New Issue: World Trade Review

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 18, no. 4, October 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Susan Ariel Aaronson, What Are We Talking about When We Talk about Digital Protectionism?
• Susannah Hodson, Applying WTO and FTA Disciplines to Data Localization Measures
• Bedri Kamil Onur Taş, Kamala Dawar, Peter Holmes, & Sübidey Togan, Does the WTO Government Procurement Agreement Deliver What It Promises?
• James Harrison, Mirela Barbu, Liam Campling, Franz Christian Ebert, Deborah Martens, Axel Marx, Jan Orbie, Ben Richardson, & Adrian Smith, Labour Standards Provisions in EU Free Trade Agreements: Reflections on the European Commission's Reform Agenda
• Noemie Laurens, Zachary Dove, Jean Frederic Morin, & Sikina Jinnah, NAFTA 2.0: The Greenest Trade Agreement Ever?

Simo: Trade and Morality: Balancing Between the Pursuit of Non-Trade Concerns and the Fear of Opening the Floodgates

Regis Y. Simo (Univ. of Witwatersrand - Law) has published Trade and Morality: Balancing Between the Pursuit of Non-Trade Concerns and the Fear of Opening the Floodgates (George Washington International Law Review, Vol. 51, no. 3, p. 407, 2019). Here's the abstract:

The liberalization of trade is the main objective of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its numerous agreements. However, trade liberalization often conflicts with some important societal values and interests. This is the reason why a set of exceptions were devised in WTO-covered agreements to reconcile these conflicting interests. These exceptions allow Members to adopt measures for the protection of a number of values, including the protection of “public morals.” But because the term “public morals” is not defined by WTO agreements, the task of ascribing meaning to such a vague concept is left to the WTO judiciary. Highly ambiguous and subjective, “public morals” introduces a dose of uncertainty into the law of the WTO, which may have to deal with as many different conceptions of morality as there are Member States. Since the scope and limits of “public morals” remain uncertain, the adjudicator is left with a difficult task as it is confronted with cases pleading a public morality defense. This Article reviews the cases in which the adjudicator has indulged in the delicate exercise of balancing the preservation of public morals and the imperative of trade liberalization. This Article also critiques the standard of review and sets out to determine the degree of deference accorded to Members to define what constitutes public morals within their respective territories and whether, by so doing, the adjudicator has acted consistently within the delegated power of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU).

Call for Submissions: Posters for Protected Persons: The Geneva Conventions at 70

The Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum on International Humanitarian Law has announced that it is accepting submissions for its art competition “Posters for Protected Persons: The Geneva Conventions at 70.” The announcement is here.

Call for Papers: International Law and Distribution: Sustainable Development, Security, and the Governance of Resources (Reminder)

In April 2019, the University of Edinburgh hosted "Edingow" – the inaugural conference marking a new collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow in the field of international law. This call for papers is for Glasginburgh 2020 – the second conference in this series – to be held at the University of Glasgow on June 8-9, 2020. The theme is: "International Law and Distribution: Sustainable Development, Security, and the Governance of Resources." The call is here. The deadline is November 30, 2019.

Call for Papers: Historicization of International Law and its Limits: Preconditions, Modes and Legacies

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Historicization of International Law and its Limits: Preconditions, Modes and Legacies," to take place at the Altes Schloss von Dornburg, on June 4-5, 2020. The program is here.

Call for Submissions: Trade, Law and Development Special Issue on "Trade in Services: A Holistic Solution to New-Found Issues in Trade Law?"

The journal Trade, Law and Development has issued a call for submissions for its Summer 2020 issue (Vol. 12, no. 1), a special issue on "Trade in Services: A Holistic Solution to New-Found Issues in Trade Law?" The call is here.

