New Issue: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History

The latest issue of Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History (Vol. 1, no. 2, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• V. G. Butkevych, The International-Legal Ideology of Pre-Slavic Chiefdoms of the Ukrainian Ethnos (Part One)
• A. P. Useche, The Standard of Civilization on Trial at the United States/Mexico Claims Commission: 1923–1937
• G. Himeno, The Right to Cure under the Unidroit Principle Article 7.1.4: A Historical Analysis
• Notes and Comments
• S. V. Kudin, Treaties of Kievan Rus (X–XIII Centuries): Cognition of the “Common” and the “Different” in the Law of States
• E. A. Karakulian, The Idea of the International Community in the History of International Law
• E. V. Romins’kyi, Regional Traditions in Medieval International Law
• W. E. Butler & G.A. Partin, On the Whittington United Nations Archive
• W.V. Whittington, The Charter of the United Nations: A Note on Publication of the Treaty
• Margot B. West, Inventory of the William Vallie Whittington Manuscript Collection

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 55, no. 3, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Certain Activities Carried Out by Nicaragua in the Border Area (Costa Rica v. Nicaragua)/Construction of a Road in Costa Rica Along the San Juan River (Nicaragua v. Costa Rica), with introductory note by Cameron A. Miles
• OAO Neftyanaya Kompaniya Yukos v. Russia (Eur. Ct. H.R.), with introductory note by Eric De Brabandere
• Dan Cake (Portugal) S.A. v. Hungary (ICSID), with introductory note by Catherina Valenzuela-Bock
• Kiyu v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (U.K. Sup. Ct.), with introductory note by Christina M. Cerna
• Minamata Convention on Mercury, with introductory note by Margaret A. Coulter

Peters: Beyond Human Rights: The Legal Status of the Individual in International Law

Anne Peters (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) has published Beyond Human Rights: The Legal Status of the Individual in International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2016). Here's the abstract:

A paradigm change is occurring, in the course of which human beings are becoming the primary international legal persons. In numerous areas of public international law, substantive rights and obligations of individuals arguably flow directly from international law. The novel legal status of humans in international law is now captured with a concept borrowed from constitutional doctrine: international rights of the person, as opposed to international law protecting persons. Combining doctrinal analysis with current practice, this book is the most comprehensive contemporary analysis of the legal status of the individual. Beyond Human Rights, previously published in German and now revised by the author in this English edition, not only deals with the individual in international humanitarian law, international criminal law and international investment law, but it also covers fields such as consular law, environmental law, protection of individuals against acts of violence and natural disasters, refugee law and labour law.

Conference: Religion and International Law - La religion et le droit international (Reminder)

On November 4-5, 2016, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationales Recht and the Société française pour le droit international will hold their biennial joint conference, in Regensburg. The theme is: "Religion and International Law – La religion et le droit international." The program is here. Preceding the conference, on November 2-3, is a workshop for young researchers on the topic "Le droit international face aux défis culturels/ Völkerrecht vor kulturellen Herausforderungen." That program is here.

Akande & Gillard: Oxford Guidance on the Law Relating to Humanitarian Relief Operations in Situations of Armed Conflict

Dapo Akande (Univ. of Oxford - Law) & Emanuela-Chiara Gillard (Univ. of Oxford - Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict) have published Oxford Guidance on the Law Relating to Humanitarian Relief Operations in Situations of Armed Conflict (2016). Here's the abstract:

The Oxford Guidance on the Law Relating to Humanitarian Relief Operations in Situations of Armed Conflict is a critical tool for actors concerned with helping civilians in conflict zones receive life-saving assistance, including food, medical supplies, shelter, water and sanitation. The Oxford Guidance will both provide a firm understanding of the relevant rules designed to allow the delivery of assistance and enhance policy-making and advocacy to improve humanitarian access.

The Guidance will target a variety of actors involved in humanitarian relief, including parties to armed conflict (both state and non-state), governments, international and nongovernmental organizations, the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly and other relevant bodies, as well as legal practitioners, scholars and the media.

