Caserta: International Courts in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Study of Foundations and Authority

Salvatore Caserta (Univ. of Copenhagen - iCourts) has posted International Courts in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Study of Foundations and Authority. Here's the abstract:

This chapter sets out the theoretical and methodological aspects of studying the foundations and processes of gaining authority of the Latin American and Caribbean economic courts. In terms of theory, the chapter relies on the concept of de facto authority, according to which International Courts (ICs) become authoritative and powerful when their rulings are endorsed by relevant audiences in their practices. To complement this approach, the chapter proposes five original analytical markers, which are central for analysing and explaining the social processes through which ICs gain or lose de facto authority. These are: I) the nature of the political environment surrounding ICs; II) the timing of their institutional founding; III) the material and/or abstract interests of the agents interacting with ICs; IV) the fundamental support of different social groups in relation to an IC; and V) the societal embeddedness of an IC in its operational context.

New Issue: World Politics

The latest issue of World Politics (Vol. 72, no. 1, January 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Mario L. Chacón & Jeffrey L. Jensen, Democratization, De Facto Power, and Taxation: Evidence from Military Occupation during Reconstruction
• Shelby Grossman, The Politics of Order in Informal Markets: Evidence from Lagos
• Electoral Discrimination: The Relationship between Skin Color and Vote Buying in Latin America Marcus Johnson
• Kate Cronin-Furman, Human Rights Half Measures: Avoiding Accountability in Postwar Sri Lanka

Benbaji & Statman: War By Agreement: A Contractarian Ethics of War

Yitzhak Benbaji (Tel Aviv Univ. - Philosophy) & Daniel Statman (Univ. of Haifa - Philosophy) have published War By Agreement: A Contractarian Ethics of War (Oxford Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

War by Agreement presents a new theory on the ethics of war. It shows that wars can be morally justified at both the ad bellum level (the political decision to go to war) and the in bello level (its actual conduct by the military) by accepting a contractarian account of the rules governing war. According to this account, the rules of war are anchored in a mutually beneficial and fair agreement between the relevant players - the purpose of which is to promote peace and to reduce the horrors of war. The book relies on the long social contract tradition and illustrates its fruitfulness in understanding and developing the morality and the law of war.

New Issue: Journal of International Dispute Settlement

The latest issue of the Journal of International Dispute Settlement (Vol. 10, no. 4, December 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Current Developments
• Serena Lee & Myron Phua, Why Allianz v West Tankers Still Applies under the Brussels Regulation (Recast): An Analysis of Nori Holdings v Bank Otkritie [2018] EWHC 1343 (Comm)
• Meng Chen, Reforming Judicial Supervision of Chinese Arbitration
• Myriam Gicquello, The Reform of Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Bringing the Findings of Social Psychology into the Debate
• Margaret A Young, Emma Nyhan, & Hilary Charlesworth, Studying Country-Specific Engagements with the International Court of Justice
• Manuel Casas, Functional Justiciability and the Existence of a Dispute: A Means of Jurisdictional Avoidance?
• Caroline E Foster, The Problem with Public Morals

Powell: Islamic Law and International Law: Peaceful Resolution of Disputes

Emilia Justyna Powell (Univ. of Notre Dame - Political Science) has published Islamic Law and International Law: Peaceful Resolution of Disputes (Oxford Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

There are twenty-nine Islamic law states (ILS) in the world today, and their Muslim population is over 900 million. Muslims in these countries—and, to some extent, all Muslims—are ethically, morally, doctrinally, or politically committed to the Islamic legal tradition, a unique logic and culture of justice based on nonconfrontational dispute resolution. In Islamic Law and International Law, Emilia Justyna Powell examines the differences and similarities between the Islamic legal tradition and international law, focusing in particular on the issue of conflict management and resolution.

In many Islamic Law States, Islamic law displaces secular law in state governance and shapes these countries' international dealings. Powell considers why some of Islamic Law States accept international courts while others avoid them, stressing throughout that we cannot make blanket claims about such states. Each relationship is context-specific, hinging on the nature of the domestic legal system. Moreover, not all of these states are Islamic to the same degree or in the same way. Secular law and religious law fuse in different ways in different domestic legal systems.

Often, the Islamic legal tradition points in one direction, while the Western-based, secularized international law points in another. However, Powell argues that Islamic legal tradition contains elements that are compatible with modern international law. She marshals original data on the legal systems structures in thirty Islamic Law States over the entire course of the post-World War Two era, and she draws from in-depth interviews with Islamic law scholars and leading practitioners of international law, including judges of the International Court of Justice. Rich in empirical evidence, this book will reshape how we think about the relationship between ILS and the international system.

