Pantaleo: The Participation of the EU in International Dispute Settlement

Luca Pantaleo (Hague Univ. of Applied Sciences - Law) has published The Participation of the EU in International Dispute Settlement: Lessons from EU Investment Agreements (Asser Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

The topic of this book is the participation of the EU in international dispute settlement. It aims to provide the reader with an appraisal of the most problematic aspects connected with the participation of a sui generis legal subject such as the EU to international dispute settlement mechanisms in a State-centric international law. In particular, the publication dwells on the question of how to make possible an effective participation in disputes while at the same time preserving the specific characteristics (i.e. the autonomy) of the EU legal order. It does so by outlining different models and proposing the internalization model adopted under EU investment agreements as a possible paradigm.

Ho: State Responsibility for Breaches of Investment Contracts

Jean Ho (National Univ. of Singapore - Law) has published State Responsibility for Breaches of Investment Contracts (Cambridge Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

There is a wealth of material that shapes the law of State responsibility for breaches of investment contracts. First impressions of an unsettled or uncertain law have thus far gone unchallenged. But unchallenged first impressions point to the need for a detailed study that investigates and analyses the sources, the content, the characteristics, and the evolution of this law. The argument at the heart of this monograph is that the law of state responsibility for breaches of investment contracts has carved a unique and distinct trajectory from the traditional route for the creation of international law, developing principally from arbitral awards, and mimicking, to a considerable extent, the general international law on the protection of aliens and alien property. This book unveils the remarkable journey of the law of state responsibility for breaches of investment contracts, from its origins, to its formation, to its arrival at the cusp of maturity.

New Issue: Leiden Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (Vol. 31, no. 4, December 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Seline Trevisanut, News Coverage by Scholarship
• International Legal Theory
• Martin Clark, Ambivalence, anxieties / Adaptations, advances: Conceptual History and International Law
• Roger Merino, Reimagining the Nation-State: Indigenous Peoples and the Making of Plurinationalism in Latin America
• Ming-Sung Kuo, Resolving the Question of Inter-Scalar Legitimacy into Law? A Hard Look at Proportionality Balancing in Global Governance
• International Legal Theory: Symposium on the ‘Trajectories of International Legal Histories’
• Gerry Simpson, Introduction to Symposium on the Trajectories of International Legal Histories: Doing Things Differently There
• Felix Lange, Challenging the Paris Peace Treaties, State Sovereignty, and Western-Dominated International Law – The Multifaceted Genesis of the Jus Cogens Doctrine
• Guy Fiti Sinclair, Towards a Postcolonial Genealogy of International Organizations Law
• Julia Dehm, Highlighting inequalities in the histories of human rights: Contestations over justice, needs and rights in the 1970s
• Jakob Zollmann, African International Legal Histories – International Law in Africa: Perspectives and Possibilities
• International Law and Practice
• Shu Shang & Wei Shen, When the State Sovereign Immunity Rule Meets Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Post Financial Crisis Era: Is There Still a Black Hole in International Law?
• International Criminal Courts and Tribunals
• Birju Kotecha, The Art of Rhetoric: Perceptions of the International Criminal Court and Legalism
• Nora Stappert, A New Influence of Legal Scholars? The Use of Academic Writings at International Criminal Courts and Tribunals
• Michail Vagias, The Prosecutor’s Request Concerning the Rohingya Deportation to Bangladesh: Certain Procedural Questions

Garcia & Hough: Third Party Funding in International Investor-State Arbitration

Frank J. Garcia (Boston College - Law) & Kirrin Hough have posted an ASIL Insight on Third Party Funding in International Investor-State Arbitration.

New Issue: International Journal of Transitional Justice

The latest issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (Vol. 12, no. 3, November 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Mattia Cacciatori, When Kings Are Criminals: Lessons from ICC Prosecutions of African Presidents
• Elise Ketelaars, Gendering Tunisia’s Transition: Transformative Gender Justice Outcomes in Times of Transitional Justice Turmoil?
• Claudine Kuradusenge-McLeod, Belgian Hutu Diaspora Narratives of Victimhood and Trauma
• Frédéric Mégret, The Strange Case of the Victim Who Did Not Want Justice
• Shurlee Swain, Both Victim and ‘Perpetrator’: Finding a Voice before Inquiries into Historical Abuse in Out-of-Home Care
• Daniela Jara, Manuela Badilla, Ana Figueiredo, Marcela Cornejo, & Victoria Riveros, Tracing Mapuche Exclusion from Post-Dictatorial Truth Commissions in Chile: Official and Grassroots Initiatives
• Paolo Caroli, The Thin Line between Transitional Justice and Memory Activism: The Case of the German and British ‘Pardons’ for Convicted Homosexuals
• Mihaela Mihai, Architectural Transitional Justice? Political Renewal within the Scars of a Violent Past
• Notes from the Field
• Philipp Schulz, ‘Luk pe Coo,’ or Compensation as Dowry? Gendered Reflections on Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence against Men
• Thijs B Bouwknegt, Eshetu Alemu: ‘The Black Sheep of the Dergue’ – Ethiopian War Crimes and Universal Jurisdiction in the Netherlands

