Heller: The Use and Abuse of Analogy in IHL

Kevin Jon Heller (SOAS, Univ. of London - Law) has posted The Use and Abuse of Analogy in IHL (in Theoretical Boundaries of Armed Conflict & Human Rights, Jens David Ohlin ed., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

It is a truism to say that conventional international humanitarian law (IHL) regulates international armed conflict (IAC) far more extensively than non-international armed conflict (NIAC). In IAC, conventional IHL authorizes both targeting and detention and carefully circumscribes their use. In NIAC, by contrast, conventional IHL is silent on the authorization for targeting and detention and imposes only rudimentary limits on when individuals may be targeted or detained.

Like nature, however, international law abhors a vacuum. Many of the gaps in the conventional IHL of NIAC have been slowly filled by custom; the ICRC has concluded that 138 of the 161 customary rules of IHL now apply in both IAC and NIAC – nearly 86%. As a result, it is now common for scholars to claim that, with the notorious exceptions of the combatant’s privilege and POW status, very few critical differences remain between IAC and NIAC concerning the applicable rules of IHL.

From a positivist perspective, the gradual harmonization of IAC and NIAC through convention and custom is unproblematic, because both are formal sources of international law. Since 9/11, however, the United States has consistently taken the position that certain IAC-based rules of IHL can be applied in NIAC via a third method: analogy. The U.S. has argued, for example, that it can target members of any organized armed group that would qualify under IAC rules as a “co-belligerent” of al-Qaeda.

In assessing the legitimacy of such analogies, it is tempting to focus on whether it makes sense to apply a particular IAC rule in NIAC. Is the Haqqani Network’s relationship with al-Qaeda really equivalent to Italy’s relationship with Nazi Germany? Emphasizing the substantive “fit” between IAC and NIAC, however, simply obscures a more fundamental question: where does the U.S.’s authority to analogize between IAC and NIAC come from?

That is a critical question, for two reasons. First, targeting and detention potentially violate the human rights of the individuals they affect. As the International Law Commission has noted, it is not enough for targeting or detention to qualify as a legitimate act of self-defence under Art. 51 of the UN Charter; that targeting or detention must also be consistent with either IHL or international human rights law (IHRL), depending on which legal regime applies. Second, because all of the targeting and detention activities that occur in the NIAC between the U.S. and al-Qaeda take place extraterritorially, each U.S. use of force and each capture operation potentially violates the sovereignty of the state on whose territory it takes place.

Put more simply, by relying on analogized rules of IHL to justify expanded targeting and detention of al-Qaeda, the U.S. potentially runs afoul of a number of prohibitive rules of international law: the principle of non-intervention; the prohibition on the use of force; and IHRL prohibitions on the arbitrary deprivation of life and liberty. What, then, is the legal basis for those analogies?

This chapter’s answer is straightforward: nothing. There is no basis in international law for taking rules of IHL that exist as a matter of convention and custom only in IAC and applying them in NIAC by analogy – which means that the U.S. is systematically violating international law by relying on those analogized rules to target and detain extraterritorially.

Conference: World Congress on International Law

On January 9-11, 2015, the Indian Society of International Law will host the World Congress on International Law, in New Delhi. The program is here.

Sinclair: State Formation, Liberal Reform, and the Growth of International Organizations

Guy Fiti Sinclair (Victoria Univ. of Wellington - Law) has posted State Formation, Liberal Reform, and the Growth of International Organizations. Here's the abstract:

This article argues that the growth of international organizations (IOs) over the past century has been imagined and undertaken as necessary to making modern states on a broadly Western model. The proliferation of IOs and expansion of their legal powers, through both formal and informal means, raise profound questions regarding the relationship between international law’s reforming promise and its imperialist perils. The article proposes a new analytic framework for understanding these phenomena, focusing on the rationalities of IO powers and the technologies through which they are made operable. It argues that both the growth of IOs and the cultural processes of state formation are impelled by a particular dynamic of liberal reform that is at once internal and external to law. That dynamic and the analytic framework proposed here are both illustrated and exemplified through an analytical account of the emergence of IOs in the 19th century.

