Beham: Atrocity Labelling: From Crimes Against Humanity to Genocide Studies

Markus P. Beham (Univ. of Passau - Law) has published Atrocity Labelling: From Crimes Against Humanity to Genocide Studies (Hart Publishing 2022). Here's the abstract:

Atrocity. Genocide. War crime. Crime Against Humanity. Such atrocity labels have been popularized among international lawmakers but with little insight offered into how and when these terms are applied and to what effect. What constitutes an event to be termed a genocide or war crime and what role does this play in the application of legal proceedings?

Markus P. Beham, through an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, unpicks these terms to uncover their historical genesis and their implications for international criminal law initiatives concerned with atrocity. The book uniquely compares four specific case studies: Belgian colonial exploitation of the Congo, atrocities committed against the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa, the Armenian genocide and the man-made Ukrainian famine of the 1930s. Encompassing international law, legal history, and discourse analysis, the concept of 'atrocity labelling' is used to capture the meaning underlying the work of international lawyers and prosecutors, historians and sociologists, agenda setters and policy makers.

New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added the following materials to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law: a Mini-Series on International Criminal Law by Paola Gaeta; a Mini-Series on International Investment Law by Chiara Giorgetti; and two lectures entitled Selected Issues on the Right to Reparation of Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Temáticas relevantes en materia de derecho a la reparación para víctimas de violencia sexual en conflictos armados by Clara Sandoval.

The Audiovisual Library of International Law is also available as a podcast on SoundCloud and can also be accessed through the relevant preinstalled applications on Apple or Google devices, or through the podcast application of your preference by searching “Audiovisual Library of International Law.”

Dothan: Social Networks and Nonlegal Sanctions: Compliance with International Courts

Shai Dothan (Univ. of Copenhagen - Law) has posted Social Networks and Nonlegal Sanctions: Compliance with International Courts (in Informality and Judicial Institutions: Comparative Perspectives, Björn Dressel, Raul Sanchez Urribarri & Alexander Stroh-Steckelberg eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Most international courts do not have effective mechanisms for enforcing compliance with their judgments and yet many of those judgments are nevertheless complied with. The reason must be that states are afraid of the reputational implications of disobeying international courts. States that fail to comply with an international court can expect to suffer a reputational sanction, but the magnitude of this sanction depends on the reputation of the court as well as the social network that surrounds it. If the court were able to change the behavior of states effectively before, the community of states is likely to expect compliance and punish with a strong reputational sanction any recalcitrant state. In addition to that, the unique network structure around the court can determine how painful reputational sanctions would be for the state because reputational sanctions result from the dissemination of information that changes beliefs. Networks that spread information quickly because they have many links between their core and their periphery can increase the reputational damage caused to states that fail to comply. So can networks that are good at processing information accurately because their structure prevents falsehoods from spreading. Realizing that, international courts invest more and more resources in building the social network that they interact with by changing the procedures for cooperation with third parties and providing training or guidance to numerous lawyers. International courts are constantly feeding their networks with relevant information and collaborating with them to put pressure on the states under their jurisdiction.

Kukavica: Towards a General Typology of Consensus Analysis: From Entrenching Divergence to Constituting Convergence

Jaka Kukavica (European Univ. Institute) has posted Towards a General Typology of Consensus Analysis: From Entrenching Divergence to Constituting Convergence (in Accommodating Diversity in Multilevel Constitutional Orders: Legal Mechanisms of Convergence and Divergence, Jakob Wischhoff Gašperin, Marjan Kos, Jaka Kukavica, Maja Sahadžić & Julian Scholtes eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Consensus analysis is a method of interpretation and an argumentative practice employed by some of the highest courts in multilevel legal systems, ranging from national federations to systems with origins in international law. In its most basic and most prevalent form, consensus analysis is used by courts when they interpret a legal norm of a higher-level legal order based on how this norm had been interpreted and implemented in lower-level legal orders – the constituent states. Though there is abundant literature on the applications of consensus analysis within specific jurisdictions, few, if any at all, have attempted to transcend the dependence of their analyses on a specific systemic context and to examine consensus analysis as a practice in the abstract. This chapter aims to begin to fill this gap. It analyses consensus analysis as used by the United States Supreme Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the European Court of Human Rights to inductively devise a general typology of consensus analysis as used across different courts and institutional contexts. Establishing this typology is instrumental to our understanding that consensus may serve either as a converging or diverging mechanism for resolving conflicts in multilevel legal orders. Which of the two functions it serves will depend on what type of consensus is used by a specific court in an individual case.

Roundtable: Missing Histories of International Economic Law Adjudication – Extraterritorial Quarters of the Past and the Present

On January 31, 2023, the ESIL Interest Groups on International Economic Law and on History of Internationation Law, together with Ghent University, KU Leuven, and UC Louvain, will host an online roundtable on “Missing Histories of International Economic Law Adjudication: Extraterritorial Quarters of the Past and the Present.” Details and registration are here.

