Ramnath: Making Maritime Boundaries in the Bay of Bengal

Kalyani Ramnath (Univ. of Georgia - History) has published Making Maritime Boundaries in the Bay of Bengal (Law & History Review, Vol. 40, no. 3, August 2022). Here's the abstract:

This essay explores the making of maritime boundaries in the Bay of Bengal in the northern Indian Ocean, emphasizing the role of visualizations in establishing states' jurisdictional claims to unstable coasts and ephemeral islands. These include colonial-era revenue surveys of the Sunderbans, sketches of land formation in the Godavari delta appended to case papers in litigations, nautical charts and inspection reports of the seabed in the Gulf of Mannar, maps drawn at the time of partitioning the subcontinent in South Asia and satellite imagery of the Bay's littoral. These visualizations are the everyday materials that delineate sea space in law, as judges, lawyers and states navigate fluidity and fixity, accuracy and equity in international law.

New Issue: International & Comparative Law Quarterly

The latest issue of the International & Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 71, no. 4, November 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Frances Anggadi, What States Say and Do About Legal Stability and Maritime Zones, and Why It Matters
• Giulia Gentile & Orla Lynskey, Deficient by Design? The Transnational Enforcement of the GDPR
• Miles Jackson, The Definition of Apartheid in Customary International Law and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
• Yan Xu, A Multilateral Option for VAT in International Trade?
• Han-Wei Liu & Ching-Fu Lin, Constitutional Traditions as Boundaries In Standardising Administrative Rulemaking Through Trade Agreements
• Lottie Lane, Clarifying Human Rights Standards Through Artificial Intelligence Initiatives
• Christian Riffel, Indirect Expropriation and The Protection of Public Interests
• Shorter Articles
• Michelle Foster, Jane McAdam, Analysis of ‘Imminence’ in International Protection Claims: Teitiota v New Zealand and Beyond
• Mariana de Andrade, The Two-Step Methodology for The Identification of General Principles of Law

New Issue: Netherlands International Law Review

The latest issue of the Netherlands International Law Review (Vol. 69, no. 2, September 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue - Interpretation of International Law: Rules, Content, and Evolution
• Sotirios-Ioannis Lekkas & Panos Merkouris, Interpretation of International Law: Rules, Content, and Evolution
• Gleider Hernández, Law’s Determinability: Indeterminacy, Interpretative Authority, and the International Legal System
• Daniel Peat, Disciplining Rules? Compliance, the Rules of Interpretation, and the Evaluative Dimension of Articles 31 and 32 of the VCLT
• Irina Buga, The Impact of Subsequent Customary International Law on Treaties: Pushing the Boundaries of Interpretation?
• Kirsten Schmalenbach, Acts of International Organizations as Extraneous Material for Treaty Interpretation
• Eva Kassoti, Interpretation of Unilateral Acts in International Law
• Sotirios-Ioannis Lekkas, The Uses of the Outputs of the International Law Commission in International Adjudication: Subsidiary Means or Artefacts of Rules?

Angeleri: Irregular Migrants and the Right to Health

Stefano Angeleri (Queen's Univ. Belfast) has published Irregular Migrants and the Right to Health (Cambridge Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

In our globalised world, where inequality is deepening and migration movements are increasing, states continue to maintain strong regulatory control over immigration, health and social policies. Arguments based on state sovereignty can be employed to differentiate irregular migrants from other groups and reduce their right to physical and mental health to the provision of emergency medical care, even where resources are available. Drawing on the enabling and constraining factors of human rights law and public health, this book explores the scope and limits of the right to health of migrants in irregular situations, in international and European human rights law. Addressing these peoples' health solely with an exceptional medical paradigm is inconsistent with the special attention granted to people in vulnerable situations and non-discrimination in human rights, the emerging rights-based approach to disability, the social priorities of public health and the interdependence of human rights.

Book Talk: Cusato on "The Ecology of War and Peace: Marginalising Slow and Structural Violence in International Law"

On November 17, 2022, the History and Theory of International Law Interest Group of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law will host a talk by Eliana Cusato (Univ. of Amsterdam) on her book The Ecology of War and Peace: Marginalising Slow and Structural Violence in International Law. Requests for the Zoom link can be sent to the co-convenors (Kathryn Greenman and Valeria Vázquez Guevara) at htil.anzsil[at]gmail.com.

