Saturday, October 31, 2020

Crépin: Persecution, International Refugee Law and Refugees: A Feminist Approach

Mathilde Crépin
has published Persecution, International Refugee Law and Refugees: A Feminist Approach (Routledge 2020). Here's the abstract:
This book explores the ambit of the notion of persecution in international law and its relevance in the current geopolitical context, more specifically for refugee women. The work analyses different models for interpreting the notion of persecution in international refugee law through a comparative lens. In particular, a feminist approach to refugee law is adopted to determine to what extent the notion of persecution can apply to gender related forms of violence and what are the challenges in doing so. It proposes an interpretive model that would encourage decision makers to interpret the notion of persecution in a manner that is sufficiently protective and relevant to the profiles of refugees in the 21st century, most particularly to refugee women.

Dothan: La Deferencia Judicial Permite Que Emerja El Consenso Europeo

Shai Dothan (Univ. of Copenhagen - iCourts) has posted La Deferencia Judicial Permite Que Emerja El Consenso Europeo (Revista Derecho de Estado, forthcoming; originally published in English, Chicago Journal of International Law, vol. 18, 2018). Here's the abstract:

El Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos (TEDH) busca políticas de derechos humanos que sean adoptadas por la mayoría de los países de Europa. Utilizando una doctrina conocida como el "consenso emergente", el tribunal impone tales políticas como una obligación jurídica internacional a todos los países bajo su jurisdicción. Sin embargo, en ocasiones, el TEDH cede ante los Estados, incluso si sus políticas no están a la altura del estándar aceptado por la mayoría de los países de Europa. Esta deferencia se logra utilizando la doctrina llamada "margen de apreciación". Naturalmente, el consenso emergente y el margen de apreciación se conciben, a menudo, como doctrinas en competencia: cuanto más hay de una, menos hay de otra. En el presente artículo se sugiere una nueva justificación de la doctrina del consenso emergente: la doctrina puede permitir que el TEDH formule buenas políticas recurriendo a la toma de decisiones independiente de muchos países similares. A la luz de ello, el artículo demuestra que una aplicación correcta de la doctrina del margen de apreciación ayuda, realmente, a que el consenso emergente alcance resultados óptimos, al dar a los países un incentivo para elaborar sus políticas de forma independiente.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) searches for human rights policies that are adopted by the majority of the countries in Europe. Using a doctrine known as “emerging consensus,” the court then imposes these policies as an international legal obligation on all the countries under its jurisdiction. But the ECHR sometimes defers to countries, even if their policies fall short of the standard accepted by most of the countries in Europe. This deference is accomplished by using the so-called “margin of appreciation” doctrine. Naturally, emerging consensus and margin of appreciation are often conceived as competing doctrines: the more there is of one, the less there is of another. This article suggests a novel rationale for the emerging consensus doctrine: the doctrine can allow the ECHR to make good policies by drawing on the independent decision-making of many similar countries. In light of that, the article demonstrates that a correct application of the margin of appreciation doctrine actually helps emerging consensus reach optimal results by giving countries an incentive to make their policies independently.

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 74, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • The Women Peace and Security agenda of the UN Security Council turns twenty: A tale of changing fortunes
    • Introduced by Micaela Frulli
    • Sara De Vido, Violence against women’s health through the law of the UN Security Council: A critical international feminist law analysis of Resolutions 2467 (2019) and 2493 (2019) within the WPS agenda
    • Lourdes Peroni, Women’s Human Rights in the WPS Agenda: Twenty Years On

Kassoti: Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Court of Justice’s Judgment in Case Slovenia v. Croatia

Eva Kassoti (T.M.C. Asser Instituut) has posted Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Court of Justice’s Judgment in Case Slovenia v. Croatia. Here's the abstract:
The Slovenia v. Croatia case (Court of Justice, judgment of 31 January 2020, case C-457/18) is a complex and politically charged one. Here, the Court of Justice was indirectly called upon to pronounce on the legal effects of an international arbitral award delimiting the territorial and maritime boundary between two Member States – the validity of which remains fiercely contested by one of the parties. This Insight analyses the Court of Justice’s reasoning in the case at hand and argues that, although the Court was arguably caught between a rock and a hard place, its misconstruction of the subject matter of the action and its failure to engage with the res judicata effects of the arbitral award within the EU legal order weaken the persuasive force of its line of argumentation.