New Issue: Revue trimestrielle des droits de l'homme

The latest issue of the Revue trimestrielle des droits de l'homme (No. 120, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• P. Lambert, In memoriam - Paul Bouchet
• J-B. Mattéi, Les priorités de la présidence française du Comité des Ministres du Conseil de l’Europe (17 mai – 27 novembre 2019)
• L. Robert, Enfants de « djihadistes » retenus en Syrie : vers une obligation de rapatriement en droit européen des droits de l’homme ?
• H. Tourard, La Cour de justice de l’Union européenne, juge de l’asile
• S. Grosbon, Le quarantième anniversaire de la Convention sur l’élimination de toutes les formes de discrimination à l’égard des femmes
• L. Burgorgue-Larsen & G-F. Ntwari, Chronique de jurisprudence de la Cour africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples (2018)
• N. Bernard, La protection conventionnelle du domicile tombe-t-elle lorsqu’on l’invoque contre un particulier ? La longue quête de l’horizontalisation des droits de l’homme
• M. Afroukh, L’application de la Charia en Grèce : la fermeté incomprise de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme
• V. Goesel-le Bihan, La pénalisation des clients de prostitué(e)s devant le Conseil constitutionnel
• D. Szymczak, « Répondre et rassurer » : quelques enseignements à propos du premier avis consultatif de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme
• T. Gaudin, À propos de l’arrêt G.K. c. Belgique et de la vérification des pouvoirs : reculer pour mieux sauter ?
• E. Decaux, Coup d’arrêt à Bakou
• C. Verbrouck, « La Cour européenne des droits de l’homme : entre renforcement du dialogue et protection des libertés » - Compte-rendu du colloque organisé le 24 mai 2019 à Bruxelles dans la salle des audiences

Conference: The Dynamics of Disputes over Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: Regime Convergence and Lex Ferenda

On November 28-29, 2019, the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg and the University of Geneva will host a conference on "The Dynamics of Disputes over Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: Regime Convergence and Lex Ferenda," in Luxembourg. The program and registration are here. Here's the idea:

The multidimensional consequences of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing reflect a diverse range of legal regimes and jurisdictional challenges. This conference will bring together internationally renowned experts to evaluate the progress made thus far in addressing IUU fishing from these different perspectives, and to discuss the potential for future developments. By focusing on the prevention and resolution of disputes relating to IUU fishing, the conference aims to raise holistic considerations that may serve as the basis for constructive approaches to this phenomenon. The conference begins with an assessment of the legal scope of IUU fishing disputes, and concludes with proposals for improving the management of these disputes in light of the dispute settlement frameworks discussed over the course of two days: institutions for global and regional cooperation, international courts and tribunals, and domestic jurisdictions. The panels will address the most controversial and salient aspects of these frameworks for addressing IUU fishing disputes. Participants in the conference will include academics, practitioners, jurists, representatives of international organizations, and government officials from Luxembourg, Europe, and around the world.

Call for Papers: Groups and Spaces in International Economic Law: Focus on the BRICS

The Interest Group on International Economic Law of the European Society of International Law and St. Petersburg State University have issued a call for papers for a conference on "Groups and Spaces in International Economic Law: Focus on the BRICS," which will take place on June 5-6, 2020, in St. Petersburg. The call is here.

Weber: The Domestic Stronghold of Capital Punishment for Atrocity Crimes in the 21st Century

Marissa Kardon Weber has posted an ASIL Insight on The Domestic Stronghold of Capital Punishment for Atrocity Crimes in the 21st Century.

New Addition to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added a lecture to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. It was given by Diane Marie Amann on “Child Rights, Conflict, and International Criminal Justice.”

Mishra: The Trade–(Cyber)security Dilemma and its Impact on Global Cybersecurity Governance

Neha Mishra (National Univ. of Singapore - Centre for International Law) has posted The Trade–(Cyber)security Dilemma and its Impact on Global Cybersecurity Governance (Journal of World Trade, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Governments are adopting various measures to address cybersecurity-related concerns. Some of these measures restrict cross-border flows of digital services/data, and thus inconsistent with obligations in trade agreements such as General Agreement on Trade in Services (‘GATS’). However, certain governments might argue that such measures are justified under the GATS security exception (art XIVbis) as they protect national security. This article investigates whether GATS art XIVbis is relevant in justifying cybersecurity measures and its potential impact on cybersecurity governance. It argues that GATS art XIVbis has limited relevance, and is potentially problematic, when used in justifying majority of cybersecurity measures. First, a large majority of cybersecurity measures do not fall within the limited set of exceptional circumstances listed in GATS art XIVbis. Further, in applying this exception to cybersecurity measures, WTO Panels will be unfairly forced to balance trade and security interests in an environment of political, technological and policy uncertainty. Given these practical limitations and the normative boundaries of GATS art XIVbis, countries must avoid casually relying upon security exceptions as a basis for adopting/implementing unilateral measures on cybersecurity, but rather engage in meaningful cyber-diplomacy and regulatory cooperation mechanisms to resolve their differences on cybersecurity governance.

Conference: La prohibition de l’esclavage et de la traite des êtres humains

On January 23-24, 2020, a conference on "La prohibition de l’esclavage et de la traite des êtres humains" will be held at Université de Poitiers. The program is here.