Each section of the Oxford Guidance covers the legal framework relating to an aspect of humanitarian relief operations in international and non-international armed conflicts, with respect to both belligerent and non-belligerent states. The Guidance outlines the rules around giving consent, the arbitrary withholding of consent, and the limits to the types of procedures that fighting parties can impose. Where the law is unclear, the authors present possible different interpretations.

Commissioned by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Oxford Guidance was elaborated by the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations, following a series of meetings with eminent experts in international law.

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 16, no. 5, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Natalia Perova, Stretching the Joint Criminal Enterprise Doctrine to the Extreme: When Culpability and Liability Do Not Match
• Marie-Sophie Devresse & Damien Scalia, Hearing Tried People in International Criminal Justice: Sympathy for the Devil?
• Linus Nnabuike Malu, The International Criminal Court and the Complex Road to Peace in Côte d’ Ivoire
• David Lowe, The European Union’s Passenger Name Record Data Directive 2016/681: Is It Fit for Purpose?
• Pietro Sullo, Justice for Darfur: The ICC and Domestic Justice Initiatives Eleven Years after the UN Security Council Referral
• Marc Schack & Astrid Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Striking the Balance between Custom and Justice − Creative Legal Reasoning by International Criminal Courts

Rachovitsa: Engineering and lawyering privacy by design

Adamantia Rachovitsa (Univ. of Groningen - Law) has published Engineering and lawyering privacy by design: understanding online privacy both as a technical and an international human rights issue (International Journal of Law and Information Technology, Vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 374-399, Winter 2016). Here's the abstract:

There is already evidence that ‘governmental mass surveillance emerges as a dangerous habit’. Despite the serious interests at stake, we are far from fully comprehending the ramifications of the systematic and pervasive violation of privacy online. This article underscores the reasons that policy-makers and lawyers must comprehend and value privacy not only as a human rights issue, but also as a fundamental technical property for the well-functioning of the Internet. The analysis makes two main arguments. Firstly, it argues that the effective protection of online privacy cannot be thought of only in terms of compliance with legal frameworks but that—in practice—it also needs to be secured through technological means, such as privacy enhancing technologies and, most importantly, Privacy by Design. Recent developments in the standardization work of the Internet Advisory Board and the Internet Engineering Task Force suggest a paradigm shift with respect to integrating Privacy by Design into the core Internet protocols. The consideration of privacy as a requirement in the design of the Internet will have a significant impact on reducing states’ capability to conduct mass surveillance and on protecting the privacy of global end-users. Secondly, the article argues that Internet standards should not be seen as ‘living a parallel life’ to, or as displacing or merely complementing, international human rights law. Technical standards and international law can actively inform one another. The analysis and findings demonstrate how the technical perspective on privacy can inform and enrich policy-making and legal reasoning.

Madsen & Christensen: Global Actors: Networks, Elites, and Institutions

Mikael Rask Madsen (Univ. of Copenhagen - Law) & Mikkel Jarle Christensen (Univ. of Copenhagen - Law) have posted Global Actors: Networks, Elites, and Institutions. Here's the abstract:

Over the past several decades scholars have intensively debated what factors drive globalization. Answers have ranged from the emergence of the information society and the global economy to value-conflicts embedded in different civilizations. A different yet closely related question is who is driving globalization? That is, however, much less studied, even if it is arguably key to making global governance intelligible. A whole list of actors seem to offer possible answers to the question of who the globalizers are: Are they global institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the International Criminal Court (ICC); communities of experts providing technocratic solutions; transnational networks of activists seeking to alter global and national politics by pursuing, for example, environmental or human rights agendas; or are they powerful individuals forming transnational elites taking the fate of the global society in their hands at a safe distance from ordinary politics in places such as Brussels, New York, or Davos?

Mégret: Is the International Criminal Court Focusing Too Much on Non-State Actors?

