIB Law Lecture
• Miguel de Serpa Soares, The Necessity of Cooperation between International Organizations

New Issue: International Community Law Review

The latest issue of the International Community Law Review (Vol. 20, nos. 3-4, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Alexander Murray, Terrorist or Armed Opposition Group Fighter? The Experience of UK Courts and the Implications for Public International Law
• Kerstin Braun, ‘Home, Sweet Home’: Managing Returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Germany, The United Kingdom and Australia
• Jakub Czepek, The Application of the Pilot Judgment Procedure and Other Forms of Handling Large-Scale Dysfunctions in the Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights
• Cedric Ryngaert, EU Trade Agreements and Human Rights: From Extraterritorial to Territorial Obligations

Helfer: Populism and International Human Rights Institutions: A Survival Guide

Laurence Helfer (Duke Univ. - Law) has posted Populism and International Human Rights Institutions: A Survival Guide. Here's the abstract:

Confronting recalcitrant and even hostile governments is nothing new for international human rights courts, treaty bodies, and other monitoring mechanisms. Yet there is a growing sense that the recent turn to populism in several countries poses a new type of threat that international human rights law (IHRL) institutions are ill equipped to meet. The concerns range in scope and intensity—from criticisms of specific rulings or legal doctrines, to predictions of backlash against particular courts or review bodies, to warnings that major sections of the institutional edifice of IHRL are in danger of collapse.

Part 1 of this essay identifies several facilitating conditions that have, until recently, supported IHRL institutions. Part 2 considers several distinctive challenges that populism poses to those institutions. Part 3 identifies a range of legal and political tools that might be deployed to address those challenges and explores their efficacy and potential risks. Part 4 concludes that IHRL institutions should adopt survival strategies for the age of populism and it preliminarily sketches what those strategies might look like.

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 35, no. 4, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Cherie Blair, Ema Vidak-Gojkovic, & Marie-Anaïs Meudic-Role, The Medium Is the Message: Establishing a System of Business and Human Rights Through Contract Law and Arbitration
• Paul Lefebvre & Dirk De Meulemeester, The New York Convention: An Autopsy of Its Structure and Modus Operandi
• Tamás Szabados, EU Economic Sanctions in Arbitration
• Stepan Puchkov, Psycholawgy: What Dispute Resolution Practitioners Overlook?
• Michael Kotrly & Barry Mansfield, Recent Developments in International Arbitration in England and Ireland

Brunnée & Toope: International Law and the Practice of Legality: Stability and Change

Jutta Brunnée (Univ. of Toronto - Law) & Stephen J. Toope (Univ. of Cambridge) have posted International Law and the Practice of Legality: Stability and Change. Here's the abstract:

Drawing on the practice-turn in constructivism and in international relations (IR) theory more generally, our interactional law framework provides a counterpoint to the largely static accounts of international law that still prevail in the interdisciplinary literature. We argue that a particular approach to managing stability and change is inherent in, and indeed characteristic of, legality and the rule of law in international as in domestic law. Therefore, to get at law’s distinctiveness, and to understand the specifically legal interplay between stability and change, one must examine law’s internal structure. Furthermore, legality must actually be practiced. For example, the conclusion of a treaty is often just the beginning of a long law-building process – the document alone ensures neither stability nor change in law. Finally, a focus on internal traits and practices of legality allows full consideration of the formal sources of international law as well as the so-called soft norms that are shaping international interaction involving an ever-wider range of actors.

Our “interactional law” framework places particular emphasis on what we call the “practice of legality.” We argue that this concept is central to understanding how law can both enable and constrain state actions, and why international law is a distinctive language of justification and contestation. In turn, the focus on stability and change is helpful because it directly confronts some of the persistent doubts and assumptions about international law, in particular in relation to international politics. Our work is animated by the intuition that the dominant views in IR and international law scholarship underestimate international law’s capacity to mediate stability and change, in part because they focus on the surface of law (treaties, statutes etc.) and external factors (interests, enforcement). They neglect the deeper structure of what makes norms law, and the distinctive practices that account for its relative stability and its capacity for change.

