Benvenisti: Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity: The Minimal Other-Regarding Obligations

Eyal Benvenisti (Tel Aviv Univ. - Law) has posted Sovereigns as Trustees of Humanity: The Minimal Other-Regarding Obligations. Here's the abstract:

This essay argues that sovereignty should be conceptualized as a trusteeship not only toward one’s own citizens but also toward humanity at large. Accordingly, sovereigns should be required to take into account other-regarding considerations when forming national policies that may have an effect beyond their national jurisdiction even absent specific treaty obligations. The essay suggests that the concept of sovereignty, crystallized at a time when distances were large and self-sufficiency was the aspiration must assume a new face in a densely-populated and deeply integrated world. The traditional view of sovereigns under both constitutional and international law regards them as Janus-faced: public toward their own citizens but private on the outside (vis-à-vis all others). This vision is informed by the assumption of a perfect fit between the sovereign and the affected stakeholders who are its citizens. This traditional view of sovereignty yields inefficient, inequitable and undemocratic consequences. After grounding the trustee sovereignty concept on three distinct bases – the sovereign’s power of exclusion, the idea of human rights and the right to democratic participation – the essay elaborates on the general implications of the theory. It identifies the minimal normative and procedural other-regarding obligations that arise out of this concept and suggests that these minimal obligations are already embedded in several doctrines of international law that delimit the rights of sovereigns. The trustee sovereignty concept can explain the evolution of these doctrines, and it can also inspire the rise of new specific obligations.

Cottier & Delimatsis: The Prospects of International Trade Regulation: From Fragmentation to Coherence

Thomas Cottier (Univ. of Bern - World Trade Institute) & Panagiotis Delimatsis (Universiteit van Tilburg - Law) have published The Prospects of International Trade Regulation: From Fragmentation to Coherence (Cambridge Univ. Press 2011). Contents include:

• Thomas Cottier, Panagiotis Delimatsis & Katja Gehne, The fragmentation versus coherence discourse in international law and its relevance for trade regulation
• Klaus Armingeon, Karolina Milewicz, Simone Peter & Anne Peters, The constitutionalisation of international trade law
• Yves Bonzon, Manfred Elsig, Marina Foltea, Thomas Messerli & Andreas Ziegler, Reflections on modes of decision-making in the WTO
• Richard Baldwin & Theresa Carpenter, Regionalism - moving from fragmentation towards coherence
• Philipp Aerni, Baris Karapinar & Christian Häberli, Reframing sustainable agriculture
• Thomas Cottier, Garba Malumfashi, Sofya Matteotti-Berkutova, Olga Nartova, Joëlle De Sépibus & Sadeq Z. Bigdeli, Energy in WTO law and policy
• Panagiotis Delimatsis, Nicolas Diebold, Martín Molinuevo, Marion Panizzon & Pierre Sauvé, Developing trade rules for services: a case of fragmented coherence?
• Susette Biber-Klemm, Michael Burkard, Thomas Cottier, Sufian Jusoh & Michelangelo Temmerman, Challenges of biotechnology in international trade regulation
• Barnali Choudhury, Katja Gehne, Simone Heri, Franziska Humbert, Christine Kaufmann & Krista Nadakavukaren Schefer, A call for a WTO ministerial decision on trade and human rights
• Mira Burri, Christoph Beat Graber & Thomas Steiner, The protection and promotion of cultural diversity in a digital networked environment - mapping possible advances to coherence
• Ernst Baltensperger & Nils Herger, Development and stability in the nexus between trade and finance
• Bertram Boie, Julien Chaisse & Philippe Gugler, International investment framework - the regulatory fragmentation challenge in a changing world economy
• Hannah Bargawi, Elva Bova, Benno Ferrarini & Susan Newman, Low-income countries and commodity price volatility