New Issue: International Journal of Refugee Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Refugee Law (Vol. 30, no. 2, June 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue on the 20th anniversary of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
• Editorial
• Jane McAdam, The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement: 20 Years On
• Articles
• David James Cantor, ‘The IDP in International Law’? Developments, Debates, Prospects
• Megan Bradley, Durable Solutions and the Right of Return for IDPs: Evolving Interpretations
• Walter Kälin & Hannah Entwisle Chapuisat, Guiding Principle 28: The Unfulfilled Promise to End Protracted Internal Displacement
• Daniel MacGuire, The Relationship between National Normative Frameworks on Internal Displacement and the Reduction of Displacement
• Protection in the Field
• Louise Aubin, Elizabeth Eyster, & Daniel MacGuire, People-Centred Principles: The Participation of IDPs and the Guiding Principles
• Nina Schrepfer, Protection in Practice: Protecting IDPs in Today’s Armed Conflicts
• Simon Russell, The Operational Relevance of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement
• Reflections from Former Mandate Holders
• Roberta Cohen & Francis M Deng, Reflections from Former Mandate Holders: Developing the Normative Framework for IDPs
• Walter Kälin, Consolidating the Normative Framework for IDPs

Call for Papers: 2019 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum (Reminder)

A call for papers has been issued for the 2019 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, hosted by the Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law, May 17-18, 2019, in Taipei. The theme is: “International Law and Emerging Powers: New Policy Challenges in the Asia-Pacific.” The call is here. The deadline is December 10, 2018.

Hilpold: Die EU im GATT/WTO-System (4th ed.)

Peter Hilpold (Universität Innsbruck - Law) has published the fourth edition of Die EU im GATT/WTO-System (Facultas/Dike/Nomos 2018). Here's the abstract:

Die umfassendste Darstellung des Beziehungsgeflechts zwischen EU und GATT/WTO in deutscher Sprache erscheint nun neu in 4. Auflage. Die EU bleibt ein maßgeblicher Akteur in den internationalen Wirtschaftsbeziehungen und sie orientiert sich kontinuierlich neu, um ihre Position international zu behaupten. Sie verfügt über sehr viel Gewicht innerhalb der WTO, die trotz der Verzögerungen in der laufenden Doha-Runde das maßgebliche Regulativ in den internationalen Wirtschaftsbeziehungen bleibt. Gleichzeitig gewinnen aber auch die Regionalen Integrationsabkommen zunehmend an Gewicht, nunmehr in der Form der sog. „Mega-Regionals“. Das Freihandelsabkommen EU-Singapur, das vom EuGH im Gutachten 2/15 geprüft worden ist, ist ein diesbezügliches Beispiel. Weitere Beispiele sind das CETA-Abkommen und das noch immer in Ausarbeitung begriffene TTIP-Abkommen. Diese Verträge haben völlig neue Fragestellungen auf völkerrechtlicher, europarechtlicher und verfassungsrechtlicher Ebene aufgeworfen, wobei insbesondere das Demokratieproblem und die Partizipation der Zivilgesellschaft an Aushandlung und Umsetzung dieser Wirtschaftsabkommen im Vordergrund stehen. Der „Parlamentarisierung“ und der „Demokratisierung“ des EU-Außenwirtschaftsrechts werden besondere Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet. Ausführlich behandelt wird auch die neue Zuständigkeit der EU im Bereich der Direktinvestitionen.

