Webinar: Launch of the Disaster Law Database

On June 30, 2021, the IFRC and Roma Tre University will mark the launch of the Disaster Law Database with a conversation on the role on practice in this area. The program, with a link to webinar, is here.

Panel: Modern Challenges in International Law

The closing event of the Essex Public International Law Lecture Series will take June 28, 2021, with an online panel on "Modern Challenges in International Law." The panel will be chaired by Meagan Wong (Univ. of Essex - Law), with contributions from María Teresa Infante Caffi (Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) on "Engaging in a global legal scenario from a regional perspective: partnership and coherence"; Malgosia Fitzmaurice (Queen Mary Univ. of London - Law) on "International Environmental Law: Conferences of the Parties, Flexibility and Legitimacy"; Patrícia Galvão Teles (Member, International Law Commission; Autonomous Univ. of Lisbon - Law) on "Challenges to international law-making in a globalized and polarized world"; and Photini Pazartzis (Chair, Human Rights Committee; National & Kapodistrian Univ. of Athens - Law) on "Adjudicating State Responsibility for Internationally Wrongful Acts: The ILC’s Articles in recent practice." Details and registration are here.

New Issue: Transnational Legal Theory

The latest issue of Transnational Legal Theory (Vol. 12, no. 1, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Peer Zumbansen, What’s a palace? In search of the vulnerable edifices of transnational sovereignty
• Angelo Golia Jr & Gunther Teubner, Networked statehood: an institutionalised self-contradiction in the process of globalisation?
• Daniel Matthews, Reframing sovereignty for the anthropocene
• Michal Kaczmarczyk, The differentiation of international arbitration and the claim for democracy
• Jorge Luis Fabra-Zamora, The theoretical puzzles of non-state legal phenomena
• Lucas Roorda, Broken English: a critique of the Dutch Court of Appeal decision in Four Nigerian Farmers and Milieudefensie v Shell

New Issue: International Theory

The latest issue of International Theory (Vol. 13, no. 2, July 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Ana Tanasoca & John S. Dryzek, Democratic altruism
• Jaakko Heiskanen, Found in translation: the global constitution of the modern international order
• Adam B. Lerner, What's it like to be a state? An argument for state consciousness
• Bernhard Reinsberg, Fully-automated liberalism? Blockchain technology and international cooperation in an anarchic world
• Stephane J. Baele & Gregorio Bettiza, ‘Turning’ everywhere in IR: on the sociological underpinnings of the field's proliferating turns
• Seanon S. Wong, One-upmanship and putdowns: the aggressive use of interaction rituals in face-to-face diplomacy
• Charles Butcher & Ryan Griffiths, War, interaction capacity, and the structures of state systems

New Issue: Goettingen Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Goettingen Journal of International Law (Vol. 11, no. 1, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Giulia Ciliberto, The Challenges of Redressing Violations of Economic and Social Rights in the Aftermath of the Eurozone Sovereign Debt Crisis
• Niall O’Shaughnessy, The Soft Touch of International Financial Regulation: Status, Flaws and Future
• Julia Klaus, The Evolution of the Prohibition of Genocide: From Natural Law Enthusiasm to Lackadaisical Judicial Perfunctoriness – And Back Again?
• Ammar Bustami and Marie-Christine Hecken, Perspectives for a New International Crime Against the Environment: International Criminal Responsibility for Environmental Degradation under the Rome Statute
• Natalie Alkiviadou & Andrea Manoli, The European Court of Human Rights Through the Looking Glass of Gender: An Evaluation

Conference: Global Dialogue on Biodiversity Law and Governance: Transformative Pathways to Living in Harmony with Nature

On July 6-8, 2021, the Centre for Environmental Law at Macquarie University will host an online conference on "Global Dialogue on Biodiversity Law and Governance: Transformative Pathways to Living in Harmony with Nature." The program is here. Registration is here.

New Podcast Episodes: "Hablemos de Derecho Internacional"

Hablemos de Derecho Internacional – The International Legal Podcast recently added the following Episodes in Spanish: Francesco Sindico - La Importancia Inadvertida de los Acuíferos Transfronterizos; Iñigo de Miguel Beriain - La Edición del Genoma y la Dignidad Humana (Premium); Nicolás Boeglin - Desmitificando el Acuerdo de Escazú; Anna Ayuso – América Latina: Cambios, Turbulencia, y Gobernanza sin Líderes; and Juan R. Martínez Vargas – La Justicia Transicional Contemporánea (Premium). The podcast is available on the main platforms: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or through other podcast applications by searching “Hablemos de Derecho Internacional”. Updated information about the guests and episodes can be found on the new website www.hablemosdi.com, or on HDI’s social media accounts: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube.