Kelly: Sovereign Emergencies: Latin America and the Making of Global Human Rights Politics

Patrick William Kelly (Northwestern Univ. - Buffett Institute for Global Studies) has published Sovereign Emergencies: Latin America and the Making of Global Human Rights Politics (Cambridge Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

The concern over rising state violence, above all in Latin America, triggered an unprecedented turn to a global politics of human rights in the 1970s. Patrick William Kelly argues that Latin America played the most pivotal role in these sweeping changes, for it was both the target of human rights advocacy and the site of a series of significant developments for regional and global human rights politics. Drawing on case studies of Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, Kelly examines the crystallization of new understandings of sovereignty and social activism based on individual human rights. Activists and politicians articulated a new practice of human rights that blurred the borders of the nation-state to endow an individual with a set of rights protected by international law. Yet the rights revolution came at a cost: the Marxist critique of US imperialism and global capitalism was slowly supplanted by the minimalist plea not to be tortured.

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 62, no. 7, August 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Vipin Narang & Caitlin Talmadge, Civil-military Pathologies and Defeat in War: Tests Using New Data
• Clayton Thyne, Jonathan Powell, Sarah Parrott, & Emily VanMeter, Even Generals Need Friends: How Domestic and International Reactions to Coups Influence Regime Survival
• Erica De Bruin, Preventing Coups d’état: How Counterbalancing Works
• Sabine Otto, The Grass Is Always Greener? Armed Group Side Switching in Civil Wars
• Arthur Silve, Asset Complementarity, Resource Shocks, and the Political Economy of Property Rights
• Darin Christensen, The Geography of Repression in Africa
• Andrew M. Linke, Frank D. W. Witmer, John O’Loughlin, J. Terrence McCabe, & Jaroslav Tir, Drought, Local Institutional Contexts, and Support for Violence in Kenya
• Francesco N. Moro & Salvatore Sberna, Transferring Violence? Mafia Killings in Nontraditional Areas: Evidence from Italy

New Issue: Transnational Environmental Law

The latest issue of Transnational Environmental Law (Vol. 7, no. 2, July 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Thijs Etty, Veerle Heyvaert, Cinnamon Carlarne, Dan Farber, Bruce Huber, & Josephine van Zeben, Transnational Climate Law
• Articles
• Yulia Yamineva & Kati Kulovesi, Keeping the Arctic White: The Legal and Governance Landscape for Reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants in the Arctic Region
• Kyla Tienhaara, Regulatory Chill in a Warming World: The Threat to Climate Policy Posed by Investor-State Dispute Settlement
• Benoit Mayer, International Law Obligations Arising in relation to Nationally Determined Contributions
• María Eugenia Recio, Transnational REDD+Rule Making: The Regulatory Landscape for REDD+ Implementation in Latin America
• Jonathan Verschuuren, Towards an EU Regulatory Framework for Climate-Smart Agriculture: The Example of Soil Carbon Sequestration
• Phillipa C. McCormack, Conservation Introductions for Biodiversity Adaptation under Climate Change
• Xiangbai He, Legal and Policy Pathways of Climate Change Adaptation: Comparative Analysis of the Adaptation Practices in the United States, Australia and China

New Issue: Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 51, no. 3, May 2018) is out. Contents include:

• The Law and Armed Conflict
• Sharon Afek, We’re Not in Beersheba Anymore: Discussing Contemporary Challenges in the Law of Armed Conflict with 120 International Lawyers
• Yoram Dinstein, Keynote Address: The Recent Evolution of the International Law of Armed Conflict: Confusions, Constraints, and Challenges
• Knut Dormann, The Role of Nonstate Entities in Developing and Promoting International Humanitarian Law
• Michael Wood, The Evolution and Identification of the Customary International Law of Armed Conflict
• Nitsan Alon, Operational Challenges in Ground Operations in Urban Areas: An IDF Perspective
• Geoffrey S. Corn, Humanitarian Regulation of Hostilities: The Decisive Element of Context
• Michael W. Meier & James T. Hill, Targeting, the Law of War, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice
• Noam Neuman, Challenges in the Interpretation and Application of the Principle of Distinction During Ground Operations in Urban Areas
• Emanuela-Chiara Gillard, Some Reflections on the “Incidental Harm” Side of Proportionality Assessments
• Ian Henderson & Kate Reece, Proportionality under International Humanitarian Law: The “Reasonable Military Commander” Standard and Reverberating Effects
• Roni Katzir, Four Comments on the Application of Proportionality under the Law of Armed Conflict
• Michael A. Newton, Reframing the Proportionality Principle
• Gloria Gaggioli, Targeting Individuals Belonging to an Armed Group
• Charles J. Dunlap, Jr., Targeting of Persons: The Contemporary Challenges
• R. Patrick Huston, A Practical Perspective on Attacking Armed Groups
• Agnieszka Jachec-Neale, Targeting State and Political Leadership in Armed Conflicts
• Eran Shamir-Borer, Fight, Forge, and Fund: Three Select Issues on Targeting of Person