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 392 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:

• Volume 392
• Fabian Novak, The System of Reparations in the Jurisprudence of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights
• Georg Nolte, Treaties and their Practice, Symptoms of their Rise or Decline

Bantekas, Stein, & Anastasiou: The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Commentary

Ilias Bantekas (Brunel Univ. - Law; Northwestern (HBKU) Univ. - Law), Michael Ashley Stein (Univ. of Pretoria - Centre for Human Rights; Harvard Univ. - Law), & Dimitris Anastasiou (Southern Illinois Univ. - Special Education) have published The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: A Commentary (Oxford Univ. Press 2018). My thanks to the editors for asking me to write the chapter on "Regional Integration Organizations." Here's the abstract:

This treatise is a detailed article-by-article examination of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Each article of the CRPD contains a methodical analysis of the preparatory works, followed by an exhaustive examination of the contents of each article based on case law and concluding observations from the CRPD Committee, judgments from national and international courts and tribunals, pertinent UN and other reports, the key literature on the article under review. The volume features commentary from a broad range of scholars across a variety of disciplines in order to provide a comprehensive study of the legal, psychological, education, sociological, and other aspects of the CPRD. This encyclopaedic commentary on the CRPD effectively covers all the issues arising from international disability law and practice, and will be an ideal resource for all working in the field.

Acquaviva: IHL in a Time of Crisis - Back to the Basics?

Guido Acquaviva (Kosovo Specialist Chambers) has posted IHL in a Time of Crisis - Back to the Basics? (in The Companion to International Humanitarian Law, Dražan Djukić & Niccolò Pons eds., 2018). Here's the abstract:

The Foreword to Brill's Companion to International Humanitarian Law provides an overview of the multifaceted issues facing international humanitarian law practitioners and scholars today, at a time when new technologies and old practices, principles, and rules appear to clash, and sovereign-centered philosophies challenge international mechanisms - judicial and otherwise - that have been interpreting and developing IHL over the past decades.

New Issue: Revista Española de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Española de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 70, no. 2, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Estudios
• Sixto Sánchez Lorenzo, El principio de coherencia en el derecho internacional privado europeo
• Fulvio Attinà, Tackling the migrant wave: EU as a source and a manager of crisis
• Francesc Xavier Pons Rafols & Elisenda Calvet Martínez, El fortalecimiento de la independencia judicial en los procesos de justicia transicional como garantía de no repetición
• Reflexividad, emancipación y universalismo: cartografías de la teoría de las Relaciones Internacionales José Antonio Sanahuja Perales
• Marta Requejo Isidro, El tiempo en el reglamento 650/2012: Ilustraciones de la práctica española
• Margarita Robles Carrillo, La reforma de la corporación para la asignación de nombres y números de internet (ICANN): un análisis en términos de legitimidad
• Carmen Montesinos Padilla, Los principios Ruggie y la Agenda 2030. Un futuro de recíprocas influencias por explorar
• Foro. 20.º Aniversario del Estatuto de Roma
• Concepción Escobar Hernández, La corte penal internacional en construcción: nuevos retos veinte años después de la Conferencia de Roma
• Sara Kendall, Restorative Justice at the International Criminal Court
• Foro. La gerontomigración: una propuesta de investigación global para abordar el fenómeno complejo de la movilidad transfronteriza de personas mayores
• María Teresa Echezarreta Ferrer, jurídica de las relaciones transfronterizas derivadas de la gerontomigración
• Rafael Durán Muñoz, Dimensiones extrajurídicas de la gerontomigración: España como lugar de retiro en tiempos de "brexit"

New Issue: Transnational Dispute Management

The latest issue of Transnational Dispute Management (2018, no. 5) is out. The table of contents is here.

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 54, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Doctrinal thoughts on a doctrinal approach to the problem of diversity in International Law. Revisiting Anthea Roberts’ Is International Law International? and Comparative International Law
• Introduced by Maurizio Arcari and Paolo Palchetti
• Stavros-Evdokimos Pantazopoulos, Is International Law International? Exploring its normative underpinnings
• Andrea Carcano, Uses and possible misuses of a Comparative International Law approach

New Issue: Nordic Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 36, no. 3, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Nordic Histories of Human Rights
• Hanne Hagtvedt Vik, Steven LB Jensen, Linde Lindkvist & Johan Strang, Histories of Human Rights in the Nordic Countries
• Johan Strang, Scandinavian Legal Realism and Human Rights: Axel Hägerström, Alf Ross and the Persistent Attack on Natural Law
• Ainur Elmgren, Human Rights in Interwar Finland
• Kjersti Brathagen, From Global Ambition to Local Reality: Initiatives for the Dissemination of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Norway, 1948–1952
• Steven LB Jensen, Evolving Internationalism: Denmark and Human Rights Politics, 1948–1968
• Kristine Kjærsgaard, International Arenas and Domestic Institution Formation: The Impact of the UN Women’s Conferences in Denmark, 1975–1985
• Linde Lindkvist, Rights for the World’s Children: Rädda Barnen and the Making of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Hanne Hagtvedt Vik & Skage Alexander Østberg, Deploying the Engagement Policy: The Significance of Legal Dualism in Norway’s Support for Human Rights Treaties from the late 1970s

