Saturday, August 29, 2020
New Issue: International Organization
Fraser: Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law Implementation: Every Organ of Society
Having articulated numerous human rights norms and standards in international treaties, the pressing challenge today is their realisation in States' parties around the world. Domestic implementation has proven a difficult task for national authorities as well as international supervisory bodies. This book examines the traditional State-centric and legalistic approach to implementation, critiquing its limited efficacy in practice and failure to connect with local cultures. The book therefore explores the permissibility of other measures of implementation, and advocates more culturally sensitive approaches involving social institutions. Through an interdisciplinary case study of Islam in Indonesia, the book demonstrates the power of social institutions like religion to promote rights compliant positions and behaviours. Like the preamble of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the book reiterates the role not just of the State but indeed 'every organ of society' in realising rights.
Danchin, Farrall, Rana, & Saunders: The Pandemic Paradox in International Law
Peter Danchin (Univ. of Maryland - Law), Jeremy Farrall (Australian National Univ. - Law), Shruti Rana (Indiana Univ., Bloomington - Global and International Studies), & Imogen Saunders (Australian National Univ. - Law) have posted The Pandemic Paradox in International Law (American Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This article examines a series of paradoxes that have rendered the international legal order’s mechanisms for collective action powerless precisely when they are most needed to fight COVID-19. The “patriotism paradox” is that disengagement from the international legal order weakens rather than strengthens state sovereignty. The “border paradox” is that securing domestic populations by excluding non-citizens, in the absence of accompanying regulatory mechanisms to secure adherence to internal health measures, accelerates viral spread among citizens. The “equality paradox” is that while pandemics pose an equal threat to all people, their impacts compound existing inequalities.
Matić: Just Words: The Effectiveness of Civil Justice in European Human Rights Jurisprudence
This book examines the role of the European Court of Human Rights in promoting standards of effective civil justice in Europe. It defines judicial effectiveness as composed of three main components, namely the length, cost and predictability of proceedings. Following a comprehensive review of the relevant case law, the book argues that the legal standards established by the Court in these areas are rather modest, and that the legal reasoning behind them is predominantly formalist. Rather than developing an understanding of the relevant policy choices that determine the institutional framework of civil justice, the Court bases its decisions on abstract concepts like 'reasonable time', 'access to court' and 'legal certainty'. By sidelining the key institutional issues such as resource allocation and incentives, the Court has produced a largely theoretical case law that actually has little value for persons who wish to enforce their rights in courts.
Wolff: Der Einzelne in der offenen Staatlichkeit
Schützen die Grundrechte des Grundgesetzes Individuen auch vor belastenden Wirkungen, die von Kooperationen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland mit anderen Staaten ausgehen? Daniel Wolff beantwortet diese Frage mit einem differenzierten Ja und entwickelt eine allgemeine Grundrechtsdogmatik für die zwischenstaatliche Zusammenarbeit, die den dogmatischen status quo fundamental in Frage stellt.
Attard: The Duty of the Shipmaster to Render Assistance at Sea under International Law
In The Shipmaster's Duty to Render Assistance at Sea under International Law, Felicity G. Attard examines the web of applicable international rules regulating one of the most fundamental obligations at sea. The study explores the shipmaster's duty to render assistance at sea under treaty law, customary international law, and other international instruments. It focuses on an assessment of the duty in light of contemporary challenges posed by the phenomenon of irregular migration by sea, a problem which has intensified in recent years. Whilst Article 98 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides the basis for the regime regulating the duty, the study addresses other relevant rules adopted by the International Maritime Organization and the International Labour Organization. Due to the humanitarian ramifications of the rendering of assistance at sea, the book considers further obligations imposed under human rights law and refugee law. The study presents a comprehensive analysis of shipmaster's responsibilities in rescue operations, and their role in the fulfilment of States' international obligations in the rendering of assistance.
