Maluwa, du Plessis, & Tladi: Essays in Honour of John Dugard

Tiyanjana Maluwa (Penn State Univ. - Law), Max du Plessis (Univ. of KwaZulu-Natal - Law), & Dire Tladi (Univ. of Pretoria - Law) have published The Pursuit of a Brave New World in International Law: Essays in Honour of John Dugard (Brill | Nijhoff 2017). Contents include:

• David Dyzenhaus, Dugardian legal theory
• Christof Heyns, & Thomas Probert, Casting fresh light on the supreme right: the African commission's general comment no. 3 on the right to life
• Arnold Pronto, Human rights in the work of the international law commission
• Dire Tladi, Pursuing a brave new world for the oceans: the place of common heritage in a proposed law of the sea treaty
• Philippe Sands, Climate change and the rule of law: adjudicating the future in international law
• James Crawford, The International Law Commission's articles on diplomatic protection revisited
• Annemarieke Vermeer-Kunzli, Immunities and consent to jurisdiction in international law
• Christopher Greenwood, The development of international law by national courts
• Maurice Kamto, The status of municipal law before the world court in the light of recent cases
• Larissa van den Herik, The individualization of enforcement in international law
• Tiyanjana Maluwa, South Africa in Africa: assessing South Africa's participation in organization of African unity and African Union treaties
• Abdulqawi A. Yusuf, Unconstitutional change of government and the public law of Africa: outlawing Coups d'Etat in Africa
• Ivan Shearer, State succession in relation to treaties: looking back and looking forward
• Trevor P. Chimimba, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001) as a tool for criminal law enforcement
• Hennie Strydom, Counter-terrorism sanctions and human rights
• Max du Plessis, The Omar Al-Bashir case: exploring efforts to resolve the tension between the African Union and the International Criminal Court
• William Schabas, International Criminal Law and the Middle East
• Mia Swart, Fighting apartheid on a second front: Dugard's work on the occupied Palestinian territories
• Neil Boister, Global trends towards the simplification of extradition procedures

Nyawo: Selective Enforcement and International Criminal Law

James Nyawo (International Victimology Institute) has published Selective Enforcement and International Criminal Law: The International Criminal Court and Africa (Intersentia 2017). Here's the abstract:

The dynamics of enforcing international criminal justice through the International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a challenging exercise in Africa. At times the uneasy relationship between the ICC, the African Union and a few influential African states has given rise to concerns about the future of international criminal justice in general, and in Africa in particular. Still, the enthusiasts for international criminal justice as enforced by the ICC, interpret the challenges that the ICC is encountering in Africa as part of the growing pains of a new institution in the international system.

The distractors have already prepared the ICC’s obituary. One of the criticisms levelled against the ICC, and which is the motivation for, and central theme behind, this book is that it has morphed and ceased to be an independent legal institution instead becoming a political tool utilised by politically powerful states in the West against their political opponents in Africa. More specifically the Court is alleged to be selectively enforcing international criminal law by merely officially opening investigations and prosecutions in Africa. Although this book recognises that selective implementation of criminal justice is acceptable both at the domestic and international level, it analyses the legal and political factors behind the Court’s focus on international crimes committed in Africa when there are other situations to which the court should potentially turn its attention, such as in Syria, Afghanistan or the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The book seeks to determine whether such a focus implies that Africa has the monopoly over international crimes or whether African victims or perpetrators are any different from those in the Middle East? In addition the book attempts to uncover the basis and the validity of the African Union and some African states’ criticisms of the ICC.

Jaeckel: The International Seabed Authority and the Precautionary Principle

Aline L. Jaeckel (Macquarie Univ. - Law) has published The International Seabed Authority and the Precautionary Principle: Balancing Deep Seabed Mineral Mining and Marine Environmental Protection (Brill | Nijhoff 2017). Here's the abstract:

With the transition to the commercial-scale exploitation of deep seabed minerals, the International Seabed Authority’s obligation to protect the marine environment is being tested. In The International Seabed Authority and the Precautionary Principle, Aline L. Jaeckel provides the first in-depth analysis of the Authority’s work in regulating and managing deep seabed minerals.