Webinar: The Concept of an International Organization in International Law

On June 28, 2021, the next session of the Bocconi Conversations in International Law will feature Lorenzo Gasbarri (Bocconi Univ.) in conversation with Roger O’Keefe (Bocconi Univ.) on "The Concept of an International Organization in International Law." Details are here.

Helfer & Ryan: LGBT Rights as Mega-politics: Litigating before the ECtHR

Laurence R. Helfer (Duke Univ. - Law; Univ. of Copenhagen - iCourts) & Clare Ryan (Louisiana State Univ. - Law) have posted LGBT Rights as Mega-politics: Litigating before the ECtHR (Law and Contemporary Problems, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Contestations over LGBT rights are now occurring worldwide at multiple levels of governance. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Strasbourg Court) has become a focal point for these contestations. This article, part of a symposium in Law and Contemporary Problems on International Courts and the Adjudication of Mega-Politics, analyzes the increase in LGBT rights cases before the ECtHR. We argue that two divergent forces are pushing these cases to Strasbourg. First, the Court has dynamically interpreted the European Convention on Human Rights to expand protections for gay men and lesbians by taking account of progressive trends in national laws and policies. Second, the ECtHR has received numerous complaints against Russia, Eastern European, and former Soviet states that routinely violate the bodily integrity and political rights of sexual minorities.

To understand these trends, we coded all ECtHR lesbian and gay rights cases. We divide the case law into three periods—1950 to 1998, 1999 to 2009, and 2010 to 2020—that mark the Court’s evolving approach to these rights. We identify the number of cases in each period, describe important doctrinal trends, and discuss watershed cases that mark shifts in ECtHR jurisprudence. We then pose three questions to investigate the explosion of LGBT legal issues before the ECtHR over the last decade: Why the increase? Why Strasbourg? And why LGBT rights? We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for the ECtHR as a forum for mega-political contestation.

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 21, no. 3, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Elena Maculan, International Crimes or Ordinary Crimes? The ‘Dual Classification of the Facts’ as an Interpretive Method
• Matteo Colorio, A Commander’s Motivations and Geographical Remoteness under Command Responsibility: An Analysis of Controversial Issues of the Bemba Appeal Judgment
• Mohammad Hadi Zakerhossein, Situation-Oriented Designation of the International Criminal Court’s Jurisdiction by Non-Member States
• Susann Aboueldahab & Inês Freixo, App-Generated Evidence: A Promising Tool for International Criminal Justice?
• Gregor Maučec, On Implementation of Intersectionality in Prosecuting and Adjudicating Mass Atrocities by the International Criminal Court
• Barry de Vries, An Equivalent to Article 8(2)(b)(xx) icc Statute for Non-International Armed Conflicts? Is it Warranted on the Basis of International Customary Law?
• Dovilė Sagatienė, Deconstruction of Soviet Deportations in Lithuania in the Context of the Genocide Convention

Mayer & Zahar: Debating Climate Law

Benoit Mayer (The Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong - Law) & Alexander Zahar (Southwest Univ. of Political Science and Law) have published Debating Climate Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

What role could or should the law play in dealing with the climate emergency? In this innovative volume, leading scholars explore fundamental debates at the frontier of climate change law scholarship. They address the key areas of scholarly disagreement about what climate change law is, the legal rules it consists of, and how these rules could be implemented in the real world. The first eleven topics are debated by teams of scholars expressing diametrically opposite points of view on each topic, in traditional debating style; the last seven chapters are presented as an individual author's own reflection on a topic that cannot readily be reduced to a binary debate. Each chapter is written in an accessible and thought-provoking way, emphasizing clear lines of argumentation. The debating-style format is designed to stimulate students to think critically and logically about the law and to fire up debate in and out of class.

New Issue: Cambridge International Law Journal

The latest issue of the Cambridge International Law Journal (Vol. 10, no. 1, June 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Lavanya Rajamani & Jacqueline Peel, Reflections on a decade of change in international environmental law
• Vineet Hegde, Jan Wouters & Akhil Raina, Is the rules-based multilateral trade order in decline? Current practices, trends and their impact
• Florian Held, The ICC’s Al Bashir jurisprudence over the last decade: enforcer of the will of States Parties or of a global jus puniendi?
• Andrew Serdy, The 2018 Fisheries White Paper, the Fisheries Act 2020 and their international legal dimension
• Spyridoula Katsoni, Impacts of the interpretative interaction between international human rights law and the Refugee Convention
• Jefferi Hamzah Sendut, The proportionality of provisional measures in ICSID arbitration
• Kazuki Hagiwara, Suspension of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty prior to its withdrawal: the content of custom

New Issue: Pécs Journal of International and European Law

The latest issue of the Pécs Journal of International and European Law (Vol. 2021, no. 1) is out. Contents include:

• Ágoston Mohay, Once more unto the breach? The resumption of negotiations on the EU’s accession to the ECHR
• Cherry James, From Erasmus to Turing: What now for Study Mobility between the UK and the EU? Damage Limitation and New Opportunities
• Attila Pánovics, The Escazú Agreement and the Protection of Environmental Human Rights Defenders
• Zsuzsanna Rutai, National human rights institutions engaging with human rights monitoring mechanisms of the United Nations: comparative assessment
• Marcin Górski, Pandemic-related Restrictions on Freedom of Expression. Nihil novi sub sole?
• István Szijártó, The implications of the European Investigation Order for the protection of fundamental rights in Europe and the role of the CJEU
• Mihály Maczonkai, William Phelan: Great Judgments of the European Court of Justice: Rethinking the Landmark Decisions of the Foundational Period
• Ágoston Mohay & István Szijártó, Promoting a Culture of Lawfulness: Review of the International Workshop on Utilizing the E4J Training Modules in Central European Higher Education

AJIL Unbound Symposium: Anne van Aaken & Betül Simsek's "Rewarding in International Law"

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on Anne van Aaken & Betül Simsek's article "Rewarding in International Law." The symposium includes an introduction by Jeffrey L. Dunoff and contributions by Rachel Brewster, Cosette D. Creamer, Andrew Guzman and Kal Raustiala, Ian Johnstone, and Siobhán McInerney-Lankford.

New Issue: Journal of International Economic Law

The latest issue of the Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 24, no. 2, June 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Special Economic Zones in International Economic Law: Towards Unilateral Economic Law
• Julien Chaisse & Georgios Dimitropoulos, Special Economic Zones in International Economic Law: Towards Unilateral Economic Law
• Douglas Z Zeng, The Past, Present, and Future of Special Economic Zones and Their Impact
• Panagiotis Delimatsis, Financial Services Trade in Special Economic Zones
• Jie (Jeanne) Huang, The Latest Generation of SEZs: Consumer-Oriented Unilateralism in China’s E-Commerce Trade
• Joanna Lam & Rui Guo, Investor Obligations in Special Economic Zones: Legal Status, Typology, and Functional Analysis
• Lorenzo Cotula & Liliane Mouan, Labour Rights in Special Economic Zones: Between Unilateralism and Transnational Law Diffusion
• Georgios Dimitropoulos, International Commercial Courts in the ‘Modern Law of Nature’: Adjudicatory Unilateralism in Special Economic Zones
• Sherzod Shadikhodjaev, The WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures and Unilateralism of Special Economic Zones
• James J Nedumpara, Manya Gupta, & Leïla Choukroune, WTO Litigation and SEZs: Determining the Scope of Exceptional Trade Unilateralism
• Manjiao Chi, Regulation of Special Economic Zones Through Regional Trade Agreements: Confronting the Synergy Issue
• Julien Chaisse, Dangerous Liaisons: The Story of Special Economic Zones, International Investment Agreements, and Investor–State Dispute Settlement
• Frederik Heitmüller & Irma Mosquera, Special Economic Zones Facing the Challenges of International Taxation: BEPS Action 5, EU Code of Conduct, and the Future

Webinar: Global History and International Law Concluding Roundtable

The concluding roundtable of the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History and Graduate Institute Law Department's Spring Seminar on Global History and International Law will take place June 24, 2021. Panelists include: David Armitage, Sebastian Conrad, and Liliana Obregón. Details are here.

Zumbansen: The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law

Peer Zumbansen (McGill Univ. - Law) has published The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2021). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The Oxford Handbook of Transnational Law offers a unique and unparalleled treatment and presentation in the field of Transnational Law that has become one of the most intriguing and innovative developments in legal doctrine, scholarship, theory, and practice today. This in itself constitutes an ambitious editorial project, not only within law and legal doctrine, but also with regard to an increasing interest in an interdisciplinary engagement of law with social sciences - including sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, and political theory. Closely tied into the substantive transformation that many legal fields are undergoing is the observation that many of these developments are driven by changes in an increasingly global legal practice today. The concept then, of 'transnational law' aims at capturing the distinctly border- crossing nature even of those legal fields which had for the longest been time been seen as having merely 'domestic' relevance. This shift also requires a conscious effort among law school classroom instructors, casebook authors, and curriculum reformers to adapt their teaching content to these circumstances. As the authors of this Handbook make clear, this adaptation requires a close dialogue between a scholarly investigation into the transnational 'concept of law' and the challenges faced by practicing lawyers, be that as solicitor, in-house counsel, as judges, or as bureaucrats in a globalized regulatory and socio-economic environment. While the main thrust is on the transnationalization of legal doctrine and legal theory, with a considerable contribution from and engagement with social sciences, the Handbook features numerous reflections on the relationship between transnational law and legal practice.

