Call for Papers: Imagining New and Alternative Legal Internationalisms

A call for papers has been issued for a stream on "Imagining New and Alternative Legal Internationalisms," part of a conference on "Legal Imaginaries," organized by the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia. The conference will take place on December 16-18, 2024, and hosted by the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law. Here's the call:

The international legal order, as we knew it, has changed. Since the early 2000s, we have witnessed significant international changes, including an escalating environmental emergency, the emergence of new ways to wage armed conflicts, the proliferation of new technologies to convey international influence and power, the decline of ‘old’ international powers and the rise of ‘new’ or ‘emerging’ ones, as well as increasingly overt ‘backlash’ against the international institutions and legal norms of the post-WWII international legal order. While it is common for international lawyers to read these events in a register of anxiety and pessimism, this stream seeks to strike a more curious and perhaps even hopeful tone by opening up a conversation about the new and alternative internationalisms that are emerging. In a world where the old is dying and a new hegemonic order has not yet been born, we ask, how can we understand, challenge and re-imagine international law anew? Convenors: Claerwen O'Hara (La Trobe University) and Valeria Vázquez Guevara (University of Hong Kong). For call and submission instructions, please visit the website.

Call for Papers: General principles in EU external relations law

The T.M.C. Asser Institute has issued a call for papers for a conference on "General Principles in EU External Relations Law," to be held December 6, 2024, at the T.M.C. Asser Institute in The Hague. The call is here.

Workshop: Transnational Legal and Political Theory

On May 17-18, 2024, the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the School of Law, University at Buffalo, will host a workshop on "Transnational Legal and Political Theory," in person and online. Details are here.

Yip: Reconceptualizing Norm Conflict in International Law

Ka Lok Yip (Hamad Bin Khalifa Univ.) has posted Reconceptualizing Norm Conflict in International Law (Asian Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article re-conceptualizes norm conflict in international law by uncovering the experiential dimension of its definition and the intentional dimension of its resolution, which have been missing from the traditional accounts. The article locates the basis of recognizing norm conflict in the experienced sense of incompatibility between norms in view of their contexts rather than in the pre-designated constellation of norms with contrary or contradictory functions according to their texts. Concomitantly, it argues that the justification for using certain legal techniques to resolve norm conflicts lies in the intended relationship deducible only between those norms that share the same regulatory purpose, rather than between norms merely applying to the same factual situation. This re-conceptualization generates a new typology of norm conflicts in light of the norms’ end goals and the means they provide to achieve them: “Ends Conflict”, “Means Conflict” and “Unexperienced Conflict”, and suggests apposite ways to tackle them.

New Issue: La Comunità Internazionale

The latest issue of La Comunità Internazionale (Vol. 79, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Articoli e Saggi
• Giuseppe Puma, Le sanzioni economiche unilaterali contro la Bielorussia nella recente prassi internazionale
• Fiammetta Borgia, Intelligenza artificiale, arte digitale e diritto d’autore: profili di diritto internazionale
• Laura Di Gianfrancesco, La funzione di accountability dell’Assemblea generale delle Nazioni Unite alla luce della risoluzione 76/262 sulla veto initiative
• Francesco Gaudiosi, One Health: A New Intersectoral Approach and its Legal Implications for Global Health Governance
• Osservatorio Diritti Umani
• Giorgia Bevilacqua, Innovazione tecnologica e interpretazione del diritto al gioco nella Convenzione ONU sui diritti del fanciullo
• Federica Falconi, Contrasto allo hate speech e responsabilità nella comunicazione politica online: note alla sentenza della Corte europea dei diritti umani Sanchez c. Francia
• Osservatorio Europeo
• Francesco Viggiani, La posizione asimmetrica della Corte di giustizia dell’Unione europea nel contesto “emergenziale” del fenomeno migratorio

Peat: Positivism and the Cognitive Turn

Daniel Peat (Leiden Univ. - Law) has posted Positivism and the Cognitive Turn (in International Legal Theory and the Cognitive Turn, A. van Aaken & M. Hirsch eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Of all the strands of international legal theory that exist in contemporary international law scholarship, one might have thought that the cognitive turn would impact positivism the most. In this chapter, however, I want to paint a different picture. The caricature of positivism that many of us hold in our heads – as a theory that is formalist, voluntarist, state-centric, and detached from morals – no longer accords with the prevalent conception of the theory in much of the literature. Instead, I argue that the principal challenge to positivism comes from experimental jurisprudence, a nascent body of literature which shows that the general public fails to recognise a source-based concept of law. This challenges positivists to explain why their view is to be preferred to the so-called ‘folk’ concept of law.

Monebhurrun, Olarte-Bácares, & Velásquez-Ruiz: International Investment Law and Arbitration from a Latin American Perspective

Nitish Monebhurrun (Univ. Center of Brasilia), Carolina Olarte-Bácares (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), & Marco A. Velásquez-Ruiz (Pontificia Universidad Javeriana) have published International Investment Law and Arbitration from a Latin American Perspective (Springer 2024). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The book brings to light how Latin American States have traditionally stood before the field of International Investment Law and Arbitration. It delves into their posture of resistance to critically examine how their perspective has gradually changed and how they have adapted their investment agreements so as not to leave their position as players in the field of International Investment Law.

Rudall: Responsibility for Environmental Damage

Jason Rudall (Leiden Univ. - Law) has published Responsibility for Environmental Damage (Edward Elgar Publishing 2024). Here's the abstract:

Engaging with one of the most consequential issues of our time, this book provides a thoughtful analysis of responsibility for environmental damage under international law. It conceives of responsibility in a comprehensive way, tackling the legal responsibility, liability and accountability of state and non-state actors for harm they cause to the environment.

Responsibility for Environmental Damage traverses the primary and secondary rules of international law, the responsibility, liability and accountability of states, international organizations, corporations and individuals, as well as existing, new and emerging regulatory frameworks. It engages with the consequences of environmental harm, appraising both orthodox legal doctrines and cutting-edge questions like shared responsibility, equitable considerations, full reparation, response measures under liability regimes, corporate responsibility, ecocide and responsibility for climate change, amongst many others. In doing so, the book evaluates whether the law is equipped to deal with the novel challenges that environmental damage presents and argues that new legal tools are needed to effectively tackle some of the most significant threats to our planet.