This book examines whether and to what extent the Authority is implementing the precautionary principle in practice. This includes the development of adequate environmental protection standards as well as procedural safeguards and decision-making processes that facilitate risk assessment and risk management. In doing so, the author offers an insightful example of how the precautionary principle can be translated into a practical management tool.

Garbarino: Judicial Interpretation of Tax Treaties

Carlo Garbarino (Bocconi Univ. - Law) has published Judicial Interpretation of Tax Treaties: The Use of the OECD Commentary (Edward Elgar Publishing 2016). Here's the abstract:

Judicial Interpretation of Tax Treaties is a detailed analytical guide to the interpretation of tax treaties at the national level. The book focuses on how domestic courts interpret and apply the OECD Commentary to OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. Adopting a global perspective, the book gives a systematic presentation of the main interpretive proposals put forward by the OECD Commentary, and analyses selected cases decided in domestic tax systems in order to assess whether and how such solutions are adopted through national judicial process, and indeed which of these are of most practical value. The book operates on two levels: firstly it sets out a clear and comprehensive framework of tax treaty law, which will be an important tool for any tax practitioner. Secondly, the book provides crucial guidance on issues of tax treaty law as applied at domestic level, such as investment or business income, dispute resolution and administrative cooperation.

Symposium: International Investment Arbitration Across Asia

On February 16, 2017, the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney and the Sydney Centre for International Law will hold a symposium on "International Investment Arbitration Across Asia." The program is here. Here's the idea:

Treaty-based investor-state arbitration (or ISDS more generally) is an increasingly topical issue, as FDI flows continue to grow, especially across Southeast Asia and the rest of the Asian region, and host states have begun to experience some claims brought by disgruntled foreign investors.

The symposium, organised by the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney (CAPLUS) and the Sydney Centre for International Law (SCIL), with sponsorship from the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre and Herbert Smith Freehills, builds on the lively and timely conference funded by Chulalongkorn University's ASEAN Studies Centre in Bangkok on 18 July 2016, which compared the experiences and policy debates in each of the ten ASEAN member states. Those country reports are now being revised for review and eventual publication in a leading journal, with versions then being combined with papers on pan-Asian investment treaties and arbitration to be presented on 16 February 2017, for a co-edited book published by the same legal publisher.

This upcoming symposium will bring together leading experts from Southeast Asia, North Asia, India and Oceania, including several from institutional partners of The University of Sydney. It will help round off a major cross-institutional and interdisciplinary research project into international investment dispute management more generally, funded by the Australian Research Council since 2014.

Appel à communication: Après l’Accord de Paris, quels droits face au changement climatique ?

A call for papers has been issued for the Colloque annuel 2017 de la Société française pour le droit de l'environnement, which will take place June 29-30, in Aix-en-Provence. The theme is: "Après l’Accord de Paris, quels droits face au changement climatique ?" The call is here.

Call for Submissions: The Legacy of the ICTY

The Hague Justice Journal has issued a call for submissions for its 2017 volume on the legacy of the ICTY. Here's the call:

The Hague Justice Journal First Edition in Association with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia launches its call for submissions

The editorial board of The Hague Justice Journal (HJJ) is delighted to announce that it is soliciting submissions for its 2017 volume relating to the ICTY’s legacy in this its final year of operations. Such submissions will include selected papers from the ICTY Legacy Conference due to be held from 23-24 June 2017 in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and will be published in Autumn 2017. The HJJ undertakes this endeavor in formal cooperation with the ICTY, in line with a number of legacy-related activities being organized in 2017 by the ICTY and by the Peace, Justice and Security Foundation.

The objective of The Hague Justice Journal is to promote a profound collective reflection on the problems and challenges facing international law. Rejuvenated in 2016 by a group of international lawyers, the Journal addresses the major dilemmas of international justice from inter alia the perspectives of law, international relations, jurisprudence, criminology, sociology, penal philosophy, and the history of international judicial institutions. It is an online law journal intended for the benefit of academics, practitioners, graduate and post-graduate students, government officials, as well as the many people working for international organizations.

For more information on the journal please see its website.