Frédéric Mégret (McGill Univ. - Law) has posted Is the International Criminal Court Focusing Too Much on Non-State Actors? (in Arcs of Global Justice: Essays in Honor of William A. Schabas, Diane Marie Amann & Margaret deGuzman eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

One of the most significant contributions of Bill Schabas to the study of international criminal law is his critique of the tendency of contemporary international criminal justice to focus on individuals associated with non-state actors as opposed to states. The critique is both a jurisdictional and a substantive one. This chapter seeks to first evaluate it as an empirical claim to assess the degree to which the ICC has disproportionately focused on non-state actors, beyond the well known case of state self-referrals. It finds that, on the basis of various definitions of who stands as a non-state actor, the Court has indeed very significantly focused on non-state actors. The chapter then addresses the normative case against such a practice. It finds that at the substantive level it would be fighting a rearguard battle to claim that non-state actors cannot commit international crimes (with the exception of aggression), however unfortunate one may consider that development to have been. The real issue is jurisdictional and a matter of prosecutorial policy. The chapter is less concerned than Schabas about the evolution of international criminal justice away from an exclusive focus on sovereigns all other things being equal, but it does flag some evident distributive concerns. The conclusion envisages what it is that is common between states and certain armed groups that ought to give a particular character of gravity to their acts and recommend them for special attention from international criminal law.

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 60, no. 8, December 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Victor Asal, Michael Findley, James A. Piazza, & James Igoe Walsh, Political Exclusion, Oil, and Ethnic Armed Conflict
• Varun Piplani & Caitlin Talmadge, When War Helps Civil–military Relations: Prolonged Interstate Conflict and the Reduced Risk of Coups
• John A. Vasquez & Ashlea Rundlett, Alliances as a Necessary Condition of Multiparty Wars
• Douglas L. Kriner & Francis X. Shen, Conscription, Inequality, and Partisan Support for War
• Reed M. Wood & Thorin M. Wright, Responding to Catastrophe: Repression Dynamics Following Rapid-onset Natural Disasters
• Carly Wayne, Roni Porat, Maya Tamir, & Eran Halperin, Rationalizing Conflict: The Polarizing Role of Accountability in Ideological Decision Making
• Jessica Steinberg, Strategic Sovereignty: A Model of Non-state Goods Provision and Resistance in Regions of Natural Resource Extraction

New Issue: European Journal of International Relations

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Relations (Vol. 22, no. 4, December 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Simon Bulmer & Jonathan Joseph, European integration in crisis? Of supranational integration, hegemonic projects and domestic politics
• Anna Michalski & Ludvig Norman, Conceptualizing European security cooperation: Competing international political orders and domestic factors
• Valentina Feklyunina, Soft power and identity: Russia, Ukraine and the ‘Russian world(s)’
• Joshua Freedman, Status insecurity and temporality in world politics
• Pieter de Wilde, Wiebke Marie Junk, & Tabea Palmtag, Accountability and opposition to globalization in international assemblies
• Beverley Loke, Unpacking the politics of great power responsibility: Nationalist and Maoist China in international order-
• Daehee Bak, Michael R. Kenwick, & Glenn Palmer, Who’s careful: Regime type and target selection
• Garrett Wallace Brown & Alexandra Bohm, Introducing Jus ante Bellum as a cosmopolitan approach to humanitarian intervention
• Naghmeh Nasiritousi, Mattias Hjerpe, & Karin Bäckstrand, Normative arguments for non-state actor participation in international policymaking processes: Functionalism, neocorporatism or democratic pluralism?
• Thomas Gregory, Dismembering the dead: Violence, vulnerability and the body in war

Cheng: A New International Legal Order

Chia-Jui Cheng (Xiamen Academy of International Law) has published A New International Legal Order: In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Xiamen Academy of International Law (Brill | Nijhoff 2016). Contents include:

• Chia-Jui Cheng, Introduction
• Chia-Jui Cheng, Historical Record of the Xiamen Academy of International Law
• Hisashi Owada, The Xiamen Academy of International Law and the Future of the Global Legal Order
• Danilo Türk, Three Concepts of UN Reform
• Stephen Mathias, The Use of Force – The General Prohibition and Its Exceptions in Modern International Law and Practice
• Malcolm N. Shaw, Self-determination, Uti Possidetis and Boundary Disputes in Africa
• Xue Hanqin and Solène Guggisberg, International Judiciary Practice in the Development of International Environmental Law – a Decade Review
• José Enrique Alvarez, International Organizations and the Rules of Law: Challenges Ahead
• Niels Blokker, Asian and Pacific International Organizations: Mainstream or Sui Generis? An International Institutional Law Perspective
• Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann, Methodological Problems in International Economic Law and Adjudication
• Guiguo Wang, The Belt and Road Initiative in the Context of Globalization
• Stephan Hobe, Technological Developments as a Challenge for Air and Space Law
• Christopher Greenwood, International Humanitarian Law in Context

