New Issue: Journal of World Energy Law & Business

The latest issue of Journal of World Energy Law & Business (Vol. 5, no. 2, June 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Latin America
• Luciana Palmeira Braga & Thiago Neves Campos, A comparative study of bidding models adopted by Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Uruguay for granting petroleum exploration and production rights
• Guilherme de Biasi Cordeiro, Helder Queiroz Pinto, Jr, & José Cesário Cecchi, Evaluating the natural gas legal framework in Brazil: regulatory reform developments and incompleteness
• Claudia Zacour, Tatiana Zuma Pereira, Angela Lima Rocha Cristofaro, & Felipe Ferreira Francisco, Petrobras and the new regulatory framework for the exploration and production of oil and natural gas in the Brazilian Pre-salt region
• Diego P. Roizen, Certain Argentine Law considerations regarding the 2002 AIPN JOA Model Contract
• Elisabeth Eljuri & Carlos Garibaldi, Latin America: despite volatility and mood swings, a surge in licensing and acquisition activity
• Amalia Casas de las Peñas del Corral, Regional energy integration: a wide and worthy challenge for South America

Tams & Tzanakopoulos: Contemporary Positivism and the Jus Ad Bellum

Christian J. Tams (Univ. of Glasgow - Law) & Antonios Tzanakopoulos (Univ. College London - Law) have posted Contemporary Positivism and the Jus Ad Bellum (in International Legal Positivism in a Postmodern World, Jean d'Aspremont & Jörg Kammerhofer eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The paper assesses the legal regime governing recourse to force from the perspective of 'contemporary positivism'. It provides a basic introduction to positivist international law and its critique and charts how positivism, faced with decades of anti-positivist critique, has adjusted itself. More specifically, it analyses how in response to criticism, positivism has embraced a more 'liberal' approach to the identification of sources.

Applying these findings to the specific problem of military force, the paper outlines the main challenges facing a positivist understanding of the jus ad bellum. These are (i) the loss of predictability of the legal rules (''anything goes"), which is a consequence of the liberalisation of sources; and (ii) the attraction, even among positivist scholars, to invoke "quasi-legal" arguments based on legitimacy, morals or political necessity.

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 16, no. 5, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Torture and the Quest for Justice
• Emyr Jones Parry, Introduction: Torture and the quest for justice
• Nigel Rodley, Securing redress and overcoming impunity – some reflections
• Theo van Boven, The need to repair
• Gabriela Echeverria, Do victims of torture and other serious human rights violations have an independent and enforceable right to reparation?
• Lutz Oette, Implementing the prohibition of torture: the contribution and limits of national legislation and jurisprudence
• Lorna McGregor, The role of supranational human rights litigation in strengthening remedies for torture nationally
• Bill Bowring, What reparation does a torture survivor obtain from international litigation? Critical reflections on practice at the Strasbourg Court
• Sarah Fulton, Cooperating with the enemy of mankind: can states simply turn a blind eye to torture?
• Carla Ferstman, Limited charges and limited judgments by the International Criminal Court – who bears the greatest responsibility?

Conference: Latin American Society of International Law 2012 Biennial Conference

On August 23-25, 2012, the Latin American Society of International Law will hold its 2012 Biennial Conference in Rio de Janeiro. The theme is: "Latin America: Heritage and Inheritance in International Law." I noted the call for papers here. The program is here.

New Issue: Human Rights Review

The latest issue of the Human Rights Review (Vol. 13, no. 2, June 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Susan Randolph, Michelle Prairie & John Stewart, Monitoring State Fulfillment of Economic and Social Rights Obligations in the United States
• Gregg Bucken-Knapp, Johan Karlsson Schaffer & Karin Persson Strömbäck, Security, Equality, and the Clash of Ideas: Sweden's Evolving Anti-Trafficking Policy
• Mahmood Monshipouri & Travis Trapp, HIV/AIDS, Religion, and Human Rights: A Comparative Analysis of Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Iran
• J. Otto Pohl, Soviet Apartheid: Stalin’s Ethnic Deportations, Special Settlement Restrictions, and the Labor Army: The Case of the Ethnic Germans in the USSR
• Alisa Clarke, The Potential of the Human Rights-Based Approach for the Evolution of the United Nations as a System

New Issue: Internationales Handelsrecht

The latest issue of Internationales Handelsrecht (2012, no. 3) is out. Contents include:

• Franco Ferrari, PIL and CISG: Friends or Foes?