In keeping with the general theme of the ICTY Legacy Conference selected papers for publication should ideally address:

• Institutional and Administrative Legacy – e.g. Witness protection and support – post testimony support: needs and resources; reparations and victim status; gender sensitive witness support.
• Normative Legacy – Synergies, cross-fertilization, and discrepancies between the jurisprudence of the ICTY, national jurisdictions, regional courts, and other international courts and tribunals; with a special focus on: how ICTY jurisprudence has influenced national jurisdictions, for instance in the region of the former Yugoslavia; and how domestic law and jurisprudence has informed international justice.
• Operational Legacy/Complementarity – Challenges faced by the Office of the Prosecutor in investigating and prosecuting conflict-related crimes, including challenges in building leadership cases and obtaining access to evidence; OTP's capacity building challenges and outcomes; perspectives on operational challenges facing national jurisdictions and potential/demonstrated solutions (including through lessons learned and applied from OTP's experience).
• Legacy on Access to Justice for Women – The evolution of jurisprudence on conflict-related sexual violence; participation of women in the justice process; working with NGOs and civil society to identify witnesses; protection of sensitive witnesses/victims; compensation mechanisms for sexual violence victims in national jurisdictions.
• Participatory Legacy – Defence in international criminal trials at international and national courts; defence investigations; defence organizations and offices; rights of the accused.
• Historic Legacies – Historic value of the extensive records of the ICTY; records as a means of combating denial; access to ICTY records and archives in the region; importance of user friendly information sharing and judicial databases.
• Non-Judicial Legacy – The ICTY and its limitations; to what extent can a judicial institution contribute to peace, reconciliation and deterrence/prevention or otherwise non-repetition of crimes; how to fill the gap through non-judicial mechanisms; the importance of memorialisation and the consolidation of the rule of law through capacity building.
• Leaving a Legacy: Outreach Activities – What should be the scope and goals of outreach on the ICTY legacy after the closure of the Tribunal; what are the needs of local communities in respect of the ICTY's legacy; what are the responsibilities of different societal actors – e.g. politicians, journalists, the legal community, civil society?

If who are interested in publishing a paper in the journal you should get in touch by email to the Chief Editor, Dr Anna Marie Brennan at: submission@haguejusticejournal.org

If you are interested in contributing to the volume please submit a 300-word abstract of the paper by 28 April 2017 to submission@haguejusticejournal.org along with the following information:

1. The author’s name, title, and affiliation (if any)
2. The author’s curriculum vitae/résumé; and
3. The author’s contact details including phone number or email address.

Abstracts will be reviewed and successful contributors will be invited to submit first drafts of papers by email to: submission@haguejusticejournal.org in Microsoft Word format by 1 August 2017.

Papers between 6,000-12,000 words are invited. In exceptional cases, the editorial board will increase this limit to 15,000 words for Articles that make an important contribution to the field.

All manuscripts are double-blind peer reviewed. Receipt of all manuscripts will be acknowledged as soon as possible. All manuscripts should be double-spaced with a single spaced abstract and footnotes. Heavy footnoting is discouraged. Authors are invited to follow OSCOLA, which is the journal’s style guide, which may be obtained from the editorial assistant upon request, or from the journal’s web page.

New Issue: Global Environmental Politics

The latest issue of Global Environmental Politics (Vol. 17, no. 1, February 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Research Articles
• Hamish van der Ven, Steven Bernstein, & Matthew Hoffmann, Valuing the Contributions of Nonstate and Subnational Actors to Climate Governance
• Christian Downie, Fighting for King Coal’s Crown: Business Actors in the US Coal and Utility Industries
• Todd A. Eisenstadt & Karleen Jones West, Indigenous Belief Systems, Science, and Resource Extraction: Climate Change Attitudes in Ecuador
• Alejandro Esguerra, Silke Beck, & Rolf Lidskog, Stakeholder Engagement in the Making: IPBES Legitimization Politics
• Yoomi Kim, Katsuya Tanaka, & Shunji Matsuoka, Institutional Mechanisms and the Consequences of International Environmental Agreements
• Coraline Goron & Cyril Cassisa, Regulatory Institutions and Market-Based Climate Policy in China
• Book Review Essay
• Timo Koivurova, Protecting the Environment of the Final Frontiers

2017 Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures

On March 7-9, 2017, Anne Peters (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) will deliver the 2017 Sir Hersch Lauterpacht Memorial Lectures at the University of Cambridge. There will also be a question and answer session on March 10. The topic of the lectures is: "Privatisation Under Public International Law."

