Klein, Purcell, & McNally: Submarines in International Law

Natalie Klein (Univ. of New South Wales - Law), Kate Purcell (Univ. of New South Wales - Law), & Jack McNally (Univ. of New South Wales - Law) have published Submarines in International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

Submarines in International Law is the first book to explore both the legal history and the contemporary regulation of submarine operations in varied areas of international law. The analysis demonstrates the instances where submarines influenced the development of the law of the sea and the law of armed conflict, as well as highlighting where international law needs to give greater account for submarines in existing bodies of law-including international marine environmental law, the law on the use of force, navigational safety rules, transnational criminal law and international cultural heritage law. Submarine operations range from military and defence uses, to supporting research and commercial seabed industries, to ocean tourism and smuggling of illicit goods. International law regulates all these activities to varying degrees. While submarines may strive to be evasive objects in the ocean, this book demonstrates why they cannot and should not elude the reach of international law.

Kari: The Classical Doctrine of Civil War in International Law

Ville Kari (Tilburg Univ. - Law) has published The Classical Doctrine of Civil War in International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

In the classical law of nations there was a doctrine of civil war. This book sets out to recover the forgotten legal tradition that shaped the modern world from 1575-1975. The result is an autonomous reassessment of four hundred years of the law of insurgencies and revolutions, both in state practice and in legal scholarship. Its journey through centuries of rebellion and the rule of law touches some of the most basic questions of international law across ages. What does it mean to stand among the nations of the world? Who should be welcomed among the subjects of international law, who should not, and who should decide? Its findings not only help make the classical doctrine understandable again, but also offer potential new insights for present-day lawyers about the origins, aspirations and vulnerabilities of the legal tradition with which they work today.

Brudney & Bellace: The Elgar Companion to the Law and Practice of the International Labour Organization

James J. Brudney (Fordham Univ. - Law) & Janice R. Bellace (Univ. of Pennsylvania - Wharton School) have published The Elgar Companion to the Law and Practice of the International Labour Organization (Edward Elgar Publishing 2026). Here's the abstract:

This comprehensive book analyzes the laws and practices of the International Labour Organization (ILO), addressing the distinctive role of tripartism within the ILO governance structure since 1919, and analyzing the organization’s contributions to the protection and promotion of workers’ rights on a global scale.

Contributors explore a breadth of issues crucial to the ILO’s objective of achieving decent work in collaboration with governments, workers, and employers. Topics covered include application of the ILO’s ‘fundamental principles’ covering freedom of association, equality, safety and health, and the prevention of forced labour and child labour. In addition, the book addresses provision of social security benefits, the development of effective employment policies, the implementation of functional labour inspection, and the recognition of indigenous peoples’ voices. Chapters also present a granular analysis of the ILO supervisory system, outlining the value and limits of the organization’s soft power. The Companion envisions the ILO’s future, highlighting the obstacles that prevent secure worker rights and protections in both the informal and digital economies, as well as the impact of ILO conventions on trade agreements.

Bicknell: Quelling Insurrection: Lethal Force, Human Rights and the Laws of War

David Bicknell (King’s College London) has published Quelling Insurrection: Lethal Force, Human Rights and the Laws of War (Hart Publishing 2026). Here's the abstract:

This book re-examines the origins and development of the laws of war and human rights law and exposes an overlooked provision of the European Convention on Human Rights which permits the use of lethal force where absolutely necessary to quell an insurrection.

When civilian casualties occur in internal armed conflicts, questions are asked about how civilians can be better protected against the use of force by armed insurgents and state security forces. The laws of war include protection against the targeting of civilians but permit the use of force based on 'military necessity' and allow 'proportionate' civilian casualties. Where those laws do not apply, the use of force is generally seen as being limited to self–defence. This creates paradigms of armed conflict and law–enforcement with very different rules. The paradigms are then treated by governments and other actors as being separate and divided by a threshold of violence, when, in practice, they overlap, both in the conduct of military operations and, this book argues, as a matter of law.

