Thursday, March 14, 2024

Call for Papers: 81st ILA Conference

A call for papers has been issued for the 81st International Law Association Conference, to take place June 25-28, 2024, in Athens and hosted by the ILA's Hellenic Branch. The theme is: "International Law in a Fluid World/Le droit international dans un monde en mouvement." The call is here.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Inaugural Issue: Chinese Journal of Transnational Law

The inaugural issue of the Chinese Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 1, no. 1, March 2024) is out. Contents include:
  • Ignacio de la Rasilla, Who is Afraid of Transnational Law Journals? An Editorial
  • Jie (Jeanne) Huang, Consensus and Compulsion: The Extra-territorial Effect of Chinese Judicial and Specially-Invited Mediation in Common Law Countries
  • Ilias Bantekas, Procedural Estoppel in International Commercial Arbitration Proceedings
  • Xiangzhuang Sun, The China International Commercial Court: Establishment and Development in a Global Context
  • Zhen Chen, Consumer Jurisdiction and Choice of Law Rules in European and Chinese Private International Law

Lecture: Nouwen on "Intra-State Peace Agreements – Prose, Poetry, Legal Instrument?"

Tomorrow, March 13, 2024, from 6-7 pm CET, Sarah Nouwen (EUI/Cambridge) will given the inaugural lecture of the TuLaw - Tübingen Lecture Series on the Laws of War. The topic is: "Intra-State Peace Agreements – Prose, Poetry, Legal Instrument?" Please send an email to: jessica.oheim@student.uni-tuebingen.de to register. The Zoom link and login data will be sent to those registered ahead of the event.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Lecture: Kennedy and Koskenniemi on "Of Law and the World"

On the March 11, 2024, David Kennedy (Harvard Univ.) and Martti Koskenniemi (Academy of Finland) will deliver a lecture (on zoom) as the inaugural Wuhan University School of Law Global Law Distinguished Lecture Series, with the participation of Ignacio de la Rasilla (Wuhan Univ.), Qu Wensheng (East China Univ. of Political Science and Law), Jiangyu Wang (Hong Kong City Univ.), Ryan Martinez Mitchell (Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong), and Maria Carrai (NYU-Shanghai). The topic is: "Of Law and the World." Details are here.

Call for Papers: Double Standards and International Law

The Berlin Potsdam Research Group "The International Rule of Law - Rise or Decline?" has issued a call for papers for a workshop on "Double Standards and International Law," to take place July 15-16, 2024, at the Freie Universität Berlin. The call is here.

Call for Panel Proposals: International Law Weekend 2024

The American Branch of the International Law Association has issued a call for panel proposals for International Law Weekend 2024, which will take place in New York City on October 24-26. The theme is "Powerless Law or Law for the Powerless?" The call is here. The deadline is April 15, 2024.

Friday, March 8, 2024

Paulsen: The Past, Present, and Potential of Economic Security

Mona Paulsen (London School of Economics - Law) has posted The Past, Present, and Potential of Economic Security (Yale Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In a highly interdependent globalised economy, industrialised states have increasingly invoked economic security rationales to justify exceptional measures, even if they violate international trade rules. Over the past decade, governments have announced new economic security strategies that embed this logic in a range of trade issues, such as export controls, screening investment flows, or building resilient supply chains. Economic security is thus deeply embedded in modern policy frameworks. The conventional position among commentators is that these economic security strategies present novel threats to multilateral trade governance. But this Article demonstrates that the conventional position is short-sighted. Rich, detailed archival research reveals how ‘economic security’ claims are not dramatically new. The historical record provides evidence for why security has never been exceptional to the foundations of global economic institutions but is a structural feature that helped organise the competitive conditions among strategic resources and goods. The Article reconstructs the arguments for multilateral coordination on trade while pursuing economic security strategies in the early Cold War, helping commentators and governments assess each as constituting elements of an overarching plan for leadership in economic growth and military preparedness.

This Article comprises an in-depth archival investigation into two case studies where the United States (US) used trade to fulfil its foreign economic policies in the late 1940s and early 1950s. First, the US adopted unilateral trade controls to bar exports of technology and materials to Eastern Europe. While US businesses and Congress approved this strategy, the nascent international community brought together by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) offered targeted support to the US without confirming the legality, morality, or longevity of US plans. Second, the US established a conference of ‘free world’ economies to allocate the short supply of selective critical minerals and commodities after the invasion of Korea in 1950 – in what one US congressperson called a ‘super-government’ cartel.

