New Issue: Journal of Human Rights and the Environment

The latest issue of the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment (Vol. 11, no. 1, March 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Anna Great & Julia Dehm, Frames and contestations: environment, climate change and the construction of in/justice
• Articles
• M Joel Voss, Contesting human rights and climate change at the UN Human Rights Council
• Gavin Byrne, Climate change denial as far-right politics: How abandonment of scientific method paved the way for Trump
• Sabina Cardenas & Esteban Angulo, Human rights vs. Eco-justice: conflicts and other futures in urban open spaces in Cali, Colombia
• Sumudu Atapattu, Climate change and displacement: protecting 'climate refugees' within a framework of justice and human rights
• Matilda Arvidsson, The swarm that we already are: artificially intelligent (AI) swarming 'insect drones', targeting and international humanitarian law in a posthuman ecology

Kaoutzanis: The UN Security Council and International Criminal Tribunals: Procedure Matters

Christodoulos Kaoutzanis has published The UN Security Council and International Criminal Tribunals: Procedure Matters (Springer 2020). Here's the abstract:

The book explains why and how the UN Security Council authorizes international criminal investigations into mass atrocities. In doing so, it tackles head-on the obvious double standards of global justice, where few atrocities get investigated and most slip below the headlines. The book argues that the Council’s decision-making procedure is central to understanding the Council’s decisions. This procedure is broken into three distinct steps, namely the role of diplomats at the Council, the Council’s reliance on third parties and the Council’s resort to precedent. The volume documents that the Council authorized international criminal investigations only into the handful of mass atrocities for which the Council’s deliberations successfully completed each of these three steps.

Written for both scholars and practitioners, the book combines insights from the fields of international relations, international law and human rights. Through archival research and interviews with UNSC diplomats who took part in deliberations on atrocities, the volume presents evidence that supports its argument across cases and across time. In doing so, the book avoids the yes/no (or 0 vs 1) tendency of many social science projects, thereby acknowledging that there is no silver bullet to explain the work of the Council’s five permanent and ten elected members.

Telesetsky: International Governance of Global Health Pandemics

Anastasia Telesetsky (Univ. of Idaho - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on International Governance of Global Health Pandemics.

New Volume: Anuario Colombiano de Derecho Internacional

The latest volume of the Anuario Colombiano de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 13, 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Alvaro Paúl, El Relato de los contextos históricos, sociales y políticos en las sentencias de la Corte Interamericana
• Shirley Vanessa Méndez Romero & Norberto Hernández Jiménez, Justicia restaurativa y Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos
• Andres Téllez Núñez, Aproximación multidimensional al régimen de responsabilidad internacional y al principio de no intervención. El problema hermenéutico
• Laura Movilla Pateiro & Francesco Sindico, El valor jurídico y práctico del proyecto de artículos de la CDI sobre el derecho de los acuíferos transfronterizos
• Juan Felipe Solórzano Quintero, La garantía de los DESCA a través del dialogo judicial y arbitral
• Rodrigo Corredor Castellanos, The Pacific Alliance Towards a Strategy on Digital Economy?
• Wendolyne Nava González, Los mecanismos extrajudiciales de resolución de conflictos en línea: su problemática en el derecho internacional privado
• María Mayela Celis, El papel controversial del TEDH en la interpretación del Convenio de La Haya del 25 de octubre de 1980 sobre los Aspectos Civiles de la Sustracción Internacional de Menores: Especial referencia a los casos Neulinger y Shuruk c. Suiza y X c. Letonia
• Angélica María Anichiarico González & Cástulo Cisneros Trujillo, Las garantías procesales de las víctimas en la normatividad de la Unión Europea

Call for Papers: Custom and International Investment Law (Reminder)

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Custom and International Investment Law," which will be held at the American University Washington College of Law, on September 23-24, 2020. The call is here. The deadline is April 1, 2020.

