Saturday, February 27, 2021

De Brabandere, Gazzini, & Kent: Public Participation and Foreign Investment Law: From the Creation of Rights and Obligations to the Settlement of Disputes

Eric De Brabandere
(Leiden Univ. - Law), Tarcisio Gazzini (Univ. of East Anglia - Law), & Avidan Kent (Univ. of East Anglia - Law) have published Public Participation and Foreign Investment Law: From the Creation of Rights and Obligations to the Settlement of Disputes (Brill | Nijhoff 2021). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Public Participation and Foreign Investment Law offers a systematic treatment of public participation from the standpoint of the three main sources of foreign investment law, namely treaties, legislation and contracts. It identifies and critically discusses the different forms of public participation that can be found or envisaged in foreign investment law. From this perspective, the book looks at public participation as vehicle to strike a balance between private and public rights and interests.

This book contributes to the understanding of the current forms, level and impact of public participation. It provides indications on how such participation could be enhanced with a view of improving the balance and legitimacy of the legal instrument related to the promotion and protection of foreign investments.

New Issue: International Security

The latest issue of International Security (Vol. 45, no. 3, Winter 2020/21) is out. Contents include:
  • Ian Bowers & Henrik Stålhane Hiim, Conventional Counterforce Dilemmas: South Korea's Deterrence Strategy and Stability on the Korean Peninsula
  • Megan Turnbull, Elite Competition, Social Movements, and Election Violence in Nigeria
  • Andrew Chubb, PRC Assertiveness in the South China Sea: Measuring Continuity and Change, 1970–2015
  • Melinda Haas & Keren Yarhi-Milo, To Disclose or Deceive? Sharing Secret Information between Aligned States
  • Marc Trachtenberg, The United States and the NATO Non-extension Assurances of 1990: New Light on an Old Problem?

New Issue: World Politics

The latest issue of World Politics (Vol. 73, no. 1, January 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • David De Micheli, Racial Reclassification and Political Identity Formation
  • Sarah E. Parkinson, Practical Ideology in Militant Organizations
  • Anoop Sarbahi, The Structure of Religion, Ethnicity, and Insurgent Mobilization: Evidence from India
  • Ryan Brutger, The Power of Compromise: Proposal Power, Partisanship, and Public Support in International Bargaining
  • Robert Jervis, Keren Yarhi-Milo, & Don Casler, Redefining the Debate Over Reputation and Credibility in International Security: Promises and Limits of New Scholarship

Call for Papers: Transforming Evidence and Proof in International Criminal Trials

A call for papers has been issued by iCourts for a virtual conference on "Transforming Evidence and Proof in International Criminal Trials," on April 22-23, 2021. The call is here. The deadline is March 29, 2021.

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 75, no. 1, Winter 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Sung Eun Kim & Yotam Margalit, Tariffs As Electoral Weapons: The Political Geography of the US–China Trade War
    • Jordan Branch, What's in a Name? Metaphors and Cybersecurity
    • Anton Strezhnev, Judith G. Kelley, & Beth A. Simmons, Testing for Negative Spillovers: Is Promoting Human Rights Really Part of the “Problem”?
    • Scott F Abramson & David B. Carter, Systemic Instability and the Emergence of Border Disputes
  • Review Essay
    • James W. Davis & Rose McDermott, The Past, Present, and Future of Behavioral IR
  • Research Notes
    • Micha Germann & Nicholas Sambanis, Political Exclusion, Lost Autonomy, and Escalating Conflict over Self-Determination
    • Jonathan Stavnskær Doucette & Jørgen Møller, The Collapse of State Power, the Cluniac Reform Movement, and the Origins of Urban Self-Government in Medieval Europe

Call for Papers: Asian Law Works-In-Progress Session

The Section on East Asian Law and Society of the American Association of Law Schools, the Asia-Pacific Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, and the Asia Committee of the American Society of Comparative Law have issued a call for papers for a virtual works-in-progress, to be held on Monday, July 19, 2021. The call is here.