New Issue: Archiv des Völkerrechts

The latest issue of Archiv des Völkerrechts (Vol. 58, no. 2, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Abhandlungen
    • Bernd Grzeszick, Die demokratische Kooperationsverantwortung des Deutschen Bundestages für völkerrechtliche Bindungen
    • Katharina Parameswaran-Seiffert, Prosecuting Foreign Fighters in Germany: The Interaction of Counter-Terrorism Law and International Humanitarian Law
    • Brygida Kuźniak & Danuta Kabat-Rudnicka, In search of a constitution for the international community

Friday, October 30, 2020

New Volume: Indian Journal of International Economic Law

The latest volume of the Indian Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 12, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Gudrun Monika Zagel, India’s International Investment Agreements (IIAs) and Sustainable Development: Friends or Foes?
  • Madoka Shimada & Marie Wako, The Government Procurement Agreement and Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA): Lessons from Japan’s experience
  • Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, Can Invocation of Human Rights Enhance Justice and Social Legitimacy in Investment Adjudication?
  • David Sifonios & Andreas R. Ziegler, “Tuna – Dolphin Forever”? The Development of the PPM Debate Related to Trade and Environment in the WTO
  • Ben Juratowitch, Departing from confidentiality in international dispute resolution
  • Mah Hao Ran, Ian & Aaron Cheuk Yuet Tim, Dispute settlement system under attack: A move away from multilateralism?
  • Abhishek Rana & Manya Gupta, Has the Vietnamese Dragon veritably ascended into the club of Market Economies? A question that still befuddles the Indian authorities

New Issue: Israel Law Review

The latest issue of the Israel Law Review (Vol. 53, no. 3, November 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Henry Lovat, International Adjudication and Its Discontents: A Pluralist Approach to International Tribunal Backlash
  • Natia Kalandarishvili-Mueller, Transforming a Prima Facie NIAC into an IAC: Finding the Answer in IHL
  • Tal Mimran, From Apology to Functionalism: A Retrospective Look at the Military Campaign against the Self-Declared Islamic State

Call for Papers: Artificial Intelligence and Normative Challenges: International and Comparative Legal Perspectives

The Faculty of Law of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Kalliopi Koufa Foundation for the Promotion of International and Human Rights Law, with the support of the European Society of International Law, have issued a call for abstracts/papers for a colloquium on "Artificial Intelligence and Normative Challenges: International and Comparative Legal Perspectives," to take place on April 1-2, 2021, in Thessaloniki, Greece, or in a hybrid form/as a webinar, depending on the evolution of the pandemic. The call is here.

Call for Submissions: Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security Working Paper Series

The Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security has issued a call for submissions for its new Working Paper Series. Submissions are welcome throughout the year. The call is here.

Ziemele: International Law from a Baltic Perspective

Ineta Ziemele
(Riga Graduate School of Law) has published International Law from a Baltic Perspective (Brill | Nijhoff 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law, this volume contains a selection of articles chosen by the editors to showcase the Yearbook’s important contribution to international legal scholarship and practice. It thus offers ground-breaking articles within several areas of international law, including international humanitarian law, international human rights law, peaceful settlement of disputes, European Union law, and the history of international law. Naturally, issues relevant to the international legal status of the Baltic States and the consequences of their occupation by the Soviet Union are also explored, as well as questions relevant to transitional justice and the collapse of communism. Finally, articles on new areas, such as bioethics and cyberspace, are also included, showing where the development of science prompts the need for legal regulation. This wide-ranging selection reflects the Yearbook’s aim to offer a unique forum among international legal periodicals - where the past meets the future.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

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. 22, nos. 2-3, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: Politics and the Histories of International Law
    • Anne Peters, Raphael Schäfer, & Randall Lesaffer, Politics and the Histories of International Law: An Introduction to the Special Issue
    • Jacob Katz Cogan, A History of International Law in the Vernacular
    • Hendrik Simon, Theorising Order in the Shadow of War. The Politics of International Legal Knowledge and the Justification of Force in Modernity
    • Parvathi Menon, Edmund Burke and the Ambivalence of Protection for Slaves: Between Humanity and Control
    • Maria Adele Carrai, The Politics of History in the Late Qing Era: William A. P. Martin and a History of International Law for China
    • Madeleine Herren, Strength through Diversity? The Paradox of Extraterritoriality and the History of the Odd Ones Out
    • Sebastian M. Spitra, Civilisation, Protection, Restitution: A Critical History of International Cultural Heritage Law in the 19th and 20th Century
    • Etienne Henry, The Road to Collective Security: Soviet Russia, the League of Nations, and the Emergence of the ius contra bellum in the Aftermath of the Russian Revolution (1917–1934)
    • Deborah Whitehall, Three Wartime Textbooks of International Law
    • Julia Bühner, Histories Hidden in the Shadow: Vitoria and the International Ostracism of Francoist Spain
    • Michel Erpelding, International Law and the European Court of Justice: The Politics of Avoiding History
    • Jean d’Aspremont, Turntablism in the History of International Law