Both case studies detail how the US carefully engineered legal principles, used different techniques to regulate trade among allies, and simultaneously relied on discriminatory practices against rivals. As history demonstrates, US trade policy never separated economics and security. A central lesson from this Article is that trade and multilateral coordination were vital to US economic statecraft. The Article depicts how governments underwent complex bargaining to dictate the breadth and depth of security interests for global economic governance at the dawn of the Cold War. Furthermore, it gives life to our understanding of the birth of global trade governance, addressing the trade-offs that every policymaker must make in weighing the future functions of law. Accordingly, by learning from history, states can reposition legal debates on pursuing multi-dimensional security imperatives while fostering strategies sensitive to how multilateral coordination can help sustain trade and alliances.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Call for Papers: From Protection to Coercion: the Limits of Positive Obligations in Human Rights Law

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "From Protection to Coercion: the Limits of Positive Obligations in Human Rights Law," to take place October 3-4, 2024, at Lund University. The call is here.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Kulick & Waibel: General International Law in International Investment Law: A Commentary

Andreas Kulick
(Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen) & Michael Waibel (Univ. of Vienna) have published General International Law in International Investment Law: A Commentary (Oxford Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

General international law is part and parcel of investor-state arbitration. This is the case not only regarding treaty law and state responsibility, but also with respect to matters such as state succession, the international minimum standard, and state immunity, all of which feature regularly in investor-state arbitration. Yet, although general international law issues arise in almost every investment case and often require extensive research, no systematic exploration of the relationship between the two exists. This Commentary is the first to fill this gap, providing a comprehensive treatment of the role of general international law in international investment law. It engages in detail with central matters of general international law, including in the practice of investment arbitration tribunals, moving beyond existing works which focus solely on procedural and institutional provisions.

The Commentary's forty-six chapters do not focus on a single source or subject. Instead, each concentrates on a specific, relevant article from a particular source of public law - such as the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) or the International Law Commission's Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts (2001), among others. The entries combine detailed analysis with an examination of procedural and substantive aspects - such as nationality and unjust enrichment - and respond to the following questions: how have investment tribunals interpreted and applied the specific rule of general international law? To what extent and why does such interpretation and application align with or deviate from the practice by other international courts or tribunals? How could and should investment tribunals interpret and apply rules that have yet to feature in investment arbitration? This unique format means this commentary will serve as a central guide for all relevant case law and scholarship on international investment law.

2024 Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures

On March 12-14, 2024, Beth Simmons (Univ. of Pennsylvania) will deliver the 2024 Sir Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures at the University of Cambridge. The topic is: "International Borders in an Interdependent World."

Monday, March 4, 2024

New Issue: International Theory

The latest issue of International Theory (Vol. 16, no. 1, March 2024) is out. Contents include:
  • Nancy Bertoldi, Property and international relations: lessons from Locke on anarchy and sovereignty
  • Mitja Sienknecht & Antje Vetterlein, Conceptualizing responsibility in world politics
  • Guillaume Beaumier, Marielle Papin, & Jean-Frédéric Morin, A combinatorial theory of institutional invention
  • Itamar Mann, Law and politics from the sea
  • Sebastian Schindler, Post-truth politics and neoliberal competition: the social sources of dogmatic cynicism
  • Marina Vulović & Filip Ejdus, Object-cause of desire and ontological security: evidence from Serbia's opposition to Kosovo's membership in UNESCO

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Cavari, Efrat, & Yair: Do International Rankings Affect Public Opinion?

Amnon Cavari (Reichman Univ.), Asif Efrat (Reichman Univ.), & and Omer Yair (Reichman Univ.) have published Do International Rankings Affect Public Opinion? (British Journal of Politics and International Relations, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:
International rankings push governments to adopt better policies by providing comparative information on states’ performance. How do citizens respond to this information? We answer this question through a preregistered survey experiment in Israel, testing the effect of rankings in the fields of human rights and the environment. We find that citizens respond to international rankings selectively. Informed about a high ranking given to their country, citizens tend to express a more positive assessment of the country’s performance. By contrast, they seem to dismiss poor rankings of their country. We further find that poor rankings on a polarising issue, such as human rights, might face a particularly strong resistance from citizens. Overall, our results engage with and support recent scholarship sceptical of the impact of international shaming on public opinion. Even gentle shaming – expressed through a low numerical grade – might not be well received by the public.

