Yildiz: Between Forbearance and Audacity: The European Court of Human Rights and the Norm against Torture

Ezgi Yildiz (California State Univ., Long Beach - Political Science) has published Between Forbearance and Audacity: The European Court of Human Rights and the Norm against Torture (Cambridge Univ. Press 2023). This book is available open access. Here's the abstract:

When international courts are given sweeping powers, why would they ever refuse to use them? The book explains how and when courts employ strategies for institutional survival and resilience: forbearance and audacity, which help them adjust their sovereignty costs to pre-empt and mitigate backlash and political pushback. By systematically analysing almost 2,300 judgements from the European Court of Human Rights from 1967–2016, Ezgi Yildiz traces how these strategies shaped the norm against torture and inhumane or degrading treatment. With expert interviews and a nuanced combination of social science and legal methods, Yildiz innovatively demonstrates what the norm entails, and when and how its contents changed over time. Exploring issues central to public international law and international relations, this interdisciplinary study makes a timely intervention in the debate on international courts, international norms, and legal change.

New Issue: Journal of International Peacekeeping

The latest issue of the Journal of International Peacekeeping (Vol. 26, nos. 2-3, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Re-imagining ASEAN and the Quest for Peace: Challenges and Prospects for Peacebuilding, Conflict Prevention, and Atrocities Prevention
• Noel M. Morada & Mely Caballero-Anthony, Re-imagining ASEAN and the Quest for Peace: Challenges and Prospects for Peacebuilding, Conflict Prevention, and Atrocities Prevention
• Desi Hanara, Safeguarding Freedom of Religion or Belief to Prevent Conflicts and Mass Atrocities in Southeast Asia: the Role of Parliamentarians
• Ma. Lourdes Veneracion, The ‘ASEAN Way’ of Women, Peace and Security: Norm Rhetoric or Implementation?
• Chanintira na Thalang, Resolving the Conflict in Thailand’s Southern Border Provinces: Contentions between Upholding State Authority and Human Rights within the ASEAN Context
• Rosalie Arcala Hall, The Civil Society-Military Interface in the Protection of Civilians: the Bangsamoro Case
• Moe Thuzar, Myanmar and the Responsibility to Protect: Principles, Precedents, and Practicalities
• Noel M. Morada, Responding to Atrocities in Myanmar after the February 2021 Coup: Options for ASEAN beyond Normative and Structural Constraints
• Mely Caballero-Anthony, Conflict Management and Atrocity Prevention in Southeast Asia: Making ASEAN “Fit for Purpose”

Collins & Geist: Research Handbook on Digital Trade

David Collins (City, Univ. of London - Law) & Michael Geist (Univ. of Ottawa - Law) have published Research Handbook on Digital Trade (Edward Elgar Publishing 2023). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This comprehensive Research Handbook analyzes the impact of the rapid growth of digital trade on businesses, consumers, and regulators. Leading experts provide theoretical and practical insight into how to manage the legal and policy challenges of the global digital economy.

Chapters cover key areas of digital trade policy and regulation, examining finance, investment, tax, AI, and security. Drawing from a broad spectrum of digital trade sub-specialisms, this Research Handbook explores diverse regional and national approaches to e-commerce, spanning Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. It scrutinizes the evolution of digital trade within the international trade system, assessing its inclusion within the WTO and the move towards digital-only agreements. Contributors investigate pressing legal controversies concerning trade protectionism, the recognition of intellectual property, and the safeguarding of personal data.

