Malatesta & Sali: The Rise of Transparency in International Arbitration

Alberto Malatesta (Università Carlo Cattaneo LIUC - Law) & Rinaldo Sali (Milan Chamber of Arbitration) have published The Rise of Transparency in International Arbitration (Juris Publishing 2013). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The advantages of arbitration as the main alternative means of dispute resolution are well known and undisputed. Privacy and confidentiality are among them and at the same time among the prevailing features of any arbitral proceedings. However, sometimes users have the feeling to deal with a close and too slow-growing world. The need, if not the request, for a greater accountability of the arbitral world in the whole is more and more widespread.

In this context the aim of this book is on the one hand to spur discussion and to shed new light on the traditional idea of confidentiality in international commercial arbitration (and in some other figures alike). Although this idea is sometimes founded upon sound reasons that cannot be ignored or totally set aside, it must be reconsidered by taking into account the rise of transparency. On the other hand, a specific proposal is made in order to step ahead from the current situation, with particular reference to the issue of the publication of the awards. In this respect, the main outcome is the Guidelines for the Anonymous Publication of Arbitral Awards, already adopted and experienced by the Milan Chamber. They are addressed to institutions, practitioners, scholars with the goal to favor the circulation of the awards and of the related decisions.

Rolland & Schools: Transboundary Regulation in the Case of Nanotechnologies: A Theoretical Framing

Sonia Elise Rolland (Northeastern Univ. - Law) & Sarah Schools (Northeastern Univ. - Law) have posted Transboundary Regulation in the Case of Nanotechnologies: A Theoretical Framing (Nanotechnology Law & Business, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

While much has been written about the risks and uncertainties of nanotechnology products and industries using nanotechnologies, an equally important issue is the different risk sensitivities and tolerances of individual states and constituencies within states, resulting in divergent regulatory schemes. Risks and uncertainty are relevant for policy-making because they are embedded in particular societal contexts, which differ from state to state, from one regulatory agency to another, across various industries and across civil society. Reflecting these varying sensitivities to risk in the context of nanotechnologies, then, presents multi-level regulatory challenges domestically but also internationally. While no single global constraining framework, such as a treaty, has emerged to address those transnational regulatory challenges, for technical and practical reasons, a number of regulatory processes have surfaced, combining public and private initiatives, hard and soft law at the domestic, transnational and international levels. This article presents nanotech regulation globally as a regime and it asks whether this regime can respond to the challenges of risk, uncertainty and promoting public and private innovation.

New Issue: Michigan Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Michigan Journal of International Law (Vol. 34, no. 3, Spring 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Scott P. Sheeran, Under International Human Rights Law: Theory, Legal Doctrine, and Politics
• Mark A. Drumbl, “She Makes Me Ashamed to be a Woman”: The Genocide Convention of Pauline Nyiramasuhko, 2011
• Laura Pedraza-Fariña, Conceptions of Civil Society in International Lawmaking and Implementation: A Theoretical Framework

Plakokefalos: The Limits of Responsibility: Liability for Damage in the Deep Seabed?

Ilias Plakokefalos (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted The Limits of Responsibility: Liability for Damage in the Deep Seabed? Here's the abstract:

This contribution seeks to discuss the limits of state responsibility as they are witnessed in the topic of international liability. The first part addresses the intersection between responsibility and liability using as a reference point the work of the International Law Commission. The second part utilizes the case study of the environmental protection of the Deep Seabed Area. This is done in order to analyze and highlight the problems and – possible – prospects of the limits of state responsibility in the environmental management of the Area.

Call for Papers: Constitutionalisation and Fragmentation of International Law Revisited

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Constitutionalisation and Fragmentation of International Law Revisited," to take place November 18-19, 2013, at the Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, in Warsaw. The call for papers is here.

