Manacorda & Nieto: El Derecho penal entre la guerra y la paz

Stefano Manacorda (Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli - Law) & Adán Nieto (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha - Law) have published El Derecho penal entre la guerra y la paz (Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha 2009). Here's the abstract:

If subjecting war to law is one of the most important le­gal achievements of the 20th century, progressing further in that direction is one of the most important challenges for the 21st century. The problems it poses are many: the term “war” has formally fallen into disuse and we talk about “peacekeeping”; armies are today the product of coopera­tion between states and international organizations; private contractors increasingly participate in warlike activities, as the case of the Iraq war demonstrates; and the lines between war and very serious forms of crime (terrorism, organized crime) are increasingly blurred. This volume compiles the contributions presented at XVth International Congress on Social Defence and tackles the criminal-legal issues raised by these new scenarios. It constitutes an innovative volume, gathering together the work of both academic and military authors, who have drawn on their theoretical and practical experience.

Krisch: The Case for Pluralism in Postnational Law

Nico Krisch (Hertie School of Governance) has posted The Case for Pluralism in Postnational Law. Here's the abstract:

As the divide between domestic and international law becomes blurred, paradigms for the structure of the new, postnational legal order remain elusive, on both the analytical and the normative plane. In this paper, I inquire into the normative status of two main candidates, constitutionalism and pluralism. The constitutionalist ideal of a coherent, hierarchically structured order in a framework defined by law is often seen as an attractive goal also for postnational politics, but on closer look it turns out to face similar problems as in domestic divided societies, especially with respect to power, integration and the rule of law. Pluralism, on the other hand, is often regarded as better suited to conditions of radical diversity as they prevail in the postnational realm. The openness of legal relations between different parts of a political order is seen to foster greater adaptability, responsiveness to contestation and an ability to steer a path between competing (and equally deficient) supremacy claims. Yet while these are important virtues, I argue that a defence of a pluralist postnational law has to find its starting point elsewhere: in the public autonomy of citizens in the definition of their legal and political framework. Such an approach shifts the focus to social attitudes and identities, to the multiplicity of loyalties and allegiances characteristic of the global polity. These do indeed appear to be better reflected in a pluralist than in a constitutionalist order.

de Guttry, Post, & Venturini: The 1998–2000 War Between Eritrea and Ethiopia: An International Legal Perspective

Andrea de Guttry (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa), Harry Post (Università degli Studi di Modena), & Gabriella Venturini (Università degli Studi di Milano) have published The 1998–2000 War Between Eritrea and Ethiopia: An International Legal Perspective (T.M.C. Asser Press 2009). Here's the abstract:

The war that raged between Eritrea and Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000 has caused great loss of life and tremendous devastation. This book analyses from an international legal perspective the nature and the state of the boundary conflict preceding the actual armed conflict, the military actions themselves as well as developments in the aftermath of the military activities, like the role of the UN peace-keeping deployment and the responsibility for the multitude of explosive remnants of the war. The authors address the complex issues of responsibility for the use of force, violations of humanitarian law and ‘borderline’ issues regarding situations where the law of armed conflict and the (successive) law of peace meet. Ample attention is paid to the decisions of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission and the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.

Contents include:

• Fausto Pocar, Introductory remarks
• Gian Paolo Calchi Novati, The lines of tension in the Horn and the Ethiopia-Eritrea case
• Bahru Zewde, The historical background of the 1998–2000 war: Some salient points
• Uoldelul Chelati Dirar, Rivalry, antagonism and war in the nation- and state-building process: The H factor in the relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia
• Edoardo Greppi, The Algiers agreements between Eritrea and Ethiopia of June 18 and December 12, 2000
• Andreas De Guttry, The UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE)
• Olivier Ribbelink, Some observations on the nature, practice and future of UNMEE
• Federica Guazzini, The Eritrean-Ethiopian boundary conflict: The physical border and the human border
• Jon Abbink, Law against reality? Contextualizing the Ethiopian-Eritrean border problem
• Christopher Clapham, Indigenous statehood and international law in Ethiopia and Eritrea
• Kaiyan Kaikobad, The Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission: A legal analysis of the boundary delimitation decision of 13 April 2002 and relevant subsequent decisions
• Romesh Weeramantry, International law as to the use of force
• Ige Dekker & Wouter Werner, The crime of aggression and the Eritrea-Ethiopia war
• Paul Tavernier, Criminal responsibility and the crime of aggression: Some observations
• Christian Ponti, The Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission on the threat or the use of force and on self-defence
• Gabriella Venturini, International law and the conduct of military operations
• Silvia Sanna, International humanitarian law and the treatment of protected persons
• Marco Sassòli, Comments on the approach of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission towards the treatment of protected persons in international humanitarian law
• Andrea Gioia, The belligerent occupation of territory
• Terry D. Gill, The distinction between invasion and occupation of disputed territory
• Wolff Heintschel Von Heinegg, International economic relations and armed conflict
• Michael Bothe, The protection of property rights in times of armed conflict
• Emanuele Sommario, State responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law in the work of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission
• Luisa Castagnetti, The claims on behalf of individuals before the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission
• Erik Koppe, Compensation for war damages
• Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Some remarks on compensation for war damages
• Michael Addo, The role of intergovernmental agencies in the management of human rights risk
• Harry Post, Explosive remnants of war

Workshop: Stoler

Andrew Stoler (Institute for International Trade; formerly Deputy Director-General, WTO) will give a talk today at the Sydney Centre for International Law on "Are the WTO Negotiations Leading Nowhere?"

Van Damme: Treaty Interpretation by the WTO Appellate Body

Isabelle Van Damme (Sidley Austin LLP) has published Treaty Interpretation by the WTO Appellate Body (Oxford Univ. Press 2009). Here's the abstract:

This book analyzes how the Appellate Body uses particular principles of general international law in interpreting the WTO covered agreements. It deals equally with general international law and WTO law. The aim is to explain how the Appellate Body interprets and applies customary international law on treaty interpretation in dealing with the WTO covered agreements. The main concern is to analyze the judicial reasoning and ways of justifying judicial decision-making. In particular, it answers the question of how the Appellate Body explains its reading of WTO treaty language.

It is argued that the Appellate Body has interpreted the WTO covered agreements in a contextual and effective manner, an approach that corresponds with general international law. The character of the WTO covered agreements has, nevertheless, confronted the Appellate Body with some questions of interpretation that were until recently unexplored or neglected by other courts and tribunals. In that sense, the Appellate Body has contributed to the development of general international law on treaty interpretation, or at least to its practice.

Schropp: Trade Policy Flexibility and Enforcement in the WTO

Simon A.B. Schropp (Sidley Austin LLP) has published Trade Policy Flexibility and Enforcement in the WTO: A Law and Economics Analysis (Cambridge Univ. Press 2009). Here's the abstract:

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an incomplete contract among sovereign countries. Trade policy flexibility mechanisms are designed to deal with contractual gaps, which are the inevitable consequence of this contractual incompleteness. Trade policy flexibility mechanisms are backed up by enforcement instruments which allow for punishment of illegal extra-contractual conduct. This book offers a legal and economic analysis of contractual escape and punishment in the WTO. It assesses the interrelation between contractual incompleteness, trade policy flexibility mechanisms, contract enforcement, and WTO Members' willingness to co-operate and to commit to trade liberalization. It contributes to the body of WTO scholarship by providing a systematic assessment of the weaknesses of the current regime of escape and punishment in the WTO, and the systemic implications that these weaknesses have for the international trading system, before offering a reform agenda that is concrete, politically realistic, and systemically viable.