Dubberley, Koenig, & Murray: Digital Witness: Using Open Source Information for Human Rights Investigation, Documentation, and Accountability

Sam Dubberley (Univ. of Essex), Alexa Koenig (Univ. of California, Berkeley), & Daragh Murray (Univ. of Essex) have published Digital Witness: Using Open Source Information for Human Rights Investigation, Documentation, and Accountability (Oxford Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

From videos of rights violations, to satellite images of environmental degradation, to eyewitness accounts disseminated on social media, human rights practitioners have access to more data today than ever before. To say that mobile technologies, social media, and increased connectivity are having a significant impact on human rights practice would be an understatement. Modern technology - and the enhanced access it provides to information about abuse - has the potential to revolutionise human rights reporting and documentation, as well as the pursuit of legal accountability.

However, these new methods for information gathering and dissemination have also created significant challenges for investigators and researchers. For example, videos and photographs depicting alleged human rights violations or war crimes are often captured on the mobile phones of victims or political sympathisers. The capture and dissemination of content often happens haphazardly, and for a variety of motivations, including raising awareness of the plight of those who have been most affected, or for advocacy purposes with the goal of mobilising international public opinion. For this content to be of use to investigators it must be discovered, verified, and authenticated. Discovery, verification, and authentication have, therefore, become critical skills for human rights organisations and human rights lawyers.

This book is the first to cover the history, ethics, methods, and best-practice associated with open source research. It is intended to equip the next generation of lawyers, journalists, sociologists, data scientists, other human rights activists, and researchers with the cutting-edge skills needed to work in an increasingly digitized, and information-saturated environment.

New Issue: Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 52, no. 4, October 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Paul C. Ney, Jr., Charney Lecture - The Rule of Law in International Security Affairs: A U.S. Defense Department Perspective
• Manal Totry-Jubran, Transitional Justice in Housing Injustice: Housing Rights Violations Within Settler Democracies
• Kevin Kolben, The Consumer Imaginary: Labor Rights, Human Rights, and Citizen-Consumers in the Global Supply Chain
• Ji Ma, International Investment and National Security Review
• Uche Ewelukwa Ofodile, Emerging Market Economies & International Investment Law:Turkey–Africa Bilateral Investment Treaties

Rasulov: The Discipline of International Economic Law at a Crossroads

Akbar Rasulov (Univ. of Glasgow - Law) has posted The Discipline of International Economic Law at a Crossroads (in New Voices and New Perspectives in International Economic Law, J. Haskell & A. Rasulov eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Old certainties are melting away. An era has drawn to a close. The foundations of the global economic system are rapidly changing. The opening of intellectual horizons that has come in the wake of these epochal shifts calls for a fundamental rethinking of the main functions and tasks of international economic law (IEL) as a disciplinary project. It also calls for a new explanation of international law’s systemic potential, power, and effectivity in the context of contemporary global governance. How does international law influence the workings of international economic governance? What are the main ways in which it can impact on the course of global economic affairs? Drawing on the traditions of legal realism, Marxism, and classical law-and-economics, this essay outlines a four-fold theory of IEL’s regulatory effectivity: IEL as a price-setting mechanism, IEL as a mechanism for the structuring of opportunities, IEL as a mechanism of ideological legitimation, and IEL as a mechanism of disciplining and interpellation. The goal of this theoretical project is to promote an intellectual recalibration of IEL’s disciplinary ambit along fundamentally functionalist lines: the discipline of IEL should study everything that pertains to how the effective legal realities of global economic governance are set up, how they operate, and how they are produced.

Megiddo: Knowledge Production, Big Data and Data-Driven Customary International Law

Tamar Megiddo (Univ. of Haifa) has posted Knowledge Production, Big Data and Data-Driven Customary International Law. Here's the abstract:

This chapter investigates the role of “Big Data” analysis and data crowdsourcing in shifting power relations with respect to the identification of customary international law. Evidence of states’ practice and legal positions is required in order to determine that a new norm of customary international law has crystallized. And yet, international courts have often settled for anecdotal evidence and impressionistic analysis. However, recent academic works have crowdsourced data collection, compiled big datasets and applied computerized analysis methods to make comprehensive and systematic evaluation of the development of customary norms. I argue that this new mode of knowledge production may democratize both the data collected (giving greater weight to smaller states from the global periphery) and the potential contributors to the production process (including lawyers from different countries and language capabilities). Nevertheless, such production requires scientific sophistication and resources, which once more give actors from rich, developed countries a greater role in developing the law.

