Saturday, December 19, 2020

New Issue: Korean Journal of International and Comparative Law

The latest issue of the Korean Journal of International and Comparative Law (Vol. 8, no. 2, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Keyuan Zou & Jiayi Wang, Transboundary Fisheries Management: China’s Practice
  • David M. Ong, Transboundary Fisheries Management: The Malaysian Perspective
  • Jacqueline Joyce F. Espenilla, Sharing Fish: The Philippine Experience
  • Anastasia Telesetsky, United States Law and Policy for Sharing Transboundary, Highly Migratory, and Straddling Stock Fishery Resources

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 412 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:
  • Volume 412
    • Djamchid Momtaz, La hiérarchisation de l’ordre juridique international, cours général de droit international public
    • Anastasia Grammaticaki-Alexiou, Best Interests of the Child in Private International Law

de Lima e Silva: Tribute to Sally Merry's Scholarship from an International Law Perspective

Caroline de Lima e Silva (Lichtenberg-Kolleg – The Göttingen Institute for Advanced Study) has published Tribute to Sally Merry's Scholarship from an International Law Perspective (Law & Society Review, Vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 868–873, December 2020).

Friday, December 18, 2020

Aharonson & Shaffer: Defining Crimes in a Global Age: Criminalization as a Transnational Legal Process

Ely Aharonson (Haifa Univ. - Law) & Gregory Shaffer (Univ. of California, Irvine - Law) have posted Defining Crimes in a Global Age: Criminalization as a Transnational Legal Process (Law and Social Inquiry, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
The design of empirical research and theory-building projects in the sociolegal literature on criminalization is often premised on a presumed dichotomy between domestic and international planes of criminal lawmaking. However, in a global era in which domestic processes of criminalization are increasingly shaped by norms, institutions, and actors developed and operating outside national borders, criminalization research should develop a new theoretical frame for studying how international and domestic practices of criminal lawmaking interact with one another. This article builds from the theory of transnational legal orders and the recursivity of law to propose a transnational processual theoretical framework for the study of criminalization. This framework provides tools for investigating how criminal prohibitions are constituted through recursive interactions between actors operating in international, national, and local sites of legal practice. It draws on empirical studies to show how the processes of constructing, applying, and contesting definitions of international and transnational crimes are embedded in broader structures of power. The article demonstrates how a processual theory of transnational criminalization sheds light on important sociolegal questions about the driving forces and consequences of current efforts to harmonize the definitions of criminal activities across national jurisdictions.

New Volume: Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs

The latest volume of the Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs (Vol. 37, 2019) is out. Contents include:
  • Ying-jeou Ma, Introduction to the Hungdah Chiu Lecture: The Taiwan Relations Act and International Law
  • Christopher Ward, The Universal Language of International Law: History and Prospects
  • Karsten Nowrot & Emily Sipiorski, (De)Constitutionalization of International Investment Law? Assessing Narratives from the Asia-Pacific
  • Chie Sato, The EU’s Effective Protection of Marine Living Resources and Its Implications for the Asia-Pacific Region—What Can We Learn from the Eu Experience?
  • Gabriele Gagliani, The European Union and Asean Countries Trade Relations: “Building Blocks” or “Stumbling Blocks?”
  • Lan Ngoc Nguyen & Yen Hoang Tran, Coastal States’ Enforcement Power over Fishing Activities in the South China Sea: Where is the Line under International Law?
  • Soo-hyun Lee, Fair and Equitable Treatment in the International Investment Regime of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  • Richard L. Kilpatrick, Jr., North Korea’s Sanctions-Busting Maritime Practices: Implications for Commercial Shipping
  • Peter Tzeng, Fisheries Review Panels: Lessons from Russia v. Commission and Ecuador v. Commission 
  • Lin-Ling Uang, A Comparative Legal Study on Functions and Powers of the Ombudsman System in Taiwan and Mainland China
  • Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley, From European Toward Global Taiwan Studies: An Introduction to Three Organizations
  • Intan Soeparna, Asean Investment Dispute Settlement: A Challenge to the Asean Enhanced Dispute Settlement Mechanism

New Volume: Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal

The latest volume of the Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal (Vol. 8, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Sección de Artículos de Investigación desde el Derecho Internacional Penal
    • Catalina Fernández & Andrea Jiménez Laurence, Autoría en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Penal Internacional: Autoría en la jurisprudencia de la Corte Penal Internacional: ¿cómo llega la Corte a la mayoría de edad?
    • Enith Carolina Bula Beleño, La Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz un modelo de justicia predominantemente retributivo un modelo de justicia predominantemente retributivo
  • Sección de Artículos de Investigación desde otras áreas de las Ciencias Humanas y Sociales
    • Alejandro Sánchez-Zárate & Karina García-Morales, Análisis comparativo sobre nativos, migrantes digitales y brecha digital profunda en México y Uruguay, 2016
  • Ensayos seleccionados del XI Certamen Blattmann, Odio Benito y Steiner
    • Luciano Pezzano, La depuración étnica en el derecho internacional entre el derecho penal internacional y la responsabilidad de proteger
    • Raquel Vanyó Vicedo, La desaparición forzada de la identidad la justicia internacional como antídoto a la impunidad en el caso de los niños robados
    • Francisco Camargo Alves, Compatibilizando el ordenamiento jurídico brasilero y el Estatuto de Roma a la luz del transconstitucionalismo la cuestión de la cadena perpetua
    • Isabel García Domínguez, El tratamiento penal de los delitos de odio en España con la adopción de una perspectiva comparada
  • Ensayos seleccionados del V Certamen de Estudios Críticos sobre la Justicia
    • Diego Alejandro Sánchez Cárdenas, ¿Cómo hacer factibles los derechos fundamentales de otras especies? el enfoque jurídico-conductual
    • Manuel Sánchez Moreno, Aportes del feminismo jurídico a la justicia transicional la memoria democrática con perspectiva de género
    • Marcela Moreno Buján, Evolución antropojurídica y sociojurídica de la mediación y las prácticas reconciliatorias Una mirada desde distintas culturas y costumbres a partir de la perspectiva del pluralismo jurídico