Schabas: The Trial of the Kaiser

William A. Schabas (Middlesex Univ. - Law) has published The Trial of the Kaiser (Oxford Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

In the immediate aftermath of the armistice that ended the First World War, the Allied nations of Britain, France, and Italy agreed to put the fallen German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II on trial, in what would be the first ever international criminal tribunal. In Britain, Lloyd George campaigned for re-election on the slogan 'hang the Kaiser', but the Italians had only lukewarm support for a trial, and there was outright resistance from the United States.

During the Peace Conference, international lawyers gathered for the first time to debate international criminal justice. They recommended trial of the Kaiser by an international tribunal for war crimes, and the Americans relented, agreeing to a trial for a 'supreme offence against international morality'. However, the Kaiser had fled to the Netherlands where he obtained asylum, and though the Allies threatened a range of measures if the former Emperor was not surrendered, the Dutch refused and the demands were dropped in March 1920.

This book, from renowned legal scholar William A. Schabas, sheds light on perhaps the most important international trial that never was. Schabas draws on numerous primary sources hitherto unexamined in published work, including transcripts which vividly illuminate this period of international law making. As such, he has written a book which constitutes a history of the very beginnings of international criminal justice, a history which has never before been fully told.

Call for Papers: 8th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of SIEL

A call for papers has been issued for the 8th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of the Society of International Economic Law, to be held May 30-31, 2019, in London. The call is here.

Zorzi Giustiniani: Divieto di non-refoulement e tortura. Osservazioni in margine al General Commentn. 4 alla Convenzione ONU contro la tortura

Flavia Zorzi Giustiniani (Università Telematica Internazionale Uninettuno - Law) has published Divieto di non-refoulement e tortura. Osservazioni in margine al General Commentn. 4 alla Convenzione ONU contro la tortura e altre pene o trattamenti crudeli, inumani o degradanti del 1984 (federalismi.it, no. 2/2018). Here's the abstract:

Il Comitato delle Nazioni Unite contro la tortura (di seguito Comitato o CAT)ha pubblicato, il 9 febbraio scorso, ilGeneral Commentn. 4 sull’attuazione dell’articolo 3della Convenzione contro la tortura e altri trattamenti o punizioni crudeli, inumani o degradanti del 1984 nel contesto dell’articolo 22. Il documento, che sostituisce ilGeneral Commentn. 1 del 1997, é stato adottato in esito ad un lungo drafting process che ha visto il coinvolgimento non soltanto degli Stati parti, ma anche di numerose agenzie internazionali ed esponenti della società civile. Le nuove Osservazioni generali intendono chiarire il contenuto e la portata del divieto di refoulement ai sensi dell’art. 3 della Convenzione. Il tema é di estrema importanza, considerato che l’art. 3 costituisce una delle norme chiave del trattato ed é anche l’articolo più invocato nell’ambito della procedura di comunicazione individuale ex art. 22 della Convenzione. Il presente contributo si prefigge di esaminare le principali novità introdotte dal General Commentn. 4 ed il loro rilievo nel contesto della Convenzione. A tal fine si procederà preliminarmente ad inquadrare l’attuale portata del non-refoulement nel diritto internazionale, nonché le funzioni e lo status giuridico dei General Commentsdei cosiddetti treaty-bodies delle Nazioni Unite.

The UN Committee against Torture has published, on February 9th, General Comment no. 4 on the implementation of Article 3 of the Convention against the torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of 1984 in the context of Article 22. The document, which replaces General Comment n. 1 of 1997, was adopted following a long drafting process that saw the involvement not only of States parties, but also of numerous international organizations and representatives of civil society. The new General Observations intend to clarify the content and scope of the prohibition of refoulement pursuant to art. 3 of the Convention. The theme is of extreme importance, considering that art. 3 constitutes one of the key rules of the treaty and it is also the most invoked article in the context of the individual communication procedure pursuant to art. 22 of the Convention. The present contribution aims to examine the main changes introduced by General Comment n. 4 and their relevance in the context of the Convention. To this end, we will first proceed to frame the current scope of non-refoulement in international law, as well as the functions and legal status of the General Comments of the so-called UN treaty-bodies.

