Saturday, March 4, 2023

Yilma: Privacy and the Role of International Law in the Digital Age

Kinfe Yilma
(Addis Ababa Univ. - Law) has published Privacy and the Role of International Law in the Digital Age (Oxford Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:

This book examines the role of international law in securing privacy and data protection in the digital age. Driven mainly by the transnational nature of privacy threats involving private actors as well as States, calls are increasingly made for an international privacy framework to meet these challenges. Mapped against a flurry of global privacy initiatives, the book provides the first comprehensive analysis of the extent to which and whether international law attends to the complexities of upholding digital privacy.

The book starts by exploring boundaries of international privacy law in upholding privacy and data protection in the digital ecosystem where threats to privacy are increasingly transnational, sophisticated and privatized. It then explores the potential of global privacy initiatives, namely Internet bills of rights, universalization of regional systems of data privacy protection, and the multi-level privacy discourse at the United Nations, in reimagining the normative contours of international privacy law. Having shown limitations of global privacy initiatives, the book proposes a pragmatic approach that could make international privacy law better-equipped in the digital age.

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 77, no. 1, Winter 2023) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Tom Long & Carsten-Andreas Schulz, Compensatory Layering and the Birth of the Multipurpose Multilateral IGO in the Americas
    • Livia Isabella Schubiger, One for All? State Violence and Insurgent Cohesion
    • Thilo N.H. Albers, Morten Jerven, & Marvin Suesse, The Fiscal State in Africa: Evidence from a Century of Growth
    • Brenton Kenkel & Jack Paine, A Theory of External Wars and European Parliaments
    • Frederick R. Chen & Jian Xu, Partners with Benefits: When Multinational Corporations Succeed in Authoritarian Courts
    • Kyosuke Kikuta & Mamoru Uesugi, Do Politically Irrelevant Events Cause Conflict? The Cross-continental Effects of European Professional Football on Protests in Africa
  • Research Notes
    • Jing Qian, James Raymond Vreeland, & Jianzhi Zhao, The Impact of China's AIIB on the World Bank
    • Stephen Chaudoin, How International Organizations Change National Media Coverage of Human Rights

Kanevskaia: The Law and Practice of Global ICT Standardization

Olia Kanevskaia
(Universiteit Utrecht) has published The Law and Practice of Global ICT Standardization (Cambridge Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:
This book presents a first comprehensive effort to explore the mechanics and fundamentals of global ICT standardization. It offers a comprehensive study of legal rules governing ICT standardization; systematically analyses governance and institutional features of some most prominent Standards Development Organizations; and presents qualitative empirical evidence on implementation of these rules in practice. By evaluating legal and procedural rules in light of current practices and tendencies in the industry, the book explores various options available for disciplining ICT standardization from the viewpoint of the applicable legislation, judiciary, and internal governance rules of Standards Development Organizations and offers practical solutions on how to increase the legitimacy of ICT standards. Adding to the previous theoretical approach to the field of standardization from historical, legal and political science perspective, this book applies theoretical considerations to unexplored scenarios, offering a holistic picture of ICT standardization and providing a novel contribution to the field.

Friday, March 3, 2023

Brunk: Central Bank Immunity, Sanctions, and Sovereign Wealth Funds

Ingrid (Wuerth) Brunk (Vanderbilt Univ. - Law) has posted Central Bank Immunity, Sanctions, and Sovereign Wealth Funds (George Washington Law Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Central bank assets held in foreign countries are entitled to immunity from execution under international law. Even as foreign sovereign immunity in general has become less absolute over time, the trend has been towards greater protection for foreign central bank assets. As countries expand their use of central banks, however, recent cases have limited immunity for certain kinds of sovereign wealth funds held by central banks. Sanctions on foreign central bank assets have also become more common, raising issues about the relationship between central bank immunity and the recognition of governments, the relationship between immunity and executive actions, and the denial of central bank immunity as a countermeasure.

This symposium essay explores recent developments in central bank immunity focusing on sovereign wealth fund litigation in Sweden, U.S. sanctions on Afghan central bank assets, and the global response to sanctions imposed on Russian central banks following the invasion of Ukraine. Some of these actions and cases do not and should not implicate foreign sovereign immunity. However, proposals to confiscate Russian central bank assets and U.S. litigation to turn Afghan central bank assets over to private plaintiffs, even if presented as countermeasures to secure reparations, would undermine significantly one of the increasingly rare areas of international economic law around which there is a global consensus: the immunity of foreign central banks from measures of execution.

