Saturday, August 4, 2018

Conference: Thirty-First Investment Treaty Forum Public Conference

The British Institute of International and Comparative Law will host the Thirty-First Investment Treaty Forum Public Conference on October 26, 2018. The theme is: "Human Rights in International Investment Law." Here's the idea:

As international investment tribunals increasingly confront non-investment obligations, academics and practitioners in the field of international investment law find it challenging to understand the legal and ethical responsibilities of foreign investments in the area of human rights.

Investment tribunals typically do not include experts on international human rights law. Moreover, investment treaties are usually silent on human rights issues. This leads to inconsistent decisions violating human rights, the right to regulate of host States, as well as undermining legal certainty.

The issues which arise in the context of international investment law include the right to health, access to drinking water and justice, as well as the right to property. Each of these principles has different interpretations in domestic legal systems. Issues related to corporate social responsibility may involve difficult conflicts between national and international (including the concept of "responsible non-compliance") with domestic laws which breach fundamental international law rules.

Complex issues involving human rights in international investment law include piercing the corporate veil, identifying obligations of investors under international in the absence of relevant provisions in investment treaties. Proceedings in front of international investment tribunals may also overlap with proceedings at other bodies, including international human rights courts. Managing such proceedings presents difficult tasks for the parties, including at the stage of enforcement.

To discuss these issues the Thirty-First ITF Public Conference will convene in London on 26 October 2018. The Forum will bring together leading arbitrators, judges, practitioners and academics, drawn primarily from ITF members, to debate issues related to human rights in international investment law.

Call for Submissions: German Yearbook of International Law (Reminder)

A reminder that the German Yearbook of International Law has issued a call for submissions for its forthcoming volume 61 (2018). The deadline is September 1, 2018. Here's the call:

CALL FOR PAPERS

The German Yearbook of International Law is Germany’s oldest yearbook in the field of public international law. The GYIL is published annually by the Walther Schücking Institute for International Law at the University of Kiel and contains contributions on topics addressing all aspects of public international law. We aim to provide a platform for scholars of international law – both inside and outside Germany – to publish new research advancing public international legal discourse as well as analysis of current issues. The Yearbook features a ‘Forum’ section for which prominent scholars are invited to enter into discussion on newly developing topics in international law and a ‘Focus’ section for which a group of experts are invited to write articles examining in-depth various aspects of a topic chosen in advance by the editors. The GYIL also publishes English-language summaries of exceptional German doctoral and post-doctoral theses in the fields of public international law and European law.

The General Articles section of the GYIL is open to submissions from the entire academic community and is independently peer-reviewed by a board of renowned experts. All work submitted will be scrutinised based on its intellectual quality and its advancement of academic discourse. The Editors welcome submissions for volume 61 (2018) of the GYIL, inviting interested parties to submit contributions for consideration for inclusion in the forthcoming edition.

The paper should be 10,000-12,500 words inclusive of footnotes and conform with the GYIL Style Sheet. Submissions, including a brief abstract, statement of affiliation, and confirmation of exclusive submission, should be sent by 1 September 2018 to the Assistant Editors of the GYIL via e-mail: yearbook@wsi.uni-kiel.de.

Conference: Revisiting the International vs Ordinary Crime Divide: A Turning Point for International Criminal Law?

On August 22, 2018, the International Association of Penal Law (AIDP) will hold its Sixth Symposium for Young Penalists at the Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University. The theme is: "Revisiting the International vs Ordinary Crime Divide: A Turning Point for International Criminal Law?" The program is here.

