Tzanakopoulos: The Right to Be Free from Economic Coercion

Antonios Tzanakopoulos (Univ. of Oxford - Law) has posted The Right to Be Free from Economic Coercion (Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This paper seeks to determine if there is a fundamental right of States to be free from economic coercion, against the background of international law permitting economic coercion as a means for its own implementation. After defining coercion and other cognate terms, it surveys the limits to (economic) countermeasures and (economic) sanctions, and determines that any 'sphere of economic freedom' of States is essentially a relative concept, without an irreducible core. Public International Law does not currently establish a fundamental right to be free from economic coercion -- though one should probably be established.

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 19, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• UN immunity and the Haiti Cholera Case
• Introduced by Emanuele Cimiotta and Maria Irene Papa
• Rosa Freedman & Nicolas Lemay-Hebert, Towards an alternative interpretation of UN immunity: A human rights-based approach to the Haiti Cholera Case
• Riccardo Pavoni, Choleric notes on the Haiti Cholera Case

New Issue: Global Environmental Politics

The latest issue of Global Environmental Politics (Vol. 15, no. 3, August 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Advancing Comparative Climate Change Politics: Theory and Method
• Mark Purdon, Introduction
• Kathryn Harrison, International Carbon Trade and Domestic Climate Politics
• David Houle, Erick Lachapelle, & Mark Purdon, Comparative Politics of Sub-Federal Cap-and-Trade: Implementing the Western Climate Initiative
• Kathryn Hochstetler & Genia Kostka, Wind and Solar Power in Brazil and China: Interests, State–Business Relations, and Policy Outcomes
• Prakash Kashwan, Forest Policy, Institutions, and REDD+ in India, Tanzania, and Mexico
• Sam Barrett, Subnational Adaptation Finance Allocation: Comparing Decentralized and Devolved Political Institutions in Kenya
• Tim Forsyth & Les Levidow, An Ontological Politics of Comparative Environmental Analysis: The Green Economy and Local Diversity
• Paul F. Steinberg, Can We Generalize from Case Studies?

Viñuales: International Investment Law and Natural Resources Governance

Jorge E. Viñuales (Univ. of Cambridge - Law) has posted International Investment Law and Natural Resource Governance (in Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources, K. Kulovesi & E. Morgera eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This paper analyses the implications of contemporary international investment law for the regulation of natural resources. Natural resources are unevenly distributed across different regions and countries and that makes access a very important question. In turn, access to resources located in the territory or within the jurisdiction of a country and, more generally, any activities conducted in connection with such resources, are subject to the regulatory powers of the host State. Although such powers are above all a matter of sovereignty, understanding them through this prism alone would miss an important point, namely that the interests of a host State and a foreign investor may be aligned not only in pursuance of public welfare but also to the detriment of it. The latter phenomenon has been called the “resource curse” – i.e. a situation where a rapacious government exploits the country’s natural resources for its own benefit depriving the population of its due. Foreign investors may be involved in such phenomenon either deliberately (i.e. through a close connection with the rapacious government) or as a mere result of their activity in the host State (i.e. by making the exploitation profitable for the government irrespective of any explicit complicity). Thus, questions of 'access', 'sovereignty' and 'distribution' are closely interrelated in ways that require sustained analysis. The first section of the paper provides a brief overview of the basic architecture and building blocks of international investment law, from a structural and dynamic perspective. The focus then turns to the core subject matter, namely the specific implications of this body of law for the governance of natural resources, particularly as regards access, sovereignty and distribution. In conclusion, some observations and recommendations regarding possible avenues for reform are put forward for consideration and future research.