Winkler: The Human Right to Water: Significance, Legal Status and Implications for Water Allocation

Inga T. Winkler (Legal Adviser to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation) has published The Human Right to Water: Significance, Legal Status and Implications for Water Allocation (Hart Publishing 2012). Here's the abstract:

The United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council recognised the human right to water in 2010. This formal recognition has put the issue high on the international agenda, but by itself leaves many questions unanswered. This book addresses this gap and clarifies the legal status and meaning of the right to water through a detailed analysis of its legal foundations, legal nature, normative content and corresponding State obligations.

The human right to water has wide-ranging implications for the distribution of water. Examining these implications requires putting the right to water into the broader context of different water uses and analysing the linkages and competition with other human rights that depend on water for their realisation. Water allocation is a highly political issue reflecting societal power relations, with current priorities often benefitting the well-off and powerful. Human rights, in contrast, require prioritising the most basic needs of all people. The human right to water has the potential to address these underlying structural causes of the lack of access to water rooted in inequalities and poverty by empowering people to hold the State accountable to live up to its human rights obligations and to demand that their basic needs are met with priority.

Hoffmann & Nollkaemper: Responsibility to Protect: From Principle to Practice

Julia Hoffmann (Univ. for Peace) & André Nollkaemper (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) have published Responsibility to Protect: From Principle to Practice (Amsterdam Univ. Press 2012). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The tragic events during the 1990s in Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Kosovo, as well as the recent crisis in Libya, have triggered a fundamental rethinking of the role and responsibility of the international community in regard to mass atrocities. The principle of the Responsibility to Protect maintains that although individual nations bear the brunt of the responsibility to guard against genocide, ethnic cleaning, and crimes against humanity within their boundaries, the international community must step in when the state is unable or unwilling to provide such protection. This book assesses to what extent the principle is grounded in international law and examines how international institutions, including the United Nations, can contribute to the aim of protecting victims in cases of mass atrocities.

Humphreys: Laboratories of Statehood: Legal Intervention in Colonial Africa and Today

Stephen Humphreys (London School of Economics - Law) has published Laboratories of Statehood: Legal Intervention in Colonial Africa and Today (Modern Law Review, Vol. 75, no. 4, pp. 475–510, July 2012). Here's the abstract:

The immense body of contemporary work aimed at ‘promoting the rule of law’ is often accused of ‘neo-imperialism’. Yet, despite many points of contiguity between past and present legal interventions, the charge is overbroad and rarely illuminating. This article attempts to move beyond polemic to track concrete historical and structural forerunners of today's rule of law work. Focusing mainly (though not exclusively) on late imperial British endeavours, it traces colonial legal interventions over time, the techniques adopted (and rejected), the shifting normative bases of legitimacy, and moments of strategic recalibration in the face of resistance. Three broad attitudes towards law across the period are (provisionally) characterised as ‘regulative’, ‘constitutive’ and ‘institutive’ moments. In each phase, the Powers treat colonial territories as laboratories of statehood, within which experiments are conducted to locate the optimal configuration of law. In conclusion some counterparts to these moments in today's ‘rule of law’ activities are identified.