Stompfe: Die Gestaltung und Sicherung internationaler Investor-Staat-Verträge in der arabischen Welt am Beispiel Libyens und Katars

Philipp Stompfe has published Die Gestaltung und Sicherung internationaler Investor-Staat-Verträge in der arabischen Welt am Beispiel Libyens und Katars (Nomos 2017). Here's the abstract:

Libyen und Katar gehören beide zu den finanzstarken Ländern der arabischen Welt. Aufgrund der enormen wirtschaftlichen und finanziellen Machtstellung haben diese Staaten auch rechtspraktisch zunehmend an Bedeutung gewonnen. Investitionsprojekte mit der Größenordnung von mehreren Milliarden Euro zeigen die ökonomische Relevanz dieser Staaten für westliche Unternehmen. Induktiv können anhand dieser Länder typische Problemstellungen internationaler Investitionstätigkeiten in der arabischen Welt analytisch dargestellt werden. Als wesentliche Herausforderung für die Vertragsgestaltung sind die Interpendenz von nationalem und internationalem Recht sowie die Synthese von Recht und Politik hervorzuheben. Dieses Werk unterzieht die Grundstrukturen des national-arabischen und internationalen Investitionsrechts einer kritischen Betrachtung und zeigt dabei auf, inwieweit die Schwächen dieser Regelungsebenen durch die Inanspruchnahme kautelarjuristischer Mechanismen kompensiert werden können.

Libya and Qatar both belong to the financially powerful countries of the Arab world. Due to their economic and financial position of power, these countries have become increasingly significant, especially regarding legal issues. Investment projects with the scale of several billion Euros underline the importance of these countries for western companies. Typical problems and risk structures of foreign investment activities in the Arab world can be shown inductively with reference to the legal system of Libya and Qatar. A key challenge for the drafting of contracts is a strong interdependence of national and international law, as well as the synthesis of law and politics. This publication analyses the fundamental structures of national Arab investment law and international investment law, and thereby illustrates how the infirmities of these levels of regulation can be compensated by the availment of precautionary measures.

Pollack: The Legitimacy of the Court of Justice of the European Union

Mark A. Pollack (Temple Univ. - Political Science and Law) has posted The Legitimacy of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Here's the abstract:

This paper examines both scholarly debates and empirical evidence about the normative and sociological legitimacy of one of the oldest, busiest and most powerful international courts in the world: the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). With respect to normative legitimacy, the paper identifies and applies three criteria for international court legitimacy, namely that courts should be fair and unbiased, that their rulings should be politically acceptable and legally sound, and that they should operate openly and transparently. While the CJEU has historically enjoyed a high degree of normative legitimacy, I find, recent decades have witnessed the emergence of a vigorous debate regarding overlapping charges of bias, of judicial activism and poor legal reasoning, and of opacity at the Court. By contrast with normative legitimacy, sociological or descriptive legitimacy measures diffuse support for the Court among its various audiences. The study of public attitudes toward the Court, I argue, is highly sensitive to measurement issues, but in general paints a picture of a public support that has been historically widespread but shallow and quite fragile, and I demonstrate that this support has decreased in the past decade, as the Court has been caught up in a broader crisis of EU legitimacy.

Kammerhofer: The Challenges of History in International Investment Law: A View from Legal Theory

Jörg Kammerhofer (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg - Law) has posted The Challenges of History in International Investment Law: A View from Legal Theory (in International Investment Law and History, Stephan W Schill, Christian J Tams, & Rainer Hofmann eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This short essay highlights, from a legal theoretical perspective, both the risks and the potential benefits of instrumentalising the history (and historiography) of law in international investment law. Investment law scholars should study their field’s theoretical foundations and historical bases, but all of these fields of study should be kept separate. In other words, we need avoid abusing history and historiography, but we need not avoid instrumental uses of history altogether. This essay first discusses the dangers, using critical legal historians’ ideologisation of investment law as example. It then points to potential usefulness of historical research, in this case of the history of doctrines (Dogmengeschichte). It helps us to see that the historical lineage of customary investment law is in considerable doubt.