New Issue: International Peacekeeping

The latest issue of International Peacekeeping (Vol. 29, no. 5, 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Sally Sharif, Can the Rebel Body Function without its Visible Heads? The Role of Mid-Level Commanders in Peacebuilding
• Cale Horne, Megan Lloyd & Ashley Pieper, Explaining Police Misconduct in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, 2010-2019
• Wukki Kim & Todd Sandler, How Do Non-UN Peacekeepers Affect Civilian Violence? An Instrument Investigation

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 26, no. 9, 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Natalia Niedmann Alvarez, From the rule of law to a rule of rights: Political theory – public law – enlightenment – rule of law – public sphere
• Radu Mares, Regulating transnational corporations at the United Nations – the negotiations of a treaty on business and human rights
• Myriam Denov, Pok Panhavichetr, Sopheap Suong & Meaghan Shevell, ‘We vowed by force, not by our heart’: men’s and women’s perspectives on forced marriage during the Cambodian genocide
• Antonio-Martín Porras-Gómez, Constitutional bills of rights and democratic transformation in post-authoritarian scenarios
• Jon Wittrock, A human right to friendship? Dignity, autonomy, and social deprivation
• Wei Gao, The ECHR in action: its applicability and relevance for arbitration
• Heli Askola, Discrimination against dual nationals in the name of national security: a Finnish case study
• Frans Viljoen & Victor Ayeni, A comparison of state compliance with reparation orders by regional and sub-regional human rights tribunals in Africa: case studies of Nigeria, The Gambia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe
• Neville Harris & Sheila Riddell, Ensuring rights matter: England’s and Scotland’s frameworks for implementing the rights of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities

Orakhelashvili: Causation in International Law

Alexander Orakhelashvili (Univ. of Birmingham - Law) has published Causation in International Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2022). Here's the abstract:

In this cutting-edge book, Alexander Orakhelashvili addresses the doctrine of causation, examining its suitability to influence, or contribute to, the process of responsibility of State and non-State actors in international law. In doing so, the book considers the record so far and places the international legal system’s practical experience within its normative context.

Split into four chapters, the book begins by examining the workings of causation across various national legal systems, including the common law and the civil law systems. The central second chapter considers the doctrine of causation within the structure of the law of State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts, focusing mainly on the ways in which causation is both adopted and bounded within the international legal system. The next chapter deals with the practice of international courts and tribunals relating to causation, including the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, and the final chapter offers some critique of secondary literature on causation and related issues arising in national and international law.

Call for Papers: London International Boundary Conference

A call for papers has been issued for the fifth London International Boundary Conference, to take place December 12-13, 2022. The call is here.

New Issue: Journal of International Criminal Justice

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Vol. 20, no. 3, July 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Wissam Aldien Aloklah, International Efforts Against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria: Is There Hope for International Justice?
• Ignacio de la Rasilla, The Paths Not Taken? Episodic Crises and International Adjudication of the Crime of Piracy
• Christine Carpenter, Reconsidering Transitional Justice: Revolutions and Regime Change in 20th-century China
• Symposium: The Ntaganda Case and Individual Criminal Liability at the ICC
• Elies van Sliedregt & Bettina Weißer, Foreword
• Marjolein Cupido, The Control Theory as Multidimensional Concept: Reflections on the Ntaganda Appeal Judgment
• Hernán Darío Orozco López & Natalia Silva Santaularia, Reflections on Indirect (Co-)Perpetration through an Organization
• Philipp Osten, Indirect Co-Perpetration and the Control Theory: A Japanese Perspective
• Mikkel Jarle Christensen & Nabil M Orina, The International Criminal Court as a Law Laboratory: Professional Battles of Control and the ‘Control of the Crime’ Theory
• Johannes Block, Ordering as an Alternative to Indirect Co-Perpetration: Observations on the Ntaganda Case
• Readers' Comments
• Jacques B Mbokani, Achieving Justice for Child Survivors of Conflict-related Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Light of the Kavumu Case: A Reply to Perissi and Naimer

Paulsen: Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Strategy for Trade-Security

Mona Paulsen (London School of Economics - Law) has posted Let’s Agree to Disagree: A Strategy for Trade-Security (Journal of International Economic Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Unpredictable dynamics coupled with the WTO rules’ exclusivity of security challenge an institution that requires persistent coordination and transparency to function. WTO members need space to discuss – and disagree with – the intersection of security and trade policies. Deliberation of trade security is crucial for maintaining multilateral coordination, enabling governments, businesses, and individuals to navigate global economic networks. While members make (somewhat) use of existing WTO institutions and procedures, the exceptionalism and secrecy of security hinder information sharing and peer review of security-rooted trade practices. This article provides a descriptive analysis and prescriptions for WTO institutional techniques for addressing members’ security-related measures daily – that is, on a routine basis, via trade policy review and WTO notification processes. It shows that the trade community already possess the tools to manage the growing issue-area of trade and security. The unanswered question is whether WTO members see value in discussing security at the WTO.