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 9, no. 3, 2009) is out. Contents include:

• Charles Chernor Jalloh, Regionalizing International Criminal Law?
• Geert-Jan Alexander Knoops, The Duality of the Proportionality Principle within Asymmetric Warfare and Ensuing Superior Criminal Responsibilities
• Manuela Melandri, The Relationship between State Sovereignty and the Enforcement of International Criminal Law under the Rome Statute (1998): A Complex Interplay
• Ignaz Stegmiller, The Gravity Threshold under the ICC Statute: Gravity Back and Forth in Lubanga and Ntaganda
• Noelle Higgins & Kieran O'Reilly, The Use of Force, Wars of National Liberation and the Right to Self-Determination in the South Ossetian Conflict

New Issue: International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law (Vol. 24, no. 3, 2009) is out. Contents include:

• Clive R. Symmons, The Maritime Border Areas of Ireland, North and South: An Assessment of Present Jurisdictional Ambiguities and International Precedents Relating to Delimitation of 'Border Bays'
• Sophia Kopela, 2007 Archipelagic Legislation of the Dominican Republic: An Assessment
• Alex G. Oude Elferink, The Establishment of Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf Beyond 200 Nautical Miles by the Coastal State: The Possibilities of Other States to Have an Impact on the Process
• Transform Aqorau, Recent Developments in Pacific Tuna Fisheries: The Palau Arrangement and the Vessel Day Scheme

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 31, no. 3, August 2009) is out. Contents include:

• Simon Wigley, Parliamentary Immunity in Democratizing Countries: The Case of Turkey
• David Mendeloff, Trauma and Vengeance: Assessing the Psychological and Emotional Effects of Post-Conflict Justice
• Payam Akhavan, Are International Criminal Tribunals a Disincentive to Peace?: Reconciling Judicial Romanticism with Political Realism
• Victor Peskin, Caution and Confrontation in the International Criminal Court’s Pursuit of Accountability in Uganda and Sudan
• Elena Blanco & Jona Razzaque, Ecosystem Services and Human Well-Being in a Globalized World: Assessing the Role of Law
• Terence Roehrig, Executive Leadership and the Continuing Quest for Justice in Argentina
• Saul Takahashi, Drug Control, Human Rights, and the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health: By No Means Straightforward Issues
• Tobias Kelly, The UN Committee Against Torture: Human Rights Monitoring and the Legal Recognition of Cruelty
  

Schreuer, et al.: The ICSID Convention: A Commentary (Second Edition)

Christoph H. Schreuer (Universität Wien - Law), with Loretta Malintoppi (Eversheds LLP), August Reinisch (Universität Wien- Law), & Anthony Sinclair (Allen & Overy LLP), have published the second edition of The ICSID Convention: A Commentary (Cambridge Univ. Press 2009). Here's the abstract:

This unique compendium offers an article-by-article commentary to the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States. Providing a comprehensive explanation of the functioning of this important mechanism for the settlement of investor–host State disputes, it incorporates the preparatory work, the Convention’s text, various rules and regulations adopted under the Convention, the practice of arbitral tribunals under the Convention and academic writings on the subject. The first edition of this work has been relied upon by numerous arbitral tribunals. This second edition follows the same system and approach, but extensive updates reflect the vast increase in arbitral practice since the publication of the first edition. A number of novel issues that have emerged through this practice are now addressed, making this practice-oriented guide an indispensable tool for anyone dealing with the ICSID Convention.

Schokkaert & Heckscher: International Investments Protection

Jan Schokkaert & Yvon Heckscher have published International Investments Protection: Comparative Law Analysis of Bilateral and Multilateral Interstate Conventions, Doctrinal Texts and Arbitral Jurisprudence Concerning Foreign Investments (Bruylant 2009). Here's the abstract:

An efficient system of investment protection, either through legislation or through Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT’s), is indispensable.

Expeditiously resolving litigation relating to investments through arbitration, and, in particular, through institutional arbitration (ICC, ICSID) has become a frequent and worldwide practice. This alternative sidetracks the filing, in national and international tribunals, of lawsuits thatmay otherwise take years to be heard.

The objective of this book’s authors is to suggestmeans, to Contracting States and international investors alike, to improve current media of protection of investments made on foreign soil. Their suggestions are intended to facilitate the drafting of Treaty and State Contract texts better adapted to rapidly evolving international arbitration.