Revisiting the law provides the opportunity to reassess the benefits and risks of the existing paradigms and consider how applying the provision permitting the use of lethal force in quelling an insurrection would affect them. The book concludes that it offers a middle way based on the existing law, but it requires wider recognition and development in order to achieve a more appropriate balance between human rights and collective security.

Anggadi: Sea-Level Rise and the Legal Stability of Maritime Zones

Frances Anggadi (Univ. of Wollongong - Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security) has published Sea-Level Rise and the Legal Stability of Maritime Zones (Oxford Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a State's maritime zones and the rights they confer are tied to its land territory. As climate change accelerates coastal erosion and inundation, traditional assumptions suggest these entitlements could shrink or disappear, with profound implications for access to marine resources. Sea-Level Rise and the Legal Stability of Maritime Zones explores the development of a new legal perspective that supports the preservation of maritime zones despite rising sea levels.

This book advances a contemporary interpretation of UNCLOS, drawing on a broad spectrum of state practice as reflected in international declarations and domestic legislation. Through systematic analysis of this evidence within the framework of treaty interpretation, Frances Anggadi consolidates the doctrinal basis for the view that the preservation of maritime zones may be achieved through interpreting existing provisions of UNCLOS, rather than requiring a treaty amendment.

As the first comprehensive work to conceptualize this emerging perspective, it offers a clear and principled framework for safeguarding maritime zones, demonstrating how international law can evolve to address global environmental challenges.

Ikonomou, van Leeuwen, & Rasmussen: The Cambridge Handbook of the League of Nations and International Law

Haakon A. Ikonomou (Univ. of Copenhagen), Karin van Leeuwen (Maastricht Univ.), & Morten Rasmussen (Univ. of Copenhagen) have published The Cambridge Handbook of the League of Nations and International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

Established in the wake of the First World War, the League of Nations fundamentally transformed international politics, global governance and multilateral cooperation in a multitude of fields from the economy, labour and social affairs to colonial, minority and security questions. This Handbook analyses the central role of law in the construction of a new international order under the League of Nations. Drawing from innovative research of recent years that analyses the League of Nations through the prism of ultimate success and failure, it offers twenty-one rich chapters that showcase an interdisciplinary, contextual and archive-based approach with brand new and unexplored case studies that address key topics of the legal history of the League, the International Labour Organization and the Permanent Court of International Justice. Finally, it offers a new historical synthesis of how to understand the role of international law in international organizations during the interwar period.

New Issue: Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies

The latest issue of the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies (Vol. 17, no. 1, 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Jane McAdam & Thomas Mulder, A Last Resort? Reframing Evacuations as an Anticipatory Disaster Risk Management Strategy
• Matthias Vanhullebusch, The Case for a Prohibition on Arbitrary Denial of Humanitarian Relief in Non-International Armed Conflicts: Prospects, Challenges and Ways Ahead
• Giulia Bosi, The Protection of Mental Health under International Humanitarian Law
• Rohit Gupta, Forgotten Blind Spots of Jus in Bello: The 1972 World Heritage Convention and the Natural Environment as ‘Cultural Heritage’
• Joshua F. Berry & Hitoshi Nasu, Wartime Imagery and the Standard of Care in the Implementation of International Humanitarian Law
• Emanuela Merck Giuliani, The European Union’s International Obligations Regarding Trade with Occupied Territories: A Case Study of Western Sahara Litigation Before the cjeu

Call for Papers: International (Climate Change) Law in the Post-Advisory Era: Taking Stock and Moving Ahead

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "International (Climate Change) Law in the Post-Advisory Era: Taking Stock and Moving Ahead," which will take place November 27-28, 2026, at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The call is here. The deadline is July 1, 2026.