Alvarez: The Impact of International Organizations on International Law

José E. Alvarez (New York Univ. - Law) has published The Impact of International Organizations on International Law (Brill | Nijhoff 2016). Here's the abstract:

The Impact of International Organizations on International Law addresses how international organizations, particularly those within the UN system, have changed the forms, contents, and effects of international law. Professor Jose Alvarez considers the impact on sovereigns and actions taken by the contemporary Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and UN Specialized Agencies such as the World Health Organization. He considers the diverse functions performed by adjudicators – from judges of the International Criminal Court to arbitrators within the international investment regime. This text raises fundamental questions concerning the future of international law given the challenges international organizations pose to legal positivism, to traditional conceptions of sovereignty, and to the rule of law itself.

New Issue: Swiss Review of International and European Law

The latest issue of the Swiss Review of International and European Law (Vol. 26, no. 2, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Annual Meeting of the Swiss Society of International Law
• Rolf H. Weber, Editorial
• Rolf H. Weber, Elements of a Legal Framework for Cyberspace
• Christine Kaufmann, Multistakeholder Participation in Cyberspace
• Maya Hertig Randall, Freedom of Expression in the Internet
• Bertil Cottier, Gouvernance d’Internet : Protection de la vie privée et des données personnelles
• Edouard Treppoz, Jurisdiction in the Cyberspace
• Jacques de Werra, Alternative Dispute Resolution in Cyberspace: The Need to Adopt Global ADR Mechanisms for Addressing the Challenges of Massive Online Micro-Justice
• Jovan Kurbalija, State Responsibility in Digital Space

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 32, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• The Russian Constitutional Court’s ruling on Anchugov and Gladkov and the complex relationship of domestic courts with the European Court of Human Rights
• Introduced by Serena Forlati
• Pietro Pustorino, Russian Constitutional Court and the execution ‘à la carte’ of ECtHR judgments
• Ivan Kleimenov, Judgment of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation no 12-P/2016: Refusal to execute judgments of ECHR or the search for compromise between Russian and international law?

Conference: Canadian Council on International Law 2016 Annual Conference

The 45th Annual Conference of the Canadian Council on International Law will take place November 3-5, 2016, in Ottawa. The theme is "The Promise of International Law: Solutions for the World’s Crises" The program is here. Here's the idea:

In a global climate of accelerating change, there is a need to adapt quickly and implement solutions to address crises.

The term crisis can be applied to a variety of subjects based on social, political, economic, and environmental issues. In fact, it can be applied to almost any international law issue. For example, climate change,genocide, fluctuating oil prices, unstable economies, human migration, disease outbreak, poverty, consumerism/consumption, war, species extinctions, corporate instability, lack of governance, and more.

International law experts constantly have to adapt to stay relevant in this fluctuating world. But one may wonder whether we are moving fast enough with technology? Can treaties and governance helpin situations of constant changes? What about the differing levels of efficacy and enforceability? Is the current international legal system yielding enough solutions to addressnew crises? Most importantly, what are those potential solutions and what is the action-plan to move forward?

The term “crisis”itself raises question. Is it too abrasive? For instance, can the slowing economy and fluctuation of oil prices really be considered a crisis? Perhaps they are just cyclical challenges with solutions just around the corner. Even climate change, is it a crisis already? If not yet at that level, can a crisis on the international legal issues be averted through cooperation and international law? What are the crisis-prevention measures exactly, and what do they look like?

Call for Papers: 6th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of SIEL

A call for papers has been issued for the 6th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of the Society of International Economic Law, to be held April 20-21, 2017, at Tilburg University. Here's the call:

6th Conference of the Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network of the Society of International Economic Law (PEPA/SIEL) 2017

Tilburg, the Netherlands, 20-21 April 2017

Organised by PEPA/SIEL in collaboration with the Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) of Tilburg University

SIEL’s Postgraduate and Early Professionals/Academics Network (PEPA/SIEL) is, among other things, interested in fostering collaboration and mentoring opportunities for emerging academics and professionals in International Economic Law (IEL). PEPA/SIEL fulfils these goals through various activities such as organising conferences at which emerging IEL academics and professionals can present and discuss their research in a supportive and welcoming environment.