Saturday, March 2, 2024

New Issue: Journal of World Investment & Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Investment & Trade (Vol. 25, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:
  • Julien Chaisse & Joanna Lam, World Investment & Trade: Shaping the Narrative for a Sustainable Future
  • Milena Mottola, Development Aid Institutions in International Investment Law: towards a Holistic Approach to Development Financing Flows
  • Malebakeng Agnes Forere, Towards Foreign Direct Investment for Development in the Host State? Revisiting Charter Cities
  • Nicolette Butler & Jasem Tarawneh, A BIT of Protection for Non-Fungible Tokens: Digital Assets as a Catalyst for Economic Growth

New Issue: Journal of International Criminal Justice

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Vol. 21, no. 4, September 2023) is out. Contents include:
  • Article
    • Matthew Gillett & Wallace Fan, Expert Evidence and Digital Open Source Information: Bringing Online Evidence to the Courtroom
  • Symposia
    • Arab Perspectives on International Criminal Justice
    • Anan Alsheikh Haidar, Foreword
    • Noha Aboueldahab, Transitional Justice as Repression and Resistance: Practices in the Arab World
    • Ghuna Bdiwi, Should We Call for Criminal Accountability During Ongoing Conflicts?
    • Haykel Ben Mahfoudh, The Arab World and the International Criminal Court: Who Needs the Other More?
    • Nidal Nabil Jurdi, The Special Tribunal for Lebanon: Lessons from a Missed Legacy
    • Twenty Years of the German Code of Crimes Against International Law
    • Florian Jeßberger & Julia Geneuss, Foreword
    • Florian Jeßberger, A Short History of Prosecuting Crimes under International Law in Germany
    • Stefanie Bock, The German Code of Crimes Against International Law at Twenty: Overview and Assessment of Modern ‘German International Criminal Law’
    • Aziz Epik & Leonie Steinl, Shortcomings of a Showpiece: Reflections on the Need for Reform of the German Code of Crimes Against International Law and Challenges for its Application
    • Julia Geneuss, On the Relationship Between German International Criminal Law and Counter-terrorism Criminal Law
    • Wolfgang Kaleck & Andreas Schüller, Room for Improvement: A Critical Assessment of 20 Years of the Code of Crimes Against International Law in Germany from an NGO Perspective
  • Review Essay
    • Fin-Jasper Langmack, Syrian State Torture on Trial
  • Cases Before International Courts and Tribunals
    • Radhika Kapoor, ‘Is It Too Late Now to Say Sorry?’: Remorse at International Criminal Tribunals
    • Adaena Sinclair-Blakemore, The Admission of New Prosecutorial Evidence in International Criminal Retrials: An Assessment of the Exclusionary Rule in Stanišić and Simatović
    • Yulia Nuzban, Context Matters: The Use of Overview Expert Evidence in ICC Trials

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Mishra: International Trade Law and Global Data Governance: Aligning Perspectives and Practices

Neha Mishra
(Geneva Graduate Institute) has published International Trade Law and Global Data Governance: Aligning Perspectives and Practices (Hart Publishing 2024). Here's the abstract:

This open access book examines how international trade agreements apply to domestic regulations on cross-border data flows and then proposes a multilayered framework to align international trade law with evolving norms and practices in global data governance.

Digital trade and global data governance are at a unique crossroads, raising significant policy challenges. The book focuses on five policy areas at the interface of digital trade and global data governance: privacy, cybersecurity, governmental access to data, data divide, and competition. In five separate chapters, the book analyses how different types of domestic laws in each of these policy areas interface with existing provisions in international trade law. Thereafter, each of these chapters explores the challenges and possibilities for aligning international trade law with evolving norms, standards and best practices in that specific area of data regulation, both at the domestic and transnational level.

Drawing upon these findings, the final chapter proposes a multilayered framework for aligning international trade law with evolving norms and practices in global data governance. The key message of the book is that international trade law can and should meaningfully align with and contribute to the development of transnational data governance norms and practices. It can also foster robust regulatory cooperation among various stakeholders of the digital economy.

As the book offers a broad perspective on the significance of digital trade rules in a datafied world, it will benefit scholars, practitioners and policymakers working on digital trade and data regulation, helping its readers explore fresh avenues in the future development of digital trade rules.

