ILR: Extended Hiatus

After more than eighteen years, the ILR blog is going on an extended hiatus.

New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added the following materials to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law: lectures in English and Spanish on “Ten Years of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals: Achievements and Challenges”, by Graciela Gatti Santana; lectures in English and Spanish on “Sovereign Debt Restructuring in relation to International Law”, by Mario J. A. Oyarzábal; and lectures in English and French on “International Law and Sustainability”, by Seline Trevisanut.

The Audiovisual Library of International Law is also available as an audio podcast on Apple, SoundCloud, and other platforms.

Call for Submissions: Advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice

The Polish Review of International and European Law has issued a call for submissions for a forthcoming special issue on "Advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice." The call is here.

Lorenzo: International Financial Institutions and Sustainable Development: Lawmaking and Accountability

Johanna Aleria P. Lorenzo (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has published International Financial Institutions and Sustainable Development: Lawmaking and Accountability (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

Balancing theoretical and practice-oriented elements, this book introduces researchers, teachers, and students in international sustainable development law to the IFIs' safeguard policies. It also scrutinizes the case law of independent accountability mechanisms that interpret those policies and afford recourse to individuals and communities adversely affected by development projects. The book's focus on the procedural and substantive features of IFIs' safeguard systems contributes to a more concrete understanding of these organizations' participation in the international lawmaking process on sustainable development. It puts IFIs in the spotlight and provides an international legal critique of their activities to match their notoriety in popular consciousness and to enhance their accountability to those they harm. By approaching international (economic) law and sustainable development through the lens of economic, environmental, and social issues arising in development projects primarily in the Global South, the book presents a needed counterbalance to existing literature on the topic.

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 79, no. 2, Spring 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Peter Schram, Conflicts that Leave Something to Chance
• Symposium on Climate Change
• Zuhad Hai, The Global Politics of Scientific Consensus: Evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• Sam S. Rowan, From Gridlock to Ratchet: Conditional Cooperation on Climate Change
• Justin Melnick & Alastair Smith, Shaming Paris: A Political Economy of Climate Commitments
• Research Notes
• Michaela Mattes & Jessica L.P. Weeks, Apology Diplomacy: The International Image Effects of Interstate Apologies
• Benjamin C. Krick, Jonathan B. Petkun, & Mara R. Revkin, Civilian Harm and Military Legitimacy: Evidence from the Battle of Mosul
• Michael Becher & Irene Menéndez González, Trade and the Politics of Electoral Reform

New Issue: International Journal of Refugee Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Refugee Law (Vol. 37, no. 1, March 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Antonio Fortin, More on the Meaning of ‘Protection’ in the Refugee Definition
• Christel Querton, Protection from Indiscriminate Violence in Armed Conflict: The Scope of Subsidiary Protection in the European Union
• Helge Årsheim, Finding Religion: Assessing Religion-Based Asylum Claims in Refugee Status Determination Procedures in Norway and Canada
• Pawat Satayanurug, Thailand’s National Screening Mechanism: A Case of Partial Acculturation to International Refugee Law
• Guy S Goodwin-Gill, Controlling the Discretion to Expel under Article 32 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees: Comments on the Meaning of Terms, particularly ‘Public Order’ and ‘Ordre Public’, and on the Importance of Judicial Control

New Issue: La Comunità Internazionale

The latest issue of La Comunità Internazionale (Vol. 80, no. 2, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Interventi
• Ennio Triggiani, È ancora vivo lo «spirito di Messina»?
• Articoli e Saggi
• Francesco Seatzu, The New UN Convention on Cybercrime: Between Securing Cyberspace and Undermining Fundamental Rights and Freedoms
• Andrea Caligiuri, Il regime giuridico dello spazio aereo sopra il territorio occupato del Sahara occidentale
• Eloisa M. B. Bellucci, Stato, moneta e criptovalute: il contributo delle Organizzazioni internazionali all’esercizio della sovranità monetaria
• Mariachiara Giovinzazzo, The Content of Obligation of Non-Recognition: Developments and Challenges in the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Israeli Policies and Practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
• Adelaide Francesca Daniela Luminari, Ecocidio e Corte penale internazionale: un nuovo crimine?
• Osservatorio Diritti Umani
• Pia Acconci & Agostina Latino, L’approccio One Health nel sistema interamericano di protezione dei diritti della persona, come garantito dalla Corte di San José
• Osservatorio Europeo
• Fabrizio Vismara, Le sanzioni economiche dell’Unione europea contro la Russia nel regolamento n. 2024/1745

New Issue: International Organizations Law Review

The latest issue of the International Organizations Law Review (Vol. 22, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Francis Maupain, The Right to Strike before the icj: A Historical Challenge to the Coherence and Impact of the ilo Supervisory System
• Tsung-Ling Lee, Informal Rulemaking at the World Health Organization: Technocratic, Iterative, and Political Constraints
• Varda Mone, Rahul Tilwani, CLV Sivakumar, & Shakhlo Fayzullaeva, Evaluating the Prospects of a UN-Backed Global Data Protection Authority: A Third World Perspective
• Niko Pavlopoulos, International Organizations and the ‘Emerging Right to Democratic Governance’
• Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou & Vassilis P. Tzevelekos, “Don’t Bother Quitting, Because You’re Fired”: Russia’s Expulsion from the Council of Europe

Ochi: Reparations to Future Generation before the ICC: Intergenerational Justice Accounts

Megumi Ochi (Ritsumeikan Univ. - Graduate School of International Relations) has posted Reparations to Future Generation before the ICC: Intergenerational Justice Accounts (Journal of International Criminal Justice, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article argues that it is just for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to order the perpetrator of core crimes to provide reparations to those who were not yet born at the time of the commission of the crimes (‘future victims’). Responding to the criticism that future victims are not eligible to receive reparations, philosophical explanations are proposed to justify the award of reparations to future victims at the ICC using different conceptions of intergenerational justice. First, a theoretical framework is developed to divide victims into contemporary and future victims and then future victims are divided into three types: independent, dependent, and community-level future victims. Next, several existing theories of intergenerational justice are applied to each type of victims, and the different causal links required are identified. In sum, theoretical justifications for the award of reparations will differ based on the conception of harm suffered by the victims. On the one hand, relying on the proposal by Lukas H. Meyer, independent future victims should be repaired for the identity-independent harm up to the extent of the threshold of their well-being. The required causal link is between the crime and the harm suffered by the future victims. On the other hand, based on the subsequent-wrong solution proposed by George Sher, reparations to dependent future victims should be understood as reparations for the harm caused by failure to repair the harm suffered by those who existed at the time of the commission of crimes. The required causal link is between the harm suffered by contemporary victims and the harm suffered by future victims. Reparations to community-level future victims can be explained using the concept of transgenerational community proposed by Avner De-Shalit. The required causal link in this case is between the harm suffered by the community and the harm suffered by the future victims.

Conference: "Silent leges inter arma?" Conference VIII

The International Society for Military Law and the Law of War will host the "Silent leges inter arma?" Conference VIII, on September 16-19, 2025, in Bruges. The program is here. The application form is here.