Ebbesson & Langlet: Fifty Years of International Environmental Law: Developments since the 1972 Stockholm Conference

Jonas Ebbesson (Stockholms Universitet - Law) & David Langlet (Uppsala Universitet - Law) have published Fifty Years of International Environmental Law: Developments since the 1972 Stockholm Conference (Cambridge Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

This book explores the seminal importance of the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm 1972 – the Stockholm Conference – for the development of international environmental law. By bringing together world leading experts from academia and legal practice, the book charts the development of international environmental law in the 50 years since 1972 in the areas of nature and biodiversity, chemicals and waste, oceans and water, and atmosphere and climate, and with respect to structures and institutions, consumption and production, and human rights and participatory rights in environmental matters. It analyses how the ideas and concepts of the Stockholm Conference have influenced this development and explores the novel ideas that have emerged since then. It describes the approaches of the developed and developing countries in this process and the relationship between international environmental law and other areas of law, such as the law of the sea and international economic law.

Burchardt: The Authority of International Courts: A Behavioural Framework

Dana Burchardt (WZB Berlin Social Science Center) has published The Authority of International Courts: A Behavioural Framework (Hart Publishing 2026). Here's the abstract:

Why do some international courts wield broad authority while others face pushback or fade into irrelevance? This book provides novel theoretical and empirical insights into this question. It offers a fresh, interdisciplinary perspective on the authority of international courts, drawing from law, political science and behavioural research.

It develops, in Part I, a theoretical model and analytical framework for assessing these questions. The model explains how authority relationships between courts and their audiences – such as states, NGOs, individual applicants, and domestic courts – are formed, maintained, or contested. In Part II, the book applies this analytical framework to in-depth case studies of two selected international courts: the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States. These studies not only provide deeper insights into the authority of these courts but also demonstrate how the analytical framework can be applied to other international courts to generate an enhanced understanding of international court authority.

The book sheds new light on why some courts enjoy enduring authority and others face pushback, offering powerful tools for understanding the behaviour of international courts and their audiences.

Torres Pérez: Balancing International Judicial Independence: Legal and Political Constraints in Regional Courts

Aida Torres Pérez (Pompeu Fabra Univ. - Law) has published Balancing International Judicial Independence: Legal and Political Constraints in Regional Courts (Oxford Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

Regional courts increasingly shape domestic law and policy, raising pressing questions about their democratic legitimacy. Balancing International Judicial Independence offers a groundbreaking framework for reconciling judicial independence with legitimate checks on judicial power. While independence is essential for courts to function, unchecked authority can be equally problematic. This book advances a nuanced approach that incorporates accountability and oversight without compromising independence.

Part One introduces a conceptual framework for international judicial independence, tailored to the unique institutional and political contexts of regional courts and avoiding the uncritical application of domestic models. It draws on comparative analysis of courts in Europe and the Americas, including the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the Andean Tribunal of Justice.

Part Two explores the normative foundations for constraining judicial power, examining legal accountability mechanisms and adapting the principle of checks and balances to the international sphere. Political constraints are reconceptualized as forms of institutional interdependence within a refined checks and balances framework.

Part Three tackles the implications of using checks and balances as a normative guiding principle and critically analyses national and regional institutional sources of constraint on selected courts, as well as specific mechanisms like judicial selection, political override, and non-compliance.

Filling a critical gap in the literature, this book provides a principled framework for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to assess existing arrangements and guide institutional design in international adjudication.

New Issue: Global Constitutionalism

The latest issue of Global Constitutionalism (Vol. 15, no. 2, July 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Marleen Maria Kappé & Jerfi Uzman, The drunken dinner guest of democratic politics: Constitutional conventions and populism as a transgressive political style
• Donald Bello Hutt, The deliberative right to constitutional silence
• Nidhi Sharma, The quasi-federal constitution? Taxonomical influences on interpretation of federalism in India
• Steffen Ganghof, Taking democracy seriously: A theory and global typology of democratic forms of government
• Thora Giallouri & Elli Menounou, Judicial globalization from below: Nonjudicial actors and transnational legal communication
• Luiza Tavares da Motta, Out of ‘time out of mind’: The emotional experience of time and the English constitution between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries
• Niels Petersen, Equality and its discontents: On the diversity of equality doctrines in comparative perspective
• Bastian Loges & Anja P. Jakobi, Stabilising contested normative orders: how international city networks contribute to preventing norm decay
• David Owen, Lifeboat governance on Spaceship Earth