New Issue: Yale Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Yale Journal of International Law (Vol. 43, no. 2, Summer 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Joseph Blocher & MItu Gulati, Puerto Rico and the Right of Accession
• Lea Brilmayer, Understanding "IMCCs": Compensation and Closure in the Formation and Function of International Mass Claims Commissions
• Kathleen Claussen, Separation of Trade Law Powers

New Issue: Stanford Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Stanford Journal of International Law (Vol. 54, no. 2, Summer 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Yueh-Ping (Alex) Yang & Pin-Hsien (Peggy) Lee, State Capitalism, State-Owned Banks, and WTO's Subsidy Regime: Proposing an Institution Theory
• Michael Viets, Piracy in an Ocean of Stars: Proposing a Term to Identify the Practice of Unauthorized Control of Nations' Space Objects
• Symposium
• Lawrence M. Friedman, On Planetary Law Arthur J. Cockfield, Shaping International Tax Law and Policy in Challenging Times
• Philippe Cullet, Policy as Law: Lessons from Sanitation Interventions in Rural India
• Marta Poblet & Jonathan Kolieb, Responding to Human Rights Abuses in the Digital Era: New Tools, Old Challenges

Call for Submissions: 9th GoJIL Student Essay Competition

The Goettingen Journal of International Law has issued a call for submissions for its ninth student essay competition. The topic is: "Deterrence or Escalation? – Nuclear Weapons under International Law." The call is here.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: Governing High Seas Biodiversity

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on "Governing High Seas Biodiversity." The symposium includes an introduction by Cymie Payne and contributions by Margaret A, Young & Andrew Friedman, David Freestone, Timo Koivurova & Richard Caddell, Tara Davenport, Stephen Minas, and James Kraska.

Call for Papers: The International Court of Justice and Chagos

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "The International Court of Justice and Chagos," to be held October 19-20, 2018, at the University of St. Gallen. The call is here.

Roele: Policing Critique

Isobel Roele (Queen Mary Univ. of London - Law) has posted Policing Critique (Modern Law Review, Vol. 81, no. 4, pp. 701-721, July 2018). Here's the abstract:

Can fiction fan the spark of hope in Martti Koskenniemi’s critical international law writings? In the course of a critical reading of Wouter Werner, Marieke de Hoon, & Alexis Galán, The Law of International Lawyers: Reading Martti Koskenniemi (Cambridge University Press, 2017), this review article argues against the hermeneutics of suspicion and for a more reparative approach to doing international law critically. Drawing on work in Literary Studies, it identifies the limiting effects suspicion can have on critique and suggests that fiction offers a way of grounding abstract concepts and thinking about their complications and implications. It illustrates this technique by reading one of Koskenniemi’s theoretical protagonists, dubbed the “critical professional” by Sahib Singh, alongside the trope of the maverick cop in TV police procedurals, with special reference to The Wire.

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 390 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:

• Volume 390
• A.S. Rau, The Allocation of Power between Arbitral Tribunals and State Courts

New Issue: International Studies Quarterly

The latest issue of the International Studies Quarterly (Vol. 62, no. 2, June 2018) is out. Contents include:

• J Ann Tickner & Jacqui True, A Century of International Relations Feminism: From World War I Women's Peace Pragmatism to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
• Joseph MacKay & Christopher David LaRoche, Why Is There No Reactionary International Theory?
• Peter Marcus Kristensen, International Relations at the End: A Sociological Autopsy
• Joshua Tschantret, Cleansing the Caliphate: Insurgent Violence against Sexual Minorities
• Ore Koren & Anoop K Sarbahi, State Capacity, Insurgency, and Civil War: A Disaggregated Analysis
• Christopher McIntosh & Ian Storey, Between Acquisition and Use: Assessing the Likelihood of Nuclear Terrorism
• Charles Crabtree, Holger L Kern, & Steven Pfaff, Mass Media and the Diffusion of Collective Action in Authoritarian Regimes: The June 1953 East German Uprising
• Holger Albrecht & Ferdinand Eibl, How to Keep Officers in the Barracks: Causes, Agents, and Types of Military Coups
• Leonardo Baccini, Andreas Dür, & Manfred Elsig, Intra-Industry Trade, Global Value Chains, and Preferential Tariff Liberalization
• Joseph Wright & Boliang Zhu, Monopoly Rents and Foreign Direct Investment in Fixed Assets
• Elena V McLean & Mitchell T Radtke, Political Relations, Leader Stability, and Economic Coercion I
• Ziv Rubinovitz & Elai Rettig, Crude Peace: The Role of Oil Trade in the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Negotiations
• Gerasimos Tsourapas, Labor Migrants as Political Leverage: Migration Interdependence and Coercion in the Mediterranean
• Connor Huff & Robert Schub, The Intertemporal Tradeoff in Mobilizing Support for War
• Jeffrey A Friedman, Joshua D Baker, Barbara A Mellers, Philip E Tetlock, & Richard Zeckhauser, The Value of Precision in Probability Assessment: Evidence from a Large-Scale Geopolitical Forecasting Tournament
• Sarah K Dreier, Resisting Rights to Renounce Imperialism: East African Churches’ Strategic Symbolic Resistance to LGBTQ Inclusion
• Faradj Koliev & James H Lebovic, Selecting for Shame: The Monitoring of Workers’ Rights by the International Labour Organization, 1989 to 2011
• Richard A I Johnson & Spencer L Willardson, Human Rights and Democratic Arms Transfers: Rhetoric Versus Reality with Different Types of Major Weapon Systems

Rosenczveig: La convention de l'ONU relative aux droits de l'enfant du 20 novembre 1989

Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig has published La convention de l'ONU relative aux droits de l'enfant du 20 novembre 1989 : 100 questions-réponses (L'Harmattan 2018). Here's the abstract:

L'enfant - le mineur - est souvent présenté comme source de risques. Mais a-t-il des droits ? Peut-il engager sa responsabilité civile, pénale, disciplinaire ? Peut-il s'exprimer et porter plainte ? Que savons-nous du statut fait aux enfants en France et que savent-ils de leurs droits ? Ce jeu de questions-réponses entend répondre aux principales interrogations sur le statut des enfants de France.

Wittke: The Bush Doctrine Revisited: Eine Untersuchung der Auswirkungen der Bush-Doktrin auf das geltende Völkerrecht

Peggy Wittke (Freie Universität Berlin) has published The Bush Doctrine Revisited: Eine Untersuchung der Auswirkungen der Bush-Doktrin auf das geltende Völkerrecht (Nomos 2018). Here's the abstract:

Die Bush-Doktrin war seit ihrer Veröffentlichung als US-amerikanische Sicherheitsstrategie nach dem 11. September 2001 völkerrechtlich umstritten. Mehr als ein Jahrzehnt später geht diese Arbeit der Frage nach, ob die Bush-Doktrin zu einem Wandel des Völkerrechts geführt hat. Einzelne Elemente der Bush-Doktrin – wie ihr Anspruch auf präemptive Selbstverteidigung und neue Zurechnungskriterien bei Gewaltausübungen von privaten Akteuren – gehörten nicht zum damals geltenden Völkerrecht. Bei ihrer Untersuchung der Staatenpraxis vor und nach dem 11. September 2001 weist die Autorin auch nach, dass die Bush-Doktrin nicht als „Erfindung“ der Bush-Administration gelten kann, sondern dass auch andere US-Administrationen und weitere Staaten ähnliche Argumente verwendet haben.

The Bush Doctrine has been highly contested in international law ever since it was implemented as the US’s National Security Strategy after 11th September, 2001. More than a decade later, this book explores whether the Bush Doctrine has led to a change in international law. Certain elements of the Bush Doctrine, like its claim to both pre-emptive self-defence and self-defence against states who harbour terrorists, stretch far beyond the traditional scope of the right to self-defence. Moreover, examining state practice before and after 9/11, the author comes to the conclusion that the Bush Doctrine is not an ‘invention’ of the Bush administration, as other US administrations and states have used the same arguments.

