Conference: The COE Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law: Comparative, EU, and International Law Perspectives

On May 29, 2025, a conference on "The COE Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law: Comparative, EU, and International Law Perspectives" will be held at the University of Trieste, Gorizia Campus, and virtually. Details are here.

Feihle: An International Human Rights Law of Cooperation: International Cooperation, State Responsibility and the European Convention on Human Rights

Prisca Feihle has published An International Human Rights Law of Cooperation: International Cooperation, State Responsibility and the European Convention on Human Rights (Edward Elgar Publishing 2025). This is the latest volume in the Elgar International Law series. Here's the abstract:

This incisive book examines how states bear responsibility for human rights protection when they cooperate. Focusing on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), it explores the challenges of international cooperation to international human rights law and uncovers how, nonetheless, human rights provisions may turn into an international human rights law of cooperation and regulate inter-state interaction.

Prisca Feihle discusses the meaning of international cooperation to human rights law, engaging in detailed analysis of case-law to illustrate how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) addresses cooperation between states in a range of areas including migration policies, surveillance measures or criminal investigations. Developing a comprehensive framework for states’ human rights responsibilities in international cooperation, she puts forward insightful recommendations on what human rights law under the ECHR demands of states beyond these specific subject matters. Suggestions concern the ECHR’s interactions with the law of international responsibility, interpretational method and the scope of application and content of human rights provisions in relation to inter-state interaction affecting individuals.

Conference: Present human rights challenges in Europe and beyond

On June 6, 2025, a conference on "Present human rights challenges in Europe and beyond" will be held in Innsbruck and virtually. Details are here.

Jeutner: The Aesthetic Authority of Law: Experiments with Legal Form

Valentin Jeutner (Lund Univ.) has published The Aesthetic Authority of Law: Experiments with Legal Form (Media-Tryck 2025). Here is the abstract:

The legal form dictates the contours of law’s appearance. Texts are neatly divided into (often) numbered paragraphs. Pages must conform to specified layouts. Conventions regulate the use of fonts, punctuation, and colours. Legal terms of art replace colloquial expressions. Human experiences enter legal texts only in mediated, sanitized forms. The dictates of legal form are all but incidental. They condition law’s authority. By repeatedly modifying the Case of the S.S. Lotus (Permanent Court of International Justice 1927), this book invites readers to consider how modifications of law’s appearance alter law’s authority.

New Issue: ICSID Review: Foreign Investment Law Journal

The latest issue of the ICSID Review: Foreign Investment Law Journal (Vol. 39, no. 3, Fall 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Agora on the 'Certain Iranian Assets' Judgment
• Jake Jerogin & Chester Brown, The Determination of Bank Markazi’s Claims and Implications for the Claims of Central Banks under Investment Treaties
• Ursula Kriebaum, Judicial Expropriation
• Daniel Purisch, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Non-Impairment and Effective Means Protections: The ICJ’s Judgment in Certain Iranian Assets
• Nartnirun Junngam, The ICJ’s Treatment of the FPS Standard in Certain Iranian Assets: A Clarifying Contribution or Unsteady Step Back into a Comfort Zone?
• Prabhash Ranjan, Essential Security Interests in International Investment Law—A Trend towards GATTization
• Carlotta Ceretelli, Mala Fides Exceptions in Certain Iranian Assets: Lessons for Inter-State and Investment Disputes
• Berk Demirkol, Local Remedies Rule and Its Application by the International Court of Justice
• Julian Arato & Fernando Lusa Bordin, Determining the Juridical Status of Companies under International Law
• Chester Brown & Jeremy K Sharpe, Certain Iranian Assets (Iran v United States) An Introduction to the Agora
• Case Comments
• Arman Sarvarian, Koch Industries, Inc. and Koch Supply & Trading, LP v Canada: Emissions Allowances as ‘Investment’?
• Alexander G Leventhal, Espíritu Santo Holdings, LP and L1bre Holding, LLC v Mexico:A New Piece of the Corpus of Interim Measures Orders in Relation to Criminal Proceedings
• Articles
• Joseph Ho, International Investment Treaty Compliance in Canadian Federalism: A Multidimensional Challenge
• Kseniia Soloveva, Instrumentalising Nationality of Natural Persons: Legitimate Strategic Planning versus Abuse of Procedural Rights
• Sara Nicola D’Sousa, The Protection of Crypto-Assets in International Investment Law
• Amr Arafa F Hasaan, A Chronicle of Building an Attractive Domestic Regulation of Foreign Direct Investment in Egypt

Call for Papers: New Tech, New Frontiers: Redefining Space Law in the Age of Technological Breakthroughs (Young Scholars)

A call for papers has been issued for the 2025 International Young Scholars Conference on Space Law, to take place September 5, 2025, in Athens at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The theme is: "New Tech, New Frontiers: Redefining Space Law in the Age of Technological Breakthroughs." The call is here.