Lo, Nakagawa, & Chen: The Appellate Body of the WTO and Its Reform

Chang-fa Lo, Junji Nakagawa, & Tsai-Fang Chen have published The Appellate Body of the WTO and Its Reform (Springer 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This is the first book that critically examines the reform of the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in light of the current crisis resulting from the U.S. blocking of the appointment of its members. The reform of the AB is critical, as the appointment crisis could lead to the demise of “the jewel in the crown,” which may even cause the dismantling of the WTO as a whole. This book covers various aspects of the crisis and its reform. Specifically, as the crisis cannot be fully understood without reviewing the role of the AB from the broader perspectives of the other functions of the WTO, the book examines the reform of the AB from the broader perspectives of the WTO governance. Additional focus is on the reform of the AB in relation to its specific functions. Available options are provided to address the AB crisis, as well as discussion of wider implications beyond the WTO. Contributed by world-renowned academics, experts, and practitioners in the field of international economic law, this volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the AB crisis and its solutions.

Young, Berkman, & Vylegzhanin: Governing Arctic Seas: Regional Lessons from the Bering Strait and Barents Sea Volume 1

Oran R. Young (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara - School of Environmental Science and Management), Paul Arthur Berkman (Tufts Univ. - Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy), & Alexander N. Vylegzhanin (MGIMO Univ. - Law) have published Governing Arctic Seas: Regional Lessons from the Bering Strait and Barents Sea: Volume 1 (Springer 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Governing Arctic Seas introduces the concept of ecopolitical regions, using in-depth analyses of the Bering Strait and Barents Sea Regions to demonstrate how integrating the natural sciences, social sciences and Indigenous knowledge can reveal patterns, trends and processes as the basis for informed decisionmaking. This book draws on international, interdisciplinary and inclusive (holistic) perspectives to analyze governance mechanisms, built infrastructure and their coupling to achieve sustainability in biophysical regions subject to shared authority. Governing Arctic Seas is the first volume in a series of books on Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability that apply, train and refine science diplomacy to address transboundary issues at scales ranging from local to global. For nations and peoples as well as those dealing with global concerns, this holistic process operates across a ‘continuum of urgencies’ from security time scales (mitigating risks of political, economic and cultural instabilities that are immediate) to sustainability time scales (balancing economic prosperity, environmental protection and societal well-being across generations). Informed decisionmaking is the apex goal, starting with questions that generate data as stages of research, integrating decisionmaking institutions to employ evidence to reveal options (without advocacy) that contribute to informed decisions. The first volumes in the series focus on the Arctic, revealing legal, economic, environmental and societal lessons with accelerating knowledge co-production to achieve progress with sustainability in this globally-relevant region that is undergoing an environmental state change in the sea and on land. Across all volumes, there is triangulation to integrate research, education and leadership as well as science, technology and innovation to elaborate the theory, methods and skills of informed decisionmaking to build common interests for the benefit of all on Earth.

Mantilla Blanco & Pehl: National Security Exceptions in International Trade and Investment Agreements: Justiciability and Standards of Review

Sebastián Mantilla Blanco & Alexander Pehl have published National Security Exceptions in International Trade and Investment Agreements: Justiciability and Standards of Review (Springer 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of national security exceptions in international trade and investment agreements. The subject has gained particular relevance in the past few years, as both the United States and the Russian Federation have invoked national security as justification for trade-restrictive measures in the context of WTO dispute settlement proceedings. The book describes the evolution of security exceptions in international economic law, from the GATT 1947 to the most recent economic treaties, such as the 2017 Buenos Aires Protocol for Intra-Mercosur Investment and the 2018 USMCA. Further, it presents an overview of the rich array of adjudicatory practices addressing national security clauses, covering the decisions of WTO dispute settlement bodies, the ICJ, and numerous investment arbitral tribunals. To this end, the book addresses the debates surrounding the alleged self-judging character of security exceptions and the standards of review applicable where the exception is considered to be justiciable.