Tzouvala: Capitalism As Civilisation: A History of International Law

Ntina Tzouvala
(Australian National Univ. - Law) has published Capitalism As Civilisation: A History of International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:
Methodologically and theoretically innovative, this monograph draws from Marxism and deconstruction bringing together the textual and the material in our understanding of international law. Approaching 'civilisation' as an argumentative pattern related to the distribution of rights and duties amongst different communities, Ntina Tzouvala illustrates both its contradictory nature and its pro-capitalist bias. 'Civilisation' is shown to oscillate between two poles. On the one hand, a pervasive 'logic of improvement' anchors legal equality to demands that non-Western polities undertake extensive domestic reforms and embrace capitalist modernity. On the other, an insistent 'logic of biology' constantly postpones such a prospect based on ideas of immutable difference. By detailing the tension and synergies between these two logics, Tzouvala argues that international law incorporates and attempts to mediate the contradictions of capitalism as a global system of production and exchange that both homogenises and stratifies societies, populations and space.

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

Salvatore Caserta
(Univ. of Copenhagen - Law) has published International Courts in Latin America and the Caribbean: Foundations and Authority (Oxford Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book provides the first in-depth and empirically grounded analysis of the foundations and evolution of the four Latin American and Caribbean regional economic courts: the Central American Court of Justice (CACJ), the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the Andean Tribunal of Justice (ATJ), and the Mercosur Permanent Review Court (MPRC). While these Courts were established to build common markets and to enforce trade liberalisation, they have often developed bodies of jurisprudence in domains not directly associated with regional economic integration. The CCJ has been most successful in the area of human and fundamental rights; the CACJ has addressed issues related to the enforcement of the rule of law in national legal arenas and longstanding border disputes between the countries of the region; and the ATJ is an island of effective adjudication on intellectual property issues.

The particular trajectories of these four Courts suggest that there is no universal formula for success. Challenging the mainstream account, this book argues that the Courts' operational path is not necessarily a function of their formally delegated competences or the will of the Member States. Rather, local socio-political contextual factors play a far more decisive role in influencing the direction of regional economic courts during and after their establishment.

New Issue: Transnational Dispute Management

The latest issue of Transnational Dispute Management (2020, no. 6) is out. This is a special issue on "State-controlled Entities Regulation." The table of contents is here.

Call for Papers: The Input and Output Legitimacy of International Courts

PluriCourts has issued a call for papers for its Annual Workshop on the Political and Legal Theory of International Courts and Tribunals. The theme is: "The Input and Output Legitimacy of International Courts." The call is here.

Conference: Celebrating the 'Historical Turn': International Law in Global Histories

The 29th Annual SLS/BIICL Workshop on Theory in International Law will be held virtually on November 25, 2020. The theme is: "Celebrating the 'Historical Turn': International Law in Global Histories." The program is here.

New Issue: Die Friedens-Warte

The latest issue of Die Friedens-Warte (Vol. 93, nos. 1-2, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Christian Tomuschat, Adaptation of Human Rights to Cultural Specificities?
  • Mervat Rishmawi, Universality of Human Rights in the Human Rights System of the League of Arab States
  • Andreas von Arnauld, New Human Rights in Regional Human Rights Institutions
  • Alice Ollino, Reflections on the Advisory Opinion on Human Rights and the Environment and the Notion of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
  • Michael Riegner, Regionalizing Business and Human Rights. Corporate Accountability in the European, African and Inter-American Human Rights Systems

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 24, no. 9, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Human rights and economic policy reform
    • Aoife Nolan & Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, Human rights and economic policy reforms
    • Allison Corkery & Gilad Isaacs, Human rights impact assessments and the politics of evidence in economic policymaking
    • Matthias Goldmann, Human rights and democracy in economic policy reform: the European COVID-19 response under scrutiny
    • Gillian MacNaughton, Economic inequality and human rights impact assessments of economic reforms
    • Simon Hoffman, Ex ante children’s rights impact assessment of economic policy
    • Abby Kendrick, Economic policy and women’s human rights: a critical political economy perspective
    • Olivier De Schutter , Nicholas J. Lusiani & Sergio Chaparro, Re-righting the international tax rules: operationalising human rights in the struggle to tax multinational companies
    • Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, Guiding principles on human rights impacts assessments of economic policy reforms