New Issue: Human Rights Law Review

The latest issue of the Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 23, no. 1, March 2023) is out. Contents include:
  • Alice Venn, Rendering International Human Rights Law Fit for Purpose on Climate Change
  • Adaena Sinclair-Blakemore, Cyberviolence Against Women Under International Human Rights Law: Buturugă v Romania and Volodina v Russia (No 2)
  • Judith Bueno de Mesquita, Claire Lougarre, Lisa Montel, & Sharifah Sekalala, Lodestar in the Time of Coronavirus? Interpreting International Obligations to Realise the Right to Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

García-Salmones: The Necessity of Nature: God, Science and Money in 17th Century English Law of Nature

Mónica García-Salmones Rovira
(Univ. of Helsinki - Law) has published The Necessity of Nature: God, Science and Money in 17th Century English Law of Nature (Cambridge Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:
To understand our current world crises, it is essential to study the origins of the systems and institutions we now take for granted. This book takes a novel approach to charting intellectual, scientific and philosophical histories alongside the development of the international legal order by studying the philosophy and theology of the Scientific Revolution and its impact on European natural law, political liberalism and political economy. Starting from analysis of the work of Thomas Hobbes, Robert Boyle and John Locke on natural law, the author incorporates a holistic approach that encompasses global legal matters beyond the foundational matters of treaties and diplomacy. The monograph promotes a sustainable transformation of international law in the context of related philosophy, history and theology. Tackling issues such as nature, money, necessities, human nature, secularism and epistemology, which underlie natural lawyers’ thinking, Associate Professor García-Salmones explains their enduring relevance for international legal studies today.

New Issue: Revista de Direito Internacional

The latest issue of Revista de Direito Internacional (Vol. 19, no. 3, 2022) is out. Contents include:
  • História do Direito Internacional no Brasil
    • Paulo Roberto Almeida, Brazil and the 1919 Peace Negotiations: a newcomer among the greats
    • Roberto Guilherme Leitão & Rômulo Guilherme Leitão, Direito Internacional Imperial e a circulação de uma cultura jurídica hegemônica: por uma matriz desenvolvimentista brasileira
    • Alexandre Pereira da Silva, O Direito do Mar no Brasil em dois episódios: a "Guerra da Lagosta" e o mar territorial de 200 milhas marítimas
    • Henrique Lenon Farias Guedes & Marcilio Toscano Franca Filho, The arbitrator Epitácio Pessoa and the Brazilian approach to arbitration: an analysis of the settlement of disputes between public entities and foreign investors
    • Paulo Emílio Vauthier Borges de Macedo, O Direito das Gentes contra a escravidão em Padre Antônio Vieira
    • Marcos Pascotto Palermo & Alfredo de Jesus Dal Molin Flores, O Uti Possidetis como contribuição latino-americana ao Direito Internacional
    • Daniel Damasio Borges, Política externa, soberania e direitos individuais dos estrangeiros – o epílogo do caso Battisti à luz de uma análise histórica da jurisprudência do STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal)
  • Artigos
    • Sheikh Sultan Aadil Huque & Chimirala Uma Maheshwari, Importance of language rights of indigenous tribal minorities & their protection under the ambit of Human Rights Law
    • Alvaro Augusto Santos Caldas Gouveia & Igor de Holanda Cavalcanti, Comentários ao Relatório da Comissão de Direito Internacional da Organização das Nações Unidas sobre norma imperativa de Direito Internacional Geral (jus cogens)
    • Leonardo Rafael de Souza & Cinthia Obladen de Almendra Freitas, Construindo a cibersoberania na União Europeia: a cibersegurança na integração do ciberespaço europeu
    • Mohammad Owais Farooqui, Nazzal Kisswani, Sheer Abbas, & Tahir Qureshi, A legal analysis of the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) with special reference to East China Sea Air Defense identification Zone
    • Lorayne Finol Romero & Ronald Chacín Fuenmayor, La transparencia de la función pública en el derecho constitucional latinoamericano
    • Vivian Daniele Rocha Gabriel, Acordos Plurilaterais e Acordos de Livre-Comércio: encruzilhada ou caminho alternativo aos Acordos Multilaterais de Comércio?
    • Rafael Gonçalves Mota, Direito Internacional Humanitário e as armas autônomas letais
    • Maria Valentina de Moraes & Mônia Clarissa Hennig Leal, Acompanhamento nacional do cumprimento das sentenças proferidas pela Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos: um olhar para as experiências estrangeiras
    • Deo Campos & Raphael Carvalho de Vasconcelos, Podemos pensar num Direito Internacional Comparado? Viabilidades e obstáculos na fronteira entre Direito Internacional e Direito Comparado
    • Elvira Sydorova, Oleksandr Sydorov, & Elena Marchenko, State policy of Ukraine in the humanitarian sphere in the conditions of war
    • Svetlana Zharkenova, Yerkin Ongarbayev, Amanzhol Nurmagambetov, & Guzal Galiakbarova, State Support for Compatriots: Improving Kazakhstan Legislation