Milde: International Air Law and ICAO (Second Edition)

Michael Milde has published the second edition of International Air Law and ICAO (Eleven International Publishing 2012). Here's the abstract:

This is the second edition of the acclaimed 'International Air Law and ICAO', first published in 2008. The book has been fully updated to take the latest developments into account. Specialized legal literature dealing with different aspects of international air law is rare, the developments often overtake the existing writings and there is a continuous need not only for updating but also for future-oriented thinking. There is a practical need for a compact but exhaustive and easily comprehensible textbook or reference book that deals with the most general aspects of international air law, as well as with the constitutional issues and law-making functions of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

New Issue: Les Cahiers de l'Arbitrage

The latest issue of Les Cahiers de l'Arbitrage (2012, no. 2) is out. Contents include:

• Doctrine
• Andrea Pinna & Augustin Barrier, L’arbitre et le recours en annulation contre la sentence qu’il a rendue. Approche critique du droit français à la lumière du droit comparé
• Alexandre de Fontmichel, Procédure pénale et arbitrage commercial international : quelques points d’impact

Strong: Mass Procedures in Abaclat v. Argentine Republic: Are They Consistent with the International Investment Regime?

S.I. Strong (Univ. of Missouri - Law) has posted Mass Procedures in Abaclat v. Argentine Republic: Are They Consistent with the International Investment Regime? (Yearbook on International Arbitration, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Abaclat v. Argentine Republic is the first time that a mass claim (in this case, 60,000 Italian bondholders) has been brought in an investment arbitration. This Article considers the propriety of those proceedings from a unique perspective, namely that of regulatory law. In so doing, this Article considers the regulatory nature of class, mass and collective proceedings as well as the regulatory purposes of the investment treaty regime so as to determine whether and to what extent the Abaclat majority acted in accordance with both principles.

New Issue: International Journal of Transitional Justice

The latest issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (Vol. 6, no. 2, July 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Matt James, A Carnival of Truth? Knowledge, Ignorance and the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Advancing Feminist Positioning in the Field of Transitional JusticeMatt James A Carnival of Truth? Knowledge, Ignorance and the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Marlies Glasius & Tim Meijers, Constructions of Legitimacy: The Charles Taylor Trial
• Andrew R. Iliff, Root and Branch: Discourses of ‘Tradition’ in Grassroots Transitional Justice
• Clare D. Dwyer, Expanding DDR: The Transformative Role of Former Prisoners in Community-Based Reintegration in Northern Ireland
• David K. Androff, Jr, Can Civil Society Reclaim Truth? Results from a Community-Based Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Notes from the Field
• Reem Abou-El-Fadl, Beyond Conventional Transitional Justice: Egypt's 2011 Revolution and the Absence of Political Will
• Aaron Weah, Hopes and Uncertainties: Liberia’s Journey to End Impunity
• Felipe Cala Buendía, Truth in the Time of Fear: Adiós, Ayacucho's Poetics of Memory and the Peruvian Transitional Justice Process
• Stef Vandeginste, Burundi’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: How to Shed Light on the Past while Standing in the Dark Shadow of Politics?

Call for Papers: El aporte de la Jurisprudencia al Derecho Internacional del siglo XXI

The Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales of the Universidad de Concepción has issued a call for papers for a conference on "El aporte de la Jurisprudencia al Derecho Internacional del siglo XXI," to take place September 27-28, 2012. The conference description and call for papers is here.

Braun: Ausprägungen der Globalisierung: Der Investor als partielles Subjekt im Internationalen Investitionsrecht

Tillmann Rudolf Braun (Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany) has published Ausprägungen der Globalisierung: Der Investor als partielles Subjekt im Internationalen Investitionsrecht (Nomos 2012). Here's the abstract:

Zur Beilegung von Konflikten zwischen Investoren und Staaten hat sich mit dem Internationalen Investitionsrecht eine eigenständige Säule völkerrechtlicher Einhegungen ökonomischer Globalisierungsprozesse entwickelt. Vor diesem Hintergrund setzt sich die Studie mit der Frage auseinander, welche völkerrechtliche Stellung der Investor durch die über 2800 bilateralen Investitionsschutzverträge, weiteren 300 regionalen Investitionsabkommen sowie Investor-Staat Schiedsverfahren erlangt hat.

