Call for Papers: Borderlines: The Transnational and Domestic in Law and Legal Theory

A call for papers has been issued for the seventh annual Melbourne Doctoral Forum on Legal Theory, to be held December 1-2, 2014. The theme is "Borderlines: The Transnational and Domestic in Law and Legal Theory." Here's the call:

BORDERLINES: THE TRANSNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC IN LAW AND LEGAL THEORY

Borderlines constitute the boundaries between and within legal orders. While borders assert their permanency and inviolability, guarding who the law protects and who it disregards, we know that they are contingent, moveable, transient and above all human creations. The word ‘borderline’ evokes many conflicting meanings — sharp divides, permeations and transgression, centre and periphery, the invisibility of some distinctions and the starkness of others, abnormality and a lack of normalcy, and the imprecision and vagueness of resting ‘on the borderline’ — each of which speaks to the relations between different legal orders that take on many forms, all of varying permanency. This year’s theme challenges participants to think about law legal theory in its transnational and domestic orders and forms through the concept of the borderline.

Where do the borders fall between and within the transnational and domestic, and why?

Transnational legal orders are wary of and antagonistic towards the borderline even as they assert its irrelevance. The domestic might be seen as the target, the market, or the audience of transnational law. Yet transnational law in an older, more strictly international sense treated the domestic as secluded; bordered away and free from international norms in all but the most serious of actions. How, where and why are these borders collapsed or reasserted? For domestic law the transnational can be welcomed as wisdom and cooperation or feared as threat and challenge. How does it border itself from the outside world? Why and how does the domestic subsume and contort that which it asserts is foreign? How does it ‘tame’ those things, behaviours, norms, and peoples it calls ‘savage’ or ‘wild’? Where does the transnational and domestic lay their borders? Who proclaims and perpetuates them? How are the borderlines imagined and drawn in the academy, the court, the ministry and the legislature? And how do activists, peoples and social movements respond?

How should we theorise the way the interactions between these orders take place?

Borderlines might at first seem a sharp ‘/’ that divides and excludes. But those sharing divisive borders can also be linked and unified by them. When might the borderline between legal orders be better read as a confluence, congruence, harmony, interaction, influx, encounter, tension, intrusion, conflict, or indifference? Should legal orders be imagined spatially: as bordered shapes, levels, webs, spheres or something else? Where do legal scholars draw their borders, and how do legal ideas move across intellectual, cultural and political borders? Should the jurist position herself as domestic or transnational? And what might we learn from examining and taking up how other academic traditions — the humanities, social and empirical sciences — approach the domestic and transnational?

How do different legal traditions and cultures deal with the transnational and domestic?

The civil and common law traditions locate domestic law within the nation-state and transnational laws across the borders states. But in what ways do we think beyond and against laws of the state? How is the transnational and domestic treated in other legal orders — religious, customary, indigenous — and where do they lay their own borders? How does the domestic and transnational respond to the non-national? Do these terms carry or connote different meanings for peoples, governments and organizations in the Global South/North, or East/West? And what treatment of those laws made other is needed for an order to function, to maintain its claim to authority over a body of people or law?

Zimmermann: The Independence of International Courts

Dominik Zimmermann has published The Independence of International Courts: The Adherence of the International Judiciary to a Fundamental Value of the Administration of Justice (Nomos 2014). Here's the abstract:

The study analyses the contents and scope of the principle of judicial independence as currently applied in the international judiciary. In light of the increasing role played by courts in the international system, the author initially examines the theoretical foundation for the principle’s application and develops a working definition of judicial independence in an international law context. On the basis of a comprehensive evaluation of sources pertaining to some of today’s most influential international courts, the author then draws conclusions on a general consensus of normative requirements for judicial independence and is able to point to requirements applicable only to specific jurisdictions (e.g. human rights courts). The study thus not only fills a gap in the scholarly evaluation of the organizational setup of the current international judiciary but also functions as a valuable guide for potential future permanent judicial bodies.