New Issue: International Community Law Review

The latest issue of the International Community Law Review (Vol. 22, no. 5, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: Chinese Perspective on the Governance of Global Commons
    • Matthieu Burnay & Julien Chaisse, Global Commons as an Emerging Arena of Contestation of Global Governance Structures and Norms
    • Marta Hermez, Global Commons and the Law of the Sea: China’s Lawfare Strategy in the South China Sea
    • Bin Li, China’s Policy and Rule-Making Activities on Outer Space: The Case of Preventing Arms Race from the Global Commons Perspective
    • Julien Chaisse, The Internet Commons: Encroached and Disputed Domain Names
    • Matthieu Burnay, China and the Global Commons: Selective Contributions and Contestation

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 411 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:
  • Volume 411
    • Gérard Cahin, Reconstruction et construction de l’Etat en droit international

Tsagourias: Malicious Cyber Operations against Health Infrastructure during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Renvoi to Sovereignty in Cyberspace

Nicholas Tsagourias (Univ. of Sheffield - Law) has posted an ESIL Reflection on Malicious Cyber Operations against Health Infrastructure during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Renvoi to Sovereignty in Cyberspace.

New Issue: Stanford Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Stanford Journal of International Law (Vol. 56, no. 2, Summer 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Tamar Meshel, Of International Commercial Arbitration, Non-Signatories, and American Federalism: The Case for a Federal Equitable Estoppel Rule
  • Ruta Mrazauskaite & Matthew C. Stephenson, A Proposal for a Global Database of Politically Exposed Persons
  • Timothy Webster, Disaggregating Corporate Liability: Japanese Multinationalis and World War II

Thursday, December 17, 2020

New Issue: Revue québécoise de droit international

The latest issue of the Revue Québécoise de Droit International (Vol 32, no. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:
  • Études
    • Véronique Guèvremont & Clémence Varin, La Convention sur la diversité des expressions culturelles quinze ans après : une mise en œuvre effective d’un instrument juridique faiblement contraignant
    • Nicolas Gervais & André-Philippe Ouellet, L’échapper belle : AMPA ou MPIA. Quatre lettres au secours du système de règlement des différends à l’OMC
    • Ayad Yasin Husein Kokha, The Extent to Amount ISIL Acts Against Iraqui Minorities to Genocide
    • Jordan Goulet, La Cour pénale internationale face au défi des contestations africaines sur sa légitimité
    • Anaclet Nzohabonayo, Protection des intérêts des actionnaires et des créanciers de la société anonyme dans la législation burundaise et le droit communautaire OHADA
    • Moise Jean, La politique internationale de l’État de droit. Observations critiques
    • Patient Mpunga Biayi, Le Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies et les droits de l’homme
    • Pascal Imhof, L’utilisation militaire de l’espace extra-atmosphérique est-elle licite selon le droit international public?

Inaugural Volume: Asia-Pacific Journal of International Humanitarian Law

The inaugural volume of the Asia-Pacific Journal of International Humanitarian Law (Vol. 1, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Suzannah Linton, Deciphering the Landscape of International Humanitarian Law in the Asia-Pacific
  • Raphael Lorenzo A. Pangalangan, Crime and Omission: Command Responsibility from Manila to Rome
  • Kelisiana Thynne & Fiona Barnaby, Malaysia and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: A Call for Ratification
  • Kelisiana Thynne & Sahar Haroon, Gunshot Wound Reporting Legislation in the Asia- Pacific Region: A Need to Ensure Better Consistency with IHL
  • Jonathan Kwik, The Road to Ongwen: Consolidating Contradictory Child Soldiering Narratives in International Criminal Law
  • Natasha Chabbra, Justice for Syrians Under the International Criminal Court: Applying the Myanmar Model of Territorial Jurisdiction for Cross-Border Crimes
  • Eve Massingham, Radio Silence: Autonomous Military Aircraft and the Importance of Communication for their Use in Peace Time and in Times of Armed Conflict under International Law
  • Trang T. Ngo, Grey Zone Conflict in the South China Sea and Challenges Facing the Legal Framework for the Use of Force at Sea
  • Jan Römer, Malaysia and the Rome Statute: Panel Discussion during the Margins of the IHL Moot Court Competition at the International Islamic University Malaysia on 12 October 2019

New Volume: Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law

The latest volume of the Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (Vol. 23, 2019) is out. Contents include:
  • Miguel de Serpa Soares, 75 Years of International Law-Making at the United Nations
  • Obiora C. Okafor, The Future of the UN Human Rights Council: Insights at the Inter-Luminated Juncture of Thought and Experience
  • Maria Victoria Cabrera Ormaza & Martin Oelz, The State’s Duty to Consult Indigenous Peoples: Where Do We Stand 30 Years after the Adoption of the ilo Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169?
  • Daniela Arrese, The Right of Political Participation of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
  • Ilias Bantekas, Engaging the UN Security Council in Low-Intensity Geo-Political Conflicts: Case Study of the Blockade Against Qatar
  • Frédéric Mégret, The International Criminal Court: Between International Ius Puniendi and State Delegation
  • Islam Mohammed, Public Assemblies between the UN System and the Comparative Jurisprudence
  • Alena F. Douhan, Adapting the Human Rights System to the Cyber Age
  • Stephan F.H. Ollick, Taking Embodiment Seriously: Constitutional Law, the Economy and the Forms of Underdeterminacy
  • Habiba Abubaker, Empirical Research on Constitutional Drafting Processes Following War or Internal Disturbances in Iraq, Tunisia, Kosovo and Sudan
  • Naiade el-Khoury, Human Rights Treaties and the Law of State Succession in the Event of Secession
  • Brynne Guthrie, ‘Guardian of the Solemn Pact’ – The Role of the Constitutional Court in South Africa’s Constitutional Transition
  • Malgosia Fitzmaurice & Mercedes Rosello, Constitutional Bases to the Common Fisheries Policy of the European Union
  • Rainer Grotete, Brexit and Britain’s Changing Constitution