Boulet: Cyber Operations by Private Actors in the Ukraine-Russia Conflict: From Cyber War to Cyber Security

Gertjan Boulet (Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on Cyber Operations by Private Actors in the Ukraine-Russia Conflict: From Cyber War to Cyber Security.

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 10, no. 1, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Eric Pickett & Michael Lux, Embargo as a Trade Defense against an Embargo: The WTO Compatibility of the Russian Ban on Imports from the EU
• Frank Altemöller, A Future for Multilateralism?: New Regionalism, Counter-Multilateralism and Perspectives for the World Trade System after the Bali Ministerial Conference
• Hugo Romero & Fernando Piérola, Unwritten Measures: Reflections on the Panel Reports in Argentina – Measures Affecting the Importation of Goods

Maogoto: Technology and the Law on the Use of Force: New Security Challenges in the Twenty-First Century

Jackson Maogoto (Univ. of Manchester - Law) has published Technology and the Law on the Use of Force: New Security Challenges in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge 2015). Here's the abstract:

As governmental and non-governmental operations become progressively supported by vast automated systems and electronic data flows, attacks of government information infrastructure, operations and processes pose a serious threat to economic and military interests. In 2007 Estonia suffered a month long cyber assault to its digital infrastructure, described in cyberspace as ‘Web War I’. In 2010, a worm—Stuxnet—was identified as supervisory control and data acquisition systems at Iran’s uranium enrichment plant, presumably in an attempt to set back Iran’s nuclear programme. The dependence upon telecommunications and information infrastructures puts at risk Critical National Infrastructure, and is now at the core of national security interests.

This book takes a detailed look at these new theatres of war and considers their relation to international law on the use of force. Except in cases of self-defence or with the authorisation of a Security Council Resolution, the use of force is prohibited under the UN charter and customary international law. However, the law of jus ad bellum was developed in a pre-digital era where current technological capabilities could not be conceived. Jackson Maogoto asks whether the law on the use of force is able to deal with legal disputes likely to arise from modern warfare. Key queries include how one defines an armed attack in an age of anti-satellite weaponry, whether the destruction of a State’s vital digital eco-system or the "blinding" of military communication satellites constitutes a threat, and how one delimits the threshold that would enliven the right of self-defence or retaliatory action. The book argues that while technology has leapt ahead, the legal framework has failed to adapt, rendering States unable to legally defend themselves effectively.

New Issue: Journal du Droit International

The latest issue of the Journal du Droit International ("Clunet") (Vol. 141, no. 4, Octobre-Novembre-Décembre 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Doctrine
• Nathalie Ros, Au-delà de la borne 602 : la frontière maritime entre l’Espagne et la France en mer Méditerranée
• Guillaume Le Floch, L’OIAC et le démantèlement de l’arsenal chimique syrien
• Caroline Kleiner, Les droits de l’homme et le secret bancaire : opposition ou subsomption ?
• Géraldine Bachoué-Pedrouzo, Le chef d’État et l’accès au territoire étranger. Quelques précisions . . .
• Variétés
• Christian Gamaleu Kameni, Réflexions sur la réglementation de l’investissement privé étranger dans l’espace de l’OHADA

New Issue: Rivista di Diritto Internazionale

The latest issue of the Rivista di Diritto Internazionale (Vol. 97, no. 4, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Articoli
• G. Gaja, Primary and Secondary Rules in the International Law on State Responsibility
• E. Sciso, La crisi ucraina e l’intervento russo: profili di diritto internazionale
• A. Davì, Ancora sulle finalità (e sui diversi modelli) del rinvio nel diritto internazionale privato contemporaneo
• Note e Commenti
• P. Pustorino, La riparazione dei danni nella sentenza della Corte europea nel caso Cipro c. Turchia
• S. Tonolo, Il diritto alla genitorialità nella sentenza della Corte costituzionale che cancella il divieto di fecondazione eterologa: profili irrisolti e possibili soluzioni
• A. Di Pascale, I diritti sociali nella giurisprudenza della Corte di giustizia dell’Unione Europea: diritti fondamentali?
• F. Capotorti, Abogados senza limiti?
• Panorama
• S. Marino, La circolazione dell’ordinanza europea di sequestro conservativo dei depositi bancari