New Issue: World Trade Review

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 23, no. 2, May 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Jonas Kasteng, Ari Kokko, Nils Norell, & Patrik Tingvall, Learning to Use Trade Preferences: A Firm and Transaction Level Analysis of the EU–South Korea FTA
• Usama Salamat & Salamat Ali, The Long Shadows of Brexit: Implications for African Countries
• Anatole Boute, Accounting for Carbon Pricing in Third Countries Under the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
• Mira Burri, María Vásquez Callo-Müller, & Kholofelo Kugler, The Evolution of Digital Trade Law: Insights from TAPED
• Emily Jones, Beatriz Kira, & Rutendo Tavengerwei, Norm Entrepreneurship in Digital Trade: The Singapore-led Wave of Digital Trade Agreements
• Bryan Mercurio, The Demise of Globalization and Rise of Industrial Policy: Caveat Emptor
• Thibault Denamiel, Response to Bryan Mercurio's Caveat Emptor
• Tim Groser, Small State Diplomacy in Action: The Real Origins of TPP

New Issue: Swiss Review of International and European Law

The latest issue of the Swiss Review of International and European Law (Vol. 34, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Heike Krieger, Constructing Narratives of Change – The War against Ukraine as a Transformational Moment for International Law?
• Robert Baumann, Die innerstaatliche Legitimation von bindenden Beschlüssen und einseitigen Erklärungen: Recht und Praxis
• Yannick Zerbe, Caught in the Web: The Right to Self-Defense of Third States as Victims of Spill-Over Effects from Cyberattacks

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 28, no. 4, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Samantha Besson, The ‘Human Right to Science’ qua right to participate in science: The participatory good of science and its human rights dimensions
• Heloisa Pinheiro de Castro Simão, The Cartagena ‘Spirit’ as a third world human rights alternative to refugee protection: lessons to learn from Brazil’s approach to Venezuelan socio-economic refugee
• Lieselotte Viaene & María Ximena González-Serrano, The right to be, to feel and to exist: Indigenous lawyers and strategic litigation over Indigenous territories in Guatemala
• Neve Gordon, On antisemitism and human rights
• Md. Intekhab Hossain, Resurgent totalitarianism, charismatic dictatorship, and the rise of socio-political extremism in the age of globalisation and multiculturalism: an escalating human rights crisis
• Genís Galceran & Juan Carlos Palacios, What makes transitional justice possible? An analysis of the Spanish case
• Mohammad Pizuar Hossain, Assessing the International Criminal Court’s response to genocide: a reference to the case of Al-Bashir
• Agne Limante, Protecting vulnerable groups in Europe: highlights from recent case law of the European Court of Human Rights

Bianchi & Zarbiyev: Demystifying Treaty Interpretation

Andrea Bianchi (Geneva Graduate Institute) & Fuad Zarbiyev (Geneva Graduate Institute) have published Demystifying Treaty Interpretation (Cambridge Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

Demystifying Treaty Interpretation doesn't just tell you how treaties are commonly interpreted. It helps you understand also the process of treaty interpretation and its outcomes. The idea that rules of treaty interpretation can guide us to the meaning of treaty provisions, in a simple and straightforward manner, is a myth to be dispelled. This book aims to capture some of the complex and nuanced processes involved in treaty interpretation. It spurs further reflection about how interpretation takes place against the background of concepts, categories, and insights from other disciplines. A useful tool for scholars, practitioners and researchers engaging with treaty interpretation at all levels, the book aims to enhance the reader's knowledge and mastery of the interpretive process in all its elements, with a view to making them more skilled and effective players in the game of interpretation.

Call for Papers: Biennial Conference on International Law and the Social Sciences

A call for papers has been issued for the Biennial Conference on International Law and the Social Sciences of the American Society of International Law's International Law and Social Sciences Interest Group. The conference will take place, September 27-28, 2024, at Northwestern University School of Law. Details, including the call, are here.

New Volume: Yearbook of International Disaster Law

The latest volume of the Yearbook of International Disaster Law (Vol. 5, 2022) is out. Contents include:

• Thematic Section: Human Rights and Disasters
• YIDL Dialogues with Practitioners #2: Dr Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - A Dialogue with Marie Aronsson-Storrier and Emanuele Sommario
• Siobhán Mullally & Keelin Barry, Trafficking in Persons in the Context of Climate-Related Disasters and Displacement: a Failure of Protection and Prevention 
• Susan Breau, Lessons from COVID-19 with Respect to the Positive Obligations of States to Protect Older Persons in the Event of Disasters 
• Christina Binder, Emergencies in the Inter-American Human Rights System: the Example of Ecuador in Times of COVID-19 
• Miriam Cullen, Benedicte Sofie Holm, & Céline Brassart-Olsen, A Human Rights-Based Approach to Disaster Risk Management in Greenland: Displacement, Relocation, and the Legacies of Colonialism 
• Federica Passarini, The Prevention of Disasters Related to Natural Hazards in the Practice of Human Rights Courts and Treaty Bodies: towards a DRR Approach 
• Holly A. Seglah & Kevin Blanchard, Sexual and Gender Minorities and the Right to Non-discrimination: a Shortfall of Disaster Risk Reduction? 
• Stellina Jolly & Chhaya Bhardwaj, Exploring the Role of the National Human Rights Commission in Climate-Induced Disaster Displacement in India: Lessons from Sri Lanka and the Philippines 
• Kumush Suyunova, Human Rights Restrictions Prompted by the COVID-19 Pandemic: Uncertainties and Differences in the Practice of ECHR Parties 
• General Section
• Tuomas Palosaari, Legal Form and Competing Framings of Cross-Border Disaster Displacement in the Context of Climate Change 
• Natalia Cwicinskaja, The Impact of the COVID-19 on Contested Territorial Entities of Eastern Europe: between Isolation and Cooperation 
• Rebeca Isabel Muñoz Arosemena, International Disaster Law in Honduras: the Role of the Red Cross and IFRC in Integrating International Guidelines into the Domestic Legal System 

Conversation: Exiting the Energy Charter Treaty under the Law of Treaties

On April 19, 2024, Bocconi University will host a conversation, in the hybrid format, on "Exiting the Energy Charter Treaty under the Law of Treaties." Lorand Bartels (Univ. of Cambridge), Tibisay Morgandi (Queen Mary Univ. of London), and Roger O'Keefe (Bocconi Univ.) will discuss whether there is a way under the law of treaties for states parties withdrawing from the Energy Charter Treaty to circumvent the treaty’s twenty-year sunset clause. This is the latest in the series Bocconi Conversations in International Law. The event will take place at Bocconi University, via Röntgen 1, 20136 Milan, room 1.c3.01, from 4:30pm to 6:00pm. Registration is required for attendance in person (email dip.ius@unibocconi.it). The event will be on Zoom here (meeting ID 993 0983 0316, passcode 539190).

Call for Papers: Third Annual Conference of the Western Sahara Research Group

A call for papers has been issued for the Third Annual Conference of the Western Sahara Research Group, to be held September 11, 2024, at Queen Mary University of London. The call is here.