Rötting: Das verfassungsrechtliche Beitrittsverfahren zur Europäischen Union

Michael Rötting has published Das verfassungsrechtliche Beitrittsverfahren zur Europäischen Union und seine Auswirkungen am Beispiel der Gotovina-Affäre im kroatischen Beitrittsverfahren (Springer 2009). An English-language summary is here. Here's the abstract:

Die Europäische Union wird in wenigen Jahren einen neuen Erweiterungsschub durch Länder auf dem Westbalkan und in Südosteuropa erleben, denen bereits eine konkrete Beitrittsperspektive eingeräumt wurde. Die vorliegende Arbeit analysiert vor diesem Hintergrund das Beitrittsverfahren, das Bewerberländer beschreiten müssen. Sie führt den Nachweis, dass dieses Verfahren mittlerweile in einer Weise verrechtlicht ist, die dem Charakter der Union als Rechtsgemeinschaft entspricht. Das zur Anwendung kommende Recht ist im Wesentlichen in der Unionsverfassung verankert und determiniert die Ermessensentscheidung des Rates bei der Aufnahme neuer Mitglieder.

Conference: FDI, the Global Crisis and Sustainable Recovery

The Fourth Columbia International Investment Conference will take place November 5-6, 2009. The topic is "FDI, the Global Crisis and Sustainable Recovery." The program is here. Here's the idea:

The global economic crisis has already had a tremendous effect in reducing FDI flows, and they are likely to continue to decline in 2009. At the same time, the deepening recession has made the need for such investment, and especially investments that will contribute to a sustainable recovery, ever more important. The financial crisis and recession therefore requires us to take stock of the changing trends in FDI and to discuss policy implications of encouraging FDI so that it may contribute to a robust and sustainable recovery.

The Fourth Columbia International Investment Conference will address how the crisis is affecting FDI (including the impact on flows, new players, changing patters of energy sector FDI), the changing business environment for FDI (including the effect of the crisis on social conditions, CSR and resource nationalism), and public policy opportunities for a sustainable recovery (including public-private partnerships, a global bankruptcy law and a sustainable investment regime).

New Issue: Ocean Development & International Law

The latest issue of Ocean Development & International Law (Vol. 40, no. 3, 2009) is out. Contents include:

• Dikdik Mohamad Sodik, IUU Fishing and Indonesia's Legal Framework for Vessel Registration and Fishing Vessel Licensing
• Brian Wilson & James Kraska, American Security and Law of the Sea
• Gao Jianjun, A Note on the 2008 Cooperation Consensus Between China and Japan in the East China Sea

New Issue: Journal of Conflict & Security Law

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict & Security Law (Vol. 14, no. 1, Spring 2009) is out. Contents include:

• Rebecca Barber, The Responsibility to Protect the Survivors of Natural Disaster: Cyclone Nargis, a Case Study
• Symposium on Darfur
• Dawn Sedman, Darfur Symposium: An Introduction
• Zeray Yihdego, Darfur and Humanitarian Law: The Protection of Civilians and Civilian Objects
• Sarah Williams & Lena Sherif , The Arrest Warrant for President al-Bashir: Immunities of Incumbent Heads of State and the International Criminal Court
• Robert P. Barnidge, Jr., The United Nations and the African Union: Assessing a Partnership for Peace in Darfur
• Shaheen Sardar Ali, Resurrecting Siyar through Fatwas? (Re) Constructing ‘Islamic International Law’ in a Post–(Iraq) Invasion World
• David Jenkins, Efficiency and Accountability in War Powers Reform

New Issue: Melbourne Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Melbourne Journal of International Law (Vol. 10, no. 1, May 2009) is out. Contents include:

• Feature: Reflections on a Decade of International Law
• Fleur Johns, International Legal Theory: Snapshots from a Decade of International Legal Life
• Dianne Otto, The Exile of Inclusion: Reflections on Gender Issues in International Law over the Last Decade
• Alexandra Xanthaki, Indigenous Rights in International Law over the Last 10 Years and Future Developments
• Mark Drumbl, International Criminal Law: Taking Stock of a Busy Decade
• Martin Davies, Reflections on the Past Decade of Transnational Litigation
• Bryan Mercurio, Reflections on the World Trade Organization and the Prospects for Its Future
• Brendan Sweeney, International Competition Law and Policy: A Work in Progress
• Jolene Lin & Charlotte Streck, Mobilising Finance for Climate Change Mitigation: Private Sector Involvement in International Carbon Finance Mechanisms
• Cameron Sim, Non-Justiciability in Australian Private International Law: A Lack of 'Judicial Restraint'?
• Lisa Spagnolo, The Last Outpost: Automatic CISG Opt Outs, Misapplications and the Costs of Ignoring the Vienna Sales Convention for Australian Lawyers
• Tim Wright, Negotiations for a Nuclear Weapons Convention: Distant Dream or Present Possibility?

al Attar & Tava: TWAIL Pedagogy - Legal Education for Emancipation

Mohsen al Attar (Univ. of Auckland - Law) & Vernon Ivan Tava (Univ. of Auckland - New Zealand Centre for Environmental Law) have posted TWAIL Pedagogy - Legal Education for Emancipation. Here's the abstract:

Earlier this year, Galal Nassar asserted that universities, once the “guardians of debate and intellectual freedom”, were quickly becoming places “where young people learn how to keep their mouths shut.” In this he is correct and though it might at first appear counter-intuitive, Western law schools have been leading the reformative charge. As Duncan Kennedy demonstrated nearly thirty years ago, law lecturers, for both self-serving and self-legitimating purposes, employ methods and foster teacher-student relationships that encourage fealty to ensconced equations of power. Legal education, Kennedy bemoaned, bequeaths not merely a qualification but also an ideology and a worldview, both of which buttress the preeminent standing of established hierarchies. This is particularly worrisome from a Third World perspective for some of the more insidious hierarchies that students subtly learn to accept exist between the First and Third worlds. Though explicit efforts to inculcate students with the racial rankings of the colonial era are uncommon, the facileness with which legal academics disregard this historical record relegates it to the bin of past injustice implicitly making it irrelevant to modern legal education. Not unlike with the teaching of municipal law where class stratification is presented as inevitable, First-Third world divisions acquire a similar innocuousness, a perception that does not lend itself to the questioning of the agent-subject relationship that persists between the two blocs in international lawmaking.

In this article then, we explicate, from conceptualization to practice, the theory behind and the use of an alternate pedagogy - derived from the work of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) scholars, of Paolo Freire, and of Ngugi wa Thiong’o - in the delivery of a course on international law in a mainstream Western law school. We argue that this approach has enabled students to familiarize themselves with critical legal theories, to experience a dialogic and democratic approach to teaching and learning, and to reflect on the place of justice in international law, a series of achievements unlikely within the conventional banking model. The authors do not claim to offer a definitive account on the teaching of international law. Emancipatory initiatives are neither exclusive nor exclusionary and we would not advocate the adoption of a single teaching method. Instead, what we put forward is both a theoretical and a practical examination of the application of a TWAIL-inspired approach to legal pedagogy. This pedagogy, we argue, is very effective in acquiring a nuanced understanding of international legal matters, developing a wide range of practical skills, and nurturing awareness of the harmful outcomes international law produces for the Third World. It is hoped, and only time will tell, that the understanding, skills, and awareness the students acquire will manifest outwardly into a deeper social consciousness and a meaningful desire to struggle for a just international legal order.

