Saturday, December 4, 2021

Lecture: Hernández on "The Determinability of International Law: Situating Interpretive Authority"

On December 13, 2021, Gleider Hernández (Univ. of Leuven; Open Universiteit) will deliver the fifth lecture of the 2021-2022 Essex Public International Law Lecture Series. The topic is: "The Determinability of International Law: Situating Interpretive Authority." Details are here.

New Issue: Melbourne Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Melbourne Journal of International Law (Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Special Issue: National Encounters with the International Court of Justice
    • Hilary Charlesworth & Margaret A Young, National Encounters with the International Court of Justice: Introduction to the Special Issue
    • Kenneth Keith, New Zealand and the International Court of Justice
    • Richard Rowe, The Diplomatic Dimension: Australia and the Nuclear Tests Case
    • Emma Nyhan, A Latent Encounter with the Court: How Australia and Japan Settled a Pearl Fisheries Dispute
    • Shirley V Scott, National Encounters with the International Court of Justice: Avoiding Litigating Antarctic Sovereignty
    • Bill Campbell, Australia's Engagement with the International Court of Justice: Practical and Political Factors
    • Natalie Klein, Iran and Its Encounters with the International Court of Justice
    • Tim Stephens, Environmental Litigation by Asia Pacific States at the International Court of Justice
    • Karen J Alter, The International Court of Justice in Comparison: Understanding the Court's Limited Influence
    • Hilary Charlesworth & Margaret A Young, Australian Encounters with the Advisory Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice
    • Philippa Webb, The United Kingdom and the Chagos Archipelago Advisory Opinion: Engagement and Resistance
    • Douglas Guilfoyle, The Chagos Archipelago before International Tribunals: Strategic Litigation and the Production of Historical Knowledge
    • Henry Burmester, Civil Society and the Instigation of International Court Litigation: The Australian Experience
    • Victor Kattan, The United Kingdom's Views on Elections to the International Court of Justice during the Cold War

Blay-Grabarczyk & Milano: Les soixante-dix ans de l’adoption de la convention européenne des droits de l’homme : Enjeux et perspectives

Katarzyna Blay-Grabarczyk
& Laure Milano have published Les soixante-dix ans de l’adoption de la convention européenne des droits de l’homme : Enjeux et perspectives (Pedone 2021). The table of contents is here.

Conference: International Law Without International Courts

On December 16-17, 2021, the International Courts and Tribunals Interest Group of the American Society of International Law will host an online conference on "International Law Without International Courts." Details are here.

Vanhullebusch: The Law of International Humanitarian Relief in Non-International Armed Conflicts

Matthias Vanhullebusch
(Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. - Law) has published The Law of International Humanitarian Relief in Non-International Armed Conflicts (Brill | Nijhoff 2021). Here's the abstract:
This book comprehensively covers the entire scope of conflicting rights and duties of the fighting parties and international humanitarian relief actors in non-international armed conflicts, namely from the moment of the initiation of international humanitarian relief actions till their authorisation and throughout the consecutive stages of the delivery of relief. From the practice of frontline humanitarian negotiations, this book reconceptualizes how those rights and duties are coming into being and how compliance with agreements on humanitarian access and other international humanitarian law and international human rights norms can be ensured and/or their normativity can be strengthened.

Morelli: Withdrawal from Multilateral Treaties

Antonio Morelli
has published Withdrawal from Multilateral Treaties (Brill | Nijhoff 2021). Here's the abstract:
This monograph is the first comprehensive and systematic legal analysis of withdrawal in the context of the international law of treaties. It examines the political and legal framework around treaty making and treaty maintenance to explain how withdrawal evolved over time and suggests solutions for addressing and improving conditions for orderly withdrawal.

Rossi: International Law Immunities and Employment Claims: A Critical Appraisal

Pierfrancesco Rossi
has published International Law Immunities and Employment Claims: A Critical Appraisal (Hart Publishing 2021). Here's the abstract:
This book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the international law regime of jurisdictional immunities in employment matters. Three main arguments lie at its heart. Firstly, this study challenges the widely held belief that international immunity law requires staff disputes to be subject to blanket or quasi-absolute immunity from jurisdiction. Secondly, it argues that it is possible to identify well-defined standards of limited immunity to be applied in the context of employment litigation against foreign states, international organizations and diplomatic and consular agents. Thirdly, it maintains that the interaction between the applicable immunity rules and international human rights law gives rise to a legal regime that can provide adequate protection to the rights of employees. A much-needed study into an under-researched field of international and employment law.