Die Untersuchung arbeitet die Qualität der dem Investor ermöglichten Rechte wie auch deren Grenzen heraus, sie ordnet das Paradigma einer Aufwertung des Investors zum partiellen Völkerrechtssubjekt in den völkerrechtlichen Entwicklungsprozess ein und formuliert die möglichen Konsequenzen: Für den Investor, für die Staaten wie für das moderne Völkerrecht.

New Issue: International Studies Review

The latest issue of International Studies Review (Vol. 14, no. 2, June 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Ty Solomon, Human Nature and the Limits of the Self: Hans Morgenthau on Love and Power
• Wallace J. Thies, Is the EU Collapsing?
• Elizabeth S. Dahl, Oil and Water? The Philosophical Commitments of International Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Okechukwu C. Iheduru, Regional Integration and the Private Authority of Banks in West Africa

New Issue: Revista Electrónica de Estudios Internacionales

The latest issue of the Revista Electrónica de Estudios Internacionales (No. 23, June 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Estudios
• Pilar Juárez Pérez, Jurisdicción española y poligamia islámica: ¿un matrimonio forzoso?
• Jesús Verdú Baeza, La negativa incidencia de las controversias de Gibraltar en el medio ambiente en la Bahía de Algeciras/Gibraltar
• Carlos R. Hernández Salas, Los confines de la responsabilidad ambiental en los ecosistemas dependientes y asociados al medio ambiente antártico
• Alfonso Ybarra Bores, Mediación familiar internacional, la directiva sobre ciertos aspectos de la mediación en asuntos civiles y mercantiles y su incorporación al derecho español
• Notas
• María Orozco Sáenz, Cuestiones jurídicas relacionadas con el estatuto jurídico del astronauta en el marco de las Naciones Unidas y de la Estación espacial internacional.
• Ana Paloma Abarca Junco & Marina Vargas Gómez-Urrutia, El estatuto de ciudadano de la Unión y su posible incidencia en el ámbito de aplicación del Derecho comunitario (STJUE Ruiz Zambrano)
• Laura Movilla Pateiro, Hacia la realización del derecho humano al agua y al saneamiento: El papel de la relatora especial
• Koldo Casla, Interactions between International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law for the protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
• Manuel Jesús Morán Rosado, La Comunidad de estados latinoamericanos y caribeños. Algunas consideraciones sobre el nuevo foro latinoamericano
• Luces y sombras de la transformación militar aliada Guillem Colom Piella
• Nerea Magallón Elósegui, Nuevas pautas del TJUE para la identificación del lugar de entrega de las mercancías en las compraventas internacionales a distancia
• Enrique Fernández Masiá, Optando por la normativa común de compraventa europea
• José Manuel Sánchez Patrón, Piratería marítima, fuerza armada y seguridad privada

New Issue: Journal of International Criminal Justice

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Vol. 10, no. 3, July 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Paul Behrens, Genocide and the Question of Motives
• Melanie O’Brien, Prosecutorial Discretion as an Obstacle to Prosecution of United Nations Peacekeepers by the International Criminal Court: The Big Fish/Small Fish Debate and the Gravity Threshold
• Tatiana Bachvarova, Impact of the Death of a Convicted Person on Pending Proceedings before the International Criminal Court
• Sam Szoke-Burke, Avoiding Belittlement of Human Suffering: A Retributivist Critique of ICTR Sentencing Practices
• Miguel Beltrán de Felipe & Adán Nieto Martín, Post 9/11 Trends in International Judicial Cooperation: Human Rights as a Constraint on Extradition in Death Penalty Cases
• Symposium: In Memory of Bert Swart
• Harmen van der Wilt, Bert Swart — An Obituary
• Mirjan Damaška, Reflections on Fairness in International Criminal Justice
• Albin Eser, Transnational Measures against the Impunity of International Crimes
• Alphons M.M. Orie, Stare decisis in the ICTY Appeal System?: Successor Responsibility in the Hadžihasanović Case
• André Klip, Confidentiality Restrictions
• Göran Sluiter, Shared Responsibility in International Criminal Justice: The ICC and Asylum
• National Prosecution of International Crimes: Cases and Legislation
• Olympia Bekou Crimes at Crossroads: Incorporating International Crimes at the National Level
• Larissa van den Herik, Addressing ‘Colonial Crimes’ through Reparations?: Adjudicating Dutch Atrocities Committed in Indonesia