Rachovitsa: The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: A Uniquely Equipped Testbed for (the Limits of) Human Rights Integration?

Adamantia Rachovitsa (Univ. of Groningen - Law) has posted The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: A Uniquely Equipped Testbed for (the Limits of) Human Rights Integration? (in Human Rights Tectonics: Global Dynamics of Integration and Fragmentation, E. Bribosia, I. Rorive, & A.M. Correa eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACtHPR) is uniquely situated to pursue human rights integration when construing the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter). This is due to distinctive features pertaining to the ACtHPR’s mandate and the text of the African Charter. This chapter argues that human rights integration is fostered by, and conditioned to, the drafting and design of a human rights treaty. Moreover, human rights integration should not be regarded as a single interpretative argument, but rather as a set of different, possible arguments depending on the explicit and implicit choices made in the process of interpretation.

The analysis shows how human rights integration can and should be relevant in supporting convergence on a regional and/or universal level (or both). In the case of the ACtHPR, human rights integration highlights and justifies different arguments and interpretative directions concerning the advancement of an African human rights corpus juris and/or the convergence of the African Charter with other regional and universal human rights treaties. However, at the same time, divergence in treaty design should be understood as contextual difference and, consequently, the pursue of human rights integration should weigh this appropriately in legal reasoning. The chapter concludes with a few remarks on how the ACtHPR needs to “calibrate” its case law in order to develop the distinctive features of the African Charter and construe an African human rights corpus juris, on the one hand, and embed these features in international (human rights) law, on the other hand.

Jackson: State Instigation in International Law

Miles Jackson (Univ. of Oxford - Law) has posted State Instigation in International Law. Here's the abstract:

It is widely believed that international law imposes no general prohibition on instigation - no general prohibition on states inducing or inciting or procuring other states to breach their international obligations. The absence of a prohibition on instigation stands in contrast to the now entrenched prohibition on the provision of assistance to another state that facilitates an internationally wrongful act. In this article, I argue that the orthodox position on instigation is incorrect. I argue that a prohibition on instigation is founded on a general principle of law, as envisaged in Article 38(1)(c) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and that it would be appropriate to transpose that general principle to the international legal system. To sustain this argument, I first construct a sufficiently representative set of domestic jurisdictions for comparative analysis. Second, by way of a brief comparative survey I assess whether in each of these domestic jurisdictions it is wrongful, in one way or another, for an actor to instigate another to commit an act that it would be wrongful for it to do itself. And third, I argue that the transposition of this principle from domestic law to international law is conceptually and normatively appropriate.

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 391 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:

• Volume 391
• A.A. Cançado Trindade, Les tribunaux internationaux et leur mission commune de réalisation de la justice : développements, état actuel et perspectives, Conférence spéciale
• F.M. Mariño Menéndez, The Prohibition of Torture in Public International Law
• C. Swinarski, Effets pour l’individu des régimes de protection de droit international
• J.-P. Cot, L’éthique du procès international, leçon inaugurale

New Issue: Archiv des Völkerrechts

The latest issue of Archiv des Völkerrechts (Vol. 56, no. 2, June 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Abhandlungen
• Liliana Lyra Jubilut & Rachel de Oliveira Lopes, Forced Migration and Latin America: Peculiarities of a Peculiar Region in Refugee Protection
• André de Carvalho Ramos, Immigration and Human Rights: the Impact of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Precedents (Towards a 'Latin American Migration Policy'?)
• Annalisa Morticelli, Emília Castro, & Ülkü Sezgı Sözen, The Need of a New Blueprint for Refugees: A Comparative Case Study
• Beiträge und Berichte
• Jasper Theodor Kauth, Fremdenrecht und VölkerbundDas Scheitern der International Conference on the Treatment of Foreigners 1929
• Alexander Schwarz & Valérie Suhr, Die Verfolgung aufgrund der sexuellen Orientierung als Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit
• Lukas Meyer, Der Ausländervorbehalt in der Rechtsprechung des EGMR

Paine: International Adjudication as a Global Public Good?