Pollack: Who Supports International Law, and Why? The United States, the European Union, and International Law

Mark A. Pollack (Temple Univ. - Political Science) has posted Who Supports International Law, and Why? The United States, the European Union, and International Law (International Journal of Constitutional Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Over the past several decades, it has become commonplace in both scholarly and political circles to contrast the positions of the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) toward the rule of international law, with the US being characterized at best by ambivalence toward legal constraints, and at worst as a “rogue nation.” The EU, by contrast, has presented itself and been seen as a strong supporter of international law. The symposium introduced by this paper interrogates this conventional wisdom, applying and testing a theoretical framework that attempts to disaggregate both the nature and the causes of state support for international law. This introduction is organized in four parts. Part I problematizes the dependent variable, “support” for international law, disaggregating that concept into four discrete dimensions of leadership, consent, compliance, and internalization. Part II moves from characterizing to explaining attitudes toward international law, identifying four sets of factors or independent variables – international and domestic, political and legal – that might account for observed differences between the US and the EU. Part III introduces the five empirical papers in the symposium, which deal respectively with international human rights law, criminal law, environmental law, trade law, and the internalization of international law by US and EU high courts. Part IV concludes with preliminary findings about the nature and the determinants of US and EU support for international law. With respect to the dependent variable, we find considerable differences between the US and the EU, as suggested by the conventional wisdom, but we also identify important nuances in the nature of those differences, which center primarily around the dimensions of consent and internalization, albeit with important variations across issue-areas. In terms of the independent variables, we find that the roots of US and EU differences are complex and multi-causal, defying any effort to reduce those differences to simple contrasts such as American exceptionalism or the EU’s normative difference.

van Aaken: Is International Law Conducive to Prevent Looming Disasters?

Anne van Aaken (Univ. of St. Gallen - Law) has posted Is International Law Conducive to Prevent Looming Disasters? Here's the abstract:

Looming disasters mostly require collective action but international law is traditionally consent based. For a state to be bound by international law, it needs to have ratified a treaty (e.g. concerning climate change) or must be bound by customary international law. This horizontal form of cooperation makes the system sensitive to collective action problems (like free-riding on global public good, overuse of commons, begging-thy-neighbor etc.). I explore the question of whether other forms of cooperation, e.g. cooperation through soft law or international organizations mitigate the problem and under what circumstances this might be so. Furthermore, international law design might need to take into account internal processes within states (breaking up the black-box) as well as behavioral economic insights. The paper will suggest some mechanisms to help prevent states overcoming the cooperation problem with regard to looming disasters and highlight their limits as well. It submits that international lawyers need to look at all behavioral mechanisms of international law in order to understand how it can be designed and used to prevent looming disasters.

New Issue: Humanity

The latest issue of Humanity (Vol. 6, no. 2, Summer 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Carolyn J. Dean, Atrocity Photographs, Dignity, and Human Vulnerability
• Jeremy Adelman, Michele Alacevich, Victoria de Grazia, Ira Katznelson, & Nadia Urbinati, Albert Hirschman and the Social Sciences: A Memorial Roundtable
• Gregory Mann, From Empires to NGOs in the West African Sahel: An Introduction
• Janet Roitman, Kenneth Harrow, & Gregory Mann, An Interview with Gregory Mann
• Katherine Chandler, A Bee with an Electronic Brain: Drone Flights in Cold War America
• Pierluigi Musarò, The Banality of Goodness: Humanitarianism Between the Ethics of Showing and the Ethics of Seeing
• Lorrin Thomas, When We Talk About Human Rights