New Issue: Journal on the Use of Force and International Law

The latest issue of the Journal on the Use of Force and International Law (Vol. 6, no. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Francis Grimal, Twitter and the jus ad bellum: threats of force and other implications
• Articles
• Brian Drummond, UK Nuclear deterrence policy: an unlawful threat of force
• Nick van der Steenhoven, Conduct and subsequent practice by states in the application of the requirement to report under UN Charter Article 51

Kreuder-Sonnen: Emergency Powers of International Organizations: Between Normalization and Containment

Christian Kreuder-Sonnen (WZB Berlin Social Science Center) has published Emergency Powers of International Organizations: Between Normalization and Containment (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

Emergency Powers of International Organizations explores emergency politics of international organizations (IOs). It studies cases in which, based on justifications of exceptional necessity, IOs expand their authority, increase executive discretion, and interfere with the rights of their rule-addressees. This ''IO exceptionalism'' is observable in crisis responses of a diverse set of institutions including the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the World Health Organization.

Through six in-depth case studies, the book analyzes the institutional dynamics unfolding in the wake of the assumption of emergency powers by IOs. Sometimes, the exceptional competencies become normalized in the IOs' authority structures (the ''ratchet effect"). In other cases, IO emergency powers provoke a backlash that eventually reverses or contains the expansions of authority (the "rollback effect"). To explain these variable outcomes, this book draws on sociological institutionalism to develop a proportionality theory of IO emergency powers. It contends that ratchets and rollbacks are a function of actors' ability to justify or contest emergency powers as (dis)proportionate. The claim that the distribution of rhetorical power is decisive for the institutional outcome is tested against alternative rational institutionalist explanations that focus on institutional design and the distribution of institutional power among states. The proportionality theory holds across the cases studied in this book and clearly outcompetes the alternative accounts. Against the background of the empirical analysis, the book moreover provides a critical normative reflection on the (anti) constitutional effects of IO exceptionalism and highlights a potential connection between authoritarian traits in global governance and the system's current legitimacy crisis.

Whyte: The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism

Jessica Whyte (Univ. of New South Wales - Philosophy) has published The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism (Verso 2019). Here's the abstract:

Drawing on detailed archival research on the parallel histories of human rights and neoliberalism, Jessica Whyte uncovers the place of human rights in neoliberal attempts to develop a moral framework for a market society. In the wake of the Second World War, neoliberals saw demands for new rights to social welfare and self-determination as threats to “civilisation”. Yet, rather than rejecting rights, they developed a distinctive account of human rights as tools to depoliticise civil society, protect private investments and shape liberal subjects.

New Issue: Rivista di Diritto Internazionale

The latest issue of the Rivista di Diritto Internazionale (Vol. 102, no. 3, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Articoli
• Cesare Pitea, La nozione di “Paese di origine sicuro” e il suo impatto sulle garanzie per i richiedenti protezione internazionale in Italia
• Fulvia Staiano, Universal Jurisdiction over Transnational Maritime Crimes beyond Piracy
• Angelica Bonfanti, Attacchi cibernetici in tempo di pace :: le intrusioni nelle elezioni presidenziali statunitensi del 2016 alla luce del diritto internazional
• Note e Commenti
• Francesco Salerno, L’obbligo di non riconoscimento di situazioni territoriali illegittime dopo il parere della Corte internazionale di giustizia sulle Isole Chagos
• Andrea Spagnolo, Il Patto globale per le migrazioni alla luce del diritto internazionale
• Marco Dimetto, The Use (and Abuse) of Investment Case Law before the ICJ : the Legitimate Expectations Doctrine
• Panorama
• Zeno Crespi Reghizzi, Giurisdizione consultiva e principio consensuale :: il parere della Corte internazionalee di giustizia sulle Isole Chagos
• Enrico Zamuner, Giurisdizione penale dello Stato consiero e libertà di navigazione in alto mare :: in margine alla sentenza del Tribunale internazionale del diritto del mare nel caso “Norstar”

Van Hulle & Lesaffer: International Law in the Long Nineteenth Century (1776-1914)

Inge Van Hulle (Tilburg Univ. - Law) & Randall C.H. Lesaffer (KU Leuven; Tilburg Univ.) have published International Law in the Long Nineteenth Century (1776-1914): From the Public Law of Europe to Global International Law? (Brill | Nijhoff 2019). Contents include:

• Randall Lesaffer & Inge Van Hulle, Introduction
• James Crawford, Napoleon 1814–1815: A Small Issue of Status
• Camilla Boisen, The Law of Nations and the Common Law of Europe: The Case of Edmund Burke
• Viktorija Jakjimovska, Uneasy Neutrality: Britain and the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832)
• Andrew Fitzmaurice, Equality of Non-European Nations in International Law
• Inge Van Hulle, British Humanitarianism, International Law and Human Sacrifice in West Africa
• Raphael Cahen, The Mahmoud Ben Ayad Case and the Transformation of International Law
• Stefan Kroll, Public-Private Colonialism: Extraterritoriality in the Shanghai International Settlement
• Frederik Dhondt, Permanent Neutrality or Permanent Insecurity? Obligation and Self-Interest in the Defence of Belgian Neutrality, 1830–1870
• Ana Delic, The Role of Comparative Law in the Development of Modern Private International Law (1750–1914)
• Vincent Genin, The Institute of International Law’s Crisis in the Wake of the Franco-Prussian War (1873–1899)

Call for Papers: Waging war and making peace: European ways of inciting and containing armed conflict, 1648-2020

The Research Network on the History of the Idea of Europe has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Waging war and making peace: European ways of inciting and containing armed conflict, 1648-2020," to take place June 24-26, 2020, in Venice. The call is here.

New Issue: International Peacekeeping

The latest issue of International Peacekeeping (Vol. 26, no. 5, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Peacekeeping and Multipolar Global Order
• Malte Brosig, Ten Years of BRICS: Global Order, Security and Peacekeeping
• Richard Caplan, Peacekeeping in Turbulent Times
• Bruno Charbonneau, It is Not About Peace: UN Peacekeeping and Perpetual War
• Cedric de Coning, How UN Peacekeeping Operations Can Adapt to a New Multipolar World Order
• Paul F. Diehl, Triage or Substitution?: The Changing Face of UN Peacekeeping in the Era of Trump and Nationalism
• Lise Howard, Peacekeeping is Not Counterinsurgency
• Roger Mac Ginty, Assessing Dynamics of Change in Peacekeeping
• Shogo Suzuki, Peacekeeping: Decline Versus Multipolarity
• Articles
• Anne Holohan, Transformative Training in Soft Skills for Peacekeepers: Gaming for Peace
• Laura K. Huber & Natalie F. Hudson, Deepening the Conversation: Feminism, International Policing and the WPS Agenda
• Matthias Dembinski, Thorsten Gromes & Theresa Werner, Humanitarian Military Interventions: Conceptual Controversies and Their Consequences for Comparative Research
• Charles T. Hunt, Analyzing the Co-Evolution of the Responsibility to Protect and the Protection of Civilians in UN Peace Operations

New Issue: Global Environmental Politics

The latest issue of Global Environmental Politics (Vol. 19, no. 4, November 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Sarah M. Jordaan, Afreen Siddiqi, William Kakenmaster, & Alice C. Hill, The Climate Vulnerabilities of Global Nuclear Power
• Clara Brandi, Dominique Blümer, & Jean-Frédéric Morin, When Do International Treaties Matter for Domestic Environmental Legislation?
• Lukas Hermwille & Lisa Sanderink, Make Fossil Fuels Great Again? The Paris Agreement, Trump, and the US Fossil Fuel Industry
• Mathieu Blondeel, Jeff Colgan, & Thijs Van de Graaf, What Drives Norm Success? Evidence from Anti–Fossil Fuel Campaigns
• Adam Bumpus, Thu-Ba Huynh, & Sophie Pascoe, Making REDD+ Transparent: Opportunities for Mobile Technology
• Halvard Buhaug & Jonas Vestby, On Growth Projections in the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways

New Issue: Nordic Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 37, no. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Andrew Wolman, Combating Hate Speech at the Local Level: A Comparison of East Asian and European Approaches
• Stefan Theil, The Problem with the Normative Content of Section 24 of the Constitution of South Africa
• Ikanyeng S Malila, Modulating and Limiting Punishment through the Application of the Proportionality Principle: A Perspective from Botswana
• Hadi Strømmen Lile, The Realisation of Human Rights Education in Norway

Call for Papers: ‘The Hope of Ages is in the Process of Realization’: Establishing a World Court, 1920-1922

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "‘The Hope of Ages is in the Process of Realization’: Establishing a World Court, 1920-1922," to take place in Nijmegen, on June 11-12, 2020. The call is here.