Hermet: La convergence de dispositions conventionnelles et la détermination du droit international coutumier

Alexandre Hermet
has published La convergence de dispositions conventionnelles et la détermination du droit international coutumier (Pedone 2021). Here's the abstract:
Ce livre part d’un constat simple : des dispositions conventionnelles convergentes sont souvent prises en considération dans la détermination de la coutume internationale. Régulièrement évoquée, fréquemment mise en œuvre, cette hypothèse a été expressément reconnue en 2018 par la Commission du droit international, selon laquelle « le fait qu’une règle soit énoncée dans plusieurs traités peut signifier, sans toutefois que cela soit nécessairement le cas, que la règle conventionnelle reflète une règle de droit international coutumier ». C’est à l’explication de cette situation que l’ouvrage est consacré. L’étude se fonde sur une approche résolument empirique imposant de considérer les règles coutumières pour ce qu’elles sont : de pures énonciations. Elle permet ainsi, entre autres enseignements, de relativiser la théorie des deux éléments de la coutume, mais aussi de mettre en lumière le rôle fondamental de la distinction entre règle conventionnelle et énoncé particulier dans l’identification des règles coutumières ou encore d’expliquer pourquoi les conventions internationales les plus générales sont davantage prises en considération dans la détermination de la coutume.

New Issue: Business and Human Rights Journal

The latest issue of the Business and Human Rights Journal (Vol. 6, no. 3, October 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Scholarly Articles
    • Ekaterina Aristova, The Future of Tort Litigation against Transnational Corporations in the English Courts: Is Forum [Non] Conveniens Back?
    • Kinnari Bhatt & Gamze Erdem Türkelli, OECD National Contact Points as Sites of Effective Remedy: New Expressions of the Role and Rule of Law within Market Globalization?
    • Jennifer Green, Closing the Accountability Gap in Corporate Supply Chains for Violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act
    • Michael Ashley Stein & Ilias Bantekas, Including Disability in Business and Human Rights Discourse and Corporate Practice
    • Sarah Hofmayer, Conceptualizing Work Integration Social Enterprises under International Human Rights Law
  • Developments in the Field
    • Nicolas Bueno & Christine Kaufmann, The Swiss Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation: Between Law and Politics
    • Markus Krajewski, Kristel Tonstad, & Franziska Wohltmann, Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence in Germany and Norway: Stepping, or Striding, in the Same Direction?
    • Jernej Letnar Černič, The Reformed EU Human Rights Sanctions Regime: A Step Forward or an Empty Threat?
    • Rosa Polaschek, Responses to the Uyghur Crisis and the Implications for Business and Human Rights Legislation
    • Erika George, Racism as a Human Rights Risk: Reconsidering the Corporate ‘Responsibility to Respect’ Rights
    • Aruna Kashyap, Kyle Knight, & Margaret Wurth, COVID-19 Exposes Warped Global Health Power: The System Needs a Course Correction
    • Pillkyu Hwang & Yae-Ahn Park, When the Complexity of the Large-Scale Development Project Becomes a Roadblock to Access to Justice
    • Richard Ryan & Ellen Parry, The Montara Class Action Decision and Implications for Corporate Accountability for Australian Companies
    • Anthony Ewing, Promoting Business and Human Rights Education: Lessons from Colombia, Ukraine and Pakistan

Friday, December 3, 2021

New Issue: Rivista di Diritto Internazionale

The latest issue of the Rivista di Diritto Internazionale (Vol. 104, no. 3, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Articoli
    • S. Vezzani, Recenti sviluppi in tema di applicazione extraterritoriale delle convenzioni internazionali sui diritti umani
    • E. Cimiotta, prof. ass. Univ. Roma « La Sapienza », È uno Stato o no? La determinazione della giurisdizione territoriale della Corte penale internazionale sulla situazione in Palestina
    • M. Pertile, L’ermetica decisione della Corte penale internazionale sulla giurisdizione territoriale rispetto allo « Stato di Palestina ».
  • Note e Commenti
    • S. Carrea, La restrizione dell’immunità giurisdizionale per attività delle società di classificazione
    • S. Silingardi, L’occupazione bellica nel diritto internazionale contemporaneo: brevi considerazioni a margine di una recente sentenza della Corte suprema di Israele
    • G. Puma, Il riconoscimento del provvedimento straniero di adozione omoaffettiva nell’ordinamento italiano
  • Necrologio
    • F. Bestagno, Ricordo di Franco Mosconi
  • Panorama
    • E. Milano, Contestazioni e acquiescenze al ricorso alla legittima difesa ex art. 51 della Carta delle Nazioni Unite per rispondere ad attacchi armati provenienti da attori non statali
    • F. Travan, Sullo status di « locali della missione »: note a margine della sentenza della Corte internazionale di giustizia nel caso Guinea equatoriale c. Francia
    • Sugli effetti dei pareri consultivi della Corte europea dei diritti dell’uomo (A. Rasi)
    • M. Imbrogno, Il ruolo della Convenzione di Lanzarote nell’accertamento della violazione dell’obbligo di compiere indagini effettive ai sensi dell’art. 3 della Conven- zione europea dei diritti dell’uomo
    • A. Stiano, Ancora sul bilanciamento tra la tutela del diritto alla privacy e l’utilizzo di strumenti di sorveglianza di massa: tra garanzie procedurali e sostanziali

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Reiners: Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions for Human Rights

Nina Reiners
(Universität Potsdam) has published Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions for Human Rights (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:
Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions is the first comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of informal collaborations in the UN human rights treaty bodies. Issues as central to international human rights as the right to water, abortion, torture, and hate speech are often only clarified through the instrument of treaty interpretations. This book dives beneath the surface of the formal access, procedures, and actors of the UN treaty body system to reveal how the experts and external collaborators play a key role in the development of human rights. Nina Reiners introduces the concept of 'Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions' within a novel theoretical framework and draws on a number of detailed case studies and original data. This study makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on human rights, transnational actors, and international organizations, and contributes to broader debates in international relations and international law.