Joshua Paine (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law) has posted International Adjudication as a Global Public Good? (European Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article explores whether international adjudication might constitute a global public good, or a mechanism which produces such goods. The article’s key contribution is to differentiate between the functions which are served by international adjudicatory processes and to demonstrate that these produce distinct costs and benefits, some of which are privately held, and others which are much more diffusely held and involve public goods problems. Even within the one adjudicatory function, such as dispute settlement or compliance monitoring, there is often a complex mix of privately held costs and benefits and far more diffusely felt effects. The global public goods framework sheds light on how these varied costs and benefits are generated by different sets of actors, ranging from all states who create and maintain a tribunal, and broader compliance-supporting constituencies, through to outputs that largely depend on the efforts of individual litigants. The functions served by adjudication, whose relationship to global public goods are analysed, are the peaceful settlement of disputes; the development of international law; and the monitoring of compliance with, and enforcement of, international norms. I also consider the potential of international adjudication to ensure accountability and due process within attempts to provide global public goods.

Aust: The Democratic Challenge to Foreign Relations Law in Transatlantic Perspective

Helmut Aust (Freie Universität Berlin - Law) has posted The Democratic Challenge to Foreign Relations Law in Transatlantic Perspective (in The Double-Facing Constitution: Legal Externalities and the Reshaping of the Constitutional Order, David Dyzenhaus, Jacco Bomhoff & Thomas Poole eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Foreign relations law as a field was traditionally characterised by a distinction between the inside and the outside of the state. Typically, executives enjoyed greater leeway for cooperation on the international law. To that effect, ordinary constitutional law principles would not apply in the realm of foreign relations law to the same extent as they did internally. This contribution analyses shifting paradigms in foreign relations law in two jurisdictions, i.e. Germany and the United States of America. Based on the identification of two different conceptions of foreign relations, one open and aiming at the facilitation of international cooperation, one closed which strives for a protection of domestic constitutional arrangements, the contribution makes the argument that the foreign relations law debate in Germany is increasingly moving from an open to a closed conception. This shift is taking place in the name of democracy. A more reserved position towards international law is meant to bolster the democratic legitimacy of international cooperation. This risks undermining the capacity of governments to engage in the traditional forms of international law. An unintended consequence of this development might be a further shift towards informal ways of cooperation which are even more difficult to control from a democratic perspective.

New Volume: Canadian Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Canadian Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 55, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Lucas Lixinski, Trialogical Subsidiarity in International and Comparative Law: Engagement with International Treaties by Sub-State Entities as Resistance or Innovation
• René Provost, L’attaque directe d’enfants-soldats en droit international humanitaire
• Steve Lorteau, China’s South China Sea Claims as “Unprecedented”: Sceptical Remarks
• Louis Savadogo, Les incidents liés à la composition de la cour ou du tribunal dans le procès international
• Heather S. Fogo, A Legal Mirage: State Responsibility for Non-State Actor Interference with Space Systems
• Catherine Le Bris, La société civile, juge des droits de l’homme: à propos du Tribunal International Monsanto
• Vladimíra Pejchalová Grünwaldová, General and Particular Approaches to Implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights
• Amissi Melchiade Manirabona, La compétence de la future Cour pénale africaine à l’égard des personnes morales: propositions en vue du renforcement de ce régime inédit
• Notes and Comments
• Suzanne LaLonde, Donat Pharand (1922–2018)
• Kelsey A. Rose, When Immunity Means Impunity: Lessons for Canada from Recent Cases on State Immunity from Execution

Conference: Canadian Council on International Law 2018 Annual Conference

The 47th Annual Conference of the Canadian Council on International Law will take place November 1-2, 2018, in Ottawa. The theme is "International Law at the Boundaries." The program is here. Here's the idea:

Populist movements in Brexit Britain and Trump America seek to reassert the primacy of national frontiers, after decades of increasing integration in politics, economics and law. But borders seem to offer no answer to climate change, mass migration, global capital flows or even, in the case of Putin’s Russia, territorial aggrandizement. And all of these transnational challenges arise at a time of rapid innovation: in a new technological context, have existing international legal norms been pushed to the boundaries of their usefulness?

Conference: Proposed Revision of ICSID Rules

On November 13, 2018, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the School of International Arbitration of Queen Mary University of London, and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law will hold a conference in London to discuss the proposed revision of the ICSID Arbitration Rules. The program is here.