Call for Papers: Progress and International Law - A Cursed Relationship?

The Working Group of Young Scholars in Public International Law (Arbeitskreis junger Völkerrechtswissenschaftler*innen) and the German Society of International Law (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht) have issued a call for papers for a conference on "Progress and International Law - A Cursed Relationship?" to take place at the Academy for European Human Rights Protection, University of Cologne, on September 22-23, 2023. The call is here.

New Issue: Global Responsibility to Protect

The latest issue of Global Responsibility to Protect (Vol. 14, no. 4, 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Nicholas Idris Erameh & Victor Ojakorotu, Consequentialism – Deontology Theorising, Armed Humanitarian Intervention, and the 2012-2013 Central African Republic Crisis
• Stacey Henderson & Leonie Muller, Afghanistan’s Forgotten Boys: Legal Pluralism and Impunity
• Maria Tanyag, A Murderous Plague: State Hypermasculinity, covid-19, and Atrocity Prevention in the Philippines

Lecture: Kriebaum on "The Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration - an effective remedy?"

On October 24, 2022, Ursula Kriebaum (Univ. of Vienna) will deliver the third lecture of the 2022-2023 Essex Public International Law Lecture Series. The topic is: "The Hague Rules on Business and Human Rights Arbitration - an effective remedy?" Details are here.

Symposium: The Law of Global Economic Statecraft

On October 24, 2022, the Dean Rusk International Law Center and the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law at the University of Georgia School of Law will host a symposium on "The Law of Global Economic Statecraft." Details are here.

New Issue: International Affairs

The latest issue of International Affairs (Vol. 98, no. 5, September 2022) is out. Contents include:

• International relations: the ‘how not to’ guide
• Daniel W. Drezner & Amrita Narlikar, International relations: the ‘how not to’ guide
• Richard Toye, How not to run international affairs
• Daniel W. Drezner, How not to sanction
• Amrita Narlikar, How not to negotiate: the case of trade multilateralism
• Harold James, How not to solve a financial crisis
• Cecilia Emma Sottilotta, How not to manage crises in the European Union
• Janice Gross Stein, How not to think like a hegemon
• Joseph S. Nye, Jr, How not to deal with a rising China: a US perspective
• Amitabh Mattoo, How not to deal with a rising China: a perspective from south Asia
• Igor Istomin, How not to interfere in another country’s domestic politics
• Stephanie Carvin, How not to war
• Valérie Rosoux, How not to mediate conflict
• Yuen Foong Khong, How not to learn from history
• Naazneen H. Barma & James Goldgeier, How not to bridge the gap in international relations

Wu: The EU’s Proposed Anti-coercion Instrument: Legality and Effectiveness

Chien-Huei Wu (Acadmia Sinica - Institute of European and American Studies) has posted The EU’s Proposed Anti-coercion Instrument: Legality and Effectiveness (Journal of World Trade, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The close integration of the world economy and global interdependence has introduced an opportunity for a foreign nation to interfere in the sovereign choices of a state through trade and investment restrictions. Economic coercion has been on an upward spiral and is painfully felt around the globe. The EU’s Anti-Coercion Instrument is an attempt to address this. Originally designed as an instrument to address the restrictive measures adopted by the Trump administration, the Instrument turned out to be a strong tool by which to respond to China’s economic coercion, stemming from Vilnius’ decision to accept Taiwan’s representative office. The European Commission tried to balance legality and effectiveness and decided to limit the definitional scope of economic coercion to that targeting the Union or its Member States, but the legality and effectiveness of the Proposed Regualtion are not unproblematic. In an era in which trade is being weaponized, normative power or civilian power does not help the EU to advance. The critical point here is how the EU can present a credible threat and withstand harm, as the pain from economic harm will first be felt by European economic operators and subsequently by European leaders.