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 20, no. 6, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Kevin W. Gray, Is There Even a Standard of Review at the ICC?
  • Daley J. Birkett, Coexistent but Uncoordinated: Asset Freezing Measures at the International Criminal Court and the UN Security Council
  • Cóman Kenny, Legislated Out of Existence: Mass Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality Resulting in Statelessness as an International Crime
  • Kevin S. Robb & Shan Patel, The United States, the International Criminal Court, and Afghanistan: The Rupturing of Mutual Accommodation
  • Panagiota Kotzamani, Corporate Criminality and Individual Criminal Responsibility in International Law: Removing the Hurdles from the International Criminal Court’s Approach to Perpetration through Control of a Collective Entity
  • Manuel J. Ventura, Aiding and Abetting and the International Criminal Court’s Bemba et al. Case: The icc Trial and Appeals Chamber Consider Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute
  • Igor Vuletić, To Withdraw or Not to Withdraw: A Structural Analysis of the Scope and Limits of Voluntary Withdrawal of Criminal Attempt in the Rome Statute
  • Michael Kearney, The Exclusive Economic Zone, Territory, and Territorial Jurisdiction in the Rome Statute

New Issue: International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (Vol. 35, no. 4, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Robin Churchill, Dispute Settlement in the Law of the Sea: Survey for 2019
  • Aline Jaeckel, Benefitting from the Common Heritage of Humankind: From Expectation to Reality
  • Sandrine W De Herdt, A Referral Process to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 M Process: An Appraisal
  • Xuexia Liao, The LOSC as a Package Deal and Its Implications for Determination of Customary International Law
  • Valentin J. Schatz & Marco Fantinato, Post-rescue Innocent Passage by Non-governmental Search and Rescue Vessels in the Mediterranean
  • Ekaterina Antsygina & Bernardo Pérez-Salazar, Sovereign Rights on the Extended Continental Shelf: The Case of the Nicaraguan Rise in the Western Caribbean
  • Jinyuan Su, The Unity Status of Continental States’ Outlying Archipelagos
  • Robert A. Makgill, James D. Gardner-Hopkins, & Natalie R. Coates, Trans-Tasman Resources Limited v. Taranaki-Whanganui Conservation Board

New Volume: Australian Year Book of International Law

The latest volume of the Australian Year Book of International Law (Vol. 38, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • The Sir Elihu Lauterpacht International Law Lecture 2019
    • Anne Orford, The Crisis of Liberal Internationalism and the Future of International Law
  • Special Issue The Backlash against International Law: Australian Perspectives
    • Jeremy Farrall, Jolyon Ford, & Imogen Saunders, The Backlash against International Law: Australian Perspectives
    • Peter G Danchin, Jeremy Farrall, Jolyon Ford, Shruti Rana, Imogen Saunders, & Daan Verhoeven, Navigating the Backlash against Global Law and Institutions
    • Christopher Michaelsen, Collective Security and the Prohibition on the Use of Force in Times of Global Transition
    • Cecilia Jacob, The Status of Human Protection in International Law and Institutions: The United Nations Prevention and Protection Architecture
    • Imogen Saunders, Navigating the Backlash: Re-Integrating WTO and Public International Law?
    • Martin Richardson, Navigating the ‘Backlash’ against International Trade and Investment Liberalisation: Economic Perspectives on the Future of Regional Trade Agreements in Uncertain Times
    • Jolyon Ford, Backlash against a Rules-Based International Human Rights Order? An Australian Perspective
    • Annemarie Devereux, Amidst Simmering Tensions: Improving the Effectiveness and Coherence of the International Human Rights System’s Response to Mass Human Rights Violations
    • Kate Ogg, Backlashes against International Commitments and Organisations: Asylum as Restorative Justice
  • Articles
    • Annie Herro & Andrew Byrnes, Transcending the Framing Contests over the Human Rights of Older Persons
    • Kate Renehan, Revisiting Lockerbie: How a General Principle of Judicial Review Could Promote United Nations Security Council Reform

Call for Submissions: JICJ Symposium on "International Criminal Justice in an 'Age of Misinformation'"

The Journal of International Criminal Justice has issued a call for abstracts for a forthcoming symposium on the theme of "International Criminal Justice in an 'Age of Misinformation.'" The call is here.

Symposium: JHIL Special Issue "Politics and the Histories of International Law"

Tomorrow, December 18, 2020, the European Society of International Law's Interest Group on the History of International Law will hold an online symposium appraising select individual articles in and assessing the impact on the field of the recently published special issue of the Journal of the History of International Law on "Politics and the Histories of International Law." Program and registration information are here.

New Issue: Nordic Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law (Vol. 89, nos. 3-4, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: Proportionality in International Law
    • Eduardo Gill-Pedro & Ulf Linderfalk, Proportionality in International Law: Whose Interests Count?
    • Ségolène Barbou des Places, Revisiting Proportionality in Internal Market Law: Looking at the Unnamed Actors in the cjeu’s Reasoning
    • Darren Harvey, Federal Proportionality Review in EU Law: Whose Rights are they Anyway?
    • Eduardo Gill-Pedro, Proportionality and the Human Rights of Companies Under the ECHR – Whose Interests are at Stake?
    • Daria Davitti, Proportionality and Human Rights Protection in International Investment Arbitration: What’s Left Hanging in the Balance?
    • Miriam Bak McKenna, The Discourse of Proportionality and the Use of Force: International Law and the Power of Definition
    • Daniëlla Dam-de Jong, Who Is Targeted by the Council’s Sanctions? The UN Security Council and the Principle of Proportionality
    • Alexandra Hofer, The Proportionality of Unilateral “Targeted” Sanctions: Whose Interests Should Count?
    • Ulf Linderfalk, Proportionality and International Legal Pragmatics
    • Benedikt Pirker, Balancing Interpretative Arguments in International Law – A Linguistic Appraisal
    • Valentin Jeutner, Rebutting Four Arguments in Favour of Resolving ius cogens Norm Conflicts by Means of Proportionality Tests
    • Eric De Brabandere & Paula Baldini Miranda da Cruz, The Role of Proportionality in International Investment Law and Arbitration: A System-Specific Perspective

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 410 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:
  • Volume 410
    • Harold Hongju Koh, American Schools of International Law
    • Anne Peters, Animals in International Law

