New Issue: The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals

The latest issue of The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (Vol. 24, no. 2, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Niccolò Lanzoni, The International Judicial Function and How We Think About It: Non Liquet, Revisited
• Zhifeng Jiang, Negotiation as a Precondition for Seizing the International Court of Justice
• Antoine De Spiegeleir, Consecutive Provisional Measures Requests at the World Court: More of the Same?
• Bruno Simma, When “Community Interest” Intervenes: Article 62 of the ICJ Statute Facing Obligations erga omnes (partes)
• Nasim Zargarinejad, Shadowing Adversarial Proceedings? The ICJ’s Lesser-Known Discretion in Advisory Procedure
• Miłosz Gapsa, Clarifying the Unclear: Requests for Modification, Revocation, and New Provisional Measures

Nakajima & Kato: The Governing Law of Unlawfully Issued Sovereign Debt

Kei Nakajima (Univ. of Tokyo - Law) & Shiho Kato (Univ. of Tokyo - Law) have published The Governing Law of Unlawfully Issued Sovereign Debt (Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business, Vol. 46, no. 1, p. 39, 2026). Here's the abstract:

In October 2019, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), a Venezuelan state owned oil and natural gas company, filed a complaint against the trustee and the collateral agent of PDVSA’s bondholders, alleging that certain bonds due in 2020 issued in exchange for the defaulted bonds due in 2017 are null and void ab initio. The main cause of action was that the 2020 bonds had been issued in violation of the provisions of the Venezuelan Constitution. This contention was advanced notwithstanding that the 2020 bonds provide that “all matters arising out of or relating in any whatsoever” to the instruments shall be governed by the law of New York. At the same time, New York’s conflict-of-laws statute contains a rule providing that “[t]he local law of the issuer’s jurisdiction … governs … the validity of a security,” which was discovered and invoked by the (sub-)sovereign debtor as a relatively uncommon ground for the repudiation of its external debt. The federal district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ contention by adopting a narrow reading of the term “validity” within the meaning of New York’s conflict of-laws rule, whereas the Court of Appeals of New York State showed an opposite but nuanced interpretation by concluding that Venezuelan law does govern the validity of the PDVSA’s bonds, but with the repeated caveats that the consequences of eventual invalidity remain to be governed by New York law. The present article examines the governing law of sovereign debt issued allegedly in contravention of the sovereign debtor’s constitutional and budgetary constraints, with special reference to the case brought by PDVSA before New York courts. It aims to identify the role of private international law as a device for global governance by which the application of a sovereign’s budgetary disciplines is ensured to serve the public policy objectives of sovereign debt sustainability.

Subedi: Interlinkages between human rights, climate action and due diligence obligations of states: Potential impact on business organizations

Surya P. Subedi (Univ. of Leeds - Law) has published Interlinkages between human rights, climate action and due diligence obligations of states: Potential impact on business organizations (Environmental Policy and Law, Vol. 55, no. 6, 2025). Here's the abstract:

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its landmark Advisory Opinion of 23 July 2025, has established a clear connection between human rights, climate action and due diligence obligations of States under treaty and customary international law. The Court appears to have elevated the concept of due diligence from a relatively soft principle to a powerful standard, against which to assess compliance of international obligations by states. In their turn, States are likely to pass on these obligations to business organisations too through various human rights and environmental due diligence schemes. There are various reporting requirements of the European Union for business organisations through several schemes that already point to a move in this direction. Thus, the impact of this ICJ Advisory Opinion is not limited to States per se. It has the potential to require business organisations to adhere to an international human rights and environmental due diligence standard, against which their own policies and practices can be evaluated. The paper seeks to examine this perspective.

Burgers, Kooijman, Pantazopoulos, & Paulussen: Ecocide: Criminalising Serious Harm against the Environment

Laura Burgers (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law), Merle Kooijman (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law), Stavros Evdokimos Pantazopoulos (National and Kapodistrian Univ. of Athens – Law), & Christophe Paulussen (T.M.C. Asser Institute) have published Ecocide: Criminalising Serious Harm against the Environment (Asser Press 2026). Here’s the abstract:

Ecocide: Criminalising Serious Harm against the Environment explores the concept of ecocide and critically assesses how the criminalisation of serious harm against the environment fits within international criminal law broadly construed. It aims to assist in fleshing out crucial parameters in the lead-up to the potential inclusion of the fifth core international crime in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as in relation to efforts to criminalise ecocide at the national level, both of which have gained unprecedented momentum in recent times.

To this end, the volume’s chapters address four key questions: what constitutes ecocide, how can it be prosecuted, where should it be prosecuted, and who are its perpetrators and victims? In addition to more practice-focused chapters, including case studies on the Netherlands and Ukraine, the book analyses and challenges fundamental conceptual issues, including the binary opposition between ‘anthropocentrism’ and ‘ecocentrism’ in the ecocide discourse. The reader is confronted with and forced to reflect on intriguing questions such as: is it fair to only prosecute representatives of large business corporations and state officials, while letting consumers of polluting products off the hook? And does the legal framework of the ICC allow for the recognition of nonhumans, such as the environment, as victims of ecocide?