New Volume: Australian Year Book of International Law

The latest volume of the Australian Year Book of International Law (Vol. 41, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Lecture
• Anne Orford, The 2022 Annual Kirby Lecture in International Law: Why It’s Time to Terminate the TRIPS Agreement
• Special Issue: Four Societies Conference
• Karen N Scott, Introduction to the Special Issue
• Keith MacMaster, Sustainable Seabed Mining—The Phase 1 Environmental Draft Standards and Guidelines
• Makoto Seta, Environmental Impact Assessment of Offshore Windfarms in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Who Should Have Obligations?
• Norihito Samata, The Common Heritage of Humankind Principle and Marine Genetic Resources: A Critical Assessment of the BBNJ Process
• Ayako Hatano, Regulating Online Hate Speech through the Prism of Human Rights Law: The Potential of Localised Content Moderation
• José-Miguel Bello y Villarino, Global Standard-Setting for Artificial Intelligence: Para-regulating International Law for AI?
• Articles
• Regina Jefferies & Jane McAdam, Locked in: Australia’s COVID-19 Border Closures and the Right to Leave
• Georgina Clough, The Ongoing Significance of Federalism to Australian Treaty Practice
• Karen N Scott, The LOSC: ‘A Constitution for the Oceans’ in the Anthropocene?
• Rebecca Brown, Quarantine Island: Australia’s Health Policy and Its Construction of International Law

New Issue: Nordic Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law (Vol. 92, no. 3, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Nordic Perspectives on the International Legal Regulation of Cyberspace
• Marc Schack & Astrid Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Introduction to Special Issue on Nordic Perspectives on the International Legal Regulation of Cyberspace
• Marie Thøgersen, Virtual Groups and the Triggering of Armed Conflicts
• Marc Schack & Katrine Lund-Hansen, Attacking Data: Moving beyond the Interpretative Quagmire of the ‘Data as an Object’ Debate
• Pia Hüsch, Non-Intervention Thresholds in Cyberspace – In the Shadow of the Sovereignty Debate?
• Peter B.M.J. Pijpers, Careful What You Wish For: Tackling Legal Uncertainty in Cyberspace
• Henning Lahmann, The Plea of Necessity in Cyber Emergencies: Unresolved Doctrinal Questions
• Jeppe Mejer Kjelgaard & Ulf Melgaard, Denmark’s Position Paper on the Application of International Law in Cyberspace
• Marja Lehto, Finland’s views on International Law and Cyberspace
• Vibeke Musæus, Norway’s Position Paper on International Law and Cyberspace
• Ola Engdahl, Sweden’s Position Paper on the Application of International Law in Cyberspace

Zimmermann, Deitelhoff, Lesch, Arcudi, & Peez: International Norm Disputes: The Link between Contestation and Norm Robustness

Lisbeth Zimmermann (Goethe Univ. Frankfurt), Nicole Deitelhoff (Goethe Univ. Frankfurt), Max Lesch (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), Antonio Arcudi (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), & Anton Peez (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt) have published International Norm Disputes: The Link between Contestation and Norm Robustness (Oxford Univ. Press 2023). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

International Norm Disputes: The Link between Contestation and Norm Robustness offers a rich, comparative study of when and why contested international norms decline. It presents central findings on the link between contestation and norm robustness based on four detailed, contemporary case studies - the torture prohibition, the responsibility to protect, the moratorium on commercial whaling, and the duty to prosecute institutionalized in the International Criminal Court. It also includes two historical case studies - privateering and the transatlantic slave trade.

This book provides in-depth knowledge on contestation and robustness dynamics of central international norms. Having meticulously collected relevant data and conducted extensive qualitative coding, the authors demonstrate that norms are likely to weaken when challengers contest the validity of a norm's core claims but remain robust when they contest a norm's application and contestation does not become permanent.

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 27, nos. 9-10, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Children’s human rights under COVID-19: learning from children’s rights impact assessments
• K. Reid, E.K.M. Tisdall & F. Morrison, Children’s rights impact assessments in times of crisis: learning from COVID-19
• Kasey McCall-Smith, Good better best? Human rights impact assessment in crisis lawmaking
• Paige, Omima, Brodie, Katie Reid, Christina McMellon & Mary Ann Powell, My corona: listening to children in corona times
• Fiona Morrison & Claire Houghton, Children’s human rights in the contexts of domestic abuse and COVID-19
• Theresa Casey & John H. McKendrick, Playing through crisis: lessons from COVID-19 on play as a fundamental right of the child
• Laura Colucci-Gray, Reviewing the impact of COVID-19 on children’s rights to, in and through education
• A. MacLachlan, C. McMellon & J. Inchley, Public mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: impacts on children's rights
• Fiona Dyer, Claire Lightowler & Nina Vaswani, Exacerbating, illuminating and hiding rights issues: COVID-19 and children in conflict with the law
• Zoe Picton-Howell, The unintended consequences of school closures during COVID-19 on children and young people’s physical health rights -what are they and how can they be mitigated?
• Fiona Mitchell, Enhancing the use of Children's Rights Impact Assessments in ordinary and extraordinary times to understand the rights of children subject to statutory intervention in family life
• E. K. M. Tisdall & F. Morrison, Children’s human rights under COVID-19: learning from children’s rights impact assessments