Call for Papers: Outer Space, New Tech and Future Space Settlement: Human Rights for the Final Frontier

The School of Law, Politics and Philosophy at the University of Waikato, in partnership with the AI Space Law Society, has issued a call for papers for a virtual conference on "Outer Space, New Tech and Future Space Settlement: Human Rights for the Final Frontier," to take place December 5, 2025. The call is here.

New Issue: Chinese Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chinese Journal of International Law (Vol. 24, no. 2, June 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Marcus Ramalho, The International Atomic Energy Agency and the “Starting Point of Safeguards”: A Case Study in Unilateral Treaty Interpretation
• Jonathan Hell, Acts of Aggression as Ipso Facto Violations of the Right to Life: Scrutinising the Human Rights Committee’s Proposed Link between Human Rights Law and the Jus ad Bellum
• Gracious Avayiwoe, Evidence and the “Gravity of the Alleged Offences” for Prompt Release of Vessels and Crews under the UNCLOS Regime
• Dan LIU, The Two Dimensions of the Post-war Territorial Status of the Ryukyu Islands
• Comment
• Marlen S Bissaliyev, Mart Susi, & Karimzhan Shakirov, Convergence between and among the Chinese, the EU and Kazakhstan Approaches towards Personal Data Protection against the AI in the Digital Sphere
• Comment and Review Essays
• Liliya Khasanova & Artur Simonyan, (Geo)politicizing International Law of Cyberspace in Post-Soviet Eurasia
• Akmal Saidov, Regionalism and Human Rights: Towards an Asian Human Rights Protection System

New Issue: Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights

The latest issue of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights (Vol. 43, no. 2, June 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Column
• Suzanne Egan, The value of law in human rights education scholarship: A call for legal engagement
• Articles
• Carlotta Rigotti & Clare McGlynn, Online and technology-facilitated violence against women: The EDVAW Platform’s contribution to human rights protection and monitoring
• Barrie Sander, Confronting risks at the intersection of climate change and artificial intelligence: The promise and perils of rights-based approaches

Conference: Approcci e principi di diritto internazionale dell’ambiente e tutela dell’ecosistema marino

On July 10-11, 2025, a conference on “Approcci e principi di diritto internazionale dell’ambiente e tutela dell’ecosistema marino” will take place at the University of Messina. Details are here.

Call for Papers: 2026 ESIL Research Forum

A call for papers has been issued for the 2026 ESIL Research Forum, which will take place April 9–10, 2026, and hosted by Jagiellonian University in Kraków. The topic is: “Sustainable International Law. Reconciling Stability and Change.” The Forum promotes engagement with research in progress by members of the Society in the early stages of their careers. The call is here. The deadline is September 30, 2025.

Roundtable: Technology Is Global

On July 3, 2025, the Law and Technology Interest Group of the International Law Association Swiss branch will hold its inaugural roundtable at the University of Lausanne. The theme is: "Technology is Global." The program is here. Registration (including online attendance) is here.

Perrone: International Law, Acceleration and Desynchronization

Nicolás M. Perrone (Universidad de Valparaíso - Law) has posted International Law, Acceleration and Desynchronization (European Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

According to sociologist Hartmut Rosa, the genuinely new thing about present-day globalization consists not in the international exchange of capital, goods or information ‘but rather in the speed with which they transpire’. Simultaneously, Rosa and others observe that not every aspect of social life accelerates at the same speed, which creates processes of desynchronization between and within the economy, society and politics. This article suggests that the literature on acceleration provides three important lessons for international law and its relationship with globalization. First, although many scholars have argued that international trade and investment law have considerably shaped present-day globalization, the acceleration literature suggests that the international law of transportation and communication have played an equally or more important role. Second, the speed at which different areas of international law evolve is a critical factor in understanding who wins and who loses in the global arena. This adds a new angle to the literature on the fragmentation of international law, which has generally overlooked the different temporalities of international regimes. Third, this article claims that experiences of predictability vary significantly depending on each actor’s relationship to processes of acceleration. In present-day globalization, some people experience stabilization, while others stand still.

Lecture: Ambos on “Genocide in Gaza, especially the special intent requirement?”

On July 14, 2025, Kai Ambos (Georg-August-University Göttingen - Law) will give the next lecture of the TwoLaW Lecture Series on the Laws of War. The topic is: “Genocide in Gaza, especially the special intent requirement?” Details are here.

Brennan: The Future of Outer Space Law

Anna Marie Brennan (Univ. of Waikato - Law) has published The Future of Outer Space Law (Routledge 2025). Here's the abstract:

The corpus of outer space law, including the Outer Space Treaty 1967, has faced multiple challenges and critiques. In recent times, these have included advances in technology, the militarisation of outer space, space debris, and geopolitics. The prominent and emerging contributors to this collection draw on diverse research frameworks to discuss proposals for the future of outer space law and policy. These include addressing regulatory gaps and under-examined and emerging areas of the law, but also beyond, the Outer Space Treaty – especially related to potential extraterrestrial settlements, satellites technology, self-defence, self-determination, and the environment. The book discusses the tensions between universalism and localisation, as well as the regionalisation of outer space law and policy – and how these approaches might adapt to create a dynamic space industry for the future.

Call for Chapters: Sustainable Development & Trade Imbalances – Prospects for Developing Countries

A call for chapters has been issued for a forthcoming volume on "Sustainable Development & Trade Imbalances – Prospects for Developing Countries." The call is here.

New Volume: Ocean Yearbook

The latest volume of the Ocean Yearbook (Vol. 39) is out. Contents include:

• Part 1: ITLOS Advisory Opinion Commentaries
• Kristin Bartenstein, The “Integrative Approach” in the ITLOS Climate Change Advisory Opinion: An Essay in Honor of Aldo Chircop
• Lisa Benjamin & Cymie Payne, The ITLOS Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and International Law: A Solid Legal Foundation for State Obligations on Climate Change
• Cecilia Engler, Strengthening the Legal Framework for the Ocean-Climate Nexus? A Commentary on the ITLOS Advisory Opinion on Climate Change and International Law
• David Freestone, Payam Akhavan, & Catherine Amirfar, The 2024 ITLOS COSIS Advisory Opinion: Delivering Climate Justice for Small Island States
• Part 2: The Law of the Sea and Ocean Governance
• Michelle Bender, Lydia Slobodian, Kristina M. Gjerde, Philippe Cullet, Pradeep Singh, & Chloe Olsen, The Rights of Nature and Legal Personhood in an Ocean Context
• Henning Dobson Fugleberg Knudsen, Michelle Campbell, & Kenneth Høegh, The 2022 Canada-Denmark/Greenland Maritime Boundary Agreement: A Model for Rules-Based International Order and a Stepping Stone to Greater Cooperation
• Michel Morin, Is the Common Heritage of Mankind Concept Obsolete or Still Relevant?
• Asia Murphy, To Freeze or Not to Freeze: An Analysis of the Approaches to Maritime Boundaries amidst Global Sea Level Rise
• Jeremy Raguain, Angelique Pouponneau, Tamara Thomas, & Sara Tjossem, Big Ocean States Leading the Way: Transitioning from Exemplars to Leaders in Ocean Governance
• Part 3: Marine Resource Management and Conservation
• Lucas Barsi, Mare Liberum to Mare Curare: The IMO’s Prospective Role in Implementing Area-Based Management Tools for the BBNJ Agreement
• Abdul Hafez Mahamah, West Africa’s Rising Tide: Shaping the Future of Marine Geoengineering Governance
• Aleke Stöfen-O’Brien & Lena Ebbinghoff, Navigating the Seas of Contamination: Regulating Forever Chemicals in the Ocean  
• Part 4: Shipping
• Youna Lyons & Sian Prior, Shipping Emissions Scrubbers and Sea Ice-Breaking in the Arctic: Reflections at the Interface of Shipping Regulations and the Law of the Sea Regime
• Sabrina Hasan, Regulating Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships: Recent Developments and Challenges
• Lamin Jawara & Tafsir Matin Johansson, Policy Response to COVID-19 in Global Shipping: Systematic Review and Analogical Application
• Desai Shan, Cory Ochs, & Evan G. MacKenzie, New Amendments to the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006: Linkages to Pandemic Lessons
• Yannick Suazo, Should Canada Allow Autonomous Ships in Its Coastal Waters?—International Context and Legal Implications
• Part 5: Maritime Crime and Security
• Kamal-Deen Ali & Emmanuel Kwabena Koomson, Gulf of Guinea Piracy: Analysis of Threats, Dynamics and Responses
• Michael Tsimplis, The Revamped EU Environmental Crime Directive and the Maritime Sector: Real Teeth or Window Dressing?
• Pornomo Rovan Astri Yoga & Lowell Bautista, Humanitarian Missions at Sea: Lessons from the Deployment of Indonesia’s Military Hospital Ship for Humanitarian Aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Conflict

New Issue: Journal of Global Health Law

The latest issue of the Journal of Global Health Law (Vol. 2, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Suzanne Zhou, Gian Luca Burci, & Jonathan Liberman, The legal nature of WHO regulations
• Stephanie Switzer & Mark Eccleston-Turner, The Emperor’s New Clothes: the amendments to the World Health Organization’s International Health Regulations*, **
• Pramiti Parwani, From human rights to the pandemic agreement and beyond: reframing vaccines access through a framework of ‘States’ capabilities’
• Essays
• Matiangai Sirleaf, Coloniality and global health
• Audrey Lebret, The Council of Europe Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights: a primarily procedural step towards safeguarding health rights in the digital age
• Commentary
• Pariksha Dhakal, Abortion in Nepal: legal progress, social challenges, and the road ahead
• Carmen Bullón Caro, Maarten van der Heijden, Aitziber Echeverria, Jorge Matheu, Camille Loi, David Sherman, Kelsey Galantich, Ambra Gobena, & Teemu Viinikainen, The Quadripartite One Health Legislative Assessment Tool for Antimicrobial Resistance (OHLAT): supporting legal preparedness for AMR
• Carlotta Manz, ‘MAGA’ vs global health? The potential impact of the second Trump’s administration

Call for Papers: Feminist Approaches to International Law in Times of Atrocity, Anthropocene, and Authoritarian Capitalism

The ANZSIL Gender, Sexuality and International Law Interest Group has issued a call for papers for a workshop on "Feminist Approaches to International Law in Times of Atrocity, Anthropocene, and Authoritarian Capitalism," to take place October 31, 2025, at Melbourne Law School. The call is here.

Call for Chapter Proposals: Handbook on Decolonising Human Rights

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Naim (Emory Univ. - Law) has issued a call for chapter proposals for his forthcoming edited volume Handbook on Decolonising Human Rights, to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing. The call is here.

New Issue: Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international

The latest issue of the Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (Vol. 27, no. 2, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Ignacio de la Rasilla, Towards Comparative International Legal History?
• Pádraig McAuliffe, Theories of State Development at the Dawn of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Niccolò Lanzoni, The Enduring Influence of the Late Medieval Conception of Universal Monarchy on the Theories of Governance in the International Community

O'Hara & Vázquez Guevara: ‘We, the Peoples of the Earth’: ALBA, Populism and the Making of an Alternative International Law

Claerwen O’Hara (Univ. of Melbourne - Law) & Valeria Vázquez Guevara (Univ. of Hong Kong - Law) have posted ‘We, the Peoples of the Earth’: ALBA, Populism and the Making of an Alternative International Law (London Review of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article explores the populist approach to international law of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA). Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of scholarship depicting populist politics as hostile to international law. Yet, across the global South, there are examples of leaders promoting regional unity, creating multilateral alliances, and engaging with international law, all while advancing a populist discourse based around an idea of ‘the people’. We argue that ALBA is one such example. Focusing on its activities as a fluid coalition in international institutions between 2009 and 2019, we demonstrate how ALBA developed a unique technique of international legal engagement and contestation, based around claims to represent ‘the people’ (or ‘peoples’) of the earth. In this way, ALBA shows how the adoption of a populist register can provide an alternative way of both belonging to, and resisting, the international legal order.

New Issue: London Review of International Law

The latest issue of the London Review of International Law (Vol. 13, no. 1, March 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Tanja Aalberts, Rubber boats: transnational legal encounters in the Mediterranean
• Ingo Venzke, Carr and the climate: solidarity and sacrifice in international law
• Gavin Sullivan, Algorithmic governance of “terrorism” and “violent extremism” online
• Wouter G Werner, Security Council Resolutions as autobiographical texts
• Sasha Crawford-Holland, Patrick Brian Smith, & Andrew Williams, Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation
• Section three
• The Medellín Group, Medellín manifesto on transnational value chains and international law

Milanovic: State Lies as Violations of Human Rights

Marko Milanovic (Univ. of Reading - Law) has posted State Lies as Violations of Human Rights (Human Rights Quarterly, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article examines how lying by state agents can violate human rights, including freedoms of opinion and expression, the right to health, and the right to participate in public affairs. The article argues that a lie – a statement, made by one person to another, that is untruthful and is made with the intention of deceiving the addressee – by a state agent can interfere with the interests of individuals protected by human rights law. Not all lies interfere with human rights, however. Whether they do so depends on the harms they cause. The article shows that lies that interfere with human rights can be justified only very exceptionally within the human rights framework, since they are most often motivated by an illegitimate purpose. The article also argues that human rights law will apply equally regardless of whether states lie to their own people or to peoples of other states.

One purpose of this article is to conduct a mapping exercise, demonstrating the integral role that lies by state agents play in all kinds of human rights violations. The article also demonstrates how, in some instances, lies are a necessary condition for human rights violations, which cannot be committed without them – a good example here is that of states fabricating election results. In other cases, lies by state agents are a sufficient condition for a human rights violation. That is, the lie alone violates individual rights – systematic lying by state agents that pollutes the information space and thereby inhibits their people’s right to seek and receive information of all kinds is an example of such practice, as is the dissemination of lies that harm public health.