Knox: Constructing the Human Right to a Healthy Environment

John H. Knox (Wake Forest Univ. - Law) has posted Constructing the Human Right to a Healthy Environment (Annual Review of Law and Social Science, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

For decades, the right to a healthy environment has been the missing human right, never recognized by the United Nations despite its approval by most countries at the national and regional levels. In the absence of UN recognition, human rights bodies have "greened" other human rights, such as the rights to life and health, by explaining how states have duties to protect them from environmental harm. The importance of this growing body of law was illustrated recently by the decision of the Dutch Supreme Court in the Urgenda case, which held that the Netherlands had to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in order to comply with its obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights.

In recent years, there have been renewed calls for the UN General Assembly to finally recognize the right to a healthy environment. Has the evolution of environmental human rights law obviated the need for UN recognition? If not, what would such recognition add? This review of recent scholarship describes the evolution of environmental human rights law and assesses possible effects of UN recognition of the right to a healthy environment, both on environmental protection and on human rights law itself.

Bhatt: Concessionaires, Financiers and Communities: Implementing Indigenous Peoples' Rights to Land in Transnational Development Projects

Kinnari I. Bhatt (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam) has published Concessionaires, Financiers and Communities: Implementing Indigenous Peoples' Rights to Land in Transnational Development Projects (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

Unrelenting demands for energy, infrastructure and natural resources, and the need for developing states to augment income and signal an 'enterprise-ready' attitude mean that transnational development projects remain a common tool for economic development. Yet little is known about the fragmented legal framework of private financial mechanisms, contractual clauses and discretionary behaviours that shape modern development projects. How do gaps and biases in formal laws cope with the might of concessionaires and financiers and their algorithmic contractual and policy technicalities negotiated in private offices? What impacts do private legal devices have for the visibility and implementation of Indigenous peoples' rights to land? This original perspective on transnational development projects explains how the patterns of poor rights recognition and implementation, power(lessness), vulnerability and, ultimately, conflict routinely seen in development projects will only be fully appreciated by acknowledging and remedying the pivotal role and priority enjoyed by private mechanisms, documentation and expertise.

He & Sun: A Chinese Theory of International Law

Zhipeng He (Jilin Univ. - Law) & Lu Sun (Jilin Academy of Social Sciences) have published A Chinese Theory of International Law (Springer 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book analyzes China’s attitude to international law based on historical experiences and documents, and provides an explanation of China’s approaches to international legal issues. It also establishes several elements for a possible framework of Chinese theory on international law.

Haskell & Rasulov: New Voices and New Perspectives in International Economic Law

John D. Haskell (Univ. of Manchester - Law) & Akbar Rasulov (Univ. of Glasgow - Law) have published New Voices and New Perspectives in International Economic Law (Springer 2020). Contents include:

• Akbar Rasulov, Introduction: The Discipline of International Economic Law at a Crossroads
• Ntina Tzouvala, The Ordo-Liberal Origins of Modern International Investment Law: Constructing Competition on a Global Scale
• Michael Fakhri, A History of Food Security and Agriculture in International Trade Law, 1945–2017
• Athene Richford, The Authority of Language in International Law: From Sovereignty to Economic Certainty
• Nicolás M. Perrone, Taking Local Expectations Seriously: A Fresh Start for Foreign Investment Governance?
• Mavluda Sattorova, Mustafa Erkan, & Ohiocheoya Omiunu, How Do Host States Respond to Investment Treaty Law? Some Empirical Observations
• Alexandre Belle, Mamatas and Others v. Greece: How the European Court of Human Rights Could Change Sovereign Debt Restructuration
• John D. Haskell, Doing Things with Political Economy (as a Public International Law Academic)
• Maria Tzanakopoulou, Social Consensus in the EMU: The Constitutional Tenets of a Currency Union

Jeßberger & Geneuss: Why Punish Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities? Purposes of Punishment in International Criminal Law

Florian Jeßberger (Universität Hamburg - Law) & Julia Geneuss (Universität Hamburg - Law) have published Why Punish Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities? Purposes of Punishment in International Criminal Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This edited volume provides, for the first time, a comprehensive account of theoretical approaches to international punishment. Its main objective is to contribute to the development of a consistent and robust theory of international criminal punishment. For this purpose, the authors - renowned scholars in the fields of criminal law, international criminal law, and philosophy of law, as well as practitioners working at different international criminal courts and tribunals - address the question of meaning and purpose of punishment in international law from various perspectives. The volume fleshes out the predominant dimensions of a theory of international punishment and highlights the differences between 'ordinary' (domestic) crime and international crimes and their respective enforcement. At the same time, throughout the volume a major focus is on the practical consequences of the different theoretical approaches, in particular for the activities of the International Criminal Court.