Kraska, Long, & Nordquist: Peaceful Maritime Engagement in East Asia and the Pacific Region

James Kraska (US Naval War College), Ronan Long (World Maritime Univ.), & Myron H. Nordquist (US Naval War College) have published Peaceful Maritime Engagement in East Asia and the Pacific Region (Brill | Nijhof 2022). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Peaceful Maritime Engagement in East Asia and the Pacific Region includes contributions from the most influential figures in the law of the sea to provide context and direction for developing maritime governance in East Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Peaceful management of disputes includes cooperation over deep seabed mining, negotiations for a legally binding instrument on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction, contending approaches to baselines and East Asia maritime boundary disputes, freedom of navigation and maritime law enforcement. Chapters also explore new interpretations for preservation of the marine environment and the special problems posed by marine plastics and nexus between the ocean and climate change.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: Infrastructuring International Law

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on “Infrastructuring International Law.” The symposium includes an introduction by Benedict Kingsbury and contributions by Deborah Cowen, Miriam Ticktin, Edefe Ojomo, and Nahuel Maisley.

New Issue: La Comunità Internazionale

The latest issue of La Comunità Internazionale (Vol. 77, no. 4, 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Articoli e Saggi
• Simone Marinai & Bruno Nascimbene, Naturalizzazione: un problema di definizione
• Alessandra Pietrobon, L’eredità di Papa Benedetto XV per il Diritto internazionale e il nuovo dibattito sulla “guerra giusta”
• Leonardo Pasquali, Corti costituzionali, applicazione del Diritto internazionale e controlimiti
• Pasquale Pirrone, Différences culturelles et Droit international privé de la famille: brèves remarques
• Elisa Fornalé & Curtis F. J. Doebbler, A Checkered Past: The History of Detaining Migrants and Their Families in the United States
• Osservatorio Diritti Umani
• Giuseppe Emanuele Corsaro, Prime riflessioni su diritti umani e politiche fiscali nel Diritto internazionale: verso uno human rights-based approach?
• Note e Commenti
• Ilaria Infante, Considerations on the Bundesverfassungsgericht’s Order Regarding the Right of Self-Defence Against non-State Actors

Conference: 117th ASIL Annual Meeting

On March 29-31, 2023, the American Society of International Law will hold its 117th Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. The theme is: "The Reach and Limits of International Law to Solve Today's Challenges." The program is here. Registration is now open, with the early bird discount ending on January 23. Here's the idea:

International law seems to be perpetually in crisis. Profound questions abound regarding its functions, utility, relevance, and ability to provide solutions in a complex and changing world. The past few years have presented us with multiple challenges – from trade wars to a global pandemic to the worsening of climate change to the invasion of Ukraine – which have led some to question the role and value of international law as a tool for solving modern day crises.

As international lawyers, it is incumbent on us to question underlying assumptions and to revisit the aims of international law and its ability to provide solutions to crises, big and small. It is worth reflecting on the more modest wins of international law, and to query the reach – as well as the very real limits – of what international law is, and what it can do. It is only in challenging and questioning the reach and limits of international law that we can, as a community, navigate, and ultimately strive to reinforce and strengthen its importance.

Fahner: Maximising Investment Protection under the Minimum Standard – A Case Study of the Evolutive Interpretation and Application of Customary International Law in Investment Arbitration

Johannes Hendrik Fahner (Univ. of Amsterdam) has posted an ESIL Reflection on Maximising Investment Protection under the Minimum Standard – A Case Study of the Evolutive Interpretation and Application of Customary International Law in Investment Arbitration.

New Issue: World Trade Review

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 22, no. 1, February 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Domestic Investment Laws and International Economic Law in the Liberal International Order
• Julien Chaisse & Georgios Dimitropoulos, Domestic Investment Laws and International Economic Law in the Liberal International Order
• Jarrod Hepburn, The Past, Present, and Future of Domestic Investment Laws and International Economic Law
• Anastasios Gourgourinis, Domestic Investment Incentives in International Trade Law
• Anna Sands, Regulatory Chill and Domestic Law: Mining in the Santurbán Páramo
• Julien Chaisse, ‘The Black Pit:’ Power and Pitfalls of Digital FDI and Cross-Border Data Flows
• Georgios Dimitropoulos, The Right to Hospitality in International Economic Law: Domestic Investment Laws and the Right to Invest
• Kehinde Folake Olaoye & Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah, Domestic Investment Laws, International Economic Law, and Economic Development
• Xu Qian, Domestic Investment Laws and State Capitalism
• Tarald Gulseth Berge & Ole Kristian Fauchald, International Organizations, Technical Assistance, and Domestic Investment Laws
• Pasha L. Hsieh, New Investment Rulemaking in Asia: Between Regionalism and Domestication