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 28, no. 2, April 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Bernard Hanotiau, International Arbitration in a Global Economy: The Challenges of the Future
• Lucy Greenwood, Does Bifurcation Really Promote Efficiency?
• Mauro Rubino Sammartano, Costs Awards in Arbitration
• José Rosell, Arbitration Costs as Relief and/or Damages
• Devika Khanna, Dallah: The Supreme Court’s Positively Pro-Arbitration “No” to Enforcement
• Nora Krausz, Waiver of Appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal: Recent Evolution of the Case Law and Compatibility with ECHR, Article 6
• Louise Reilly, Harmonisation of Irish Arbitration Law: Arbitration Act 2010

New Issue: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für internationales und europäisches Recht

The latest issue of the Schweizerische Zeitschrift für internationales und europäisches Recht (Vol. 20, no. 4, 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Aktuell
• Ursula Cassani, Les avoirs mal acquis, avant et après la chute du "potentat"
• Artikel
• Xavier-Baptiste Ruedin, Aliens' and Asylum Seekers' Detention under Article 5(1)(f) ECHR
• Hisashi Owada, International Terrorism and the Rule of Law

New Issue: International Journal of Transitional Justice

The latest issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (Vol. 5, no. 1, March 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Susan Thomson & Rosemary Nagy, Law, Power and Justice: What Legalism Fails to Address in the Functioning of Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts
• Anonymous, Against the Grain: Pursuing a Transitional Justice Agenda in Postwar Sri Lanka
• Victor Peskin & Mieczysław P. Boduszyński, Balancing International Justice in the Balkans: Surrogate Enforcers, Uncertain Transitions and the Road to Europe
• Simon Robins, Towards Victim-Centred Transitional Justice: Understanding the Needs of Families of the Disappeared in Postconflict Nepal
• Marcos Zunino, Releasing Transitional Justice from the Technical Asylum: Judicial Reform in Guatemala seen through Technē and Phronēsis
• Rebecca Saunders, Questionable Associations: The Role of Forgiveness in Transitional Justice
• Randle C. DeFalco, Accounting for Famine at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: The Crimes against Humanity of Extermination, Inhumane Acts and Persecution

Dubber: Common Civility: The Culture of Alegality in International Criminal Law

Markus D. Dubber (Univ. of Toronto - Law) has posted Common Civility: The Culture of Alegality in International Criminal Law. Here's the abstract:

Least ambitiously, this paper tries to capture the ethos of international criminal law. More ambitiously, it argues that international criminal law is, or can profitably be seen as, an ethos, rather than a body of law. In this telling, international criminal law, despite its name, emerges as an ethical-administrative enterprise rather than a legal one. If placed alongside global administrative law, international criminal law appears as alegal rather than illegal, as ignoring the principle of legality, say, rather than violating it, so that to criticize international criminal law for its illegality would be like faulting apples for not producing orange juice, and oranges for not making apple pie.

Conference: Fordham's Sixth Annual Conference on International Arbitration and Mediation

Fordham Law School will host its Sixth Annual Conference on International Arbitration and Mediation, June 14-15, 2011, in New York City. The program is here.

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 33, no. 2, May 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Bas de Gaay Fortman, Minority Rights: A Major Misconception?
• Olivier De Schutter, The Right of Everyone to Enjoy the Benefits of Scientific Progress and the Right to Food: From Conflict to Complementarity
• Lanse Minkler & Shawna Sweeney, On the Indivisibility and Interdependence of Basic Rights in Developing Countries
• Inela Selimović, A Note from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Leading a Displaced Life
• Djordje Stefanovic & Neophytos Loizides, The Way Home: Peaceful Return of Victims of Ethnic Cleansing
• Julie M. Mazzei, Finding Shame in Truth: The Importance of Public Engagement in Truth Commissions
• Simeon O. Ilesanmi, Bearing Witness: Poetry, Prison Discourse, and Communal Struggles in Human Rights Education
• Monisha Bajaj, Human Rights Education: Ideology, Location, and Approaches

Nollkaemper: National Courts and the International Rule of Law

Andre Nollkaemper (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has published National Courts and the International Rule of Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2011). Here's the abstract:

This book explores how domestic courts contribute to the maintenance of the rule of international law by providing judicial control over the exercises of public powers that may conflict with international law. The main focus of the book will be on judicial control of exercise of public powers by states. Key cases that will be reviewed in this book, and that will provide empirical material for the main propositions, include Hamdan, in which the US Supreme Court reviewed detention by the United States of suspected terrorists against the 1949 Geneva Conventions; Adalah, in which the Supreme Court of Israel held that the use of local residents by Israeli soldiers in arresting a wanted terrorist is unlawful under international law, and the Narmada case, in which the Indian Supreme Court reviewed the legality of displacement of people in connection with the building of a dam in the river Narmada under the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention 1957 (nr 107).

This book primarily explores what it is that international law requires, expects, or aspires that domestic courts do, and against this backdrop of what international law requires it seeks to map patterns of domestic practice in the actual or possible application of international law, and to determine what such patterns mean for the protection of the rule of international law.

Cannizzaro: The Law of Treaties Beyond the Vienna Convention

Enzo Cannizzaro (Univ. of Roma "La Sapienza" - Law) has published The Law of Treaties Beyond the Vienna Convention (Oxford Univ. Press 2011). Contents include:

• Olivier Corten & Pierre Klein, Are Agreements between States and Non-State Entities Rooted in the International Legal Order?
• Paolo Palchetti, Article 18 of the 1969 Vienna Convention: A Vague and Ineffective Obligation or a Useful Means for Strengthening Legal Cooperation?
• Alain Pellet & Daniel Müller, Reservations to Treaties: An Objection to a Reservation is Definitely not an Acceptance
• Bruno Simma & Gleider I. Hernández, Legal Consequences of an Impermissible Reservation to a Human Right Treaty: Where Do We Stand?
• Mahnoush H. Arsanjani & W. Michael Reisman, Provisional Application of Treaties in International Law: The Energy Charter Treaty Awards
• Mark E. Villiger, The Rules on Interpretation - Misgivings, Misunderstandings, Miscarriage? The 'Crucible' Intended by the International Law Commission
• Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Evolutionary Interpretation of Treaties: Between Memory and Prophecy
• Georg Nolte, Subsequent Practice as a Means of Interpretation in the Jurisprudence of the WTO Appellate Body
• Luigi Sbolci, Supplementary Means of Interpretation
• Donald McRae, Treaty Interpretation by the WTO Appellate Body: The Conundrum of Article 17(6) of the WTO Antidumping Agreement
• Benedetto Conforti, Consistency among Treaties Obligations
• Jan Klabbers, Beyond the Vienna Convention: Conflicting Treaty Provisions
• Christian Tomuschat, International Organizations as Third Parties under the Law of International Treaties
• Francesco Salerno, Treaties Establishing Objective Regimes
• Michael Wood, The Law of Treaties and the UN Security Council: Some Reflections
• Pieter Jan Kuijper, The European Courts and the Law of Treaties: The Continuing Story
• Fausto Pocar, Some Remarks on the Continuity of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Treaties
• Joe Verhoeven, Invalidity of Treaties: Anything New in/under the Vienna Conventions?
• Serena Forlati, Coercion as a Ground Affecting the Validity of Peace Treaties
• Alessandra Gianelli, Absolute Invalidity of Treaties and Their Non-Recognition by Third States
• Marcelo G. Kohen, Desuetude and Obsolescence of Treaties
• Annalisa Ciampi, Invalidity and Termination of Treaties and Rules of Procedure
• Karl Zemanek, The Metamorphosis of the Jus Cogens: From an Institution of Treaty Law to the Bedrock of the International Order?
• Paolo Picone, The Distinction between Jus Cogens and Obligations Erga Omnes
• Enzo Cannizzaro, A Higher Law for Treaties?