Call for Papers: Professionals and Professionalism(s) in International Criminal Justice

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Professionals and Professionalism(s) in International Criminal Justice," to be held July 14, 2023, at the University of Leeds. The call is here.

Thursday, March 2, 2023

Leiter: Making the World Safe for Investment: The Protection of Foreign Property 1922–1959

Andrea Leiter
(Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has published Making the World Safe for Investment: The Protection of Foreign Property 1922–1959 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:
Western governments, companies, economists and lawyers established the international legal order now known as international investment law to protect foreign property from a redistribution of wealth through domestic law making. This book offers a pre-history of these legal arrangements, focusing on the time before 1959 and the ratification of the first bilateral investment treaty and the ICSID Convention. It introduces new archival material, such as arbitral awards, diplomatic notes and concession agreements, as well as scholarly writings pertaining to developments in these proceedings. These materials are systematised into a coherent argument on the protection of foreign property. The book develops the important role of concession agreements and their internationalisation for the making of international investment law, thereby insisting on the private law character of the foundations of the field. In doing so it displays the analytic force of viewing law as jurisdictional practice, rather than as a system of norms.

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 18, no. 3, 2023) is out. Contents include:
  • Fernando Piérola-Castro, The WTO Panel Report in United States - Safeguard on Washers (Part I)
  • Atia Hussain, Zain Satardien, & Walaa Wahid Elkelish, Customs Law: Deal Maker or Breaker in Mergers & Acquistions? The UAE Perspective
  • Abhay Singh & Sanjeevi Shanthakumar, Green Shipping and Trade: Allocating Costs of the IMO Sulphur Regulation 2020
  • Alessandro Fruscione, The European Commission Proposes a Regulation to Ban Products Made With Forced Labour

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

New Issue: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

The latest issue of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (Vol. 23, no. 1, March 2023) is out. Contents include:
  • Javier Gonzales-Iwanciw, Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, & Art Dewulf, How does the UNFCCC enable multi-level learning for the governance of adaptation?
  • Joseph Earsom, It’s not as simple as copy/paste: the EU’s remobilisation of the High Ambition Coalition in international climate governance
  • Cedar Morton & Murray Rutherford, The Columbia River Treaty’s adaptive capacity for fish conservation
  • Joanna Fatch, Alex Bolding, & Larry A. Swatuk, Boundaries of benefit sharing: interpretation and application of substantive rules in the Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa sub-basin of the Zambezi Watercourse
  • Hermine Van Coppenolle, Edith Brown Weiss: Establishing Norms in a Kaleidoscopic World

