New Issue: World Trade Review

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 25, no. 2, May 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Hao-Zhe He, Gen-Fu Feng, & Chun-Ping Chang, The Impact of ESG Gaps on Green Exports in Bilateral Trade: A Linear and Nonlinear Analysis
• Romus Noufelie & Boris Landry Djamen, Global Value Chain Integration, Quality of Institutions and Multidimensional Energy Poverty in African Countries
• Axel Berger, Ali Dadkhah, Florian Gitt, Zoryana Olekseyuk, & Jakob Schwab, The Investment Facilitation Index (IFI): Quantifying Domestic Investment Facilitation Frameworks
• Leopoldo Biffi & Christian Winkler, Tightening or Loosening? The Effects of Uncertainty on the Design of Preferential Trade Agreements
• Niels Lachmann, Technical Dialogue or Political Statements? Members’ Concerns about Digital Trade at WTO Committees and Councils
• Sunayana Sasmal, Let’s Get Critical: Critical Minerals Mini Deals as Evolving Models of Trade Cooperation

Call for Papers: Asian Cities and the International Legal Order 2.0: Urban Challenges and International Law in Asia

A call for papers has been issued for the SMU-Max Planck Workshop "Asian Cities and the International Legal Order 2.0: Urban Challenges and International Law in Asia," which will take place November 2-3, 2026, at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University. The call is here.

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 48, no. 2, May 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Paul Hunt, Empowering Human Rights for Revolutionary Change
• Jennifer Bates, Beyond Territorialization? State Constructions of the Indigenous Subject of Rights in Multicultural Colombia
• Omar G. Encarnación, Confronting Historical Injustices: The Politics of Gay Reparations
• Aleydis Nissen, The Right to Access Sport for All in Europe
• Jeremy Julian Sarkin & Benjamin Dugdale, How Selective Interventionism Trumps Human Rights Protection: A Configurational Analysis of the United Nations Security Council’s Disparate Response to Genocide
• Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska & Katarzyna Ważyńska-Finck, Vulnerable and Empowered? Girls in the Practice of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child

Webinar: Global Health Law and Governance Between Progress and Challenges

On May 5, 2026, a third webinar will be held in the ESIL Conversations series “Multilateralism in Times of Unilateralism.” The topic is: “Global Health Law and Governance Between Progress and Challenges.” Details are here.

Sayapin: A Central Asian Perspective on International Law

Sergey Sayapin (KIMEP Univ​. - Law) has published A Central Asian Perspective on International Law (Hart Publishing 2026). Here's the abstract:

This book offers the first full-length, systematic account of international law as seen and applied from the perspective of Central Asia.

Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have gradually emerged as active participants in the international legal order. Drawing on their evolving statehood and regional cooperation, this book explores how the Central Asian States engage with the rules, principles, and institutions of international law.

Across 15 chapters, the book covers key areas of international law – from the nature and sources of international law to the law of treaties, international responsibility, and peaceful settlement of disputes – as well as specialist regimes including international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law, international peace and security, and international trade law. Dedicated chapters address the status of the Caspian Sea, the role of international organisations and non-State actors, and the domestic implementation of international norms.

Through rigorous legal analysis and rich empirical references, the book also examines Central Asian constitutional and policy approaches to international law, regional mechanisms of dispute settlement, and case studies such as the legal status of the Caspian Sea, the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, and the development of institutional arbitration in the region, including the Astana International Financial Centre and the Tashkent International Arbitration Centre. The analysis highlights how the region's engagement with international law reflects both adaptation to global norms and the emergence of context-specific legal practices.

Douglas: The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice

Lawrence Douglas (Amherst College) has published The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice (Princeton Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

The Criminal State offers a gripping account of how law has confronted the most radical forms of state violence. Beautifully written, broad in scope, and bracingly original, it weaves history with political thought to trace the shifting legal response to state aggression and atrocities, from Leopold’s rule over the Congo to Putin’s war in Ukraine.