New Issue: International Affairs

The latest issue of International Affairs (Vol. 99, no. 1, January 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Injustice and the crisis of international order
• Christian Reus-Smit & Ayșe Zarakol, Polymorphic justice and the crisis of international order
• Şahan Savaş Karataşli, Hegemonic world orders, distributional (in)justice and global social change
• Arnulf Becker Lorca, Contesting global justice from the South: redistribution in the international order
• Terry MacDonald, Political justice in a complex global order: rethinking pluralist legitimacy
• Barak Mendelsohn, Order, justice and inequality: the curious case of jihadist divine justice
• Robyn Eckersley, (Dis)order and (in)justice in a heating world
• Sandeep Sengupta, Climate change, international justice and global order
• Catherine Lu, Progress, decolonization and global justice: a tragic view
• Meera Sabaratnam & Mark Laffey, Complex indebtedness: justice and the crisis of liberal order
• Hitomi Koyama, Supposing the moral state: Japan and historical justice under liberal internationalism
• George Lawson & Ayșe Zarakol, Recognizing injustice: the ‘hypocrisy charge’ and the future of the liberal international order
• Articles
• Heidi Maurer, Richard G. Whitman & Nicholas Wright, The EU and the invasion of Ukraine: a collective responsibility to act?
• Arzan Tarapore, Zone balancing: India and the Quad’s new strategic logic
• Katja Lindskov Jacobsen & Karen Philippa Larsen, Liberal intervention’s renewed crisis: responding to Russia’s growing influence in Africa
• Outi Donovan, Promise or peril? Exploring the gender dimension of pragmatic peacebuilding
• Rhiannon Neilsen, Coding protection: ‘cyber humanitarian interventions’ for preventing mass atrocities
• Yao-Tai Li, Taiwan and the WHO: negotiating the deconstruction of racialized discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic
• F. Belder, S. Destradi, J. Gurol, C. Heras Rodríguez, M. Kölük, J. Martins, S. Rogel & Swarati S., Patterns of populist mobilization: comparing narratives on COVID-19 in the global South

New Issue: Global Responsibility to Protect

The latest issue of Global Responsibility to Protect (Vol. 15, no. 1, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Nilay Tüzgen & Gonca Oğuz Gök, Understanding the Policies of the BRICS Countries in R2P Cases: An English School Perspective
• Ferdinand Mbirigi, Assurance for Implementing the State’s Responsibility to Protect: Lessons from Burundian Practice
• Brendan Howe, Whose Responsibility? The Protection of Refugees in East Asia

New Volume: Annuaire français de droit international

The latest volume of the Annuaire français de droit international (Vol. 67, 2021) is out. The table of contents is here.

New Issue: London Review of International Law

The latest issue of the London Review of International Law (Vol. 10, no. 3, 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Ergün Cakal, Sensing suffering: on common-sense and compassion in the legal imagination and recognition of torture
• Alejandro Rodiles, Infrastructural developmentalism and its many types of global law: a comparative look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals and China’s Belt and Road Initiative
• Juliana Santos de Carvalho & Justina Uriburu, Problematising diversity: The change that international lawyers (do not) want for international courts
• Lys Kulamadayil, Grand theft in international law

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 40, no. 1, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Gauthier Vannieuwenhuyse, Exploring the Suitability of Arbitration for Settling ESG and Human Rights Disputes
• Bas van Zelst, Dealing with Accusations of Illegality in International Arbitration: Dutch Perspectives on the Interaction Between Private Law and Criminal Law Standards
• Panfeng Fu, The Complex and Evolving Legal Status of Ad Hoc Arbitration in China
• Sherif Elatafy, The Distinctive Aspects of Institutional Arbitration Under Egyptian Law

Gorobets, Hadjigeorgiou, & Westerman: Conceptual (Re)Constructions of International Law

Kostiantyn Gorobets (Univ. of Groningen), Andreas Hadjigeorgiou, & Pauline Westerman (Univ. of Groningen) have published Conceptual (Re)Constructions of International Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2022). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This timely book considers the ways in which international law, unlike domestic law, does not make itself known in a formalized, hierarchical structure, but needs to be conceptually (re)constructed by the participants and observers, out of a variety of practices and other elements. It explores such constructions, as well as how these images can be deconstructed and reconstructed. Bringing together contributions from expert scholars from a range of disciplines, from philosophy to international law scholars and practitioners, this book contrasts constructive, deconstructive and reconstructive perspectives of international law. Discussions on the topics are encouraged by eliciting responses from contributors on each other’s work. Throughout the book, chapters provide complementary views of key international legal concepts such as custom, legal interpretation, authority and sovereignty.

Call for Papers: Institutions for Conflict Resolution

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Institutions for Conflict Resolution," to be held September 28-29, 2023, in Utrecht. The call is here.

New Issue: Netherlands International Law Review

The latest issue of the Netherlands International Law Review (Vol. 69, no. 3, December 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Harry H. G. Post, The State of the International Criminal Court, of Special Tribunals and of International Criminal Law: A Concise Review
• Sofia Cavandoli & Gary Wilson, Distorting Fundamental Norms of International Law to Resurrect the Soviet Union: The International Law Context of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
• Martin Fink, Naval Blockade and the Russia–Ukraine Conflict
• Xuechan Ma, The ‘Commons’ Solution to Troubled Waters
• Anna Meijknecht, Hague Case Law: Latest Developments