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Van Hulle: Britain and International Law in West Africa: The Practice of Empire

Inge Van Hulle
(Tilburg Univ. - Law) has published Britain and International Law in West Africa: The Practice of Empire (Oxford Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

Africa often remains neglected in studies that discuss the historical relationship between international law and imperialism during the nineteenth century. When it does feature, focus tends to be on the Scramble for Africa, and the treaties concluded between European powers and African polities in which sovereignty and territory were ceded. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, Inge Van Hulle brings a fresh new perspective to this traditional narrative. She reviews the use and creation of legal instruments that expanded or delineated the boundaries between British jurisdiction and African communities in West Africa, and uncovers the practicality and flexibility with which international legal discourse was employed in imperial contexts. This legal experimentation went beyond treaties of cession, and also encompassed commercial treaties, the abolition of the slave trade, extraterritoriality, and the use of force.

The book argues that, by the 1880s, the legal techniques that were fashioned in the language of international law in West Africa had largely developed their own substantive characteristics. Legal ordering was not done in reference to adjudication before Western courts or the writings of Western lawyers, but in reference to what was deemed politically expedient and practically feasible by imperial agents for the preservation of social peace, commercial interaction, and humanitarian agendas.

Pal: Jurisdictional Accumulation: An Early Modern History of Law, Empires, and Capital

Maïa Pal (Oxford Brookes Univ. - International Relations) has published Jurisdictional Accumulation: An Early Modern History of Law, Empires, and Capital (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:
The majority of European early modern empires – the Castilian, French, Dutch, and English/British – developed practices of jurisdictional accumulation, distinguished by the three categories of extensions, transports, and transplants of authority. This book is concerned with various diplomatic and colonial agents which enabled the transports and transplants of sovereign authority. Through historical analyses of ambassadors and consuls in the Mediterranean based on primary and secondary material, and on the empires' Atlantic imperial expansions and conquests, the book makes a major analytical contribution to historical sociology. As an interdisciplinary exercise in conceptual innovation based on a Political Marxist framework and its concept of social property relations, the book goes beyond common binaries in both conventional and critical histories. The new concept of jurisdictional accumulation brings ambassadors, consuls, merchants, and lawyers out of the shadows of empire and onto the main stage of the construction of modern international relations and international law.

Monday, October 26, 2020

Andenas, Pantaleo, Happold, & Contartese: EU External Action in International Economic Law - Recent Trends and Developments

Mads Andenas (Univ. of Oslo), Luca Pantaleo (Univ. of Cagliari), Matthew Happold (Université du Luxembourg), & Cristina Contartese (The Hague Univ. of Applied Sciences) have published EU External Action in International Economic Law - Recent Trends and Developments (Asser Press 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
The topic of this book is the external action of the EU within international economic law, with a special focus on investment law. The aim of the volume is to provide the reader with an appraisal of the most recent trends and developments that have characterised a field that has been rapidly evolving and in which the EU has imposed itself as a leading actor.

Zhao: Coopérer en droit international des cours d'eau transfrontaliers : État du droit et étude du cas chinois

Yue Zhao (Université du Sichuan - Law) has published Coopérer en droit international des cours d'eau transfrontaliers : État du droit et étude du cas chinois (L'Harmattan 2020). Here’s the abstract:
La plupart des cours d'eau transfrontaliers de la Chine prennent leur source en Chine. On prétend généralement que ce pays, profitant de sa position géohydrologique avantageuse, adopte une stratégie unilatérale dans ses projets hydrauliques. Cet ouvrage étudie de façon approfondie et systématique les pratiques de la Chine dans les coopérations hydriques bilatérales et multilatérales, en exposant sa vision du droit international, surtout en matière de cours d'eau transfrontaliers. À partir de l'exemple chinois, un nouvel éclairage est jeté sur un concept important, essentiel et complexe du droit international, à savoir l'obligation générale de coopérer.