New Issue: Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international

The latest issue of the Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (Vol. 21, no. 4, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Dimitri Van Den Meerssche, International Law as Insulation – The Case of the World Bank in the Decolonization Era
• Fernando Pérez Godoy, The Co-creation of Imperial Logic in South American Legal History
• Mónica García-Salmones Rovira, The Impasse of Human Rights: a Note on Human Rights, Natural Rights and Continuities in International Law
• Leonard V. Smith, Sovereignty under the League of Nations Mandates: The Jurists’ Debates

New Issue: International Organizations Law Review

The latest issue of the International Organizations Law Review (Vol. 16, no. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Forum: The World Health Organization at 70
• Gian Luca Burci, The World Health Organization at 70: Challenges and Adaptation: Introductory Notes
• Adam Kamradt-Scott, The International Health Regulations (2005): Strengthening Their Effective Implementation and Utilisation
• Jan Klabbers, The Normative Gap in International Organizations Law: The Case of the World Health Organization
• Kristina Daugirdas & Gian Luca Burci, Financing the World Health Organization: What Lessons for Multilateralism?
• Cristina Contartese, Competence-Based Approach, Normative Control, and the International Responsibility of the EU and Its Member States: What Does Recent Practice Add to the Debate?
• Davorin Lapaš, Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities for IGO-Like Entities: A Step Towards a New Diplomatic Law?
• Clemens Treichl, The Denial of Oral Hearings by International Administrative Tribunals as a Factor for Lifting Organizational Immunity before European Courts: A(nother) Critical View

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 58, no. 6, December 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Case Concerning the Detention of Three Ukrainian Naval Vessels (Ukraine v. Russian Federation): Provisional Measures Order (ITLOS), with introductory note by Yurika Ishii
• Convention Concerning the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (Int'L Lab. Org.), with introductory note by Julinda Beqiraj
• Prosecutor v. Omar Al-Bashir, Judgment in the Jordan Referral Re Al-Bashir Appeal (Int'L Crim. Ct.), with introductory note by Thomas Weatherall
• Protocol No. 16 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Advisory Opinion Concerning the Recognition in Domestic Law of a Legal Parent-child Relationship Between a Child Born Through a Gestational Surrogacy Arrangement Abroad and the Intended Mother (Eur. Ct. H.R.), with introductory note by Scott W. Lyons
• Alekseyev and Others v. Russia (Eur. Ct. H.R.), with introductory note by Pieter Cannoot
• Confédération Paysanne and Others v. Premier Ministre and Ministre De L'Agriculture, De L'Agroalimentaire Et De La Forêt (C.J.E.U.), with introductory note by Hans-Georg Dederer

Benvenisti: The Applicability of the Law of Occupation to UN Administration of Foreign Territory

Eyal Benvenisti (Univ. of Cambridge - Law) has posted The Applicability of the Law of Occupation to UN Administration of Foreign Territory. Here's the abstract:

This contribution seeks to critically examine the UN position with respect to the legal status of the administration of territory by UN-authorised actors. The essay first explores whether the law of occupation applies to direct administration of foreign territory by the UN or its authorized organs. It then examines as a case study the practice of the UN administration of Kosovo. The essay argues that unfettered discretion for civil servants, even international civil servants, undermines the functionality of any administration. Embracing the discipline of accountability embedded in the law of occupation to UN-led administration of territories is therefore required. This discussion provides the grounding for the argument that as a matter of both lex lata and lex ferenda any administration of territories without a valid sovereign consent, even when exercised by the UN, qualifies as an occupation, and is hence subject to the requirements of law of occupation.

Klamberg: Interpretation of Security Council Resolutions and the Function of Explanation of Votes – Protecting the Status Quo or Agents of Change?

Mark Klamberg (Stockholm Univ. - Law) has posted Interpretation of Security Council Resolutions and the Function of Explanation of Votes – Protecting the Status Quo or Agents of Change? Here's the abstract:

The UN Security Council has within the UN system the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Council adopts resolutions, which are the decisions with the greatest potential consequences. Security Council resolutions are not always clear and need to be interpreted. Members of the Security Council may make statements in connection with their votes, so called explanation of votes. What is the purpose and role of these explanations of votes, if any?

Explanation of votes may have at least three functions. First, they may contribute to the formation of customary international law. Second, they can be used as a means for interpreting Security Council resolutions in relation to a specific matter. Finally, even if legal arguments are never the sole or even the decisive factor in Security Council deliberations, they may shape the debates and by being available for the public have an impact on positions taken, at least indirectly.

The study examines three debates which show Security Council resolutions and explanation of votes may protect the status quo in some instances and act as agents of change in others. The states need to consider that the Security Council does not operate in a legal vacuum; its decision has legal consequences in specific situations and may also contribute to the formation of customary international law.