Workshop: Business and Human Rights in South East Europe

On Friday, December 3, 2021, the European Law and Governance School and the European Public Law Organization will hold an online workshop on "Business and Human Rights in South East Europe." Details are here.

New Issue: The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals

The latest issue of The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (Vol. 20, no. 3, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Alain Pellet, Adieu, James Crawford
  • Haris Jamil, Does the Name of a Case Matter?
  • Rowan Nicholson, The International Court of Justice as a “Shortcut” to Identifying Custom
  • Eirini-Erasmia Fasia, No Provision Left Behind – Law of the Sea Convention’s Dispute Settlement System and Obligations Erga Omnes
  • Avni Puka & Fisnik Korenica, The “Struggle” to Dissolve the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague: Stuck between Constitutional Text and Mission to Pursue Justice
  • Guillaume Le Floch, Marie Lemey, & Lucie Paiola, Procedural Developments at the International Criminal Court (2020)

New Issue: International Review of the Red Cross

The latest issue of the International Review of the Red Cross (Vol. 102, no. 914, August 2020) is out. The theme is: "Emerging Voices." Contents include:
  • Bruno Demeyere, Emerging voices: Increasing the diversity of voices featured in the International Review of the Red Cross
  • Alessandro Mario Amoroso, Closer to home: How national implementation affects State conduct in partnered operations
  • Victoria Arnal, Destructive trends in contemporary armed conflicts and the overlooked aspect of intangible cultural heritage: A critical comparison of the protection of cultural heritage under IHL and the Islamic law of armed conflict
  • Annabel Bassil, Armed escorts to humanitarian convoys: An unexplored framework under international humanitarian law
  • Thibaud de La Bourdonnaye, Greener insurgencies? Engaging non-State armed groups for the protection of the natural environment during non-international armed conflicts
  • Issa Cristina Hernández Herrera, Collaborating with organized crime in the search for disappeared persons? Formalizing a humanitarian alternative for Mexico
  • Won Jang, For whom the bell of proportionality tolls: Three proposals for strengthening proportionality compliance
  • Eian Katz, Liar's war: Protecting civilians from disinformation during armed conflict
  • Maxime Nijs, Humanizing siege warfare: Applying the principle of proportionality to sieges
  • César Rojas-Orozco, The role of international humanitarian law in the search for peace: Lessons from Colombia
  • Mayra Nuñez Pastor, Behind the legal curtain: Social, cultural and religious practices and their impact on missing persons and the dead in Colombia
  • Fernanda García Pinto, The International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Criminal Court: Turning international humanitarian law into a two-headed snake?
  • Vaughn Rossouw, “Or any other similar criteria”: Towards advancing the protection of LGBTQI detainees against discrimination and sexual and gender-based violence during non-international armed conflict
  • Yugichha Sangroula, Investigating the Jana Adalat of the 1996–2006 armed conflict in Nepal
  • Claire Simmons, Whose perception of justice? Real and perceived challenges to military investigations in armed conflict
  • Rohan Talbot, Automating occupation: International humanitarian and human rights law implications of the deployment of facial recognition technologies in the occupied Palestinian territory
  • Juliana Laguna Trujillo, A legal obligation under international law to guarantee access to abortion services in contexts of armed conflict? An analysis of the case of Colombia
  • Tsvetelina van Benthem, The redirection of attacks by defending forces
  • Ioanna Voudouri, Who is a civilian in Afghanistan?
  • Paul Strauch & Beatrice Walton, Jus ex bello and international humanitarian law: States’ obligations when withdrawing from armed conflict
  • Samuel White & Ray Kerkhove, Indigenous Australian laws of war: Makarrata, milwerangel and junkarti

Fitzmaurice: King Leopold's Ghostwriter: The Creation of Persons and States in the Nineteenth Century

Andrew Fitzmaurice
(Queen Mary Univ. of London - History) has published King Leopold's Ghostwriter: The Creation of Persons and States in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

Eminent jurist, Oxford professor, advocate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Travers Twiss (1809–1897) was a model establishment figure in Victorian Britain, and a close collaborator of Prince Metternich, the architect of the Concert of Europe. Yet Twiss’s life was defined by two events that threatened to undermine the order that he had so stoutly defended: a notorious social scandal and the creation of the Congo Free State. In King Leopold’s Ghostwriter, Andrew Fitzmaurice tells the incredible story of a man who, driven by personal events that transformed him from a reactionary to a reformer, rewrote and liberalised international law—yet did so in service of the most brutal regime of the colonial era.

