Paulsen: The Past, Present, and Potential of Economic Security

Mona Paulsen (London School of Economics - Law) has posted The Past, Present, and Potential of Economic Security (Yale Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In a highly interdependent globalised economy, industrialised states have increasingly invoked economic security rationales to justify exceptional measures, even if they violate international trade rules. Over the past decade, governments have announced new economic security strategies that embed this logic in a range of trade issues, such as export controls, screening investment flows, or building resilient supply chains. Economic security is thus deeply embedded in modern policy frameworks. The conventional position among commentators is that these economic security strategies present novel threats to multilateral trade governance. But this Article demonstrates that the conventional position is short-sighted. Rich, detailed archival research reveals how ‘economic security’ claims are not dramatically new. The historical record provides evidence for why security has never been exceptional to the foundations of global economic institutions but is a structural feature that helped organise the competitive conditions among strategic resources and goods. The Article reconstructs the arguments for multilateral coordination on trade while pursuing economic security strategies in the early Cold War, helping commentators and governments assess each as constituting elements of an overarching plan for leadership in economic growth and military preparedness.

This Article comprises an in-depth archival investigation into two case studies where the United States (US) used trade to fulfil its foreign economic policies in the late 1940s and early 1950s. First, the US adopted unilateral trade controls to bar exports of technology and materials to Eastern Europe. While US businesses and Congress approved this strategy, the nascent international community brought together by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) offered targeted support to the US without confirming the legality, morality, or longevity of US plans. Second, the US established a conference of ‘free world’ economies to allocate the short supply of selective critical minerals and commodities after the invasion of Korea in 1950 – in what one US congressperson called a ‘super-government’ cartel.

Both case studies detail how the US carefully engineered legal principles, used different techniques to regulate trade among allies, and simultaneously relied on discriminatory practices against rivals. As history demonstrates, US trade policy never separated economics and security. A central lesson from this Article is that trade and multilateral coordination were vital to US economic statecraft. The Article depicts how governments underwent complex bargaining to dictate the breadth and depth of security interests for global economic governance at the dawn of the Cold War. Furthermore, it gives life to our understanding of the birth of global trade governance, addressing the trade-offs that every policymaker must make in weighing the future functions of law. Accordingly, by learning from history, states can reposition legal debates on pursuing multi-dimensional security imperatives while fostering strategies sensitive to how multilateral coordination can help sustain trade and alliances.

New Issue: Journal du Droit International

The latest issue of the Journal du Droit International ("Clunet") (Vol. 151, no. 1, Janvier-Février-Mars 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Doctrine
• Bernard Teyssié, Le droit à un environnement sain, déclinaisons nationales, européennes et internationales
• Héloise Meur, Entre la lettre et l'esprit de la loi EGALIM 3, quel avenir pour le droit international privé du « petit » droit de la concurrence ?
• Ludovic Chan-Tung, La juridictionnalisation de la guerre en Ukraine à l'épreuve du crime d'agression en droit international
• Variétés
• Alejandra Blanquet, L'articulation entre kafala et adoption : le cas espagnol et ses enseignements pour le droit international privé français
• Renan Le Mestre L'État libre associé de Porto Rico constitue-t-il encore une dépendance coloniale des États-Unis ?

Call for Papers: From Protection to Coercion: the Limits of Positive Obligations in Human Rights Law

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "From Protection to Coercion: the Limits of Positive Obligations in Human Rights Law," to take place October 3-4, 2024, at Lund University. The call is here.

Kulick & Waibel: General International Law in International Investment Law: A Commentary

Andreas Kulick (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) & Michael Waibel (Univ. of Vienna) have published General International Law in International Investment Law: A Commentary (Oxford Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

General international law is part and parcel of investor-state arbitration. This is the case not only regarding treaty law and state responsibility, but also with respect to matters such as state succession, the international minimum standard, and state immunity, all of which feature regularly in investor-state arbitration. Yet, although general international law issues arise in almost every investment case and often require extensive research, no systematic exploration of the relationship between the two exists. This Commentary is the first to fill this gap, providing a comprehensive treatment of the role of general international law in international investment law. It engages in detail with central matters of general international law, including in the practice of investment arbitration tribunals, moving beyond existing works which focus solely on procedural and institutional provisions.