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

New Issue: Nordic Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 38, no. 2, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Milka Sormunen, The Best Interests of the Child in the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: A Positive Obligation in Search of a Definition
  • Carola Lingaas, Domestic Violence in Child Protection Cases before the European Court of Human Rights: Double Victimisation of Abused Parents?
  • Chrisje Sandelowsky-Bosman & Ton Liefaard, Children Trapped in Camps in Syria, Iraq and Turkey: Reflections on Jurisdiction and State Obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
  • Elisabeth Staksrud, Kjartan Olafsson & Tijana Milosevic, Children as Crowbar? Justifying Censorship on the Grounds of Child Protection
  • Sevda Clark, The Child in the Pentimento: A Restoration of the First Social Contract in Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan

New Issue: Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy

The latest issue of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy (Vol. 23, no. 3, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Inda Mustika Permata & Elsi Wahyuni, Behind the Ivory Trade Shutdown in China
  • Sarah Levy, A Tale of Two Seal Hunts: Contesting the Conflation of Canadian Sealing Activities
  • Alexa Albright, Natural Calf Rearing Could Be a Simple Solution to Improving the Welfare of Dairy Cows
  • Arie Trouwborst & Andrew Blackmore, Hot Dogs, Hungry Bears, and Wolves Running Out of Mountain—International Wildlife Law and the Effects of Climate Change on Large Carnivores

Most Interesting 2020: Nollkaemper, d’Aspremont, Ahlborn, Boutin, Nedeski, & Plakokefalos, with Jacobs, Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in International Law

The sixteenth (and final submission) in our series "Most Interesting 2020":
André Nollkaemper, Jean d’Aspremont, Christiane Ahlborn, Berenice Boutin, Nataša Nedeski, & Ilias Plakokefalos, with the collaboration of Dov Jacobs, Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in International Law (European Journal of International Law, Vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 15–72, February 2020)

This article contains the 15 Guiding Principles on Shared Responsibility in International Law and Commentaries to the Guiding Principles, which are drawn from the main findings of the SHARES research project on shared responsibility in international law, that was conducted at the University of Amsterdam. These Guiding Principles and Commentaries will hopefully provide guidance to practitioners, government officials, and adjudicators, and shape and influence the current scholarly debate in international law on shared responsibility. This is necessary as the existing rules of international responsibility (2001 ARSIWA and 2011 ARIO) leave room for interpretation as to who can be held responsible in case multiple states and/or international organisations contribute to an injury of a third party.

Jessica Schechinger
PhD Candidate in International Law and Tutor
University of Glasgow

Inaugural Volume: African Journal of International Economic Law

The inaugural volume of the African Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 1, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • James Thuo Gathii & Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Introduction to the Inaugural Issue of the African Journal of International Economic Law
  • Clair Gammage & Mariam Momodu, The Economic Empowerment of Women in Africa: Regional Approaches to Gender Sensitive Trade Policies
  • Tim Büthe & Vellah Kedogo Kigwiru, The Spread of Competition Law and Policy in Africa
  • Taimoon Stewart, Competition Regimes in the Caribbean Community and Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparison
  • Fernando C. Saldivar, SJ, Africa in the Economy of Francesco: Rethinking the Ethics of the International Financial Order at the Intersection of Tax Justice and Catholic Social Teaching
  • Ndanga Kamau, Investment Law and Treaty Reform in Africa: Fragments and Fragmentation
  • Titilayo Adebola, Mapping Africa’s Complex Regimes: Towards an African Centred AfCFTA Intellectual Property, (IP), Protocol
  • Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Theorizing Developmental Regionalism in Narratives of African Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs)
  • Amaka Vanni & TsotangTsietsi, African Practice in International Economic Law 2017-2019
  • Harrison Otieno Mbori, Case Note, British American Tobacco (BAT) v Attorney General of Uganda, (EACJ, First Instance Division 2019) and GETMA International v The Republic of Guinea OHADA Common Court of Justice and Arbitration, (CCJA)

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 65, no. 1, January 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Feature: Dynamic Processes of Rebel Governance
    • Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham & Cyanne E. Loyle, Introduction to the Special Feature on Dynamic Processes of Rebel Governance
    • Zachariah Mampilly & Megan A. Stewart, A Typology of Rebel Political Institutional Arrangements
    • Mara Redlich Revkin, Competitive Governance and Displacement Decisions Under Rebel Rule: Evidence from the Islamic State in Iraq
    • Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, Reyko Huang, & Katherine M. Sawyer, Voting for Militants: Rebel Elections in Civil War
    • Cyanne E. Loyle, Rebel Justice during Armed Conflict
  • Articles
    • Jürgen Brandsch & André Python, Provoking Ordinary People: The Effects of Terrorism on Civilian Violence
    • Travis B. Curtice & Brandon Behlendorf, Street-level Repression: Protest, Policing, and Dissent in Uganda
    • Joslyn Barnhart, The Consequences of Defeat: The Quest for Status and Morale in the Aftermath of War
    • Dong Wang, Alastair Iain Johnston, & Baoyu Wang, The Effect of Imagined Social Contact on Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Japanese People

Most Interesting 2020: Irving, Multi-Actor Human Rights Protection at the International Criminal Court

The fifteenth in our series "Most Interesting 2020":
Emma Irving, Multi-Actor Human Rights Protection at the International Criminal Court (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020)

This monograph explores the involvement of the ICC, ICC States Parties, and the ICC host State in the protection of individuals, shedding light on ambiguity and uncertainty concerning the protection of individuals. By setting out the relevant obligations of the different actors, the book highlights potential problems in human rights protection of individuals at the ICC and proposes ways to mitigate them. Employing a critical and unique approach, the book is incredibly valuable for scholars and policy-makers interested in human rights and international criminal justice.

Johanna Trittenbach
Research and Teaching Associate
Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum on International Humanitarian Law
Leiden University

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Orakhelashvili: International Law and International Politics: Foundations of Interdisciplinary Analysis

Alexander Orakhelashvili
(Univ. of Birmingham - Law) has published International Law and International Politics: Foundations of Interdisciplinary Analysis (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020). Here's the abstract:

This illuminating monograph examines analytical and practical aspects of the relationship between international law and international politics, providing a comprehensive analysis of the foundations on which both the international legal system and international politics rest.