In an elaborate deception, Twiss and Pharaïlde van Lynseele, a Belgian prostitute, sought to reinvent her as a woman of suitably noble birth to be his wife. Their subterfuge collapsed when another former client publicly denounced van Lynseele. Disgraced, Twiss resigned his offices and the couple fled to Switzerland. But this failure set the stage for a second, successful act of re-creation. Twiss found new employment as the intellectual driving force of King Leopold of Belgium’s efforts to have the Congo recognised as a new state under his personal authority. Drawing on extensive new archival research, King Leopold’s Ghostwriter recounts Twiss’s story as never before, including how his creation of a new legal personhood for the Congo was intimately related to the earlier invention of a new legal personhood for his wife.

Combining gripping biography and penetrating intellectual history, King Leopold’s Ghostwriter uncovers a dramatic, ambiguous life that has had lasting influence on international law.

Goodman: Coastal State Jurisdiction over Living Resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone

Camille Goodman
(Univ. of Wollongong) has published Coastal State Jurisdiction over Living Resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone (Oxford Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, coastal States have sovereign rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage the living resources of the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). However, 40 years after the adoption of the Convention, there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the nature and extent of these sovereign rights.

Coastal State Jurisdiction over Living Resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone examines the ways in which coastal States can exercise authority on the basis of their sovereign rights over living resources in the EEZ. Dr Camille Goodman explores the key concepts of 'fishing' and 'fishing related activities' to establish what vessels and which activities can be regulated by coastal States, canvasses the criteria and conditions that coastal States can apply as part of regulating foreign access to their resources, and considers the regulation of unlicensed foreign fishing vessels in transit through the EEZ. Goodman also examines how such regulations can be enforced within the EEZ and the circumstances under which enforcement can take place beyond the EEZ following hot pursuit.

A review and analysis of the practice of 145 States identifies the contemporary extent of coastal State jurisdiction over living resources in the EEZ and offers a unique, fresh perspective on the underlying and enduring nature of that jurisdiction. Underpinned by a rigorous examination of the Convention, jurisprudence, and literature, as well as being supported by carefully documented State practice, Coastal State Jurisdiction over Living Resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone proposes a more predictable framework within which to resolve jurisdictional challenges in the EEZ.

New Issue: Virginia Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Virginia Journal of International Law (Vol. 62, no. 1, Fall 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Nancy Amoury Combs, The Impact of Separate Opinions on International Criminal Law
  • Paul B. Stephan, Wars of Conquest in the Twenty-First Century and the Lessons of History - Crimea, Panama, and John Basset Moore
  • Melissa Stewart, "A New Law on Earth", Hannah Arendt and the Vision for a Positive Legal Framework to Guarantee the Right to Have Rights
  • George Rutherglen, Admiralty, Human Rights, and International Law

New Issue: Yale Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Yale Journal of International Law (Vol. 46, no. 2, Summer 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Brian G. Slocum & Jarrod Wong, The Vienna Convention and Ordinary Meaning in International Law
  • Ioannis Kampourakis, Protecting National Security Whistleblowers in the U.S. and in the ECtHR: The Limits of Balancing and the Social Value of Public Disclosures
  • Ivana Isailovic, Gender Equality as Investment: EU Work-Life Balance Measures and the Neo-Liberal Shift

New Issue: Harvard International Law Journal

The latest issue of the Harvard International Law Journal (Vol. 62, no. 2, Summer 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Afroditi Giovanopoulou, Pragmatic Legalism: Revisiting America's Order after World War II
  • Ji Li, In Pursuit of Fairness: How Chinese Multinational Companies React to U.S. Government Bias
  • Christopher Rossi, Interstitial Space and the High Himalayan Dispute between China and India
  • Patrick Leisure, The Martens Clause, Global Pandemics, and the Law of Armed Conflict

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

New Volume: Canadian Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Canadian Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 58, 2020) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • J. Anthony Vanduzer & Melanie Mallet, Indigenous Rights and Trade Obligations: How Does CUSMA’s Indigenous General Exception Apply to Canada?
    • Kristin Bartenstein & Laure Gosselin, Le “prolongement naturel” et le plateau continental étendu arctique du Canada: coopérer pour donner sens au droit, à la science et aux faits
    • Bjørn Kunoy, The Scope of Compulsory Jurisdiction and Exceptions Thereto under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
    • Louisa Grigoryan & Amissi M. Manirabona, Lutter autrement contre la corruption transnationale: potentiel et défis du système de sanctions de la Banque mondiale
    • Justin Okerman & Barbara Von Tigerstrom, Any Port in a Pandemic: International Law and Restrictions on Maritime Traffic during the COVID-19 Pandemic
    • Thibault Moulin, Un nouveau “cheval de Troie”? Regard sur la codification des normes impératives du droit international général (jus cogens)
    • Brian L. Cox, The Risk of Obsolescence: Reframing the Contemporary Use of Force Model to Achieve a More Holistic Application of the UN Charter Jus Ad Bellum Construct
  • Notes and Comments
    • Eva Monteiro, Mining for Legal Luxuries: The Pitfalls and Potential of Nevsun Resources Ltd v Araya
    • Tiphaine Demaria, Obligations de comportement et obligations de résultat dans la jurisprudence de la Cour internationale de Justice
    • Céline Lévesque, Canada’s Pro-Ban Stance on Double-Hatting: Playing the Long Game in ISDS Reform?