New Issue: Review of International Political Economy

The latest issue of the Review of International Political Economy (Vol. 20, no. 4, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Nitsan Chorev, Restructuring neoliberalism at the World Health Organization
• Patrick Sharma, Bureaucratic imperatives and policy outcomes: The origins of World Bank structural adjustment lending
• Ulrich Brand & Markus Wissen, Crisis and continuity of capitalist society-nature relationships: The imperial mode of living and the limits to environmental governance
• Antoni Verger & Barbara van Paassen, Human development vis-à-vis free trade: Understanding developing countries' positions in trade negotiations on education and intellectual property rights
• David Fields & Matías Vernengo, Hegemonic currencies during the crisis: The dollar versus the euro in a Cartalist perspective
• Thomas Richter, When do autocracies start to liberalize foreign trade? Evidence from four cases in the Middle East and North Africa
• Bartholomew Paudyn, Credit rating agencies and the sovereign debt crisis: Performing the politics of creditworthiness through risk and uncertainty
• Valbona Muzaka, Intellectual property protection and European ‘competitiveness'
• Thomas B. Pepinsky, The domestic politics of financial internationalization in the developing world
• Christopher Gandrud, The diffusion of financial supervisory governance ideas
• Stephen Robert Buzdugan, Regionalism from without: External involvement of the EU in regionalism in southern Africa
• Samuel Rueckert Brazys, Evidencing donor heterogeneity in Aid for Trade
• Liviu Voinea, Revisiting crisis generators in Romania and other new EU member states

SIEL/CUP Prize for an Essay in International Economic Law

The Society of International Economic Law and Cambridge University Press award a prize for best essay submitted on any topic in any field of international economic law. Here's this year's announcement:

2013 SIEL/CUP Essay Prize

Terms and conditions

A prize has been established by the Society of International Economic Law and Cambridge University Press for the best essay submitted on any topic in any field of international economic law.

The competition is open to all current undergraduate and graduate students of any university or other tertiary education institution, and those who have graduated from a university or other tertiary education institution no earlier than five years before the submission deadline (ie those who graduated prior to 30 September 2008 are not eligible for the 2013 Prize). Members of the SIEL Executive Council may not submit entries. The essay must not have been previously published.

The prize consists of £200, as well as £300 of Cambridge University Press book vouchers and a three year subscription to the World Trade Review. The winning essay will be submitted to the World Trade Review for publication. Publication of the essay in the World Trade Review will be subject to the WTR’s normal review and decision procedure, but the WTR Editorial Board commits to expediting consideration with a view to early publication.

The prize will be awarded by the SIEL Executive Council on the recommendation of a Prize Committee drawn from its members and the Editorial Board of the World Trade Review. Decisions of the Prize Committee on the winning essay and on any conditions relating to this prize are final and no correspondence will be entered into.

For clarification, essays with a focus on international commercial arbitration or EU law will not be considered for this Prize.

Any queries should be addressed by email to Dr Lorand Bartels, University of Cambridge (lab53@cam.ac.uk).

Submission details

Entries must be written in English and should follow the style-sheet for the World Trade Review. Entries should not exceed 8,000 words, including references, footnotes, tables, appendices, etc.

Entries must be submitted in Word format with a cover sheet containing the title of the entry, name and contact details. The essay itself must contain no identifying information other than the title.

Entries should be submitted using this form.

The deadline for submission is 30 September 2013 (17:00 GMT).

Essays may be submitted from 7 September 2013.