New Issue: Polish Review of International and European Law

The latest issue of the Polish Review of International and European Law (Vol. 15, no. 1, 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Studies
• Lei Di, The Applicability of International Human Rights Law in Climate Change: All or Nothing at All?
• Luciano Pezzano, Legal Consequences of Breaches of Peremptory Norms in the ICJ’s Advisory Opinions: Jus Cogens or Erga Omnes?
• Zénó Suller, Strategic Litigation Before the ICJ: A Case for an Advisory Opinion to Anchor the Ukraine Special Tribunal in the Rule of Law for a Meaningful Prosecution
• Articles
• Radosław Kołatek, Scaling up the Energy Transition in the EU in View of EU Legislation between 2020-2024
• Raúl Zeyi Huang, Applier, Interpreter, and Judicial Codifier: the Three Climate Advisory Opinions, Sustainable Development, and International Judicial Legitimacy
• Case Comments
• Tomasz Srogosz, Comments on the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change on 23 July 2025
• Robert Tabaszewski, Comments on the Judgment of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in Tsaava and Others v. Georgia on 11 December 2025. Kinetic Impact Projectiles, Journalistic Protection and Effective Investigations in Crisis Situations
• Kamil Strzępek, Comments on the Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the Case Georgia v. Russia (IV) (Just Satisfaction) of 14 October 2025. “Just Satisfaction in Inter-State Cases: a Doctrine in the Making”

Krisch, Yildiz, & Martínez Esponda: Change in International Law: Paths, Processes, Power

Nico Krisch (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies), Ezgi Yildiz (Bowdoin College), & Pedro Martínez Esponda (Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México) have published Change in International Law: Paths, Processes, Power (Oxford Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

How does international law change? How does it adapt to new contexts and meet new challenges? The typical answer to these questions makes international law appear rather static, due to high hurdles for change and formal rules that require widespread agreement among states. In reality, however, change is far more common: new legal norms and understandings are generated constantly through the practices of legal actors. This book explores these actual, often gradual processes of international legal change. Combining qualitative analysis and statistical examination of data derived from twenty-five cases across eight subfields, the book offers the most systematic study to date of international legal change in practice beyond treaty-making. It approaches international law as a discursive process characterized by distinctive, socially constructed communities and authorities, and identifies five distinct paths through which legal change occurs. These paths shape who can act, how change is framed, and whether and under what conditions it gains traction, and they—and their relative weight—vary heavily across the different areas of international law. On these paths, change comes about in ways which defy common expectations of a state-centric international law: the analysis presented in the book shows that the success of change attempts depends less on broad state support or even the support of major powers, but to a greater extent on support from authorities and institutions in the respective fields. The result is an international law that may not be dynamic enough to cope with the speed of change in today’s accelerated world, but one that is significantly more dynamic than is usually assumed.

New Issue: Michigan Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Michigan Journal of International Law (Vol. 47, no. 2, 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Ryan Liss, Human Rights, Between Peace and Dignity
• Damian A. Gonzalez-Salzberg & Eoin Campbell, ‘Insistent’ Objectors: The (Ab)use of Procedural Defenses Before the International Court of Justice
• Caroline L. Davidson, The Gender of International Criminal Law

Call for Papers: Refracting Lotus: Jurisdiction as a Kaleidoscope of International Law

The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Refracting Lotus: Jurisdiction as a Kaleidoscope of International Law," to take place February 25-26, 2027, in Heidelberg. The call is here.

Call for Session Ideas: 2027 ASIL Annual Meeting

The American Society of International Law has issued a call for session ideas for its 121th Annual Meeting, which will take place April 14-16, 2027, in Washington, DC. The conference theme is: "International Law for the United States and the World." The deadline is August 5, 2026. The call is here.