With an interdisciplinary perspective, Alexander Orakhelashvili compares and contrasts the methods of international legal reasoning with international relations as a discipline, focusing on timeless and central issues that connect the past, present and future. The book examines, through the use of both disciplines’ methodology, some more specific areas such as public authority, global space, and peace, with the overall outcome that political contempt towards the international legal system could have unexpected and costly adverse political consequences.

Most Interesting 2020: Cotula, (Dis)integration in Global Resource Governance: Extractivism, Human Rights, and Investment Treaties

The fourteenth in our series "Most Interesting 2020":
Lorenzo Cotula, (Dis)integration in Global Resource Governance: Extractivism, Human Rights, and Investment Treaties (Journal of International Economic Law, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 431–454, June 2020)

I appreciate this article because it provides a comprehensive discussion of the inconsistencies that exist within and between national and international legal frameworks governing the exploitation of natural resources. The article contextualizes current controversies, for instance concerning the relationship between human rights and investment law, providing broader perspectives on divergent interests existing on the international, domestic and sub-national level, and identifying socio-economic linkages that are easy to miss when one studies legal questions within the boundaries of a single regime of law.

Johannes Hendrik Fahner
Researcher
University of Amsterdam
Attorney-at-Law

Joyce: Informed Publics, Media and International Law

Daniel Joyce
(Univ. of New South Wales - Law) has published Informed Publics, Media and International Law (Hart Pubishing 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book considers the significance of informed publics from the perspective of international law. It does so by analysing international media law frameworks and the 'mediatization' of international law in institutional settings. This approach exposes the complexity of the interrelationship between international law and the media, but also points to the dangers involved in international law's associated and increasing reliance upon the mediated techniques of communicative capitalism – such as publicity – premised upon an informed international public whose existence many now question.

The book explores the ways in which traditional regulatory and analytical categories are increasingly challenged - revealed as inadequate or bypassed - but also assesses their resilience and future utility in light of significant technological change and concerns about fake news, the rise of big data and algorithmic accountability. Furthermore, it contends that analysing the imbrication of media and international law in the current digital transition is necessary to understand the nature of the problems a system such as international law faces without sufficiently informed publics.

The book argues that international law depends on informed global publics to function and to address the complex global problems which we face. This draws into view the role media plays in relation to international law, but also the role of international law in regulating the media, and reveals the communicative character of international law.

Búzás: Evading International Norms: Race and Rights in the Shadow of Legality

Zoltán I. Búzás
(Drexel Univ. - Political Science) has published Evading International Norms: Race and Rights in the Shadow of Legality (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

How do states violate human rights norms after legalization? Why are these violations so persistent? What are the limits of legalization for protecting human rights norms? Conventional wisdom offers a variety of answers to these questions, but most often they conflate laws and norms and focus only on state actions that violate both. While this focus is undoubtedly valuable, it does not capture cases in which states violate human rights norms without technically violating the law. Norm breakers are not necessarily lawbreakers. Focusing exclusively on norm violations that are illegal obscures the possibility that agents could violate norms in a legal manner, engaging in actions that are awful but lawful.

Presenting rich case studies of the French expulsion of Roma immigrants from 2007 to 2017 and the Czech segregation of Roma children in schools for those with mild mental disabilities between 1993 and 2017, Evading International Norms argues that the violation of human rights norms often continues after legalization under the cover of technical legality. While laws and norms overlap, interact, and shape each other in many ways, they tend to reflect each other only selectively, which leads to the existence of norm-law gaps. Taking advantage of such gaps, states resist unwanted human rights obligations by transgressing international human rights norms without violating the laws designed to protect them—a process Zoltán I. Búzás names norm evasion.

Based on a wealth of evidence, including more than 160 interviews, the book shows that the treatment of the Roma by France and the Czech Republic violated the norm of racial equality in a technically legal fashion. Búzás cautions that the good news about law compliance is not necessarily good news about norm compliance and draws attention to racial discrimination against the Roma, one of the largest and most marginalized European minorities.

Most Interesting 2020: Singh, Indian Princely States and the 19th-century Transformation of the Law of Nations

The thirteenth in our series "Most Interesting 2020":
Prabhakar Singh, Indian Princely States and the 19th-century Transformation of the Law of Nations (Journal of International Dispute Settlement, Vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 365–387, September 2020)

"Indian Princely States and the 19th-century Transformation of the Law of Nations" presents an interesting and never talked about account of the nineteenth century’s 600 Indian princely states in the transformation of "the law of nations" to the "international law." Engaging into the legal and political texts reflecting the semi-sovereign status of the Mughal and Maratha regimes, the claims in the study appears to have reversed the studies in the previous decades that have overlooked, under read and undervalued such bottom-up study in international legal history through native actors. It churns out some fascinating political and financial contributions of the "princely" states (as the "civilised" called it), in universalising the "European" law of nations. The transporting of civilizational values is vehemently refuted and the artificiality of the normative scarcity in the Indian subcontinent is highlighted.

The article scrapes off the layer that glossed the (European) international legal history and reveals a consciously glorified argument of European "law of nations" to have transformed into "universal" international law resting on the pillars of political and financial costs that the semi-sovereign states bore. An ingenious claim that is made through a novel style of reading international legal history through the "imperial jurisdiction," native litigations and petitions is an unsettling line of enquiry. The tightly placed arguments in a sharp tone is novel and seems to have taken Antony Anghie’s argument in Imperialism, Sovereignty, and the Making of International Law to one step ahead. The research, the style of writing and the thought provoking arguments are sure to make the reader see the imprudence of the previous Eurocentric scholarship.