Call for Submissions: German Yearbook of International Law

The German Yearbook of International Law has issued a call for submissions for its forthcoming volume 67 (2024). The deadline is August 31, 2024. The call is here.

Conference: International Humanitarian Law Legal Clinics Networking Conference

On May 30, 2024, the IHL RED Consortium, with the support of the ICRC, will host, in the hybrid format, the "Internaitonal Humanitarian Law Legal Clinics Networking Conference" at Roma Tre University. The conference will focus on the opportunities and challenges of clinical legal education in international humanitarian law. Free participation is possible online and in-person. Details are here.

Pereira & Morosini: Textbooks as Markers and Makers of International Law: A Brazilian Case Study

Luíza Leão Soares Pereira (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - Law) & Fabio Costa Morosini (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul - Law) have posted Textbooks as Markers and Makers of International Law: A Brazilian Case Study (European Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article challenges conventional views of international law textbooks as mere instructional tools and explores them as powerful sites for shaping knowledge and the discipline. Drawing on empirical methods and critical theory, we analyse the 10 main international law textbooks used in Brazil and conduct interviews with their authors to illuminate the textbooks’ complexities and their potential for shaping the discipline and the profession. The article delves into the tension between the structure of international law as depicted in the textbooks and the agency of their authors, investigating the authors’ identities and backgrounds. Brazil serves as a compelling case study due to its numerous international law textbooks and their widespread use. Our results indicate a predominant universalist approach in Brazilian textbooks and their connection to the French international law tradition. Moreover, the study sheds light on the Brazilian ‘invisible college’ of international lawyers, revealing gender and racial disparities and institutional centralities. It also uncovers crucial omissions in the textbooks, such as the relationship of international law to colonialism, slavery, race, gender and economic inequality. Overall, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of international law as a field in Brazil and provides a valuable methodological framework for future research on textbooks’ role in shaping the discipline.

Nakajima, Okada, & Nisugi: The sovereign function test out of thin air? The status of the central bank determined behind the scenes in Certain Iranian Assets

Kei Nakajima (Univ. of Tokyo - Law), Yohei Okada (Kobe Univ. - Law), & Kento Nisugi (Osaka Univ. - Law) have posted The sovereign function test out of thin air? The status of the central bank determined behind the scenes in Certain Iranian Assets (Journal of International Dispute Settlement, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

On 30 March 2023, the International Court of Justice rendered its judgment on the merits of the case concerning Certain Iranian Assets, in which the Iranian central bank was not characterized as a company within the meaning of the Treaty of Amity. In so concluding, the Court relied upon the test focusing on the central bank’s sovereign functions and the purposes of the transaction at stake. Debate surrounds the origin and sources of inspiration of the sovereign function test, insofar as the majority’s minimum reasoning leaves an impression that it arose from thin air. This article explores the origin and the sources of inspiration of the test, concluding that the Court’s judgment affords the reading that the test was inspired, albeit clandestinely, by rules and practice specifically dedicated to the characterization of central bank activities, located in areas such as the laws of State immunity or responsibility, by judicial cross-referencing.

Lythgoe: The Rebirth of Territory

Gail Lythgoe (Univ. of Edinburgh - Law) has published The Rebirth of Territory (Cambridge Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

The concept of territory is central in international law, but a detailed analysis of how the concept is used in both discourse and practice has been lacking until now. Rather than reproducing the established understanding of territoriality within the international legal order, this study suggests that the discipline of international law relies on an outmoded spatial paradigm. Gail Lythgoe argues for a complete update and overhaul of our understanding of territory and space, to engage more effectively with key processes, structures and actors relevant to contemporary global governance. In this new theoretical account of an essential aspect of public international law, she argues that territory is a dynamic social reality created by the exercise of power. Territories are constituted by the practices of a more diverse array of actors than is acknowledged. As a result, functions are re-assembling in territories constituted by state and non-state actors alike.

Call for Papers: African International Economic Law Network 7th Biennial (Bridge) Conference

The African International Economic Law Network has issued a call for papers for its 7th Biennial (Bridge) Conference, to take place July 18-20, 2024, in Dar es Salaam. The theme is: "A Critical Appraisal of the Status and Implementation of the AfCFTA Agreement and Its Protocols." The call is here.

Case & Mégret: The Colour of Jus Cogens

Sarah Riley Case (McGill Univ. - Law) & Frédéric Mégret (McGill Univ. - Law) have posted The Colour of Jus Cogens (in Emancipating International Law: Confronting the Violence of Racialized Boundaries, Mohsen al Attar, Ata Hindi, & Claire Smith, eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The international law doctrine of jus cogens recognizes that some prohibitions – such as those against slavery, genocide, and torture – have peremptory status above other international norms and cannot be negotiated away by treaty. However, in their 1993 article “The Gender of Jus Cogens” Hillary Charlesworth and Christine Chinkin claimed, “the concept of jus cogens is not a properly universal one as its development has privileged the experiences of men over those of women, and it has provided a protection to men that is not accorded to women.” The definition of jus cogens in spaces dominated by men, they argued, entrenched gendered experiences with distributive consequences. Jus cogens norms did not address the impacts on women of violence, poverty, food insecurity, and inaccessible health care. Jus cogens norms are biased and have been used to reinscribe benefits that men accrue from oppressing women.

Charlesworth and Chinkin published their article during early engagements with Feminist Approaches to International Law across the Global North, which foregrounded how international law is socially constructed to produce gender disparities. Sources of inspiration for these approaches included literature on colonialism and Third World feminisms. In their discussion of jus cogens, Charlesworth and Chinkin therefore used the term ‘women’ to refer to persons ‘around the world’ whose experiences jus cogens should reflect. Nonetheless, proposals to accommodate women in international law coming from the Global North have since been critiqued for eclipsing alternate feminisms and perspectives concerned with racism, colonialism, gender normativity, and economic inequality, with important consequences.

Acknowledging these nuances, we wish to focus on whether jus cogens reinforces hierarchies associated with multiple forms of imperialism. This has led us to ask if jus cogens might be associated with the dominance of people who have benefitted from and reproduce the white supremacy of colonialism and transatlantic slavery. The question is whether jus cogens might be defined by processes of racialization, simultaneously caught up with gender and class. We recognize, as Charlesworth and Chinkin did, that evoking jus cogens norms is often symbolic in practice. Our intuition is that jus cogens has at times been evoked for its symbolic value to discipline racialized peoples across a gender spectrum, while their appeals to jus cogens have often been excluded from its ambit of protection.