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 86, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • General international law and the challenges of regionalism before the International Law Commission
    • Introduced by Maurizio Arcari
    • George Rodrigo Bandeira Galindo, Particular customary international law and the International Law Commission: Mapping presences and absences
    • Mariana Clara De Andrade, Regional principles of law in the works of the International Law Commission
    • Apollin Koagne Zouapet, La portée universelle du droit impératif et l’impossibilité d'un jus cogens régional

New Volume: Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law

The latest volume of the Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law (Vol. 9, 2021) is out. The table of contents is here. This volume includes a thematic chapter on "Thematic chapter: Public Health Emergency: National, European and International Law Responses."

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

New Issue: International Interactions

The latest issue of International Interactions (Vol. 47, no. 6, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Rebecca H. Best & Simanti Lahiri, Hard choices, soft targets: Terror proscription and strategic targeting decisions of FTO
  • Jared Oestman, A price for peace: troop contributing countries’ responses to peacekeeper fatalities
  • Douglas B Atkinson, The issues are the issue: Intangible salience and war duration
  • Andrew P. Owsiak & John A. Vasquez, Peaceful dyads: A territorial perspective
  • Huseyin Ilgaz, Qui bono? Foreign military, economic, diplomatic interventions, and the termination of civil wars: An integrative approach
  • Maxim Slav, Elena Smyslovskikh, Vladimir Novikov, Igor Kolesnikov & Andrey Korotayev, Deprivation, instability, and propensity to attack: how urbanization influences terrorism
  • Lindsay R. Dolan & Quynh Nguyen, Mutual gain or resource drain? Attitudes toward international financial assistance during the early COVID-19 pandemic

Monday, November 29, 2021

Herbach: International Arms Control Law and the Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism

Jonathan Herbach
(International Atomic Energy Agency) has published International Arms Control Law and the Prevention of Nuclear Terrorism (Edward Elgar Publishing 2021). Here's the abstract:

Making a timely contribution to the legal literature, this important book discusses an under-analysed issue of great importance to international peace and security. It provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of the prevention of nuclear terrorism specifically through an international (arms control) law lens.

Jonathan Herbach sets out a basis for better understanding how the international legal framework for nuclear security is structured and why it is structured that way, and offers a critical analysis of the component instruments that make up the framework. He highlights the strengths and analyzes possible gaps and weaknesses of these instruments and the legal framework as a whole, as well as explaining the framework’s key characteristics, approaches and rationale. As nuclear security is by no means a static topic, with changing circumstances a defining feature of the area, the book also offers ideas for the path forward and conceptualizes ways to further strengthen the nuclear security legal framework.

Call for input to reports on “secondary sanctions, civil and criminal penalties for circumvention of sanctions regimes, and over-compliance with sanctions” and “Unilateral sanctions in the cyber world”

The Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights has issued a call for input to reports on “secondary sanctions, civil and criminal penalties for circumvention of sanctions regimes, and over-compliance with sanctions” and “Unilateral sanctions in the cyber world.” The call is here.

Langtry & Lyer: National Human Rights Institutions: Rules, Requirements, and Practice

David Langtry
(formerly, Canadian Human Rights Commission) & Kirsten Roberts Lyer (Central European Univ.) have published National Human Rights Institutions: Rules, Requirements, and Practice (Oxford Univ. Press 2021) Here's the abstract:

National Human Rights Institutions: Rules, Requirements, and Practice is an authoritative guide to National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) in their important role as promoters and protectors of human rights at the national level. This book serves as both the first ever 'casebook' on the findings of the SCA, as well as a comprehensive reference for the requirements for compliance of NHRIs with the Paris Principles, and is a vital source of information on the actual practice of NHRIs.

Since its earliest assessments of NHRIs in 1998, the Global Alliance of NHRIs' (GANHRI) Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) has developed a substantive body of work that has examined the operation and practice of over 128 institutions in countries and territories from every part of the globe.

Analysed and catalogued in their entirety into an accessible format for the first time, and covering all aspects of NHRIs' structure and functioning, as well as providing a thorough overview of how the SCA works in practice, this book is an indispensable resource for scholars and practitioners who wish to understand and learn how NHRIs operate at the national level, as well as what problems they face and ultimately, how they can be strengthened.

New Issue: Journal du Droit International

The latest issue of the Journal du Droit International ("Clunet") (Vol. 148, no. 4, Octobre-Novembre-Décembre 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Hommage
    • Catherine Kessedjian, Geneviève Bastid Burdeau, Éric Loquin, Jean-Michel Jacquet, Marie Cornu, Ali Bencheneb & Franck Latty, Hommage à Philippe Kahn
  • Doctrine
    • Gwendoline Lardeux, De certaines hypothèses délicates du droit international privé des immeubles
    • Cédric Meurant, L’État étranger devant le juge administratif français
  • Variétés
    • Francesco Seatzu, Du Panel d’inspection de la Banque mondiale au Mécanisme de responsabilisation de la Banque mondiale : vraie réforme ou faux-semblant ?