Williams & Sterio: Research Handbook on Post-Conflict State Building
As a conflict ends and the parties begin working towards a durable peace, practitioners and peacebuilders are faced with the possibilities and challenges of building new or reformed political, security, judicial, social, and economic structures. This Handbook analyzes these elements of post-conflict state building through the lens of international law, which provides a framework through which the authors contextualize and examine the many facets of state building in relation to the legal norms, processes, and procedures that guide such efforts across the globe. The volume aims to provide not only an introduction to and explanation of prominent topics in state building, but also a perceptive analysis that augments ongoing conversations among researchers, lawyers, and advocates engaged in the field.
Domínguez-Redondo: In Defense of Politicization of Human Rights: The UN Special Procedures
In Defense of Politicization of Human Rights: The UN Special Procedures constitutes the first comprehensive study of the United Nations Special Procedures, covering their history, methods of work, institutional status, relationship with other politically driven organs, and processes affecting their development. Special Procedures have existed since 1967, nearly as long as United Nations Treaty Bodies, but have received only fragmented analysis, normally focused on a few thematic mandates, until the creation of the Human Rights Council in 2006.
In seeking to debunk commonly held views about the role of politics in human rights at international level, In Defense of Politicization of Human Rights constitutes the first comprehensive study of the United Nations Special Procedures as a system covering their history, methods of work, institutional status, relationship with other politically driven organs, and processes affecting their development. The perspective chosen to analyze the human rights mechanisms most vulnerable to political decisions determining their creation, renewal and operationalization, casts a new light on the extent to which these remain the cornerstone of global accountability in protecting the inherent dignity and worth of individuals as well as groups.
International human rights mechanisms' efficiency is normally linked to the work of independent experts keen to push the boundaries of accountability against recalcitrant States determined to defend their sovereignty. As a corollary, progress in this field is associated to the creation and maintenance of political free spaces. Another common presumption is a belief in a differentiated 'North' versus 'South' approach to the promotion and protection of human rights, that find common ground within the prevalent human rights discourses repeated by governmental and non-governmental actors. Through the lenses of the United Nations Special Procedures, In Defense of Politicization of Human Rights challenges these and other presumptions informing doctrinal studies, policies and strategies to advance international human rights. Because of the Special Procedures' growing salience and impact in the world of international human rights, this book is likely to become required reading for any student or practitioner of international human rights.
New Issue: International Legal Materials
- Case 004/2 Involving AO An: Considerations on Appeals Against Closing Orders (Extraordinary Chambers Cts. Cambodia), with introductory note by David J. Scheffer
- The Situation in the People's Republic of Bangladesh/Republic of the Union of Myanmar Decision to Authorize Investigation (I.C.C.) and the Gambia V. Myanmar Order for Provisional Measures (I.C.J.), with introductory note by Alessandra Spadaro
- Case C-233/18 Zubair Haqbin v. Federaal Agentschap Voor de Opvang van Asielzoekers (C.J.E.U.), with introductory note by Justine N. Stefanelli
- Advisory Opinion of the Caribbean Court of Justice in Response to a Request from the Caribbean Community (Caribbean Ct. J.), with introductory note by Stephen Vasciannie
Friday, August 28, 2020
Eslava: The teaching of (another) international law: critical realism and the question of agency and structure
Luis Eslava (Univ. of Kent - Law) has published The teaching of (another) international law: critical realism and the question of agency and structure (The Law Teacher, Vol. 54, no. 3, pp. 368-384, 2020). Here's the abstract:
In this article I explore the potential of a critical realist approach to the teaching of international law. Critical realist scholars have advanced a compelling account of the importance of paying attention – in designing educational curricula, delivering materials and classroom interactions – to the close relationship between agency and structure, a relationship that has also come to preoccupy international legal scholars. Recent academic work, especially that developed by critical international legal scholars, has revealed and insisted upon the structural dimension of the international legal order. According to these scholars, this dimension should be taken into account in order to explain and challenge some of the ways in which international law has historically constituted, and continues to constitute, our persistently violent and unequal material and social world at all levels, from international to local spaces, and from collective to individual subjectivities. If the aim is to generate another global order, and another international law, teaching international law today requires us to learn how to negotiate the structure and agency divide. The work of critical realists has the potential to help teachers of international law create a more emancipatory learning experience for their students in order to face this crucial task.