Calamita & Berman: Investment Treaties and the Rule of Law Promise: An Examination of the Internalisation of International Commitments in Asia

N. Jansen Calamita (National Univ. of Singapore) & Ayelet Berman (National Univ. of Singapore) have published Investment Treaties and the Rule of Law Promise: An Examination of the Internalisation of International Commitments in Asia (Cambridge Univ. Press 2022). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Investment treaties are said to improve the rule of law in the states which enter into them. Fearing claims, governments will internalise international investment obligations into their decision-making processes, resulting in positive spill-over effects on the rule of law. Such arguments have never been backed by empirical research. This book presents an analytical framework for thinking about the internalisation of international commitments in governmental decision making that takes account of the complexities of governance. In so doing, it provides a typology of processes whereby international treaty obligations may be internalised by governments and identifies factors which may affect whether and to what extent international commitments are internalised in governmental decision making. This framework serves as the background for the main body of the book in which empirical case studies address whether and how a select group of governments in Asia internalise international investment treaty obligations in their decision-making.

Meili: The Constitutionalization of Human Rights Law: Implications for Refugees

Stephen Meili (Univ. of Minnesota - Law) has published The Constitutionalization of Human Rights Law: Implications for Refugees (Oxford Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

The Constitutionalization of Human Rights Law analyses how lawyers representing refugees use human rights provisions in national constitutions to close the gap between the Law and it's implementation. Focusing on five countries (Colombia, Mexico, South Africa, Uganda, the United States) the book examines how lawyers adapt creatively to social, political, and legal contexts. Many refugee-receiving states openly reject or passively ignore their obligation under international law to protect refugees. For this reason, cause lawyers (those who use the law to empower others) have turned to constitutionalized human rights law. While many countries likely included such provisions in their constitutions without intending to fulfil their commitments, cause lawyers have seized on them as a more enforceable means of rights protection.

This book theorizes a continuum of ever-more ambitious methods through which cause lawyers use constitutionalized human rights law to benefit refugees. Lawyers use different tools as they move along this continuum, including strategic litigation, training governmental officials in the applicable law, and various forms of informal advocacy. It makes important contributions to three strands of socio-legal literature. As to the effectiveness of human rights treaties, it provides qualitative evidence of how such treaties achieve greater significance when incorporated into national constitutions. As to refugee law, it analyses how international protections for refugees become stronger when domestic lawyers enforce them through national constitutions. And as to cause lawyering, it shows how refugee lawyers use constitutionalized human rights law to protect their clients.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: Derecho Internacional Latinoamericano / Latin American International Law

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on “Derecho Internacional Latinoamericano / Latin American International Law.” The symposium includes an introduction by Alejandro Chehtman, Alexandra Huneeus, and Sergio Puig (Spanish/English) and contributions by Helena Alviar-García and Laura Betancur-Restrepo (Spanish/English), Jorge Contesse (Spanish/English), Ana Micaela Alterio (Spanish/English), John Herlyn Antón Sánchez (Spanish/English), Marcela Prieto Rudolphy (Spanish/English), and Beatriz Garcia and Laurent Pauwels (Spanish/English).

Peters, de Hemptinne, & Kolb: Animals in the International Law of Armed Conflict

Anne Peters (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), Jérôme de Hemptinne (Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights), & Robert Kolb (Université de Genève) have published Animals in the International Law of Armed Conflict (Cambridge Univ. Press 2022). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Animals are the unknown victims of armed conflicts. Wildlife populations usually decline during warfare, with disastrous repercussions on the food chain, on fragile ecosystems and precarious habitats. Belligerents take advantage of the chaos of war for poaching and trafficking of animal products. Livestock, companion, and zoo animals, highly dependent on human care, are direct victims of hostilities. The book is the first legal analysis of these issues. It maps the framework of international humanitarian law, examining which and how the concepts, principles, and rationales can be applied and adapted for a better protection of animals. The contributions inter alia discuss precautions for animal civilians, problems of animal combatants and prisoners, a specific status for veterinarian personnel, the recognition of biodiversity hotspots as specially protected zones, and the potential of enforcement mechanisms. The concluding chapter draws together novel interpretations and reform proposals.