New Issue: Revue Générale de Droit International Public

The latest issue of the Revue Générale de Droit International Public (Vol. 125, no. 3, 2021) is out. This issue is open access here. Contents include:
  • Jacques Dehaussy, Particularités essentielles de la personne morale, état et rapports entre ordres étatiques et ordre international. Observations critiques sur certaines théories doctrinales et conceptions proposées
  • Caroline Migazzi, Les zones franches en droit international public

New Issue: Journal of International Criminal Justice

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Vol. 19, no. 3, July 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Thijs B Bouwknegt, Genocide Never Sleeps. Living Law at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
  • Bertram Schmitt, Legal Diversity at the International Criminal Court: Reflections of a Judge
  • Chile Eboe-Osuji, The Cause of all Humanity: Why the United States should support the International Criminal Court
  • María García-Casas, The Crime of Unconstitutional Change of Government: Concept and Main Hurdles in Its Implementation
  • Lawrence Douglas, The United States and the ICC: The Court that Cannot Operate Against Us
  • Raghavi Viswanath, Hate Crimes Against Minorities in India: Locating the Value of an International Criminal Law Discourse?
  • Marina Lostal, De-objectifying Animals: Could they Qualify as Victims before the International Criminal Court?
  • Matt Halling, Guénaёl Mettraux, International Crimes: Law and Practice, Volume I: Genocide
  • Claus Kreß, Peter Frank, & Christoph Barthe, Functional Immunity of Foreign State Officials Before National Courts: A Legal Opinion by Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General
  • Gabriella Citroni, Consequences of the Lack of Criminalization of Enforced Disappearance at the Domestic Level: The Italian Experience
  • Sven Peterke & Carlos Vasconcelos, Born Under a Bad Sign: Was There a Widespread or Systematic Attack Against Rio de Janeiro’s Favela Population in 2018?
  • Keiichiro Kawai, Who Enforces an Arrest Warrant of the International Criminal Court? An Assessment of the ICC Appeals Chamber’s Surrogation of Jurisdiction Theory from the Perspective of International Organizations Law
  • Gabrielle McIntyre, The ICC, Self-created Challenges and Missed Opportunities to Legitimize Authority over Non-states Parties

Sunday, November 28, 2021

Simpson: The Sentimental Life of International Law: Literature, Language, and Longing in World Politics

Gerry Simpson
(London School of Economics - Law) has published The Sentimental Life of International Law: Literature, Language, and Longing in World Politics (Oxford Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

The Sentimental Life of International Law is about our age-old longing for a decent international society and the ways of seeing, being, and speaking that might help us achieve that aim. This book asks how international lawyers might engage in a professional practice that has become, to adapt a title of Janet Malcolm's, both difficult and impossible. It suggests that international lawyers are disabled by the governing idioms of international lawyering, and proposes that they may be re-enabled by speaking different sorts of international law, or by speaking international law in different sorts of ways.

In this methodologically diverse and unusually personal account, Gerry Simpson brings to the surface international law's hidden literary prose and offers a critical and redemptive account of the field. He does so in a series of chapters on international law's bathetic underpinnings, its friendly relations, the neurotic foundations of its underlying social order, its screened-off comic dispositions, its anti-method, and the life-worlds of its practitioners. Finally, the book closes with a chapter in which international law is re-envisioned through the practice of gardening. All of this is put forward as a contribution to the project of making international law, again, a compelling language for our times.

Robson: Capitulations Redux: The Imperial Genealogy of the Post–World War I “Minority” Regimes

Laura Robson (Pennsylvania State Univ. - History) has published Capitulations Redux: The Imperial Genealogy of the Post–World War I “Minority” Regimes (American Historical Review, Vol. 126, no. 3, pp. 978–1000, September 2021). Here's the abstract:
Scholars have long considered the post–World War I minorities regime—defined and encompassed by a series of “minorities treaties” with various Balkan, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern states and the construction of a “Minorities Commission” in the new League of Nations to enforce them—as a basically well-intentioned, if ultimately misguided, first step toward the concept of internationally guaranteed human rights. In fact, the minorities treaties had vanishingly little to do with European concern for actual minority populations anywhere. Rather, they represented a new iteration of an imperial vision that had marked relations between the Ottoman Empire and the European powers of Britain, France, and Russia since the late eighteenth century: the idea, enshrined in the so-called capitulations agreements, that non-Muslim communities within the Ottoman sphere could represent a site of European economic, political, and military intervention and redefine the Ottoman state—and now the emerging nation-states of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, and the Levant—as possessing a lesser form of sovereignty.