Swati Singh Parmar
Assistant Professor
Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur

Mantilla: Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict

Giovanni Mantilla
(Univ. of Cambridge - Politics and International Studies) has published Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict (Cornell Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

In Lawmaking under Pressure, Giovanni Mantilla analyzes the origins and development of the international humanitarian treaty rules that now exist to regulate internal armed conflict. Until well into the twentieth century, states allowed atrocious violence as an acceptable product of internal conflict. Why have states created international laws to control internal armed conflict? Why did states compromise their national security by accepting these international humanitarian constraints? Why did they create these rules at improbable moments, as European empires cracked, freedom fighters emerged, and fears of communist rebellion spread? Mantilla explores the global politics and diplomatic dynamics that led to the creation of such laws in 1949 and in the 1970s.

By the 1949 Diplomatic Conference that revised the Geneva Conventions, most countries supported legislation committing states and rebels to humane principles of wartime behavior and to the avoidance of abhorrent atrocities, including torture and the murder of non-combatants. However, for decades, states had long refused to codify similar regulations concerning violence within their own borders. Diplomatic conferences in Geneva twice channeled humanitarian attitudes alongside Cold War and decolonization politics, even compelling reluctant European empires Britain and France to accept them. Lawmaking under Pressure documents the tense politics behind the making of humanitarian laws that have become touchstones of the contemporary international normative order.

Mantilla not only explains the pressures that resulted in constraints on national sovereignty but also uncovers the fascinating international politics of shame, status, and hypocrisy that helped to produce the humanitarian rules now governing internal conflict.

Monday, December 14, 2020

New Issue: Human Rights Law Review

The latest issue of the Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 20, no. 4, December 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Thiago Dias Oliva, Content Moderation Technologies: Applying Human Rights Standards to Protect Freedom of Expression
  • Arianne Griffith, Lise Smit, & Robert McCorquodale, Responsible Business Conduct and State Laws: Addressing Human Rights Conflicts
  • Marija Jovanovic, The Essence of Slavery: Exploitation in Human Rights Law
  • Daniel Wei Liang Wang, Priority-setting and the Right to Health: Synergies and Tensions on the Path to Universal Health Coverage
  • Jean-Baptiste Farcy, Equality in Immigration Law: An Impossible Quest?
  • Milka Sormunen, Understanding the Best Interests of the Child as a Procedural Obligation: The Example of the European Court of Human Rights
  • Stuart Wallace, Derogations from the European Convention on Human Rights: The Case for Reform
  • John Eekelaar, The Law, Gender and Truth
  • Gustavo Minervini, The Principle of Legality and the Crime of Genocide: Drelingas v Lithuania

Most Interesting 2020: Roger, The Origins of Informality: Why the Legal Foundations of Global Governance are Shifting, and Why It Matters

The twelfth in our series "Most Interesting 2020":
Charles B. Roger, The Origins of Informality: Why the Legal Foundations of Global Governance are Shifting, and Why It Matters (Oxford Univ. Press 2020)

I consider Charles B. Roger’s book The Origins of Informality to be not only most the most interesting, but also the most important book on international law that was published in 2020. Above all, Roger’s book makes perfectly clear that any account of global governance that does not take informal international organizations into account is inherently incomplete. Especially given that most of IR scholarship on international law is still focused on formal international organizations, this is a powerful message which is bound to change our thinking about global governance. Roger’s book is so compelling because it combines clear conceptualizations and straightforward theorizing with a rigorous and systematic empirical analysis. His theory convincingly locates the origins of (the proliferation of) informal international organizations within the domestic political arenas of powerful states. By arguing that the growth of political polarization over the last decades and the emergence of the regulatory state can account for the rise of informal international organizations, Roger enables us to understand how important political trends in Western societies have been affecting the shape of global governance. Important is also that Roger’s empirical findings challenge the functionalist approach to informal international organizations which has hitherto been dominating the IR literature on this topic. In sum, my expectation is that, in a few years, The Origins of Informality will be considered to be a milestone in the literature on global governance and international law not only by me, but by the scholarly community at large.

Dr. Benjamin Faude
LSE Fellow in Global Politics
Department of Government and Department of International Relations
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

New Issue: African Human Rights Law Journal

The latest issue of the African Human Rights Law Journal (Vol. 20, no. 2, 2020). Contents include:
  • Special focus: Assessing the implications of COVID-19 pandemic regulations for human rights and the rule of law in Eastern and Southern Africa
    • Charles Fombad, Editorial introduction
    • Charles Manga Fombad & Lukman Adebisi Abdulrauf, Comparative overview of the constitutional framework for controlling the exercise of emergency powers in Africa
    • Musa Njabulo Shongwe, Eswatini’s legislative response to COVID-19: Whither human rights?
    • Nkatha Kabira & Robert Kibugi, Saving the soul of an African constitution: Learning from Kenya’s experience with constitutionalism during COVID-19
    • Itumeleng Shale, Implications of Lesotho’s COVID-19 response framework for the rule of law
    • Martin van Staden, Constitutional rights and their limitations: A critical appraisal of the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa
    • Mwiza Jo Nkhata & Anganile Willie Mwenifumbo, Livelihoods and legal struggles amidst a pandemic: The human rights implications of the measures adopted to prevent, contain and manage COVID-19 in Malawi
    • Woojin Lim, Assessing the implications of digital contact tracing for COVID-19 for human rights and the rule of law in South Africa
    • Serges Djoyou Kamga, COVID-19 and the inclusion of learners with disabilities in basic education in South Africa: A critical analysis
    • Joseph Geng Akech, Exacerbated inequalities: Implications of COVID-19 for the socio-economic rights of women and children in South Sudan
    • James Nkuubi, When guns govern public health: Examining the implications of the militarised COVID-19 pandemic response for democratisation and human rights in Uganda
  • Special focus: The African Children’s Charter at 30: Reflections on its past and future contribution to the rights of children in Africa
    • Nkatha Murungi, Editorial
    • Afrooz Kaviani Johnson & Julia Sloth-Nielsen, Child protection, safeguarding and the role of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child: Looking back and looking ahead
    • Elvis Fokala & Annika Rudman, Age or maturity? African children’s right to participate in medical decision-making processes
    • Godfrey Dalitso Kangaude, Deevia Bhana & Ann Skelton, Childhood sexuality in Africa: A child rights perspective
    • Alina Miamingi, The applicability of the best interests principle to children of imprisoned mothers in contemporary Africa: Between hard and soft law
  • Articles
    • Obonye Jonas, Res interpretata principle: Giving domestic effect to the judgments of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights
    • Brenda K Kombo, A missed opportunity? Derogation and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights case of APDF and IHRDA v Mali
    • Mikaela Heikkilä & Maija Mustaniemi-Laakso, Vulnerability as a human rights variable: African and European developments
    • Hoolo ‘Nyane & Tekane Maqakachane, Standing to litigate in the public interest in Lesotho: The case for a liberal approach
    • Mkhululi Nyathi & Matshobana Ncube, The 2017 military coup in Zimbabwe: Implications for human rights and the rule of law
    • Roopanand Mahadew, The Children’s Bill of Mauritius: A critical assessment of key aspects