Lecture: Lavrysen on "Climate Law: International and European Perspectives"

On April 8, 2024, Luc Lavrysen (Constitutional Court of Belgium) will deliver a lecture (on Zoom) as part of the Wuhan University School of Law Global Law Distinguished Lecture Series. The topic is: "Climate Law: International and European Perspectives." Qin Tianbao (Wuhan Univ.) and Liu Bingyu (China Univ. of Political Science and Law) will serve as discussants, and Ignacio de la Rasilla (Wuhan Univ.) will be the moderator. Details are here.

Lecture: Hernández on "Adjudicating War? A new front at the ICJ"

On April 11, 2024, Gleider Hernández (Catholic Univ. of Leuven) will give the next lecture of the TuLaw - Tübingen Lecture Series on the Laws of War. The topic is: “Adjudicating War? A new front at the ICJ.” Details are here.

New Issue: Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international

The latest issue of the Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (Vol. 25, no. 4, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Inge Van Hulle, The Blood Brotherhood and Colonial Treaties and Alliances: Between Myth and Reality
• Bogotá at 75
• Justina Uriburu & Francisco-José Quintana, Bogotá at 75: Palaces, Streets, and Classrooms
• Lucas Lixinski, Indigeneity at the 1948 Bogotá Conference
• Nicolás M. Perrone, Locating the 1948 Economic Agreement of Bogotá: The Rise and Fall of Latin America’s International Economic Law Project
• Francisco-José Quintana, The (Latin) American Dream? Human Rights and the Construction of Inter-American Regional Organisation (1945–1948)
• Justina Uriburu, Organizing Peace in the Americas: Collective Security versus International Adjudication
• Fabia Fernandes Carvalho, Regional Imaginations of Peace: The Work of the Rio Committee and the Antecedents of the Pact of Bogota (1942–1947)
• George Rodrigo Bandeira Galindo, Epilogue: Bogotá, Law, Time, and Politics

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 63, no. 2, April 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Arbitral Award of Oct. 3, 1899 (Guy. v. Venez.) (Preliminary Objections) (I.C.J.), with introductory note by Bertrand Ramcharan
• Documents on the Consequences of the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Namely the Enlarged Partial Agreement on the Register of Damage Caused, with introductory note by Bill Bowring
• Case C-663/21, Bundesamt für Fremdenwesen und Asyl v. AA (C.J.E.U.), with introductory note by Elspeth Guild
• Case of Digna Ochoa & Family Members v. Mex. (Inter-Am. Ct. H.R.), with introductory note by Connie de la Vega
• Amendments to the Case-Zablocki Act Concerning Reporting and Publication of International Agreements and Related Regulations (U.S.), with introductory note by Curtis Bradley
• Yegiazaryan v. Smagin (U.S. Sup. Ct.), with introductory note by Juan Pablo Gomez-Moreno
• The Foreign State Immunity Law of the People's Republic of China, with introductory note by William S. Dodge

Haslam: The Subjects and Subjectivities of International Criminal Law: A Critical Introduction

Emily Haslam (Univ. of Kent - Law) has published The Subjects and Subjectivities of International Criminal Law: A Critical Introduction (Hart Publishing 2024). Here's the abstract:

This book provides a critical introduction to the core elements of international criminal law. It does so by provoking thought on what international criminal law is, or could be, by contrasting the practice of widely recognised state-based actors and institutions such as the International Criminal Court with practices associated with non-state actors in particular citizens' tribunals.

International criminal law is now established as an essential legal and institutional response to atrocity. However, it faces a series of political and practical challenges. It is vital to consider its limits and potential, as well as the ways and extent to which those limitations might be addressed. Many actors with very different visions of its nature and parameters play a role in shaping the meaning of international criminal law whether that be in official or unofficial spaces.

This book explores the principles and institutions of international criminal law alongside the alternative visions of it put forward by citizens' tribunals. In so doing it encourages reflection on that law's multiple meanings and usages in order to provoke consideration of what it means, and might mean, to deploy international criminal law today.

New Issue: International Community Law Review

The latest issue of the International Community Law Review (Vol. 26, nos. 1-2, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: The War in Ukraine and International Law
• Dai Tamada, Editorial: Special Issue on the War in Ukraine and International Law
• Masahiko Asada, The War in Ukraine under International Law: Its Use of Force and Armed Conflict Aspects
• Dai Tamada, War in Ukraine and the International Court of Justice: Provisional Measures and the Third-Party Right to Intervene in Proceedings
• Mika Hayashi & Akihiro Yamaguchi, Economic Sanctions against Russia: Questions of Legality and Legitimacy
• Kazuhiro Nakatani, Freezing, Confiscation and Management of the Assets of the Russian Central Bank and the Oligarchs: Legality and Possibility under International Law
• Fujio Kawashima, Trade Sanctions against Russia and their WTO Consistency: Focusing on Justification under National Security Exceptions
• Satoru Taira, WTO Dispute Settlement and Trade Sanctions as Permissible Third-Party Countermeasures under Customary International Law
• Dai Tamada, War in Ukraine and Implications for International Investment Law

Reece Thomas: The Commercial Activity Exception to State Immunity: An Introduction

Katherine Reece Thomas (City Univ. of London - Law) has published The Commercial Activity Exception to State Immunity: An Introduction (Edward Elgar Publishing 2024). Here's the abstract:

In this insightful book, Katherine Reece Thomas explores the constantly evolving nature of state immunity, providing a nuanced analysis of the tension between private and public law. The current rules on the commercial activity exception to state immunity are examined, in both international and domestic law settings, using recent case studies from key jurisdictions including the UK and the US.

Questioning when a state can be sued in a domestic court if it engages in commercial activities, Reece Thomas reveals how a restrictive rather than an absolute doctrine has been adopted and explores the ways in which states allow commercial activity to override state immunity. The implications of this, and of how commercial activity can therefore be defined, are explored through the contexts not only of corporate law but also of central bank sanctions, human rights, employment, and crime, using recent examples from Afghanistan as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Further questions regarding immunity are posed by a crucial discussion on enforcement against state assets.

Comprehensive yet concise, this authoritative work includes consideration of a range of contexts and implications for the commercial activity exception.