Elbahtimy: The Right to Protection from Incitement to Hatred: An Unsettled Right

Mona Elbahtimy
has published The Right to Protection from Incitement to Hatred: An Unsettled Right (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:
Against the backdrop of the new globalized hate speech dynamics, the nature and scope of States' obligations pursuant to international human rights law on prohibiting incitement to hatred have taken on increased importance and have become a controversial issue within multilateral human rights diplomacy. Key questions being posed in the on-going debates over how best to respond to the new wave of hatred include whether the international legal norm against incitement to hatred, as it currently stands, is suitable to address the contemporary challenges of this phenomenon. Alternatively, does it need to be developed further? This book traces the journey of this norm in three analytical domains; its emergence, relevant supranational jurisprudence, and the recent standard-setting attempts within the UN. The book argues that five internal features of the norm had a strong influence on its difficult path within international human rights law.

Iacovides: The Law and Economics of WTO Law: A Comparison with EU Competition Law's 'More Economic Approach'

Marios C. Iacovides
(Stockholm Univ. - Law) has published The Law and Economics of WTO Law: A Comparison with EU Competition Law's 'More Economic Approach' (Edward Elgar Publishing 2021). Here's the abstract:

This insightful book proposes taking inspiration from EU competition law structures to inform and implement a more economic approach in WTO law. The book provides a detailed account of the two legal systems regarding likeness, harm, and remedies, in order to draw comparisons. Taking a unique approach in synthesizing law and economics with comparative law methods, it considers WTO law holistically to propose a legal transplant from EU competition law to WTO law.

Drawing from EU competition law, the book generates comparative ideas that can improve the understanding of fundamental WTO concepts such as likeness, less favourable treatment, discrimination, trade harm, trade effects, and the level of permissible countermeasures. Based on this analysis, the author offers normative suggestions to improve the efficiency of WTO law through correct implementation of a more economic approach. As part of this approach, the author recommends an increased capacity for all key actors involved in WTO dispute settlement.

Morris: The Value of Refugees: UNHCR and the Growth of the Global Refugee Industry

Julia Morris (Univ. of North Carolina, Wilmington - International Studies) has published The Value of Refugees: UNHCR and the Growth of the Global Refugee Industry (Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 34, no 3, pp. 2676–2698, September 2021). Here's the abstract:
Human movement from conflict and the desire for different livelihoods have been abiding features of most social orders. Yet, the categorization of people as refugees and specific international refugee laws and welfare programmes is a recent endeavour. This article looks at the key factors driving the international refugee regime’s expansion. It argues that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has played a central role in this regard, advancing categorizations of displaced persons in refugee terms to ensure its survival and growth over the years. By tracing the historical development of the refugee regime, we can better understand how the control of human movement has become constituted in ways that foster organizational growth and geopolitical legitimacy, under the authority of humanitarianism.

Clooney & Webb: The Right to a Fair Trial under Article 14 of the ICCPR: Travaux Préparatoires

Amal Clooney
(Doughty Street Chambers) & Philippa Webb (King's College London - Law) have published The Right to a Fair Trial under Article 14 of the ICCPR: Travaux Préparatoires (Oxford Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:
The right to a fair trial is the most litigated human right in the world. Understanding the right requires reference not only to its interpretation by courts, treaty bodies, rapporteurs, experts, and scholars, but also to the preparatory work of the treaty (travaux préparatoires) and the circumstances of its conclusion. This volume brings together for the first time the complete travaux to Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with reference to the discussion regarding other articles where relevant. It traces the evolution of the text over more than a decade of the drafting process through a number of United Nations bodies. The materials reveal a lengthy and complex process of drafting the Covenant, the intentions of the delegates regarding the interpretation of certain provisions, and those issues that they left open for states parties to decide through their practice.

George: Incorporating Rights: Strategies to Advance Corporate Accountability

Erika George
(Univ. of Utah - Law) has published Incorporating Rights: Strategies to Advance Corporate Accountability (Oxford Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

Human rights have not been a central concern of corporate law. Corporate actors have not been a central concern of international human rights law. This book examines existing and emerging strategies that could conceivably close a global governance gap that places human rights at risk and puts commercial actors in the position of becoming complicit in human rights abuses or implicated in abuses when conducting business in emerging market economies or other complex environments. Corporate codes of conduct, sustainability reporting, and selected multi-stakeholder initiatives are presented as the building blocks of a system of strengthening "soft law" that could solidify to become binding baseline standards for better business practices. It explains the conditions that have given rise to constructive change as well as those methods and mechanisms with promise for ensuring that business enterprises incorporate human rights considerations into business operations.

This book explores how capital and consumer markets could provide an additional or alternative form of enforcement to promote responsible business conduct. It provides comparative accounts of the creation of industry sector specific regulatory instruments and governance institutions arising from allegations of corporate complicity in human rights abuses after conflicts with concerned constituencies and affected communities. It considers market-based strategies to bring business practices into alignment with the responsibility to respect human rights and examines how corporate social responsibility initiatives could close the governance gap and how codes of conduct could come to regulate like real rules. It argues that regulation through information is essential to ensure that corporate conduct will be informed by human rights considerations and that business policies and practices will be implemented consistent with respect for human rights.