New Issue: Nordic Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 37, no. 3, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• The Domestic Institutionalisation of Human Rights
• Steven LB Jensen, Stéphanie Lagoutte & Sébastien Lorion, The Domestic Institutionalisation of Human Rights: An Introduction
• Stéphanie Lagoutte, The Role of State Actors Within the National Human Rights System
• Kirsten Roberts Lyer, Parliaments as Human Rights Actors: The Potential for International Principles on Parliamentary Human Rights Committees
• Claire Methven O’Brien & Jolyon Ford, Business and Human Rights: From Domestic Institutionalisation to Transnational Governance and Back Again
• Sébastien Lorion, A Model for National Human Rights Systems? New Governance and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Domenico Zipoli, NHRI Engagement with UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies: A Goal-based Approach
• Tomer Broude & Natan Milikowsky, Establishing an NHRI in a Contested Political Space: A Deliberative Process in Israel

Dothan: The ICC is NOT a Slice of Cheese

Shai Dothan (Univ. of Copenhagen - iCourts) has posted The ICC is NOT a Slice of Cheese (Journal of International Criminal Justice, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

My friend Jakob Holtermann compared the International Criminal Court (ICC) to a slice of swiss cheese. The metaphor is meant to indicate that the ICC operates as a filter that would deter some of the criminals left undeterred by national criminal law systems, which is true. But the metaphor also suggests that the ICC would only deter extra criminals and would not damage the deterrence achieved by preceding filters, which is false. This paper explains why.

New Issue: Review of International Studies

The latest issue of the Review of International Studies (Vol. 46, no. 1, January 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Øyvind Svendsen, ‘Practice time!’ Doxic futures in security and defence diplomacy after Brexit
• Gustav Meibauer, Interests, ideas, and the study of state behaviour in neoclassical realism
• Linus Hagström & Chengxin Pan, Traversing the soft/hard power binary: the case of the Sino-Japanese territorial dispute
• Rita Abrahamsen, Internationalists, sovereigntists, nativists: Contending visions of world order in Pan-Africanism
• Rebecca Adler-Nissen, Katrine Emilie Andersen, & Lene Hansen, Images, emotions, and international politics: the death of Alan Kurdi
• Jennifer L. Erickson, Punishing the violators? Arms embargoes and economic sanctions as tools of norm enforcement
• José Ciro Martínez, Topological twists in the Syrian conflict: Re-thinking space through bread
• Lewis Turner, ‘#Refugees can be entrepreneurs too!’ Humanitarianism, race, and the marketing of Syrian refugees
• Thomas Gregory, The costs of war: Condolence payments and the politics of killing civilians

New Issue: Cambridge International Law Journal

The latest issue of the Cambridge International Law Journal (Vol. 8, no. 2, December 2019) is out. Contents include:

• The global governance of cyberspace: reimagining private actors' accountability
• Eirini Kikarea & Maayan Menashe, The global governance of cyberspace: reimagining private actors' accountability: introduction
• Benedict Kingsbury, Infrastructure and InfraReg: on rousing the international law ‘Wizards of Is’
• Louise Arimatsu, Silencing women in the digital age
• M R Leiser, Regulating computational propaganda: lessons from international law
• Rachel Adams & Nóra Ní Loideáin, Addressing indirect discrimination and gender stereotypes in AI virtual personal assistants: the role of international human rights law
• Enguerrand Marique & Yseult Marique, Sanctions on digital platforms: beyond the public–private divide
• Paolo Cavaliere, Digital platforms and the rise of global regulation of hate speech
• Petra Molnar, Technology on the margins: AI and global migration management from a human rights perspective
• Shannon Raj Singh, Move fast and break societies: the weaponisation of social media and options for accountability under international criminal law

New Issue: Revista Tribuna Internacional

The latest issue of Revista Tribuna Internacional (Vol. 8, no. 16, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Especial
• Luis Valentín Ferrada, Tratado Antártico: 60 años de paz
• Marcial Mora Miranda, Tratado Antártico
• Artículos
• Ignacio Antonio Sánchez González, Ley Zamudio en perspectiva. Derecho Antidiscriminación chileno frente a estándares de la Unión Europea.
• Sebastián Flores Díaz, La misión del embajador Juan Miguel Bákula en Santiago en mayo de 1986

Purcell: Geographical Change and the Law of the Sea

Kate Purcell (Univ. of New South Wales) has published Geographical Change and the Law of the Sea (Oxford Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book examines the implications of geographical change for maritime jurisdiction under the law of the sea. In a multistranded intervention, it challenges existing accounts of the consequences of climate-related change for entitlement to maritime space, maritime limits, and international maritime boundaries. It also casts new light on the question of whether a loss of habitable land and large-scale population displacement will precipitate a loss of territorial sovereignty and the legal 'extinction' of affected States.

