New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 47, no. 1, February 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Simon Greathead & Timothy McKeon, Liberating Human Rights from Group Narcissism
• Colin Luoma, Strengthening the Rights to Culture and Mental Health in the Face of Environmental Violence
• Nora Salem, Awakening of Inter-State Communications Mechanism Before the CERD & Its Potential to Enhance the Justiciability of Racial Discrimination
• Dustin N. Sharp, Comparative Frameworks for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Psychedelics
• Mengia Tschalär, Alexandra Xanthaki, & Ermioni Xanthopoulou, Human Rights Risks of Migration Flow Predictions and Policy Implications Within the EU
• Ben T C Warwick, Concepts of Non-Retrogression in Economic and Social Rights

Event: Gendered Peace through International Law

On February 19, 2025, International Law at Westminster will host a talk with Louise Arimatsu and Christine Chinkin about their book Gendered Peace through International Law. Details are here.

Sellars: A ‘Constitution for the Oceans': The Long Hard Road to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea

Kirsten Sellars has published A ‘Constitution for the Oceans': The Long Hard Road to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, signed in 1982, was the culmination of half a century of legal endeavour. Earlier attempts to create a treaty regime governing the ocean — at League of Nations and United Nations conferences in 1930, 1958 and 1960 — had all failed to settle the breadth of the territorial sea, and in two cases failed to settle anything at all. During the negotiations, legal concepts were formulated and reformulated: straight baselines inspired archipelagic baselines; fishing conservation zones became exclusive economic zones; innocent passage through straits metamorphosed into transit passage through straits; and the seabed common heritage was replaced by the parallel system of seabed exploitation. Many of the issues that animated the delegates during the negotiations — ocean pollution, over-fishing, naval mobility, continental shelf claims and the impact of seabed mining — continue to exercise policymakers and lawyers to this day.

Wu, Lin, & Liu: Economic Cooperation in the Shadow of Contested Sovereignty

Chien-Huei Wu (Academia Sinica), Ching-Fu Lin (National Tsing Hua Univ​.), & Han-Wei Liu (Singapore Management Univ.) have published Economic Cooperation in the Shadow of Contested Sovereignty (Hart Publishing 2025). Here's the abstract:

This open access book is the first of its kind to address a question of both theoretical and practical significance: how do countries or entities approach economic cooperation in the face of vexing political concerns and overlapping sovereignty claims?

Built upon three contemporary case studies on North-South Korea, China-Taiwan, and North-South Cyprus – representative pairs of 'divided nations', broadly defined – the book explores from both an empirical and a conceptual perspective the underlying factors, approaches and patterns that influence the economic relationship between the two sides.

The book examines complex dynamics and identifies critical factors across the case studies, making a timely contribution to debates surrounding sovereignty, democracy and legitimacy in the context of international economic laws given the shifting geopolitical landscape. It further informs countries that do not share the same features of divided nations but nonetheless experience diplomatic crises or military conflicts, which render their economic cooperation sensitive and strenuous.

New Issue: International Theory

The latest issue of International Theory (Vol. 17, no. 1, March 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Sinja Graf, Law, time, and (in)justice after empire: Germany's objection to colonial reparations and the chronopolitics of deflection
• Zeger Verleye, Failing the state self: on the politics of state shame
• Liam Moore, Contesting clusters: a study of norm weaving in Pacific climate mobilities policies
• Valentin Clavé-Mercier, Indigenous political theory, metaphysical revolt, and the decolonial rearticulation of political ordering
• C. Nicolai L. Gellwitzki, The positions of ontological (in)security in international relations: object relations, unconscious phantasies, and anxiety management

Calls for Papers: IG Workshops – 2025 ESIL Annual Conference

In the context of the 2025 ESIL Annual Conference in Berlin, some ESIL Interest Groups are inviting submissions for their pre-conference workshops. The calls currently open include:

• IG on International Courts and Tribunals: Reconstructing the Advisory Function of International Courts and Tribunals? (deadline: March 28, 2025)
• IG on International Criminal Justice: Reconstructing International Criminal Justice as It Unfolds (deadline: April 1, 2025)
• IG on Feminism and International Law: Feminist Visions for Reconstructing International Law (deadline: April 15, 2025)

Call for Papers: 4th Young Sustainability Law Conference (Early Career Researchers)

A call for papers has been issued for the 4th Young Sustainability Law Conference, which will take place June 19–21, 2025, in Hamburg. The call is here.