New Blog: Italy's Diplomatic and Parliamentary Practice on International Law

A new website on Italian Practice in International Law is now up. Here's the idea:

The website Italy's Diplomatic and Parliamentary Practice on International Law is a collection of Italian parliamentary and diplomatic practice on issues of international law. Our main purpose is to provide access to the Italian Government’s practice to non-Italian speakers. Our team constantly monitors the practice of the Italian Government as expressed before the Italian Parliament, as well as within the United Nations system, both in New York and Geneva. We classify the relevant statements chronologically, as well as through keywords and tags. If necessary, we translate them into English. Each post is identified by a topic-based title and introduced by a short summary. When possible, a link to the official document is made available.

Fournier: Der Einsatz der Streitkräfte gegen Piraterie auf See

Johanna Fournier has published Der Einsatz der Streitkräfte gegen Piraterie auf See (Nomos 2014). Here's the abstract:

Seit 2008 bekämpfen deutsche Streitkräfte Piraten vor der Küste Somalias, wobei sich verschiedene verfassungs- und völkerrechtliche Fragen stellen. Während das Völkerrecht ein militärisches Vorgehen zur Abwehr von Piratenangriffen gestattet, setzt vor allem das Grundgesetz hier Grenzen.

In diesem Werk wird unterschieden zwischen unilateralen und multilateralen Einsätzen zur Pirateriebekämpfung. Die Untersuchung ergibt, dass erstere gegen das Grundgesetz verstoßen. Anknüpfend an das Trennungsgebot zwischen Polizei und Bundeswehr erarbeitet die Autorin einen Änderungsvorschlag für die zentrale Norm. Multilaterale Einsätze hingegen sind innerhalb von Systemen gegenseitiger kollektiver Sicherheit verfassungsrechtlich legitimiert. Die Autorin erörtert weshalb auch die Europäische Union und mit ihr die Operation Atalanta ein solches System darstellt. Abschließend befasst sich das Werk auch mit den Rechtsfragen, die sich bei der Festnahme von Piraten durch deutsche Streitkräfte stellen.

Bettauer: Supreme Court Limits Holding in Bond, Not Reaching Constitutional Treaty Implementation Authority

Ronald J. Bettauer (George Washington Univ. - Law; formerly, U.S. Dept. of State) has posted an ASIL Insight on Supreme Court Limits Holding in Bond, Not Reaching Constitutional Treaty Implementation Authority.

d'Aspremont: The International Law of Statehood: Craftsmanship for the Elucidation and Regulation of Births and Deaths in the International Society

Jean d'Aspremont (Univ. of Manchester - Law) has posted The International Law of Statehood: Craftsmanship for the Elucidation and Regulation of Births and Deaths in the International Society (Connecticut Journal of International Law. Vol. 29, 201-224, 2014). Here's the abstract:

This article argues the law of statehood is best construed as a delicate elixir which allows international lawyers, not only to make state creation a legal phenomenon worthy of legal investigation, but also to claim control of the volatile phenomenon of births and deaths in the international society. In spelling out this argument, this article seeks to shed light on the main methodological moves unfolding in the international law scholarship devoted to the law of statehood and speculate about the specific rationales behind them. It specifically shows that the law of statehood is informed not only by a regulatory and explanatory agenda but also by a few intra- and extra- professional dynamics.