This study of the legal significance of geographical change is grounded in an in-depth study of the role of geography in the law of the sea. As well as offering a new perspective on the pressing question of how climate change will affect maritime jurisdiction, territorial sovereignty, and statehood, the book contributes to the scholarship on maritime delimitation and international boundaries generally (on land and at sea). It includes an analysis of the principle of intertemporal law that suggests a useful framework for considering questions of stability and change in international law more broadly.

This rigorous and original study will be of value to anyone concerned with the implications of climate-related change for maritime jurisdiction, territorial sovereignty, and statehood. Its broader analysis of the existing law and engagement with a range of doctrinal debates through the lens of the question of geographical change will be of interest to scholars and practitioners of the law of the sea, the law of territory, and the law relating to international boundaries.

Elmekki: Les réserves aux traités relatifs aux droits de l'homme : évolutions récentes

Abir Elmekki (Faculté de droit et des sciences politiques de Tunis) has published Les réserves aux traités relatifs aux droits de l'homme : évolutions récentes (L'Harmattan 2019). Here's the abstract:

Cet ouvrage analyse les évolutions de la pratique des réserves aux traités relatifs aux Droits de l'homme. Elles se sont opérées selon deux tendances : l'une dans le sens d'une restriction de l'admission des réserves, l'autre dans le sens d'un contrôle rigoureux de la validité. Cette recherche permet d'approfondir des questions essentielles : l'influence de la logique de l'accord, la logique directrice des sources sur la pratique des réserves, le rôle de la valorisation normative des règles relatives à la protection des droits de l'homme dans la limitation du recours aux réserves et enfin, la contribution institutionnelle et juridictionnelle qui a pu rendre la pratique des réserves plus respectueuse des traités relatifs aux Droits de l'homme.

Risse & Wollner: On Trade Justice: A Philosophical Plea for a New Global Deal

Mathias Risse (Harvard Univ. - Kennedy School of Government) & Gabriel Wollner (Univ. of Bayreuth - Philosophy) have published On Trade Justice: A Philosophical Plea for a New Global Deal (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

Trade has made the world. Still, trade remains an elusive and profoundly difficult area for philosophical thought. This novel account of trade justice makes ideas about exploitation central, giving pride of place to philosophical ideas about global justice but also contributing to moral disputes about practical questions. On Trade Justice is a philosophical plea for a new global deal, in continuation of, but also at appropriate distance to, post-war efforts to design a fair global-governance system in the spirit of the American New Deal of the 1930s. This book is written in the tradition of contemporary analytical philosophy but also puts its subject into a historical perspective to motivate its relevance. It covers the subject of trade justice from its theoretical foundations to a number of specific issues on which the authors' account throws light. The state as an actor in the domain of global justice is central to the discussion but it also explores the obligations of business extensively, recognizing the importance of the modern corporation for trade. Topics such as wages injustice, collusion with authoritarian regimes, relocation decisions, and obligations arising from interaction with suppliers and sub-contractors all enter prominently. Another central actor in the domain of trade is the World Trade Organization. The WTO needs to see itself as an agent of justice. This book explores how this organization should be reformed in light of the proposals it makes. In particular, the WTO needs to endorse a human-rights and development-oriented mandate. Overall, this book hopes to make a theoretical contribution to the creation of an exploitation-free world.

Call for Papers: L’espace extra-atmosphérique et la guerre

Dans le cadre de l’organisation du colloque annuel de la SFDI 2019, qui aura pour thème « L’espace extra-atmosphérique et le droit international » et se tiendra à l’Université Paris Toulouse 1 Capitole les 28-29 mai 2020, le Réseau des jeunes chercheurs de la SFDI organise cette année deux demi-journées, ouvertes aux jeunes chercheurs, pour venir échanger et débattre sous la présidence de deux enseignants de droit international sur des thèmes en lien avec le colloque annuel. L’une de ces demi-journées sera organisée à l’Université Paris Nanterre le 3 avril 2020 par Clémentine Bories et Marina Eudes. Elle aura pour thème : « L’espace extra-atmosphérique et la guerre ». L'annonce est ici.

Broude & Levy: Outcome Bias and Expertise in Investigations under International Humanitarian Law

Tomer Broude (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem - Law) & Inbar Levy (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) have posted Outcome Bias and Expertise in Investigations under International Humanitarian Law (European Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Many international law decisions are made by individuals, often possessed with expertise, legal or otherwise. We examine individual international humanitarian law (IHL) decision-making, on two-levels: military decisions made ex ante regarding real-time operational questions, under conditions of uncertainty and imperfect information; and subsequent ex post evaluations of the propriety of military decisions, in the context of military investigations regarding legal responsibility with respect to proportionality and reasonableness. IHL requires ex post investigators to consider only information available at the time decisions were made. Through an experimental vignette-study conducted with lay-persons, legal experts and people with field experience, we test whether they are susceptible to cognitive ‘outcome bias’, specifically the extent to which knowledge of operational outcomes, especially regarding incidental civilian harm, influences ex post normative evaluations. Our results demonstrate a general tendency towards outcome bias, somewhat tempered by expertise. Individuals with operational decision-making experience may be less prone to outcome bias than legal experts. We discuss possible implications for the design of military investigations relating to IHL.