Call for Papers: 7th AsianSIL Biennial Conference and Junior Scholars' Workshop

The Asian Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for its Seventh Biennial Conference, to be held August 22-23, 2019, in Quezon City. The theme is: "Rethinking International Law: Finding Common Solutions to Contemporary Civilizational Issues from an Asian Perspective." A call has also been issued for a junior scholars' conference, to be held the day before the conference, on August 21. Here are the calls:

7th AsianSIL Biennial Conference

22 to 23 August 2019 (Quezon City, Philippines)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Theme of the Conference: Rethinking International Law: Finding Common Solutions to Contemporary Civilizational Issues from an Asian Perspective

Undeniably, the Asian region now plays a bigger role in the shaping of international law, as it continues to grow in economic, cultural and political importance. With more than half of the world’s population living in the region – not to mention that it plays host to ten of the largest nations on earth – Asian economies push the demands of development into unchartered territory in the so-called Asian century with a dynamism all their own.

And yet the past is always relevant to our common future/s. While international law may have had a murky beginning in Asia – closely intertwined as it has been with the colonial project – there is no question that Asian societies have embraced it, even for purposes distinct and separate from its original impulses. As a platform for cooperation in many areas, it has proven its usefulness, the contentious aspects notwithstanding.

Contemporary developments in international relations, shifts in global, regional and national politics, as well as large-scale environmental and economic issues, now compel a reexamination of the foundational roots of international law, especially as these raise civilizational issues.

For example, the horrific spectre raised by a new breed of radical terrorists has raised a common issue to humanity and challenges exceptionalist notions of culture-based norms and rights on what it means to be human and to be a rights-bearer.

East and West, North and South, the question of human dignity has become front and center in the raging debate on the meaning and continuing relevance of human rights; this in fact, should take us back to the discussions on the ontological or civilizational sources from which the drafters of the UN Charter drew in their difficult and gargantuan work. To be sure, Asia has its own smoldering human rights and humanitarian hotspots, which further complicate the direction of development its varied societies want to harness for their future.

And what of the UN in relation to Asia, the most diverse of regions in the world? As a leading, if dominant feature of the international legal order, the UN and the different corollary international legal institutions it has spawned have demonstrated both vertical and horizontal features that have a bearing on an Asian embrace of international law.

In the global issue of environmental degradation – on many levels a real civilizational threat – Asia has moved forward, with China choosing to work with the European Union in implementing the Paris Protocol in the face of American retreat. And environmental problems are no abstract problem in many Asian societies.

The hegemony of Western-style business and investments also now finds stiff competition in Chinese-led international banking and investments, and the new Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by China continues to make inroads in areas traditionally occupied by state sovereignty and extant regional economic arrangements.

Uncertainties in the contemporary times may mean disabling perplexities. But it may also be embraced as a necessary search for common solutions to the common problems faced by diverse cultures and societies, by way of rethinking what international law had stood for from the beginning and how it may be made relevant to contemporary challenges.

Key Topics of Discussion for Parallel Sessions

We encourage participants to submit papers on the following and related topics (the list below is merely suggested and is by no means exhaustive):

1. Commemorative Special Panel for the late Justice Florentino P. Feliciano: The Spirit of International Law Scholarship and Judicial Theory
2. The History and Theory of International Law: Whose History? Whose Theory? Whose International Law? What Have We So Far (un)Learned?
3. International Law and International Relations: Convergences and Divergences
4. Re-Thinking Foundational Issues in International Law: Comparative Regional Approaches
5. International Legal Norm Entrepreneurship: Asian Perspectives, Perplexities and Possibilities
6. Comparative Approaches to International Law: Asian and other Regions
7. The UN and International Law: Promises and Perils from an Asian Perspective
8. The International Court of Justice: Asian Contributions and Challenges
9. The Future/s of International Tribunals from the Asian Perspective
10. International Criminal Law: Asian Challenges and Trajectories
11. International Law and Domestic Courts in Asia
12. New Developments in Private International Law in Asia
13. International Law Aspects of Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Asia
14. ASEAN Integration and International Law
15. Challenges to Women and Gender in International Law
16. Mixed Marriages, Adoption and Surrogacy: Cross-Border Issues in Family Law
17. International Human Rights Mechanisms in Asia: Rethinking Models and Realities
18. Rethinking the Foundations of Human Rights: Conversations from Asian and Regional Perspectives
19. Enforcing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Asian Lessons
20. International Trade Law and Human Rights
21. Migrant Workers and Human Rights in Asia
22. Corporations and Human Rights in Asia
23. Cyber-Warfare and International Humanitarian law
24. Digital Transactions and Realities: Intersections with International law
25. Emerging Issues in Law on Armed Conflict and Terrorism in Asia
26. Refugee Law in Asia: In Search of Common and Uncommon Solutions
27. The International Law of Development: Asian Challenges
28. Regional Cooperation in Asia and International Law
29. The WTO and Asia: Contributions and Challenges
30. International Investment Law: The State of the Art in Asia
31. International Arbitration and Investment Protection in Asia: Contributions to International Law and the Rule of Law
32. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): Challenges for Sovereignty and International Law
33. Global Commons and Values in Oceans: Asian Realities and Regional Approaches
34. Emerging Maritime Regulation and Security Issues in Asia and International Law
35. Beyond the South China Sea Arbitral Ruling: Gaps and Gray Areas in the Law of the Sea from Asian Needs and Perspectives
36. Trans-boundary and other Environmental Harms and International Law in Asia
37. International Environmental Law: Intersections with the Paris Accord and Trans-Pacific Partnership Regimes