New Issue: Swiss Review of International and European Law

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

• Robert Kolb, L’interdiction de livraison « indirecte » d’armes à un belligérant par un Etat neutre
• Denise Wohlwend, Beyond Territory – Jurisdictional and Legitimacy Reflections on the EU CSRD and CSDDD

New Issue: Yale Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Yale Journal of International Law (Vol. 51, no. 1, 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Eliav Lieblich, The Death and Life of the Prohibition on Forcible Reprisals
• Monica Hakimi, Thinking Constructively About International Law
• Abadir M. Ibrahim & Angela Hefti, Contributions of the African Human Rights System to International Climate 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. 63, no. 2, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Joop Voetelink, Export control and international law
• Liron A. Libman & Amichai Cohen, Why do we enforce the law against IHL violations? Reason-giving in Israeli court-martial judgments
• Winthrop Wells, Military information as evidence of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s crimes
• Maxime Nijs, The invisible battlefield: applying the rules of international humanitarian law on the conduct of hostilities to jamming and spoofing operations

New Issue: Review of International Organizations

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 21, no. 1, March 2026) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Domestic politics and international organizations
• T. Renee Bowen, J. Lawrence Broz, & Christina J. Schneider, Domestic politics and international organizations
• Tom Hunter & Stefanie Walter, International organizations in national parliamentary debates
• Bernd Schlipphak, Constantin Schäfer, & Oliver Treib, Cosmopolitan identity, authority, and domestic support of international organizations
• Haillie Na-Kyung Lee & Jong Hyun Lee, Why settle?: Partisan-based explanation of investor-state dispute outcomes
• Jennifer L. Tobin, Beyond investment flows: How perceptions of property rights drive the impact of IIAs
• Michael-David Mangini, How effective is trade conditionality? Economic coercion in the Generalized System of Preferences
• Rachel J. Schoner, Naming and shaming in UN treaty bodies: Individual petitions’ effect on human rights
• Arianna Bondi, Leonardo Baccini, Matteo Fiorini, Bernard Hoekman, Carlo Altomonte & Italo Colantone , Global value chains and the design of trade agreements

Call for Papers: The Future of International Peace and Security: Conceptualizing the Securitization of Climate Change

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "The Future of International Peace and Security: Conceptualizing the Securitization of Climate Change," to take place October 19, 2026, at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. The call is here. The deadline is April 20, 2026.

Takata: Pluralising Actors and Norms in Human Rights Treaties: Beyond Monolithic States

Hinako Takata (Osaka Univ. - Graduate School of International Public Policy) has published Pluralising Actors and Norms in Human Rights Treaties: Beyond Monolithic States (Hart Publishing 2026). Here's the abstract:

This book radically reforms the classical paradigm of international law.

It proposes a novel theoretical framework of the 'separation of powers in a globalised democratic society', where both actors and norms are pluralised beyond a unitary and monolithic 'state' and international law as norms of, by, and for 'states'.

The book applies this framework to holistically examine the interactions between human rights treaty organs – the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the UN Human Rights Committee – and state organs, including parliaments, courts, administrative organs, and national human rights institutions. The book provides an innovative, original contribution to both the theory and practice of international human rights law.

Vasiliev & Blokker: Governance of International Courts and Tribunals: Institutions, Practices, and Norms

Sergey Vasiliev (Open Univ. of the Netherlands - Law) & Niels Blokker (Leiden Univ. - Law) have published Governance of International Courts and Tribunals: Institutions, Practices, and Norms (Oxford Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

Governance of International Courts and Tribunals presents the first systematic examination of the institutions, practices, and norms that constitute international judicial governance—the oversight exercised by states and international organisations over international courts and tribunals to ensure their independent, accountable, and effective functioning.

Departing from the traditional focus on courts' mandates, jurisprudence, and procedures, the book turns attention to international judicial governance institutions (what the book terms 'injugovins')—the political and executive bodies, such as organs of international organisations or dedicated governance bodies, responsible for overseeing courts. It explores their practices and the normative frameworks that guide them.

Injugovins are revealed as crucial yet long-overlooked actors in the international adjudicative landscape. Their performance shapes the entire life cycle of courts—from the adoption of constituent instruments to budgeting, appointments, accountability mechanisms, institutional reform, enforcement, and closure. Many of the challenges faced by courts, including legitimacy crises, limited effectiveness, and political backlash, often stem from, or are worsened by, governance shortcomings.

Addressing a long-standing gap in the literature, the volume develops a shared vocabulary and conceptual framework for understanding international judicial governance as a distinct domain of international institutional law and practice. Comprising 24 contributions, it combines conceptual analysis, regime-specific studies, and cross-cutting functional perspectives. It maps historical and contemporary governance models—including those of the PCIJ, ICJ, CJEU, ICC, and African regional courts—and examines key functions such as judicial elections, financial oversight, and enforcement. With empirical depth and analytical clarity, this volume lays the foundations for future research on the legitimacy, oversight, and effectiveness of international courts.

Conference: 33rd Annual ANZSIL Conference

On July 1-3, 2026, the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law will hold its 33rd Annual Conference at the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law. The theme is: "Navigating Stormy Seas: People, Place and Perspectives in International Law." Details are here.