New Issue: Journal of International Criminal Justice

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Vol. 13, no. 3, July 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Marlies Glasius, ‘It Sends a Message’: Liberian Opinion Leaders’ Responses to the Trial of Charles Taylor
• Hemi Mistry, The Paradox of Dissent: Judicial Dissent and the Projects of International Criminal Justice
• Symposium: Proof in International Criminal Trials
• Yvonne McDermott & John D. Jackson, Foreword
• Paul Roberts, The Priority of Procedure and the Neglect of Evidence and Proof: Facing Facts in International Criminal Law
• Yvonne McDermott, Inferential Reasoning and Proof in International Criminal Trials: The Potentials of Wigmorean Analysis
• Mark Klamberg, The Alternative Hypothesis Approach, Robustness and International Criminal Justice: A Plea for a ‘Combined Approach’ to Evaluation of Evidence
• Michael Ramsden & Cecilia Chung, ‘Reasonable Grounds to Believe’: An Unreasonably Unclear Evidentiary Threshold in the ICC Statute
• Triestino Mariniello, Questioning the Standard of Proof: The Purpose of the ICC Confirmation of Charges Procedure
• John D. Jackson & Yassin M. Brunger, Witness Preparation in the ICC: An Opportunity for Principled Pragmatism
• Cases before International Courts and Tribunals
• Nerina Boschiero, The ICC Judicial Finding on Non-cooperation Against the DRC and No Immunity for Al-Bashir Based on UNSC Resolution 1593

New Issue: Leiden Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law (Vol. 28, no. 3, September 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Cecily Rose, International Lawyers as Public Intellectuals and the Need for More Books
• John Dugard Lecture - 2015
• Kenneth J. Keith, The International Rule of Law
• International Legal Theory
• Ignacio de la Rasilla del Moral, The Shifting Origins of International Law
• Yolanda Gamarra, Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406): A Precursor of Intercivilizational Discourse
• International Law and Its Methodology
• Ino Augsberg, Some Realism About New Legal Realism: What's New, What's Legal, What's Real?
• Jan Klabbers, Whatever Happened to Gramsci? Some Reflections on New Legal Realism
• Gregory Shaffer, New Legal Realism's Rejoinder
• Jakob V.H. Holtermann & Mikael Rask Madsen, High Stakes and Persistent Challenges – A Rejoinder to Klabbers and Augsberg
• International Law and Practice
• Hugh Thirlway, Human Rights in Customary Law: An Attempt to Define Some of the Issues
• Rosa Freedman & Nicolas Lemay-Hebert, ‘Jistis ak Reparasyon pou Tout Viktim Kolera MINUSTAH’: The United Nations and the Right to Health in Haiti
• Mamadou Hébié, Was There Something Missing in the Decolonization Process in Africa?: The Territorial Dimension
• Friedrich Benjamin Schnedier, The International Convention on the Prevention of Odious Agreements: A Human Rights-Based Mechanism to Avoid Odious Debts
• Shen Wei, Expropriation in Transition: Evolving Chinese Investment Treaty Practices in Local and Global Contexts
• Hague International Tribunals: International Court of Justice
• Abdulqawi A. Yusuf, From Reluctance to Acquiescence: The Evolving Attitude of African States Towards Judicial and Arbitral Settlement of Disputes
• International Criminal Courts and Tribunals
• Marcus Joyce, Duress: From Nuremberg to the International Criminal Court, Finding the Balance Between Justification and Excuse
• Aldo Zammit Borda, Appraisal-Based and Flexible Approaches to External Precedent in International Criminal Law

New Issue: Review of International Organizations

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 10, no. 3, September 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks, Delegation and pooling in international organizations
• Asif Efrat, Do human rights violations hinder counterterrorism cooperation? Evidence from the FBI’s deployment abroad
• Bernd Schlipphak, Measuring attitudes toward regional organizations outside Europe
• Daniel J. Blake & Autumn Lockwood Payton, Balancing design objectives: Analyzing new data on voting rules in intergovernmental organizations

New Issue: Journal of Conflict & Security Law

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict & Security Law (Vol. 20, no. 2, Summer 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Tom Coppen, Developing IAEA Safeguards: An Institutional Perspective on the State-level Concept
• Christian Schaller, Using Force Against Terrorists ‘Outside Areas of Active Hostilities’—The Obama Approach and the Bin Laden Raid Revisited
• Ezequiel Heffes, Detentions by Armed Opposition Groups in Non-International Armed Conflicts: Towards a New Characterization of International Humanitarian Law
• Sean Butler, Separating Protection from Politics: The UN Security Council, the 2011 Ivorian Political Crisis and the Legality of Regime Change
• Marina Aksenova, Conceptualizing Terrorism: International Offence or Domestic Governance Tool?
• Yasuhito Fukui, The Arms Trade Treaty: Pursuit for the Effective Control of Arms Transfer

Kellman: Exporting Armed Drones – The United States Sets Policy

Barry Kellman (DePaul Univ. - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on Exporting Armed Drones – The United States Sets Policy.