New Issue: Revue de Droit International et de Droit Comparé

The latest issue of the Revue de Droit International et de Droit Comparé (2022, no. 3) is out. Contents include:

• V. Depaigne, Responsable mais pas coupable ? Retour sur les notions de responsabilité et de complicité de la France dans le génocide des tutsis au Rwanda du point de vue du droit international
• H. Alrashidi, Les sociétés de financement ont elles droit aux intérêts dans le prêt à la consommation selon le droit koweïtien ?
• P. Vincent, Les moyens législatifs et réglementaires exceptionnels : l’exemple de la réponse à la crise du coronavirus approche comparée
• S.F. Sobze, Autochtonie et gouvernance locale : réflexion à partir de l’exemple du Cameroun
• I. Moumouni, La Cour africaine des droits de l’homme et des peuples est-elle devenue une Cour constitutionnelle suprême en Afrique ? À propos de l’affaire XYZ c. République du bénin du 27 novembre 2020

Conference: 30e anniversaire de la Déclaration sur la protection de toutes les personnes contre les disparitions forcées

On October 25, 2022, the Centre de recherche sur les droits de l’homme et le droit humanitaire at the Université Panthéon-Assas, the Association française pour les Nations Unies, and the Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale will hold a conference on "30e anniversaire de la Déclaration sur la protection de toutes les personnes contre les disparitions forcées." Registration and program are here.

New Issue: Journal of World Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Trade (Vol. 56, no. 6, 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Pierre Sauvé, Special and Differential Treatment as If It Could Be Reformed
• Joel Soon, Jurisdictional Conflict Between the World Trade Organization and Regional Trade Agreements: Res Judicata Revisited
• Gregory P. Corning, ASEAN and the Regime Complex for Digital Trade in the Asia-Pacific
• Chunlei Zhao, Implementing and Enhancing Labour Standards Through FTAs? A Critical Analysis of the Panel Report in the EU-Korea Case
• Giulia Claudia Leonelli, Export Rebates and the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: WTO Law and Environmental Objections
• Hyun Ji Chun & Dukgeun Ahn, Evolution and Limitations of the Lesser Duty Rule Under the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement
• Chenxi Wang, Special Economic Zones: The Subnational- National-International Nexus in China’s Integration With the International Economic Order

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 17, nos. 11/12, 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Ton Zuijdwijk, TRIPS and COVID-19 Vaccines: The New WTO TRIPS COVID-19 Waiver
• Jun Kazeki & Yuko Miwata, Challenges and Opportunities for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Measures in Japan and the World
• Atia Hussain, Zain Satardien, & Walaa Wahid Elkelish, The Rapid Changing Tax Environment in the United Arab Emirates: The Position of Customs in This Evolution
• William A. Kerr & Sidi Zhang, Is It Time to Revisit Agricultural Tariffs When Enhanced Human Health Is at Stake?
• Anhad S. Miglani, A Contemporary Contextualization of Security Under Article XXI of the GATT
• Joseph A. McMahon, Discipling Export Prohibitions and Restrictions to Promote Food Security
• Linus Nyiwul & Badar Alam Iqbal, Evidence on Divestment Motives: An Overview
• Alessandro Fruscione, Import VAT Is Not Part of the Customs Debt

New Issue: International Studies Review

The latest issue of International Studies Review (Vol. 24, no. 3, September 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Audrey Alejandro & Eleanor Knott, How to Pay Attention to the Words We Use: The Reflexive Review as a Method for Linguistic Reflexivity
• Adam Scharpf & Christian Gläßel, Career Pressures and Organizational Evil: A Novel Perspective on the Study of Organized Violence
• Nina C Krickel-Choi, The Concept of Anxiety in Ontological Security Studies
• Eglantine Staunton & Luke Glanville, Selling the Responsibility to Protect: The False Novelty but Real Impact of a Norm
• Giuliano Espino, Rediscovering Epistemic Coalitions Twenty Years Later: Using the International Olympic Committee to Build toward A Literature on Epistemic Institutionalism
• Larissa Fast & Róisín Read, Using Data to Create Change? Interrogating the Role of Data in Ending Attacks on Healthcare
• Michelle Bentley, A New Model of “Taboo”: Disgust, Stigmatization, and Fetishization
• Mark Stephen Berlin & Anum Pasha Syed, The Middle East and North Africa in Political Science Scholarship: Analyzing Publication Patterns in Leading Journals, 1990–2019
• Victor A Ferguson, Economic Lawfare: The Logic and Dynamics of Using Law to Exercise Economic Power
• Sarah von Billerbeck, Talk from the Top: Leadership and Self-Legitimation in International Organizations
• Bohdana Kurylo, Emergency: A Vernacular Contextual Approach
• Chong Chen, Jordan Roberts, Shikshya Adhikari, Victor Asal, Kyle Beardsley, Edward Gonzalez, Nakissa Jahanbani, Patrick James, Steven E Lobell, Norrin M Ripsman, Scott Silverstone, & Anne van Wijk, Tipping Points: Challenges in Analyzing International Crisis Escalation
• Changwook Ju, Why Do Military Officers Condone Sexual Violence? A General Theory of Commander Tolerance
• Patrick Vernon, Sexuality, Gender, and the Colonial Violence of Humanitarian Intervention
• Thomas Risse, Wiebke Wemheuer-Vogelaar, & Frank Havemann, IR Theory and the Core–Periphery Structure of Global IR: Lessons from Citation Analysis
• Jonathan Ring & Gary Uzonyi, Rethinking Tests of the IO Effectiveness Hypothesis: Evidence from Counter-Piracy Efforts in the Global South
• Brian J Phillips & Kevin T Greene, Where is Conflict Research? Western Bias in the Literature on Armed Violence
• Hans Peter Schmitz & George E Mitchell, Understanding the Limits of Transnational NGO Power: Forms, Norms, and the Architecture
• Jodok Troy, Intermediation between International Society and World Society: The Pope and the UN Secretary-General on “the Figure of the Refugee”