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 78, no. 1, Winter 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Tyler Jost, Joshua D. Kertzer, Eric Min, & Robert Schub, Advisers and Aggregation in Foreign Policy Decision Making
• Owen R. Brown, The Underside of Order: Race in the Constitution of International Order
• Leonardo Baccini, Magnus Lodefalk, & Radka Sabolová, Economic Determinants of Attitudes Toward Migration: Firm-level Evidence from Europe
• Wilfred M. Chow & Dov H. Levin, The Diplomacy of Whataboutism and US Foreign Policy Attitudes
• Donald Grasse, Renard Sexton, & Austin Wright, Courting Civilians During Conflict: Evidence from Taliban Judges in Afghanistan
• Research Note
• Sivaram Cheruvu & Jay N. Krehbiel, Do Preliminary References Increase Public Support for European Law? Experimental Evidence from Germany

Durkee: States, Firms, and Their Legal Fictions: Attributing Identity and Responsibility to Artificial Entities

Melissa J. Durkee (Washington Univ., St Louis - Law) has published States, Firms, and Their Legal Fictions: Attributing Identity and Responsibility to Artificial Entities (Cambridge Univ. Press 2024). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This volume offers a new point of entry into questions about how the law conceives of states and firms. Because states and firms are fictitious constructs rather than products of evolutionary biology, the law dictates which acts should be attributed to each entity, and by which actors. Those legal decisions construct firms and states by attributing identity and consequences to them. As the volume shows, these legal decisions are often products of path dependence or conceptual metaphors like “personhood” that have expanded beyond their original uses. Focusing on attribution, the volume considers an array of questions about artificial entities that are usually divided into doctrinal siloes. These include questions about attribution of international legal responsibility to states and state-owned entities, transnational attribution of liabilities to firms, and attribution of identity rights to corporations. Durkee highlights the artificiality of doctrines that construct firms and states, and therefore their susceptibility to change.

New Issue: Nordic Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law (Vol. 93, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Celebrating Interdisciplinarity in Nordic Approaches to International Law
• Zuzanna Godzimirska & William Hamilton Byrne, Celebrating Interdisciplinarity in Nordic Approaches to International Law
• Silvia Steininger, William Hamilton Byrne, & Raphael Oidtmann, The Blind Men and the Elephant: An Empirical Analysis of the Social Sciences in International Law
• Runar Hilleren Lie & Malcolm Langford, The Computational Turn in International Law
• Zuzanna Godzimirska & Anne Lise Kjaer, Taking Texts Seriously: The Language of International Law
• Nora Stappert & Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Bridging the Gap: Practice Theory in Interdisciplinary International Law and International Relations Scholarship
• Outi Korhonen & Mervi Leppäkorpi, Elusive Interdisciplinarity in International Law in the Nordics
• Jan Klabbers, The Ethics of Inter-disciplinarity and the Academic Industry
• Sara Olsvig & Miriam Cullen, Arctic Indigenous Peoples and International Law

Conference: 2024 ESIL Research Forum

The European Society of International Law's 2024 Research Forum will take place April 18-19, 2024, in Nicosia, hosted by the Department of Law of the University of Cyprus. The theme is: "Revisiting Interactions Between Legal Orders." The program is here. Registration is here.

Benton: They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence

Lauren Benton (Yale Univ. - History) has published They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence (Princeton Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

Imperial conquest and colonization depended on pervasive raiding, slaving, and plunder. European empires amassed global power by asserting a right to use unilateral force at their discretion. They Called It Peace is a panoramic history of how these routines of violence remapped the contours of empire and reordered the world from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries.

In an account spanning from Asia to the Americas, Lauren Benton shows how imperial violence redefined the very nature of war and peace. Instead of preparing lasting peace, fragile truces ensured an easy return to war. Serial conflicts and armed interventions projected a de facto state of perpetual war across the globe. Benton describes how seemingly limited war sparked atrocities, from sudden massacres to long campaigns of dispossession and extermination. She brings vividly to life a world in which warmongers portrayed themselves as peacemakers and Europeans imagined “small” violence as essential to imperial rule and global order.

Holding vital lessons for us today, They Called It Peace reveals how the imperial violence of the past has made perpetual war and the threat of atrocity endemic features of the international order.

Conference: Cambridge International Law Journal 13th Annual Conference

On April 8-9, 2024, the Cambridge International Law Journal will hold its 13th Annual Conference at the University of Cambridge and virtually. The theme is: "The Intersection of Peace and Sustainability in International Law." Details are here.

New Volume: Japanese Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Japanese Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 66, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Human Rights Approach to Regulate Armed Conflicts: Beyond the Lex Generalis/Specialis Framework
• Shuichi Furuya & Kyo Arai, Introductory Note
• Yuval Shany, Human Rights Norms Applicable in the Situation of Armed Conflict — Beyond the Lex Generalis/Lex Specialis Framework —
• William Schabas, The Right to Life in Armed Conflict
• Vanessa Murphy & Lindsey Cameron, Gender Bias and International Humanitarian Law: Is Human Rights Law the Answer?
• Eriko Tamura, Child Soldiers: Victims or Lawful Targets?
• Kyo Arai, Procedural Aspect of the Right to Life in Armed Conflict
• Mobility and Belonging in a Globalized World
• Yuko Nishitani, Introductory Note
• Nami Thea Ohnishi, Nationality and Citizenship in Relation to the Migration Phenomenon
• Hirohide Takikawa, Free Movement and Nationality
• Kiyoshi Hasegawa, Inclusion and Exclusion of Immigrants and Refugees in Japan: A Preliminary Study
• Kondo Atsushi, Human Rights of Non-Citizens and Nationality — The Peculiarities of Japan’s Nationality Legislation from a Comparative Legal Perspective —
• Obata Kaoru, Beyond the Concept of “Human Rights of Permanently Domiciled Foreigners” in Japanese Public Law Theory — Taking Seriously of Ambiguity in Nationality in the Age of International Migration —
• Yuko Nishitani, Personal Law in Contemporary Private International Law — The Changing Role of Nationality, Citizenship, and Habitual Residence —
• Theories and Realities in (Re-)Construction of Spatial Orders
• Lauri Mälksoo, The Rise and Fall of Regional International Law in Post-Soviet Eurasia
• Tetsuya Toyoda, Universality and Peculiarity of the Concept of Exclusive Territoriality — The Linearization of Borders and Territorial Sovereignty in East Asia Since the Late 19th Century —
• Yumiko Nakanishi, The Development of, and Issues Associated with, EU Legal Spaces
• Public International Law
• Andrew Serdy, The 2022 Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies: The WTO Mountain Labours and Brings Forth a Possibly Short-Lived Mouse
• Japanese Digest of International Law
• Atsuko Kanehara, Japan’s Discharge of ALPS Treated Water Containing Tritium
• Mari Takeuchi, Extraterritorial Regulation in the Field of Data Privacy — Japan’s Amendments to the Personal Information Protection Act —
• Cases and Issues in Japanese Private International Law
• Shiho Kato, Dismissal of Proceedings on Account of Special Circumstances Under Article 3-9 of the Japanese Code of Civil Procedure
• Ai Murakami, Extraterritorial Application of the Japanese Antimonopoly Act