We are pleased to announce that the sixth conference will take place on 20-21 April 2017 at Tilburg University, the Netherlands.

Call for Papers

This conference offers graduate students (students enrolled in Master or PhD programmes) and early professionals/academics (generally within five years of graduating) studying or working in the field of IEL an opportunity to present and discuss their research. It also provides a critical platform where participants can test their ideas about broader issues relating to IEL. One or more senior practitioners and academics will comment on each paper after its presentation, followed by a general discussion.

We invite submissions on any IEL topic including, but not limited to:

• Law and practice in international economic governance and international organizations;
• nternational trade, investment, competition, monetary and financial law;
• The interaction of IEL branches with other branches of law governing intellectual property, human rights, environment, sustainable development, food safety;
• Bilateral and regional economic integration and the multilateral trading system;
• Comparative economic law, focusing on how IEL interacts with laws, institutions and actors at the domestic level;
• International economics, philosophy, sociology, politics.

Please also note that as the Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) fosters interdisciplinary research, we especially encourage the submission of abstracts dealing with Law and Economics aspects of international economic law this year. Abstracts and papers co-authored by lawyers and economists are particularly welcome.

How and when to submit

Submissions should include a CV and a research abstract (of no more than 400 words) and be sent no later than 30 November 2016 to pepa2017conference@gmail.com. Papers will be selected based on a double blind review conducted by a senior practitioner or academic and a conference organiser. Successful applicants will be notified by 15 December 2016, after which they are expected to submit a conference paper (no more than 4000 words) by 15 March 2017. Abstracts will be made available online via the SIEL website.

General practical information about participating and attending the Conference

The deadline for registration is 15 February 2017. Registration has to be done online at the SIEL website. Registration costs 45 GBP for non-SIEL Members, and 35 GBP for SIEL Members. SIEL Membership details may be found at the SIEL website (student membership is 5 GBP). The registration fee covers conference materials and coffee breaks of both days.

Cancellation of participation must be made in writing to pepa2017conference@gmail.com. The deadline for cancellation is 25 March 2017. The registration fee minus an administrative fee of 10 GBP and any incurring bank fees will be refunded if the cancellation is done before or on the given date. Later cancellation will not be refunded.

A limited number of conference fee waivers is available for applicants facing financial hardship. Applicants for such a waiver are kindly invited to add a short letter of no more than 3 paragraphs to their conference application, stating the reason for their waiver request.

Please understand that we will not be able to provide any travel or other financial assistance to conference participants.

Subject to space availability, registration of participants not presenting a paper will be accepted. The regular fee will be applied. Please contact pepa2017conference@gmail.com.

Should you have any question regarding application or participation, please feel free to contact pepa2017conference@gmail.com.

Conference Co-Chairs: Anna Marhold, Panos Delimatsis, Freya Baetens and José Caiado

Saul: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Travaux Preparatoires

Ben Saul (Univ. of Sydney - Law) has published The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Travaux Preparatoires (Oxford Univ. Press 2016). Here's the abstract:

This book is the first collection of the drafting records of the one of the world's two foremost human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of 1966. It makes an important contribution to understanding the origins and meaning of economic and social rights, which were drafted over almost two decades years between 1947 and 1966. There is increasing global interest in the stronger protection of economic, social, and cultural rights, which are vital to the survival, dignity, and prosperity of everyone. Since 2013, individuals have been able to complain to the United Nations about violations of their rights, and action can also often be taken through regional and national human rights procedures. In this context, many of the current debates surrounding economic and social rights can be best understood in the light of their drafting history.

This book judiciously selects, and chronologically presents, the most important drafting documents or extracts thereof between 1947 and 1966. The book contains an extensive annotated table of documents, allowing researchers to track the progress of the key rights and issues in the drafting. It also includes an original analytical introductory essay, which summarises and analyses the main procedural and substantive developments during the drafting. The essay charts the many influences on the recognition of economic and social rights at a key moment in history: the aftermath of the Second World War, which demonstrated the need to eliminate the economic and social causes of threats to global peace and security.

