New Issue: Review of International Organizations

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 14, no. 1, March 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Paul Novosad & Eric Werker, Who runs the international system? Nationality and leadership in the United Nations Secretariat
• Stephanie J. Rickard & Teri L. Caraway, International demands for austerity: Examining the impact of the IMF on the public sector
• Lukas Haffert, War mobilization or war destruction? The unequal rise of progressive taxation revisited
• Christoph Knill, Louisa Bayerlein, Jan Enkler, & Stephan Grohs, Bureaucratic influence and administrative styles in international organizations
• Miles Kellerman, The proliferation of multilateral development banks
• Benjamin A. T. Graham & Jacob R. Tucker, The international political economy data resource

New Issue: Global Constitutionalism

The latest issue of Global Constitutionalism (Vol. 8, no. 1, March 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: The Ideologies of Global Constitutionalism
• Adam Shinar, The ideologies of global constitutionalism
• Mark Tushnet, The globalisation of constitutional law as a weakly neo-liberal project
• David E Landau, Rosalind Dixon & Yaniv Roznai, From an unconstitutional constitutional amendment to an unconstitutional constitution? Lessons from Honduras
• Marco Goldoni, Introduction to the material study of global constitutional law
• Gila Stopler, Semi-liberal constitutionalism
• Articles
• Tamas Gyorfi, The legitimacy of the European human rights regime – a view from the United Kingdom
• Hakeem O Yusuf & Tanzil Chowdhury, The persistence of colonial constitutionalism in British Overseas Territories

Simmons & Creamer: Do Self-Reporting Regimes Matter? Evidence From the Convention Against Torture

Beth A. Simmons (Univ. of Pennsylvania) & Cosette D. Creamer (Univ. of Minnesota - Political Science) have posted Do Self-Reporting Regimes Matter? Evidence From the Convention Against Torture (International Studies Quarterly, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

International regulatory agreements depend largely on self-reporting for implementation, yet we know almost nothing about whether or how such mechanisms work. We theorize that self-reporting processes provide information for domestic constituencies, with the potential to create pressure for better compliance. Using original data on state reports submitted to the Committee Against Torture, we demonstrate the influence of this process on the pervasiveness of torture and inhumane treatment. We illustrate the power of self-reporting regimes to mobilize domestic politics through evidence of civil society participation in shadow reporting, media attention, and legislative activity around anti-torture law and practice. This is the first study to evaluate systematically the effects of self-reporting in the context of a treaty regime on human rights outcomes. Since many international agreements rely predominantly on self-reporting, the results have broad significance for compliance with international regulatory regimes globally.

New Issue: Ethics & International Affairs

The latest issue of Ethics & International Affairs (Vol. 33, no. 1, Spring 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Essay
• Sean Kanuck, Humor, Ethics, and Dignity: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
• Roundtable: Balancing Legal Norms, Moral Values, and National Interests
• Gareth Evans, Introduction
• Nigel Biggar, A Christian View of Humanitarian Intervention
• Rafael Biermann, Secessionist Conflict: A Happy Marriage between Norms and Interests?
• Megan Bradley, Unresolved and Unresolvable? Tensions in the Refugee Regime
• Stefan Oeter, Conflicting Norms, Values, and Interests: A Perspective from Legal Academia
• Hugo Slim, Humanitarian Diplomacy: The ICRC's Neutral and Impartial Advocacy in Armed Conflicts
• Response
• Edward C. Luck, Could a United Nations Code of Conduct Help Curb Atrocities? A Response to Bolarinwa Adediran
• Review Essay
• Christian Schemmel, The Many Evils of Inequality: An Examination of T. M. Scanlon's Pluralist Account

AJIL Unbound Symposium: Efrony & Shany's "A Rule Book on the Shelf? Tallinn Manual 2.0 on Cyberoperations and Subsequent State Practice"

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on Dan Efrony and Yuval Shany's article “A Rule Book on the Shelf? Tallinn Manual 2.0 on Cyberoperations and Subsequent State Practice.” The symposium includes an introduction by Fleur Johns and contributions by Nicholas Tsagourias, Lianne J.M. Boer, Kubo Mačák, and Ido Kilovaty.