Alter: Visions of International Law: An Interdisciplinary Retrospective
Karen J. Alter (Northwestern Univ. - Political Science; Univ. of Copenhagen - iCourts) has posted Visions of International Law: An Interdisciplinary Retrospective. Here's the abstract:
Taking the opportunity of this LJIL special lecture, Professor Alter provides an interdisciplinary retrospective that explains, defends and critiques six common visions of international law: The naïve political scientist’s expectations about international law as a fixed reflection of political choices; the legal formalist and structural theorist who believes that formal rules, institutions, and processes should generate similar outcomes in different parts of the world; the Western centric scholar’s notion that one can draw general lessons based on European and American experiences; the liberal internationalist who believes that multilateral processes generate consent based agreements and outcomes; the law and society scholar whose focus on the local can minimize international structural elements; and the international legal sociologist who believes that meanings and practices constitute international law. After reflecting on what each vision captures and misses about international law, Professor Alter identifies the policy stakes of residing within a vision. While we need to draw from multiple visions to understand the hybridity of international law, we also need to understand the implicit presumptions of each vision, as these presumptions generate contradictory prescriptive recommendations.
Paulsson: The Unruly Notion of Abuse of Rights
Everyone condemns what they perceive as 'abuse of rights', and some would elevate it to a general principle of law. But the notion seldom suffices to be applied as a rule of decision. When adjudicators purport to do so they expose themselves to charges of unpredictability, if not arbitrariness. After examining the dissimilar origins and justification of the notion in national and international doctrine, and the difficulty of its application in both comparative and international law, this book concludes that except when given context as part of a lex specialis, it is too nebulous to serve as a general principle of international law.
New Issue: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
The latest issue of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (Vol. 20, no. 3, September 2020) is out. Contents include:- Carole-Anne Sénit, Transforming our world? Discursive representation in the negotiations on the Sustainable Development Goals
- Dorine E. van Norren, The Sustainable Development Goals viewed through Gross National Happiness, Ubuntu, and Buen Vivir
- Thomas Hickmann & Joshua Philipp Elsässer, New alliances in global environmental governance: how intergovernmental treaty secretariats interact with non-state actors to address transboundary environmental problems
- Alexandre Gajevic Sayegh, Moral duties, compliance and polycentric climate governance
- Dirk-Jan Koch & Marloes Verholt, Limits to learning: the struggle to adapt to unintended effects of international payment for environmental services programmes
- Shiro Hori & Sachi Syugyo, The function of international business frameworks for governing companies’ climate change-related actions toward the 2050 goals
- Chaewoon Oh, Contestations over the financial linkages between the UNFCCC’s Technology and Financial Mechanism: using the lens of institutional interaction
- Borys Kormych, Tetiana Averochkina, & Vitalii Gaverskyi, The public administration of territorial seas: Ukrainian case
New Issue: The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals
The latest issue of The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (Vol. 19, no. 2, 2020) is out. Contents include:- Freya Baetens & Régis Bismuth, Face à Face: Interview with Paolina Massidda – Principal Counsel of the Independent Office of Public Counsel for Victims at the ICC
- Sara Mansour Fallah, The Admissibility of Unlawfully Obtained Evidence before International Courts and Tribunals
- Massimo Lando, Provisional Measures and the Link Requirement
- Jessica Joly Hébert, Distinguishing Interpretation and Revision Proceedings at the International Court of Justice
- Luke Tattersall & Azfer A. Khan, Taking Stock: Abuse of Process within the International Court of Justice
- Szilárd Gáspár-Szilágyi & Maxim Usynin, Procedural Developments in Investment Arbitration
- Hélène Tigroudja, Procedural Developments at International Human Rights Courts and Bodies
Macleod: Tackling Disasters and Pandemics Together with Laws and Policies that Leave No One Behind
Rachel Macleod (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) has posted an ASIL Insight on Tackling Disasters and Pandemics Together with Laws and Policies that Leave No One Behind.