New Issue: American Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the American Journal of International Law (Vol. 119, no. 1, January 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Michele Krech, Gender Equality in World Athletics: Transnational Norm Development by Private International Organizations
• Cameron Miles, Implied Terms In Treaties
• Current Develoopments
• Charles Chernor Jalloh, The International Law Commission's Seventy-Fifth (2024) Session: Immunity of State Officials from Foreign Criminal Jurisdiction and Other Topics
• International Decisions
• Ole W. Pedersen, Disruption, Special Climate Considerations, and Striking the Balance
• Buhm-Suk Baek & Hosung Ahn, 2020Hun-Ma389, 2021Hun-Ma1264, 2022Hun-Ma854, 2023Hun-Ma846 (Consolidated)
• Aman Kumar, M.K. Ranjitsinh and Others v. Union of India and Others. 2024 INSC 280
• Benoit Mayer, Request for an Advisory Opinion submitted by the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law
• Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
• The United States, the European Union, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom Take Measures Against Iran for Transferring Ballistic Missiles to Russia
• The United States Takes Actions to Secure Supply Chains for Critical Minerals
• AUKUS States Advance Their Partnership with the Signing of a Naval Nuclear Propulsion Cooperation Agreement and the Easing of Export Controls on Defense-Related Trade
• Recent Books on International Law
• Karen J. Alter, U.S. Export Controls Across Time: Knowledge, Technology, and China
• Mariana Mota Prado, reviewing The Oxford Handbook of International Law and Development, edited by Ruth Buchanan, Luis Eslava, and Sundhya Pahuja
• Rangita de Silva de Alwis, reviewing Women's Property Rights Under CEDAW, by José E. Alvarez and Judith Bauder
• Obiora Chinedu Okafor, reviewing Completing Humanity: The International Law of Decolonization, 1960–82, by Umut Özsu
• Ingrid Brunk, reviewing The Rebirth of Territory, by Gail Lythgoe

New Issue: Journal of International Economic Law

The latest issue of the Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 27, no. 4, December 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Special Feature: Remaking Global Tax Governance
• Tsilly Dagan & Alice Pirlot, Global tax governance: taking stock of the past and looking forward
• John Vella, What is wrong with the international business tax system?
• Yariv Brauner, The elusive reform of international tax dispute settlement
• Philip Baker, Using multilateral instruments to preserve a bilateral system
• Miranda Stewart, International institutions in global tax governance
• Afton Titus, The role of the United Nations in ensuring equitable tax policies for developing countries
• Luís Eduardo Schoueri & Pedro Guilherme Lindenberg Schoueri, Rethinking taxing rights
• Ivan Ozai, Global justice in the reshaping of international tax
• Special Feature: Remaking the Trading System
• Joel Trachtman, Jan Yves Remy, & Daniel C Esty, Remaking trade for a sustainable future
• James Bacchus, Sustainability and the WTO trading system
• Maureen Hinman & Sarah V Stewart, First, ‘things’ first: prioritizing environmental goods tariff reductions at the WTO
• Carmel Cahill, Reforming and repurposing agricultural subsidies to facilitate trade and sustainability
• Mustaqeem De Gama, Fisheries subsidies, the WTO, and sustainability
• Sonia E Rolland, Supporting trade negotiations with sustainable development impact assessments
• Colette van der Ven, Overcoming the circularity divide: accelerating a circular apparel transition in Africa through trade
• Irfan Nooruddin & Nita Rudra, From enthusiasm to apathy: dwindling support for globalization among future generationss
• Articles
• Marta Soprana, Compatibility of emerging AI regulation with GATS and TBT: the EU Artificial Intelligence Act
• James Harrison & Sophia Paulini, Reinventing trade, environment and development interlinkages: lessons from the EU–Mercosur Association Agreement
• Nicolette Butler & Jasem Tarawneh, The trade and environment nexus: proposing a broad universal definition of environmental services