New Issue: International & Comparative Law Quarterly

The latest issue of the International & Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 72, no. 4, October 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Eirik Bjorge, General Principles of Law Formed Within the International Legal System
• Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions and the Method of Treaty Interpretation
• Abbie-Rose Hampton, Mark Eccleston-Turner, Michelle Rourke, & Stephanie Switzer, ‘Equity’ in the Pandemic Treaty: The False Hope of ‘Access and Benefit-Sharing’
• Lisa Mardikian, The Right to A Healthy Environment Before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
• Tainá Garcia Maia, Challenging the Use of External Sources by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
• Pauline Martini, Joe Holt, & Maud Sarliève, Mass Deforestation as a Crime Against Humanity?
• Shorter Articles
• Eric C Ip, An Emergent Planetary Health Law
• Safaa Sadi Jaber & Ilias Bantekas, The Status of Gaza as Occupied Territory Under International Law

Stahn: Confronting Colonial Objects: Histories, Legalities, and Access to Culture

Carsten Stahn (Leiden Univ. & Queen's Univ. Belfast) has published Confronting Colonial Objects: Histories, Legalities, and Access to Culture (Oxford Univ. Press 2023). This book is available open access. Here's the abstract:

The treatment of cultural colonial objects is one of the most debated questions of our time. Calls for a new international cultural order go back to decolonization. However, for decades, the issue has been treated as a matter of comity or been reduced to a Shakespearean dilemma: to return or not to return. Confronting Colonial Objects seeks to go beyond these classic dichotomies and argues that contemporary practices are at a tipping point.

The book shows that cultural takings were material to the colonial project throughout different periods and went far beyond looting. It presents micro histories and object biographies to trace recurring justifications and contestations of takings and returns while outlining the complicity of anthropology, racial science, and professional networks that enabled colonial collecting. The book demonstrates the dual role of law and cultural heritage regulation in facilitating colonial injustices and mobilizing resistance thereto.

Drawing on the interplay between justice, ethics, and human rights, Stahn develops principles of relational cultural justice. He challenges the argument that takings were acceptable according to the standards of the time and outlines how future engagement requires a re-invention of knowledge systems and relations towards objects, including new forms of consent, provenance research, and partnership, and a re-thinking of the role of museums themselves.

Following the life story and transformation of cultural objects, this book provides a fresh perspective on international law and colonial history that appeals to audiences across a variety of disciplines.

Call for Papers: Genocide and the Ocean: Conceptualising their Relationship

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Genocide and the Ocean: Conceptualising their Relationship," to take place March 20, 2024, at the University of Kent, Canterbury. The call is here.

New Issue: Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 22, no. 5, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Priyamvada Yarnell, “Adding fuel to the fire”: Unconditional early release of perpetrators convicted by the ICTY, views from Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Sharon Jayoung Song, Digital feminism: In the aftermath of #MeToo, what’s next for workplace equity for women?
• Krystal Batelaan, “It’s like living in a black hole”: Reevaluating the use of solitary confinement during COVID-19
• Frédéric Mégret, Transitional justice for the “war on terror?”
• Shadi Mokhtari, Human rights as mockery of morality, manifesting morality, and moral maze
• Paroma Wagle, Contextuality of the strategy of human right to water: Struggle for water access to slum-dwellers in Mumbai, India
• Katie Morris, Food oppression in the United Kingdom: A study of structural race and income-based food access inequalities