Shereshevsky: The Unintended Negative Effect of Positive Complementarity
Yahli Shereshevsky (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem - Law) has posted The Unintended Negative Effect of Positive Complementarity (Journal of International Criminal Justice, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
Ending impunity cannot be achieved by international criminal tribunals alone. Therefore, it is important that states will take a significant part in these efforts. The principle of complementarity is aimed to incentivize states to conduct domestic criminal proceedings against alleged perpetrators of international crimes. This paper calls for a broader examination of the way in which the principle of complementarity incentivizes domestic actors. It argues that beyond the potential positive effect of complementarity on domestic criminal law, the shadow of the ICC creates a negative incentive for domestic courts to intervene in constitutional and administrative cases that examine general conduct of hostilities cases. The paper demonstrates this negative effect by examining a shift in the attitude of the Israeli Supreme Court in conduct of hostilities cases. In addition, the paper discusses the ways in which domestic courts attempt to regain their reputation following their increased deference in conduct of hostilities cases.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
García-Salmones: Food Security and International Organisations: Why Not Global? Why Not Now?
Mónica García-Salmones (Univ. of Helsinki - Law) has posted Food Security and International Organisations: Why Not Global? Why Not Now? (in Cambridge Companion to International Organisations Law, Jan Klabbers ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This article reviews the history and legacy of the nutrition approach in the law of International Organisations. The first promoters of international organisations working with food security shared the realist insight that food was a fundamental commodity in national and international economies. Therefore, they understood that the goal of greater distribution of food required massive structural economic reforms and truly global collaboration, starting with trade relations. Their nutrition approach was fundamentally a movement for free trade, advocating a single world economy and a single international organisation devoted to the economy, combined with the wish to secure a certain structural hierarchy among countries, articulated in turn as a programme for the (gradual) development of poorer economies. Their political realism was apparent in their wish for a hierarchical organisation of countries; and their utopianism in the idea that this hierarchy would eventually disappear. The nutrition approach also entailed a vision for a common economy and for growing political unity among countries, either on a regional or global basis, although sovereign nations resisted it and it never materialised. The failure to establish an international organisation with authority to adopt economic decisions for the world with regard to food security has cemented the position of private international corporations as free riders, contributing to precariousness.
Guan: WTO Jurisprudence: Governments, Private Rights, and International Trade
This book offers a critical examination of the jurisprudence of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as an emancipatory international social contract on trade. The book suggests that the WTO is an international organization built and operating on member states’ attribution of authority through consent with legislative, administrative, and adjudicative functions – three functions in one triune personality. With a solid constitutional continuity building on GATT experiences, the WTO has successfully made governments accountable to foreign individuals in various capacities either as traders of goods, providers of services, or holders of intellectual property rights within the global marketplace. With a triune personality, the WTO operates within the reign of state primacy – the force – ultimately for the benefits of individuals – the ends – in the global marketplace, and gains a soul of its own in the institutional evolution – the means – of the global trading regime. Although the tripartite dynamics between states, international institutions, and individuals in the global marketplace are unprecedentedly complex, the WTO’s ends of benefiting individuals in the global marketplace has no end. Beyond the critical analysis of WTO’s decision-making by consensus, the book critically examines GATT’s "common intention" treaty interpretation, Antidumping’s NME methodology, TRIPS’ public health concerns, and IP-competition trade policy dynamics. A unified WTO jurisprudence looking at the WTO as an international social contract on trade is therefore proposed to allow a fresh look at the force, the means, and the ends of the constitutional evolution of the global trading regime.