Stoica: Remedies before the International Court of Justice: A Systemic Analysis

Victor Stoica
(Univ. of Bucharest - Law) has published Remedies before the International Court of Justice: A Systemic Analysis (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:
Understanding exactly how the International Court of Justice applies the remedies of international law is vital in order to determine its prioritisation of remedies and its rationales for resolving inter-state disputes. This analysis also shows whether the framework of remedies of international law, designed by the International Law Commission through the Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, is strictly observed by the International Court of Justice. This is among the few systemic studies in the field of remedies, contrasting the theoretical controversies with a complete survey of the large set of requests that have been submitted before the ICJ. International lawyers, agents of states and diplomats will be able to identify the relevant case-law for each remedy in order to frame more effective requests to the Court.

Kanetake: Dual-Use Export Control: Security and Human Rights Challenges to Multilateralism

Machiko Kanetake (Utrecht Univ. – Law) has posted Dual-Use Export Control: Security and Human Rights Challenges to Multilateralism (European Yearbook of International Economic Law, forthcoming). Here’s the abstract:
International standard-setting in the field of export control has been shaped by the presence of non-binding multilateral regimes. Central to international regulatory harmonisation is the Wassenaar Arrangement concerning export controls for conventional arms as well as for dual-use goods and technologies. Institutionalised regulatory coordination through multilateral regimes is essential, in part because the multilateral trade regime accommodates apologetic security exceptions that flexibly allow each member’s own export control practices. Multilateralism in the context of dual-use export control has been subject to various political and normative challenges, however. Various attempts to circumvent the Wassenaar Arrangement have been based not only on national security narratives. The multilateral regime has also been fundamentally challenged by human rights narratives. This paper sheds light on these dual challenges through the analysis of export controls over digital and so-called emerging technologies.

New Issue: Trade, Law and Development

The latest issue of Trade, Law and Development (Vol. 12, no. 2, Winter 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Editorial
    • Amogh Pareek & Gautami Govindrajan, In Sickness and In Health: Navigating Trade in a Post-Pandemic World
  • Articles
    • Antony Taubman, Framing a Multilateral Trade and Innovation Agenda to Advance the Sustainable Development Goals: The Intellectual Property Dimension
    • Rafael Leal-Arcas, Samuel Balzano, Jakkrit Deethae, Tanvir Singh, & Kristina Skybova, Of International Trade, Climate Change, Investment and a Prosperous Future
    • Julia Ya Qin, WTO Reform: Multilateral Control over Unilateral Retaliation – Lessons from the US-China Trade War
    • Indira Carr, Preventing Corruption in the Public Sector and the Principal-Agent-Client Model: Whither Integrity?
    • Andrew Mitchell & Dean Merriman, Indonesia’s WTO Challenge to the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive: Palm Oil & Indirect Land-Use Change
    • Donatella Alessandrini, The Time that Binds the ‘Trade-Development’ Nexus in International Economic Law
    • Delroy Beckford, National Treatment in the WTO: Abandoning Regulatory Purpose or Reinvigorating it?

Friday, February 26, 2021

Seminar Series on "Unpacking Transitional Justice: International Law, Memory, and Power"

The Amsterdam Center for International Law at the University of Amsterdam and Melbourne Law School’s Institute for International Law and the Humanities have announced a seminar series on "Unpacking Transitional Justice: International Law, Memory, and Power." The schedule and registration information are here.

Thursday, February 25, 2021

Call for Papers: Interpretation of Customary International Law: Methods, Interpretative Choices and the Role of Coherence

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Interpretation of Customary International Law: Methods, Interpretative Choices and the Role of Coherence," to be held November 25-26, 2021, in The Hague (pandemic permittting, or alternatively online). The call is here.

The Graduate Institute's International Law Colloquium for Spring 2021

The schedule for the Graduate Institute's International Law Colloquium for Spring 2021 is now available here.

Call for Submissions: Rosalyn Higgins Prize of The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals

The journal The Law & Practice of International Courts and Tribunals has issued a call for submissions for the 2021 Rosalyn Higgins Prize. The call is here. The deadline is June 30, 2021.