Amann: Children

Diane Marie Amann (Univ. of Georgia - Law) has posted Children (in The Cambridge Companion to International Criminal Law, William A. Schabas ed., 2016). Here's the abstract:

This chapter, which appears in The Cambridge Companion to International Criminal Law (William A. Schabas ed. 2016), discusses how international criminal law instruments and institutions address crimes against and affecting children. It contrasts the absence of express attention in the post-World War II era with the multiple provisions pertaining to children in the 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court. The chapter examines key judgments in that court and in the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as well as the ICC’s current, comprehensive approach to the effects that crimes within its jurisdiction have on children. The chapter concludes with a discussion of challenges to the prevention and punishment of such international crimes.

Boyle, Hartmann, & Savaresi: The United Nations Security Council's Legislative and Enforcement Powers and Climate Change

Alan Boyle (Univ. of Edinburgh - Law), Jacques Hartmann (Univ. of Dundee), & Annalisa Savaresi (Univ. of Stirling - Law) have posted The United Nations Security Council's Legislative and Enforcement Powers and Climate Change. Here's the abstract:

Since the adoption of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), international climate change law-making has chiefly been the prerogative of the treaty bodies established under the Convention and its Protocol. The adoption of the Paris Agreement in December 2015 is an important step forward for the multilateral climate change framework, but, despite its rapid entry into force, it is still too early to tell whether the Paris Agreement will prove to be an effective and successful intergovernmental framework for tackling climate change. Nor is it necessarily the only relevant institution in the climate change regime. Given the urgency of climate change and the glacial pace of multilateral climate law-making, the idea of exploiting the United Nations Security Council’s legislative and enforcement powers to lead global efforts on climate change therefore holds a significant appeal. This chapter focuses on the use of the Council’s legislative and enforcement powers to help states get out of the climate change law-making quagmire. Firstly, the chapter analyses the powers and practice of the Council both as a global legislator, and in enforcing states’ obligations. Secondly, the chapter considers how existing Council law-making and enforcement powers can be applied to climate change. The chapter concludes by reflecting on advantages and disadvantages of Council’s legislative and enforcement action in relation to climate change.

Pedersen on Vitalis's World Order, Black Power Politics

Susan Pedersen (Columbia Univ. - History) has published Destined to Disappear (London Review of Books, Vol. 38, no. 20, October 20, 2016, pp. 23-24), reviewing Robert Vitalis, White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International Relations (Cornell Univ. Press 2015). Here's an excerpt:

White World Order, Black Power Politics does two things. First, it provides a critical history of the institutional development of the field of international relations in the United States, from its founding at the turn of the century through to the Cold War. This history is radically unfamiliar: the ‘origin story’ taught on undergraduate courses, which traces the field’s core concepts (realism, liberal internationalism) back to Thucydides or Machiavelli or Wilson is, Vitalis insists, a post-1945 invention. Instead, at the moment of its American birth, ‘international relations meant race relations.’ Races, not states or nations, were considered humanity’s foundational political units; ‘race war’ – not class conflict or interstate conflict – was the spectre preying on scholars’ minds. The field of international relations was born to avert that disaster. A blunter way to put this, and Vitalis is blunter, is that international relations was supposed to figure out how to preserve white supremacy in a multiracial and increasingly interdependent world. . . .

[A] small, hard-pressed group of black scholars . . . insisted that the problem was not racial conflict, or even racial difference, but simply racism: the systematic and worldwide denial of equal rights to citizenship and self-determination on grounds of race alone. Vitalis calls this group the ‘Howard School’: the term captures both Howard University’s pre-eminence as a centre of African-American learning at a time when white universities would train but not hire black academics, and the distinctive contribution of its faculty to scholarship more broadly. At a time when international relations was the study not of the anarchical relations between the world’s states but of ‘the dynamics of domination and dependency among the world’s superior and inferior races’, these ‘first black scholars (and only them) in a deeply segregated academy challenged the fundamental premise of international/interracial hierarchy, that different norms applied to different classes of people’. Recovering their indefatigable work is this book’s second major contribution.