Ishii: Relevant Coasts and Relevant Area in the Maritime Delimitation of the EEZ and Continental Shelf
Yurika Ishii (National Defense Academy of Japan) has posted Relevant Coasts and Relevant Area in the Maritime Delimitation of the EEZ and Continental Shelf (Ocean Development & International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This article examines the development of case law concerning the criteria determining the relevant coasts and the relevant areas in delimitation of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. There is a discrepancy in the jurisprudence over whether the relevant area is determined by assessing the overlaps of “seaward extension,” “projections,” or “potential entitlement,” and this undermines the transparency of the process and the predictability of the result. There is also a debate over whether identification of the relevant area shall be based on “frontal” or “radial” projections. This article tracks this jurisprudence, questions why there is a discrepancy, and critically analyzes the consequences of these decisions in the light of the principle of equity.
New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights
The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 24, no. 7, 2020) is out. Contents include:- Special Issue: The Relationship Between the European Convention on Human Rights and Wider International Law
- Geir Ulfstein, Morten Ruud & Andreas Føllesdal, The European Convention on Human Rights and other parts of international law
- Geir Ulfstein, Interpretation of the ECHR in light of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
- James Crawford & Amelia Keene, Interpretation of the human rights treaties by the International Court of Justice
- Helen Keller & Reto Walther, Evasion of the international law of state responsibility? The ECtHR’s jurisprudence on positive and preventive obligations under Article 3
- Vibeke Blaker Strand, Interpreting the ECHR in its normative environment: interaction between the ECHR, the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the UN convention on the rights of the child
- Tonje Meinich, EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights – challenges in the negotiations
- Martin Kuijer, The challenging relationship between the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU legal order: consequences of a delayed accession
Jensen: The Development of the Law of the Sea Convention: The Role of International Courts and Tribunals
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) entered into force in November 1994. This insightful book offers in-depth appraisals of the contributions of jurisprudence to this major achievement of international law, tracing the impact that courts and tribunals have had on the development and clarification of various provisions of UNCLOS over the past quarter-century.
Exploring the most pressing issues and recent developments concerning the oceans, leading authors discuss the influence of jurisprudence in fields ranging from fisheries to navigation and deep seabed mining, paying particular attention to the impact of dispute settlement in the law of the sea. While many questions remain unresolved, the specific case studies in this book show that courts and tribunals have made significant contributions to key legal concepts, as well as filling regulatory gaps left by UNCLOS.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
De Groof: State Renaissance for Peace: Transitional Governance under International Law
After 1989, the function of transitional governance changed. It became a process whereby transitional authorities introduce a constitutional transformation on the basis of interim laws. In spite of its domestic nature, it also became an international project and one with formidable ambitions: ending war, conflict or crisis by reconfiguring the state order. This model attracted international attention, from the UN Security Council and several regional organisations, and became a playing field of choice in international politics and diplomacy. Also without recourse to armed force, international actors could impact a state apparatus – through state renaissance. This book zooms in on the non-forcible aspects of conflict-related transitional governance while focusing on the transition itself. This study shows that neither transitional actors nor external actors must respect specific rules when realising or contributing to state renaissance. The legal limits to indirectly provoking regime change are also being unveiled.
Hodson & Maher: The Transformation of EU Treaty Making: The Rise of Parliaments, Referendums and Courts since 1950
Treaty making is a site of struggle between those who claim the authority to speak and act on the international stage. The European Union (EU) is an important test case in this respect because the manner in which the Union and its member states make treaties has shifted significantly over the last six decades. Drawing insights from EU law, comparative constitutionalism and international relations, this book shows how and why parliaments, the people and courts have entered a domain once dominated by governments. It presents qualitative and quantitative evidence on the importance of public trust and political tactics in explaining this transformation of EU treaty making and challenges the idea that EU treaties are too rigid. Analysing legal developments in the EU and each of its member states, this will be essential reading for those who wish to understand the EU's controversial experiment in treaty making and its wider significance.
Skinner: Transnational Corporations and Human Rights: Overcoming Barriers to Judicial Remedy
The number of transnational corporations - including parent companies and subsidiaries - has exploded over the last forty years, which has led to a correlating rise of corporate violations of international human rights and environmental laws, either directly or in conjunction with government security forces, local police, state-run businesses, or other businesses. In this work, Gwynne Skinner details the harms of business-related human rights violations on local communities and describes the barriers, both functional and institutional, that victims face in seeking remedies. She concludes by offering solutions to these barriers, with a focus on measures designed to improve judicial remedies, which are the heart of international human rights law but often fail to deliver justice to victims. This work should be read by anyone concerned with the role of corporations in our increasingly globalized society.