International and regional human rights bodies, especially those acting in a judicial or quasi-judicial capacity, rarely accuse states of deliberately lying, or of otherwise acting in bad faith. This is understandable, for all sorts of practical and prudential reasons. The article is not arguing that human rights bodies or activists must change their approach radically. But neglecting the role that lying by states plays in human rights violations has consequences, as it impedes the ability of human rights bodies (or activists) to tell the truth about what the state concerned is really doing. Put differently, if human rights bodies avoid dealing with state lies and their consequences, they risk normalizing them. In a world in which an increasing number of states is led by rapacious liars, this is not a risk that we can afford to ignore.

Webinar: Business, Human Rights, and Climate Change Litigation

On June 26, 2025, the International Business and Human Rights Interest Group of the European Society of International Law will host a webinar on "Business, Human Rights, and Climate Change Litigation." Details are here.

Call for Papers: JIEL Junior Faculty Forum for International Economic Law

A call for papers has been issued for the Journal of International Economic Law's fifth annual Junior Faculty Forum for International Economic Law. The call is here. The deadline is June 30, 2025.

New Issue: Journal of International Dispute Settlement

The latest issue of the Journal of International Dispute Settlement (Vol. 16, no. 2, June 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Current Challenges in International Investment Law
• Elizabeth Sheargold, International investment law and public health: the need for forward-looking reforms
• Fabio C Morosini & Ely Caetano Xavier Junior, A new analytical matrix for understanding International Investment Law Agreements in the Global South
• Chen Yu, The uneasy delegation: conditional judicialization of international investment dispute settlement
• Thomas Schultz & Cédric Dupont, Dynamics of change in international investment law
• Lucas Clover Alcolea, The importance of property in international investment law
• Claiton Fyock, Getting ‘real’ about ISDS reform: a critical realist view of international investment law’s status quo
• Harshad Pathak, Reimagining investor–state dispute settlement—or how to map indeterminacy and reform identity
• Articles
• Xu Qian & Fang Gu, Reconceptualizing counterclaim assessment in investment treaty arbitration: a discourse on fairness through Rawlsian justice theory
• Raelee Toh, The meaning of ‘very subject-matter of the dispute’ in the Monetary Gold rule of the International Court of Justice’s jurisprudence
• Ignacio De la Rasilla, Latin America and the Caribbean in the International Court of Justice—an empirical quantitative analysis (2000–24)
• Sophia D Casetta, Ownership of the sea: evaluating how culture affects the success of dispute resolution techniques in resolving maritime boundary conflicts
• James Gerard Devaney & Hoon Cho, The proper role of the doctrine of incidental questions in international adjudication
• Asli Ozcelik, David L Gebre-Medhin, & Asaf Siniver, International arbitration of violent territorial disputes: what role for equity in achieving peaceful settlement?
• Current Developments
• Zhaoran Lin, A case note of the review of the objection by the Russian Federation to a decision of the Commission of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (CMM 01-2023) (PCA Case No. 2023-33)
• Deyan Draguiev, Choice of court agreements in light of CJEU Decision in case C-566/22 Inkreal
• Patrick Dumberry, Deripaska v Montenegro: the alpha and omega of State succession to BITs

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

The latest issue of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (Vol. 25, no. 2, June 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: The External Dimensions of the European Green Deal
• Goran Dominioni, Louisa Parks, & Markus Pauli, The external dimensions of the European Green Deal
• Simon Otto, The external impact of EU climate policy: political responses to the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism
• Kasturi Das & Kaushik Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Impact of carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) on steel decarbonization in India: a multi-stakeholder perspective on ambition vs. equity
• Joseph Earsom, Making waves or ripples? The influence of the European Green Deal on the revised IMO GHG strategy
• Nathalie Ferré, Clara Weller, & Aron Buzogány, The development/renewable energy nexus in Georgia and Tunisia: Coalitions of support and opposition to EU energy policies
• Alina Averchenkova, Lara Lazaro, & Gonzalo Escribano, Beyond leading by example: enhanced EU-LAC climate cooperation—the case of Brazil, Chile and Mexico
• Sara de Simone, Marco Nicolò, & Louisa Parks, Exporting the just transition? The European Investment Bank, the European Green Deal and environmental and social rules for green projects outside the EU
• Reinhilde Bouckaert & Claire Dupont, Assessing the alignment of EU and member states external energy strategies with the European green deal: 2019–2024
• Morena Skalamera, The distributional effects of the EU’s and China’s climate diplomacy in Central Asia

Donaldson: Law, Legal Expertise and the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes: Revisiting early League Council practice

Megan Donaldson (Univ. College London - Law) has posted Law, Legal Expertise and the Peaceful Settlement of Disputes: Revisiting early League Council practice (in Cambridge Handbook on the League of Nations and International Law, Rasmussen, Ikonomou & van Leeuwen eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Through a new account of three early disputes, this chapter revisits the novel role of the League Council in interstate dispute settlement. This role was delimited by a legal threshold: the question of whether disputes arose out of a matter purely within a state party's national jurisdiction or domaine reservé. Application of this test, nominally left to the Council, prompted considerable experimentation with institutional forms, and particularly recourse to 'committees of jurists', an understudied, flexible and protean mechanism which would go on to be deployed in many spheres of League activity. Drawing on contemporaneous legal scholarship and a range of archival materials, the chapter sketches the Council's procedural management of three key disputes, redirecting focus to the larger landscape of institutionalized dispute settlement beyond the Permanent Court of International Justice. In this larger landscape, the chapter teases out the diverse characteristics associated with recourse to avowedly 'legal' expertise and reasoning. This close reading of varied 'legal' deliberations recovers the multifaceted relationship between institutionalization and legalization of dispute settlement-and suggests the complexity of relations between legal reasoning and peaceful ordering, both for contemporaries and for us.

New Issue: GlobaLex

The latest issue of GlobaLex (May/June 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Aderomola Adeola, Internally Displaced Persons
• Antonella Corradi, International Law and Consumer Protection
• Jonathan Pratter, À la Recherche des Travaux Préparatoires: An Approach to Researching the Drafting History of International Agreements

New Issue: Review of International Organizations

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 20, no. 2, June 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Illiberal Regimes and International Organizations
• Christina Cottiero, Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, Stephan Haggard, Lauren Prather, & Christina J. Schneider, Illiberal regimes and international organizations
• Sarah Sunn Bush, Christina Cottiero, & Lauren Prather, Zombies ahead: Explaining the rise of low-quality election monitoring
• Kelly Morrison, Daniela Donno, Burcu Savun, & Perisa Davutoglu, Competing judgments: Multiple election observers and post-election contention
• Emilie Hafner-Burton, Jon C. W. Pevehouse, & Christina J. Schneider, Good governance in autocratic international organizations
• Jana Lipps & Marc S. Jacob, Undermining liberal international organizations from within: Evidence from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
• Thomas Winzen, How backsliding governments keep the European Union hospitable for autocracy: Evidence from intergovernmental negotiations

Boothby & Heintschel von Heinegg: The Law on Nuclear Weapons: An International Commentary

William H. Boothby, (Univ. of Johannesburg) & Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg (Europa-Universität Viadrina - Law) have published The Law on Nuclear Weapons: An International Commentary (Edward Elgar Publishing 2025). Here's the abstract:

This book provides a uniquely clear and comprehensive statement of the law on nuclear weapons. It draws on the insight and input of a group of 15 experts from around the world and in so doing crafts an authoritative text that sets out not only the positions of a number of states but a carefully articulated guide to this complex area of law.