New Volume: Yearbook of Polar Law

The latest volume of the Yearbook of Polar Law (Vol. 14, 2022) is out. Contents include:
  • Gudmundur Alfredsson, Country Visits: Report on a Visit to the Ainu and Lessons for the Arctic
  • Yota Negishi, Jus Pro Homine, Natura et Animalis: Dignifying the Right to Life of Arctic Indigenous Peoples
  • Alexander Sergunin & Akiho Shibata, Implementing the 2017 Arctic Science Cooperation Agreement: Challenges and Opportunities as regards Russia and Japan
  • Apostolos Tsiouvalas, Recalcitrant Materialities of a Liminal Ocean: Deconstructing the ‘Arctic Nomos’
  • Yuanyuan Ren, U.S.-China Arctic Cooperation in a New Era of Great Power Competition: Opportunities and Challenges
  • Trevor Daya-Winterbottom, Legal Personality in Antarctica
  • Hanne Nielsen & Gabriela Roldan, Polar Policy in Practice: Tour Guiding in Antarctica
  • Gustavo Ramírez Buchheister, The 2018 Judgment by the European Court of Justice on Antarctic MPAS and Its Possible Significance to the Antarctic Treaty System
  • Marcelo Molina Villalobos, Antarctic Maritime Zones in the Era of Climate Change: ILC, ILA and the Long Road Ahead
  • Eva-Maria Svensson, Hjalti Ómar Ágústsson, & Embla Eir Oddsdóttir, The Pan-Arctic Report on Gender Equality in the Arctic: Moving Forward!  

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 62, no. 1, February 2023) is out. Contents include:
  • Alleged Violations of Sovereign Rights and Maritime Spaces in the Caribbean Sea (Nicar. v. Colom.), Judgment (I.C.J.), with introductory note by Yurika Ishii
  • Meta Platforms Ireland v. Bundesverband Der Verbraucherzentralen Und Verbraucherverbaende (VZVB) (C.J.E.U.), with introductory note by Kenneth Propp
  • Hossou v. Benin (Judgment on Jurisdiction) (Afr. Ct. H.P.R.), with introductory note by Scott Woodruff Lyons
  • Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation (U.S. Sup. Ct.), with introductory note by Emily Behzadi
  • ZF Automotive U.S., Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd. (U.S. Sup. Ct.), with introductory note by Kabir Duggal and Dianne Lake
  • “Maduro Board” of the Central Bank of Venez. v. “Guaidó Board” of the Central Bank of Venez. (UKSC), with introductory note by Mubarak Waseem
  • Memorandum of understanding between the government of the United Kingdom of great Britain and northern Ireland and the government of the Republic of Rwanda, with introductory note by Guy S. Goodwin-Gill

New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 33, no. 4, November 2022) is out. Contents include:
  • Editorial
    • EJIL Roll of Honour; 2022 EJIL Peer Reviewer Prize; Desk Rejections; 10 Good Reads; In This Issue; In This Issue – Reviews
  • Letters to the Editor
    • Nicolás M. Perrone, How Corporations Shape International Economic Law
  • Articles
    • Stephen Humphreys, Against Future Generations
    • Abhimanyu George Jain, International law and the Regulation of Autonomous Military Capabilities
    • Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, Decolonizing Cyprus 60 Years after Independence: An Assessment of the Legality of the Sovereign Base Areas
  • Focus on International Investment Law
    • Taylor St John & Anthea Roberts, The Originality of Outsiders: Innovation in the Investment Treaty System
    • Ingo Venzke & Philipp Günther, International Investment Protection Made in Germany? On the Domestic and Foreign Policy Dynamics Behind the First BITs
  • Roaming Charges: Rules We Like
  • Critical Review of Jurisprudence
    • Michelle Burgis-Kasthala, Time for Justice? Reading the Tragedy of International Criminal Justice in Lebanon
  • Critical Review of Governance
    • Natalie R. Davidson & Tamar Hostovsky Brandes, Israeli Courts and the Paradox of International Human Rights Law
  • Legal/Illegal
    • Kristen Eichensehr, Not Illegal: The SolarWinds Incident and International Law
    • Antonio Coco, Talita Dias, and Tsvetelina van Benthem, Illegal: The SolarWinds Hack under International Law
  • Review Essays
    • Ríán Derrig, What Can a Few Make of Mankind?, reviewing Harlan Grant Cohen and Timothy Meyer (eds), International Law as Behavior
    • Benoit Mayer, The Pitfalls of Ineffective Conceptualization: The Case of the Distinction between Procedure and Substance, reviewing Nina Le Bonniec, La procéduralisation des droits substantiels par la Cour européenne des droits de l‘homme : Réflexion sur le contrôle juridictionnel du respect des droits garantis par la Convention européenne des droits de l‘homme; Ioannis Prezas (ed.), Substance et procédure en droit international public. Dialectique et influences croisées; Jutta Brunnée, Procedure and Substance in International Environmental Law
  • Book Reviews
    • Andrej Lang, reviewing Gráinne de Búrca, Reframing Human Rights in a Turbulent Era
  • The Last Page
    • Emily Dickinson, 739. I Many Times Thought Peace had Come

