New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 34, no. 4, November 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• In This Issue; In This Issue – Reviews; EJIL Roll of Honour; 2023 EJIL Peer Reviewer Prize; 10 Good Reads 2023
• Afterword: Antony Anghie and His Critics
• Ratna Kapur, TWAIL and Alternative Visions: ‘Talking About a Revolution’: Afterword to the Foreword by Antony Anghie
• Arnulf Becker Lorca, After TWAIL’s Success, What Next? Afterword to the Foreword by Antony Anghie
• Andreas von Arnauld, The Third World and the Quest for Reparations: Afterword to the Foreword by Antony Anghie
• Articles
• Joris Larik, Imitation as Flattery: The UK’s Trade Continuity Agreements and the EU’s Normative Foreign Policy border
• Hanna Eklund, Peoples, Inhabitants and Workers: Colonialism in the Treaty of Rome
• Year-Long Symposium: Re-Theorizing International Organizations Law: Reconsiderations, Hidden Gems, and New Perspectives
• Yifeng Chen, International Institutions as Forms and Fora: Rao Geping and the Law of International Organizations in China
• Kristina Daugirdas, Rosalyn Higgins on International Organizations and International Law: The Value and Limits of a Policy-Oriented Approach
• Devika Hovell, Jan Klabbers, & Guy Fiti Sinclair, Re-theorizing International Organizations Law: An Epilogue
• Roaming Charges
• Spot the Difference in Downtown Beirut: A Postscript to ‘Time for Justice?’
• Critical Review of Governance
• Anna Sophia Tiedeke & Martin Fertmann, A Love Triangle? Mapping Interactions between International Human Rights Institutions, Meta and Its Oversight Board border
• André Nollkaemper, International Law and the Agony of Animals in Industrial Meat Production border
• Armin Steinbach, The EU’s Turn to ‘Strategic Autonomy’: Leeway for Policy Action and Points of Conflict
• Legal/Illegal
• Anton Moiseienko, Legal: The Freezing of the Russian Central Bank’s Assets
• Ron van der Horst, Illegal, Unless: Freezing the Assets of Russia’s Central Bank
• Book Reviews
• Sigrid Boysen, reviewing Marie-Catherine Petersmann, When Environmental Protection and Human Rights Collide: The Politics of Conflict Management by Regional Courts
• Prisca Feihle, reviewing Alice Ollino, Due Diligence Obligations in International Law
• Sanna S. Lehtinen, reviewing Emily Jones, Feminist Theory and International Law: Posthuman Perspectives
• Christian J. Tams, reviewing Tommaso Soave, The Everyday Makers of International Law: From Great Halls to Back Rooms
• The Last Page
• Ricardo Reis (Fernando Pessoa), Quanta tristeza e amargura afoga

New Issue: Ocean Development & International Law

The latest issue of Ocean Development & International Law (Vol. 54, no. 4, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• H. J. Woker, Challenging the Notion of a “Single Continental Shelf”
• Apostolos Tsiouvalas & Jan Jakub Solski, ‘One Map to Rule Them All’? Revisiting Legalities Through Cartographic Representations of the Northwest Passage
• Gunnar Sander, European Approaches Support an Essential Definition of Ecosystem-Based Management and Demonstrate Its Implementation for the Oceans
• Aron Westholm & Gabriela Argüello, Dynamic Ocean Management in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction
• Sarah Lothian, The BBNJ Agreement: Through the Prism of Deep-Sea Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems

Allen & Trinidad: The Western Sahara Question and International Law: Recognition Doctrine and Self-determination

Stephen Allen (Queen Mary Univ. of London - Law) & Jamie Trinidad (Cambridge Univ. - Law) have published The Western Sahara Question and International Law: Recognition Doctrine and Self-determination (Routledge 2024). The book is available open access. Here's the abstract:

This book analyses recent developments concerning the application of the international legal doctrines of recognition and self-determination in relation to the Western Sahara Question. It investigates the emergent shift in favour of Morocco’s sovereignty claim to Western Sahara as apparent from the positions adopted by an increasing number of third States in the United Nations and the recent spate of third States establishing consulates in Western Sahara, with Morocco’s encouragement. It reflects on what the functioning of the doctrines of recognition and self-determination in this situation reveals about contemporary international law in practice more generally. The work will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students as well as practitioners of public international law who have a particular interest in decolonisation, self-determination disputes, and/or conflicts about natural resource entitlements. It will also appeal to readers with an interest in the work of International Organisations, including the United Nations, the European Union, and the African Union, and to specialists in international relations and regional politics.

Akinkugbe: The Challenge to the Rule of Law and Democracy in Contemporary West and Central Africa

Olabisi D. Akinkugbe (Dalhousie Univ. - Law) has posted The Challenge to the Rule of Law and Democracy in Contemporary West and Central Africa (in The Rule of Law under Pressure: The Enmeshment of International and National Trends, Gregory Shaffer & Wayne Sandholtz eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

After a moment that was characterized by a flurry of constitutional reforms and elections, coups have returned in some states in Western, Central and Sahel regions in Africa. The rule of law and democratic governance have come under significant stress. A confluence of events – colonial legacies, uprisings, regional conflicts, term elongation, challenges to the dynastic style of leadership, and the rising incidence of coups – challenge the entrenchment of the rule of law in contemporary Africa. Focusing on period between 2020 and 2023, the chapter asks: Against the background of recent coups, how should we analyze the rule of law in contemporary Africa? Is the decline of the rule of law and democratic governance in sub-Saharan Africa as a region overstated, given that the coups are concentrated in Francophone West Africa and the Sahel region? How should we think of the role of geopolitical contestations and colonial linkages in unsettling democratic regimes and eroding the rule of law in Africa?