Cox: The Risk of Obsolescence: Reframing the Contemporary Use of Force Model to Achieve a More Holistic Application of the UN Charter Jus Ad Bellum Construct

Brian L. Cox (Cornell Univ. - Law) has published The Risk of Obsolescence: Reframing the Contemporary Use of Force Model to Achieve a More Holistic Application of the UN Charter Jus Ad Bellum Construct (Canadian Yearbook of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
This article challenges the effectiveness of the prevailing interpretation of the contemporary use of force model that is centred on a decidedly narrow selection of relevant provisions of the Charter of the United Nations (UN Charter). In the now seventy-five years of the UN Charter era, predominant modes of armed conflict have evolved so as to be largely unrecognizable when compared to the model of war that was contemplated when negotiating and ratifying the Charter. Nonetheless, modes of engaging with an actual or contemplated use of force remain rooted in a model developed more than seven decades ago. This article suggests that a new frame of analysis is needed. The “Reframer” approach and “Purposes and Principles” model developed herein remain just as firmly grounded in the UN Charter as the prevailing interpretation. However, this novel approach and model incorporate a degree of nuance and adaptiveness that is not feasible when applying the prevailing interpretation of the contemporary use of force model.

New Issue: Diritti umani e diritto internazionale

The latest issue of Diritti umani e diritto internazionale (Vol. 15, no. 2, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Studi
    • Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque, ‘Figli di un dio minore’: migranti e rifugiati nel quadro della Convenzione europea dei diritti dell’uomo
    • Mariano J. Aznar, Il meccanismo di protezione dei diritti umani dell’UNESCO: il ‘Procedimento 104’
    • Lorenzo Acconciamessa, L’ammissibilità ratione personae dei ricorsi alla Corte europea di individui estremamente vulnerabili: uguaglianza sostanziale e tutela del diritto di accesso alla giustizia internazionale
  • L’‘esplosione’ del contenzioso interstatale sui diritti umani tra aspettative e realtà
    • Martina Buscemi, Cesare Pitea, Introduzione
    • Paolo Palchetti, Ricorsi interstatali in materia di diritti umani: uno strumento da maneggiare con cura
    • Beatrice I. Bonafè, Parallel Human Rights Proceedings Before International Courts and Monitoring Bodies
    • Elena Carpanelli, Il rapporto tra ricorsi interstatali e individuali dinnanzi alla Corte europea dei diritti umani
    • Lorenzo Acconciamessa, Le misure cautelari nei giudizi interstatali sui diritti umani: la prassi recente della Corte internazionale di giustizia e della Corte europea dei diritti umani
  • Interventi
    • Chiara Tea Antoniazzi, What Role for Human Rights in the International Climate Change Regime? The Paris Rulebook Between Missed and Future Opportunities
    • Andrea Crescenzi, La questione del rimpatrio di donne migranti a rischio di subire mutilazioni genitali
  • Osservatorio
    • Andrea Longo, The Use of Boycott as a Tool to Protect Fundamental Norms of International Law: The Baldassi Decision
    • Ludovica Poli, Sistemi scolastici inclusivi tra empowerment delle persone con disabilità ed ‘educazione alla diversità’
    • Raffaella Nigro, La giurisdizione della Corte penale internazionale sul Territorio Palestinese Occupato e la statualità della Palestina
    • Adele Del Guercio, Migrazioni connesse con disastri naturali, degrado ambientale e cambiamento climatico: sull’ordinanza n. 5022/2020 della Cassazione italiana
    • Anna Fazzini, ‘Buoni’ e ‘cattivi’ alle frontiere terrestri: la progressiva definizione del divieto di espulsioni collettive a margine della sentenza M.K.

New Issue: La Comunità Internazionale

The latest issue of La Comunità Internazionale (Vol. 76, no. 3, 2021) is out. Contents include:
  • Interventi
    • Georg Nolte, Parliamentary Authorization and Judicial Control of Deployments of Armed Forces Abroad – Constitutional Developments in Germany with a View to the Situation in Italy
    • Nicola Acocella, La scuola: acquisizione di un patrimonio culturale dato o sviluppo di nuove cognizioni, valori e modelli di comportamento? (Parte I)
  • Articoli e Saggi
    • Ugo Villani, Le Nazioni Unite tra crisi del multilateralismo e istanze di democratizzazione
    • Vasilka Sancin & Marko Krajnc, The Elusive Notion of ‘Peoples’ in the Context of Post- Colonial Self-Determination Claims: The Case of Nagorno-Karabakh
  • Osservatorio Europeo
    • Luigimaria Riccardi, The Main Factors Affecting the Role of the European Union Within Other International Organizations and Entities in the Light of the Current Practice
  • Osservatorio Diritti Umani
    • Alessandra Sardu, CEDU, ripudio e ordine pubblico nella recente giurisprudenza della Cassazione
  • Note e Commenti
    • Eduardo Savarese, Immunity of Heads of State from Arrest and State Cooperation: The Development of the ICC Argumentative Approach Under Article 87 of the Rome Statute in the Al-Bashir Case