New Issue: Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht

The latest issue of the Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (Vol. 82, no. 4, 2022) is out. Contents include:
  • Comment
    • Carolyn Moser, Die Zeitenwende: viel Zeit, wenig Wende?
  • Vorträge
    • Jochen Abr. Frowein, Der Warschauer Vertrag von 1970 nach 50 Jahren
  • Abhandlungen
    • Marie-Catherine Petersmann, Life Beyond the Law – From the ‘Living Constitution’ to the ‘Constitution of the Living’
    • Norman Weiß & Theresa Anna Lanzl, Die wechselvolle Geschichte der Mitgliedschaft Russlands im Europarat

New Issue: Revue Générale de Droit International Public

The latest issue of the Revue Générale de Droit International Public (Vol. 126, no. 4, 2022) is out. Contents include:
  • In memoriam
    • Jean-Pierre Queneudec, Jean Salmon (1931-2022)
  • Articles
    • Pavel Šturma, Responsabilité de l'État et droit international des investissements
    • Eric Seizelet, L'accord de stationnement nippo-djiboutien et le statut des forces japonaises d'autodéfense

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Langille & Trebilcock: Social Justice and the World of Work Possible Global Futures: Essays in Honour of Francis Maupain

Brian Langille
(Univ. of Toronto) & Anne Trebilcock (formerly, Legal Adviser, International Labor Organizations) have published Social Justice and the World of Work Possible Global Futures: Essays in Honour of Francis Maupain (Hart Publishing 2023). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
In this book, leading international thinkers take up the demanding challenge to rethink our understanding of social justice at work and our means for achieving it – at a time when global forces are tearing the familiar fabric of our working lives and the laws regulating them. When fabric is torn we can see deeply into it, understand its structural weaknesses, and imagine alterations in the name of resilience and sustainability. Seizing that opportunity, the authoritative commentators examine the lessons revealed by the pandemic and other global shocks for our ideas about justice at work, and how to advance that cause in the world as we now find it. The chapters deliver critical re-assessments of our goals, explore our new challenges, and creatively re-imagine trajectories for progress on two global fronts - via international institutions and by a myriad of other transnational techniques.

Borg, Attard, & Vella de Fremeaux: Research Handbook on Ocean Governance Law

Simone Borg
(Univ. of Malta), Felicity G. Attard (Univ. of Malta), & Patricia Mallia Vella de Fremeaux (Univ. of Malta) have published Research Handbook on Ocean Governance Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2023). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:
This authoritative Research Handbook offers wide-ranging coverage of both traditional and emerging topics dealing with the regulation of ocean space and highlights the key academic debates around ocean governance. It provides a formidable interface between the 1982 UNCLOS Convention and the international law regulating ocean governance, while influencing its further evolution through suggestions for future research in the field.

Bessler: The Death Penalty's Denial of Fundamental Human Rights: International Law, State Practice, and the Emerging Abolitionist Norm

John Bessler
(Univ. of Baltimore) has published The Death Penalty's Denial of Fundamental Human Rights: International Law, State Practice, and the Emerging Abolitionist Norm (Cambridge Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:
The Death Penalty's Denial of Fundamental Human Rights details how capital punishment violates universal human rights-to life; to be free from torture and other forms of cruelty; to be treated in a non-arbitrary, non-discriminatory manner; and to dignity. In tracing the evolution of the world's understanding of torture, which now absolutely prohibits physical and psychological torture, the book argues that an immutable characteristic of capital punishment-already outlawed in many countries and American states-is that it makes use of death threats. Mock executions and other credible death threats, in fact, have long been treated as torturous acts. When crime victims are threatened with death and are helpless to prevent their deaths, for example, courts routinely find such threats inflict psychological torture. With simulated executions and non-lethal corporal punishments already prohibited as torturous acts, death sentences and real executions, the book contends, must be classified as torturous acts, too.