Pace: The United Nations Commission on Human Rights: 'A Very Great Enterprise'
In this book, John P. Pace provides the most complete account to-date of the United Nations human rights programme, both in substance and in chronological breadth. Pace worked at the heart of this programme for over thirty years, including as the Secretary of the Commission on Human Rights, and Coordinator of the World Conference on Human Rights, which took place in Vienna in 1993.
He traces the issues taken up by the Commission after its launch in 1946, and the methods undertaken to enhance absorption and domestication of international human rights standards. He lays out the special procedures carried out by the UN, and the emergence of international human rights law. The book then turns to the establishment of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the mainstreaming of human rights across the United Nations system, eventually leading to the establishment of the Human Rights Council to replace the Commission in 2006.
Many of the problems we face today, including conflict, poverty, and environmental issues, have their roots in human rights problems. This book identifies what has been done at the international level in the past, and points towards what still needs to be done for the future.
New Issue: Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law
- Special Issue: Assessing the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework
- Kati Kulovesi & Sebastian Oberthür, Assessing the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework: Incremental change toward radical transformation?
- Diarmuid Torney & Roderic O’Gorman, Adaptability versus certainty in a carbon emissions reduction regime: An assessment of the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework
- Stephen Minas, EU climate law sans frontières: The extension of the 2030 Framework to the Energy Community contracting parties
- Sanja Bogojević, Human rights of minors and future generations: Global trends and EU environmental law particularities
- Marjan Peeters & Natassa Athanasiadou, The continued effort sharing approach in EU climate law: Binding targets, challenging enforcement?
- Annalisa Savaresi, Lucia Perugini, & Maria Vincenza Chiriacò, Making sense of the LULUCF Regulation: Much ado about nothing?
- Alessandro Monti & Beatriz Martinez Romera, Fifty shades of binding: Appraising the enforcement toolkit for the EU’s 2030 renewable energy targets
- Joshua Roberts, Power to the people? Implications of the Clean Energy Package for the role of community ownership in Europe’s energy transition
- Theodoros G. Iliopoulos Matteo Fermeglia Bernard Vanheusden, The EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework: How net metering slips through its net
- Original Articles
- Ellycia R. Harrould‐Kolieb, The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea: A governing framework for ocean acidification?
- Jingjing Zhao, The role of international organizations in preventing conflicts between the SPS Agreement and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
- Laura Movilla Pateiro, Advances and uncertainties in compliance measures for users from the Nagoya Protocol in the European Union
- Alessandra Guida, The 2017 Fidenato case and the 2015 Directive: The curious case of GMOs in Europe
- Case Note
- Rafael Tamayo‐Álvarez, David Aven v Costa Rica: A step forward towards investor accountability for environmental harm?
Call for Submissions: EYIEL Focus Section on "The Future of Dispute Settlement in International Economic Law"
The European Yearbook of International Economic Law has issued a call for submissions for a focus section on "The Future of Dispute Settlement in International Economic Law," which will appear in the 2021 volume of the yearbook. The call is here.
Binder, Hofbauer, Piovesan, & Úbeda de Torres: Research Handbook on International Law and Social Rights
For several decades, social rights lacked proper recognition in international law, being qualified as aspirational goals rather than rights, and therefore not enjoying the same level of protection or status as other human rights. This comprehensive Research Handbook provides a comparative overview of the history, nature and current status of social rights at the universal and regional level.
Tracing their evolution from rather modest beginnings, to becoming the category of rights responding most accurately to the 21st century’s policy objectives of poverty eradication and equitable resource allocation, this Research Handbook assesses the mechanisms used to enhance the implementation and enforcement of social rights. Offering in-depth discussion of current debates in the field of social rights and international law, expert contributors analyse the ability of these rights to act as a tool to fight inequality, as well as to protect and ensure diversity. In so doing, they examine how social rights now play a central role in the shift from a state-centred to a value-based global order.