New Issue: Review of International Organizations

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 14, no. 4, December 2019) is out. Contents include:

• The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations
• Jonas Tallberg & Michael Zürn, The legitimacy and legitimation of international organizations: introduction and framework
• Jofre Rocabert, Frank Schimmelfennig, Loriana Crasnic, & Thomas Winzen, The rise of international parliamentary institutions: Purpose and legitimation
• Henning Schmidtke, Elite legitimation and delegitimation of international organizations in the media: Patterns and explanations
• Brilé Anderson, Thomas Bernauer, & Aya Kachi, Does international pooling of authority affect the perceived legitimacy of global governance?
• Daniel L. Nielson, Susan D. Hyde, & Judith Kelley, The elusive sources of legitimacy beliefs: Civil society views of international election observers
• Ian Hurd, Legitimacy and contestation in global governance: Revisiting the folk theory of international institutions
• Liesbet Hooghe, Tobias Lenz, & Gary Marks, Contested world order: The delegitimation of international governance

New Volume: Austrian Review of International and European Law

The latest volume of the Austrian Review of International and European Law (Vol. 22, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue on Derogations from the European Convention on Human Rights
• Kushtrim Istrefi and Stefan Salomon, Derogations from the European Convention on Human Rights
• Kushtrim Istrefi & Stefan Salomon, Entrenched Derogations from the European Convention on Human Rights and the Emergence of Non-Judicial Supervision of Derogations
• Benedikt Harzl & Oleksii Plotnikov, Ukraine’s Derogation from the European Convention on Human Rights
• Luca Pasquet, The French State of Emergency: From Crime-Repression to the Protection of Public Order
• Kerem Altiparkam and Senem Gurol, Turkey’s Derogation of Human Rights under the State of Emergency: Examining its Legitimacy and Proportionality
• Vassilis P Tzevelekos, The United Kingdom’s Presumption of Derogation from the ECHR Regarding Future Military Operations Overseas: Abuse of Rights, Articles 17 and 18 ECHR, and à la carte Human Rights Protection
• Articles
• Paul Gragl, Self-Determination and Secession in the Case of Catalonia – The Interaction of Theory and Practice

New Issue: Nordic Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law (Vol. 88, no. 4, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Justine Bendel, The Provisional Measures Orders in International Environmental Disputes: A Case for International Courts and Tribunals
• Juan-Pablo Perez-Leon-Acevedo, Victims and Reparations in International Criminal Justice: African Initiatives
• Yifeng Chen & Ulla Liukkunen, Enclave Governance and Transnational Labour Law – A Case Study of Chinese Workers on Strike in Africa
• Robert J. Currie & Jacob Leon, COPLA: A Transnational Criminal Court for Latin America and the Caribbean
• Elvis Fokala, The Impact of the Best Interests and the Respect for the Views of the Child Principles in Child Custody Cases

Clarke: Affective Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Pan-Africanist Pushback

Kamari Maxine Clarke (Univ. of California, Los Angeles - Anthropology) has published Affective Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Pan-Africanist Pushback (Duke Univ. Press 2019). Here's abstract:

Since its inception in 2001, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been met with resistance by various African states and their leaders, who see the court as a new iteration of colonial violence and control. In Affective Justice Kamari Maxine Clarke explores the African Union's pushback against the ICC in order to theorize affect's role in shaping forms of justice in the contemporary period. Drawing on fieldwork in The Hague, the African Union in Addis Ababa, sites of postelection violence in Kenya, and Boko Haram's circuits in Northern Nigeria, Clarke formulates the concept of affective justice—an emotional response to competing interpretations of justice—to trace how affect becomes manifest in judicial practices. By detailing the effects of the ICC’s all-African indictments, she outlines how affective responses to these call into question the "objectivity" of the ICC’s mission to protect those victimized by violence and prosecute perpetrators of those crimes. In analyzing the effects of such cases, Clarke provides a fuller theorization of how people articulate what justice is and the mechanisms through which they do so.

Fletcher: The Grammar of Criminal Law - Volume Two: International Criminal Law

George P. Fletcher (Columbia Univ. - Law) has published The Grammar of Criminal Law - Volume Two: International Criminal Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

To understand the international legal order in the field of criminal law, we need to ask three elementary questions. What is international law? What is criminal law? And what happens to these two fields when they are joined together?

Volume Two of The Grammar of Criminal Law sets out to answer these questions through a series of twelve dichotomies - such as law vs. justice, intention vs. negligence, and causation vs. background events - that invite the reader to better understand the jurisprudential foundations of international criminal law. The book will appeal to anyone interested in the future of international cooperation in a time of national retrenchment, and will be of interest to students, scholars, and policymakers around the world.