Dothan: International Judicial Review: When Should International Courts Intervene?

Shai Dothan (Univ. of Copenhagen - Law) has published International Judicial Review: When Should International Courts Intervene? (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book is motivated by a question: when should international courts intervene in domestic affairs? To answer this question thoroughly, the book is broken down into a series of separate inquiries: when is intervention legitimate? When can international courts identify good legal solutions? When will intervention initiate useful processes? When will it lead to good outcomes? These inquiries are answered based on reviewing judgments of international courts, strategic analysis, and empirical findings. The book outlines under which conditions intervention by international courts is recommended and evaluates the implications that international courts have on society.

New Issue: Business and Human Rights Journal

The latest issue of the Business and Human Rights Journal (Vol. 5, no. 1, January 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Scholarly Articles
• Kristian Høyer Toft, Climate Change as a Business and Human Rights Issue: A Proposal for a Moral Typology
• Judith Schrempf-Stirling & Harry J. Van Buren, Business and Human Rights Scholarship in Social Issues in Management: An Analytical Review
• Andrés Felipe López Latorre, In Defence of Direct Obligations for Businesses Under International Human Rights Law
• Alexander Kriebitz & Christoph Lütge, Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights: A Business Ethical Assessment
• Markus Krajewski, A Nightmare or a Noble Dream? Establishing Investor Obligations Through Treaty-Making and Treaty-Application
• Developments in the Field
• Marilyn Croser, Martyn Day, Mariëtte Van Huijstee, & Channa Samkalden, Vedanta v Lungowe and Kiobel v Shell: The Implications for Parent Company Accountability
• Karyn Keenan, Canada’s New Corporate Responsibility Ombudsperson Falls Far Short of its Promise
• Maddalena Neglia, Striking the Right(s) Balance: Conflicts between Human Rights and Freedom to Conduct a Business in the ILVA Case in Italy
• Claire Methven O’Brien, Confronting the Constraints of the Medium: The Fifth Session of the UN Intergovernmental Working Group on a Business and Human Rights Treaty
• Rajiv Maher, De-contextualized Corporate Human Rights Benchmarks: Whose Perspective Counts? See Disclaimer
• Amy Sinclair & Justine Nolan, Modern Slavery Laws in Australia: Steps in the Right Direction?

Call for Submissions: Cambridge International Law Journal

The Cambridge International Law Journal invites submissions for the second issue of its ninth volume (December 2020). Here's the call:

The Editorial Board of the Cambridge International Law Journal (CILJ) is pleased to invite submissions for Volume 9(2), to be published in December 2020. The Board welcomes long articles that engage with the timely theme of the Ninth Annual Cambridge International Law Conference, ‘International Law and Global Risks: Current Challenges in Theory and Practice’. Further information about the theme is available here. All submissions are subject to double-blind peer review by the Journal's Editorial Board. In addition, long articles are sent to the Academic Review Board, which consists of distinguished international law scholars and practitioners. Articles must be submitted by 11:59 pm on 11 May 2020 (BST).

For full submission instructions, please visit this link.

Long articles for Volume 9(2) can be submitted here.

Blog articles can be submitted here.

Further information can be obtained from the Editors-in-Chief at editors@cilj.co.uk.