Turns: The First Case of Cyberwar in Non-International Armed Conflict? The Matrix in Iraq

David Turns (Defence Academy of the United Kingdom) has posted an ASIL Insight on The First Case of Cyberwar in Non-International Armed Conflict? The Matrix in Iraq.

New Volume: Ocean Yearbook

The latest volume of the Ocean Yearbook (Vol. 29) is out. Contents include:

• Issues and Prospects
• Awni Behnam, The Nexus of Ocean Trade and Climate Change: A Review Essay
• Law of the Sea and Ocean Governance
• Jay L. Batongbacal, Extended Continental Shelf Claims in the South China Sea: Implications for Future Maritime Boundary Delimitations
• Nuwan Peiris, Arctic Sunrise from ITLOS: The Arctic Surprise and in Search of a Balanced Order
• Karen N. Scott, Engineering the ‘Mis-Anthropocene’: International Law, Ethics and Geoengineering
• Peter Luttmann, Ice-Covered Areas under the Law of the Sea Convention: How Extensive are Canada’s Coastal State Powers in the Arctic?
• Living Resources and Coastal Management
• Anna Antonova, Reforming European Union Participation in Fisheries Management and Conservation on the High Seas
• Mary Ann Palma-Robles, Tightening the Net: The Legal Link between Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and Transnational Crime under International Law
• Cheryle Hislop & Julia Jabour, Quality Counts: High Seas Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean
• Ofelia Pérez Montero, Pedro Aníbal Beatón Soler, José Abelardo Planas Fajardo, Isabel Poveda Santana & Mirka Morales Hierrezuelo, Gender Approach in the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Program at Sevilla, Cuba
• Oil and Gas and Renewable Energy
• Godwin Eli Kwadzo Dzah, Re-Conceptualizing Environmental Governance in Ghana’s Offshore Oil and Gas Development
• Meinhard Doelle, Offshore Renewable Energy Governance in Nova Scotia: A Case Study of Tidal Energy in the Bay of Fundy
• Sarah McDonald & David L. VanderZwaag, Renewable Ocean Energy and the International Law and Policy Seascape: Global Currents, Regional Surges
• Maritime Transport
• Martin Jes Iversen, René Taudal Poulsen, Henrik Sornn-Friese & Stig Tenold, The Role of National Shipping Policy: A Scandinavian Perspective on Shipping Policies in a Global Economy
• Nengye Liu, China’s Law and Practice as a Coastal State for the Prevention of Vessel-Source Pollution
• Joseph Anthony Loot, Implementing the 2006 Maritime Labour Convention in the Philippines: Rules, Organizations, and Prospects
• Dikdik Mohamad Sodik, The Indonesian Legal Framework on Navigational Aids, Shipping Telecommunications and Ocean Shipping Lanes for Navigational Safety in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore
• Johanna Yliskylä-Peuralahti, Daria Gritsenko & Jenna Viertola, Corporate Social Responsibility and Quality Governance in Shipping
• Andreas Zink, The IMO’s Ballast Water Management Convention of 2004: A Decade of Evolution and Challenges

New Issue: Asian International Arbitration Journal

The latest issue of the Asian International Arbitration Journal (Vol. 11, no. 1, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Samantha Jayne Lord, The Procedure for Enforcement of Foreign-Related and Foreign Arbitral Awards in the People’s Republic of China: Is There A Need For Reform?
• João Ribeiro & Michael Douglas, Transparency in Investor-State Arbitration: The Way Forward
• Valerio de Oliveira Mazzuoli & Diego Luis Alonso Massa, Should BIT Dispute Resolution Clauses Be Treated As Agreements Between Investor And Host State ?
• Jonathan Muk Chen Yeen, The Sound of Silence – An Analysis of the Incorporation of Arbitration Terms after Contract Formation R1 International Pte Ltd v Lonstroff AG [2015] 1 SLR 521