The Commentary's forty-six chapters do not focus on a single source or subject. Instead, each concentrates on a specific, relevant article from a particular source of public law - such as the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) or the International Law Commission's Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (2001), among others. The entries combine detailed analysis with an examination of procedural and substantive aspects - such as nationality and unjust enrichment - and respond to the following questions: how have investment tribunals interpreted and applied the specific rule of general international law? To what extent and why does such interpretation and application align with or deviate from the practice by other international courts or tribunals? How could and should investment tribunals interpret and apply rules that have yet to feature in investment arbitration? This unique format means this commentary will serve as a central guide for all relevant case law and scholarship on international investment law.

2024 Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures

On March 12-14, 2024, Beth Simmons (Univ. of Pennsylvania) will deliver the 2024 Sir Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures at the University of Cambridge. The topic is: "International Borders in an Interdependent World."

New Issue: International Theory

The latest issue of International Theory (Vol. 16, no. 1, March 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Nancy Bertoldi, Property and international relations: lessons from Locke on anarchy and sovereignty
• Mitja Sienknecht & Antje Vetterlein, Conceptualizing responsibility in world politics
• Guillaume Beaumier, Marielle Papin, & Jean-Frédéric Morin, A combinatorial theory of institutional invention
• Itamar Mann, Law and politics from the sea
• Sebastian Schindler, Post-truth politics and neoliberal competition: the social sources of dogmatic cynicism
• Marina Vulović & Filip Ejdus, Object-cause of desire and ontological security: evidence from Serbia's opposition to Kosovo's membership in UNESCO

New Issue: International Journal of Transitional Justice

The latest issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (Vol. 17, no. 3, July 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• M Brinton Lykes & Colleen Murphy, Decolonizing Transitional Justice: Soft, Radical or Beyond Reform
• Articles
• Tine Destrooper, Remembering Martial Law: An Eco-System of Truth Initiatives and the Emergence of Narrative Documentation in the Philippines
• Anne Maree Payne & Heidi Norman, Truth-telling, Ancestral Remains and the Establishment of a National Resting Place in Australia
• Erdem Çolak, Re-Politicizing the Traumatic Body through Art: Guillermo Núñez, Ariel Dorfman and the Political Transition in Chile
• Anamaría Muñoz Rincón, The Complementarity Paradigm: Tracing the Transitional Justice Blueprint in the Inter-American System of Human Rights
• Rosario Figari Layus & Juliette Vargas Trujillo, The ‘Domino Effect’ of Ongoing Violence on Transitional Justice: The Case of Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace
• Anna Bryson & Kieran McEvoy, Human Rights Activism and Transitional Justice Advocacy in Northern Ireland
• Notes from the Field
• Michael Maguire, Notes from the Field: Lessons Learned from Investigating the Past in Northern Ireland
• Roger Merino, Lost in Transition: Explaining Authoritarianism in Peru
• Colleen Alena O’Brien, Imagining Collective Reincorporation: Perceptions of Colombia’s Novel Approach to Peacebuilding
• Review Essay
• James Gallen, The Challenges in Addressing Non-Recent Abuses in Ireland: Critical Engagements with Transitional Justice

Cavari, Efrat, & Yair: Do International Rankings Affect Public Opinion?

Amnon Cavari (Reichman Univ.), Asif Efrat (Reichman Univ.), & and Omer Yair (Reichman Univ.) have published Do International Rankings Affect Public Opinion? (British Journal of Politics and International Relations, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

International rankings push governments to adopt better policies by providing comparative information on states’ performance. How do citizens respond to this information? We answer this question through a preregistered survey experiment in Israel, testing the effect of rankings in the fields of human rights and the environment. We find that citizens respond to international rankings selectively. Informed about a high ranking given to their country, citizens tend to express a more positive assessment of the country’s performance. By contrast, they seem to dismiss poor rankings of their country. We further find that poor rankings on a polarising issue, such as human rights, might face a particularly strong resistance from citizens. Overall, our results engage with and support recent scholarship sceptical of the impact of international shaming on public opinion. Even gentle shaming – expressed through a low numerical grade – might not be well received by the public.