Martín López: Ampliando el contenido del Derecho Internacional: el rescate de la esencia del derecho de gentes

Miguel Ángel Martín López
has published Ampliando el contenido del Derecho Internacional: el rescate de la esencia del derecho de gentes (Dykinson 2021). Here's the abstract:
El término derecho de gentes apenas se utiliza ya en la práctica actual, pero, como es conocido, fue el tradicional para denominar a lo que de manera contemporánea conocemos como derecho internacional. Sin embargo, languideció cuando este último quedó encumbrado y alcanzó ser dominante, lo que ocurrió durante el siglo XIX. En general, la opinión preponderante siempre ha venido considerando que este cambio terminológico fue puramente nominal, sin que tuviera ninguna implicación jurídica efectiva. La continuidad histórica siguió sin que hubiera ruptura alguna. No obstante, esta visión merece, cuanto menos, ser objeto de amplia revisión y, así, es de interés ahondar en los propósitos, ver los detalles y atisbar las repercusiones de dicho cambio, bien sean directas o indirectas. En suma, este será el hilo conductor que vamos a seguir a lo largo del presente trabajo. Fundamentalmente, ello, además, lo haremos con la finalidad principal de identificar cuáles son los ámbitos que pudieran ser rescatados para guiar o, mejor dicho, reorientar este ordenamiento jurídico en aras de que consiga servir mejor a la humanidad en su conjunto.

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 25, no. 3, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Beyond evidence: the use of archives in transitional justice
    • Julia Viebach, Dagmar Hovestädt & Ulrike Lühe, Beyond evidence: the use of archives in transitional justice
    • Julia Viebach, Transitional archives: towards a conceptualisation of archives in transitional justice
    • Ulrike Lühe & Romain Ledauphin, From the forerunners of document collection to the trial of Klaus Barbie and beyond: the transitional justice journey of the Izieu telegram
    • Benjamin Thorne, Remembering atrocities: legal archives and the discursive conditions of witnessing
    • Dietlinde Wouters, There was this goat: the archive for justice as a remedy for epistemic injustices in truth commissions
    • Eliscia Kinder, Non-recurrence, reconciliation, and transitional justice: situating accountability in Northern Ireland’s oral history archive
    • Marta Lucía Giraldo & Daniel Jerónimo Tobón, Personal archives and transitional justice in Colombia: the Fonds of Fabiola Lalinde and Mario Agudelo

McCloskey: Safe Haven for Investors in (and Through) the UK Post-Brexit?

Mark McCloskey (Debevoise & Plimpton LLP) has posted an ASIL Insight on Safe Haven for Investors in (and Through) the UK Post-Brexit?

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

New Volume: Yearbook of International Disaster Law

The latest volume of the Yearbook of International Disaster Law (Vol. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:
  • Thematic Section: ‘Disasters and …: Exploring New Areas of Research’
    • Giovanna Adinolfi, Strengthening Resilience to Disasters through International Trade Law: the Role of WTO Agreements on Trade in Goods
    • Giulio Bartolini, Global Animal Law and Disasters
    • Upendra Baxi, Disasters, Catastrophes and Oblivion: a TWAIL Perspective
    • Daniel A. Farber, The Intersection of International Disaster Law and Climate Change Law
    • Harald Koch, Disasters and Private International Law: Reasserting Legal Governance beyond the Nation State
    • Gabrielle Simm, Disasters and Gender: Sexing International Disaster Law
    • Jonathan Todres, Children and Disasters: the Essential Role of Children’s Rights Law
    • Simon Whitbourn, ‘I Must Go Down to the Seas Again’: the Evolution of International Maritime Disaster Law and Its Lessons for the Development of a General Disaster Law Framework
    • Flavia Zorzi Giustiniani, Protecting World Cultural and Natural Heritage against Climate Change and Disasters: an Assessment of the Effectiveness of the World Heritage Convention System
  • General Section
    • Gian Luca Burci & Mark Eccleston-Turner, Preparing for the Next Pandemic: the International Health Regulations and World Health Organization during COVID-19
    • Sandrine Maljean-Dubois, Was the Global Pact for the Environment a Good Idea?
    • Natalie Baird, Disasters, Human Rights and Vulnerability: Reflections from the Experiences of Older Persons in Post-Quake Canterbury
    • Miki Ishimori, Rights-based Approach to Nuclear Damage Compensation: Fukushima Nuclear Disaster Revisited

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Lecture: Koskenniemi on "Global Law and the Populist Backlash - How to think about them?"

On March 1, 2021, Martti Koskenniemi (Univ. of Helsinki - Law) will deliver a lecture on "Global Law and the Populist Backlash - How to think about them?" as part of the Essex Public International Law Lecture Series. Details are here.