Mührel: The Authority of the International Committee of the Red Cross: Determining What International Humanitarian Law Is

Linus Mührel (Technische Universität Dresden; Danckert Bärlein & Partner Rechtsanwälte) has published The Authority of the International Committee of the Red Cross: Determining What International Humanitarian Law Is (Brill | Nijhoff 2024). Here's the abstract:

This book conducts the first ever comprehensive study of the ICRC’s interpretations and law-ascertainments. It analyses in detail their impact on the development of international humanitarian law and international law in general as well as the reasons for their impact. This analysis involves the discussion of the ICRC’s authority. Is it legal or just factual authority? The analysis also illuminates the direction that IHL – and international law in general – develops. This insight sheds light on the question of the current type of international law, i.e., what international law is and who makes it.

New Issue: International Journal of Refugee Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Refugee Law (Vol. 35, no. 3, October 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Maja Janmyr & Charlotte Lysa, Saudi Arabia and the International Refugee Regime
• Berfin Nur Osso, Unpacking the Safe Third Country Concept in the European Union: B/orders, Legal Spaces, and Asylum in the Shadow of Externalization
• Cristina Saenz Perez, The Securitization of Asylum: A Review of UK Asylum Laws Post-Brexit
• Margit Ammer & Monika Mayrhofer, Cross-Border Disaster Displacement and Non-Refoulement under Article 3 of the ECHR: An Analysis of the European Union and Austria

New Issue: African Journal of International and Comparative Law

The latest issue of the African Journal of International and Comparative Law (Vol. 31, no. 4, November 2023) is out. Contents include:

• M. R. Makhari, Post-Colonial Traditional Courts in Botswana, the Kingdom of Eswatini and South Africa
• Sylvester Anya, Ndubuisi Nwafor & Collins Ajibo, Patterns of State Behaviour and Cooperation with the ICC: Whither Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal
• Zia Akhtar, Universal Jurisdiction, Jus Cogens, and Suppression Conventions in the Aftermath of Lockerbie
• Benedict Abrahamson Chigara, Torrens Imperatives for SADC Fast-track Land Reform Programmes
• Albert Quashigah & Yorm A. Abledu, Criminalising and Punishing Non-Compliance with Petroleum Revenue Laws in Africa: Ghana's Experience with Non-Compliance
• Jo-Marí Visser & Deonay Scholtz, Warnings From the West: Identification and Expert Evidence as Causes of Wrongful Convictions and the Implications for South Africa (Part 1)
• Elinam De Souza, The Role of Law in Shaping a Single Currency: The European Experience in a West African Context
• Bounekhel Abdellah & Aouachria Rokaya, The Role of the Practices of the International and Regional Human Rights Treaty Bodies in the Development and Codification of the Rules of International Law – The Reservation to Treaties as a Model
• Roseline Omoye Ehiemua, Advancing Women's Rights to Joint Ownership of Matrimonial Property in Nigeria: Using Kenya as a Model

New Issue: Climate Law

The latest issue of Climate Law (Vol. 14, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Elizabeth Macpherson, Annick Masselot, David Jefferson, & Julia Gunn, A Critical Feminist Evaluation of Climate Adaptation Law and Policy: The Case of Aotearoa New Zealand
• Laely Nurhidayah, Shawkat Alam, Nurrahman Aji Utomo, & Agus Suntoro, Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition: The Societal Implications of Policy and Legislation on Renewable Energy
• Edwin Martin, Nur Arifatul Ulya, Syafrul Yunardy, Karlin Agustina, Dewi Meidalima, & Chuzaimah Chuzaimah, Navigating Mangrove Protection: A Jurisdictional Approach to Climate Action in South Sumatra, Indonesia
• Jenny Hall & Louis Koen, Taking Stock of the Scholarship on the Relationship between International Investment Law and the Need for Raised Climate Ambition

Workshop: Rethinking Human Rights Treaty Withdrawals

On March 14, 2024, the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights will hold a hybrid session as part of its Pick Our Brain Series. Başak Çalı and Larry Helfer will discuss "Rethinking Human Rights Treaty Withdrawals." Details are here.

Symposium: Law of the Sea: Climate Change and Other Recent Developments

On March 6, 2024, the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law will host a symposium on "Law of the Sea: Climate Change and Other Recent Developments." Details are here.

Merkouris, Kulick, Álvarez-Zarate, & Żenkiewicz: Custom and its Interpretation in International Investment Law

Panos Merkouris (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Andreas Kulick (Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen), José Manuel Álvarez-Zarate (Universidad Externado de Colombia), & Maciej Żenkiewicz (Nicholas Copernicus University of Toruń) have published Custom and its Interpretation in International Investment Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2024). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

At first glance, one may think of international investment law as a response to custom (or lack thereof), instead of a field of its application. However, in fact, the opposite is the case. The interpretation and application of customary rules and principles are the bread and butter of international investment law and arbitration. With a diverse range of expert contributors, this collection traces how customary international law is practised in international investment law. It considers how custom should be interpreted and how its rules and principles should be understood and applied by investor-state arbitral tribunals. Raising and addressing vital questions surrounding custom and international law, this collection is a necessary contribution to the scholarship of the theory and history of customary international law and international investment law. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.