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 64, no. 2, April 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Situation in Uganda (Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen) (Reparations Order) (Int'l Crim. Ct. Tr. Chamber), with introductory note by Arthur Traldi
• Specialist Prosecutor v. Mustafa (Kos. Specialist Chambers), with introductory note by Rudina Jasini
• Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (S. Afr. v. Isr.); Request for the Indication of Provisional Measures (I.C.J.), with introductory note by Ozlem Ulgen

Somos, Cleary, Dufour, Jones Corredera, & Salerno: The Unseen History of International Law

Mark Somos (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), Matthew Cleary (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), Pablo Dufour (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), Edward Jones Corredera (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), & Emanuele Salerno (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) have published The Unseen History of International Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

The Unseen History of International Law locates and describes almost one thousand surviving copies of the first nine editions of Hugo Grotius' De iure belli ac pacis (IBP) published between 1625 and 1650. Meticulously reconstructing the publishing history of these first nine editions and cataloguing copies across hundreds of collections,The Unseen History provides fundamental data for reconstructing the impact of IBP across time and space. It also examines annotations that thousands of owners and readers have left in IBP copies over four centuries, offering original insights into the development of international law.

Grotius' De iure belli ac pacis has been commonly regarded as the foundation of modern international law since its first appearance in 1625. Most major international law scholars have engaged with IBP, often owning and richly annotating their own copies. At key moments - including the demise of the Holy Roman Empire, the fall of Napoleon, and the end of both world wars - IBP was reissued with new commentaries by multinational projects devoted to restarting the international order. Despite the enormous literature on IBP's reception and influence, we cannot fully understand its impact without uncovering the history of IBP as a physical object, with hundreds of thousands of unpublished annotations arguing or agreeing with the text, updating and adapting its contents.

Approaching Grotius' seminal work as a physical vehicle of the author's, the publishers', owners', and readers' engagement, The Unseen History radically expands and revises our understanding not only of IBP, but also of the academic discipline and lived practice of modern international law over the last four centuries. In addition to delving into the first nine editions' printing history, descriptive bibliography, and both Grotius' and the publishers' marketing and donation strategies, the book explores Grotius' subsequent impact on pro-slavery and abolitionist litigation as a case study of how the census' original findings can be applied to specific areas of reception.

Conference: Regulating Security in Cyberspace

On June 4-6, 2025, the ESIL Interest Group on Peace and Security, the ESIL Interest Group on International Law and Technology, and the University of Granada Research Project on the Regulation of Security in Cyberspace will convene a conference on "Regulating Security in Cyberspace," at the University of Granada. Details are here.

Seminar: Re-thinking Public/Private Divide

The 36th Helsinki Summer Seminar will take place August 25-29, 2025. The theme is: "Re-thinking Public/Private Divide." Details are here.

Orakhelashvili: The Essence and Reality of Statehood: Effectiveness, Recognition and Legitimacy

Alexander Orakhelashvili (Univ. of Birmingham - Law) has published The Essence and Reality of Statehood: Effectiveness, Recognition and Legitimacy (Edward Elgar Publishing 2025). Here's the abstract:

This comprehensive book examines the history and importance of three fundamental ideas underlying the concept of statehood: effectiveness, recognition and legitimacy. It explores the analytical and historical genesis of these concepts, as well as their practical application in navigating relationships between states.

Alexander Orakhelashvili examines the theoretical developments and state and judicial practices relating to the key concepts of effectiveness, recognition and legitimacy. Through detailed case studies, he explores the history of the ideas that inform the contemporary discourse on statehood in international law. Presenting a range of diverse and divergent views, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the modern concept of statehood and how this has come into fruition.

New Issue: European Convention on Human Rights Law Review

The latest issue of the European Convention on Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 6, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: The New Agreement on the EU Accession to the ECHR: Can It Succeed?
• Vassilis P Tzevelekos, The EU’s Accession to the ECHR: The Future of the Revised Draft Accession Agreement and a Call to End the Bosphorus Doctrine
• Christos Giakoumopoulos & David Milner, Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights: A View From Inside the Council of Europe
• Paul Gragl, The New Draft Agreement on the EU Accession to the ECHR: Overcoming Luxembourg’s Threshold
• Tobias Lock, Implications of the Revised Draft EU Accession Agreement for the ECHR
• Jörg Polakiewicz & Irene Suominen-Picht, Now or Never – One Year After the Closure of the Second Negotiation Round for the EU’s Accession to the ECHR: Will the Agreement Reached Suffice to Make Accession (Finally) a Reality?