Call for Submissions: Utrecht Journal of International and European Law

The Utrecht Journal of International and European Law has issued a call for submissions for its 81st edition on "General Issues in International and European Law." The call is here.

Conference: ASIL Annual Meeting 2015

The 109th Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law will take place April 8-11, 2015, in Washington, DC. The theme is "Adapting to a Rapidly Changing World." Online registration is now open. Here's the idea:

For better or worse, international law is confronting a period of profound change. Geopolitical developments—in particular, new assertions of economic, political, or military power by countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—have simultaneously aggravated latent territorial disputes and created the potential for unprecedented economic integration. Advances in technology have enabled cyber-conflicts and forged new tools for governmental coercion or control, while also facilitating the dissemination of information. Shared environmental challenges have presented new causes of human suffering or conflict, as well as new possibilities for global cooperation and assistance. And the increased role of non-state actors in international affairs has made more vocal the still unfulfilled demands on, for example, the universal recognition of the human rights of LGBT persons, the responsibilities associated with corporate conduct, and the protection of people from mass atrocities.

The 2015 ASIL Annual Meeting will ask how international law is adapting to a rapidly changing world. For example: Are the existing international legal regimes capable of meeting these challenges or will new regimes be required? Through what processes can we expect international law to adapt, and how might new norms emerge in the face of persistent disagreements or holdout problems? How is the legal order responding as the world moves from a unipolar system dominated by the United States to a more multipolar system? And what is the role or relevance of international law where it might be unable to resolve global issues?

The American Society of International Law, with its membership of scholars, practitioners, and students of international law from around the world, will explore these questions at the 2015 Annual Meeting.

New Volume: Journal of International Law and International Relations

The latest volume of the Journal of International Law and International Relations (Vol. 10, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Jennifer Orange, Book Review: Resolving Claims to Self-Determination: Is There a Role for the International Court of Justice?
• Kiran Banerjee, Towards Postnational Membership
• Hilmi M. Zawati, Book Review: Rethinking Rape Law
• Hilmi M. Zawati, The Challenge of Prosecuting Conflict-Related Gender-Based Crimes under Libyan Transitional Justice
• Jamie Rowen & John Hagan, Using Social Science to Frame International Crimes
• Valerie Oosterveld, Sexual Violence Against Men and Boys in Armed Conflict or Mass Atrocity

Shelley: Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism

Louise I. Shelley (George Mason Univ. - Public Policy) has published Dirty Entanglements: Corruption, Crime, and Terrorism (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

The entangled threat of crime, corruption, and terrorism now deserves high-level policy attention because of its growth trajectory. Using lively case studies, this book analyzes the transformation of crime and terrorism and the business logic of terrorism. Louise I. Shelley concludes that corruption, crime, and terrorism will remain important security challenges in the twenty-first century as a result of economic and demographic inequalities in the world, the rise of ethnic and sectarian violence, climate change, the growth of technology, and the failure of nineteenth- and twentieth-century institutions to respond to these challenges when they emerged.

Phelan: In Place of Inter-State Relations

William Phelan (Trinity College Dublin - Political Science) has published In Place of Inter-State Retaliation: The European Union's Rejection of WTO-style Trade Sanctions and Trade Remedies (Oxford Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

Unlike many other trade regimes, the European Union forbids the use of inter-state retaliation to enforce its obligations, and rules out the use of common 'escape' mechanisms such as anti-dumping between the EU member states. How does the EU do without these mechanisms that appear so vital to the political viability of other international trade regimes, including the World Trade Organization? How, therefore, is the European legal order, with the European Court of Justice at its centre, able to be so much more binding and intrusive than the legal obligations of many other trade regimes?