Call for Papers: Aesthetics of International Law and Politics

The European International Studies Association’s Regular Section on Aesthetics of International Law and Politics has issued a call for papers for the 2024 EISA Annual Conference, August 27-31, in Lille. The call is here.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

New Issue: International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (Vol. 39, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:
  • In Memoriam Professor Alan Boyle (1953–2023)
  • Maruf Maruf & Yen-Chiang Chang, Strengthening the Regulatory Framework for the Conservation of Cetaceans and Migratory Marine Species against Anthropogenic Underwater Noise
  • Ceciel Nieuwenhout & Liv Malin Andreasson, The Legal Framework for Artificial Energy Islands in the Northern Seas
  • Tingting Ni, Junghwan Choi, & Jiancuo Qi, State Obligation in the East China Sea: Unilateral Activities and Countermeasures
  • Eduardo Gracias Baptista, The Tantalising Islands: Insights from a Textualist Interpretation of Article 121 of the LOSC
  • Stephany Aw, Coastal State Duties in the Repair of Submarine Cables
  • Irini Papanicolopulu, The Law of the Sea in Past Scholarship
  • Valentin Schatz & Sara Wissmann, Port State Control of Civilian Search and Rescue Vessels before the European Court of Justice: The Sea Watch Cases

Monday, February 26, 2024

Lecture: Guilfoyle on "Litigation as Statecraft: Small States and the Law of the Sea"

On March 11, 2024, Douglas Guilfoyle (Univ. of New South Wales - Law) will deliver a lecture (on Zoom) as part of the 2024 Public International Law Lecture Series. The topic is: "Litigation as Statecraft: Small States and the Law of the Sea." Details are here.

Online Roundtable: The Interplay between International Criminal Tribunals and Courts and Domestic Accountability

On March 25, 2024, the European Society of International Law's Interest Group on International Criminal Justice will hold an online roundtable discussion on "The Interplay between International Criminal Tribunals and Courts and Domestic Accountability." The speakers will include: Patryk I. Labuda, Geoffrey Lugano, Sarah Nouwen, and Elies van Sliedregt. Details are here.

Webinar: The Red Sea Crisis: Assessing the International Legal and Maritime Security Implications

As part of the Hague Initiative for Law and Armed Conflict Lecture Series, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Center for International Law and the Netherlands Red Cross, will host a webinar on “The Red Sea Crisis: Assessing the International Legal and Maritime Security Implications,” on March 20, 2024. Details are here.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Geneva Graduate Institute's International Law Colloquium for Spring 2024

The schedule for the Geneva Graduate Institute's International Law Colloquium for Spring 2024 is here.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

New Issue: London Review of International Law

The latest issue of the London Review of International Law (Vol. 11, no. 3, November 2023) is out. Contents include:
  • Articles
    • Marina Veličković, Ethical challenges of using trial transcripts for research purposes: A case study of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
    • Rémi Bachand, International economic institutions after neoliberalism: the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity as a blueprint?
    • Harry Hobbs and Jessie Hohmann, The cinderella stamps and philatelic practices of micronations: the materiality of claims to statehood
    • Lynsey Mitchell, International law as shibboleth: the continued appeal of heroic narratives in support of military intervention
  • Books etc. Symposium on #Help: Digital Humanitarianism and the Remaking of International Order by Fleur Johns
    • Margie Cheesman, Digital humanitarianism: Interfaces, infrastructures, and countercurrents
    • Claudia Aradau, The tangle of digital humanitarianism
    • Stephen Humphreys, Actuality of pure surface
    • Fleur Johns, Reading and writing at the interface

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Vidmar: Territorial Status in International Law

Jure Vidmar
(Maastricht Univ. - Law) has published Territorial Status in International Law (Hart Publishing 2024). Here's the abstract:
This book develops a new theory of territorialism and international legal status of territories. It (i) defines the concept of territory, explaining how territories are created; (ii) redefines the concept of statehood, illustrating that statehood (rather than the statehood criteria) is territorial legal status established in the formal sources of international law; and (iii) grounds non-state territorial entities in the sources of international law to explain their international legal status. This fresh new theoretical perspective has both scholarly and practical importance, providing a tool helping decision-makers and judges in the practical application of international law both internationally and domestically.