New Issue: Journal of International Criminal Justice

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Vol. 12, no. 3, July 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Debate
• Alexander Wills, Old Crimes, New States and the Temporal Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court
• Articles
• Kenneth A. Rodman, Justice as a Dialogue Between Law and Politics: Embedding the International Criminal Court within Conflict Management and Peacebuilding
• Philipp Kastner, Armed Conflicts and Referrals to the International Criminal Court: From Measuring Impact to Emerging Legal Obligations
• Michael Bohlander, Language, Culture, Legal Traditions, and International Criminal Justice
• Sévane Garibian, Ghosts Also Die: Resisting Disappearance through the ‘Right to the Truth’ and the Juicios por la Verdad in Argentina
• Symposium: The Alien Torts Statute — Kiobel and After
• Nehal Bhuta, The Ninth Life of the Alien Torts Statute — Kiobel and After
• Sarah H. Cleveland, After Kiobel
• Robert Cryer, Come Together?: Civil and Criminal Jurisdiction in Kiobel from an International Law Perspective
• Doreen Lustig, Three Paradigms of Corporate Responsibility in International Law: The Kiobel Moment
• National Prosecution of International Crimes: Legislation and Cases
• Elisabeth V. Henn, The Development of German Jurisprudence on Individual Compensation for Victims of Armed Conflicts: The Kunduz Case

New Issue: Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Comercial Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Comercial Internacional/Latin American Journal of International Trade Law (Vol. 2, no. 1, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Inu Barbee & Simon Lester, The TPP and the future of trade agreements
• Elisabeth Bürgi Bonanomi, An enabling regulatory environment for sustainable investment: the example of trade law
• Luciana Dutra de Oliveira Silveira & Ricardo Inglez de Souza, The public interest analysis in trade remedies investigations in Brazil
• Eduardo Márquez Certucha, Social Entrepreneurship: bringing together impact investment, trade facilitation and regulatory reform
• Ricardo García de la Rosa, Dichotomous evolution, regionalism and multilateralism: plurilateralism as a missing link
• Carlo Sheiternig, Sovereign bonds as investments under the ICSID convention
• Pedro Arcoverde, Public policy and the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Brazil: an analysis against the backdrop of global governance
• David Khachvani, Exclusion of right to challenge the arbitral award
• Carlos H. Reyes Díaz, BG v. Argentina. Investor State arbitration. Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States of America

Binder & Lachmayer: The European Court of Human Rights and Public International Law: Fragmentation or Unity?

Christina Binder & Konrad Lachmayer have published The European Court of Human Rights and Public International Law: Fragmentation or Unity? (Nomos 2014). Here's the abstract:

How does the European Court of Human Rights deal with notions, issues and principles of public international law? How is public international law received and applied by the European Court of Human Rights? The different contributions analyse the question “Fragmentation or Unity?" in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights in light of different issues. Topics include the Court’s approach to the law of treaties, state responsibility, and state and diplomatic immunity. Likewise, the manner in which the European Court of Human Rights deals with the obligation to not recognize unlawful situations is examined.

New Volume: Australian International Law Journal

The latest volume of the Australian International Law Journal (Vol. 20, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Mini Symposium: Creating New Futures for All: International Law and the Protection of Migrant Children at Risk
Yanghee Lee, Address: Creating New Futures for All Children: The Promise of International Human Rights Law
• Ron McCallum & Hannah Martin, Comment: The CRPD and Children with Disabilities
• Mary Crock, Of Relative Rights and Putative Children: Rethinking the Critical Framework for the Protection of Refugee Children and Youth
• Ben Saul, Indefinite Security Detention and Refugee Children and Families in Australia: International Human Rights Law Dimensions
• Kim Rubenstein & Jacqueline Field, Conceptualising Australian Citizenship for Children: A Human Rights Perspective
• Other Articles
• Megan Davis, Luke Bastin, Amici Curiae in Investor-State Arbitrations: Two Recent Decisions
• Ilyas U Musurmanov, The Implications of Romak v Uzbekistan for Defining the Concept of Investment
• Owen Webb, Kiobel, the Alien Tort Statute and the Common Law: Human Rights Litigation in this ‘Present, Imperfect World’
• Patrick Wall, Sitting on Solid Ground: The International Legal Basis for Overseas Sittings of the Military Court of Australia

Conference: 22nd ANZSIL Annual Conference

The Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law will hold its 22nd Annual Conference on July 3-5, 2014, at the Australian National University, in Canberra. The theme is: "Towards International Peace through International Law." The program is here. Here's the idea:

The theme of ANZSIL’s 22nd Annual Conference has been chosen to resonate with the commemorations taking place around the world in 2014 to mark the centenary of the beginning of World War 1. The conference will provide an opportunity to reflect upon the project of achieving international peace through international law that has shaped the past century. Horror at the scale and destructiveness of World War 1 spurred a new political commitment to preventing future wars. The League of Nations Covenant signed in the war’s aftermath expressed the commitment of the High Contracting Parties to achieving international peace and security through accepting obligations not to resort to war, establishing international law ‘as the actual rule of conduct among Governments’, and maintaining ‘justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations’. The dream of achieving perpetual peace was an old one, but the emphasis on doing so through international law and international institutions was new. Despite the subsequent disenchantment with the failures of the League, reflected famously in the skeptical reactions of realists such as EH Carr and Hans Morgenthau to the ideal of achieving ‘peace through law’, the United Nations Charter expressed an ongoing determination ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ through the maintenance of international peace and security and the peaceful settlement of international disputes in conformity with international justice and international law. Today the commitment to settling disputes by peaceful means continues to underpin many developments in international law. Public and private international law initiatives in the fields of trade, investment, and financial regulation aim to secure peace through economic stability and commercial relations, while the language of security continues to inform internationalist projects, from the maintenance of collective security to human security, food security, energy security, climate security, and cyber security.

The conference will explore the role that international law and international lawyers have played in the pursuit of international peace and security over the past century, and the role that they might play in the century to come. How have changing definitions or visions of peace and security informed the development of international law? How do the trauma and memory of war shape international law as an ideal, a set of institutions, a commitment, or a project? What contribution have Australians and New Zealanders made to the realisation of peace through law, whether on the Security Council, in peace operations, as judges and arbitrators at the Peace Palace and beyond, as civil society activists, as scholars, or as ‘norm entrepreneurs’? How do international legal doctrines and practices respond to changes in the nature of war and new threats to peace and security? What happens when the pursuit of peace and security comes into conflict with other values, such as justice, equality, or self-determination? What mechanisms and techniques for achieving the peaceful settlement of disputes have been developed by international lawyers, and what innovations are today being developed to address contemporary disputes and potential conflicts?

Vidmar: Democracy and Regime Change in the Post-Cold War International Law

Jure Vidmar (Univ. of Oxford - Law) has posted Democracy and Regime Change in the Post-Cold War International Law (New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law, Vol. 11, p. 349, 2013). Here's the abstract:

International human rights treaties were drafted in the age of the Cold War. In this environment, they remained neutral with respect to the particular political system or electoral method. In the post-Cold War era, scholarly arguments have been made that contemporary international law should be read with a democratic bias. Analysing the practice of states and United Nations organs, this article critically considers the democratic reading of international legal norms and argues that even in the post-Cold War era, a state does not violate international law simply by not being democratic. But this conclusion is not unqualified. The article demonstrates that collective practice is emerging of denial of legitimacy to coup governments where they overthrow democratically-elected ones. Governments can also lose international legitimacy on the basis of their abusiveness, although the latter is not necessarily determined by a lack of democratic electoral practices. Finally, where a regime change is internationalised, a collective attempt is commonly made to enact a new democratic government. Although not a legal norm per se, democracy is often an international policy preference which has influenced even some legally-binding documents adopted in the post-Cold War period.

Nollkaemper: Power and Responsibility

André Nollkaemper (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Power and Responsibility (in Un Diritto Senza Terra? Funzioni e limiti del principio di territorialità nel diritto internazionale e dell’Unione europea / A Lackland Law? Territory, Effectiveness and Jurisdiction in International and European Law, A. Di Stefano ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This paper critically reviews the popular proposition that 'power breeds responsibility'. It first explains why this proposition is intuitively appealing. Particularly in situations where multiple actors contribute to harm, power can be a criterion for determining who of a multitude of actors should bear responsibility. For instance, much of the case law on extra territorial human rights protection is based on a concept of power. The paper then explains why this intuition can be misleading. Saying that power informs responsibility is begging the question what type of power triggers what type of responsibility in what way. The paper focuses in particular on the ambiguity of the concept of power (different meanings of power have different implications for responsibility) and on the duality of the power-responsibility relationship (power itself may be constituted or influenced by responsibility). While generally speaking power indeed is highly relevant in explaining the allocation of responsibility between multiple parties, power is best considered as a compound concept that can take different forms, and which may pull in different directions, depending on the perspective from which power is analysed and the context in which it is applied.