This book puts forward a new explanation of a key part of the European Union's legal system, emphasising its break with the inter-state retaliation mechanisms and how Europe's special form of legal integration is facilitated by intra-industry trade, parliamentary forms of national government, and European welfare states.

It argues first that the EU member states have allowed the enforcement of EU obligations by domestic courts in order to avoid the problems associated with enforcing trade obligations by constant threats of trade retaliation. It argues second that the EU member states have been able to accept such a binding form of dispute settlement and treaty obligation because the policy adjustments required by the European legal order were politically acceptable. High levels of intra-industry trade reduced the severity of the economic adjustments required by the expansion of the European market, and inclusive and authoritative democratic institutions in the member states allowed policy-makers to prioritise a general interest in reliable trading relationships even when policy changes affected significant domestic lobbies. Furthermore, generous national social security arrangements protected national constituents against any adverse consequences arising from the expansion of European law and the intensification of the European market.

The European legal order should therefore be understood as a legalized dispute resolution institution well suited to an international trade and integration regime made up of highly interdependent parliamentary welfare states.

Dill: Legitimate Targets? Social Construction, International Law and US Bombing

Janina Dill (Univ. of Oxford - Politics and International Relations) has published Legitimate Targets? Social Construction, International Law and US Bombing (Cambridge Univ. Press 2014). Here's the abstract:

Based on an innovative theory of international law, Janina Dill's book investigates the effectiveness of international humanitarian law (IHL) in regulating the conduct of warfare. Through a comprehensive examination of the IHL defining a legitimate target of attack, Dill reveals a controversy among legal and military professionals about the 'logic' according to which belligerents ought to balance humanitarian and military imperatives: the logics of sufficiency or efficiency. Law prescribes the former, but increased recourse to international law in US air warfare has led to targeting in accordance with the logic of efficiency. The logic of sufficiency is morally less problematic, yet neither logic satisfies contemporary expectations of effective IHL or legitimate warfare. Those expectations demand that hostilities follow a logic of liability, which proves impracticable. This book proposes changes to international law, but concludes that according to widely shared normative beliefs, on the twenty-first-century battlefield there are no truly legitimate targets.

Call for Submissions: Palestine Yearbook of International Law

The Palestine Yearbook of International Law has issued a call for submissions for its next volume. Here's the call:

The Palestine Yearbook of International Law is now inviting submissions of scholarly articles for publication for its next volume, XVIII (2015). Unlike recent years, this upcoming volume will not be based on a specific theme. Therefore, the editors encourage the submission of scholarly pieces of relevance to public international law and Palestine. The Yearbook is edited at Birzeit University’s Institute of Law (Birzeit, Palestine), and published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (The Hague, The Netherlands). The Editor-in-Chief of the Yearbook is Mr. Ardi Imseis.

At this stage, the Institute of Law will be accepting abstracts for review. Abstracts should include a working title, with a preliminary outline of the author’s legal arguments, along with a CV.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to:

• Comparative legal analyses of human rights and freedom struggles of relevance to Palestine (e.g. East Timor, Northern Ireland, South Africa, United States, etc.);
• Non-State actors, national liberation movements and international law;
• Contemporary developments and gaps in the international humanitarian and human rights law framework;
• The role and utility of continuing to use the United Nations (the General Assembly, Security Council, International Court of Justice, etc.) in advancing the cause of peace, justice and freedom in Palestine;
• The statehood of Palestine and its implications in law and policy, both in the region and beyond;
• The responsibility of States (including third States) international organizations, corporations and/or individuals in international law;
• The continued relevance of the Oslo Accords under international law, and in light of Palestine’s accession to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties;
• The Gaza Strip and international law;
• Litigating the Palestine issue, at the domestic and international levels;
• Apartheid and colonialism in international law;
• Natural resources in international law;
• Self-determination of peoples in international law;
• Humanitarian intervention;
• The Syria crisis in international law (international refugee law, international humanitarian law, etc…);
• Palestine’s accessions to international treaties and the possibility of future accessions and the joining of international organizations.