New Issue: Revista de Direito Internacional

The latest issue of Revista de Direito Internacional (Vol. 16, no. 1, 2019) is out. This is a special issue on "Arbitragem Internacional/International Arbitration." The table of contents is here.

Brölmann: Capturing the Juridical Will of International Organisations

Catherine M. Brölmann (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Capturing the Juridical Will of International Organisations (in International Organizations and Non-State Actors in the Formation of Customary International Law, Sufyan Droubi & Jean d’Aspremont eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The 2018 ILC Conclusions on identification of customary international law bring to light that contemporary international law accords a modest role to international organisations as independent actors in the formation of customary international law. This could seem remarkable, given that international organisations participate ever more fully in international legal affairs. The present chapter argues that one explanatory factor is the hesitation in international law to ascribe to international organisations a ‘juridical Will’. The term is used here as a shorthand for the various subjective, ‘intentional states’ - such as intention, opinion, acquiescence - that systems of law project onto legal participants in order to operationalise legal agency. International law seems to have no problem accomodating States in this respect, but shows signs of hesitation with regard to international organisations. This in turn can be linked to the organisation’s functional, mechanistic identity in international law, which has -in all its political and theoretical facets- persisted even after organisations in the course of the 20th century came to appear as prominent independent legal actors. It is one reason why the ascertainment of an organisation’s opinio juris, or of an organisation’s distinct Will in the attribution of practice, may pose a challenge. The chapter proposes that in light of their current role in global affairs, international organisations should assume a role in the formation of custom in sofar as substantively relevant for their work. More generally, it is time that organisations come of age as international legal persons and be fully susceptible to the projection of a juridical Will.

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 63, no. 4, April 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Dov H. Levin, A Vote for Freedom? The Effects of Partisan Electoral Interventions on Regime Type
• Abigail Post, Flying to Fail: Costly Signals and Air Power in Crisis Bargaining
• David C. Kang, Dat X. Nguyen, Ronan Tse-min Fu, & Meredith Shaw, War, Rebellion, and Intervention under Hierarchy: Vietnam–China Relations, 1365 to 1841
• Brandon K. Yoder, Hedging for Better Bets: Power Shifts, Credible Signals, and Preventive Conflict
• Andrew Bertoli, Allan Dafoe, & Robert F. Trager, Is There a War Party? Party Change, the Left–Right Divide, and International Conflict
• Kerstin Fisk, Jennifer L. Merolla, & Jennifer M. Ramos, Emotions, Terrorist Threat, and Drones: Anger Drives Support for Drone Strikes
• Sharan Grewal & Yasser Kureshi, How to Sell a Coup: Elections as Coup Legitimation
• Rory Truex, Focal Points, Dissident Calendars, and Preemptive Repression
• Juan Fernando Tellez, Worlds Apart: Conflict Exposure and Preferences for Peace
• Krista Wiegand & Eric Keels, Oil Wealth, Winning Coalitions, and Duration of Civil Wars

Conference: La fabrique de l'universalisme américain : l'Amérique Latine et la construction régionale du droit international

This Thursday, March 7, 2019, a conference will be held in Paris on "La fabrique de l'universalisme américain : l'Amérique Latine et la construction régionale du droit international / La fabricación del universalismo americano: América Latina y la construcción regional del derecho internacional / The quest for an American universalism: Latin America and the regional construction of international law." The program is here. Here's the idea:

L'histoire du droit international a connu, grâce notamment à l'impulsion donnée par Martti Koskenniemi, un développement important au cours des dernières décennies. Ce colloque s'inscrit dans ce renouveau de l'histoire du droit international et propose d'introduire le point de vue latino-américain afin d'enrichir une vision qui demeure largement centrée sur l'étude de la production de pratiques et de discours juridiques en Europe.

Conference: 2019 ESIL Research Forum

The European Society of International Law's 2019 Research Forum will take place April 4-5, 2019, at the Institute for International Law and European Law, Faculty of Law, University of Göttingen. The theme is: "The Rule of Law in International and Domestic Contexts: Synergies and Challenges." The program is here. On Wednesday, April 3, seven ESIL Interest Groups will convene side events on the occasion of the Research Forum. Those events and their programs can be found here.