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 13, nos. 7/8, 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Timothy Lyons, EU Harmonization of Customs Penalties: Work on the EU’s Foundations
  • Pablo Muñiz, EU Harmonization of Customs Infringements and Sanctions Is Needed but the EU Must Proceed with Caution
  • Panayota Anaboli, Customs Law Violations and Penalties in Europe/Where Do We Stand After fifty Years of Customs Union?
  • Santiago Ibáñez Marsilla, Infringements and Penalties in Customs Matters in Spain
  • Mantas Juozaitis, Lithuania and EU Harmonization of Customs Infringements
  • Jose Rijo, The Portuguese Customs Infractions Regime
  • Freddy Desplanques & Amélie de Franssu, Overview of the French Customs Infringements and Sanctions and the Question of Possible Harmonization
  • Michael Lux, Thomas Möller, Eric Pickett, & Alexander Retemeyer, Customs Penalties in Germany
  • Levi Goossens & Bert Gevers, Feasibility of Harmonizing Customs Sanctioning Systems in the European Union: Some Considerations from a Belgian Point of View
  • Wiesław Czyżowicz, Customs Infringements and Sanctions in Polish Regulations
  • Davide Rovetta & Vincenzo Villante, Harmonization of Customs Law Penalties in the European Union: Have the EU Institutions at All Realized It Is a Multilevel, Multisource Complex System? Some Reflections Based on the Italian Case
  • Timothy Lyons, UK Customs Penalties and EU Harmonization

Johns: Critical International Legal Theory

Fleur E. Johns (Univ. of New South Wales - Law) has posted Critical International Legal Theory (in International Legal Theory: Foundations and Frontiers, Jeffrey L Dunoff & Mark A Pollack eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This chapter presents an account of three phases of writing and practice in critical international legal theory, after first identifying some braided historico-political fuel lines for these cycles of work. These phases correspond to successive periods of revisionism: a pre-1989 reckoning (dating from the mid-late 1970s) with the non-materialization of the promises of socialist revolution and the disappointments of the cosmopolitan, decolonization, and development projects; a 1989 to 1999 reckoning with the apparent triumph of liberalism/neo-liberalism and the Washington Consensus; and a current phase, dating from approximately the turn of the millennium, of reckoning with the post-Washington Consensus, the renewed spread of authoritarian nationalism/nativism, and the prevalence of casualization and automation. In each of these, critical international legal theory has been marked by certain persistent commitments and proclivities which this chapter will briefly examine, before speculating about some possible galvanizing themes of international legal work in this vein in the future.

Memorial and Conference in Honor of David Caron

On September 14-15, 2018, the University of California Berkeley School of Law will hold a memorial and conference in honor of David Caron. The memorial will take place on September 14 and the conference the following day. The conference program is here.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: The Rome Statute at Twenty

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on "The Rome Statute at Twenty." The symposium includes an introduction by Theodor Meron and Maggie Gardner and contributions by David Bosco, Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi, Adrian Fulford, Dapo Akande, Gabrielle Louise McIntyre, and Fausto Pocar.

Lazić & Stuij: International Dispute Resolution - Selected Issues in International Litigation and Arbitration - Short Studies in Private International Law

Vesna Lazić (Univ. of Rijeka - Law) & Steven Stuij (Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam - Law) have published International Dispute Resolution - Selected Issues in International Litigation and Arbitration - Short Studies in Private International Law (Asser Press 2018). Contents include:
  • Janek Tomasz Nowak, Considerations on the Impact of EU Law on National Civil Procedure: Recent Examples from Belgium
  • Ton Jongbloed, The Internationalisation of Procedural Law: The Law on Execution and Attachment Orders
  • Elsemiek Apers, Harmonisation of Conflict of Law Rules in the US? The Example of Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Money Judgments
  • Junmin Zhang, The Harmonisation of Interim Measures Granted by the Emergency Arbitrator in the European Union
  • Chunlei Zhao, Resolving Foreign Direct Investment-Related Disputes in China’s Legal System: What to Expect and How to Understand?