New Issue: Studi sull'integrazione europea

The latest issue of Studi sull'integrazione europea (Vol. 7, no. 1, Gennaio-Aprile 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Articoli
• Biagio De Giovanni, L’Europa, oggi
• Ugo Draetta, Quale futuro per l’Eurozona e l’Unione europea?
• Nicoletta Parisi, Tecniche di costruzione di uno spazio penale europeo. In tema di riconoscimento reciproco delle decisioni giudiziarie e di armonizzazione delle garanzie procedurali
• Angela Maria Romito, Il difficile dialogo tra Corte di giustizia dell’Unione europea e giudice interno in tema di decorrenza del termine di prescrizione
• Luca Paladini, L’Unione europea all’Assemblea generale dell’ONU: un vecchio osservatore con nuovi poteri?
• Marco Lombardo, I contratti di fornitura a lungo termine nel diritto europeo dell’energia tra concorrenza e sicurezza
• Note e Commenti
• Giannangelo Marchegiani, Sulla competenza del Tribunale dell’Unione europea nei confronti della BEI in materia di appalti
• Pieralberto Mengozzi, I rimedi procedurali in materia di appalti pubblici, l’autonomia procedurale degli Stati membri dell’UE ed il caso Symvoulio
• Giuseppe Morgese, Regolamento Dublino II e applicazione del principio di mutua fiducia tra Stati membri: la pronunzia della Corte di giustizia nel caso N.S. e altri
• Teresa Moschetta, Gli investimenti nel mercato interno dell’energia: questioni di compatibilità con gli obblighi internazionali degli Stati membri
• Elisabetta Bergamini, Evoluzioni nel diritto di famiglia dell’Unione europea: il nuovo regolamento 1259/2010 sulla legge applicabile al divorzio e alla separazione personale

New Issue: Israel Law Review

The latest issue of the Israel Law Review (Vol. 45, no. 2, July 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Arlene S Kanter, There's No Place Like Home: The Right to Live in the Community for People with Disabilities, Under International Law and the Domestic Laws of the United States and Israel
• Tamar Hostovsky Brandes, Separate and Different: Single-Sex Education and the Quest for Equality
• Yifat Bitton, Finally, Our Own Brown! (?)
• Yishai Blank, Localising Religion in a Jewish State
• Rotem M Giladi, Reflections on Proportionality, Military Necessity and the Clausewitzian War
• Kai Ambos & Josef Alkatout, Has ‘Justice Been Done’? The Legality of Bin Laden's Killing Under International Law
• David A Wallace, Operation Neptune's Spear: The Lawful Killing of Osama Bin Laden

Hilpold: Kosovo and International Law: The ICJ Advisory Opinion of 22 July 2010

Peter Hilpold (Univ. of Innsbruck - Law) has published Kosovo and International Law: The ICJ Advisory Opinion of 22 July 2010 (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2012). A number (though not all) of these essays were published in Hilpold's Das Kosovo-Gutachten des IGH vom 22. Juli 2010. Those essays that were previously published in German in that volume and that are reprinted here have been translated. Not all essays have been republished however. Contents include:

• Peter Hilpold, The Kosovo Opinion of 22 July 2010: historical, political and legal pre-requisites
• Christian Tomuschat, Recognition of New States – The Case of Premature Recognition
• Peter Hilpold, Secession in International Law: Does the Kosovo Opinion require a re-assessment of this concept?
• Antonello Tancredi, Some Remarks on the Relationship between Secession and General International Law in the Light of the ICJ´s Kosovo Advisory Opinion
• Stefan Oeter, Secession, Territorial Integrity and the Role of the Security Council
• Matthias Niedobitek, The OSCE and Kosovo
• Isabel Lirola Delgado, The European Union and Kosovo in the Light of the Territorial Issue
• Michael Bothe, Drawing borders as a means to restore and maintain peace: from Palestine to Kosovo and back
• Andrea Gioia, Decisions of the UN Security Council of Indefinite Duration: How to Define the Limits of Their Valildity,
• Philipp Aust, The Kosovo Opinion and Issues of International Responsibility, Helmut
• Andrea Gattini, “You Say You´ll Change the Constitution” – The ICJ and Non-state Entities in the Kosovo Advisory Opinion
• Gerhard Hafner & Nadia Kalb, The Structure and Content of the Austrian Statements in the ICJ Advisory Proceedings Concerning Kosovo
• Solveig Richter, The political future of Kosovo after the ICJ Opinion: Status question (un-)resolved?

New Issue: Michigan Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Michigan Journal of International Law (Vol. 33, no. 3, Spring 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Molly Land, Rebalancing TRIPS
• Janelle M. Diller, Private Standardization in Public International Lawmaking
• Tony Cole, The Boundaries of Most Favored Nation Treatment in International Investment Law

Burch, Nottage, & Williams: Appropriate Treaty-Based Dispute Resolution for Asia-Pacific Commerce in the 21st Century

Micah Burch (Univ. of Sydney - Law), Luke R. Nottage (Univ. of Sydney - Law), & Brett G. Williams (Univ. of Sydney - Law) have posted Appropriate Treaty-Based Dispute Resolution for Asia-Pacific Commerce in the 21st Century. Here's the abstract:

Bilateral and regional trade and investment treaties (‘FTAs’ and ‘BITs’) have proliferated in the Asia-Pacific region, along with double-tax treaties (‘DTTs’). But countries like Australia have recently become more concerned about FTAs and BITs. This article examines processes that states can agree to, especially through commitments made in treaties before disputes arise, that are likely to minimize claims being filed or escalated and therefore to promote sustainable cross-border trade and investment. Part II concentrates on inter-state trade dispute resolution, whereas Part III concentrates on the controversial area of investor-state arbitration. The latter analysis draws partly on innovations and experiences in DTT arbitration and international tax dispute resolution more generally, outlined in Part IV. The article focuses especially on the extent to which enhanced transparency in dispute resolution processes may lead to settlements or more appropriate management of cross-border disputes across these three main areas of treaty practice, which are often not compared with each other.

Tsagourias: The Prohibition of Threats of Force

Nicholas Tsagourias (Univ. of Glasgow - Law) has posted The Prohibition of Threats of Force (in Research Handbook on International Conflict and Security Law, Nigel White & Christian Henderson eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This chapter examines the meaning and scope of the prohibition of the threat of force by looking into relevant case law and international practice before assessing the legal authority of the rule. It demonstrates that there are many other parameters than law within which threats of force operate, and in which legal and political attitudes towards them are formed. It further contends that law cannot just extinguish or outright condemn threats of force or even the eventual use of force, because often it is just those threats and uses of force that, in the end, uphold the law.

New Issue: Journal of International Dispute Settlement

The latest issue of the Journal of International Dispute Settlement (Vol. 3, no. 2, July 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Fuad Zarbiyev, Judicial Activism in International Law—A Conceptual Framework for Analysis
• Kimberley N. Trapp, Holding States Responsible for Terrorism before the International Court of Justice
• Francisco Orrego Vicuña, ‘Reports of [Maffezini's] demise have been greatly exaggerated’
• Cameron A. Miles, Corruption, Jurisdiction and Admissibility in International Investment Claims
• Conway Blake, Moral Damages in Investment Arbitration: A Role for Human Rights?
• Alberto Alvarez-Jimenez, The International Court of Justice's Use of the Vienna Convention in the Interpretation of Boundary Agreements: 2000–10
• Victorino J. Tejera Pérez, Diplomatic Protection Revival for Failure to Comply with Investment Arbitration Awards