Call for Papers: The Eighth International Four Societies Conference

The American Society of International Law, the Australia and New Zealand Society of International Law, the Canadian Council on International Law, and the Japanese Society of International Law have issued a call for papers for the Eighth International Four Societies Conference, which will take place June 16-17, 2020, at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. The theme is "Beyond National Jurisdiction." The call is here.

Paulussen & Scheinin: Human Dignity and Human Security in Times of Terrorism

Christophe Paulussen (T.M.C. Asser Instituut) & Martin Scheinin (European Univ. Institute) have published Human Dignity and Human Security in Times of Terrorism (Asser Press 2019). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

In this book, it is explained that despite a current drop in the number of deaths, terrorism should still be considered a serious and widespread problem. However, the responses to this phenomenon are often more problematic from a long-term perspective. With the human rights framework under serious pressure, this edited volume offers a timely, important and critical in-depth analysis of human dignity and human security challenges in the lead-up, and in the responses, to current forms of terrorism. It aims to map how human dignity and human security can be secured and how law can constitute a source of trust at a time when Europe and the rest of the world continue to be plagued by terrorism.

Call for Papers: Ninth Annual Junior Faculty Forum for International Law

A call for papers has been issued for the Ninth Annual Junior Faculty Forum for International Law, convened by Dino Kritsiotis (Univ. of Nottingham - Law), Sarah M.H. Nouwen (Univ. of Cambridge/European Univ. Institute), and J.H.H. Weiler (New York Univ. - Law), together with guest conveners Han Liyu and Zhu Jingwen (both of Renmin Law School). The Ninth Forum will be held at the Renmin University of China in Beijing on June 29-30, 2020. The deadline for applications is February 7, 2020. The call is here. As with previous years, selected presentations from the Forum will be invited to appear in the European Journal of International Law.

Geslin & Tourme Jouannet: Le droit international de la reconnaissance, un instrument de décolonisation et de refondation du droit international ?

Albane Geslin (Sciences Po Aix) & Emmanuelle Tourme Jouannet (Sciences Po) have published Le droit international de la reconnaissance, un instrument de décolonisation et de refondation du droit international ? (UMR Droits International, Comparé et Européen 2019). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Lorsqu’en 2011 est publié Qu’est-ce qu’une société internationale juste ? Le droit international entre développement et reconnaissance, d’Emmanuelle Tourme Jouannet, puis que paraît, l’année suivante son article « Le droit international de la reconnaissance », surgit dans le champ de la recherche française – et plus largement francophone – en droit international un nouveau paradigme, celui de la « reconnaissance ». Les réactions suscitées par ces publications furent vives. Il y eu quelques mécompréhensions du concept même de reconnaissance, et diverses critiques se firent entendre. C’est à l’occasion du premier workshop international du groupe de recherche Justice/Injustice Globale, les 8 et 9 septembre 2016, que fut abordée la question de savoir si le droit international de la reconnaissance pouvait être un instrument de décolonisation et de refondation du droit international.

Call for Submissions: Time, Transition, and Justice (International Criminal Law Review)

The International Criminal Law Review has issued a call for submissions for a special issue on "Time, Transition, and Justice." The call is here.

New Issue: London Review of International Law

The latest issue of the London Review of International Law (Vol. 7, no. 2, July 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Deval Desai, Christopher Gevers, & Adil Hasan Khan, Sifting through the ‘successful failures’ and ‘failed successes’ of international law: introducing two essays on law and failure
• Vasuki Nesiah, Freedom at sea
• Adam Sitze, The crime of apartheid: genealogy of a successful failure
• Jamee K Moudud, A critical legal history of French banking and industrialisation: an alternative to the law and development framework
• Valeria Vázquez Guevara, Crafting the lawful truth: Chile’s 1990 Truth Commission, international human rights and the museum of memory
• Sectionthree
• Jessie Hohmann & Daniel Joyce, Material pasts and futures: international law’s objects

Lecture: Besson on "Due diligence and the extraterritorial application of human rights"

On January 17, 2020, Samantha Besson (Collège de France) will give a lecture on "Due diligence and the extraterritorial application of human rights" at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut. Here's the idea:

Various (universal and regional) parts of the practice of the international human rights law are currently showing signs of a loosening of the notion of “jurisdiction” as a ground for the application of human rights. The justification for this development seems primarily to lie in easing the conditions under which human rights duties can arise for States in extraterritorial circumstances where they exercize no effective (personal or spatial) control over the right-holders. This is particularly relevant when extraterritorial human rights violations are caused by multinational corporations incorporated under the law of the given State (or somehow controlled by it) or when they occur through environmental harm whose causes lie somehow under the control of that State. This conference will start by unpacking the various strands of this developing practice to identify and assess what the proposed criteria of jurisdiction could be in those cases (besides causation), before examining how the proposed duties and their grounds actually relate to the standard of due diligence in general and specific international law. A more general reflection on the role of due diligence in international law and the state of international human rights law will ensue.

Call for Papers: International Investment Law & State Capitalism

The Athens Public International Law Center of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Law has issued a call for papers for a colloquium on "International Investment Law & State Capitalism," which will take place October 15-16, 2020, in Athens. The call is here.

Heller: ‘Genuine’ Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention — Another Ticking Time-Bomb Scenario

Kevin Jon Heller (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted ‘Genuine’ Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention — Another Ticking Time-Bomb Scenario. Here's the abstract:

The activation of the crime of aggression at the ICC has renewed interest in one of the oldest and most fraught questions of the jus ad bellum: whether a state is entitled to unilaterally use force on the territory of another state for humanitarian purposes. Scholars who support unilateral humanitarian intervention (UHI) generally make two interrelated claims. The first is positivist: that unilateral intervention is lawful if it is genuinely intended to end mass atrocity. The second is normative: that genuinely humanitarian unilateral intervention should be lawful, because in the right circumstances it can serve as an effective mechanism for protecting civilians from harm.

In this article, I criticise both claims. I begin by arguing that, from a positivist perspective, even genuinely humanitarian unilateral intervention violates the prohibition of the use of force and qualifies as a criminal act of aggression. I then argue that the historical record undermines the normative attractiveness of UHI, because it is extremely difficult to find an actual example of a unilateral intervention motivated primarily by humanitarian concerns, especially one that improved the humanitarian situation in the territorial state. Finally, I conclude by arguing that the basic effect of insisting on the legality of UHI is to weaken one of the few clear prohibitions in international law for no discernible benefit, making the desire to decriminalize such intervention a well-meaning equivalent to the notorious ticking time-bomb scenario.

New Issue: Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy

The latest issue of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy (Vol. 22, no. 3, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Melissa Lewis, Deciphering the Complex Relationship between AEWA's and the Bonn Convention’s Respective Exemptions to the Prohibition of Taking
• Amanda Whitfort, Wildlife Crime and Animal Victims: Improving Access to Environmental Justice in Hong Kong
• Arie Trouwborst & Floor M. Fleurke, Killing Wolves Legally: Exploring the Scope for Lethal Wolf Management under European Nature Conservation Law
• Sebastien Korwin, Louisa Denier, Susan Lieberman & Rosalind Reeve, Verification of Legal Acquisition under the CITES Convention: The Need for Guidance on the Scope of Legality

New Issue: Climate Law

The latest issue of Climate Law (Vol. 9, no. 4, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Kevin B. Jones, Benjamin B. Civiletti & Angela J. Sicker, Carbon Pricing in US Electricity Markets: Expediting the Low-Carbon Transition While Mitigating the Growing Conflict between Renewable-Energy Goals and Regional Electricity Markets
• Thomas Leclerc, A Sectoral Application of the Polluter Pays Principle: Lessons Learned from the Aviation Sector

Bidouzo: Les Organisations internationales et la résolution des conflits post-bipolaires en Afrique

Thierry Sèdjro Bidouzo has published Les Organisations internationales et la résolution des conflits post-bipolaires en Afrique (UMR Droits International, Comparé et Européen 2019). Here's the abstract:

Le droit international, dans son rôle de « vigie » ou de « vigile » de la sécurité internationale, est parfois éprouvé par la délicate équation du défi de la paix en Afrique. En effet, depuis que ce continent est devenu « [acteur] de son histoire », – avec le nouveau décor international occasionné par la fin de la période bipolaire –, paradoxalement, il est également devenu un terrain fertile en conflits. En dépit des mutations ou des « dynamiques du droit international », opérées par les Organisations internationales dans la pratique du maintien de la paix, la dynamique évolutive des conflits et leur nature irrégulière, posent bien de difficultés. Et c’est le noeud de ces rapports ambigus entre les Organisations internationales et les conflits en Afrique qu’il convient de tenter de défaire, en en appréhendant tour à tour, leur implication, puis leur contribution à la résolution desdits conflits. De cette double appréhension, émerge le besoin, dans les stratégies de résolution des conflits, d’une prise en compte aussi bien de la violence visible que de la violence invisible ; celle-ci suppose une réelle connaissance des vrais déterminants conflictuels. D’où la nécessité d’un droit régional africain de maintien de la paix car, la paix objective doit être accompagnée de la paix subjective.