New Issue: London Review of International Law

The latest issue of the London Review of International Law (Vol. 8, no. 1, March 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Dino Kritsiotis & Thérèse O’Donnell, Symposium on the centennial anniversary of the Peace of Versailles: verdicts and revisitations
    • Kate Miles, Visuality of a treaty: reflection on Versailles
    • Dino Kritsiotis, Fourteen ways of looking back at the Treaty of Versailles
    • Nigel D White, The League of Nations, autonomy and collective security
    • Thérèse O’Donnell, Designing Versailles: landscapes and the perspectival peace: Dedicated to the memory of Frederick Arthur Farrell (29 November 1882 – 22 April 1935)
  • Books Etc.
    • Book Symposium: Grietje Baars, The Corporation, Law, and Capitalism: A Radical Perspective on the Role of Law in Global Political Economy
    • Dan Danielsen, ‘To see the world in a grain of sand’: law and capitalism revealed through the corporation
    • Susan Marks, The corporation and three Cokes
    • Emily Jones, The Corporation, Law and Capitalism: reflections on capitalist law and queer resistance
    • Maïa Pal, On the methodological limits of the commodity form theory of law in The Corporation, Law and Capitalism
    • Honor Brabazon, Calling out Monsieur le Capital: remoralisation, subjectivity, agency, and change in The Corporation, Law and Capitalism
    • Grietje Baars, Writing in the time of coronavirus

Call for Papers: Transnational Legal Feminism – Beyond Western Hegemonies of International Law and Feminist Theory

The Transnational Legal Theory journal in collaboration with the London South Bank University and Cornell Law School have issued a call for papers for a virtual conference to be held on March 25-26, 2021. The theme is: "Transnational Legal Feminism – Beyond Western Hegemonies of International Law and Feminist Theory." The call is here.

Sifonios & Ziegler: “Tuna – Dolphin Forever?": The Development of the PPM Debate Related to Trade and Environment in the WTO

David Sifonios & Andreas R Ziegler (Univ. of Lausanne - Law) have published “Tuna – Dolphin Forever?": The Development of the PPM Debate Related to Trade and Environment in the WTO (Indian Journal of International Economic Law, Vol. 7, pp. 106-133, 2020). Here's the abstract:
The Tuna-Dolphin disputes between the United States and Mexico have spanned almost three decades. They have shed light on the “PPM debate”, i.e. whether trade restrictions based on differences in process and production methods (PPMs) are justifiable under international trade rules. While a very strict approach against the use of PPM measures prevailed at the end of the GATT era, it has significantly evolved during the first two decades of the WTO. The Dispute Settlement Body eventually upheld a PPM “dolphin-safe” measure at the end of a particularly long judicial saga. The different Tuna-Dolphin reports show how environmental interests have gradually been integrated in WTO law and have influenced the interpretation of some of the core provisions of the GATT and the TBT Agreement (nondiscrimination obligations, general exceptions). These remarkable evolutions may be viewed as reflections of the objective of sustainable development mentioned in the WTO Agreement and as consequences of the judicialization of the multilateral trading system, which has allowed more legally sophisticated analyses based on the rule of law. They also illustrate efforts to foster the external legitimacy of the WTO, through greater sensitivity towards non-trade values. At the same time, the Tuna-Dolphin case law has become particularly complex, focusing on very fine technical details specific to the dispute, which has led to the risk of “never-ending story”. In this context, the search for legal security, coherence and efficient settlement of disputes may be the next challenge for WTO adjudicating bodies. At the same time, the use of PPM measures remains delicate and requires the assessment and balance of a variety of interests, including the specific interests of developing countries.

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Roberts, Hardy, & Huck: EU and CARICOM: Dilemmas versus Opportunities on Development, Law and Economics

Alicia Elias Roberts
(Univ. of the West Indies), Stephen Hardy (Coventry Univ.), & Winfried Huck (Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences) have published EU and CARICOM: Dilemmas versus Opportunities on Development, Law and Economics (Routledge 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Investigating the unique EU-CARICOM legal relationship, this book explores the major theme of globalisation, which shapes inter-regional organisations individually and determines their relationship to one another. It evaluates how EU-CARICOM relations have fostered trade, security and other development measures, reflecting on the past, future and present of the Caribbean states that are active in the EU-CARICOM framework.

Providing case studies on key issues such as immigration, tax and energy, it examines the impact that the EU-CARICOM has on the slave trade and the deportation of millions of people. Such bitter experiences still indirectly shape culture, hopes and the economic framework of possibilities today; therefore, the focus of the volume is on the issues which the constant stream of globalisation creates. The book assesses many potential impacts that the agenda of the EU and Brexit pending will have upon the EU-CARICOM relationship, given the potential for these to create instability.