Important dates and contact information:

Prospective authors should express interest by e-mailing the Assistant Editor of the Yearbook, Ms. Reem Al-Botmeh and sending an abstract of the suggested paper as indicated above, along with the prospective author’s CV.

The abstract of under 750 words should be submitted by 15 February 2015.

Notification of decisions will be provided 1 March 2015.

Contact Information:

For more information, please contact Ms. Reem Al-Botmeh, the Assistant Editor of the Yearbook, at rbotmeh@gmail.com or alternatively, you may communicate directly with Mr. Ardi Imseis at AImseis@hotmail.com.

New Issue: American Review of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the American Review of International Arbitration (Vol. 25, no. 1, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Report of the Committee on International Commercial Disputes of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Publication of international arbitration awards and decisions
• Marc J. Goldstein, Annulled awards in the U.S. courts: how primary is “primary jurisdiction”?
• Luca G. Radicati di Brozolo, The enforcement of annulled awards: further reflections in light of Thai-Lao Lignite
• Maud Piers & Dirk De Meulemeester, A new arbitration law for Belgium: UNCITRAL enters the scene
• Solomon Ebere & Blerina Xheraj, Nine years later: investment treaty arbitration’s contribution to international commercial arbitration
• Peter J. Pettibone, The scope of the public policy exception to the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Russia
• Katlyn Thomas, On drafting an “ideal” arbitration statute

New Issue: World Trade Review

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 14, no. 1, January 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Symposium: Structural Issues at the World Trade Organization
• Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, Introduction to the Symposium Issue on Structural Issues at the World Trade Organisation
• Robert Wolfe, First Diagnose, Then Treat: What Ails the Doha Round?
• Yvan Decreux & Lionel Fontagné, What Next for Multilateral Trade Talks? Quantifying the Role of Negotiation Modalities
• David Laborde & Will Martin, Formulas for Failure? Were the Doha Tariff Formulas too Ambitious for Success?
• Paola Conconi & Carlo Perroni, Special and Differential Treatment of Developing Countries in the WTO
• Emily J. Blanchard, A Shifting Mandate: International Ownership, Global Fragmentation, and a Case for Deeper Integration under the WTO
• Bernard M. Hoekman & Petros C. Mavroidis, Embracing Diversity: Plurilateral Agreements and the Trading System
• John S. Odell, How Should the WTO Launch and Negotiate a Future Round?
• Douglas R. Nelson, Prospects for Constitutionalization of the WTO

Ranganathan: Strategically Created Treaty Conflicts and the Politics of International Law

Surabhi Ranganathan (Univ. of Warwick - Law) has published Strategically Created Treaty Conflicts and the Politics of International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

Treaty conflicts are not merely the contingent or inadvertent by-products of the increasing juridification of international relations. In several instances, States have deliberately created treaty conflicts in order to catalyse changes in multilateral regimes. Surabhi Ranganathan uses such conflicts as context to explore the role of international law, in legal thought and practice. Her examinations of the International Law Commission's work on treaties and of various scholars' proposals on institutional action, offer a fresh view of 'mainstream' legal thought. They locate in a variety of writings a common faith in international legal discourse, built on liberal and constructivist assumptions. Ranganathan's three rich studies of treaty conflict, relating to the areas of seabed mining, the International Criminal Court, and nuclear governance, furnish a textured account of the specific forms and practices that constitute such a legal discourse and permit a grounded understanding of the interactions that shape international law.

Bannelier-Christakis et al.: Les 70 ans des Nations Unies : Quel rôle dans le monde actuel ?