Interested scholars will be required to provide the following:

1. An abstract of between 300 and 500 words on the proposed paper on or before midnight of 30 November 2018 (Manila Time). Please clearly identify the title of your paper and the session category. Abstracts must be submitted to asiansilmanila2019@gmail.com.
2. Affiliation details and brief biography. This includes professional status, educational background, institutional affiliation, contact number and e-mail address. Please provide also any information about your publications and any other relevant information on your research or experience.
3. Your affiliation to the Asian Society of International Law. Preference will be given to existing members of the Asian Society of International Law in the selection process.
4. Successful applicants will be informed by email on or before midnight of 31 January 2019 (Manila Time). They are required to submit their full paper to the AsianSIL 7^th Biennial Conference Academic Sub-Committee on or before midnight of 30 April 2019 (Manila Time). The submitted papers should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words, not including the footnotes.

Interested parties working on a common issue or topic may also propose their own panel to the AsianSIL Manila Conference 2019 Academic Sub-Committee, under conditions described below.

Those who wish to propose a special panel for a common topic or issue should submit a common proposal for such panel, stating the following details:

1. The proposed topic or issue for the panel;
2. The panel participants and their respective affiliations (minimum of three members; maximum of four members);
3. Their respective paper titles and abstracts of no more than 500 words each;
4. Their contact details – contact numbers and email addresses.

In addition, the common proposal should be emailed along with the abstract, biography and affiliation requirements to the contact details above. The same deadlines and dates apply to panel proposals.

New Voices in International Law: The Junior Scholars’ Conference

There will also be a Junior Scholars’ Conference that will convene one day before the Biennial Conference, on 21 August 2019. This one-day conference encourages junior academics (untenured or within the first three years of a tenure track appointment), academic fellows (in pre-tenure track fellowships), post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students, to submit papers on the topics listed, or are related to what are listed, above.

The Junior Scholars’ Conference Application Procedure

Junior academics interested in participating in the Conference should submit the abstract, biography and affiliation submission requirements stated above to jsc.asiansilmanila2019@gmail.com. The same dates and deadlines as in the main conference apply to the Junior Scholars’ Conference.

Interested junior scholars working on a common issue or topic may also propose their own panel, under conditions described below.

Those who wish to propose a special panel for a common topic or issue should submit a common proposal for such panel, stating the following details:

1. The proposed topic or issue for the panel;
2. The panel participants and their respective affiliations (minimum of three members; maximum of four members);
3. Their respective paper titles and abstracts of no more than 500 words each;
4. Their contact details – contact numbers and email addresses.

In addition, the common proposal should be emailed along with the abstract, biography and affiliation requirements to the contact details provided for the Junior Scholars’ Conference.

Successful applicants to the Junior Scholars’ Conference will be informed by email on or before midnight of 31 January 2019 (Manila Time). They are required to submit their full paper to the AsianSIL 7^th Biennial Conference Academic Committee on or before midnight of 30 April 2019 (Manila Time). The submitted papers should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words, not including the footnotes.

Enquiries about the paper selection process, the Junior Scholars’ Conference and the 7^th AsianSIL Biennial Conference may be addressed to: asiansilmanila2019@gmail.com.

Conference: Recent Developments in International Humanitarian Law and Detention Law and Practice

On November 12-13, 2018, the 13th Annual Minerva/ICRC International Conference on International Humanitarian Law will take place at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The theme is: "Recent Developments in International Humanitarian Law and Detention Law and Practice." The program is here.