Overall, it highlights how the EU and CARICOM are representations for multilateralism and serve as models that provide the basis for many successful initiatives and agreements. In all new agreements and negotiations, the will to accept the Sustainable Development Goals and thus to make inequality, climate change and other goals of the SDGs the basis of an order that puts people at the centre, are evaluated, and the global agenda 2030 and its impact on EU-CARICOM.

Adeola: The Internally Displaced Person in International Law

Romola Adeola
(School of Advanced Study, Univ. of London - Refugee Law Initiative) has published The Internally Displaced Person in International Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020). Here's the abstract:
While the plight of persons displaced within the borders of states has emerged as a global concern, not much attention has been given to this specific category of persons in international legal scholarship. Unlike refugees, internally displaced persons remain within the states in which they are displaced. Current statistics indicate that there are more people displaced within state borders than persons displaced outside states. Romola Adeola examines the protection of the internally displaced person under international law, considering existing legal regimes at various levels of governance and institutional mechanisms for internally displaced persons.

Fraser & Leyh: Intersections of Law and Culture at the International Criminal Court

Julie Fraser
(Utrecht Univ. - Netherlands Institute of Human Rights) & Brianne McGonigle Leyh (Utrecht Univ. - Netherlands Institute of Human Rights) have published Intersections of Law and Culture at the International Criminal Court (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This pioneering book explores the intersections of law and culture at the International Criminal Court (ICC), offering insights into how notions of culture affect the Court’s legal foundations, functioning and legitimacy, both in theory and in practice.

Leading scholars and legal practitioners take a multidisciplinary approach to challenge the view that international law is not limited or bound by a particular culture, arguing instead that law and culture are intertwined. Analysing how culture influences views of the law, the facts to which it applies, and the fairness of the outcome, the contributors consider the implications of culture and law for the ICC and its international reach. Chapters discuss important intersections of law and culture, from religion and politics to the definition of international crimes and their interpretation by judges. Highlighting the inherent but often overlooked role of ‘culture’ at the ICC, the book puts forward recommendations to aid the Court’s future considerations.

New Volume: Israel Yearbook on Human Rights

The latest volume of the Israel Yearbook on Human Rights (Vol. 50, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Yoram Dinstein, The Special Dimensions of Urban Warfare
  • Pnina Sharvit Baruch, Corinna Dau, & Shavit Rissin, Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreements and the Law of Armed Conflict
  • Sergey Sayapin, The Yanukovych Trial in Ukraine: A Revival of the Crime of Aggression?
  • Arne Willy Dahl, Equality before the Law? Some Reflections on the Defence of Obedience to Superior Orders
  • Eckart Klein & David Kretzmer, States Reports to Human Treaty Bodies: An Historical Introduction
  • Stefan Oeter, Headscarf and Burqa Bans as Battlegrounds for Symbolic Conflicts on Cultural Identity: Has Human Rights Protection Ended Up in a State of Confusion?
  • Yoram Rabin, Yaniv Vaki, & Isaac Becker, From Ancient Israel to Modern Israel: The Historical Development of the Protection of a Fetus in Criminal Law
  • Terry D. Gill & Kinga Tibori Szabo, Twelve Key Questions on Self-Defence against Non-State Actors – And Some Answers
  • Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, Internationally Legal Responses to Hybrid Threats
  • Nicholas Rostow, Law and Power: U.S. Grand Strategy and International Law
  • Marco Roscini, Intervention in XIXth Century International Law and the Distinction between Rebellions, Insurrections and Civil Wars
  • Joel Singer, The Case of Constructive Ambiguity in Israel-Arab Peace Negotiations

Zang: Judicial Engagement of International Economic Courts and Tribunals

Michelle Q. Zang
(Victoria Univ. of Wellington - Law) has published Judicial Engagement of International Economic Courts and Tribunals (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020). Here's the abstract:

In this thought-provoking book, Michelle Q. Zang critically examines the practices and outcomes of international economic adjudication through an exploration of a selected group of specialized judicial actors. She draws on an in-depth review of decisions delivered by bilateral, regional and multilateral judiciaries in order to respond to questions surrounding the proliferation and fragmentation of international adjudication, including the concerns and challenges this raises.

By disentangling and analysing the relationships between the various economic regimes involved, Zang reveals their substantial influence on the manner of engagement between specific adjudicators embedded in these regimes. The book also provides critical discussion about the development of international economic judiciaries, and explores the role of judicial bodies as regime coordinators within specialized and regional regimes under international law. It demonstrates that despite criticisms of plurality as the dominant phenomenon in international economic adjudication, it is not the sole root of the issues examined.