Karine Bannelier-Christakis (Université Grenoble-Alpes), Théodore Christakis (Université Grenoble-Alpes), Marie-Pierre Lanfranchi (Université du Havre), Sandrine Maljean-Dubois (Le Centre d’Études et de Recherches Internationales et Communautaires (CERIC)), & Anne-Thida Norodom (Université de Rouen) have published Les 70 ans des Nations Unies : Quel rôle dans le monde actuel ? En l'honneur du Professeur Yves Daudet (Pedone 2014). The table of contents is here.

Becker Lorca: Mestizo International Law: A Global Intellectual History 1842–1933

Arnulf Becker Lorca (Brown Univ.) has published Mestizo International Law: A Global Intellectual History 1842–1933 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

The development of international law is conventionally understood as a history in which the main characters (states and international lawyers) and events (wars and peace conferences) are European. Arnulf Becker Lorca demonstrates how non-Western states and lawyers appropriated nineteenth-century classical thinking in order to defend new and better rules governing non-Western states' international relations. By internalizing the standard of civilization, for example, they argued for the abrogation of unequal treaties. These appropriations contributed to the globalization of international law. With the rise of modern legal thinking and a stronger international community governed by law, peripheral lawyers seized the opportunity and used the new discourse and institutions such as the League of Nations to dissolve the standard of civilization and codify non-intervention and self-determination. These stories suggest that the history of our contemporary international legal order is not purely European; instead they suggest a history of a mestizo international law.

Nollkaemper & Plakokefalos: Principles of Shared Responsibility in International Law: An Appraisal of the State of the Art

André Nollkaemper (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) & Ilias Plakokefalos (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) have published Principles of Shared Responsibility in International Law: An Appraisal of the State of the Art (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015). Contents include:

• André Nollkaemper, Introduction
• Andrea Gattini, Breach of international obligations
• Francesco Messineo, Attribution of conduct
• James D. Fry, Attribution of responsibility
• Vladyslav Lanovoy, Complicity in an internationally wrongful act
• Helmut Philipp Aust, Circumstances precluding wrongfulness
• Pierre d'Argent, Reparation, cessation, assurances and guarantees of non-repetition
• Annemarieke Vermeer-Künzli, Invocation of responsibility
• Eric Wyler & León Castellanos-Jankiewicz, Serious breaches of peremptory norms
• Christian J. Tams, Countermeasures against multiple responsible actors
• André Nollkaemper & Ilias Plakokefalos, Conclusions

New Volume: Anuário Brasileiro de Direito Internacional

The latest volumes of the Anuário Brasileiro de Direito Internacional (Vol. 9, nos. 1 & 2, 2014) are out. Contents include:

• Anne-Laure Chaumette, Droit International Penal et Droit International des Droits de l’Homme, Illustration d’un Dialogue des Juges
• Antônio de Aguiar Patriota, Multipolaridade da Cooperação e Direito Internacional
• Catherine Maria, A Contribuição do Juiz Internacional à Noção de Direito Imperativo na Ordem Jurídica Internacional: Análise Comparada da Jurisprudência da Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos (Parte 1)
• Danny Zahreddine & Ricardo Bezerra Requião, Brasil e o Regime Internacional de Proteção aos Trabalhadores Migrantes
• Dante Maurício Negro Alvarado, Hacia un Marco Normativo en Las Américas en Materia de Protección de Datos Personales
• Francesco Seatzu, The Subregional Development Banks and the Expansion of Socio-Economic Growth in Latin America: Current Issues and Future Prospects
• Leandro Tripodi, Diretrizes da OCDE para Empresas Multinacionais: Governança Corporativa, Soft Law e Direitos Humanos
• Myriam Belolo Carabot, La Fonction du Juge Dans le Droit de k’Integration Analyse Comparee de l’Union Europeenne et du Mercosur
• Maria Blanca Noodt Taquela, El Principio de la Aplicación de las Normas Más Favorables a la Cooperación Judicial Internacional
• Catherine Maia, A Contribuição do Juiz Internacional à Noção de Direito Imperativo na Ordem Jurídica Internacional: Análise Comparada da Jurisprudência da Corte Internacional de Justiça e da Corte Interamericana de Direitos Humanos (Parte 2)
• Claudia Lima Marques & Maria Laura Delaloye, Una Red de Cooperación Global para Proteger a los Turistas Extranjeros
• Fabrício Bertini Pasquot Polido & Lucas Sávio Oliveira da Silva, O Direito Internacional Privado na China: dos Fundamentos Históricos à Conformação Normativa
• Larissa Ramina, Phenomena That Characterize International Law in the XXI Century
• Luz Amparo Llanos Villanueva, Las Operaciones de Paz de Naciones Unidas Enfocadas Desde el Realismo Politico de las Relaciones Internacionales. El caso de Haiti.
• Maristela Basso, Conflito Entre as Leis Aplicáveis ao Contrato e ao Bem Imóvel Situado no Brasil
• Nadia de Araujo & Daniela Trejos Vargas, O Reconhecimento e Execução de Acordos Privados em Disputas Familiares Internacionais em Debate na Conferência de Haia de Direito Internacional Privado
• Régis Bismuth, The Path Towards an Iinternational Public Policy For Sovereign Debt Contracts
• Flávio Couto Bernardes & Leonardo Lima Naranjo, As Regras da OMC e a Validade dos Benefícios Tributários em Face da Agregação De Conteúdo Nacional
• Rafael Prado, Resenha da Obra las Reclamaciones Derivadas de los Accidentes de Circulación por Carretera Transfronterizos