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 104, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Eliminating online hate speech against women: Universal versus regional approaches
• Introduced by Flavia Zorzi Giustiniani
• Maria Sjöholm, Regulation of online gender-based hate speech and international human rights law: Current status and challenges
• Claudia Morini, Countering online sexist hate speech in the European legal context: Between present commitment and future challenges

Kulick: Constitutional Review of Investment Treaties by the European Court of Justice

Andreas Kulick (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen - Law) has posted Constitutional Review of Investment Treaties by the European Court of Justice (in The Rise of Domestic Courts in International Investment Law, C Brown, M Jarrett, & SW Schill eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The review of investment treaties by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) tells a story of inconsistency. As is well known, the Court rejected investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the form of ad hoc arbitration in Achmea and Komstroy – and accepted it in the Investment Court System (‘ICS’) variety of the Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement (‘CETA’) in its Opinion 1/17. Taking a closer look at the various lines and subplots of this story, however, reveals three common themes. First, the CJEU’s review of investment treaties is a constitutional review not only in name but also in substance. It charges the law of internal and external EU commercial relations with the ‘values’ of Art. 2 TEU and thus introduces a ‘thick constitutionalism’ to this otherwise seemingly unspectacular area of EU policy: The Court does not merely insist on a review that may be characterized as constitutional in form – based on normative hierarchy and setting a floor and a ceiling to what is compatible with EU law. It also insists that it is tasked to protect the ‘values’ of the Union and makes them doctrinally operational by way of its – self-styled – role as exclusive guardian of the EU legal system. Second, such ‘thick constitutionalism’ provides an explanation for the doctrinal inconsistency in the Court’s jurisprudence. Promoting the ‘values’ of Art. 2 TEU in EU external relations requires a strategy of Voice, rather than Exit – and Opinion 1/17 enables the Commission and the Member States (in mixed agreements) to exercise such voice. Third, the impact of such ‘thick constitutionalism’ and the CJEU’s intention to provide the EU with Voice in its external economic relations vis-à-vis ISDS has repercussions regarding the Union’s agenda and wriggle-room in the current debates on ISDS reform in UNCITRAL Working Group III and in its current and future treaty practice.

Part II briefly recounts the main plot of this story, marking three milestones in the development of the CJEU’s case law thus far. In Part III, I will analyse and assess the Court’s jurisprudence with respect to the constitutional stakes it raises (III.1.) and regarding the different strategy it employs in order to ‘integrate’ the Union’s values also into its external commercial relations (III.2.). Part IV discusses how the Court’s ‘thick constitutionalism’ may impact the future of ISDS, both regarding the institutional and procedural matters as well as with respect to the substance of international investment agreements (‘IIAs’). Part V concludes.

Wentker, with Jackson & Hill-Cawthorne: Identifying co-parties to armed conflict in international law: How states, international organizations and armed groups become parties to war

Alexander Wentker (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), with Miles Jackson (Univ. of Oxford - Law) & Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne (Univ. of Bristol - Law) have posted Identifying co-parties to armed conflict in international law: How states, international organizations and armed groups become parties to war (Chatham House Research Paper 2024). Here's abstract:

States have often relied on each other’s support to wage wars. But, as military technology advances, contemporary armed conflicts are increasingly characterized by complex patterns of cooperation involving states, international organizations and non-state armed groups. These patterns make it difficult to identify who among the cooperating partners qualifies as a party to conflict – referred to in this research paper as co-parties. But that status has significant legal consequences in the regulation of armed conflict. The need for clarity around co-party status has therefore never been greater.

This research paper aims to provide a roadmap to establish who is party to an armed conflict and the legal implications of that finding. The paper draws on illustrative examples from both recent and current conflicts to analyse what co-party status means and how parties to armed conflicts are identified as a matter of international law.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: Ownership in the Deep Seas

AJIL Unbound has published a symposium on “Ownership in the Deep Seas.” The symposium includes an introduction by Julian Arato, Aline Jaeckel, and Lucas Lixinski, and contributions by Pradeep Singh and Aline Jaeckel, Lucas Lixinski, Erick Guapizaca Jiménez, Surabhi Ranganathan, Elisa Morgera, and Viren Mascarenhas.

New Issue: Chicago Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chicago Journal of International Law (Vol. 24, no. 2, Winter 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Taorui Guan, Cooperative Federalism and Patient Legislation: A Study Comparing China and the United States
• Jonathan Horowitz, One Click from Conflict: Some Legal Considerations Related to Technology Companies Providing Digital Services in Situations of Armed Conflict
• Jason Morgan-Foster, International Administrative Tribunals and Cross-Fertilization: Evidence of Nascent Common Jurisprudence?
• M. Veronica Saladino, Enforceability of Choice of Court Clauses in Transnational Agreements: The 2005 Hague Convention, Its Implementation in Contracting States, and the U.S. Approach

Conference: INTERPOL at 100: Improving the Organization's Legal Framework

On April 12, 2024, a conference on "INTERPOL at 100: Improving the Organization's Legal Framework" will be held in the hybrid mode at INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon. More information is here. The program is here. Registration is here.

Hak: Image-Based Evidence in International Criminal Prosecutions: Charting a Path Forward

Jonathan W. Hak has published Image-Based Evidence in International Criminal Prosecutions: Charting a Path Forward (Oxford Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

The use of image-based evidence in international criminal prosecutions is at a tipping point. In his pioneering book on the topic, Jonathan W. Hak, KC provides critical insight into the authentication and interpretation of images, setting out how images can be effectively used in the search for the truth. While images can convey vital information more efficiently and effectively than words alone, the biases of photographers, the use of image-altering technology, and the generation of images with artificial intelligence can lead to mischief and injustice. In this context, images must be effectively authenticated and interpreted to establish their true meaning.

Addressing the growing need for visual literacy, Jonathan W. Hak's Image-Based Evidence in International Criminal Prosecutions systematically explores the value of images as probative and didactic evidence in international criminal law. It analyses existing challenges in the creation, acquisition, processing, and use of image-based evidence, making recommendations for how those challenges might be addressed. In particular, the book investigates emerging technical frontiers in image-based evidence and the potential uses for advanced visual representations like virtual reality, immersive virtual environments, and augmented reality. Ultimately, the book argues that advanced visual representations may have sufficient probative value and proposes cautious parameters for their application in the international courtroom.