New Issue: Stanford Journal of International Law
The latest issue of the Stanford Journal of International Law (Vol. 56, no. 1, Winter 2020) is out. Contents include:- Beth Van Schaack, Deconstructing Syria's Would-Be International Criminal Court Referral: The Politics of International Justice
- Monika Zalnieriute, Beyond the Governance Gap in International Domain Name Law: Bringing the UDRP in Line with Internationally Recognized Human Rights
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Bsaisou: Vollstreckungsimmunität von Zentralbanken
Wenn ausländische Staaten Schulden nicht zurückzahlen, bleibt Gläubigern häufig nur, ihre Forderungen auf dem Vollstreckungsweg durchzusetzen. Schnell gerät das Vermögen von Zentralbanken ins Visier vollstreckungswilliger Gläubiger. Ein ungehinderter Vollstreckungszugriff würde die Rolle der Institute als Garanten des jeweiligen Währungs- und Finanzsystems bedrohen. Wie die eingehende Analyse der Staatenpraxis zeigt, bietet das Völkerrecht Zentralbanken einen weitreichenden, aber keinen uneingeschränkten Immunitätsschutz. Im Ausgangspunkt verhindert jede Immunität, dass anerkannte Rechte verwirklicht werden. Marcus Bsaisou weist nach, dass die deutsche Rechtsordnung sowohl den völkerrechtlichen Immunitätsvorgaben als auch dem individuellen Rechtschutzanspruch gerecht werden kann, wenn völkerrechtliche Spielräume konsequent genutzt werden.
New Issue: Legal Issues of Economic Integration
The latest issue of Legal Issues of Economic Integration (Vol. 47, no. 3, 2020) is out. Contents include:- From the Board, Short-term and Long-term Trade Responses to COVID-19
- Marco Bronckers, Trade Conflicts: Whither the WTO?
- Tomi Tuominen, Reconceptualizing the Primacy–Supremacy Debate in EU Law
- Phedon Nicolaides, An Assessment of the Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany On the Public Sector Asset Purchase Programme of the European Central Bank
Ogle: ‘Funk Money’: The End of Empires, The Expansion of Tax Havens, and Decolonization as an Economic and Financial Event
Vanessa Ogle (Univ. of California, Berkeley - History) has posted ‘Funk Money’: The End of Empires, The Expansion of Tax Havens, and Decolonization as an Economic and Financial Event (Past & Present, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This article explores the question of what happened to European assets in the process of decolonization. It argues that decolonization created a money panic of sorts that led white settlers, businessmen, and officials to seek to liquidate assets they owned and move funds out of the colonial world. Instead of being repatriated to metropolitan countries with high tax rates and exchange controls, money moved to tax havens. Decolonization thus provided an important share of early postwar tax haven business in a period when tax havens and offshore finance expanded during the 1950s and 1960s. In turn, the withdrawal of Euro-American investments from the decolonizing world set the stage for the politics of development and modernization in the coming decades. Ironically, the outflow of funds during decolonization and the subsequent return of some funds in restructured form as investments by multinational and other companies soon caused difficulties in newly independent developing countries. Companies soon found ways to rebook profits to have occurred in a tax haven rather than in the developing world, thus depriving low-income countries from tax revenue. The withdrawal of Euro-American investments from the colonial world during decolonization moreover had implications for the growth of portfolio investment, as funds removed from colonies were often invested through a tax haven onwards in US securities. All in all, decolonization was an economic and financial event that is only beginning to emerge in full detail.
Gordon & Perugini: Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire
From Syrian civilians locked in iron cages to veterans joining peaceful indigenous water protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, from Sri Lanka to Iraq and from Yemen to the United States, human beings have been used as shields for protection, coercion, or deterrence. Over the past decade, human shields have also appeared with increasing frequency in antinuclear struggles, civil and environmental protests, and even computer games. The phenomenon, however, is by no means a new one.