Most Interesting 2020: Vanhonnaeker, Shareholders' Claims for Reflective Loss in International Investment Law

The eleventh in our series "Most Interesting 2020":
Lukas Vanhonnaeker, Shareholders' Claims for Reflective Loss in International Investment Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020)

The book by Lukas Vanhonnaeker puts a spotlight on a different type of “atypical” investor: shareholders. In particular, the book makes a strong case for allowing shareholders' claims for reflective loss under international investment law. It analyses the policy implications of protecting shareholders within the investment treaty regime and conducts a detailed review of the landmark cases and instruments that tackle the issue. It explains the legal and policy reasons why investment law recognizes and protects against reflective loss, and the means by which it does so. Some States, such as South Africa, have advocated restricting the availability of the investment treaty regime only for claims by the directly injured companies, which would precluding shareholders from raising claims. Indeed, many of these objections behind this position – including creating a disincentive to settle and the perils of parallel proceedings – are addressed by the author. The importance of the book stems from Vanhonnaeker’s meticulous attention to detail in laying out these objections, but also making concrete proposals as to if, and how, they can be overcome. Despite several recent tribunals that have addressed the matter, this book is among the first to comprehensively treat claims for reflective loss. Indeed, it is a must-read item for scholars and practitioners that are involving in researching or litigation such claims.

Dilini Pathirana
Faculty of Law
University of Colombo

Sunday, December 13, 2020

New Issue: Revista de Direito Internacional

The latest issue of Revista de Direito Internacional (Vol. 17, no. 2, 2020) is out. It includes a special dossier on "Populismo e Direito Internacional: perspectivas do Sul Global/Populism and International Law: Global South Perspectives." The table of contents is here.

New Volume: African Human Rights Yearbook/Annuaire africain des droits de l’homme

The latest volume of the African Human Rights Yearbook/Annuaire africain des droits de l’homme (Vol. 4, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles Focused on Aspects of the African Human Rights System and African Union Human Rights Standards
    • Ezéchiel Amani Cirimwami, Fashioning rights in the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights: understanding the proceduralisation of substantive rights
    • Anneth Amin, Assessing violations of states’ socio-economic rights obligations in the African Charter: towards a model of review grounded in the teleological approach
    • Patrick Badugue, La Cour africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples dans le Forum permanent des cours régionales des droits de l’homme
    • Olivier Baraka Bahoze, Le système africain des droits de l’homme face à l’état d’urgence sanitaire due à la Covid-19
    • Rafaâ Ben Achour, Les Protocoles normatifs à la Charte africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples
    • Ernest Yaw Ako, Domesticating the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Ghana: threat or promise to sexual minority rights?
    • Patient Lwango Mirindi, Le droit saisi d’en-bas: les frémissements des droits des Pygmées sur leurs forêts ancestrales en République démocratique du Congo
    • Suzgo Lungu, An appraisal of the Draft Framework for Reporting and Monitoring Execution of Judgments of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights
    • مية تصديق مصر علي بروتوكول المحكمة الإفريقية لحقوق الانسان و الشعوب, Abd el Atty Mosaed
    • Mwiza Jo Nkhata, A bundle of mystery? Unpacking the application of the ‘bundle of rights and guarantees’ in the admissibility of applications before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights
    • Ousmanou Nwatchok & Abdoulaye Sylla, La question homosexuelle en Afrique: entre droit, politique et éthique
    • Aaron Olaniyi Salau, Social media and the prohibition of ‘false news’: can the free speech jurisprudence of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights provide a litmus test?
    • Randianina Radilofe, Perspectives africaines des droits de l’homme en droit international des investissements
  • Special Focus on the African Union’s Theme for 2020: Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development
    • Delis Mazambani & Nicol Tinashe Tapfumaneyi, A vehicle for peacebuilding or cloak of impunity? The Zimbabwe National Peace and Reconciliation Commission
    • Baya Amouri, An examination of unlawful foreign military operations in Africa
    • Ashwanee Budoo, Silencing the guns to end gender- based violence in Africa: an analysis of article 10(3) of the Maputo Protocol
    • Grace Wakio Kakai, The role of continental and regional courts in peace-building through the judicial resolution of election-related disputes
    • Cédric Yasser Nzouakeu Nyandjou, Les mécanismes d’intégration des ex-rebelles dans le processus de stabilisation des zones de conflits en Afrique
  • Case Commentaries
    • Eric Bizimana, Responsabilité étatique en matière de disparitions forcées à l’aune de l'affaire Collectif des familles de disparu(e)s c. Algérie
    • Charissa Fawole, Revisiting Michelo Hansungule and others (on behalf of the Children of Northern Uganda) v Uganda: a case commentary
    • Prosper Maguchu, When to push the envelope? Corruption, human rights and the request for an advisory opinion by the SERAP to the African Court
    • Yannick Miteo Ngombo &Grâce Muzinga Manzanza, L’arrêt Association pour le progrès et la Défense des Droits des Femmes Maliennes et Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa c. Mali en procès
    • Samson Mwin Sôg Mè Dabire, Les ordonnances de la Cour africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples en indication de mesures provisoires dans les affaires Sébastien Ajavon c. Bénin et Guillaume Soro et autres c. Côte d’Ivoire: souplesse ou aventure?
    • Stella Nasirumbi, Revisiting the Endorois and Ogiek cases: is the African human rights mechanism a toothless bulldog?