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 67, no. 10, November 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Jonathan N. Markowitz, Arctic Shock: Utilizing Climate Change to Test a Theory of Resource Competition
• Kathryn Hedgecock & Lauren Sukin, Responding to Uncertainty: The Importance of Covertness in Support for Retaliation to Cyber and Kinetic Attacks
• Jin Mun Jeong, Sanctions-Busting, Material Power, and Institutional Support for Economic Sanctions
• Inken von Borzyskowski & Clara Portela, Global Governance From Below: Regional Sanctions as Drivers of UN Sanctions
• Johann Caro-Burnett & Eric Weese, UN Security Council Elections as an Incentive for Compliance
• Gautam Bose, Contributing to Peace
• Sergi Martínez, Vicente Valentim, & Elias Dinas, Symbolic Conflict Resolution and Ingroup Favoritism
• Ryan Van Wie & Jacob Walden, Excessive Force or Armored Restraint? Government Mechanization and Civilian Casualties in Civil Conflict

New Issue: The World Economy

The latest issue of The World Economy (Vol. 46, no. 10, October 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Teemu Makkonen & Timo Mitze, Geopolitical conflicts, sanctions and international knowledge flows: EU–Russia collaboration during the Ukraine crisis
• Erik Braun, Emese Braun, András Gyimesi, Zita Iloskics, & Tamás Sebestyén, Exposure to trade disruptions in case of the Russia–Ukraine conflict: A product network approach
• Richard A. Brecher & Zhihao Yu, Trade-induced reduction in unemployment of a high-wage economy
• Joonhyung Lee & Duy Vu Nguyen, The impact of the US–China trade war on domestic and multinational companies in China
• Rishav Bista & W. Charles Sawyer, Labour market rigidity and trade margins
• Jie Wu, Zechu Luo, & Jacob Wood, How do digital trade rules affect global value chain trade in services?—Analysis of preferential trade agreements
• Alessandro Nicita & Enxhi Tresa, The heterogeneous effects of trade policy on trade resilience during the 2020 trade downturn
• Jakhongir Kakhkharov & Nicholas Rohde, Remittance flows and informal economies in post-Soviet transition countries
• Armando Rungi, Loredana Fattorini, & Kenan Huremović, Measuring the input rank in global supply networks
• Yu Gao, Yin He, & Xiaopeng Yin, The impacts of export VAT rebates on market switch and productivity: Firm-level evidence from China
• Yuan Ma, Bernhard Brümmer, & Xiaohua Yu, Trade development and agricultural productivity change: Evidence from China
• Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, Kris Ivanovski, Kwabena Mintah, & Quanda Zhang, The impact of financial development on house prices

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 45, no. 4, November 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Hans Ingvar Roth, P.C. Chang and Charles Malik: The Two Philosophers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Eva Brems, UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies Talking to Domestic Adjudicators Through Their Quasi-judicial Work: An Examination of CERD and CEDAW
• Jean Connolly Carmalt, Human Rights, Remedy, and Everyday Geographies of Injustice: Perspectives from a Participatory Action Research Project
• Cosette D. Creamer & Zuzanna Godzimirska, Trust, Legal Elites, and the European Court of Human Rights
• Gauthier de Beco, The Revival of Human Rights: A New Perspective on Human Rights Through the Lens of Disability
• Mia Jeronimus, Suffering and Survival: The Experience of Dutch Women in Japanese Internment Camps in Java, 1941–45

New Issue: London Review of International Law

The latest issue of the London Review of International Law (Vol. 11, no. 2, July 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Article
• Juan J Garcia Blesa, Proportionality rhetoric and neoliberal rationality in the ‘fundamental social rights’ adjudication of the Court of Justice of the European Union
• Symposium: The multiple materialisms of international law
• Dimitri Van Den Meerssche, The multiple materialisms of international law
• Renske Vos, The land in sight: waiting for a Libyan government
• Negar Mansouri, Money, magic, and machines: International Telecommunication Union and liberalisation of telecommunications networks and services (1970s–1990s)
• Matheus Gobbato Leichtweis, ‘Transforming our world’? A historical materialist critique of the sustainable development agenda
• André Dao, Resisting the inevitable: human rights and the data society
• Daniel Ricardo Quiroga-Villamarín, Staging grounds: dialectics of the spectacular and the infrastructural in international conference-hosting