New Issue: Europa Ethnica

The latest issue of Europa Ethnica (Vol. 76, nos. 3/4, 2019). Contents include:

• Peter Hilpold, Die allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte 1948 und der Schutz der Minderheiten
• Giuseppe Cataldi, Presentation
• Giuseppe Cataldi, Introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Anna Liguori, Some Reflections on the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and Human Rights
• Maria Chiara Vitucci, The protection of sexual orientation in international law: between the principles of non-discrimination and human dignity
• Michele Nino, The limitation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the communities involved in land grabbing regimes: an analysis in the light of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Valentina Rossi, The Universal Right to a healthy Environment: “an Idea whose time has come?”
• Francesco Zammartino, Solidarity and Social Justice in the European Union Seventy Years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the Role of European Judges
• Giorgia Bevilacqua, The Right to Life at Sea Seventy Years after the Proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Michele Corleto, Search and Rescue at Sea in Light of International Regulations and National Policy. The Case of Sea Watch 3
• Marianna Pace, The Human Right to Water from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the New Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Bruno Mercurio, Participation and Representation of the Municipalities in the Organization of Integrated Water Service in Italy. Some Thoughts
• Bianca Nicla Romano, Tourism as a Tool for the Fulfilment of the Rights to Rest and Recreation Enshrined in Article No. 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Young: Indigenous Peoples, Consent and Rights: Troubling Subjects

Stephen Young (Univ. of Otago – Law) has published Indigenous peoples, consent and rights: Troubling Subjects (Routledge 2020). Here’s the abstract:

Analysing how Indigenous Peoples come to be identifiable as bearers of human rights, this book considers how individuals and communities claim the right of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) as Indigenous peoples. The basic notion of FPIC is that states should seek Indigenous peoples’ consent before taking actions that will have an impact on them, their territories or their livelihoods. FPIC is an important development for Indigenous peoples, their advocates and supporters because one might assume that, where states recognize it, Indigenous peoples will have the ability to control how non-Indigenous laws and actions will affect them. But who exactly are the Indigenous peoples that are the subjects of this discourse? This book argues that the subject status of Indigenous peoples emerged out of international law in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Then, through a series of case studies, it considers how self-identifying Indigenous peoples, scholars, UN institutions and non-government organizations (NGOs) dispersed that subject-status and associated rights discourse through international and national legal contexts. It shows that those who claim international human rights as Indigenous peoples performatively become identifiable subjects of international law – but further demonstrates that this does not, however, provide them with control over, or emancipation from, a state-based legal system. Maintaining that the discourse on Indigenous peoples and international law itself needs to be theoretically and critically re-appraised, this book problematises the subject-status of those who claim Indigenous peoples’ rights and the role of scholars, institutions, NGOs and others in producing that subject-status. Squarely addressing the limitations of international human rights law, it nevertheless goes on to provide a conceptual framework for rethinking the promise and power of Indigenous peoples’ rights.

Call for Submissions: Melbourne Journal of International Law

The Melbourne Journal of International Law has issued a call for submissions for the first issue of its twenty-first volume. The call is here.

New Issue: Journal of World Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Trade (Vol. 53, no. 6, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• C. Y. Cyrus Chu & Po-Ching Lee, Three Changes Not Foreseen by WTO Rules Framers Twenty-Five Years Ago
• Martin Roy, Elevating Services: Services Trade Policy, WTO Commitments, and Their Role in Economic Development and Trade Integration
• Weihuan Zhou & Henry Gao, ‘Overreaching’ or ‘Overreacting’? Reflections on the Judicial Function and Approaches of WTO Appellate Body
• Ilaria Espa, New Features of Green Industrial Policy and the Limits of WTO Rules: What Options for the Twenty-first Century?
• Haneul Jung & Nu Ri Jung, Enforcing ‘Purely’ Environmental Obligations Through International Trade Law: A Case of the CPTPP’s Fisheries Subsidies
• Atul Kaushik, India’s Dilemma in Negotiating Rules on E-commerce in the WTO
• Rhys Manley, Trade Law and the Capability Approach

New Issue: Revista de Direito Internacional

The latest issue of Revista de Direito Internacional (Vol. 16, no. 3, 2019) is out. This is a special issue on "Business and Human Rights/Empresas e Direitos Humanos." The table of contents is here.