Fouchard: The Standard of Review before the International Court of Justice: Between Principle and Pragmatism

Felix Fouchard (Univ. of Münster) has published The Standard of Review before the International Court of Justice: Between Principle and Pragmatism (Hart Publishing 2024). Here's the abstract:

This book examines how the International Court of Justice (ICJ) reviews State behaviour through the prism of the standard of review.

It develops a novel rationale to support the ICJ's application of deferential standards of review as a judicial avoidance technique, based on strategic considerations. It then goes on to empirically assess all 31 decisions of the Court in which the standard of review was at issue, showing how the Court determines that standard, and answering the question of whether it varies its review intensity strategically.

As a result, the book's original contribution is two-fold: establishing a new rationale for judicial deference (that can be applied to all international courts and tribunals); and providing the first comprehensive, empirical analysis of the ICJ's standards of review. It will be beneficial to all scholars of the Court and those interested in judicial strategy.

Lecture: Dehm on "Accounting for Carbon: Targets, Inventories and Risks"

On May 16, 2024, Julia Dehm (La Trobe Univ. - Law) will deliver a lecture (on Zoom) as part of the 2024 Public International Law Lecture Series. The topic is: "Accounting for Carbon: Targets, Inventories and Risks." Details are here.

New Issue: International Organizations Law Review

The latest issue of the International Organizations Law Review (Vol. 21, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: The International Law of Regional Organizations
• Samantha Besson & Eva Kassoti, The International Law of Regional Organizations – Mapping the Issues
• Fernando Lusa Bordin & Jed Odermatt, International Law of Regional Organizations: A Comparative Perspective
• Damian Chalmers, The Distinctiveness of Regional International Organization Law
• Guy Fiti Sinclair, Between Functionalism and Hegemony: Regional International Organizations in the History of International Law
• Samantha Besson, The Politics of Regional International Organizations: A New Dawn for the Political Legitimacy of International Law
• Fabia Fernandes Carvalho, Regional International Organizations and Regionalism in the Theory of International Law
• Catherine Brölmann, Regional Organizations in International Law: Exploring the Function-Territory Divide
• Apollin Koagne Zouapet, States and Regional International Organizations
• Kirsten Schmalenbach, The Relationship between rio s and the UN in Matters of Peace and Security: It’s Complicated
• Eva Kassoti, The European Union and Other Regional International Organizations: Tales of Solidarity

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 46, no. 2, May 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Payam Akhavan, Rebecca J. Hamilton, & Antonia Mulvey, "What Kind of Court Is This?": Perceptions of International Justice Among Rohingya Refugees
• Alexandra Byrne, Bilen Zerie, & Kelebogile Zvobgo, Producing Truth: Public Memory Projects in Post-Violence Societies
• Rebecca Hamlin, Jamie Rowen, & Luz Maria Sanchez, The Paradox of Diasporic Peacebuilding Amidst Violence: Providing Reparations to Colombians Abroad
• Skip Mark, Mikhail Filippov, & David Cingranelli, CIRIGHTS: Quantifying Respect for All Human Rights
• Dominic McGoldrick, Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom in Higher Education in England
• Sigrun I. Skogly, Prevention is Better than a Cure: The Obligation to Prevent Human Rights Violations

Call for Submissions: International Humanitarian Law Under Pressure (Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law)

The Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law has issued a call for submissions for its Volume 27 (2024) on the theme "International Humanitarian Law Under Pressure." The call is here. The deadline for abstracts is June 19, 2024.

New Issue: International Peacekeeping

The latest issue of International Peacekeeping (Vol. 31, no. 3, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Tamer Qarmout, Predictable in Their Failure: An Analysis of Mediation Efforts to End the Palestinian Split
• Jodok Troy, Ethics as Moral Practice in Peacekeeping Missions: Insights on the Importance of Ethical Training
• Kelsey L. Larsen & Elizabeth A. Stanley, How Stress, Trauma, and Emotion May Shape Post-Conflict Environments – with Implications for International Peacekeeping
• Luissa Vahedi, Sabine Lee, Stephanie Etienne, Sandrine Lusamba & Susan A. Bartels, Peacekeepers and Local Women and Girls: A Comparative Mixed-Methods Analysis of Local Perspectives from Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo

New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 35, no. 1, February 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• In This Issue; In This Issue – Reviews; The Human ChatGPT – The Use and Abuse of Research Assistants; Professor Francesco Francioni (1942–2024); Vital Statistics: Behind the Numbers
• EJIL Foreword
• Karen Knop, Looking at Portraits
• Articles
• Luíza Leão Soares Pereira & Fabio Costa Morosini, Textbooks as Markers and Makers of International Law: A Brazilian Case Study
• Artur Simonyan, International Lawyers in Post-Soviet Eurasia: Decoding the Divisibility
• Andrew Lang, ‘Global Disordering’: Practices of Reflexivity in Global Economic Governance
• EJIL: Debate!
• Emanuel Castellarin, Is Imitation Really Flattery? The UK’s Trade Continuity Agreements: A Reply to Joris Larik
• Roaming Charges
• Moments of Dignity: Bereavement
• Critical Review of Jurisprudence
• Fleur van Leeuwen, Epistemic Blind Spots, Misconceptions and Stereotypes: The Home Birth Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights
• Ben Czapnik, Consistency Testing in WTO Law and the Special Case of Moral Regulation
• ESIL Corner
• Jean d’Aspremont, Fairness and the Quaintness of International Legal Debates in Europe
• Federica Cristani, ‘Is International Law Fair? Le droit international est-il juste?’: A Few Remarks from the 2023 ESIL Conference in Aix-en-Provence
• Review Essays
• Alan Tzvika Nissel, One State’s Rebel Is Another State’s Agent
• Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi, Anti-Solutionism and Anti-Formalism in Global Algorithmic Governance Studies
• Book Reviews
• Melanie O’Brien, reviewing Melinda Rankin, De Facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era: With My Own Eyes
• Anne Saab, reviewing Matias E. Margulis, Shadow Negotiators: How UN Organizations Shape the Rules of World Trade for Food Security
• Jan Klabbers, reviewing Swati Srivastava, Hybrid Sovereignty in World Politics
• Serena Forlati, reviewing Freya Baetens (ed.), Identity and Diversity on the International Bench: Who Is the Judge?
• The Last Page
• Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali 92

Wentker: Neutrality in International Legal Thought

Alexander Wentker (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) has posted Neutrality in International Legal Thought (in Research Handbook on International Legal Theory and War, Tom Dannenbaum & Eliav Lieblich eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This chapter discusses the key debates surrounding neutrality that international legal thought has had to grapple with. It shows how international legal thought has made sense of an institution that has been shaped by States’ pragmatic mindset in developing and invoking it. The chapter analyses how scholarship has positioned and continuously re-positioned neutrality within a dramatically changing international order in which neutrality has proved stubbornly resilient. In doing so, the chapter demonstrates that, however marginal neutrality’s relevance to current international law may appear at first sight, theoretical reflection on neutrality helps in better grasping the current international legal regulation of war as a whole, and even structural developments in general international law beyond war.

Nollkaemper: Causation Puzzles in International Climate Litigation

André Nollkaemper (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Causation Puzzles in International Climate Litigation (Italian Yearbook of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The multiplicity of causes of climate change may make it very difficult, if not impossible, to establish causal connections between individual states’ greenhouse gas emissions and the harmful effects of climate change. This causation puzzle offers states a defence against claims that they would be responsible for harmful effects. However, the increasing body of national and international case law on climate change has shown that this puzzle need not preclude the determination of the responsibility of states and other actors contributing to climate change. This paper examines how courts have replaced unsolvable puzzles of cause-effect relations with normative standards based on the imperative to prevent global risks of climate harm. It also identifies the causation puzzles that courts have not (yet) cracked, notably concerning compensation.

Call for Papers: Legal Histories of Empire

A call for papers has been issued for the fourth conference on "Legal Histories of Empire," to take place July 10-12, 2025, at the University of Toronto. The theme is: "Empires in Touch." The call is here.

Call for Papers: Between crisification and legal resilience: Change and stability in EU external relations law

The Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER) and the Asser Institute have issued a call for papers for a conference on "Between crisification and legal resilience: Change and stability in EU external relations law," to take place October 11, 2024, in The Hague. The call is here.