Alvarez & Sauvant: The Evolving International Investment Regime: Expectations, Realities, Options

José E. Alvarez (New York Univ. - Law) & Karl P. Sauvant (Columbia Univ. - Columbia Program on International Investment) have published The Evolving International Investment Regime: Expectations, Realities, Options (Oxford Univ. Press 2011). Contents include:

• Roberto Echandi, What do Developing Countries Expect from the International Investment Regime?
• Howard Mann, Civil Society Perspectives: What Do Key Stakeholders Expect From the International Investment Regime?
• Peter T. Muchlinski, Regulating Multinationals: Foreign Investment, Development and the Balance of Corporate and Home Country Rights and Responsibilities in a Globalizing World
• Stanimir A. Alexandrov, On the Perceived Inconsistency in Investor-State Jurisprudence
• Susan D. Franck, Considering Recalibration of International Investment Agreements: Empirical Insights
• Petros C. Mavroidis, All Clear on the Investment Front: A Plea for a Restatement
• John Cobau, Legal Developments in U.S. National Security Reviews of Foreign Direct Investment (2006-2008)
• Nassib G. Ziadé, Challenges and Prospects Facing the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
• John H. Dunning & Sarianna M. Lundan, The Changing Political Economy of Foreign Investment: Finding a Balance Between Hard and Soft Forms of Regulation
• Rainer Geiger, Multilateral Approaches to Investment: The Way Forward
• Brigitte Stern, The Future of International Investment Law: A Balance Between the Protection of Investors and the States' Capacity to Regulate
• James Zhan, Jorg Weber & Joachim Karl, International Investment Rulemaking at the Beginning of the 21st Century: Stocktaking and Options for the Way Forward
• Andrea K. Bjorklund, Improving the International Investment Law and Policy System: Report of the Rapporteur

Conference: Private Norms and Public Interests in Transnational Economic Law

The Transnational Law Project of LSE's Department of Law will hold a conference on "Private Norms and Public Interests in Transnational Economic Law" on June 17, 2011. The program is here. Here's the idea:

Transnational law evolves in a field of tension between local and globalised concerns and on the fault line of public and private law, thus blurring traditional distinctions between horizontal and vertical relationships and defying acquired understandings of regulation. As a result, there is a need for reflection on the calibration of public interests in these predominantly private processes and on the reconciliation of the needs both of a globalised economy and local societies. This conference aims to address these issues by way of a series of case studies, both from the view of theory and practice.

New Issue: Leiden Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (Vol. 24, no. 2, June 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Johannes Gerald van Mulligen, Global Constitutionalism and the Objective Purport of the International Legal Order
• Tony Cole & Anuj Kumar Vaksha, Power-Conferring Treaties: The Meaning of ‘Investment’ in the ICSID Convention
• Hague International Tribunals: International Court of Justice: Kosovo Symposium
• Dov Jacobs & Yannick Radi, Waiting for Godot: An Analysis of the Advisory Opinion on Kosovo
• Jure Vidmar, The Kosovo Advisory Opinion Scrutinized
• Hague International Tribunals: International Criminal Court and Tribunals
• Göran Sluiter, In Memoriam, Bert Swart
• Elies van Sliedregt, Introduction: Common Civility – International Criminal Law as Cultural Hybrid
• Michael Bohlander, Radbruch Redux: The Need for Revisiting the Conversation between Common and Civil Law at Root Level at the Example of International Criminal Justice
• Mohamed Elewa Badar, Islamic Law ( Shari'a) and the Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court
• Current Legal Developments
• Loukis G. Loucaides, Is the European Court of Human Rights Still a Principled Court of Human Rights After the Demopoulos Case?
• Cedric Ryngaert & Sven Sobrie, Recognition of States: International Law or Realpolitik? The Practice of Recognition in the Wake of Kosovo, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia
• Sam McMullan, Holding Counsel to Account in International Arbitration