Building upon the platform of Boothby and Heintschel von Heinegg’s earlier work, this book addresses in much greater depth and detail, and with the authority endowed by the team of experts, how international law deals with the possession and use of nuclear weapons, as well as the deterrence policies associated with them. It presents an in-depth exploration of the law, detailing its implications and providing practical guidance on challenging issues. The book examines sovereignty, the threat or use of force, the conduct of nuclear hostilities, neutrality, weapons law, and war crimes, considering the impact of recent events and trends.

Orakhelashvili: Research Handbook on Jurisdiction and Immunities in International Law

Alexander Orakhelashvili (Univ. of Birmingham - Law) has published the second edition of Research Handbook on Jurisdiction and Immunities in International Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2025). Here's the abstract:

This updated Research Handbook presents a comprehensive analysis of the international law of jurisdiction and immunities, examining the mutual interdependence between the two as well as shedding light on the implications. Featuring diverse contributions from leading experts, emerging scholars, and practitioners, it provides an impartial perspective on the applicable international law.

Incorporating novel insights and recent developments, the Research Handbook covers key topics including the concept of universal jurisdiction, the differentiation of immunities from jurisdiction, and immunity claims in various types of judicial proceedings. It discusses the complex legal questions that arise when a state asserts its jurisdiction over persons that are based abroad or are not citizens of that state, and analyzes the immunity of foreign states and international organizations. Considering the impact of recent legislation, court cases and events, this revised second edition highlights ongoing trends and controversies surrounding jurisdiction and immunities in the context of international law.

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 29, no. 6, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Alejandro Anaya-Muñoz, Willingness, capacities and (non)compliance with human rights norms
• Rebecca Nhep, Impact of clientelism on the rights of children in residential care: Cambodia and Myanmar
• Matthew Gillett, Ecocide, environmental harm and framework integration at the International Criminal Court
• Danendri L. Senanayake, Search the landfill: obligation of the Canadian Government to bring stolen sisters home
• Afroza Anwary, Political, physical, and cultural techniques of genocide against the Rohingyas of Myanmar
• Pietro de Perini, Genuine commitment or search for prestige? Italy’s ambiguous foreign policy discourse on human rights
• Maria Eduarda Tomaz Luiz, Carolina Girola, Samara Escobar Martins, Beatriz Freitas da Cunha & Alcyane Marinho, Guaranteeing the rights of children and adolescents in Brazilian foster care institutions
• Cristina Cocito, Paul De Hert & Thomas Marquenie, Do human rights frameworks identify AI’s problems? The limits of a burgeoning methodology for AI problem assessment

Conference: SLADI/LASIL 7th Biennial Conference

The Sociedad Latinoamericana de Derecho Internacional/Latin American Society of International Law will hold its seventh biennial conference on July 31-August 2, 2025, at the Universidad de la República, in Montevideo. The theme is: “América Latina en un mundo en vertiginosa transformación/América Latina em um mundo em vertiginosa transformação/Latin America in a Rapidly Changing World.” The program is here.

New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added the following materials to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law: lectures in English and French on “The Role of the Office of Public Counsel for Victims in the Framework of the Rome Stature of the International Criminal Court” by Paolina Massidda; lectures in English and French on “The Prevention Principle in International Environmental Law” by Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli; and a lecture in English on “Joint Interpretative Agreements in International Law” by Fuad Zarbiyev.

The Audiovisual Library of International Law is also available as an audio podcast on Apple, SoundCloud, and other platforms.

Call for Papers: Invisible Actors in the Making of International Law (1750-2000) (Junior Researchers)

A call for papers for junior researchers has been issued for a conference on "Invisible Actors in the Making of International Law (1750-2000)," to be held Novemeber 27-28, 2025, in Paris. The call is here.

New Issue: Nordic Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law (Vol. 94, no. 2, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Patient Mpunga-Biayi, The Investigative Power of the United Nations Security Council
• James Gerard Devaney, Making Sense of Transcendental Nonsense: A Functional Reframing of the Law of State Succession
• Øyvind Ravna, Indigenous Cultural Rights, the Green Transition, and the Right to a Healthy Environment
• Johan Nikolaj Lausen & Johanna Sophie Buerkert, Fragmentation Revisited: A Critical Analysis of the Effects of Introducing the BBNJ Agreement into the Ocean Governance Landscape

New Issue: Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Institutions

The latest issue of Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Institutions (Vol. 31, no. 2, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Nicholas G. Studzinski, Randolph Kent, & David Korowicz, Towards the Governance of Global Systemic Risk: Reforming the Summit of the Future
• Daniele Archibugi, Marco Cellini, & Azzurra Malgieri, The Reform of the UN Security Council: What Are the Issues?
• Tuğba Bayar & Murat Bayar, Unilateral Withdrawals from Multilateral International Treaties, 1945–2024
• Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée, Quasi-public Partnerships: Multistakeholder Governance in an International Organization
• Antonia Zervaki, The Cultural Dimension of Sustaining Peace: What Role for UN Peace Operations?

New Issue: Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy

The latest issue of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy (Vol. 28, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Suchita Awasthi, Aditi Patial & Ritesh Kumar, Wetland Jurisprudence in India—A Critical Appraisal
• Cuong Viet Do, Tan Ngoc Pham & Vuong Minh Vu, IMO Guidelines to Combat Wildlife Smuggling on Ships: An Analytical Perspective from Vietnam
• Noga Shanee, Amnon Keren, Evelyn D. Anca, Tamar Fredman, Omer Polansky & Yael Cohen Paran, The Dynamics of Online Wildlife Trade, Crime and Law Enforcement in Israel
• Latika Choudhary, Udit Raj Sharma & Hardik Daga, ‘Ruff’ Justice: Analysing the Right to Feed Stray Dogs in Lieu of Constitutional Provisions and Judicial Precedents in India

New Issue: Cambridge International Law Journal

The latest issue of the Cambridge International Law Journal (Vol. 14, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Sharifah Sekalala, Ending pandemics within the shadow of trade: reconciling equity in global health with coloniality *
• Marjun Parcasio, A normative account of safety in the human right to a healthy environment
• Anna Moskal & Marcella Brandao Flores da Cunha, Is the Digital Markets Act a global standard for ex ante digital regulation? Insights from Brazil, India and Japan
• Special Section: Private Rights and Public Autonomy in a Fragmented World
• Thomas Ackermann & Henning Grosse Ruse-Khan, Private rights and public autonomy in a fragmented world: an introduction
• Francisco Beneke & Shazana Eliza Rohr, Transnational competition law rules: a political economy perspective *
• Eva Fischer & Markus W Gehring, Private rights and public autonomy in sustainable competition law and EU Green Deal measures
• Emily Hancox & Sonja Heitzer, It’s a complex world: can courts help? Judicial review and complexity in Germany, the EU and the US
• Quentin B Schäfer & Klaus Wiedemann, Article 5(2) of the Digital Markets Act and the ‘pay-or-consent’ business model at the intersection of public and private autonomy*