Call for Papers: The European Court of Human Rights Facing Populism and Authoritarianism: Time for System Change?

PluriCourts has issued a call for papers for a workshop on "The European Court of Human Rights Facing Populism and Authoritarianism: Time for System Change?," to take place April 27-28, 2023. The call is here.

Hall Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era: Think Global, Act Local

Nina Hall (Johns Hopkins Univ. - School of Advanced International Studies) has published Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era: Think Global, Act Local (Oxford Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era explores the role of digital advocacy organizations, a major new addition to the international arena. Organizations such as MoveOn, GetUp, and Campact derive power and influence from their ability to rapidly mobilize members on-line and off-line and are shaping public opinion on many issues including climate change, trade, and refugees. Research in international relations (IR) has highlighted the influence of non-governmental organizations, which wield power through their expertise and long-term, moral commitment to an issue. However, no IR scholars have explored the spread and power of digital advocacy organizations. Nina Hall provides a detailed investigation of how these organizations have harnessed digitally networked power and can quickly respond to the most salient issues of the day, and mobilize large memberships, to put pressure on politicians. She finds that these organizations operate in a globalized world but tackle transnational problems by focusing on national targets. This new generation of activists have formed a strong transnational network, but still see the state as the locus of power.

Call for Papers: 3rd Biennial Conference of the South Asia International Economic Law Network

The South Asia International Economic Law Network has issued a call for papers for the its 3rd Biennial Conference, which will take place December 16-17, 2022, in Kochi. The theme is: "Food Security and International Law: Critical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives." The call is here.

Park: The Good Hegemon: US Power, Accountability as Justice, and the Multilateral Development Banks

Susan Park (Univ. of Sydney) has published The Good Hegemon: US Power, Accountability as Justice, and the Multilateral Development Banks (Oxford Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

In 1993 the World Bank created the revolutionary World Bank Inspection Panel and, with it, a precedent under international law that allowed people to seek recourse for harm resulting from the projects the Bank financed in developing countries. This was the first time that a universal international organization recognized and responded to its impact on individuals. Within a decade of the Inspection Panel, other Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) created similar accountability mechanisms. These mechanisms embody a norm of "accountability as justice" that provides recourse for environmentally and socially damaging behavior through a formal sanctioning process.

In The Good Hegemon, Susan Park analyzes the "accountability as justice" norm: its creation, how it functions, and whether it holds the MDBs to account. Park tackles all of these issues using three central arguments. First, the book explains how the United States promoted this norm during debates over how to maintain MDB efficiency and effectiveness in the 1990s. Building on its history of using "accountability as control," the US sought to establish a norm of "accountability as justice" for all the MDBs, even when pressure from activists was absent or muted. Second, Park traces how the MDBs resisted conforming to the norm, leading the US to exert its influence and demand that the Banks reformulate the mechanisms. Third, the book demonstrates how the MDBs have institutionalized the norm over time: improving the accountability mechanisms' accessibility, transparency, independence, responsiveness to affected people, and the effectiveness of compliance investigations and MDB monitoring. Park also shows that, despite these gains, the "accountability as justice" norm is still corrective rather than preemptive; it tends to only come into effect after a transgression by the Banks.

A rigorous analysis of how institutions react to norm creation and diffusion--The Good Hegemon sheds new light on the responsibilities of international institutions and tells the story of how the US uses its influence for good on the global stage.

Call for Papers: Law in the Age of Modern Technologies

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Law in the Age of Modern Technologies," to take place February 10, 2023, at the University of Milan. The call is here.