van Aaken & Broude: Arbitration from a Law & Economics Perspective

Anne van Aaken (Univ. of St. Gallen - Law) & Tomer Broude (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem - Law) have posted Arbitration from a Law & Economics Perspective (in The Oxford Handbook of International Arbitration, Thomas Schultz & Federico Ortino eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

International arbitration and Law & Economics (L&E) have two things in common. They have both been on the rise in the last decades; and they are both hotly contested and discussed in all their facets. 15 years ago, it was lamented that L&E had neglected (international) arbitration to large extent, focusing instead on judicial contexts. This chapter analysis international arbitration from an L&E perspective, including subsequent developments by behavioral economics relevant to arbitration. After providing a general institutional economics perspective on arbitration, we go into greater detail concerning some questions where L&E can contribute by focusing on disputants involved in arbitration, their incentives and decision-making, including among types of dispute settlement, arbitrator appointment, incentives for settlement and third-party funding. We also discuss the incentives and behavior of arbitrators, including their cognitive abilities.

New Issue: Revue belge de droit international

The latest issue of the Revue belge de droit international (2015, nos. 1-2) is out. This is a special issue on "50 voix pour fêter les 50 ans de la revue belge de droit international." The table of contents is here.

Wolfrum, Seršić, & Šošić: Contemporary Developments in International Law: Essays in Honour of Budislav Vukas

Rüdiger Wolfrum (Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea), Maja Seršić (Univ. of Zagreb - Law) & Trpimir M. Šošić (Univ. of Zagreb - Law) have published Contemporary Developments in International Law: Essays in Honour of Budislav Vukas (Brill | Nijhoff 2016). Contents include:

• Philippe Couvreur, La Ville libre de Dantzig devant la Cour permanente de Justice intemationale
• Toni Deskoski, Macedonian-Greek Relations and the ICJ Judgment of 5 December 2011
• Hazel Fox, When Can Property of a State be Attached to Enforce a Foreign Judgment Given against It in Another Country? Some Guidance in the IQ Judgment in the Jurisdictional Immunities Case
• Davorin Lapaš, Controversial Subjects of Contemporary International Law: IGO-like Entities as Participants in International Legal Relations - Do We Need a 'Reparation Case II'?
• Djamchid Momtaz, La controverse sur le statut de la Palestine
• Obrad Racic, The Treaty-Making Capacity of International Organizations: Practice vs. Codification Efforts
• Ernesto J. Rey Caro, Suspension of a Member State in an International Integration Organization: Mercosur
• Maja Seršic, Due Diligence: Fault-Based Responsibility or Autonomous Standard?
• Hugo Caminos, A Succinct Historical Overview of the Status of Straits in International Law
• Maria Clelia Ciciriello & Federica Mucci, Modern Piracy off the Coast of Somalia: A Test-Bed for Old and New International Prevention and Repression Instruments
• Umberto Leanza, Le regime des baies et des golfes dans la Mer Méditerranée
• Alex G. Oude Elferink, ITLOS'S Approach to the Delimitation of the Continental Shelf beyond zoo Nautical Miles in the Bangladesh/Myanmar Case: Theoretical and Practical Difficulties
• Nicholas M. Poulantzas, The Status of Islands in the International Law of the Sea: Megisti Island
• Evangelos Raftopoulos, Theorizing about Conventional Environmental Sea Regimes as International Trusts: The Case of the Barcelona Convention System
• Tullio Scovazzi, Harlequin and the Mediterranean
• Trpimir M. Šošic, The 24-Mile Archaeological Zone: Abandoned or Confirmed?
• Tullio Treves, Fisheries Disputes: Judicial and Arbitral Practice since the Entry into Force of UNCLOs
• Helmut Tuerk, Forgotten Rights? Landlocked States and the Law of the Sea
• Rüdiger Wolfrum, Military Vessel Protection Detachments under National and International Law
• Sienho Yee, En Route to the Final Shape of the UNCLOS Dispute Settlement System: Some Pivotal Negotiating Procedural Steps Worthy of Consideration by Future Treaty-Makers and Leaders in Treaty-Making
• Elena Andreevska, Minority Protection and the Prohibition of Discrimination
• Ana Pošcic, Adrijana Martinovic, & Nada Bodiroga-Vukobrat, Precarious Times, Precarious Work: Lessons from Flexicurity
• Lucius Caflisch, The Iraqi Cases: Further Elements and Thoughts concerning 'Jurisdiction' under Article 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights
• Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade, Some Reflections on the Right of Access to Justice in Its Wide Dimension
• Giorgio Conetti, Nation et minorités en Europe
• Vesna Crnic-Grotic, Protection of Croatian as a Minority Language in Europe
• Zlata Drnas de Clément, Some Considerations on the Legal Role of the Sentences and Recommendations of International Bodies Created for the Protection of Human Rights
• Gerhard Hafner, Doctrinal Views versus State Views on Humanitarian Assistance in the Event of Disasters: Comparing the Work of the Institut de Droit International with That of the International Law Commission
• Mira Lulic, Application of Article 1989 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child in the Republic of Croatia
• Bernd v. Maydell, Social Rights and International Law
• Tafrir Malick Ndiaye, Les droits de l'homme aujourd'hui
• Ernest Petric, Sovereignty of State v. Protection of Persons in the Case of Disasters
• Vadim Pak & Nina Vajic, Avoiding Plurality of International Proceedings in the European Court of Human Rights
• Budislav Vukas Jr, The Role of Provisions on Human Rights Protection in Constructing Croatian-Italian (Formerly Yugoslav-Italian) Relations
• Yozo Yokota, The Role of the Committee of Experts in the ILO's Supervisory Mechanism: Reflections on Ten Years' Experience as a Member
• Chittharanjan F. Amerasinghe, International Arbitration: A Judicial Function?
• James Crawford, Flexibility in the Award of Reparation: The Role of the Parties and the Tribunal
• Sašo Georgievski, The International Court of Justice and Diplomatic Settlement of Disputes: Could ICJ Judgments Play an Effective Role in the Negotiation of Interstate Disputes?
• Dražen Petrovic, Wrong Address? Advisory Opinion of the ICJ on the Judgment No. 2867 of the ILOAT upon a Complaint Filed against the International Fund for Agricultural Development
• M.C.W. Pinto, Asia and Dispute Settlement: The Law of the Sea
• Krešimir Sajko, The State as a Party in Arbitral Proceedings on Settlement of Private Law Disputes - Miscellaneous
• Philippe Sands, Of Courts and Competition: Dispute Settlement under Part XV of UNCLOS
• Robert Kolb, Le prétendu caractère ± primitif ¬ du droit international public
• Edward McWhinney, The United Nations Charter, Chapter VII, Non-Use-of-Force and Non-Intervention in Contemporary International Law: The Sisyphean Labours of the Institut de Droit International on Defining and Controlling 'Use of Force' Today
• Robert Mrljic, Some Remarks on Soft Law and Some Specific Forms of Treaty Making
• Marko Petrak, The Ancient Origins of General Principles in International Law
• Maurizio Ragazzi, Fraudulent Treaties: The Covenant with the Gibeonites in the Biblical Book of Joshua
• Mirjam Škrk, The Notion of Sources of International Criminal Law
• Amado S. Tolentino Jr., Passage from Natural Resources Law to Environmental Law to Sustainable Development Law

Stanton: Violence and Restraint in Civil War: Civilian Targeting in the Shadow of International Law

Jessica A. Stanton (Univ. of Pennsylvania - Political Science) has published Violence and Restraint in Civil War: Civilian Targeting in the Shadow of International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2016). Here's the abstract:

Media coverage of civil wars often focuses on the most gruesome atrocities and the most extreme conflicts, which might lead one to think that all civil wars involve massive violence against civilians. In truth, many governments and rebel groups exercise restraint in their fighting, largely avoiding violence against civilians in compliance with international law. Governments and rebel groups make strategic calculations about whether to target civilians by evaluating how domestic and international audiences are likely to respond to violence. Restraint is also a deliberate strategic choice: governments and rebel groups often avoid targeting civilians and abide by international legal standards to appeal to domestic and international audiences for diplomatic support. This book presents a wide range of evidence of the strategic use of violence and restraint, using original data on violence against civilians in civil wars from 1989 to 2010 as well as in-depth analyses of conflicts in Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Indonesia, Sudan, Turkey, and Uganda.