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 25, nos. 2-3, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Corruption and International Criminal Law
• Anja Matwijkiw, Bronik Matwijkiw, Sunčana Roksandić, & Marc Engelhart, Crime and Corruption. Serious Economic Crimes and International Criminal Law—Shaping a New Era of International Law and Justice
• Ugljesa Ugi Zvekic, For an Effective Global Anti-Crime Governance: untoc and uncac Consolidated
• Héctor Olasolo, Pablo Galain Palermo, & R.J. Blaise Maclean, The Case for Considering Corruption as a Central Element of Governance: Institutional and Organizational Corruption and Complex Corruption Networks
• Sunčana Roksandić & Marc Engelhart, Environmental Corruption: Fighting Two Evils through International Criminal Law Alongside Introducing a Special Protocol to UNCAC and UNTOC
• Anja Matwijkiw, Corruption: From International Law and Ethics to Realpolitik and Amoralism: Part 1: Perspectives on the Corruption Discourse
• Bronik Matwijkiw, Corruption: From International Law and Ethics to Realpolitik and Amoralism: Part 2: The Macro Approach
• s Andy Aydın-Aitchison, Bringing Together the Criminologies of Atrocity and Serious Economic Crimes
• Yuliya Zabyelina, Considerations of (Non)-Application of Immunity of State Officials from Foreign Jurisdiction in Cases of International and Transnational Crimes
• Annika van Baar, Theorizing and Understanding Corporate Involvement in Atrocity Crimes
• Ivana Jelić & Julia Jungfleisch, Clearing Muddied Waters: The Relationship Between the Rule of Law and the Fight against Corruption in the Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights
• Yudi Kristiana & Benny Hutahayan, Judicial Corruption in the Post-Reform Era: Assessing the Effectiveness of Legal Reforms in Indonesia
• Anna Oriolo, The Contribution of the European Court of Human Rights to the Construction of a Corruption-Free Society
• Sope Williams, Extricating Sexual Corruption from the Shadow of Anti-Corruption Law: The Imperative for a New Approach
• Nandor Knust, ‘ECO-COM-B: Environmental Crimes’—Steps Towards a More Holistic System of Environmental Crime Control

Perez-Leon-Acevedo: Rethinking Attribution Standards for State Responsibility Concerning Mass Atrocities

Juan Pablo Perez-Leon-Acevedo (Univ. of Oxford) has published Rethinking Attribution Standards for State Responsibility Concerning Mass Atrocities (San Diego International Law Journal, Vol. 26, no. 2, 2025). Here's the abstract:

Attribution of mass atrocities to states remains a central and contested issue in international law, particularly when such acts are carried out by non-state actors or through proxy forces. This Article analyzes how states may incur responsibility for mass atrocities by examining the legal standards developed in the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (ARSIWA) and the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice (I.C.J.). Special attention is given to developments following the adoption of ARSIWA, including the evolving relationship between Russia and the Wagner Group, to assess how legal principles apply in modern conflict settings. While the ARSIWA framework remains applicable, the nature of mass atrocities presents unique doctrinal and evidentiary challenges, particularly when foreign states exert control over militarized private actors.

Call for Session Ideas: 2026 ASIL Annual Meeting

The American Society of International Law has issued a call for session ideas for its 120th Annual Meeting, which will take place April 22-25, 2026, in Washington, DC. The conference theme is: "Advancing and Defending the Rule of Law." The deadline is July 28, 2025. The call is here.

Call for Papers: International Humanitarian Law in Times of Decline of the Rule of Law

A call for papers has been issued for the Twentieth Annual Minerva Conference on Internaitonal Humanitarian Law, to take place November 17-18, 2025, in Jerusalem. The topic is: "International Humanitarian Law in Times of Decline of the Rule of Law." The call is here. The deadline is June 22, 2025.

New Issue: Netherlands International Law Review

The latest issue of the Netherlands International Law Review (Vol. 72, no. 1, April 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Ignacio de la Rasilla, Building Up Inclusiveness for Women in the History of International Law?
• Sarah Thin, Playing Fast and Loose with Article 31(3)(c) VCLT: Lessons on Systemic Integration from the ITLOS Climate Change Opinion
• Nikolaos Gaitenidis, The Legal Landscape of Memory: Crafting Historical Narratives Through Law and Its Ramifications
• Jan Andrzej Karpiuk, Stretching the Limits of Inviolability: The Re-examination of the Inviolability of Diplomatic Premises in the Light of the Right to Life

Symposium: L’Autorité internationale des fonds marins : enjeux et persepctives

On June 19-20, 2025, the faculté de droit et de science politique de Rennes will host a symposium on "L’Autorité internationale des fonds marins : enjeux et persepctives," in Rennes. Details are here.

Marceau & Gött: International Organization Initiatives: How and Why Organizations Adapt and Change

Gabrielle Marceau (Univ. of Geneva - Law) & Henner Gött (German Federal Chancellery) have published International Organization Initiatives: How and Why Organizations Adapt and Change (Oxford Univ. Press 2025). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

How do adaptations and changes in international organizations (IOs) come about? How do IOs respond to crises and unforeseen needs of their members? What role do the secretariats and their heads play in doing so? This volume describes how IOs and their secretariats and executive heads launch and implement innovative activities—initiatives—and adapt to respond to crises, members’ demands, internal impulses, or interactions with the outside world. It brings together distinguished scholars and experienced practitioners of IOs to showcase and investigate IOs’ adaptive capacity, their achievements, and limitations. Through case studies and conceptual frameworks, the book explores a largely uncharted world of IO evolution in which international secretariats contribute importantly to adapting the role of IOs. The volume brings to light the mechanisms used by IOs to adapt to what were, on each occasion, new challenges to their efforts to assist and respond to unprecedented needs of members faced with contemporary realities.

Roundtable: International Law in the Quest for Truth on the Battlefield

On July 4, 2025, a roundtable on “International Law in the Quest for Truth on the Battlefield” will take place at the University of Milan. Participation is both in person and online. Details are here.

Shereshevsky: Complementarity (Un)Fairness: Powerful States and their Ability to Avoid ICC Proceedings by Conducting Domestic Investigations

Yahli Shereshevsky (Univ. of Haifa - Law) has posted Complementarity (Un)Fairness: Powerful States and their Ability to Avoid ICC Proceedings by Conducting Domestic Investigations (Journal of International Criminal Justice, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Power has long shaped discussions in international criminal law, with many contending that powerful states evade accountability while less powerful states face disproportionate scrutiny. Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently expanded its reach — investigating powerful states such as the United States and issuing arrest warrants against high-ranking officials from Russia and Israel — it has yet to prosecute anyone from a powerful state. This article provides a nuanced analysis of power, distinguishing between superpowers and other powerful states. It examines how the principle of complementarity enables the latter group, exemplified by the Iraq/UK case, to avoid ICC proceedings through informational gaps and procedural deference, despite delivering little substantive accountability. This article evaluates two alternative solutions: the ICC’s approach in the recent arrest warrants against Israeli officials and a proposed shift in the burden of proof. It argues that the latter offers a more effective balance between accountability and incentives for domestic investigations.