Bradley: Treaty Termination and Constitutional Change

Curtis A. Bradley (Duke Univ. - Law) has posted Treaty Termination and Constitutional Change. Here's the abstract:

The termination of U.S. treaties provides an especially rich example of how governmental practices can inform and even define the Constitution’s separation of powers. The authority to terminate treaties is not addressed specifically in the constitutional text and instead has been worked out over time through political branch practice. This practice, moreover, has developed largely without judicial review. Despite these features, Congress and the President — and the lawyers who advise them — have generally treated this issue as a matter of constitutional law, not merely political happenstance. Importantly, the example of treaty termination illustrates not only how historical practice can inform constitutional understandings, but also how these understandings can change. In the nineteenth century, the prevailing view was that the termination of treaties required either congressional or senatorial approval. That understanding changed in the twentieth century, and unilateral presidential termination became the norm. The contours of this shift likely apply to other issues of constitutional law relating to presidential authority: First there is a consensus, both among the governmental actors and in the scholarly community. Then deviations take place with a potentially limited scope. The Executive Branch proceeds to articulate broader theories of the deviations. Congress’s resistance is intermittent, depending on whether it objects to the deviations on policy grounds. Practice then builds up around low-stakes examples. Eventually a more controversial example arises and the President pushes forward successfully, thereby consolidating the changed understanding. This dynamic of accretion and consolidation of institutional practice is not adequately captured by theories of constitutional change that focus on judicial review or that emphasize particular moments of contestation or public deliberation.

Yee: ‘Member Responsibility’ and the ILC Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations: Some Observations

Sienho Yee (Wuhan Univ. - Law) has posted ‘Member Responsibility’ and the ILC Articles on the Responsibility of International Organizations: Some Observations (in Responsibility of International Organizations: Essays in Memory of Sir Ian Brownlie, Maurizio Raggazi ed., 2013). Here's the abstract:

This paper briefly explains the idea of "member responsibility" for acts of an international organization, moves on to lay out the International Law Commission 2011 Articles on Responsibility of International Organizations framework on this issue, and then offers some critical observations on the ILC treatment of the topic. The 2011 articles framework on this issue can be considered to have four aspects, short-handed roughly as "independent personality", "additional acts approach", "no member responsibility", and ‘remedy-enabling obligations pursuant to the rules of the international organization’. The consolation prizes that the ILC has given to the world are article 61 on prevention of circumvention of member States’ obligations and article 40 on ensuring the fulfillment of the obligation to make reparation. Neither represents a substantial victory for member responsibility, but each can be considered a half-step forward in that direction. As to article 61, the intention to circumvent obligations may be too high a threshold and may not cover the original establishment of an international organization and thus may not completely solve the ‘beautiful for some but ugly for others’ problem, but at least it would catch the overtly villainous States, if any. As to article 40, the ‘take all appropriate measures’ obligation to enable remedies on the part of the international organization as well as its member States may not rise to the level of ‘hard obligations’ because under article 40 these obligations are supposed to be pursuant to the rules of the organization which may reject such obligations. The saving grace is probably the suggestion made in the commentary that an implied obligation to enable remedies should be read into silent or unclear rules of the organization. This can be a powerful idea because silent or unclear rules of the organizations are the norm, other formulations the exception. This ‘rule of interpretation’ may nudge the law into the direction of providing for remedies where they are due.

Call for Papers: Africa 2013 - Was There Something Missed in the Decolonization Process? The International Law Perspective

The Faculty of Law of the University of Trento has issued a call for papers for a Young Scholars Workshop on "Africa 2013 - Was There Something Missed in the Decolonization Process? The International Law Perspective." Here's the call:

Call for Papers

Young Scholars Workshop on International Law

XI Edition

Africa 2013 – Was There Something Missed in the Decolonization Process?

The International Law Perspective

Trento, 6-7 December 2013

The initiative

The Young Scholars Workshop on International Law is a periodic initiative taking place in Italy since 2003. It is aimed at providing a critical discussion forum in which early career academics, doctoral students, and young legal professionals are encouraged to present their research on specific topics of international law. The XI edition of the Workshop will be hosted by the Faculty of Law of the University of Trento.