Call for Papers: The Ideal of Democracy and the Reality of Sovereign Debt

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "The Ideal of Democracy and the Reality of Sovereign Debt," which will take place May 25, 2015, at the University of Cambridge. Here's the call:

Call for Papers

The Ideal of Democracy and the Reality of Sovereign Debt

25 May 2015, Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, Senior Parlour Room

In the aftermath of the 2008 bank bailouts, sovereign debt has increased to unprecedented levels. As a result, governments saw their policy room curtailed by the demand for credibility and access to international capital markets. In Greece and Italy, democratically elected officials stepped down from power with the aim of promoting creditworthiness. The Argentine litigation in the United States again brought attention to substantial sway of bondholders over sovereign states. As a response, economic and legal debates on sovereign debts have been wide and varied, but they have only rarely addressed the core normative issues involved in issuing, trading, and restructuring sovereign debt. Political philosophers have been slow to respond to issues raised by recent debt crises. One likely reason for the current lack of normative reflection on the increased political importance of financial dynamics is the complexity of international financial markets.

The aim of the workshop is therefore to bring together scholars from philosophy, law, and the social sciences to discuss the consequences of rising sovereign debts for the normative ideals that inform existing parliamentary democracy. The workshop will feature invited contributions by keynote speakers Philip Wood (Law, Allen & Overy) and Gabriel Wollner (Philosophy, Humboldt). Drawing on these diverse perspectives, the workshop will contribute to a new framework for evaluating sovereign indebtedness.

Topics include but are certainly not limited to:

• Financial markets and democratic sovereignty
• Design of sovereign debt contracts and the role of international institutions
• The values and dangers of sovereign debt for social welfare
• Sustainable public finance and investment
• Fair sovereign debt restructuring
• Dealing with sovereign debt within the Eurozone
• Odious debt
• Rights and responsibilities of bondholders

Keynote speakers:

PHILIP WOOD is an expert in comparative and cross-border financial law and works full-time for the law firm Allen & Overy in the firm's London office. He has written around 18 books, including nine volumes in the series Law and Practice of International Finance published in 2007. He held visiting academic positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Queen Mary.

GABRIEL WOLLNER is assistant professor in philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin. His academic interests are in political philosophy and ethics, and the application of these inquiries to various issues in public policy. His work has appeared in a number of journals, including 'The Journal of Social Philosophy', 'The Journal of Political Philosophy' and 'The Canadian Journal of Philosophy'.