New Issue: Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy

The latest issue of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy (Vol. 24, no. 1, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Conor Ryan, Vassili Papastavrou & Peter H. Sand, Ethical and Legal Considerations for Scientists Collaborating with Whalers: A Case Study of International Research Using the Outcome of Contemporary Whaling by Iceland
• Mitchell Lennan, Evaluating the Effectiveness of the EU Environmental Liability and Environmental Crime Directives as Implemented by Scotland and the Rest of the United Kingdom
• Elien Verniers & Sabine Brels, UNCAHP, One Health, and the Sustainable Development Goals

Wheatley: Law and the Time of Angels: International Law's Method Wars and the Affective Life of Disciplines

Natasha Wheatley (Princeton Univ. - History) has published Law and the Time of Angels: International Law's Method Wars and the Affective Life of Disciplines (History and Theory, Vol. 60, no. 2, June 2021). Here's the abstract:

Recent method wars in international legal scholarship turn on the problem of law in time. Rejecting historians' focus on context and their “policing of anachronism,” prominent legal scholars like Anne Orford and Martti Koskenniemi have argued that the workings of modern law are not governed by the narrow strictures of sequential chronology and that legal scholars require alternate methods that reflect law's transfer of meaning through time. Contextualism, in this reckoning, represents a misguided methodological straightjacket that stifles critique by quarantining meaning and power in discrete historical silos; the embrace of anachronism, conversely, would foster a revitalized history of international law intimately connected with the political imperatives of the present. This essay uses the debate as an opening into a fuller exploration of law in history and in time. In considering the idiosyncratic way law frames time, sequence, and duration, it explores the connection between law's transtemporal transfers and its very mode of reproduction. To speak of law's capacity to escape context and travel through time is another way of describing its normativity: the laws of the past that survive to exert a normative force in the present are not, in their law-ness, past—they are simply present law. The essay suggests some ways to make that temporality itself the object of analysis (rather than naturalizing and affirming it, as Orford has, or, conversely, dismissing it as bad history, as some historians have). It draws on the history of science to generate an account of law's temporal habitus as a disciplinary knowledge tool, a kind of epistemic virtue that is intimately involved in law's internal criteria for truth and falsity.

Orford: International Law and the Politics of History

Anne Orford (Univ. of Melbourne) has published International Law and the Politics of History (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

As the future of international law has become a growing site of struggle within and between powerful states, debates over the history of international law have become increasingly heated. International Law and the Politics of History explores the ideological, political, and material stakes of apparently technical disputes over how the legal past should be studied and understood. Drawing on a deep knowledge of the history, theory, and practice of international law, Anne Orford argues that there can be no impartial accounts of international law's past and its relation to empire and capitalism. Rather than looking to history in a doomed attempt to find a new ground for formalist interpretations of what past legal texts really mean or what international regimes are really for, she urges lawyers and historians to embrace the creative role they play in making rather than finding the meaning of international law.

New Issue: Virginia Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Virginia Journal of International Law (Vol. 61, no. 3, Spring 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Steven Mathias, Seventy-Six Going on a Hundred: International Cooperation and International Law at the United Nations
• Richard C. Chen, The Substantive Value of Diversity in Investment Treaty Arbitration
• Leonardo Borlini, The Security Council and Non-State Domestic Actors: Changes in Non-Forcible Measures between International Lawmaking and Peacebuilding
• W. Mark C. Weidemaier & Mitu Gulati, Unlawfully-Issued Sovereign Debt

Webinar: Science and Judicial Reasoning: The Legitimacy of International Environmental Adjudication

On June 21, 2021, the next session of the Bocconi Conversations in International Law will feature Katalin Sulyok (ELTE Univ.) in conversation with Roger O’Keefe (Bocconi Univ.) on "Science and Judicial Reasoning: The Legitimacy of International Environmental Adjudication." Details are here.

Subedi: Unilateral Sanctions in International Law

Surya P. Subedi (Univ. of Leeds - Law) has published Unilateral Sanctions in International Law (Hart Publishing 2021). Here's the abstract:

This is the first book that explores whether there are any rules in international law applicable to unilateral sanctions and if so, what they are.

The book examines both the lawfulness of unilateral sanctions and the limitations within which they should operate. In doing so, it includes an analysis of State practice, the provisions of various international legal instruments dealing with such sanctions and their impact on other areas of international law such as freedom of navigation, aviation and transit, and the principles of international trade, investment, regional economic integration, and the protection of human rights and the environment.

This study finds that unilateral sanctions by a state or a group of states against another state as opposed to 'smart' or targeted sanctions of limited scope would be unlawful, unless they meet the procedural and substantive requirements stipulated in international law. Importantly, the book identifies and consolidates these requirements scattered in different areas of international law, including the additional rules of customary international law that have emerged out of the recent practice of States and that increase the limitations on the use of unilateral sanctions.