MacNeil: Legality Matters: Crimes Against Humanity and the Problems and Promise of the Prohibition on Other Inhumane Acts

Gillian MacNeil
(Univ. of Manitoba - Law) has published Legality Matters: Crimes Against Humanity and the Problems and Promise of the Prohibition on Other Inhumane Acts (Asser Press 2021). Here's the abstract:
This book examines the way international criminal courts and tribunals have interpreted the crimes against humanity proscription of other inhumane acts. This clause is consistently used in spite of the long list of more specific offences forbidden as crimes against humanity. The volume proposes that the current approach is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the clause. Properly understood, the clause is an invitation to courts to create and apply retroactive criminal laws. This leads to a problem. A prohibition on the use of retroactive criminal laws, one which admits no exceptions, is deeply embedded in international law. The author argues that it is time to revisit the assumption that retroactive criminal laws can never be deployed in a fair legal system. Drawing lessons from an exploration on the way the prohibition on retroactive laws is applied in practice, she proposes a new framework for understanding the clause proscribing the commission of other inhumane acts.

Evans: Towards a more accountable United Nations Security Council

Carolyn M Evans
has published Towards a more accountable United Nations Security Council (Brill | Nijhoff 2021). Here's the abstract:
Reform discourse about the United Nations Security Council gives every reason to believe that flaws in its legal and institutional design prevent the Council from adequately meeting its responsibility to maintain or restore international peace and security - in part by allowing the Council to act in an ad hoc and unprincipled manner. In Towards a more accountable United Nations Security Council, Carolyn Evans argues that enhanced accountability of the Council, and corresponding evolution of practice, are feasible, salutary changes towards the Council better answering its raison d'être. Discussion proceeds by probing the why, to whom, for what, and how, of Council accountability - four corners of concerns central to seeing any actor held accountable.

Call for Papers: Understanding solidarity under international and EU refugee law: between a rock and a hard place?

The ESIL Interest Group on Migration and Refugee Law has issued a call for papers for an online event to take place April 15, 2021 on the theme of “Understanding solidarity under international and EU refugee law: between a rock and a hard place?” The event will be held in the framework of the 2021 ESIL Research Forum on “Solidarity: The Quest for Founding Utopias of International Law.” The call is here.

Workshop: Behavioural Approaches in International Law

On April 22-23, 2021, the ESIL Interest Group on Social Sciences and International Law will hold a workshop on "Behavioural Approaches in International Law." The program is here and registration is here.

Symposium: The Transformation of International Law Scholarship

On February 26, 2021, the Chicago Journal of International Law will hold a symposium on "The Transformation of International Law Scholarship." The program is here.

Monday, February 22, 2021

New Issue: Journal of World Investment & Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Investment & Trade (Vol. 22, no. 1, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann & Armin Steinbach, Neo-Liberalism, State-Capitalism and Ordo-Liberalism: ‘Institutional Economics’ and ‘Constitutional Choices’ in Multilevel Trade Regulation
  • Evan Gabor, Keeping ‘Development’ in a Multilateral Framework on Investment Facilitation for Development
  • Raúl F. Zúñiga Peralta, The Judicialisation of the Social License to Operate: Criteria for International Investment Law
  • Berk Demirkol, Reconsideration of Proper Remedies in Investment Arbitration in Light of Recent Cases: Should the Remedy Follow the Primary Obligation?
  • Carolyn B. Lamm & Matthew N. Drossos, Procedural Issues in International Investment Arbitration , written by Jeffery Commission and Rahim Moloo

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Shan, Zhang, & Su: China and International Dispute Resolution in the Context of the 'Belt and Road Initiative'

Wenhua Shan
(Xian Jiaotong Univ. - Law), Sheng Zhang (Xian Jiaotong Univ. - Law), & Jinyuan Su (Wuhan Univ. - Law) have published China and International Dispute Resolution in the Context of the 'Belt and Road Initiative' (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
Written by eminent international judges, scholars and practitioners, this book offers a timely study of China's role in international dispute resolution in the context of the construction of the 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI). It provides in-depth analysis of the law and practice in the fields of international trade, commerce, investment and international law of the sea, as they relate to the BRI construction. It is the first comprehensive assessment of China's policy and practice in international dispute resolution, in general and in individual fields, in the context of the BRI construction. This book will be an indispensable reading for scholars and practitioners with interest in China and international dispute resolution. It also constitutes an invaluable reference for anyone interested in the changing international law and order, in which China is playing an increasingly significant role, particularly through the BRI construction.