Paine: The Functions of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body: A Distinctive Voice Mechanism

Joshua Paine (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law) has posted The Functions of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body: A Distinctive Voice Mechanism. Here's the abstract:

This paper analyses the functions performed by the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), that is, the diplomatic body, consisting of representatives of all WTO members, which administers the dispute settlement system, including by establishing panels, adopting panel and Appellate Body reports, monitoring implementation of rulings, and authorising the suspension of concessions. Of course, because the reverse consensus rule applies to these decisions, their outcome is in practice a foregone conclusion. However, it would be wrong for this reason to treat the DSB as a formality, not worthy of further analysis. Instead, this paper suggests that having the DSB may serve a number of important functions within the wider legal and political processes of the WTO. Specifically, the paper focuses on three functions performed by the DSB. First, the paper analyses the DSB’s role as a crucial ‘voice’ mechanism which provides WTO members with a centralized forum for expressing (dis)satisfaction with the performance of adjudicators. This section draws on the framework of ‘exit, voice and loyalty’, originally developed by Hirschman as a way of conceptualizing member dissatisfaction with an organization’s performance. This section analyses the two most striking episodes of the DSB operating as a voice mechanism in the WTO’s history: the widespread member backlash over amicus curiae briefs a generation ago, and the United States’ blocking of Appellate Body (re)appointments from 2016 to present. Second, the paper considers the DSB’s compliance-monitoring function. On its face, this is a key respect in which WTO dispute settlement differs from many international courts and tribunals, where there is often no centralized mechanism for monitoring post-judgment compliance. Third, the paper analyses the DSB’s function as a mechanism for socializing members into the complex field of WTO dispute settlement, alongside other avenues for learning such as third party participation in disputes.

Conference: Resolving Disputes in International Economic Law

On July 11, 2018, Georgetown University's Institute of International Economic Law and the Graduate Institute's Center for Trade and Economic Integration will hold a conference on "Resolving Disputes in International Economic Law," in Washington, DC. The program is here.

Menezes: Tribunais internacionais e relação entre o direito internacional e direito interno

Wagnes Menezes has published Tribunais internacionais e relação entre o direito internacional e direito interno (Arraes Editores 2017). The table of contents is here.

New Issue: Revista Costarricense de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Costarricense de Derecho Internacional (No. 8, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Édgar E. Méndez Zamora, Panorama Actual y Futuro de la Inteligencia Artificial en el Arbitraje Internacional: Implementaciones, Obstáculos y Consideraciones Jurídicas
• Viviana Méndez & Lucía Soley, Re-Examining the Scope of the Crime of Genocide: Understanding the Meaning of the “Genus” in the Punishment of the Crime of Crimes
• Juan Felipe Wills, Lex Sportiva: ¿El Nuevo Jugador en la Cancha de Fútbol de la Sociedad Internacional?
• Ana Paola Murillo Nassar, La Evolución de la Doctrina del Control de Convencionalidad en la Jurisprudencia de la Corte Interamericana ee Derechos Humanos u su Aplicación en el Derecho Interno
• Valentina Vera Quiroz, La Interpretación Evolutiva y la Erosión de Normas del Derecho Internacional
• Entrevista a Gary B. Born

New Issue: Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Internacional (no. 7, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Gerry Simpson, La Vida Sentimental del Derecho Internacional
• Hilary Charlesworth & Christine Chinkin, El Género del Jus Cogens
• Luis Eslava, Retratos de Estambul: Observando la Operación Cotidiana del Derecho Internacional
• Alonso Gurmendi, “Si Vis Pacem”: La Aplicación del Derecho Internacional Humanitario en el Ordenamiento Jurídico Peruano
• Entrevista a Yonatan Lupu
• Entrevista a Helen Duffy