Droubi & d'Aspremont: International organisations, non-State actors, and the formation of customary international law

Sufyan Droubi
(Univ. of Dundee - Law) & Jean d'Aspremont (Univ. of Manchester - Law; Sciences Po - Law) have published International organisations, non-State actors, and the formation of customary international law (Manchester Univ. Press 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This volume offers new practical and theoretical perspectives on one of the most complex questions regarding the formation of international law, namely that actors other than states contribute to the making of customary international law.

Notwithstanding the International Law Commission's valuable contribution, the making of customary international law remains riddled with acute practical and theoretical controversies that continue to be intensively debated. Making extensive reference to the case-law of international law courts and tribunals, as well as the most recent scholarly work on customary international law, this volume provides a comprehensive study of the contribution of international organisations and non-state actors to the formation of customary international law. With innovative tools and guidance for law students, legal scholars, and researchers in law, as well as legal practitioners, advisers, judges, arbitrators, and counsels, this collection is essential reading for those wishing to understand and address contemporary questions of international law-making.

Most Interesting 2020: McLaughlin, Defining a State-Owned Enterprise in International Investment Agreements

The tenth in our series "Most Interesting 2020" (the cover date is 2019, but the article was published in 2020):
Mark McLaughlin, Defining a State-Owned Enterprise in International Investment Agreements (ICSID Review - Foreign Investment Law Journal, Vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 595–625, Fall 2019)

Despite the growing presence of state capitalism in the global economy, a unified definition of a state-owned enterprises (SOE) continues to elude regulators and academics. McLaughlin has made a well-reasoned attempt to establish a five-criteria framework by which States can distinguish SOEs from private investors, as well as other forms of sovereign investments. The value of the contribution is in recognizing that defining SOEs is an issue of great complexity due to the difficulty in neatly expressing their characteristics in terms of the orthodox dichotomy between the private interests of foreign investors and the public interests of host States. This dilemma has already raised questions as to the legitimacy of SOEs being able to access the conventional investment regime and the potential security concerns when they pursue non-commercial policy objectives. Formulating a shared framework for defining SOEs is highly significant for both substantive and procedural issues at national and international levels. The article exposes the inherent grey areas where SOEs are defined by the “effective influence” that home governments wield over enterprises operating overseas, while also convincingly arguing that “ownership” is no longer a suitable criterion to measure state influence. He does not impose a rigid definition, nor propose reactionary solutions to a growing US/EU-China divide but provides criteria through which states can meaningfully express their different perspectives. For this reason, this article contributes to legal discourse on the protection of sovereign investments, while addressing lack of a universal definition of SOEs. Therefore, it addresses a critical gap in international investment law created by the unprecedented rise of State capitalism.

Dilini Pathirana
Faculty of Law
University of Colombo

Scott, Claussen, Côté, & Kanehara: Changing Actors in International Law

Karen N. Scott
(Univ. of Canterbury), Kathleen Claussen (Univ. of Miami), Charles-Emmanuel Côté (Université Laval), & Atsuko Kanehara (Sophia Univ.) have published Changing Actors in International Law (Brill | Nijhoff 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
Changing Actors in International Law explores actors other than the ‘state’ in international law with a particular focus on under-researched actors or others that do not easily fit the category of a non-state actor (such as quasi-states, trans-government networks, Indigenous Peoples and self-determination claimant groups). It also examines less well studied aspects of otherwise well-researched actors such as individuals, corporations, NGOs and armed organised groups. In Part 1 of this book, authors examine the role and consequences of the participation of those actors in the process of international law creation. In Part 2, authors focus on the extent to which these actors can be held responsible under international law for its breach and their participation in traditional and non-traditional dispute resolution processes.

Most Interesting 2020: Pinto, Historical Trends of Human Rights Gone Criminal

The ninth in our series "Most Interesting 2020":
Mattia Pinto, Historical Trends of Human Rights Gone Criminal (Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 729-761, 2020)

Perpetrators of human rights violations must be held criminally responsible for their conduct. How many times do we read this sentence as international lawyers? Probably too many that we do not even think of questioning it. But maybe we should. For anyone who wants to embark on this challenge, “Historical Trends of Human Rights Gone Criminal” by Mattia Pinto becomes a must-read starting point.

The article explores how, since 1970s, human rights have been used as drivers of penalty. Through a careful analysis of the interactions between the international, regional and domestic levels in this context, Pinto guides the reader through an extremely fascinating and complex historical, legal and sociological path. In doing so, he invites to reflect on the current normalisation of criminal law as one of the main tools for the protection of human rights. This paper will surely be one of those that cannot but be taken into account in dealing with the relationship between penalty and human rights.

Giulia Bosi
Ph.D. Candidate in Human Rights and Global Politics
Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

Most Interesting 2020: Tzouvala, Capitalism as Civilisation: A History of International Law

The eighth in our series "Most Interesting 2020":
Ntina Tzouvala, Capitalism as Civilisation: A History of International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020)

This book is a true tour de force. It shows Tzouvala's admirable breadth of knowledge and sharpness of critical reflection. Tzouvala masterfully combines her fluency in cogent theoretical and critical thinking, with detailed technical understanding of ins and outs of law, and, additionally, with careful parsing of a wealth of historical materials.

This book is not only an important contribution to the critical tradition in international law, but, more importantly, to the theorizing of international law and our understanding of international law as a discipline in a historical context, more broadly. It bridges not only Marxist and TWAIL approaches, but also mainstream theorizing of international law. Her theoretical work is not, however, idealist or abstract but it is carried out through a careful and detailed historically materialist approach which is always attuned to the structures and mechanism of oppression and exploitation. This book productively updates the common disciplinary understanding of indeterminacy of international law in showing its deep links with global capitalism and imperialism. This gives the work an immense explanatory edge. Finally, Capitalism as Civilisation shows a possibility, and usefulness, of a Marxist approach to international law that does not fall prey to rigid structuralist or determinist assumptions and explanations.

The book deserves to be right up next to the other great defining works of international law of the last few decades.

Josef Ostřanský
Max Weber Fellow
European University Institute