New Issue: Arbitration International

The latest issue of Arbitration International (Vol. 34, no. 2, June 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Simon Maynard, Laying the fourth arbitrator to rest: re-evaluating the regulation of arbitral secretaries
    • S R Subramanian, Anti-arbitration injunctions and their compatibility with the New York convention and the Indian law of arbitration: future directions for Indian law and policy
    • Constantin Calavros, The application of substantive mandatory rules in International Commercial Arbitration from the perspective of an EU UNCITRAL Model Law jurisdiction
    • Stefan Pislevik, Precedent and development of law: Is it time for greater transparency in International Commercial Arbitration?
  • Recent Development
    • Odysseas G Repousis, The use of trusts in investment arbitration
  • Case Notes
    • Max Bonnell, How elastic is your preposition?
    • Bajar Scharaw, The (provisional) end of debates on narrow dispute settlement clauses in PRC first-generation BITs?—China Heilongjiang et al v Mongolia
    • Olga Hamama & Olga Sendetska, Interim measures in support of arbitration in Ukraine: lessons from JKX Oil & Gas et al v Ukraine and the recent reform of Ukrainian legislation

Contesse: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights' Advisory Opinion on Gender Identity and Same-Sex Marriage

Jorge Contesse (Rutgers Univ. - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on The Inter-American Court of Human Rights' Advisory Opinion on Gender Identity and Same-Sex Marriage.

New Issue: Leiden Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (Vol. 31, no. 3, September 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Editorial
    • Eric De Brabandere, International Dispute Settlement – from Practice to Legal Discipline
  • International Legal Theory: Symposium on ‘Imperial Locations’
    • Martti Koskenniemi, Less is More: Legal Imagination in Context
    • Lauren Benton, Made in Empire: Finding the History of International Law in Imperial Locations
    • Kerry Rittich, Occupied Iraq: Imperial Convergences?
    • Rose Parfitt, Fascism, Imperialism and International Law: An Arch Met a Motorway and the Rest is History . . .
    • Luis Eslava, The Moving Location of Empire: Indirect Rule, International Law, and the Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment
    • Luigi Nuzzo, The Birth of an Imperial Location: Comparative Perspectives on Western Colonialism in China
    • Liliana Obregon, Empire, Racial Capitalism and International Law: The Case of Manumitted Haiti and the Recognition Debt
  • International Law and Practice
    • Kathryn Greenman, Aliens in Latin America: Intervention, Arbitration and State Responsibility for Rebels
  • Hague International Tribunals: International Court of Justice
    • Massimo Lando, Plausibility in the Provisional Measures Jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice
  • International Criminal Courts And Tribunals
    • Cheah W.L. & Moritz Vormbaum, British War Crimes Trials in Europe and Asia, 1945–1949: A Comparative Study
    • Lachezar Yanev, On Common Plans and Excess Crimes: Fragmenting the Notion of Co-Perpetration in International Criminal Law

New Issue: International Interactions

The latest issue of International Interactions (Vol. 44, no. 5, 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Lisa Lechner & Simon Wüthrich, Seal the Deal: Bargaining Positions, Institutional Design, and the Duration of Preferential Trade Negotiations
    • Shahryar Minhas & Karen L. Remmer, The Reputational Impact of Investor-State Disputes
    • Hakan Gunaydin, Who Can Reform the Labor Market? IMF Conditionality, Partisanship, and Labor Unions
  • Research Notes
    • Matthew S. Wells & Timothy J. Ryan, Following the Party in Time of War? The Implications of Elite Consensus
    • Nam Kyu Kim, International Conflict, International Security Environment, and Military Coups
    • Nina von Uexkull & Therese Pettersson, Issues and Actors in African Nonstate Conflicts: A New Data Set
    • Bryan Rooney, Sources of Leader Support and Interstate Rivalry

New Issue: African Journal of International and Comparative Law

The latest issue of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law (Vol. 26, no. 3, August 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Justice Srem-Sai, Corporate Governance and the Capital Market in Ghana: The Stymieing Role of the State
  • Sylvestre-José-Tidiane Manga, Post-Paris Climate Agreement UNFCCC COP-21: Perspectives on International Environmental Governance
  • Derek Inman, Dorothée Cambou & Stefaan Smis, Evolving Legal Protections for Indigenous Peoples in Africa: Some Post-UNDRIP Reflections
  • P. J. Badenhorst, New Order Rights to Minerals in South Africa: Ten Years after Mayday
  • Emma Charlene Lubaale, The Dominant Role of Commanders in the Sudanese Military Justice System and Accountability for International Crimes
  • Fonja Julius Achu, Settlement of Labour Disputes under Cameroonian Labour Law
  • Ngozi Chinwa Ole, The Paris Agreement 2015 as a Primer for Developing Nigerian Off-grid Solar Electricity
  • Ashraf M. A. Elfakharani, Rohana Abdul Rahman & Nor Anita Abdullah, Compatibility Between US-BIT Norms and the Need for Local Remedies Through Relevant Egyptian Investment Laws