Conference: Fifth International Four Societies Conference

On July 1-2, 2014, the American Society of International Law, the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law, the Canadian Council on International Law, and the Japanese Society of International Law will hold their fifth joint conference, at the Australian National University, in Canberra. The theme is "Experts, Networks and International Law." The program is here.

Krieger: The Oxford Companion to International Relations

Joel Krieger (Wellesley College - International Relations) has published The Oxford Companion to International Relations (Oxford Univ. Press 2014). Here's the abstract:

International Relations has long been a core discipline within Political Science, one of vast importance for understanding social, cultural, economic and political exchanges across national boundaries. Every dimension of human experience falls within the scope of the field, making it applicable to psychologists, historians, anthropologists, and others across a wide swath of academia. The two-volume Oxford Companion to International Relations would be one of the first reference works to make this field clear and comprehensible to both specialists and non-specialists. Entries are mostly thematic in content, rather than site-specific, permitting the work to have value and currency for years to come. The numerous theories and applications of IR are comprehensively covered, as would controversies related to the field, prominent figures, and ways IR has shaped political history. There are revised & updated entries derived from the Oxford Companion to Politics of the World, while the rest would be newly commissioned and authored by the foremost IR scholars around the world. New entries cover institutional developments (for instance, the creation and operation of the International Criminal Court, the governance of the Internet, and the various changes in the international monetary architecture since the beginning of the economic crisis); significant events that were not covered in the older volume (the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the challenges facing new democratic regimes in Eastern Europe and Africa); and advances in IR scholarship, especially in the fields of terrorism and international security. Fifteen interpretive essays are interspersed throughout the A-Z text, encouraging further scholarship and dialogue between readers.

Wirth: The World Trade Organization Dispute over Genetically Modified Organisms: The Precautionary Principle Meets International Trade Law

David A. Wirth (Boston College - Law) has posted The World Trade Organization Dispute over Genetically Modified Organisms: The Precautionary Principle Meets International Trade Law (Vermont Law Review, Vol. 27, no. 4, 2013). Here's the abstract:

“Precaution” is increasingly accepted as a basis for governmental policy in the areas of public health and environment on both the domestic and international levels. A precautionary perspective counsels action to avert danger or threats in situations of scientific uncertainty or incomplete information. Precautionary approaches find expression in internationally harmonized formulations as non-binding exhortations, binding treaties, and meta-level principles. Precaution is a particular challenge to free trade agreements, whose purpose is to eliminate unjustified barriers to trade. In that context, precaution as a justification for a challenged governmental measure may appear to be nothing more than a pretext for protectionism. This article traces the treatment of precaution in the jurisprudence of the World Trade Organization, and particularly under the Uruguay Round Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards. From this perspective, the piece analyzes a number of controversial disputes, including those over hormone-treated beef and genetically modified food and crops, and makes recommendations for an alternative treatment of this important question by the WTO’s Appellate Body.

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 4, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• The latest (and hopefully last) boat tragedy. Is there a right to be rescued at sea?
• Introduced by Andrea Caligiuri and Irini Papanicolopulu
• Seline Trevisanut, Is there a right to be rescued at sea? A constructive view
• Efthymios Papastavridis, Is there a right to be rescued at sea? A skeptical view

Clark: International Trials and Reconciliation

Janine Natalya Clark (Univ. of Sheffield - Politics) has published International Trials and Reconciliation: Assessing the Impact of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (Routledge 2014). Here's the abstract:

Transitional justice is a burgeoning field of scholarly inquiry. Yet while the transitional justice literature is replete with claims about the benefits of criminal trials, too often these claims lack an empirical basis and hence remain unproven. While there has been much discussion about whether criminal trials can aid reconciliation, the extent to which they actually do so in practice remains under-explored. This book investigates the relationship between criminal trials and reconciliation, through a particular focus on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Using detailed empirical data – in the form of qualitative interviews and observations from five years of fieldwork – to assess and analyze the ICTY’s impact on reconciliation in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia and Kosovo, International Trials and Reconciliation: Assessing the Impact of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia argues that reconciliation is not a realistic aim for a criminal court. They are, Janine Clark argues, only one part of a rich tapestry of justice, which must also include non-retributive transitional justice processes and mechanisms.

New Issue: International Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 18, no. 3, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Climate change, environmental violence and genocide
• Jürgen Zimmerer, Foreword
• Jürgen Zimmerer, Climate change, environmental violence and genocide
• Mark Levene & Daniele Conversi, Subsistence societies, globalisation, climate change and genocide: discourses of vulnerability and resilience
• Martin Crook & Damien Short, Marx, Lemkin and the genocide–ecocide nexus
• Gregory Kent, Crystallisations of the global western state in the era of climate change
• Rebecca Hofmann, Culturecide in changing Micronesian climates? About the unintenionality of climate change
• Andreas Exenberger & Andreas Pondorfer, Genocidal risk and climate change: Africa in the twenty-first century
• Jürgen Scheffran, Tobias Ide & Janpeter Schilling, Violent climate or climate of violence? Concepts and relations with focus on Kenya and Sudan

New Issue: International Journal of Refugee Law

The latest issue of the International Journal of Refugee Law (Vol. 26, no. 2, June 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Liv Feijen, Filling the Gaps? Subsidiary Protection and Non-EU Harmonized Protection Status(es) in the Nordic Countries
• Mollie Gerver, Testing Repatriation Contracts for Unconscionability: The Case of Refugees in Israel
• Tilman Rodenhäuser, Another Brick in the Wall: Carrier Sanctions and the Privatization of Immigration Control
• Joke Reijven & Joris van Wijk, Caught in Limbo: How Alleged Perpetrators of International Crimes who Applied for Asylum in the Netherlands are Affected by a Fundamental System Error in International Law
• Hugo Storey, What Constitutes Persecution? Towards a Working Definition

New Issue: International Relations

The latest issue of International Relations (Vol. 28, no. 2, June 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Peter Vale, If International Relations lives on the street, what is it doing in the classroom?
• Jan Niklas Rolf, The state of nature analogy in International Relations theory
• Sam Raphael & Doug Stokes, US oil strategy in the Caspian Basin: Hegemony through interdependence
• Andrés Villar Gertner, The Beagle Channel frontier dispute between Argentina and Chile: Converging domestic and international conflicts
• Tyler M Curley, Methodological process ethics in international theory
• Forum
• Richard N Lebow & Thomas Lindemann, Symbolic and cultural approaches to the origins of World War I: Introduction
• Richard N Lebow, What have we learned from World War I?
• Franca Loewener, World War I: A matter of respectability?
• Reinhard Wolf, Status fixations, the need for ‘firmness’, and decisions for war
• Charles F Doran, World War I as existential crisis amidst the shifting tides of history
• Thomas Lindemann, World War I as a self-fulfilling catastrophe

Special Issue: L'Afrique face à la justice pénale internationale

The latest issue of Études internationales (Vol. 45, no. 1, March 2014) focuses on "L'Afrique face à la justice pénale internationale." Contents include:

• Special Issue: L'Afrique face à la justice pénale internationale
• Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, Introduction : Union africaine versus Cour pénale internationale : répondre aux objections et sortir de la crise
• Frédéric Mégret, Cour pénale internationale et néo-colonialisme : au-delà des évidences
• Diane Bernard, Un (possible) apport africain à la justice internationale pénale
• Damien Scalia, Le sens de la peine dans la première condamnation par la Cour pénale internationale
• Viviane E. Dittrich, La Cour spéciale pour la Sierra Leone et la portée de son héritage
• Raymond Ouigou Savadogo, Les Chambres africaines extraordinaires au sein des tribunaux sénégalais. Quoi de si extraordinaire ?
• Fannie Lafontaine, La compétence universelle et l'Afrique : ingérence ou complémentarité?