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 28, no. 1, February 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Stephan Wilske & Jade G. Ewers, Why South Africa Should Update Its International Arbitration Legislation
• Peng Xianwei, Validity of the "Beijing Arbitration" Clause — A Discussion of Two Landmark Civil Rulings of the Chinese Supreme People's Court
• Chetan Phull, U.S. Anti-suit Injunctions in Support of International Arbitration: Five Questions American Courts Ask
• Dania Kozlowska, The Revised UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules Seen through the Prism of Electronic Disclosure
• Mutasim Ahmad Alqudah, Enforceability of Arbitration Clauses in Online Business-to-Consumer Contracts

New Issue: Chicago Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chicago Journal of International Law (Vol. 11, no. 2, Winter 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Simon Chesterman, Lawyers, Guns, and Money: The Governance of Business Activities in Conflict Zones
• Elizabeth Cosenza, Paradise Lost: § 10(b) after Morrison v National Australia Bank
• Rosalind Dixon & Eric A. Posner, The Limits of Constitutional Convergence
• Samuel Estreicher, Privileging Asymmetric Warfare? Part I: Defender Duties under International Humanitarian Law
• Dermot Groome, The Church Abuse Scandal: Were Crimes Against Humanity Committed?
• Claire R. Kelly Financial Crises and Civil Society
• Carl Landauer, Regionalism, Geography, and the International Legal Imagination
• Rafael Leal-Arcas, Proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements: Complementing or Supplanting Multilateralism?
• Meredith Kolsky Lewis, The Prisoners' Dilemma Posed by Free Trade Agreements: Can Open Access Provisions Provide an Escape?
• Matthew Lister, The Legitimating Role of Consent in International Law
• Jens David Ohlin, Joint Intentions to Commit International Crimes

New Issue: Indian Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Indian Journal of International Law (Vol. 50, no. 2, April-June 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Edith Brown Weiss, On Being Accountable in a Kaleidoscopic World
• Katak Malla, Benefit Sharing of International Watercourses: Equitable Process and Sustainable Outcome
• Saptarishi Bandopadhyay, Because the Cart Situates the Horse: Unrecognized Movements Underlying the Indian Supreme Court's Internalization of International Environmental Law
• Anna Konert, Air Carrier Liability under Polish Air Law
• Upendra Baxi, 10th V. K. Krishna Memorial Lecture on Mission Impossible? — Some Thoughts Towards UN Charter Reform

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. 10, no. 1, 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Philippe Sands, The ILA Hague Principles on Ethical Standards for Counsel Appearing before International Courts and Tribunals
• The Hague Principles on Ethical Standards for Counsel Appearing before International Courts and Tribunals
• Mojtaba Kazazi, Commentary on the Hague Principles on Ethical Standards for Counsel Appearing before International Courts and Tribunals
• Jean-Pierre Cot, The Hague vs. Burgh House
• Frédéric Mégret, International Judges and Experts' Impartiality and the Problem of Past Declarations
• Arman Sarvarian, Problems of Ethical Standards for Representatives before ICSID Tribunals
• Juan J. Quintana, Procedural Developments at the International Court of Justice

Fidler: International Law and the Future of Cyberspace: The Obama Administration's International Strategy for Cyberspace

David P. Fidler (Indiana Univ., Bloomington - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on International Law and the Future of Cyberspace: The Obama Administration's International Strategy for Cyberspace.

New Issue: Virginia Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Virginia Journal of International Law (Vol. 51, no. 4, Summer 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Daniel Chow, Counterfeiting as an Externality Imposed by Multinational Companies on Developing Countries
• Susan D. Franck, The ICSID Effect? Considering Potential Variations in Arbitration Awards
• Ingrid Wuerth, Foreign Official Immunity Determinations in U.S. Courts: The Case Against the State Department
• Jordan J. Paust, Nonstate Actor Participation in International Law and the Pretense of Exclusion

Ronen: Transition from Illegal Regimes under International Law

Yaël Ronen (Sha'arei Mishpat Law College) has published Transition from Illegal Regimes under International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2011). Here's the abstract:

Yaël Ronen analyses the international legal ramifications of illegal territorial regimes, namely the illegal annexation of territory or illegal declarations of independence, by reference to the stage of transition from an illegal territorial regime to a lawful one. Six case studies (Namibia, Zimbabwe, the Baltic States, the South African Bantustans, East Timor and northern Cyprus) are used to explore the tension between the invalidity of the illegal regime's acts and their effectiveness, with respect to the international relations of such territories, their domestic legal systems, the status of settlers and land transfers. Relying heavily on primary and previously unconsidered sources, she focuses on the international legal constraints on the post-transition regime's policy, particularly in the context of international human rights law.