New Issue: Archiv des Völkerrechts

The latest issue of Archiv des Völkerrechts (Vol. 62, no. 3, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Abhandlungen
• Andreas Th. Müller, Den Teufel mit dem Beelzebub austreiben? Die Neuvermessung der Opfereigenschaft im KlimaSeniorinnen-Urteil
• August Reinisch & Paulina Rundel, Eine völkerrechtliche Außenperspektive auf die extraterritoriale Geltung der EMRK im Zusammenhang mit den »Klimaklagen« vor dem EGMR
• Teresa Weber, Zum Locus Standi von NGOs in KlimaSeniorinnen: Hoffnung auf effektiven Menschenrechtsschutz in der Klimakrise?
• Daniel Ennöckl, Die Begründung eines Klimagrundrechts im EGMR-Urteil KlimaSeniorinnen
• Stefanie Schmahl, Zur Konventionsauslegung und zum Begründungsstil des EGMR im Urteil KlimaSeniorinnen
• Laura Pavlidis & Christoph Gärner, Das Verhältnis zwischen Demokratie und Menschenrechten in der KlimaSeniorinnen- Entscheidung des EGMR
• Peter Sander, Klimaklagen
• Johannes Hahn, Zur Beschwerdemöglichkeit für Interessens-/ Umweltverbände nach dem EGMR-Urteil KlimaSeniorinnen in Österreich

Raustiala: Normative Contestation in the International Order: Is China Remaking Global Governance?

Kal Raustiala (Univ. of California, Los Angeles - Law) has posted Normative Contestation in the International Order: Is China Remaking Global Governance? (International Law Studies, Vol. 106, p. 301, 2025). Here's the abstract:

This essay explores China’s approach to global order. China’s remarkable rise has coincided with increasing engagement with the institutions of global governance. These institutions—in particular the United Nations—make up the core of what U.S. leaders have often referred to as the liberal world order or the rules-based order. Many U.S. officials see China as a deep threat intent on challenging, and perhaps even seeking to replace, this rules-based order. This essay, however, makes the case that China’s near-term goals for global governance appear more modest. Much of China’s behavior within institutions such as the UN suggests that what it seeks today is less a recasting of the existing order than a rebalancing and reinforcing of certain longstanding principles and features. China’s primary focus over the last decade has been to revitalize and reinforce long-standing principles of international law such as sovereignty, territorial integrity, and multilateralism while attacking the American concept of a rules-based order. Traditional concepts of sovereignty and international law provide an attractive frame to China. However, there are aspects of the international order China resists or even tries to undermine, such as the law of the sea and international human rights law. This essay explores how China’s approach to global governance has developed over the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first and examines what conclusions about the near future we may draw from this evolution.

New Issue: International & Comparative Law Quarterly

The latest issue of the International & Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 74, no. 1, January 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Reece Lewis, The ‘Constitution for the Oceans’? The Law of the Sea Convention as a Living Treaty
• Sofia Galani, Human Rights Obligations in Maritime Search and Rescue
• Alberto Rinaldi & Sue Anne Teo, The Use of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in Border and Migration Control and the Subtle Erosion of Human Rights
• Matthew Parish, The Principle of Separation and the Law of Neutrality
• Federico Fabbrini, The Impact of the War in Ukraine on the Enlargement of the European Union: ‘Securing the Blessings of Liberty’ and its Challenges
• Frederick Cowell, Council of Europe Expulsion and the European Convention on Human Rights: The Foundations of Involuntary Treaty Withdrawal
• Philipp Janig, State Immunity from Non-Judicial Measures of Constraint
• Shorter Articles
• Olga Hrynkiv, Export Controls and the Green Agenda in the European Union
• Mark Konstantinidis, Intra-EU Investment Contract Arbitration after Achmea

Conference: 20th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law

On September 11-13, 2025, the European Society of International Law will hold its 20th Annual Conference in Berlin. The theme is: "Reconstructing International Law." The program is here. Registration is here.

Peters: International Law and its Scholarship in the Time of Monsters

Anne Peters (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) has posted International Law and its Scholarship in the Time of Monsters. Here's the abstract:

In only three years, the international legal order suffered three shocks: Ukraine, Gaza, and Trump. These function as a looking glass that focalises pre-exiting more or less latently smouldering key challenges: north─south inequality; global warming and the mass extinction of species; and the dark side of digitalisation.

In combination, the abuse of the language of international law by Putin, the stretching of the rules of armed conflict by Israel, and the side-lining of international law by Trump risk to stall even the modest function of international as a language of international relations.A snapshot of the ongoing shift of the international legal order shows that it is not being reduced to an international law of co-existence, is not reverting to Westphalia (Eastphalia), is not becoming a concert of three (or two and a half) great powers, and is not mainly a decline of the West. Rather, the international legal order is reverting to a private law writ large; with geopolitics bending international legal principles, and with more authoritarian features. The biggest risk is closing down international law which means a loss even of its ideological function as an occasional hamstring of imperial power.