Call for Papers: 9th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of SIEL

A call for papers has been issued for the 9th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of the Society of International Economic Law, to be held May 17-19, 2020, in Jerusalem. The call is here.

Conference: Unilateral / extraterritorial sanctions

On December 12-13, 2019, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne will host a conference on "Unilateral / extraterritorial sanctions." Registration is here. The program is here.

Agwu: Africa and International Criminal Justice: Radical Evils and the International Criminal Court

Fred Aja Agwu (Nigerian Institute of International Affairs) has published Africa and International Criminal Justice: Radical Evils and the International Criminal Court (Routledge 2019). Here's the abstract:

This book provides an overview of crimes under international law, radical evils, in a number of African states. This overview informs a critical analysis of the debates surrounding the African Union’s call for withdrawal from the International Criminal Court and proposes a way forward with a more pertinent role for the Court. The work critically analyzes the arguments around withdrawal from the ICC and the extension of the jurisdiction of the African Court into criminal matters. It is held that this was not intended in the spirit of complementarity as envisaged by the Rome Statute, and is subject to political calculation and manipulation by national governments. Recasting the ICC as a court of second instance would provide a stronger institutional and jurisdictional regime.

Chemillier-Gendreau: Un autre droit pour un autre monde : Comment sortir des impasses du droit contemporain?

Monique Chemillier-Gendreau has published Un autre droit pour un autre monde : Comment sortir des impasses du droit contemporain? (Pedone 2019). Here's the abstract:

Monique Chemillier-Gendreau n’a cessé de développer une approche critique du droit international, construisant sa réflexion sur la longue durée pendant que l’essentiel de la doctrine française développait une vision positiviste et formaliste du droit international. Courageusement, elle n’a cessé de montrer les faiblesses et impasses de cette branche du droit et du système juridique international dans son ensemble, révélant notamment les ambivalences du texte si fondamental que constitue la Charte des Nations Unies, porteuse de tant d’espoirs mais également de déceptions par son appui à la souveraineté des Etats. C’est certainement la compréhension commune de ce concept de souveraineté de l’Etat, altéré de toutes parts dans le cadre de la mondialisation, qui est au cœur de la réflexion de l’auteure en ce qu’il constitue selon elle l’ultime obstacle à une réelle pacification du monde et à une pensée de l’universel.

Il ne s’agit pas de nier que le droit international est en soi un progrès par rapport à l’anomie qui caractérisait naguère les relations internationales soumises au seul jeu du rapport de forces. Il n’en demeure pas moins qu’il est marqué par un certain nombre de lacunes et de fortes contradictions qui minent son application et son efficacité. La segmentation des sociétés en Etats souverains comme leur organisation au sein de l’ONU sont en voie d’être englouties par le monde nouveau qui émerge. Nous serions en effet parvenus à la fin d’un cycle historique qui révèle l’inadaptation du droit international à régir les rapports interétatiques et le développement des actions d’un certain nombre d’acteurs non étatiques.

Il ne s’agit toutefois pas de déplorer la situation et d’attendre le grand effondrement comme si l’ordre du monde actuel était inéluctable. Il faut au contraire faire un saut logique considérable, imaginer les bases sur lesquelles doit être construite une société mondiale différente, un monde commun, en tirant les leçons des échecs du droit international. Il convient, pour cela, de recourir à une démarche utopiste assumée, l’utopie constituant l’indispensable renouvellement de l’horizon politique qui repose sur la conviction qu’un autre droit pour le monde à venir sera fondé sur le principe d’une « entre-connaissance » universelle. Il faut donc notamment réactiver le politique à tous les échelons, briser le principe de domination, assurer le pluralisme juridique, ouvrir une nouvelle page de l’idée de démocratie et repenser à nouveaux frais la question du cosmopolitisme. Cela exige un nouvel imaginaire politique et juridique qui puisse faire vivre ensemble des communautés d’êtres humains libres. Alors, l’alliance des Etats se trouvera heureusement complétée et dépassée en se métissant d’une alliance directe des citoyens dans une ère post-nationale, donc post-souveraine, articulée sur une pensée politique du bien commun à l’échelle du monde. Il est en somme question de changer le monde par un nécessaire bouleversement.