New Issue: Criminal Law Forum

The latest issue of Criminal Law Forum (Vol. 31, no. 1, March 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Jamil Ddamulira Mujuzi, The Prosecution in Seychelles of Piracy Committed on the High Seas and the Right to a Fair Trial
• Tommaso Trinchera, Confiscation And Asset Recovery: Better Tools To Fight Bribery And Corruption Crime
• ’Mampolokeng ’Mathuso Mary-Elizabeth Monyakane, The Danger for an Underestimation of Necessary Precautions for the Admissibility of Admissions in Section 219A of the South African Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977

Barrett & Beckman: Handbook on Good Treaty Practice

Jill Barrett (Queen Mary Univ. of London) & Robert Beckman (National Univ. of Singapore) have published Handbook on Good Treaty Practice (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

This Handbook aims to provide practical guidance on good treaty practice. It presents a range of examples from the practice of several States and international organisations and explains the actions that need to be taken to create a new treaty, bring it into force, operate it, amend it and wind it up, on both the international and the domestic plane. It also explores what constitutes good treaty practice, and develops generic principles or criteria against which to evaluate these examples. It provides a useful analytical tool to enable each government and international organisation to identify and develop the best treaty practice for their circumstances, recognising that one size does not necessarily fit all. It will be of interest to those working with treaties and treaty procedures in governments, international organisations and legal practice, as well as legal academics and students wishing to gain insight into the realities of treaty practice.

Delerue: Cyber Operations and International Law

François Delerue (Institut de Recherche stratégique de l’École militaire) has published Cyber Operations and International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the international law applicable to cyber operations, including a systematic examination of attribution, lawfulness and remedies. It demonstrates the importance of countermeasures as a form of remedies and also shows the limits of international law, highlighting its limits in resolving issues related to cyber operations. There are several situations in which international law leaves the victim State of cyber operations helpless. Two main streams of limits are identified. First, in the case of cyber operations conducted by non-state actors on the behalf of a State, new technologies offer various ways to coordinate cyber operations without a high level of organization. Second, the law of State responsibility offers a range of solutions to respond to cyber operations and seek reparation, but it does not provide an answer in every case and it cannot solve the problem related to technical capabilities of the victim.

New Volume: Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law

The latest volume of the Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law (Vol. 7, 2019) is out. The table of contents is here. This volume includes a thematic chapter on "The Role of Legal Sciences and Jurisprudence in Responding to Climate Change and Environmental Challenges."

Taschenbrecker: Die völkerrechtliche Bewertung der NATO-Einsätze seit dem Ende der Sowjetunion aus dem Blickwinkel des NATO-Vertrages

Lennart Taschenbrecker has published Die völkerrechtliche Bewertung der NATO-Einsätze seit dem Ende der Sowjetunion aus dem Blickwinkel des NATO-Vertrages (Duncker & Humblot 2020). Here's the abstract:

Bosnien-Herzegowina, Kosovo, Afghanistan und Libyen sind der Öffentlichkeit maßgeblich als (Bürger-)Kriegsländer in Erinnerung. Untrennbar verbunden sind damit aber auch jene militärischen Interventionen des Nordatlantikbündnisses, die für eine Entwicklung der NATO vom Verteidigungsbündnis hin zur transatlantischen Interventionsstreitmacht stehen. Gleichermaßen markieren sie prototypisch die Fortentwicklung eines völkerrechtlichen Vertrages in seiner Handhabung fernab des Vertragstextes. Losgelöst vom Gründungsvertrag ist die NATO neuen Zwecken dienstbar gemacht worden, ohne dass sich diese »Umwidmung« in einer förmlichen Vertragsänderung niedergeschlagen hätte. Ausgehend von diesem Befund widmet sich die Arbeit der zentralen Fragestellung, in welchem Rahmen und unter welchen Voraussetzungen militärische Maßnahmen eines Verteidigungsbündnisses wie der NATO als rechtmäßig i.S.d. Völkerrechts anzusehen sind und wie weit der NATO-Vertrag als ein völkerrechtlicher Vertrag ausgelegt bzw. »fortgebildet« werden darf.