New Issue: Archiv des Völkerrechts

The latest issue of Archiv des Völkerrechts (Vol. 61, no. 4, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Nachruf
• Anja Seibert-Fohr, Thomas Buergenthal (1934–2023)
• Abhandlungen
• Shu-Perng Hwang, Von der Verrechtlichung zur Vervölkerrechtlichung?
• Christina Eckes, Roda Verheyen, & Piotr Krajewski, Treaty-Making by Afterthought
• Kristin Y. Albrecht, Der Wert der Natur im Völkerrecht
• Patrick R. Hoffmann, Das Staatsangehörigkeitsrecht im Lichte von Art. 8 EMRK

New Issue: Journal of Human Rights and the Environment

The latest issue of the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment (Vol. 15, no. 1, February 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Floor Fleurke, Michael Leach, Hans Lindahl, Phillip Paiement, Marie Petersmann, & Han Somsen, Constitutionalizing in the Anthropocene
• Frédéric Neyrat, Towards a planetary coalition (a Preamble)
• David Chandler, The Black Anthropocene: and the end(s) of the constitutionalizing project
• Floor Fleurke, Reintroduction of large carnivores in Europe: a case study on frictions between rules of law and rules of nature
• Johan Horst, Entanglements: the ambivalent role of law in the Anthropocene

Forsythe: The Contemporary International Committee of the Red Cross: Challenges, Changes, Controversies

David P. Forsythe (Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln - Political Science) has published The Contemporary International Committee of the Red Cross: Challenges, Changes, Controversies (Cambridge Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was founded in 1863 and is often considered the gold standard in humanitarian action. Despite its many positive achievements over more than 150 years, some former ICRC officials believe that the organization is now in decline because of a series of recent policy choices. Their view is that the organization has undermined its reputation for independent and neutral humanitarian action, while growing too fast and too large, which has weakened its reputation for quick, tightly focused, and effective action in the field. David P. Forsythe revisits the ICRC policy decisions of recent decades and suggests that the organization is not in fatal decline, but that it does need to reconsider some of its policies at the margins. Though some errors have been made and some corrections are in order, Forsythe argues that its obituary is premature.

Peters & Sparks: The Individual in International Law

Anne Peters (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) & Tom Sparks (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) have published The Individual in International Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2024). This is an open access title. The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Shifts across the corpus of international law have brought the international legal system into a closer alignment with the interests of the individual. This has led to a great and growing interest in the roles and status of individuals in international law, and provided new impulses for debate.

The Individual in International Law is an exploration of what is described as the humanisation of international law. It examines how international law has accommodated individuals, and how individual status, rights, and obligations have become denser and more important in the international legal system. Split into two parts, the book analyses the humanisation of international law in different historical periods and from various theoretical perspectives. The first part focuses on the historical evolution of international law, exploring how the interests of individuals have shaped the development of the legal system from antiquity to 1945, providing a counterpoint to State-centric readings of international law's history. The second part contains theoretical debates, critical approaches, and interdisciplinary investigations, offering perspectives from ius positivism and ius naturalism, Marxism, TWAIL, feminism, global law, global constitutionalism, law and economics, and legal anthropology. The book aims to stimulate further research on the humanisation and dehumanisation of new fields ranging from the ius contra bellum to climate law. The editors' introduction and conclusion frame the contributions, draw together their findings, and address critiques comprehensively.

Alvarez & Bauder: Women's Property Rights Under CEDAW

José E. Alvarez (New York Univ. - Law) & Judith Bauder (European Univ. Institute) have published Women's Property Rights Under CEDAW (Oxford Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

The gender gap with respect to wealth and property is a chasm. For over 40 years, the leading international treaty body on women's rights, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the CEDAW Committee), has been generating jurisprudence interpreting CEDAW's obligations that states protect the equal rights of women in relationships; family rights, including inheritance; rights to land, adequate housing, financial credit, social benefits, intellectual property, and other economic rights dependent on equal access to justice.

This book uses the CEDAW Committee's own texts: its General Recommendations, Views in response to communications, Concluding Observations in response to State reports, and Reports on Inquiries. The book finds that CEDAW's vision of what it means for women to have equal rights to property is dramatically different from what many scholars consider to be the leading source of "the international law of property," namely the case law generated on behalf of foreign investors' property under the international investment regime. CEDAW's vision is also more far-reaching and nuanced than the gender equality approaches followed by international financial institutions like the World Bank, whose gender equality rhetoric exceeds its actual on-the-ground development efforts.

While CEDAW's property rights converge with those protected under other international human rights regimes, they remain unique in addressing the underlying patriarchal structures, stereotypes, and forms of intersectional discrimination that have undermined the fundamental rights of women and girls and led to their continued impoverishment all around the world. This book concludes that CEDAW's re-engendering of property--although a flawed and evolving work in progress--has the potential to be transformative for the half of the planet who is more likely to be treated as property than to have any.

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 28, no. 3, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Anticipation under the Human Right to Science
• Samantha Besson, Anticipation under the human right to science: concepts, stakes and specificities
• William A. Schabas, Codifying the human right to science
• Rosemary Hill, Anticipatory co-governance for human rights to sciences across knowledge systems
• Yvonne Donders & Monika Plozza, Look before you leap: states’ prevention and anticipation duties under the right to science
• Camila Perruso, Anticipation under the human right to science and under other social and cultural rights
• Rumiana Yotova, Anticipatory duties under the human right to science and international biomedical law
• Anna-Maria Hubert, Between Scylla and Charybdis: the implications of the human right to science for regulating the harms and benefits of environmental science and technology
• Amrei Müller, Anticipation under the human right to science (HRS): sketching the public institutional framework. The example of scientific responses to the appearance of SARS-CoV-2
• Helle Porsdam & Sebastian Porsdam Mann, Anticipation and diplomacy (with)in science: activating the right to science for science diplomacy

New Issue: Transnational Legal Theory

The latest issue of Transnational Legal Theory (Vol. 14, no. 4, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Law’s Agency in Global Governance: Inquires into Algorithmic Governance and Finance
• Afroditi Marketou & Joana Mendes, Law’s agency in global governance: inquiries into algorithmic governance and finance
• Afroditi Marketou & Joana Mendes, Making it work: law’s agency in global governance
• Raphaële Xenidis, Beyond bias: algorithmic machines, discrimination law and the analogy trap
• Peer Zumbansen, Runaway train? Decentralised finance and the myth of the private platform economy
• Guido Comparato, The transnational and the local in the comparative law of finance: technics, politics, and the functions of commercial law
• Pascale Cornut St-Pierre, Securitisation from mortgages to sustainability: circulating techniques and the financialisation of legal knowledge
• Pavlina Hubkova, Soft rulemaking through multi-level administrative practice: replicating the aesthetics of law

New Issue: Military Law and the Law of War Review / Revue de Droit Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre

The latest issue of the Military Law and the Law of War Review / Revue de Droit Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre (Vol. 61, no. 2, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Lindsay Moir, Reserving the objectionable: reprisals against enemy civilians, the United Kingdom and 1977 Additional Protocol I
• Martha M. Bradley, Revisiting and reimagining scholarly approaches: assessing the notion of intensity in complex non-international armed conflicts through aggregation
• Anna Rosalie Greipl, Artificial intelligence in urban warfare: opportunities to enhance the protection of civilians?