Charlotin & Ridi: GenAI as an International Lawyer: A Case Study with the Jessup International Law Moot Court

Damien Charlotin (HEC) & Niccolò Ridi (King’s College London) have posted GenAI as an International Lawyer: A Case Study with the Jessup International Law Moot Court. Here's the abstract:

This paper investigates the capacity of Generative Artificial Intelligence, specifically Large Language Models, to craft compelling international legal arguments. We tested the performance of two popular models, Gemini 2.0 and GPT4o, in the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, generating ten complete written memorials with minimal human intervention. With the organisers' blessing, these AI-generated memorials were anonymously added to the pool of submissions and evaluated by judges, who remained unaware of their origins, providing a unique benchmark against humanproduced work. Our results demonstrate that LLM-generated memorials consistently achieve average to superior scores, with some submissions receiving exceptional praise and near-perfect ratings. However, a detailed analysis of judges' qualitative feedback reveals persistent shortcomings of LLMs, notably factual inaccuracies, hallucinated citations, and superficial legal analysis. This study systematically identifies the current strengths and limitations of GenAI in legal argumentation, and critically informs best practices in prompt engineering, human-AI collaboration strategies, and emerging regulatory policies for legal education and practice.

European Union Court of Justice Profiles

Katerina Linos (Univ. of California, Berkeley - Law) and Mark Pollack (Temple Univ. - Political Science and Law) have launched a unique CJEU Profiles interview series featuring judges and advocates general serving at the Court of Justice of the European Union, as a special feature on Linos’s Borderlines podcast series. As part of their ongoing project to profile the Court and its members, Linos and Pollack have interviewed 25 sitting judges and advocates general at the Court of Justice, as well as the Registrar and the President of the General Court, with each interview exploring a range of issues including each member’s background and judicial philosophy, experiences on the Court, and discussion of some of their most legally and politically significant opinions and judgments. At this writing, 10 interviews have dropped, with additional episodes scheduled in the coming weeks and months. For an introduction to the series and links to the interviews please visit here or follow the Borderlines podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

New Issue: The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals

The latest issue of The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (Vol. 24, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Face à Face: Interview with Christine Van den Wyngaert
• International Judicial Function Symposium
• Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Lorenzo Palestini, Guillaume Guez Maillard, & Aditya Laddha, Introduction: the International Judicial Function under Pressure
• Yusra Suedi, Advisory Jurisdiction and Consent: the Thin Line between Advisory and Contentious Proceedings
• Christian Vidal-León, The Justification for Reasoning from Precedent in International Adjudication
• Marco Dimetto, Judicial Propriety and Mandate: Straying into Non-Essentials and Resolving the Dispute
• Johannes Hendrik Fahner, Standards of Appellate Review in International Dispute Settlement: Current Use and Conceptual Challenges
• Juliana Valle Pereira Guerra, Who Holds the Final Word? Navigating the Hidden Power Struggle between Authentic Interpreters and Judicial Authorities in International Treaty Law

Modirzadeh: “Violent, Vicious, and Fast”: LSCO Lawyering and the Transformation of American IHL

Naz K. Modirzadeh (Harvard Univ. - Law) has posted “Violent, Vicious, and Fast”: LSCO Lawyering and the Transformation of American IHL (Harvard National Security Journal, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article examines a phenomenon unfolding within the United States’ military legal establishment: an effort by a segment of military lawyers to define how the law of armed conflict (LOAC) applies to the wars they anticipate fighting in the future. I refer to this effort as LSCO lawyering: the development, advancement, and institutionalization of a vision of LOAC tailored to large-scale combat operations (LSCOs), understood here as multi-domain warfare against a peer adversary such as China. Through extensive engagement with military writings and conversations with current and former armed-forces legal advisers from the United States and allied or partner forces, I trace how LSCO lawyering reflects a diagnosis of crisis — a perceived mismatch between prevailing legal expectations and the operational realities of high-intensity war — and a response that aims not to dismantle LOAC but to restore it on terms seen as credible under conditions of existential conflict.

At the heart of this project lies a reconfiguration of what I call American IHL: the United States’ distinctive assemblage of interpretations, practices, normative commitments, and exceptions that shape its approach to LOAC. While LSCO lawyering is often framed as a modest clarification of existing law, I suggest that it functions as something more ambitious — a legal and institutional move to strip away what are described as counterterrorism-era overlays and to reassert a baseline vision of LOAC that privileges military necessity, internal discretion, and speed over external constraint or civilian protection. The result is not lawlessness but an attempt to ensure that legal interpretation does not, in the view of its proponents, impose normatively undue or operationally unsustainable limits on commanders preparing to fight — violent, vicious, and fast — in a war that is framed to be potentially existential.

Although this legal reasoning emerges from within the U.S. national-security context, its implications extend beyond American military and LOAC doctrine. The interpretive logic underpinning LSCO lawyering may find resonance with all states that seek to frame their approach to the conduct of hostilities as lawful. In this sense, LSCO lawyering is not necessarily only an American legal development. It is also a project with the potential to reorder certain expectations — including about what law requires, who interprets it, and how it should structure violence in war — far beyond the Pentagon.

Cohen: Outbound Investment Restrictions and International Law's Challenge

Harlan Grant Cohen (Fordham Univ. - Law) has posted Outbound Investment Restrictions and International Law's Challenge (Seattle University Law Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The Outbound Investment Rule, restricting U.S. investment in certain Chinese advanced technology sectors, has largely been portrayed as an incremental measure, a modest extension to fill loopholes in the existing investment screening regime. But while perhaps the logical next step in the securitization of the economy, the Outbound Investment Rule actually reflects a momentous shift in the relationship between governments and business, one playing out in the United States and around the world and worth attention. Unlike traditional investment screening, the Outbound Investment Rule operates like a sanctions regime, designed not to protect the U.S. economy, but to hamper the advancement of another. And in so doing, the Outbound Investment Rule reveals a broader global shift to geoeconomic competition that existing international economic law rules are ill-suited to manage. New rules are needed to minimize and manage the inevitable conflicts.

Marks: Trucanini's Stare: Reconsidering Dignity in Theory and Practice

Susan Marks (London School of Economics and Political Science - Law) has published Trucanini's Stare: Reconsidering Dignity in Theory and Practice (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

A central concept in international human rights law and many national constitutions is human dignity. Departing from established approaches to dignity in philosophy and legal theory, Susan Marks takes dignity in everyday life ('dignified care', 'dignity in the workplace', etc.) as a starting point for reconsidering the concept's history and significance. The result is a highly original work which gives particular attention to colonial and post-colonial engagements with dignity, and emphasises the character of human dignity as not just an idea or abstract value, but also a lived experience that cannot be understood without reference to social structures and the inequalities and hierarchies they reproduce. If dignity is an attribute which all human beings possess purely by virtue of being human, Marks shows that it is also an element within the systemic operations of privilege and power.