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh et al.: The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies

Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh (Univ. of Oxford), Gil Loescher (Univ. of Oxford), Katy Long (Univ. of Edinburgh), & Nando Sigona (Univ. of Birmingham) have published The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (Oxford Univ. Press 2014). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Refugee and Forced Migration Studies has grown from being a concern of a relatively small number of scholars and policy researchers in the 1980s to a global field of interest with thousands of students worldwide studying displacement either from traditional disciplinary perspectives or as a core component of newer programmes across the Humanities and Social and Political Sciences. Today the field encompasses both rigorous academic research which may or may not ultimately inform policy and practice, as well as action-research focused on advocating in favour of refugees' needs and rights.

This authoritative Handbook critically evaluates the birth and development of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, and analyses the key contemporary and future challenges faced by academics and practitioners working with and for forcibly displaced populations around the world. The 52 state-of-the-art chapters, written by leading academics, practitioners, and policymakers working in universities, research centres, think tanks, NGOs and international organizations, provide a comprehensive and cutting-edge overview of the key intellectual, political, social and institutional challenges arising from mass displacement in the world today. The chapters vividly illustrate the vibrant and engaging debates that characterize this rapidly expanding field of research and practice.

Ohlin: Acting as a Sovereign Versus Acting as a Belligerent

Jens David Ohlin (Cornell Univ. - Law) has posted Acting as a Sovereign Versus Acting as a Belligerent (in Theoretical Boundaries of Armed Conflict and Human Rights, Jens David Ohlin ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

In many legal disputes, the selection of one body of law rather than another is outcome-determinative. The situation with targeted killings is no different. Although there are contrary impulses at the margins, in the main a human rights paradigm is more likely to restrict such operations while a law of war paradigm is more likely to sanction it. But the question is when each body of law applies, a question that is not explicitly addressed by either body. By looking at the underlying object and purpose of each body of law, however, an account of their respective spheres becomes apparent. This essay defends the claim that the dividing line is represented by a state acting as a sovereign as opposed to acting as a belligerent. In the former situation, the state acts as a ruler over its subjects and its activities are constrained by human rights law. In contrast, when the state acts as a belligerent during armed conflict, International Humanitarian Law regulates its actions. This essay provides a framework to determine when the state is acting in one mode rather than another: acting as a sovereign involves an unequal relationship (ruler-to-ruled), while belligerency is characterized by two, formally co-equal collectives facing each other in battle. At the closing stage of an armed conflict, the relationship of belligerency may give way to sovereignty, a transition point that is often characterized by the law of occupation. The argument is both normative and descriptive in the sense that the two bodies of law already embody these normative distinctions; therefore their respective application is currently delimited by these existing principles.

New Issue: International Theory

The latest issue of International Theory (Vol. 6, no. 2, July 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Arjun Chowdhury & Raymond Duvall, Sovereignty and sovereign power
• Luis Cabrera, Individual rights and the democratic boundary problem
• Juha Käpylä & Denis Kennedy, Cruel to care? Investigating the governance of compassion in the humanitarian imaginary
• Forum: Interrogating the use of norms in international relations: postcolonial perspectives
• Charlotte Epstein, The postcolonial perspective: an introduction
• Ayşe Zarakol, What made the modern world hang together: socialisation or stigmatisation?
• Julia Gallagher, Chopping the world into bits: Africa, the World Bank, and the good governance norm
• Robbie Shilliam, “Open the Gates Mek We Repatriate”: Caribbean slavery, constructivism, and hermeneutic tensions
• Vivienne Jabri, Disarming norms: postcolonial agency and the constitution of the international