Sprik: Protection of Civilians and Individual Accountability: Obligations and Responsibilities of Military Commanders in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

Lenneke Sprik (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) has published Protection of Civilians and Individual Accountability: Obligations and Responsibilities of Military Commanders in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (Routledge 2019). Here's the abstract:

This book explores the question of whether peacekeeping commanders can be held accountable for a failure to protect the civilian population in the mission area. This requires an assessment of whether peacekeeping commanders have an obligation to act against such serious crimes being committed under domestic and international law. The work uses the cases of the Dutch and Belgian peacekeeping commanders in Srebrenica and Kigali as examples, but it also places the analysis into the context of contemporary peacekeeping operations. It unfolds two main arguments. First, it provides a critical note to the contextual interpretation given to international law in relation to peacekeeping. It is argued that establishing a specific paradigm for peacekeeping operations with clear rules of interpretation and benchmark criteria would benefit peacekeeping and international law by making the contextual interpretation of international law redundant. Second, it is held that alternative options to the existing forms of criminal responsibility for military commanders should be considered, possibly focusing more clearly on failing to fulfil a norm of protection that is specific to peacekeeping and distinct from protective obligations under international human rights law and international humanitarian law.

Knoerich & Urdinez: Contesting Contested Multilateralism: Why the West Joined the Rest in Founding the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Jan Knoerich (King's College London) & Francisco Urdinez (Pontifical Catholic Univ. of Chile) have published Contesting Contested Multilateralism: Why the West Joined the Rest in Founding the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (Chinese Journal of International Politics, Volume 12, Issue 3, pp. 333–370, Autumn 2019). Here's the abstract:

This study examines why a large number of Western advanced economies joined the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in 2015 despite the bank’s purported challenge to the Western-centred international order in the area of multilateral development finance. Through a mixed-method examination involving elite interviews, analyses of government pronouncements and regressions, and by drawing on concepts from rational choice theory, international policy diffusion, and rational design of international institutions, this study finds that the AIIB’s success with regard to its large membership is due to China’s effective creation of a demand for the organization among Western advanced economies. We argue that policymakers in Western countries enjoyed ‘induced agency’, which China granted them in the process of creating the organization and deciding about its membership. First, Western advanced economies had agency because their involvement was needed to prevent the AIIB from becoming a homogenous small organization consisting of Asian debtor countries in favour of a global organization with a heterogeneous group of both debtor and creditor country members. The AIIB was thus set up to accommodate the specific economic and political goals of Western advanced economies. Secondly, Western advanced economies experienced agency in the process of deciding about their membership in the bank because China proactively courted them to join the AIIB. China moreover endorsed the spontaneous intensification of communications that ensued among Western advanced economies with regard to joining the AIIB. Both efforts ultimately resulted in diffusion among them of the decision to become members. Thirdly, the Western advanced economies were granted agency in the process of determining the AIIB’s organizational design, thus allowing them to converge the initially diverse visions for the institutional design of the bank and shift it from contesting the existing system of multilateral development banks to effectively integrating into it. Our study thus advances a theory of country-specific demand for membership in an international organization.

Genest: Performance Requirement Prohibitions in International Investment Law

Alexandre Genest has published Performance Requirement Prohibitions in International Investment Law (Brill | Nijhoff 2019). Here's the abstract:

In Performance Requirement Prohibitions in International Investment Law, Alexandre Genest explores the prohibition of performance requirements in investment treaties. The author focuses on answering two questions: first, how do States prohibit performance requirements in investment treaties? And second, how should such prohibitions of performance requirements be interpreted and applied? In providing answers to these questions, Alexandre Genest breaks new ground by proposing the first empirical typology of performance requirement prohibitions in investment treaties and the first in-depth analysis of arbitral awards on the subject. Alexandre Genest formulates insightful remarks for a more deliberate and informed interpretation and application of existing performance requirement prohibitions. These remarks will help improve the drafting of performance requirement prohibitions in future investment treaties.

New Issue: International Security

The latest issue of International Security (Vol. 44, no. 2, Fall 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Alastair Iain Johnston, China in a World of Orders: Rethinking Compliance and Challenge in Beijing's International Relations
• Fiona S. Cunningham & M. Taylor Fravel, Dangerous Confidence? Chinese Views on Nuclear Escalation
• Stephanie Schwartz, Home, Again: Refugee Return and Post-Conflict Violence in Burundi
• Elizabeth N. Saunders, The Domestic Politics of Nuclear Choices—A Review Essay
• Correspondence
• Michael C. Horowitz, Shahryar Pasandideh, Andrea Gilli, & Mauro Gilli, Military-Technological Imitation and Rising Powers

Call for Papers: ANZSIL 28th Annual Conference

The Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for its 28th Annual Conference, to take place July 2-4, 2020, in Canberra. The theme is "International Law in the Third Decade of the 21st Century: A Tool for Challenge or Appeasement?" The call is here.