New Issue: Cambridge International Law Journal

The latest issue of the Cambridge International Law Journal (Vol. 15, no. 1, 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Alison Duxbury, Applying human rights law to the ‘characteristics of military life’: square pegs and round holes?
• David McKeever, The International Court of Justice and international counter-terrorism law: impact to date and the potential for more
• Carmen Bullón Caro, One Health in public international law: integration, soft law and due diligence
• José Rogelio Gutiérrez Álvarez, State recognition as a bargaining chip: limits and objections
• Antoine Comont, From shield to sword: countervailing and anti-dumping duties as protectionist weapons

Conference: Africa and the future of international economic law: Navigating geopolitical realignments, sustainability imperatives and technological disruptions

The 8th Biennial Conference of the African International Economic Law Network (AfIELN) will take place June 24-26, 2026, at University Mohammed VI Polytechnic, Rabat, Morocco. The theme is: "Africa and the future of international economic law: Navigating geopolitical realignments, sustainability imperatives and technological disruptions." Details are here.

Webinar: The Future of the United Nations Organisation, If Any (Reminder)

On June 24, 2026, a fourth webinar will be held in the ESIL Conversations series “Multilateralism in Times of Unilateralism.” The topic is: “The Future of the United Nations Organisation, If Any.” Details are here.

New Issue: Swiss Review of International and European Law

The latest issue of the Swiss Review of International and European Law (2026, no. 2) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: International Law and Technology
• Mariela de Amstalden, Andreas R. Ziegler, Introduction to the Special Issue: International Law and Technology
• Thomas Cottier, Technology and the Law
• Juan Pablo Gómez Moreno, Invisible Bias at the Border: Algorithmic Discrimination and the Erosion of Equality in Cross-Border Digital Trade María Vásquez Callo-Müller, Digital Services Trade and Intellectual Property: Surveying the Ground in Free Trade Agreements
• Karen Sandoval, David v. Goliath in the Digital Age: Safeguarding Women’s Rights from AI’s Power

Vázquez Guevara: Truth Commissions and International Law: Jurisdiction, Representation, Authority

Valeria Vázquez Guevara (Univ. of Hong Kong - Law) has published Truth Commissions and International Law: Jurisdiction, Representation, Authority (Cambridge Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

This book examines how truth commissions construct authoritative accounts of conflict, and how they account for the plurality of accounts across affected communities. Vázquez Guevara examines three of the earliest and most influential truth commissions: Argentina (1983–1984), Chile (1990–1991), and El Salvador (1992–1993), and examines how relevant cultural objects support or counter the official account for each. In doing so, she argues that these truth commissions drew on international law to authorise their accounts of violent conflict, and that this had the consequence of privileging an internationally-authorised truth over other truths, whilst simultaneously strengthening the authority of international law over the post-conflict state. By demonstrating how truth commissions turn to international law for authority, the book shows how this produces an official account of past violence and promises of future community, which fundamentally affects how communities live together in the aftermath of violent conflict.

Job Opening: Assistant Professor of International Law (Geneva Graduate Institute)

The Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies is recruiting an assistant professor of international law with a demonstrated interest in issues related to global health. The deadline for applications is August 16, 2026. Details and how to apply can be found here.

New Issue: Nordic Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law (Vol. 95, no. 1, 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Hans Corell, The Fifth Hilding Eek Memorial Lecture: The UN Security Council and the Rule of Law
• Johan Rochel, Encoded Normativity: Designing Large Language Models for International Law
• Åsa Gustafsson, EU Sanctions Measures’ Increasing Extraterritoriality: The EU’s ‘No Re-export’ to Russia Clause and Other Recent Circumvention Measures
• Gaiane Nuridzhanian, The Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression Against Ukraine: Jurisdiction, Immunities and Due Process
• Hadi Strømmen Lile, The Legal Validity of Treaty Rules on the Aims and Content of Education and the Nature of State Obligations in Relation to These Norms

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

A call for papers has been issued for the Journal of International Economic Law's sixth annual Junior Faculty Forum for International Economic Law. The call is here. The deadline is June 30, 2026.