Conference: Non-international Armed Conflict in the 21st Century

The International Law Department of the Center for Naval Warfare Studies of the U.S. Naval War College will host a conference on "Non-international Armed Conflict in the 21st Century," June 21-23, 2011, in Newport, Rhode Island. The program is available here. Here's the idea:

The conference's purpose is to examine the legal issues surrounding Non-international Armed Conflict (NIAC) in the 21st Century. During this conference, distinguished scholars and practitioners of international law will analyze the state of the law applicable to the many facets of NIAC and will discuss their views on how the law will develop as the world continues to struggle with the evolving threats to national and international security posed by failed and failing states, insurgencies, and transnational criminal and terrorist organizations.

New Issue: Chinese Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chinese Journal of International Law (Vol. 10, no. 1, March 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Michael Sheng-ti Gau, The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf as a Mechanism to Prevent Encroachment upon the Area
• Christine Gray, President Obama's 2010 United States National Security Strategy and International Law on the Use of Force
• Wei Shen, The Good, the Bad or the Ugly? A Critique of the Decision on Jurisdiction and Competence in Tza Yap Shum v. The Republic of Peru
• Comments, Essays and Notes
• Kibrom Tesfagabir, The State of Functional Immunity of International Organizations and Their Officials and Why It Should be Streamlined
• Courts and Tribunals
• Eriko Tamura, The Isayeva Cases of the European Court of Human Rights: The Application of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law in Non-International Armed Conflicts
• Developments and History
• Margreet Wewerinke & Curtis F.J. Doebbler, Exploring the Legal Basis of a Human Rights Approach to Climate Change
• Young Sok Kim, The Korean Implementing Legislation on the ICC Statute

Alter: The Evolving International Judiciary

Karen J. Alter (Northwestern Univ. - Political Science) has posted The Evolving International Judiciary (Annual Review of Law & Social Science, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article explains the rapid proliferation in international courts first in the post WWII and then the post Cold War era. It examines the larger international judicial complex, showing how developments in one region and domain affect developments in similar and distant regimes. Situating individual developments into their larger context, and showing how change occurs incrementally and slowly over time, allows one to see developments in economic, human rights and war crimes systems as part of a longer term evolutionary process of the creation of international judicial authority. Evolution is not the same as teleology; we see that some international courts develop and change while others stay at in their same role and with the same low level of activity for long periods of time. The evolutionary approach of this article suggests that building judicial authority evolves through practice and takes time, and that the overall international judicial context and developments in parallel institutions shape the development of individual ICs.

New Issue: Yale Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Yale Journal of International Law (Vol. 36, no. 2, Summer 2011) is out. Contents include:

• Maximo Langer & Joseph W. Doherty, Managerial Judging Goes International, but Its Promise Remains Unfulfilled: An Empirical Assessment of the ICTY Reforms
• Jules Lobel, Fundamental Norms, International Law, and the Extraterritorial Constitution
• Deepa Varadarajan, A Trade Secret Approach to Protecting Traditional Knowledge
• Matthew C. Waxman, Cyber-Attacks and the Use of Force: Back to the Future of Article 2(4)

Conference: Organisation Mondiale du Commerce et responsabilité internationale

The Institut du Droit de la Paix et du Développement of the l'Université Nice-Sophia Antipolis will host a conference on "Organisation Mondiale du Commerce et responsabilité internationale," June 23-24, 2011. The program is here.