At its heart is Lawrence Douglas’s fresh interpretation of the law’s reckoning with Nazi aggression and atrocity. He shows how the Nuremberg trials challenged centuries of thought—rooted in Hobbes and other canonical thinkers—that shielded sovereigns from legal scrutiny. Yet Nuremberg’s bid to frame aggression as the cornerstone of a new order of international criminal law largely failed, giving way to a system now centrally concerned with crimes against humanity and genocide—while leaving unresolved the legality and effectiveness of using force to stop the worst violations of human rights.

Providing rare historical perspective on the dilemmas facing international courts, The Criminal State is a sweeping, provocative history of the struggle to bring perpetrators of state violence to justice.

Workshop: International Law and the Strategic Use of Economic Coercion

On May 5, 2026, Bocconi University will host a workshop on "International Law and the Strategic Use of Economic Coercion." The event will also be accessible online. Details are here.

New Issue: Chicago Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chicago Journal of International Law (Vol. 26, no. 2, Winter 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Rangita de Silva de Alwis, "Because We Take Our Values to War": Analyzing the Views of UN Member States on AI-Driven Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems
• Shai Dothan, The Seeds of Peace and Justice
• Aaron X. Fellmeth, The Territorial Independence of Intellectual Property Rights
• Peter J. Spiro, Balancing Nationalities in International Investment Law

Cimiotta: Ukraine peace treaty, territorial concessions, and international law

Emanuele Cimiotta (Università degli Studi di Perugia) has posted Ukraine peace treaty, territorial concessions, and international law (Journal of Conflict and Security Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Shortly after, in January 2025, the new US administration took office, and Ukraine peace talks began. To end the war that Russia started more than three years ago, a peace deal is not a utopia anymore. Ukraine has consistently made clear that no negotiations are possible until its territorial integrity is fully restored. In contrast, Russia has repeatedly stated that talks are only possible based on the ‘new realities’ on the ground. To date, lawyers have debated the question of whether international law permits aggressor States to retain territorial gains under a peace treaty. This article investigates the legal position of Ukraine. It discusses whether international law permits attacked States to give up territory as a last resort measure to reach a viable peace deal. More specifically, it explores the extent to which international law restrains Ukrainian consent to territorial concessions. As under the circumstances of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the legality of land transfers pursuant to the law of state responsibility and the law of treaties is controversial, and its assessment overlooks the manifold interests at stake, this article suggests reframing the matter in terms of a conflict between two jus cogens norms. On the one hand, the prohibition of aggression, assuming that it goes as far as forbidding territorial concessions that would indirectly condone forceful territorial acquisitions. On the other hand, the right of self-determination, assuming that it grants the Ukrainian people the absolute right to freely determine their territorial status in a peace treaty. Thus, the issue arises of how to solve this conflict. Apparently, positive international law lacks a ready-to-use rule to do so. However, the principles of proportionality and of peaceful dispute settlement may guide the process. They require a complex interpretative activity, in light of a number of criteria, to craft a treaty that could balance both norms. The goal is to preserve each norm as much as possible and ensure lasting peace.

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 26, no. 2, 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Mark Klamberg, War Crimes Trials Before Domestic Courts in Ukraine – Making the Case for a Differentiated Approach to International Law
• Roman Tashian, Nataliia Smetanina, Ilona Konovalova, Sergiy Kharytonov, & Oleksii V. Tavolzhanskyi, Implementation of International Anti-Corruption Standards into Ukrainian Legislation
• Achmad Irwan Hamzani, Sami’an Sami’an, & Nur Khasanah, Restorative Justice and Legal Pluralism in Indonesia: Implications for Atrocity Crimes and Global Criminal Justice Reform
• Ligeia Quackelbeen, Rethinking Treaty Interpretation and Crime Interpretation at the ICC
• Karolina Nabożna & Klaus Bachmann, Taking Stock of Syria’s Approach to Transitional Justice