Chesterman: Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex

Simon Chesterman (National Univ. of Singapore - Law) has posted Silicon Sovereigns: Artificial Intelligence, International Law, and the Tech-Industrial Complex (American Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Artificial intelligence is reshaping science, society, and power. Yet many debates over its likely impact remain fixated on extremes: utopian visions of universal benefit and dystopian fears of existential doom, or an arms race between the U.S. and China, or the Global North and Global South. What’s missing is a serious conversation about distribution — who gains, who loses, and who decides. The global AI landscape is increasingly defined not just by geopolitical divides, but by the deepening imbalance between public governance and private control. As governments struggle to keep up, power is consolidating in the hands of a few tech firms whose influence now rivals that of states. If the twentieth century saw the rise of international institutions, the twenty-first may be witnessing their eclipse — replaced not by a new world order, but by a digital oligarchy. This essay explores what that shift means for international law, global equity, and the future of democratic oversight in an age of silicon sovereignty.

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 29, no. 5, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Mari Huttunen, A tale of two sovereigns: the responsibility to protect and the competing notions of responsible sovereignty
• Katie Morris, Reconceptualising socioeconomic rights: a case for care ethics
• Marina Lostal, One-dimensional law: a critique of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment
• Felipe Jaramillo Ruiz, Additive entanglement and intersectionality in UN human rights monitoring: examining the inclusion of disability
• Pierre Bosset, Cultural human rights as new foundations for interculturalist policies: a rights-based approach from Québec*
• Elke Evrard & Tine Destrooper, Learning from the past? How the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, civil society initiatives and survivor stories shape young Cambodians’ understanding of non-recurrence
• Steven Malby, Beyond sword and shield: the UN human rights system and criminal law
• Ling Han & Paolo De Stefani, Protecting fundamental values through the global human rights sanction regime: China's challenges to the EU's normative power

New Volume: Canadian Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Canadian Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 61, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Camille Martini, From Fact to Applicable Law: What Role for the International Climate Change Regime in Investor-State Arbitration?
• Rémi Fuhrmann, Légitimités conflictuelles: le droit international humanitaire entre légitimité du statut et légitimité de la cause
• Anna Rahel Fischer & Bernard Duhaime, “The Purloined Letter”: Migrant Disappearances, Systematic Impunity, and States’ Risk Awareness
• Miriam Cohen & Renan Teles, L’appropriation de la transmission des traumatismes par le droit: le préjudice transgénérationnel dans la jurisprudence de la Cour pénale internationale
• Carol Dyck, Arctic Governance in the Face of Climate Change: A Case for “Inclusive Regionalism”
• Obiora Chinedu Okafor, Udoka Owie, Okechukwu Effoduh, & Rahina Zarma, Explaining the Comparatively Less Robust Human Rights Impact of the ECOWAS Court on Legislative and Judicial Decision-making, Process, and Action in Nigeria
• Godwin E.K. Dzah, The Interaction between International and Domestic Law, Aqua Nullius, and Water-mediated Claims in Canada
• Akinwumi Ogunranti, The Relationality of Community Development Agreements towards a Human Rights Due Diligence Good Faith Requirement
• Symposium on the African Financial Architecture and the African Multilateral Financial Institutions in Context
• Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, Preface
• Olabisi D. Akinkugbe, African Financial Architecture: Voice, Representation, Preferred Creditor Status, and the Alliance of African Multilateral Financial Institutions
• Gertrude Amorkor Amarh, A New Dawn in Credit Rating for Africa? A Review of the Africa Credit Rating Agency
• Ohiocheoya (Ohio) Omiunu & Ayodele Olabiyi, Knowledge Production and the Global Energy Transition: A Critical Appraisal of the Influence of International Financial Institutions on African Multilateral Financial Institutions
• Otieno Mbori, The African Development Bank’s Role in Financing the Green Energy Transition Harrison
• Florence Shako, Towards Dismantling Colonial Continuities: The Role of the African Export-Import Bank in Climate Financing in Africa

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 110, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Regulating activities in the cyberspace: Open issues of International and European law
• Introduced by Gian Maria Farnelli
• Alessandra Sardu, Non-intervention and cyberspace
• Isabella Brunner, Attributing cyber operations under International law: Political and legal aspects
• Marco Argentini, Navigating Private Obligations in Cybersecurity: Perspectives from Private International Law
• Susanna Villani, Defending the security of the eu constitutional order against malicious cyber activity: reflections on the cyber targeted sanctions regime
• Victor Stoica, AI for good: the maintenance of international peace and security

Schefer, Polanco, & Sauvé: International Economic Law as Symphony: Thomas Cottier and the Harmonies of Trade

Krista Nadakavukaren Schefer (Swiss Institute of Comparative Law), Rodrigo Polanco (World Trade Institute; Swiss Institute of Comparative Law), & Pierre Sauvé (World Bank) have published International Economic Law as Symphony: Thomas Cottier and the Harmonies of Trade (Hart Publishing 2025). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This open access book brings together some of the most eminent scholars of international trade to celebrate the scholarly, diplomatic, and institution-building achievements of Thomas Cottier, Professor Emeritus of International Economic Law at the University of Bern and founder of the World Trade Institute.

Over his half-century career, Thomas Cottier has promoted the development of international trade law by shaping our understanding of how multiple layers of law interact to form a global legal system. While multilateral trade law is the “melody” of the system, it is made fuller by a host of regional and national layers of harmonising – and sometimes discordant – legal rules.

Covering both general trade policy and the economic relations between Switzerland and the EU, the chapters examine Thomas Cottier's fundamental belief in the necessity of studying the interaction of every level of governance – local, national, and international – when considering the policies of economic exchange between countries, as well as his cosmopolitan belief in the need to foster a global community dedicated to bettering the lives of individuals around the world. The special relationship between the EU and Switzerland is addressed, honouring Professor Cottier's dedication to the political debates within Switzerland on the extent to which the country should participate in the European project, exemplifying the themes of multilayered governance and the common concerns of all people.

Call for Papers: Popular International Law Workshop

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Popular International Law," to take place September 26, 2025, at the University of Cambridge. The call is here.

Kulamadayil: The Pathology of Plenty: Natural Resources in International Law

Lys Kulamadayil (Geneva Graduate Institute) has published The Pathology of Plenty: Natural Resources in International Law (Hart Publishing 2025). Here's the abstract:

This open access book critically examines the role international law plays in post-colonial countries, which primarily rely on the exploitation of their natural resources for economic and human development.

Since the 1990s, expressions such as the 'resource curse' and 'paradox of plenty' have been associated with unequal patterns of power and wealth distribution in post-colonial and neo-colonial countries. They have also been applied to the ecological and social costs of natural resources exploitation, and the planetary costs of mineral resources-based production and consumption patterns.

Taking various resource-curse and paradox-of-plenty theories as a starting point, the book illustrates how the law's role in resource-cursed countries is at once constitutive, preventive, remedial and punitive. It does so by engaging with various fields of public international law. The book revisits how rights and principles such as sovereignty over natural resources and economic self-determination were applied in decolonisation processes; studies the proliferation of international treaties protecting foreign property rights; and zooms in on various contract models used in the mineral resources sector to evaluate the distributional choices of cost and revenue.