Theme for the 2013 Workshop

The decolonization of Africa has been praised (including by several African States) as a success story of the United Nations. Nevertheless, recent phenomena of relevance for international law may cast shadows over this suggestion, especially if the decolonization process is considered from a broader economic, cultural and institutional perspective. More than half a century from the adoption of the fundamental General Assembly resolutions on self-determination and on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the OAU, the call for papers intends to address a fundamental research question: Has formal independence released African States from patterns of dominance by former colonial powers, other States, and transnational corporations?

Applicants are welcome to submit unpublished proposals that stand up in favor or against the research question by exploring, from an international law perspective, one or more of the following thematic areas:

a) The theory and practice of the use of force in Africa

− military coups

− intervention in civil wars

− achievements and failures of peacekeeping missions

− boundary and territorial disputes

− the role of regional organizations

b) Economic and social self-determination in Africa

− economic conditionalities and the role of international financial institutions

− achievements and failures of regional economic integration

− issues related to the exploitation of natural resources

− environmental protection and sustainable development

− issues concerning development cooperation (e.g. EU/USA/China-Africa relations)

− the participation of African States in international economic organizations and in their systems of dispute resolution

− problems related to foreign investments

c) Human rights and criminal justice: the African viewpoint

− international criminal justice v. traditional models of reconciliation

− achievements and failures of international criminal justice

− the specificity of the regional system of human rights protection

− gender and cultural issues

− indigenous rights

d) The circulation of legal and institutional models: Africa as champion or recipient?

− models of regional integration

− the legal regime applicable to the activities of transnational corporations (public and private international law perspectives)

− harmonization of private international law, business law and commercial arbitration

Submissions

Submissions should include a short abstract in English (max. 600 words), the author’s affiliation and full contact information. They will be selected through a competitive process based on scholarly merit and originality. Subject to peer review and editorial discretion, selected submissions may be considered for publication in a leading journal of international law. The organization will cover accommodation costs for successful applicants.

Applications should be submitted in Word format to Marco Pertile (marco.pertile@unitn.it) and Julinda Beqiraj (julinda.beqiraj@unitn.it).

Deadline for abstract submission: 22 September

Notification to successful applicants: 1 October 2013

Deadline for submission of draft papers: 17 November 2013

New Issue: Review of International Organizations

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 8, no. 3, September 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Helen V. Milner & Dustin Tingley, The choice for multilateralism: Foreign aid and American foreign policy
• Gabriele Spilker & Tobias Böhmelt, The impact of preferential trade agreements on governmental repression revisited
• Thomas Rixen & Bernhard Zangl, The politicization of international economic institutions in US public debates
• Yoram Z. Haftel, Commerce and institutions: Trade, scope, and the design of regional economic organizations

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 35, no. 3, August 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Ann Marie Clark & Kathryn Sikkink, Information Effects and Human Rights Data: Is the Good News About Increased Human Rights Information Bad News for Human Rights Measures?
• Alexander Dukalskis & Robert C. Johansen, Measuring Acceptance of International Enforcement of Human Rights: The United States, Asia, and the International Criminal Court
• Satvinder Singh Juss, Sikh Cremations and the Re-Imagining of the Clash of Cultures
• Nukhet A. Sandal, Public Theologies of Human Rights and Citizenship: The Case of Turkey's Christians
• Carla M. Zoethout, Ritual Slaughter and the Freeedom of Religion: Some Reflections on a Stunning Matter
• Wendy Guns, The Influence of the Feminist Anti-Abortion NGOs as Norm Setters at the Level of the UN: Contesting UN Norms on Reproductive Autonomy, 1995-2005
• Lars Waldorf, Getting the Gunpowder out of Their Heads: The Limits o fRights-Based DDR
• Tim Meijers & Marlies Glasius, Expression of Justice or Political Trial? Discursive Battles in the Karadžić Case
• Thomas M. Krapf, The Last Witness to the Drafting Process of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Interview with Stéphane Frédéric Hessel

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 51, no. 6, 2012) is out. Contents include:

• Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances, with introductory note by Aaron X. Fellmeth
• Daimler Financial Services AG v. Argentine Republic (ICSID), with introductory note by Karen Halverson Cross
• Mothers of Srebrenica Ass’n et al. v. Netherlands (Sup. Ct. of the Neth.), with introductory note by Thomas Henquet
• Copenhagen Process on Handling Detainees in International Military Operations, with introductory note by Jonathan Horowitz
• Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, with introductory note by Hillary W. Amster

van Steenberghe: Droit international humanitaire : un régime spécial de droit international ?