Terman: The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Works—and When It Backfires

Rochelle Terman (Univ. of Chicago - Political Science) has published The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Works—and When It Backfires (Princeton Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:

When a government violates the rights of its citizens, the international community can respond by exerting moral pressure and urging reform. Yet many of the most egregious violations appear to go unpunished. In many cases, shaming not only fails to induce compliance but also incites a backlash, provoking resistance and worsening human rights practices. The Geopolitics of Shaming presents a new theory on the strategic logic of international human rights enforcement, revealing why and how states punish violations in other countries, when shaming leads to an improvement in human rights conditions, and when it backfires.

Drawing on a wide range of evidence—from large-scale cross-national data to original survey experiments and detailed case studies—Rochelle Terman shows how human rights shaming is a deeply political process, one that operates in and through strategic relationships. Arguing that preexisting geopolitical relationships condition both the causes and consequences of shaming in world politics, she shows how adversaries are quick to condemn human rights abuses but often provoke a counterproductive response, while friends and allies are the most effective shamers but can be reluctant to impose meaningful sanctions.

Upending conventional wisdom on the role of norms in world affairs, The Geopolitics of Shaming demonstrates that politicization is integral to—not a corruption of—the success of the global human rights project.

New Issue: American Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the American Journal of International Law (Vol. 117, no. 4, October 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Laurence R. Helfer, Cecily Rose, & Rachel Brewster, Flexible Institution Building in the International Anti-corruption Regime: Proposing a Transnational Asset Recovery Mechanism
• Marko Milanovic, Revisiting Coercion as an Element of Prohibited Intervention in International Law
• Current Developments
• Kees Bastmeijer, Akiho Shibata, Imme Steinhage, Luis Valentin Ferrada, and Evan T. Bloom, Regulating Antarctic Tourism: The Challenge of Consensus-Based Decision Making
• Letter to the Editor
• Sean D. Murphy, In Memoriam Thomas Buergenthal (1934–2023)
• International Decisions
• Javier Garcia Olmedo, Zaza Okuashvili v. Georgia, Case V 2019/058
• Ole W. Pedersen, Partial Final Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility by the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. Case of Pavlov and Others v. Russia
• Monika Zalnieriute, In which the European Court of Human Rights pronounced on whether the Russian authorities had failed in their positive obligation under Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the ECHR to prevent the applicants from being exposed to significant environmental harms beyond the minimum threshold of what is tolerable. Glukhin V. Russia. App. No. 11519/20
• Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
• Legislation Enacted to Increase the Transparency of Binding and Non-Binding International Agreements Entered into by the United States
• The United States and Taiwan Sign Trade Agreement and Congress Enacts Law to Regulate the Negotiation and Approval of Taiwan Trade Agreements
• President Biden Issues Executive Order Restricting Outbound Investment in National Security Technologies and Products
• The Senate Provides Its Advice and Consent to Ratification of U.S.-Chile Tax Treaty After Eleven Years
• The United States Seeks to Counter China’s “Economic Coercion” Through Enhanced Cooperation and Coordination
• The United States Unveils Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy
• Recent Books on International Law
• Daniel Bodansky, reviewing International Legal Theory: Foundations and Frontiers, edited by Jeffrey Dunoff & Mark A. Pollack
• David Luban, reviewing Virtue in Global Governance: Judgment and Discretion, by Jan Klabbers
• Alex Mills, reviewing The Private Side of Transforming Our World: UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and the Role of Private International Law, edited by Ralf Michaels, Verónica Ruiz Abou-Nigm, and Hans van Loon
• Álvaro Santos, reviewing Six Faces of Globalization: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why It Matters, by Anthea Roberts and Nicolas Lamp