New Issue: Transnational Legal Theory

The latest issue of Transnational Legal Theory (Vol. 9, no. 1, 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Dimitri Van Den Meerssche, European perspectives on constitutional pluralism(s): an ontological roadmap
  • Kolja Möller, From constituent to destituent power beyond the state
  • Lisa Mardikian, The right to property as regional custom in Europe

New Issue: Archiv des Völkerrechts

The latest issue of Archiv des Völkerrechts (Vol. 56, no. 1, March 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Abhandlungen
    • Jörn Axel Kämmerer, Indigenat als Souveränitätsquelle? Kanada und Neuseeland im verfassungsrechtlichen Vergleich
    • Manuel Brunner, ,,Restore Democracy": Völkerrechtliche Fragen der militärischen Beendigung der Verfassungskrise in Gambia
    • Dayog Néwendé Kaboré, ECOWAS's Leadership in the 2016 Gambian Post-Electoral Crisis – Challenging the UNSC's Primacy in Providing for Peace?
    • Angela Schwerdtfeger, Austritt und Ausschluss aus Internationalen Organisationen – Zwischen staatlicher Souveränität und zwischenstaatlicher Kooperation

Friday, August 3, 2018

Call for Papers: Who Is Afraid of the International Criminal Court?

iCourts – Centre of Excellence for International Courts, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Who Is Afraid of the International Criminal Court?," which will take place January 24-25, 2019. The call is here.

Schwöbel-Patel: The Core Crimes of International Criminal Law

Christine Schwöbel-Patel (Univ, of Liverpool - Law) has posted The Core Crimes of International Criminal Law (in The Oxford Handbook of International Criminal Law, Kevin Jon Heller, Frédéric Mégret, Sarah Nouwen, Jens David Ohlin & Darryl Robinson eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
The ‘core’ crimes enumerated in the Rome Statute - the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression - are overwhelmingly assumed to be the most important international crimes. In this chapter, I aim to unsettle this assumption by revealing and problematising the civilisational, political-economic, and aesthetical biases behind designating these crimes as ‘core’. This is done by shedding light on discontinuities in the history of the core crimes, and unsettling the progress narrative from Nuremberg to Rome. More specifically, crimes associated with drug control are placed in conversation with the accepted history of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to exemplify a systematic editing of the dominant narrative of international criminal law.

New Issue: World Trade Review

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 17, no. 3, July 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Edward D. Mansfield & Helen V. Milner, The Domestic Politics of Preferential Trade Agreements in Hard Times
  • Gary Winslett, Critical Mass Agreements: The Proven Template for Trade Liberalization in the WTO
  • Pamela J. Smith, Bolormaa Jamiyansuren, Akinori Kitsuki, Jooyoung Yang, & Jaeseok Lee, Determinants of Comparative Advantage in GMO Intensive Industries
  • Michelle Limenta, Bayan M. Edis, & Oscar Fernando, Disabling Labelling in Indonesia: Invoking WTO Laws in the Wake of Halal Policy Objectives
  • Svetlana Yakovleva, Should Fundamental Rights to Privacy and Data Protection be a Part of the EU's International Trade ‘Deals’?
  • Henry Gao, Dictum on Dicta: Obiter Dicta in WTO Disputes
  • Giorgio Sacerdoti, A Comment on Henry Gao, ‘Dictum on Dicta: Obiter Dicta in WTO Disputes’
  • Case Summaries: WTO Disputes
    • Kholofelo Kugler, China – Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Measures on Broiler Products from the United States (Recourse to Article 21.5 of the DSU by the United States) (China–Broiler Products (Article 21.5 – United States)), DS427
    • Kholofelo Kugler, European Union – Anti-Dumping Measures on Biodiesel from Indonesia (EU–Biodiesel (Indonesia)), DS488

New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently recently added a mini-series on the law of outer space to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law website by Gérardine Goh Escolar.