Raphaël van Steenberghe has published Droit international humanitaire : un régime spécial de droit international ? (Larcier 2013). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Dans le cadre de ses travaux relatifs à la fragmentation du droit international et, en particulier, à l’existence de régimes juridiques « autonomes » ou « spéciaux », la Commission du droit international a identifié le droit international humanitaire comme l’un des exemples de régime qui se distinguerait en droit international par sa spécificité fonctionnelle. L’objectif du présent ouvrage est notamment de fournir des éclaircissements sur la signification de cette qualification.

Après avoir circonscrit les contours de la notion de régime spécial en droit international, l’ouvrage s’interroge sur les éventuelles spécificités du droit international humanitaire tant par rapport au « système général », c’est-à-dire aux règles secondaires du droit international général, que par rapport à d’autres « sous-systèmes », tels que le droit international pénal, les droits de l’homme ou le droit international de l’environnement. Cette analyse entend cerner au mieux les rapports existant entre le droit international humanitaire et les autres systèmes – général ou spéciaux – de droit international et se prononcer ainsi sur la question sous-jacente de l’ «autonomisation» de ce droit. Elle montre que, loin de produire une «cacophonie» au sein de l’ordre juridique international, cet enchevêtrement de différents systèmes relevant de cet ordre s’apparente le plus souvent à une «polyphonie» harmonieuse.

New Issue: Transnational Legal Theory

The latest issue of Transnational Legal Theory (Vol. 4, no. 1, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Leora Bilsky & Natalie R. Davidson, A Process-Oriented Approach to Corporate Liability for Human Rights Violations
• Gunther Teubner, Content loaded within last 14 days The Project of Constitutional Sociology: Irritating Nation State Constitutionalism
• Armin von Bogdandy & Sergio Dellavalle, Content loaded within last 14 days The Lex Mercatoria of Systems Theory: Localisation, Reconstruction and Criticism from a Public Law Perspective
• Richard Falk, Content loaded within last 14 days Reflections on Revolution, Politics and Law: The Unfolding Process in the Arab World

New Issue: European Journal of Legal Studies

The latest issue of the European Journal of Legal Studies (Vol. 6, no. 1, Spring/Summer 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Edouard Dubout, Le Défi de la Délimitation du Champ de la Protection des Droits Fondamentaux par la Cour de Justice de l'Union Européenne
• Janja Hojnik, De Minimis Rule within the EU Internal Market Freedoms: Towards a More Mature and Legitimate Market?
• Merita Huomo-Kettunen, Heterarchical Constitutional Structures in the European Legal Space
• Rossana Deplano, Fragmentation and Constitutionalisation of International Law: A Theoretical Inquiry
• Nikos Vogiatzis, Is the European Citizen’s Initiative a Serious Threat for the Community Method?
• Tareq Al-Tawil, Corrective Justice and Deterrence: Can They Co-Exist?
• Sondre Torp Helmersen, Evolutive Treaty Interpretation: Legality, Semantics and Distinctions

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 30, no. 4, August 2013) is out. Contents include:

• David Collins, ICSID Annulment Committee Appointments: Too Much Discretion for the Chairman?
• Jan Paulsson, Why Good Arbitration Cannot Compensate for Bad Courts
• Christopher Campbell, House of Cards: The Relevance of Legitimate Expectations under Fair and Equitable Treatment Provisions in Investment Treaty Law
• Niklas Elofsson, Ex Parte Interviews of Party-Appointed Arbitrator Candidates: A Study Based on the Views of Counsel and Arbitrators in Sweden and the United States
• Keechang Kim & Jason Mitchenson, Voluntary Third-Party Intervention in International Arbitration for Construction Disputes: A Contextual Approach to Jurisdictional Issues
• Fernando Mantilla-Serrano, Colombia Enacts a New International Arbitration Law
• Victoria Shannon, Recent Developments in Third-Party Funding

Call for Submissions: Goettingen Journal of International Law Student Essay Competition

The Goettingen Journal of International Law has issued a call for submissions for its annual student essay competition. This year's topic is "Principles of International Criminal Law." Here's the call:

Student Essay Competition 2013: "Principles of International Criminal Law"

The Goettingen Journal of International Law (GoJIL) is the first German student-run international law journal. GoJIL seeks to foster debate among scholars of international law with its numerous and diverse fields.

As we are students ourselves, we would like to give students and young doctoral candidates the chance to gain practical experience and to publish their first scientific papers. To that end, GoJIL is hosting an annual Student Essay Competition. This year’s topic is “Principles of International Criminal Law”. The winning article will be published in one of GoJIL’s next issues.

International criminal law has increasingly gained importance during the last decades, mainly owed to the international community’s strive to fight and prosecute human rights violations. Ever since the Nuremberg Trials, this field has experienced growing attention. Given the number of contemporary scholarly publications, such development is likely to remain dynamic. The International Criminal Court’s first judgment in the Lubanga Case of 2012, amendments to the Rome Statute in 2010, and the observable trend of international crimes handled by national jurisdictions support this prediction. To contribute to the increased formalization of international criminal law caused by, among others, these developments, this year’s Essay Competition is dedicated to current questions of this field of law.

Participants are free to choose both the topic and the exact area of international criminal law on which their submissions will elaborate. We particularly welcome submissions addressing the modes of participation, problems of attribution, or the interdependency of international and national criminal law.

The deadline for your submission is 15 November 2013. The maximal word count is 5 000 words (excluding footnotes).

If you would like to write an article or are already working on the subject, send in your essay!

Further information: www.gojil.eu

In case of questions: info@gojil.eu

New Issue: Ocean Development & International Law

The latest issue of Ocean Development & International Law (Vol. 44, no. 3, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Hyun Jung Kim, The Return to a Mare Clausum Through Regional Fisheries Management Organizations?
• Jianjun Gao, A Note on the Nicaragua v. Colombia Case
• Yann-huei Song & Stein Tønnesson, The Impact of the Law of the Sea Convention on Conflict and Conflict Management in the South China Sea
• Ling Zhu, Bingying Dong & Kevin X. Li, China's 2012 Regime for Compensation for Vessel Source Oil Pollution: A Comparative Study
• Mark J. Kaiser & Brian Snyder, A Primer on the Offshore Contract Drilling Industry

Johns & Pelc: Fear of Crowds in WTO Disputes: Why Don't More Countries Participate?

Leslie Johns (Univ. of California, Los Angeles - Political Science) & Krzysztof Pelc (McGill Univ. - Political Science) have posted Fear of Crowds in WTO Disputes: Why Don't More Countries Participate? Here's the abstract:

WTO members that are affected by a trade dispute can join litigation as a third party and gain access to otherwise private negotiations. Participation has a negligible cost. Yet states rarely join cases as third parties, even when they have a material interest at stake. We construct a formal model of strategic third party participation in the WTO that shows that third parties increase the probability of litigation. This creates strategic interdependence: as more states become third parties, the benefit of participation decreases and each state becomes less likely to join. We test our theoretical model by examining each country's decision to participate or not in every WTO dispute since 1995. The findings offer strong support for our model: states shy away from joining when it's too crowded.