Ahl: Die Anwendung völkerrechtlicher Verträge in China

Björn Ahl has published Die Anwendung völkerrechtlicher Verträge in China (Springer 2009). An English-language summary is here. Here's the abstract:

Die Arbeit untersucht die Anwendung völkerrechtlicher Verträge in der Volksrepublik China. Es ist die erste grundlegende Studie dieser Art in einer westlichen Sprache. Bei der Analyse der innerstaatlichen Umsetzung völkervertragsrechtlicher Verpflichtungen findet das Recht der Welthandelsorganisation genauso Berücksichtigung wie die dem Menschenrechtsschutz dienenden Verträge. Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass der komplexe Mechanismus, der die innerstaatliche Anwendung von Völkervertragsrecht in China steuert, den Rechtsanwendungsorganen viele Möglichkeiten eröffnet, die Effektivität des innerstaatlichen Vollzugs völkerrechtlicher Verpflichtungen zu mindern.

al Attar & Miller: TWAIL Revisited - The Bolivarian Reconstruction of International Law

Mohsen al Attar (Univ. of Auckland - Law) & Rosalie Miller have posted TWAIL Revisited - The Bolivarian Reconstruction of International Law. Here's the abstract:

For decades, Third World legal scholars have challenged the existing international legal regime, seeking to undo the structural imbalances that permeate contemporary global society. The TWAIL Movement, or Third World Approaches to International Law, has consistently worked towards producing a credible critique of international law, with the aim of redressing multiple historical biases that pervade the global order. Scholars have contributed to this movement primarily by identifying the inherently injurious nature of its procedures and structures in respect to Third World states and their peoples. Yet, despite their best efforts, historical power imbalances persist in the international legal regime as does material deprivation among Third World societies. Part of this lack of success is due to the forceful counter-challenges waged by First World states, unmoved by Third World collective plight and unwilling to surrender First World political power. It also results from TWAIL scholars’ inability to articulate a cohesive counter-vision of world society that would allow all peoples to stand as equals. Finally, the triumph of such a grand legal (and social) reformative programme necessitates a veritable rebirth of international social relations, one that has, until now, been missing.

In this Article, and in slight opposition to distinguished TWAIL scholar Bhupinder Chimni, we argue that the ‘failure’ of this redressing to occur lay not with TWAIL scholars but with the withering of the popular will needed to propel the reformative project forward. We further demonstrate that, when juxtaposed alongside the Bolivarian Revolution, a unique South American treaty known as ALBA offers TWAIL scholars their first real opportunity to actualise their reformative aspirations. While it has previously been argued that Latin American international lawyers employ international law in a unique manner, the breadth and scope of ALBA is far more significant, both for the TWAIL movement and international law reformers in general. In the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas agreement (ALBA) we find a platform from which TWAIL might transcend its reactive nature and develop a proactive character. Building on a practical prototype that produced a participatory model of democracy and a progressive model of social relations, we argue that ALBA’s philosophy and substantive workings present the structure needed for the reinvention of international law along similarly equitable lines; from a formal regulatory regime to a substantive emancipatory paradigm, from a purely Eurocentric endeavour to one representative of the multitude of global society.

Tzanakopoulos: Special Tribunal for Lebanon: The First Orders by the Pre-Trial Judge

Antonios Tzanakopoulos (Univ of Oxford - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on Special Tribunal for Lebanon: The First Orders by the Pre-Trial Judge.

Sykes: The Questionable Case for Subsidies Regulation: A Comparative Perspective

Alan O. Sykes (Stanford Univ. - Law) has posted The Questionable Case for Subsidies Regulation: A Comparative Perspective. Here's the abstract:

“Subsidization” by member governments occurs in the U.S. Federal system, the WTO, and the European Union. These three legal systems have responded very differently to the issues raised by subsidies, from the largely laissez-faire approach of the United States to the elaborate “state aid” rules of the EU to the intricate but weakly enforced rules of the WTO. This paper examines the three approaches asking which, if any, makes the most sense. It argues that the detailed rules of the WTO and EU are largely indefensible from an economic perspective. They fail to identify subsidization in any meaningful sense, and lack the capacity to distinguish socially constructive subsidies from those that are “protectionist” or are otherwise objectionable. The problems are likely irremediable, hinting that a laissez-faire attitude toward subsidies may be the best option.