In this period of transition scholars should insist on bringing the legal perspective to bear on ongoing conflicts. They should not leave the legal turf to others, respond to the high-jacking of critical approaches by criminal leaders, combine an external with an internal critique of international law which also means renewing the international legal benchmarks. They should build bridges to practice and across the diverse methodological camps. Finally, scholars are well advised to espouse multiperspectivism in order to contribute to a grass-root universality of international law.

This will require not only rationalist reasoning but an engagement with emotions. The real “monsters” unleashed in this period of transition are the negative emotions of billions of individuals fomented and instrumentalised by socio-pathic leaders. The monsters are out of the bottle, but they can be tamed once they are better understood.

Couzens: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Domestic Courts

Meda Couzens (Western Sydney Univ. - Law) has published The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Domestic Courts (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

This important contribution to children's rights scholarship brings fresh eyes to the complicated relationship between domestic law and international law in the practice of domestic courts. Through a critical assessment of the judicial application of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in four jurisdictions (Australia, France, South Africa and the United Kingdom), the book demonstrates that the traditional rules of reception remain an essential starting point in understanding how national courts apply the Convention but are unable to explain all forms of judicial engagement therewith. The book shows that regardless of the legal system (monist, dualist, hybrid), courts can apply the Convention meaningfully especially when the domestic structure of reception converges with it. The comparative international law perspective used in the book and the heterogenous sample of jurisdictions analysed enabled the author to distil insights valid for other jurisdictions.

Casey-Maslen: The Prohibition of Torture and Ill-Treatment under International Law

Stuart Casey-Maslen (Univ. of Johannesburg - Law) has published The Prohibition of Torture and Ill-Treatment under International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

The first comprehensive analysis of domestic and international law defining and prohibiting torture and other forms of ill-treatment, this groundbreaking work reviews the law on torture in countries around the world. It considers how international law governs the use of force by police against suspects held in custody and during protests, and the practice and outlawing of torture both in peacetime and during armed conflict. The analysis also includes the application of universal jurisdiction, which is used in the attempt to prosecute and punish torture committed anywhere in the world. The application and execution of the death penalty are also discussed in detail.

Suedi: The Individual in the Law and Practice of the International Court of Justice

Yusra Suedi (Univ. of Manchester - Law) has published The Individual in the Law and Practice of the International Court of Justice (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

The cornerstone of the World Court's identity is its resolution of inter-state disputes. This insightful critique challenges the implication that individuals have little importance in such disputes as a result. Arguing for individuals' enhanced integration, it reveals their relevance in a myriad of disputes beyond those centred on violations of multilateral human rights treaties and unveils a multitude of procedural practices with unquenched potential. It also carefully unpacks and interrogates the Court's legal reasoning in various contexts such as territorial and maritime disputes, amongst others. Finally, it critically analyses and evaluates the legal and political underpinnings for the Court's approaches and state litigants' choices from a lens of social idealism. This pioneering study sheds light on the imbalance between individuals as key stakeholders in inter-state disputes and their treatment in law and practice.

Call for Papers: Conceptualising International Energy Law: Shaping the Future Amidst Transition in a VUCA World

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Conceptualising International Energy Law: Shaping the Future Amidst Transition in a VUCA World," to take place (in person only) on September 25, 2025, and hosted by the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore. The call is here.

Call for Papers: After the Backlash: The Future of Arbitration in the Settlement of Investment, Trade and Human Rights Disputes

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "After the Backlash: The Future of Arbitration in the Settlement of Investment, Trade and Human Rights Disputes," to take place September 19-20, 2025, in Quebec City. The call is here.

New Issue: Virginia Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Virginia Journal of International Law (Vol. 65, no. 3, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Bridget Fahey, Yuping Lin, & Taisu Zhang, The Law of Information States: Evidence from China and the United States
• Rebecca Inger, The Abuse of Neutrality
• David Murphy & Christina Parajon Skinner, Sovereignty and Legitimacy in International Banking Law

New Issue: GlobaLex

The latest issue of GlobaLex (March/April 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Stephen May, Language Rights as Human Rights
• Jootaek Lee, The Human Right to Development: Definitions, Research and Annotated Bibliography
• Linda Tashbook, Nuclear Law Research

Call for Submissions: Facts in International Humanitarian Law (Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law)

The Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law has issued a call for submissions for its Volume 28 (2025) on the theme "Facts in International Humanitarian Law." The call is here. The deadline for abstracts is June 13, 2025.