Swatek-Evenstein: A History of Humanitarian Intervention

Mark Swatek-Evenstein has published A History of Humanitarian Intervention (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

The question of 'humanitarian intervention' has been a staple of international law for around 200 years, with a renewed interest in the history of the subject emerging in the last twenty years. This book provides a chronological account of the evolution of the discussion and uncovers the fictional narrative provided by international lawyers to support their conclusions on the subject, from justifications and arguments for 'humanitarian intervention', the misrepresentation of great power involvement in the Greek War of Independence in 1827, to the 'humanitarian intervention that never was', India's war with Pakistan in 1971. Relying on a variety of sources, some of them made available in English for the first time, the book provides an undogmatic, alternative history of the fight for the protection of human rights in international law.

Borlini: When the Leviathan goes to the market: A critical evaluation of the rules governing state-owned enterprises in trade agreements

Leonardo Borlini (Univ. Bocconi) has posted When the Leviathan goes to the market: A critical evaluation of the rules governing state-owned enterprises in trade agreements (Leiden Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have long constituted, and are likely to remain, an important instrument in any government’s toolbox for a variety of economic and societal goals. However, the significant extent of state ownership among the world’s top companies, and the quantitative and qualitative transformation and hybrid nature of SOEs, raises the issue of their impact on international trade flows and the competitive process. This article addresses the question of how international trade agreements regulate SOEs, with a view to furthering the international contestability of markets, while, at the same time, allowing governments to provide support to SOEs as a means of dealing with market failures and the pursuit of public goals. After a brief introduction to contemporary state capitalism, the argument is developed in three main parts. The first part situates SOEs within the GATT and WTO frameworks and elaborates on the findings of previous literature with a view to highlighting the main shortcomings of such discipline. The second part re-examines the notion of ‘competitive neutrality’ by locating contemporary trade agreements within the larger contextual relationships between the state, the market, and the social, and thus reconstructs the normative rationales and general policy implications of the disciplines under examination. Against this background, the third part critically assesses the new disciplines on SOEs in recent preferential trading areas (PTAs). The main conclusion is that the search for binding rules has not led to balanced regimes and, despite the wider scope of the new rules, notable problems that have emerged within the WTO context remain unsolved.

New Issue: Georgetown Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Georgetown Journal of International Law (Vol. 51, no. 1, Fall 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Ross Brown, Conflict on the Final Frontier: Deficiencies in the Law of Space Conflict Below Armed Attack, and How to Remedy Them
• Jason Rotstein, Before Ending the Case: Disassembling Jurisdiction and Admissibility in BG v. Argentina
• Shin-Shin Hua, Machine Learning Weapons and International Humanitarian Law: Rethinking Meaningful Human Control

New Issue: Global Environmental Politics

The latest issue of Global Environmental Politics (Vol. 20, no. 20th Anniversary Issue, March 2020) is out. This issue reprints selected pieces from the journal's first twenty years. Contents include:

• Michael F. Maniates, Individualization: Plant a Tree, Buy a Bike, Save the World?
• Paul Wapner, Horizontal Politics: Transnational Environmental Activism and Global Cultural Change
• Robert Falkner, Private Environmental Governance and International Relations: Exploring the Links
• Karin Bäckstrand, Civic Science for Sustainability: Reframing the Role of Experts, Policy-Makers and Citizens in Environmental Governance
• Emily McAteer & Simone Pulver, The Corporate Boomerang: Shareholder Transnational Advocacy Networks Targeting Oil Companies in the Ecuadorian Amazon
• Liliana B. Andonova, Michele M. Betsill, & Harriet Bulkeley, Transnational Climate Governance
• Andrew K. Jorgenson, Brett Clark, & Jeffrey Kentor, Militarization and the Environment: A Panel Study of Carbon Dioxide Emissions and the Ecological Footprints of Nations, 1970–2000
• Kemi Fuentes-George, Neoliberalism, Environmental Justice, and the Convention on Biological Diversity: How Problematizing the Commodification of Nature Affects Regime Effectiveness
• Craig M. Kauffman & Pamela L. Martin, Constructing Rights of Nature Norms in the US, Ecuador, and New Zealand
• Cristina Yumie Aoki Inoue, Worlding the Study of Global Environmental Politics in the Anthropocene: Indigenous Voices from the Amazon