Dreyfuss: The Role of India, China, Brazil and Other Emerging Economies in Establishing Access Norms for Intellectual Property

Rochelle Dreyfuss (New York Univ. - Law) has posted The Role of India, China, Brazil and Other Emerging Economies in Establishing Access Norms for Intellectual Property and Intellectual Property Lawmaking. Here's the abstract:

This paper discusses the role that emerging economies could play in rendering intellectual property law and lawmaking more responsive to changing conditions. At present, neither the North nor the South is likely to challenge the accommodations made in the TRIPS Agreement. In the North, the politics of change is complex; the South largely lacks expertise. But emerging economies have the political will to improve access to the world’s intellectual output on behalf of their poorest citizens. At the same time, they have growing creative sectors and thick legal and political cultures, capable of striking new and imaginative balances between proprietary and access interests. Because the goals of these economies are best served by partnering with least-developed countries and members of civil society interested in IP issues, these nations also have an incentive to improve another type of access norms — norms of participation, fairness and transparency in international lawmaking. These nations are, in other words, in a unique position to contribute to the reforms that are the cornerstone of the global administrative law agenda.

Lavranos: On the Need to Regulate Competing Jurisdictions between International Courts and Tribunals

Nikos Lavranos (European University Institute - Law) has posted On the Need to Regulate Competing Jurisdictions between International Courts and Tribunals. Here's the abstract:

Competing jurisdiction is a relatively new but increasingly important phenomenon in international law. The ongoing proliferation of international courts and tribunals results in a multiplication of judgments and arbitral awards, which potentially conflict with each other. The case studies examined in this working paper illustrate the methods applied by various courts and tribunals to deal with competing jurisdictions. Since any formal hierarchy or coordination between the various international courts and tribunals is lacking, only soft law methods, such as the application of comity, in particular the Solange method, appears to be a useful tool to deal with the negative effects associated with competing jurisdictions.

Kalin & Kunzli: The Law of International Human Rights Protection

Walter Kalin (Univ. of Bern - Law) & Jorg Kunzli (Univ. of Bern - Law) have published The Law of International Human Rights Protection (Oxford Univ. Press 2009). Here's the abstract:

Human rights are invoked on many occasions. But are they more than lofty values and abstract principles?

In providing a concise but comprehensive overview of international human rights protection at the global and regional levels, this book offers an introduction to the ideas, conceptual underpinnings, and doctrine of international human rights law including the sources, legal nature, and scope of application of human rights obligations. The issues of implementation and enforceability at the domestic, regional, and universal level are explored, and the impact of the recently established Human Rights Council is assessed. The substantive guarantees covering economic, social, and cultural as well as civil and political rights based on the case law of UN treaty bodies and relevant regional courts are evaluated.

This book shows that human rights are real rights creating legal entitlements for those who are protected by them and imposing legal obligations on those bound by them. It explores the various mechanisms set up by the international community to monitor the implementation of human rights guarantees and to decide individual cases brought to the attention of human rights courts and quasi-judicial bodies at the international level. Its last part contains a detailed exploration of the meanings of human rights guarantees, such as the right to life, the prohibition of torture, non-discrimination, economic rights, and many others.

Sykes: Optimal Sanctions in the WTO: The Case for Decoupling (and the Uneasy Case for the Status Quo)

Alan O. Sykes (Stanford Univ. - Law) has posted Optimal Sanctions in the WTO: The Case for Decoupling (and the Uneasy Case for the Status Quo). Here's the abstract:

Various commentators have suggested that the current system of trade sanctions for violation of WTO obligations be replaced with financial compensation. The details of these proposals vary, but one option is to allow firms injured by violations to recover damages. This paper questions the wisdom of such proposals, and argues that the current system in which those injured by violations do not reap the benefit of sanctions – a “decoupled” sanctions regime in economic parlance – may well be superior for a number of reasons. The paper also reviews and refines the view of current WTO practice as an analogue to expectation damages in private contracts. The original version of this paper was prepared for the interdisciplinary workshop on The Calculation and Design of Trade Sanctions in WTO Dispute Resolution, at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, 2008. The revised version will appear in The Law, Economics and Politics of Retaliation in WTO Dispute Settlement, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.