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 22, no. 7, 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Natasha Saunders, Beyond asylum claims: refugee protest, responsibility, and Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  • Paul Arnell, The contrasting evolution of the right to a fair trial in UK extradition law
  • Kevin Hearty, ‘Victims of’ human rights abuses in transitional justice: hierarchies, perpetrators and the struggle for peace
  • Laetitia Fourie & Anri Botes, Disability discrimination in the South African workplace: the case of infertility
  • Job Odion & Edoghogho Eboigbe, Eliminating harmful practices against women in Nigeria: an examination of the Violence against Women Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015

New Issue: Asian Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Asian Journal of International Law (Vol. 8, no. 2, July 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • David Collins, Government Procurement with Strings Attached: The Uneven Control of Offsets by the World Trade Organization and Regional Trade Agreements
  • Umair Hafeez Ghori, “Reverse Permissibility” in the Renewable Energy Sector: Going Beyond the US-India Solar Cells Dispute
  • W.L. Cheah, Dealing with Desertion and Gaps in International Humanitarian Law: Changes of Allegiance in the Singapore War Crimes Trials
  • W.L. Cheah, Desertion and Gaps in International Humanitarian Law: Dealing with Changes of Allegiance in the Singapore War Crimes Trials – ADDENDUM
  • Durgeshree Raman, Damming and Infrastructural Development of the Indus River Basin: Strengthening the Provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty
  • Ingo Venzke, What if? Counterfactual (Hi)Stories of International Law
  • Henrietta Zeffert, The Lake Home: International Law and the Global Land Grab
  • Alessandro Chechi, Non-State Actors and the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention in Asia: Achievements, Problems, and Prospects

New Issue: European Journal of International Relations

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Relations (Vol. 24, no. 3, September 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • J.C. Sharman, Myths of military revolution: European expansion and Eurocentrism
  • André Broome, Alexandra Homolar, & Matthias Kranke, Bad science: International organizations and the indirect power of global benchmarking
  • Nina Hall & Åsa Persson, Global climate adaptation governance: Why is it not legally binding?
  • Robert Pye, The European Union and the absence of fundamental rights in the Eurozone: A critical perspective
  • Julian Germann, Beyond ‘geo-economics’: Advanced unevenness and the anatomy of German austerity
  • Christian Bueger, Territory, authority, expertise: Global governance and the counter-piracy assemblage
  • Carla Winston, Norm structure, diffusion, and evolution: A conceptual approach
  • Daniel H. Nexon & Iver B. Neumann, Hegemonic-order theory: A field-theoretic account
  • Ted Hopf, Change in international practices
  • Jérémie Cornut, Diplomacy, agency, and the logic of improvisation and virtuosity in practice

Conference: V Conferencia Bienal de la SLADI-LASIL

The Fifth Biennial Bonference of the Latin American Society of International Law will be held at the School of Law of the Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires on September 24-25, 2018. The theme is: "Diálogos sobre Derecho Internacional." The program is here.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Call for Papers: 70th Anniversary of the Genocide Convention

The Nottingham International Law and Security Centre has issued a call for papers for a conference on "70th Anniversary of the Genocide Convention." The call is here.

Monday, July 30, 2018

New Issue: International Journal of Refugee Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Refugee Law (Vol. 30, no. 1, March 2018) is out. Contents include:
  • Savitri Taylor & Klaus Neumann, Australia and the 1967 Declaration on Territorial Asylum: A Case Study of the Making of International Refugee and Human Rights Law
  • Geoff Gilbert & Anna Magdalena Rüsch, Rule of Law and United Nations Interoperability
  • Rebecca Dowd, Jill Hunter, Belinda Liddell, Jane McAdam, Angela Nickerson, & Richard Bryant, Filling Gaps and Verifying Facts: Assumptions and Credibility Assessment in the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal
  • Moira Dustin, Many Rivers to Cross: The Recognition of LGBTQI Asylum in the UK