New Issue: Human Rights & International Legal Discourse

The latest issue of Human Rights & International Legal Discourse (Vol. 12, no. 1, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Contemporary Practice on the Relationship between International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law
• S. Dewulf & K. Fortin, Introduction
• A. Clapham, Human Rights in Armed Conflict: Metaphors, Maxims, and the Move to Interoperability
• J-M. Henckaerts & E. Nohle, Concurrent Application of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law Revisited
• R. Bartels, The Interplay between International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law during International Criminal Trials
• D. Casalin, A Green Light Turning Red? The Potential Influence of Human Rights on Developing Customary Legal Protection Against Conflict-Driven Displacement
• P. Vedel Kessing, Soft Law Instruments Regulating Armed Conflict. Are International Human Rights Standards Reflected?
• K.L. Yip, What Does the Jurisdictional Hurdle under International Human Rights Law Mean for the Relationship between International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law?
• A. Bellal & E. Heffes, ‘Yes, I Do’: Binding Armed Non-State Actors to IHL and Human Rights Norms through Their Consent

Special Issue: Multidisciplinary Perspectives to the Adjudication of Indigenous Rights

The latest issue of the Erasmus Law Review (2018, no. 1) focuses on "Multidisciplinary Perspectives to the Adjudication of Indigenous Rights." The table of contents is here.

Bartels: A Fine Line between Protection and Humanisation: The Interplay between the Scope of Application of International Humanitarian Law and Jurisdiction Over Alleged War Crimes Under International Criminal Law

Rogier Bartels (Netherlands Defence Academy; Univ. of Amsterdam – Law) has posted A Fine Line between Protection and Humanisation: The Interplay between the Scope of Application of International Humanitarian Law and Jurisdiction Over Alleged War Crimes Under International Criminal Law (Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

International humanitarian law (IHL) provides limits to the conduct of warring parties during armed conflicts. If these limits are crossed, international criminal law (ICL) can address alleged violations of IHL. When certain conduct falls outside the scope of jurisdiction over war crimes it may result in impunity. International courts and tribunals have therefore taken a very broad approach to their jurisdiction, including with regards to the concept of non-international armed conflict, which has been expanded well beyond the initial intention of States. While an expansive approach to the application of IHL may be desirable after the fact, in order to ensure that atrocities can be prosecuted as war crimes, applying IHL too broadly to situations on the ground may not result in better protection of those affected by violence. Although the protective function of IHL remains of paramount importance, States nowadays also extensively rely on the permissive aspect of IHL that allows targeting of military objectives, combatants and other persons taking a direct part in hostilities. The present chapter addresses the tension between the desire to expand the jurisdiction over war crimes and the consequential impact on IHL. It does so by specifically looking at the manner in which international courts and tribunals have pronounced on the material scope of IHL.

Wiener: The Rule of Law in Inter-National Relations: Contestation Despite Diffusion – Diffusion Through Contestation

Antje Wiener (Univ. of Hamburg - Political Science) has posted The Rule of Law in Inter-National Relations: Contestation Despite Diffusion – Diffusion Through Contestation (in Handbook on the Rule of Law, Christopher May & Adam Winchester eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This chapter discusses the rule of law as an example of the interplay between practices of constitution and the contestation of fundamental norms in global governance. Like most fundamental norms (or principles) the rule of law’s universal validity claim is globally well diffused, and at the same time stands highly contested locally. The ‘apparent unanimity in support of the rule of law is a feat unparalleled in history. No other single political ideal has ever achieved global endorsement’. Yet, it is also ‘“an essentially contested concept”, that is, a notion characterised by disagreement that extends to its core’. Dissensus and consensus are two aspects of the same process; they are connected through practices. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the practices of norm validation, which are presented as part of a “cycle-grid model”, so as to facilitate research that takes account of both empirical (mapping) and normative (shaping) dimensions of norms research in international relations (IR) theory and international law.

Wang: Divergence, Convergence or Crossvergence of Chinese and US Approaches to Regional Integration: Evolving Trajectories and Their Implications

Heng Wang (Univ. of New South Wales - Law) has posted Divergence, Convergence or Crossvergence of Chinese and US Approaches to Regional Integration: Evolving Trajectories and Their Implications (Tsinghua China Law Review, Vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 149-185, 2018). Here's the abstract:

Trends in Chinese and U.S. approaches to regional integration are likely to profoundly affect other states and even the future of global economic governance. Showing a possible paradigm shift, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiation reflect the latest major developments in China and the U.S. regarding regional integration. In particular, the U.S. pursues managed trade, shifts to bilateralism, and adopts an aggressive approach. This article analyses a core question: will Chinese and U.S. trade approaches converge, diverge or both, and why? For the analysis of the convergence or divergence, four aspects will be covered: the objectives of regionalism, the instruments for regionalism, the approaches to multilateralism, and the role in rulemaking. This paper argues that Chinese and U.S. trade approaches are likely to diverge and converge, leading to crossvergence (a simultaneous convergence and divergence of regulatory approaches). Divergence can be found in fundamental areas and particularly the approaches to regionalism and multilateralism. Convergence appears to occur only in selected areas (e.g. investment and intellectual property). Uncertainties exist since both the BRI and trade policies of the Trump Administration are under development. The interaction between Chinese and American approaches will affect the shaping of the international economic legal order.

Dilling & Markus: The Transnationalisation of Environmental Law

Olaf Dilling (Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research) & Till Markus (Univ. of Bremen - Research Centre for European Environmental Law) have published The Transnationalisation of Environmental Law (Journal of Environmental Law, Vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 179–206, July 2018). Here's the abstract:

This article outlines a critical approach to the emerging discourse of transnational environmental law. It highlights how transboundary activities and organisational structures increasingly shape environmental law, and how legal discourse interprets these developments. In particular, the article unpacks the manifold transnational regulatory structures and explains their interactions with state-made environmental law. It also discusses the legal quality and constitutional issues of transnational norms and analyses the added scientific value of the concept of transnational environmental law. We argue that transnational norms governing the use of public goods are generally not binding on third parties. Accordingly, they have to be ‘re-embedded’ into well-established political and legal processes. In other words, these norms and mechanisms have to be complemented, endorsed or limited by formal legal structures to become a legitimate part of environmental law.

Wittke: Law in the Twilight: International Courts and Tribunals, the Security Council and the Internationalisation of Peace Agreements between State and Non-State Parties

Cindy Wittke (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies) has published Law in the Twilight: International Courts and Tribunals, the Security Council and the Internationalisation of Peace Agreements between State and Non-State Parties (Cambridge Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

An informative book focusing on the internationalisation and legalisation of peace agreements to settle intra-state conflicts between state and non-state parties. Cindy Wittke focuses on two key issues: how international courts and tribunals deal with peace agreements; and what implications the United Nations Security Council's involvement in the negotiation and implementation of peace agreements has for the agreements' legal nature, the status of the non-state parties to agreements and the interpretation of peace agreements. Wittke argues that the processes of negotiating and implementing peace agreements between state and non-state parties create new spheres, spaces and forms of post-conflict law making and law enforcement. For example, contemporary peace agreements can simultaneously take the form and function of internationalised transitional constitutions and agreements governed by international law. The resulting characteristics of contemporary peace agreement lead to permanent ambiguities shaping their interpretation and enforcement.

Moeckli, Keller, & Heri: The Human Rights Covenants at 50: Their Past, Present, and Future

Daniel Moeckli (Univ. of Zurich - Law), Helen Keller (Univ. of Zurich - Law), & Corina Heri (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) have published The Human Rights Covenants at 50: Their Past, Present, and Future (Oxford Univ. Press 2018). Contents include:

• Helen Keller & Daniel Moeckli, Introduction
• Maya Hertig Randall, The History of the Covenants: Looking Back Half a Century and Beyond
• Gerald Neuman, Giving Meaning and Effect to Human Rights: The Contributions of Human Rights Committee Members
• Daniel Moeckli, Interpretation of the ICESCR: Between Morality and State Consent
• Patrick Mutzenberg, The Role of NGOs in the Implementation of the Covenants
• Manisuli Ssenyonjo, Influence of the ICESCR in Africa
• Basak Çali, Influence of the ICCPR in the Middle East
• Mónica Pinto & Martin Sigal, Influence of the ICESCR in the Americas
• Yogesh Tyagi, Influence of the ICCPR in Asia
• Amrei Müller, Influence of the ICESCR in Europe
• Samantha Besson, The Influence of the Two Covenants on States Parties Across Regions: Lessons for the Role of Comparative Law and of Regions in International Human Rights Law
• Stephen Humphreys, The Covenants in the Light of Anthropogenic Climate Change
• Christine Kaufmann, The Covenants and Financial Crises
• Felice Gaer, The Institutional Future of the Covenants: A World Court for Human Rights?