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 24, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Lights and Shadows of the Ongwen Case at the International Criminal Court, Part 2
• Adina-Loredana Nistor, Culture and the Illusion of Self-Evidence: Spiritual Beliefs in the Ongwen Trial
• Christelle Molima Bameka, The Post-Ongwen Case Period and the Reconciliation Process in Northern Uganda: Local Communities as a Site of Knowledge
• Giovanna M Frisso, Children Born of War: The Recognition of Children Born of War as Victims in the Ongwen Case
• Juan-Pablo Perez-Leon-Acevedo and Fabio Ferraz de Almeida, Ongwen and the Legitimacy of the ICC

New Issue: Nordic Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 42, no. 1, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Johan Karlsson Schaffer & Isabel Schoultz, Introduction: Legal Mobilization in Nordic Civil Society
• Johan Karlsson Schaffer, Malcolm Langford & Mikael Rask Madsen, An Unlikely Rights Revolution: Legal Mobilization in Scandinavia Since the 1970s
• Michael Molavi, Collective Legal Mobilisation: Exploring Class Actions in Sweden and Canada
• Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, Cultural Heritage and Legal Mobilisation After Terror: July 22 and the Battle for Y
• Isabel Schoultz & Heraclitos Muhire, Mobilizing the Rights of Migrant Workers: Swedish Trade Unions’ Engagement with Law and the Courts
• Stine Piilgaard Porner Nielsen & Ole Hammerslev, Young and Experiencing Homelessness: Opportunities for Mobilizing Rights

Webinar: The WTO Ministerial Conference and the Future of International Trade

On March 28, 2024, the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University will host a webinar on "The WTO Ministerial Conference and the Future of International Trade." Details are here.

Pavlopoulos: The Identity of Governments in International Law

Niko Pavlopoulos has published The Identity of Governments in International Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2024). Here's the abstract:

The Identity of Governments in International Law provides a comprehensive account of the international legal regulation of governmental status. It examines the fundamental conceptual aspects of the government of a state in international law, before analysing the law concerning the recognition of governments and the criteria for governmental status under customary international law. It also explores matters concerning the identity of governments in the context of international organizations.

Presenting the positive international legal framework concerning the regulation of governmental status, the book engages extensively with historical and contemporary examples, such as the rival governments of Cambodia (1970-75; 1979-89, 1997-98); the recognition of the Taliban (1996-2001; and again beginning in 2021); and the contested identity of Venezuela's president (beginning in 2019). Given the pre-eminence of states in international law and the importance of governments to the representation of states, the systematic examination of practice grounded in solid conceptual foundations renders this book a useful reference point for scholars and practitioners in all fields of international law and beyond.

New Issue: Netherlands International Law Review

The latest issue of the Netherlands International Law Review (Vol. 70, no. 3, December 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Meng Wang, The Unprecedented Ramsar Resolution: Ukrainian Wetlands Protection in Armed Conflict
• Doudou Huang, World Pandemic Control in International Law: Through a Transboundary Harm Perspective
• Trinh Thị Hồng Nguyễn, Examining the Breadth and Conformity with Global Standards of Vietnamese Courts’ Exclusive Jurisdiction in International Commercial Contracts Pertaining to Immovable Property Within Vietnam

Call for Papers: An Abolition Movement for International Criminal Law?

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "An Abolition Movement for International Criminal Law?", to be held at RMIT University Melbourne (Graduate School of Business and Law), in person and online, on June 27-28, 2024. The call is here. The deadline is March 24, 2024.

Workshop: Surviving Peer Review: from Submission to Publication

On April 8, 2024, the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights will host a workshop on "Surviving Peer Review: from Submission to Publication." The workshop is geared towards early career researchers. Speakers include: Katharine Fortin, Yvonne Donders, Anja Mihr, and Elina Pirjatannieni. Details are here.

Brewster: Arbitrating Corruption

Rachel Brewster (Duke Univ. - Law) has published Arbitrating Corruption (Washington Univ. Law Review, Vol. 101, 2024). Here's the abstract:

One of the most controversial issues in international investment law is how arbitral panels should deal with investments tainted by corruption at their inception. The current practice of investment arbitrators is to refuse to hear investors’ claims when bribery allegations are substantiated. A recent wave of scholarship has attacked this “corruption defense,” arguing that the practice unfairly harms investors and encourages governments to maintain corrupt practices. This Essay responds to that scholarship, arguing that the current approach is the best policy choice on balance. The Essay analyzes three core policy questions at the heart of the debate: Would eliminating the corruption defense lead governments to adopt meaningful anti-corruption reform? Does corrupt foreign investment improve economic and political conditions in the host states to a sufficient degree to warrant investment protection? Do the governments establishing investment treaties that set the contractual terms between states want investment protections for corrupt investment? In answering all three questions in the negative and placing the issue within the broader context of transnational anti-corruption law, this Essay provides the theoretical foundation necessary for supporting the current practice.

Workshop: Transnational litigation networks: comparative regard at collective pursuit of justice

On March 27, 2024, the Institute of Advanced Study and the Democracy Institut of Central European University will hold a hybrid workshop on "Transnational litigation networks: comparative regard at collective pursuit of justice." Details are here.

Lange: Treaties in Parliaments and Courts: The Two Other Voices

Felix Lange (Universität zu Köln - Law) has published Treaties in Parliaments and Courts: The Two Other Voices (Edward Elgar Publishing 2024). This is the latest volume in the Elgar International Law Series. Here's the abstract:

Highlighting the close relationship between foreign relations law and international law, this impressive book places parliament and domestic courts’ engagement with treaties at the heart of its inquiry. It presents a timely assessment of the impact that different rules of constitutional law have on parliamentary and judicial approaches to treaties in four different states (Germany, India, South Africa and the US), thereby incorporating valuable comparative dimensions.

With intellectual rigour, Felix Lange demonstrates how diverse conceptions of foreign relations law affect whether parliaments act as promoters, shapers or translators of human rights treaties, the Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court, and climate change treaties. Lange not only analyses the ways in which domestic courts rely on treaties through consistent interpretation and direct application, but also how they may dismiss treaty provisions as non-self-executing or employ the concept of non-justiciability in matters of foreign affairs. Ultimately, Lange embraces the view that parliaments and courts are being increasingly heard and suggests that their voices should become even louder.