New Issue: Revista de Direito Internacional

The latest issue of Revista de Direito Internacional (Vol. 11, no. 2, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Ana Luísa Soares Peres & Leticia de Souza Daibert, Governança global e a Organização Mundial do Comércio: Desafios Impostos pelo Novo Mandato de Desenvolvimento
• Celso Henrique Cadete de Figueiredo, A promoção da accountability na Organização Mundial do Comércio: uma análise horizontal e vertical
• Fernando Lopes Ferraz Elias, Os mecanismos de indução ao cumprimento no âmbito da OMC
• Camilla Capucio, A OMC e o regionalismo do século XXI: estratégia de imposição de modelos normativos?
• Alice Rocha da Silva, O redimensionamento da OMC no trato dos Acordos Comerciais Regionais
• Gleisse Ribeiro-Alves, O acordo GATS e a sua aplicação aos servícios do comércio eletrônico
• Humberto Alves de Vasconcelos Lima & Naiana Magrini Rodrigues Cunha, O problema da espionagem econômica internacional: seria a Organização Mundial do Comércio o foro adequado para sua apreciação?
• María Eugenia Marichal, La OMC y el proceso de globalización de la regulación alimentaria
• Matheus Linck Bassani, Um desafio na Organização Mundial do Comércio: viabilidade de um acordo plurilateral sobre energia
• Fabio Costa Morosini & Luisa Zuardi Niencheski, A relação entre os tratados multilaterais ambientais e os acordos da OMC: é possível conciliar o conflito?
• Jiang Jiani, Guihong Zhang, & Can Wang, International Standards for Intellectual Property Rights Protection: A Reflection on Climate-friendly Technology Transfer
• Marco Antônio Alcântara Nascimento, Dos contenciosos na OMC com enfoque em restrições às exportações da China
• Lucas Costa dos Anjos, A Organização Mundial do Comércio e a China: direito de propriedade e propriedade intelectual no país
• Gustavo Ribeiro, Export control as industrial policy on natural resources: Regulatory limitations on China – raw material and China - Rare earths cases
• Igor Abdalla Medina de Souza, Vinte Anos de Crise para a África? Poder, Assimetrias e a Abordagem Liberal da OMC
• Luciano Meneguetti Pereira & Etiene Maria Bosco Breviglieri, Os vinte anos da OMC, suas conquistas e desafios: uma análise do Brasil e o Sistema de Soluções de Controvérsias
• André Jansen do Nascimento, O direito ao desenvolvimento e os vinte anos do acordo sobre compras governamentais da OMC: uma análise da política legislativa brasileira
• Davorin Lapas, Interregional Organizations (IROs) in Europe: New Subjects
• Daniel Amin Ferraz, Grupo de sociedades: instrumento jurídico de organização da empresa plurisocietária
• David Falcão, Los Derechos Humanos en la Realidad Actual
• Patrícia Maria Lara Abreu & Rodrigo Bastos Raposo, Imunidade de jurisdição do Estado e reparação civil pela prática de tortura: o caso Zahra Kazemi v. República Islâmica do Irã
• Gabriela Alves Mendes Vieira & Marcelo Dias Varella, A Conexão entre a Corrupção e os Direitos Humanos
• Hitala Mayara Pereira de Vasconcelos, Da nacionalidade como direito humano: da necessária ampliação das hipóteses de aplicação do critério do jus sanguinis nos casos de adoção internacional