Pauwelyn: Is Globalization Finally Re-Balancing? Novel Ways of Leveling the Playing Field for Labor

Joost Pauwelyn (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies) has posted Is Globalization Finally Re-Balancing? Novel Ways of Leveling the Playing Field for Labor. Here's the abstract:

Globalization as well as global governance, especially since the 1990s, has suffered from an imbalance to the detriment of labor, and in favor of the free flow of goods, services and capital (benefitting disproportionately capital as compared to labor). More recently, however, some re-balancing may be occurring: less liberalization and protection of cross-border trade and investment flows; more protection of labor. This contribution offers a number of novel, unorthodox instruments that have emerged or have been discussed or proposed that may slowly “level the playing field” in favor of labor. Some are (i) focused on liability of multinational parent or sourcing companies, others (ii) target the traded product (be it by means of import duties or income tax adjustments), yet others (iii) concentrate on work or the worker him or herself (anti-trust enforcement in favor of workers; construing “data as labor” or putting in place mechanisms allowing for “tele-migration”). These avenues are novel in that they are not focused on employers in the production country, nor centered around ILO conventions with labor commitments on host states and relatively soft compliance mechanisms. Indeed, most of these instruments are market- or technology-based, hard-law instruments embedded in domestic law or arbitration, or in international organizations or treaties outside of the ILO.

Couveinhes Matsumoto & Nollez-Goldbach: Les états face aux juridictions internationales. Une analyse des politiques étatiques relatives aux juges internationaux

Florian Couveinhes Matsumoto & Raphaëlle Nollez-Goldbach have published Les états face aux juridictions internationales. Une analyse des politiques étatiques relatives aux juges internationaux (Pedone 2019). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Ce recueil des actes de la deuxième Journée de Droit international de l’École Normale Supérieure organisée dans le cadre du Centre de Théorie et d’Analyse du Droit (CTAD – UMR 7074) vise à éclairer les relations des Etats et des juridictions internationales à travers les politiques menées par les premiers à l’égard des secondes. Le rapport de ces deux acteurs est complexe : d’un côté, les juridictions internationales tirent formellement leur autorité des Etats, qui sont aussi ceux qui déterminent leur composition, leurs bases de compétence ou la procédure qu’elles doivent suivre, ceux qui acceptent leur compétence pour les litiges qui les concernent et qui participent à accroître ou à diminuer leur influence ; mais d’un autre côté, ces juridictions énoncent ce qui s’impose juridiquement aux Etats, et elles interprètent souvent leur statut ou le droit applicable de manière extensive, donc relativement indépendante des volontés étatiques. Dans certains cas, elles essaient même de jouer un rôle quasi-législatif, suppléant ou remplaçant celui des Etats.

Les enjeux de leurs rapports sont d’une importance croissante, pour les États et les juridictions internationales naturellement, mais également pour les acteurs économiques privés, pour les individus et pour les populations des Etats – qui n’ont pourtant généralement participé au choix d’établir une juridiction internationale que de manière très indirecte, ou pas du tout. La multiplication des décisions des juges internationaux et l’augmentation de leur influence sur les gouvernements et les populations entraînent souvent des manifestations de soutien, parfois des pressions exercées par des Etats sur leurs pairs pour qu’ils s’exécutent, mais aussi des interrogations, des inquiétudes et des réactions plus ou moins vives et plus ou moins constructives.

Aussi difficile que puisse paraître le décryptage de ces politiques, il est essentiel à une bonne compréhension de l’évolution actuelle et de l’avenir du Droit international.

Call for Submissions: Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies

The Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies has issued a call for submissions for its Summer/Fall 2020 issue. The call is here.

Conference: Teaching International Law III

On January 14-16, 2020, the University of Innsbruck will host the conference "Teaching International Law III." The program is here. Here's the idea:

In January 2020 a further edition of the conference “Teaching International Law” will take place. Organized by Professor Peter Hilpold (University of Innsbruck) and by Professor Giuseppe Nesi (University of Trento) these conferences aim at elucidating the particularities and special challenges associated with teaching this discipline of law. Leading international lawyers and philosophers of international law will portray their vision of teaching. The third day of this conference is dedicated to “Teaching in Practice” with model lectures given by students, young academics and Ph.D students. This project makes part of the “Euregio Mobility”-Initiative involving the University of Innsbruck, of Trento and of Bozen-Bolzano.