Conference: 7th Annual International Humanitarian Law Dialogs

The 7th Annual International Humanitarian Law Dialogs will be held at the Chautauqua Institution on August 25-27, 2013. The theme is "The Long Hot Summer after the Arab Spring: Accountability and the Rule of Law." The program is here.

Conference: Bridging the gap between Investment Law and the Environment

On November 4-5, 2013, a conference on "Bridging the gap between Investment Law and the Environment" will take place in The Hague. The program is here. Here's the idea:

International investment law is a growing field of law that has witnessed an explosive growth in the last decade. This is characterized by the proliferation of International Investment Agreements (IIAs) and the phenomenal increase in investment arbitrations. The large network of IIAs and investment disputes has brought a number of questions that exceed the discipline of international investment law. One of them is the role of non-investment objectives, e.g. protection of the environment, in the framework of the investment regime. Environmental regulations of States have been challenged by investors within the framework of international investment law, because they allegedly conflict with investment protection rules. In these circumstances, States face a dilemma as, on the one hand, they have to comply with environmental obligations, but, on the other, they have to fulfil their economic obligations under IIAs. This conference will discuss the relationship between these two areas of the law. The specific focus of the conference will be on Climate Change and International Investment Law. Climate Change is one of the key challenges that the planet currently faces. It is a complex problem that impacts not only on the environment, but also global issues such as sustainable deve

Behrens & Henham: Elements of Genocide

Paul Behrens (Univ. of Edinburgh - Law) & Ralph Henham (Nottingham Trent Univ. - Law) have published Elements of Genocide (Routledge 2013). Here's the abstract:

Elements of Genocide provides an authoritative evaluation of the current perception of the crime, as it appears in the decisions of judicial authorities, the writings of the foremost academic experts in the field, and in the texts of Commission Reports. Genocide constitutes one of the most significant problems in contemporary international law. Within the last fifteen years, the world has witnessed genocidal conduct in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the debate on the commission of genocide in Darfur and the DR Congo is ongoing. Within the same period, the prosecution of suspected génocidaires has taken place in international tribunals, internationalised tribunals and domestic courts; and the names of Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Saddam Hussein feature among those against whom charges of genocide were brought. Pursuing an interdisciplinary examination of the existing case law on genocide in international and domestic courts, Elements of Genocide comprehensive and accessible reflection on the crime of genocide, and its inherent complexities.

Baetens: Investment Law within International Law: Integrationist Perspectives

Freya Baetens (Leiden Univ. - Law) has published Investment Law within International Law: Integrationist Perspectives (Cambridge Univ. Press 2013). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Developments within various sub-fields of international law influence international investment law, but changes in investment law also have an impact on the evolution of other fields within international law. Through contributions from leading scholars and practitioners, this book analyses specific links between investment law and other sub-fields of international law such as the law on armed conflict, human rights, sustainable development, trade, development and EU law. In particular, this book scrutinises how concepts, principles and rules developed in the context of such sub-fields could inform the content of investment law. Solutions aimed at resolving problems in other settings may provide instructive examples for addressing current problems in the field of investment law, and vice versa. The underlying question is whether key sub-fields of public international law, notably international investment law, are open to cross-fertilisation, or, whether they are evolving further into self-contained regimes.

Jardim Oliveira: Immunity Ratione Materiae in Extradition Proceedings?

Thiago B. Jardim Oliveira (University of Geneva - Law) has posted Immunity Ratione Materiae in Extradition Proceedings? Here's the abstract:

Any debate on the exceptions to the immunity enjoyed by former State officials immediately brings to mind the extradition proceedings before English courts against former Chile’s President Pinochet. Ever since, the assumption has been that former State officials, as a rule, enjoy immunity from extradition proceedings once they have acted on behalf of a State. Supported by recent developments, however, this article questions this assumption. The idea that the immunity enjoyed by former State officials applies to every measure of criminal procedure, and that extradition is one such measure, misconceives the nature and purpose of both immunity ratione materiae and extradition proceedings.