Submission details and deadlines:

The workshop is a one day event for which participants are expected to read the presented papers in advance. Papers can be up 10,000 words in length and presentations will be limited to 10 minutes, followed by a 40 minute discussion. To apply, please send a 500 – 700 word abstract to Jens van 't Klooster (jmv32@cam.ac.uk) before the 15th of February. Accepted presenters will be asked to circulate their paper by the first of May.

Organizers:

Anne Henow, Hayk Kupelyants, Jens van ‘t Klooster, Kim Hecker and Marco Meyer.

We gratefully acknowledge support by the University of Cambridge School of Arts and Humanities, Gonville and Caius College Cambridge and the Cambridge-Groningen ‘Trusting Banks’ project.

McLeod: Rule of Law in War: International Law and United States Counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan

Travers McLeod (Centre for Policy Development) has published Rule of Law in War: International Law and United States Counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan (Oxford Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

Rule of Law in War places international law at the centre of the transformation of United States counterinsurgency (COIN) that occurred during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It claims international law matters more than is often assumed and more than we have previously been able to claim, contradicting existing theoretical assumptions. In particular, the book contends international law matters in a case that may be regarded as particularly tough for international law, that is, the development of a key military doctrine, the execution of that doctrine on the battlefield, and the ultimate conduct of armed conflict. To do so, the book traces international law's influence in the construction of modern U.S. COIN doctrine, specifically, Field Manual 3-24, Counterinsurgency, released by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in December 2006. It then assesses how international law's doctrinal interaction held up in Iraq and Afghanistan. The account of this doctrinal change is based on extensive access to the primary actors and materials, including FM 3-24's drafting history, field documents, and interviews with military officers of various ranks who have served multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Call for Papers: International Law and Time

The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies has issued a call for papers for a conference on "International Law and Time," which will take place June 12-13, 2015. Here's the call:

CALL FOR PAPERS

International Law and Time

Deadline for abstract submission: 15 February 2015

The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva (IHEID), International Law Department, is convening a conference entitled ‘International Law and Time’ from 12 – 13 June 2015, to explore the phenomena of time and change in international law.

Time is an inherent component of many of the most important international law concepts. However, it also fundamentally determines international law as a field. International law has been in constant dynamic change since its inception. Capturing and understanding this change in time is one of the discipline’s fundamental challenges, as is the difficulty of working with the constantly changing materiae of international law in practice.

The conference is intended to create an opportunity to reflect and debate together the fundamentals of international law in depth. The themes sought to be explored include, inter alia, the identification of international law in time; change in international law; the tension in international law between change and stability; the impact of history (and our perception of past and future) on conceptualization and interpretation of international law; the appearance, disappearance and reappearance of ideas, themes and concepts over time; retroactivity; the role of time in creation and operation of international law norms and key international law concepts.

The conference will be structured into the following 6 sessions:

1. Attributing Meaning to Time: Visions of History and Future

2. International Law on a Given Day

3. Role of Time in Creation and Operation of Norms

4. International Law between Change and Stability

5. Continuity, Discontinuity, Recurrence

6. Regulating the Past: The Problem of Retroactivity

Panel descriptions can be found here.

The conference is open to both junior and senior international law scholars and practitioners. The organizers especially encourage current and recent doctoral students to apply. Papers will be selected based on quality, originality, and their capacity to provoke productive debate. Submissions of general character will be preferred over specialized contributions. The organizers will seek to publish the proceedings from the conference. Organizers will financially assist those selected speakers who would otherwise be unable to undertake the cost of the trip to Geneva.

Submissions: Abstracts of 500 words should be submitted through the online form by 15 February 2015. Selected applicants will be informed of their acceptance by 15 March 2015 and will be asked to submit their papers of around 6,000 words in length by 20 May 2015. The conference papers will be distributed to the other conference participants in advance to facilitate an in-depth discussion. The Graduate Institute is a bilingual institution; submissions in either English or French are welcome. Any questions should be addressed to the conference organizers (Klara Polackova Van der Ploeg; Leon Castellanos Jankiewicz and Luca Pasquet) at lawconference@graduateintitute.ch.