Chaisse: China's International Investment Strategy: Bilateral, Regional, and Global Law and Policy

Julien Chaisse (Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong - Law) has published China's International Investment Strategy: Bilateral, Regional, and Global Law and Policy (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Since China adopted its 'open door' policy in 1978, which altered its development strategy from self-sufficiency to active participation in the world market, its goal has remained unchanged: to assist the readjustment of China's economy, to coordinate its modernization programs, and to improve its quality of life. With the 1997 launch of the 'Going Global' policy, an outward focus regarding foreign investment was added, to circumvent trade barriers and improve the competitiveness of Chinese firms. In order to accommodate inward and outward investment, China's participation in the international investment regime has underpinned its efforts to join multilateral investment-related legal instruments and conclude international investment agreements.

This collection, compiled by award-winning scholar Professor Julien Chaisse, explores the three distinct tracks of China's investment policy and strategy: bilateral agreements including those with the US and the EU; regional agreements including the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific; and global initiatives, spear-headed by China's presidency of the G20 and its 'Belt and Road initiative'. The book's overarching topic is whether these three tracks compete with each other, or whether they complement one another - a question of profound importance for the country's political and economic future and world investment governance.

New Issue: Human Rights Law Review

The latest issue of the Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 19, no. 1, February 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Ciara M Smyth, Towards a Complete Prohibition on the Immigration Detention of Children
• Yorck Diergarten, Indigenous or Out of Scope? Large-scale Land Acquisitions in Developing Countries, International Human Rights Law and the Current Deficiencies in Land Rights Protection
• Danwood M Chirwa & Chipo I Rushwaya, Guarding the Guardians: A Critical Appraisal of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa
• Alice Donald & Anne-Katrin Speck, The European Court of Human Rights’ Remedial Practice and its Impact on the Execution of Judgments
• Philippe Yves Kuhn, Reforming the Approach to Racial and Religious Hate Speech Under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights
• Sofia Galani, Terrorist Hostage-taking and Human Rights: Protecting Victims of Terrorism under the European Convention on Human Rights
• Dominic McGoldrick, Challenging the Constitutionality of Restrictions on Same-Sex Sexual Relations: Lessons from India

New Issue: International Journal of Transitional Justice

The latest issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (Vol. 13, no. 1, March 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Special Section: Advancing Transitional Justice through Technologies
• Special Section Articles
• Oriana Bernasconi, Elizabeth Lira, & Marcela Ruiz, Political Technologies of Memory: Uses and Appropriations of Artefacts that Register and Denounce State Violence
• Michelle E Anderson, Community-Based Transitional Justice Via the Creation and Consumption of Digitalized Storytelling Archives: A Case Study of Belfast’s Prisons Memory Archive
• Tamy Guberek, Velia Muralles, & Hannah Alpert-Abrams, ‘Irreversible’: The Role of Digitization to Repurpose State Records of Repression
• Daniela Gavshon & Erol Gorur, Information Overload: How Technology Can Help Convert Raw Data into Rich Information for Transitional Justice Processes
• Notes from the Field
• Jean-Marie Chenou, Lina P Chaparro-Martínez, & Ana María Mora Rubio, Broadening Conceptualizations of Transitional Justice through Using Technology: ICTs in the Context of Justicia y Paz in Colombia
• Review Essay
• Patrick Vinck, Transitional Justice in the Age of Social Media
• General Issue Articles
• Matilda Keynes, History Education for Transitional Justice? Challenges, Limitations and Possibilities for Settler Colonial Australia
• Kevin Hearty, Moral Emotions and the Politics of Blame and Credit during Transitional Justice Moments
• Karin Dyrstad & Helga Malmin Binningsbø, Between Punishment and Impunity: Public Support for Reactions against Perpetrators in Guatemala, Nepal and Northern Ireland
• Review Essay
• Cécile Aptel & Patrick Nagler, Children and Transitional Justice