Describing the use of human shields in key historical and contemporary moments across the globe, Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini demonstrate how the increasing weaponization of human beings has made the position of civilians trapped in theaters of violence more precarious and their lives more expendable. They show how the law facilitates the use of lethal violence against vulnerable people while portraying it as humane, but they also reveal how people can and do use their own vulnerability to resist violence and denounce forms of dehumanization. Ultimately, Human Shields unsettles our common ethical assumptions about violence and the law and urges us to imagine entirely new forms of humane politics.
Monday, August 24, 2020
New Issue: International Community Law Review
The latest issue of the International Community Law Review (Vol. 22, nos. 3-4, 2020) is out. Contents include:- Special Issue 22.3 Rethinking the Legacy of the League of Nations
- Rossana Deplano, Introducing the Special Issue 22.3 Rethinking the Legacy of the League of Nations
- Jean d’Aspremont, The League of Nations and the Power of “Experiment Narratives” in International Institutional Law
- Nicholas Tsagourias, The League of Nations and Visions of World Order
- Nigel D. White, From Covenant to Charter: A Legacy Squandered?
- Antal Berkes, The League of Nations and the International Law of State Responsibility
- Special Issue 22.4 Regime Convergence and Lex Ferenda in IUU Fishing Disputes
- Hélène Ruiz Fabri, Makane Moïse Mbengue, & Brian McGarry, Introducing the Special Issue 22.4 Regime Convergence and Lex Ferenda in IUU Fishing Disputes: Introductory Remarks
- Nilufer Oral, Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of IUU Fishing under International Law
- Christina Voigt, Oceans, IUU Fishing, and Climate Change: Implications for International Law
- Yoshifumi Tanaka, Reflections on the Implications of Environmental Norms for Fishing: The Link between the Regulation of Fishing and the Protection of Marine Biological Diversity
- Malgosia Fitzmaurice & Mercedes Rosello, IUU Fishing as a Disputed Concept and Its Application to Vulnerable Groups: A Case Study on Arctic Fisheries
- Cymie R. Payne, Negotiation and Dispute Prevention in Global Cooperative Institutions: International Community Interests, IUU Fishing, and the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Negotiation
- Barbara Hutniczak & Frank Meere, International Co-operation as a Key Tool to Prevent IUU Fishing and Disputes over It
- Namira Negm, AU AIM Strategy and the Fragmentation of IUU Fishing Regulations in Africa: the Case of West Africa
- Valentin J. Schatz, The Snow Crab Dispute on the Continental Shelf of Svalbard: A Case-Study on Options for the Settlement of International Fisheries Access Disputes
- Marco Benatar, Not Like the Others? The Position of Associated States and Dependent Territories in Fishing Disputes
- Eve de Coning, Why Are Some Flag States Unable or Unwilling to Address IUU Fishing?
- Solène Guggisberg, Independent, Compulsory, and Centralized Verification of States’ Obligations in Fisheries: Can the IMO Audit Scheme for Shipping Law Be Used as an Example to Follow?
Sunday, August 23, 2020
Baltag & Stanic: The Future of Investment Treaty Arbitration in the EU: Intra-EU BITs, the Energy Charter Treaty, and the Multilateral Investment
The Future of Investment Treaty Arbitration in the EU is a uniquely descriptive book that provides a comprehensive analysis of the implications of the Achmea judgment in the current landscape of investment protection within the European Union (EU) and internationally. In the aftermath of the Achmea judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the legal community and business are still trying to understand its real effects and the other implications at the EU level. This book highlights a proposed new framework for investment protection in the EU with a focus mainly on investment treaty arbitration and energy-related investments. This new framework reflects the changing position of EU with respect to Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), the on-going discussions to reform the ISDS under the auspices of the UNCITRAL Working Group III which include the establishment of a Multilateral Investment Court, as well as the judgment of the CJEU in Achmea. It also analyses the relationship between the Energy Charter Treaty and the ISDS.
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