New Issue: Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht

The latest issue of the Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (Vol. 75, no. 2, 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Abhandlungen
• Felix Lange, Wider das “völkerrechtliche Geschwafel” – Hermann Mosler und die praxisorientierte Herangehensweise an das Völkerrecht im Rahmen des Max-Planck-Instituts
• Armin von Bogdandy, Ius Constitutionale Commune en América Latina
• Claudio Franzius, Grundrechtsschutz in Europa
• Douglas Howland, The Japan House Tax Case, 1899-1905: Leases in Perpetuity and the Myth of International Equality
• Stellungnahmen und Berichte
• Ignaz Stegmiller, Palästinas Aufnahme als “Mitgliedstaat” des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofs

New Volume: Anuario Argentino de Derecho Internacional

The latest volume of the Anuario Argentino de Derecho Internacional (Vol. 22, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Doctrina
• Silvina Barón Knoll, El Fallo “Van Gend And Loss” y Su Efecto Reflejo en Los Procesos de Integración Suramericanos
• Ada Lattuca, Integración Comunitaria y los Derechos Lacerados
• Alejandro Aldo Menicocci, El Principio Pro Cooperatione en la Jurisdicción Internacional Indirecta
• Amalia Uriondo de Martinoli, Adopción Internacional en dl Anteproyecto de Código Civil y Comercial 2012. Jurisdicción y Derecho Aplicable

ILR: Light Posting

There will be lighter than usual posting over the next couple of weeks.

New Issue: New York University Journal of International Law and Politics

The latest issue of the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics (Vol. 47, no. 2, Winter 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Forum: Navigating Deterrence: Law, Strategy, and Security in the Twenty-First Century
• Zachary K. Goldman, Navigating Deterrence: Law, Strategy, and Security in the Twenty-First Century
• Paul K. Davis, Deterrence, Influence, Cyber Attack, and Cyberwar
• Austin Long, Deterrence: The State of the Field
• Jacqueline Ross, Anti-Terror Stings and Human Subjects Research: The Implications of the Analogy for Notions of Entrapment and for the Pursuit of Strategic Deterrence
• Janice Gross Stein & Ron Levi, The Social Psychology of Denial: Deterring Terrorism
• Alex Wilner, Contemporary Deterrence Theory and Counterterrorism: A Bridge Too Far?

Bartels: The Relationship between the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures

Lorand Bartels (Univ. of Cambridge - Law) has posted The Relationship between the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. Here's the abstract:

Since the expiry of the ‘peace clause’ at the end of 2003, it has been unclear which obligations under the WTO SCM Agreement apply to subsidies granted to agricultural products. This is in particular important for export subsidies, which are prohibited under the SCM Agreement, but, to some degree, recognised in the Agriculture Agreement. The matter is regulated by Article 21.1 of the Agriculture Agreement, which has been interpreted by the WTO Appellate Body in different ways, including as an expression of the lex specialis principle. This paper analyses this provision, and considers how it affects different forms of agricultural subsidies. It concludes that it would take an extension of the Appellate Body’s current interpretive framework to save export subsidies from the disciplines of the SCM Agreement.

Scharf, Newton, & Sterio: Prosecuting Maritime Piracy: Domestic Solutions to International Crimes

Michael P. Scharf (Case Western Reserve Univ. - Law), Michael Newton (Vanderbilt Univ. - Law), & Milena Sterio (Cleveland State Univ. - Law) have published Prosecuting Maritime Piracy: Domestic Solutions to International Crimes (Cambridge Univ. Press 2015). Contents include:

• Sandra Lynn Hodgkinson, The governing international law on maritime piracy
• Sandra Lynn Hodgkinson, The incorporation of international law to define piracy crimes, national laws, and the definition of piracy
• Ved P. Nanda, Exercising universal jurisdiction over piracy
• Milena Sterio, Incorporating international law to establish jurisdiction: a comparative examination of the laws of the Netherlands, South Korea, Tanzania, India, and Kenya
• Laurie R. Blank, The use of force against pirates
• Mark V. Vlasic & Jeffrey DeSousa, The use of force by private parties against suspected pirates
• Frederick Lorenz & Laura Eshbach, Transfer of suspected and convicted pirates
• Milena Sterio, Pirates' right to a speedy trial
• Frederick Lorenz & Kelly Paradis, Evidentiary issues in piracy prosecutions
• Michael A. Newton, Piracy and the problem of 'command responsibility'
• Jon Bellish, The issue of juvenile piracy
• Eugene Kontorovich, The problems of pirate punishment
• Yvonne M. Dutton, The potential for asylum seeking by convicted pirates
• Michael P. Scharf, Conclusion

Aalberts & Venzke: Moving Beyond Interdisciplinary Turf Wars

Tanja E. Aalberts (Free Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) & Ingo Venzke (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) have posted Moving Beyond Interdisciplinary Turf Wars: Towards an Understanding of International Law as Practice (in International Law as a Profession, Jean d’Aspremont, Tarcisio Gazzini, André Nollkaemper & Wouter Werner eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

International lawyers have looked at the study of their object by international relations scholars above all with suspicion. Whereas they have warmly welcomed the increasing recognition of international law’s power also in political sciences, some of them have turned wary about the ways in which international law is (mis-)treated in the move to interdisciplinarity. Their anxieties pertain to the fate of both international law as an object of study and, by implication, the future of the discipline of international law. We submit that these anxieties overall boil down to concerns about the autonomy of international law, both as a domain of international or world society and as an academic discipline.

While this argument is in itself not unheard of, we submit more specifically that international lawyers’ responses have been largely counterproductive, threatening to undo some of the insights gained into the politics of international law. Our contribution first takes a step back from present day anxieties to contextualize them against the background of attempts to establish international law and international relations as scientific disciplines (II). A quest for scientific inquiry has similarly informed international relations scholarship, yet these parallel missions paradoxically feed present anxieties about interdisciplinarity. We will support this argument with a brief genealogy of the mainstream interdisciplinary agenda as it has evolved over the past two or three decades (III). In a third and final step, we will sketch our view of international law as practice. We point to the promise of asking what makes for a valid legal argument by investigating these standards as the medium and outcome of practice itself. We finally highlight its purchase for moving past anxieties of interdisciplinarity towards a productive study of the politics of international law (IV).

New Issue: Journal of World Intellectual Property

The latest issue of the Journal of World Intellectual Property (Vol. 18, nos. 3-4, July 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Ramzi Madi, Mash-Up Songs: Are There Any Exceptions to the Exclusive Rights in the Light of the Jordanian Copyright Protection and Related Rights Law?
• Saradindu Bhaduri, Deep Jyoti Francis, Dwarkeshwar Dutt, Vineet Kumar & Fayaz Ahmad Sheikh, Politico-Historical Contingencies, Intellectual Property Rights, and Economic Performance Across Countries: A Simultaneous Equation System Perspective
• Amit Basole, Authenticity, Innovation, and the Geographical Indication in an Artisanal Industry: The Case of the Banarasi Sari
• Narayan Prasad & Pravesh Aggarwal, Facilitating Educational Needs in Digital Era: Adequacy of Fair Dealing Provisions of Indian Copyright Act in Question

New Issue: Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 48, no. 3, May 2015) is out. Contents include:

• Michael Wood, International Organizations and Customary International Law
• Lisa R. Avalos, Female Genital Mutilation and Designer Vaginas in Britain: Crafting an Effective Legal and Policy Framework
• Robert W. Emerson, Judges as Guardian Angels: The German Practice of Hints and Feedback
• Yoon Jin Shin, Human Trafficking and Labor Migration: The Dichotomous Law and Complex Realities of Filipina Entertainers in South Korea and Suggestions for Integrated and Contextualized Legal Responses
• S.I. Strong, Religious Rights in Historical, Theoretical, and International Context: Hobby Lobby as a Jurisprudential Anomaly?