Call for Papers: Governing Our Commons: What Matters to Us Today

The graduate students of McGill University’s Faculty of Law have issued a call for papers for a graduate law conference on "Governing Our Commons: What Matters to Us Today." The call is here.

Call for Papers: Transnational Criminal Law in the Americas (Update)

As noted previously, the Transnational Law and Justice Network at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Transnational Criminal Law in the Americas," to take place May 4-5, 2017. The deadline has been extended until February 28, 2017. The call is here.

Call for Submissions: Africa and Migration Flows: from Repression to Circular Migration

On the occasion of the re-launch of its "Focus Africa," the online journal Federalismi.it has issued a call for submissions entitled "Africa and Migration Flows: from Repression to Circular Migration - Legal and Socio-Political Implications of a Paradigm Shift." The call is here.

Choukroune: Emerging economies and international trade and investment law

Leïla Choukroune (Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities (CSH), New Delhi) has published Emerging economies and international trade and investment law (Pedone 2016). Here's the abstract:

What is economic emergence? How different are emerging economies from emerging markets and other groupings like the BRICS? Does law matter in their trajectories and, if so, why is the relation of these countries to international trade and investment law of particular importance to the understanding of the novel transformations and challenges faced by this fast changing and complex field of international law? Based on a course taught at the IHEI and a large number of related researches and publications, this short book proposes to recompose the emerging countries patchwork through the study of a limited number of chosen States and a few of their recent positions and practices in the matter of international trade and investment law. These paths in a patchwork will show that these emerging countries’ selective and negotiated participation in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) reveals a strategic will to preserve a normative autonomy to serve the needs of development (I), normative autonomy, which is also found in the approach of an international investment law that is regarded with a certain critical distance (II) and is illustrated in a variety of concrete trade and investment situations (III).

Call for Papers: Human Rights: Fundamental Values in International Law?

On the occasion of the 13th ESIL Conference in Naples, the ESIL Interest Group on International Human Rights Law has issued a call for papers for a half-day workshop on "Human Rights: Fundamental Values in International Law?" Here's the call:

Call for Papers

ESIL 13th Anniversary Conference on
Global Public Goods, Global Commons and Fundamental Values:
The Responses of International Law

Naples, 6-9 September 2017

European Society of International Law Interest Group
on International Human Rights Law Session

‘Human Rights: Fundamental Values in International Law?’

6 September 2017

On the occasion of the 13th ESIL Conference in Naples, the ESIL Interest Group on International Human Rights Law invites submissions for a half day workshop on ‘Human Rights: Fundamental Values in International Law?’ on 6 September 2017 in Naples. The 2017 Naples Conference seeks to explore how international law responds to global public goods, global commons and fundamental values. In line with our approach to each annual conference, the ESIL Interest Group on International Human Rights Law will examine the theme of the annual conference from a human rights perspective.

The Topic

In our call, we ask whether human rights operate as fundamental values in international law and if so, to what extent and in what form, in which fora and with what type of consequences? What does it mean to hold that human rights are fundamental values in international law? How does the characterization of human rights as a fundamental value play out in different branches of international law? Do human rights play a role as fundamental values beyond offering content for ius cogens norms? Is their status mere rhetoric against the background of fragmentation of the international legal order? If human rights are fundamental values, are they in competition with other fundamental values? In this workshop, we are interested in papers that study the use of human rights in nonhuman rights international legal contexts, and by non-human rights international courts and bodies. We are also interested in papers that seek to trace the history and development of human rights as fundamental values in general international law and how specialized bodies in human rights, such as the Inter-American Court on Human Rights espouse human rights as fundamental values when they interact with other branches of international law. The selection panel will give priority to paper submissions that focus on issues that are not covered by the fora and agorae of the main conference (please see conference website for more information) and to those who do not have a speaking slot in the main conference.

The Application Process

We invite submissions of abstracts of no more than 500 words. Selection will be based on how closely tied the abstract is to the theme of the workshop; scholarly merit; and with the view to producing an engaging workshop. All submissions are expected to be submitted as draft papers ahead of the workshop.

Each submission should include the following in the same document:

(a) short bio containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information and e-mail address;
(b) an abstract of no more than 500 words;

Applications should be submitted by 20 April 2017 to kuremer@ku.edu.tr All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process by 20 May 2017. Accepted full papers are due by 20 August 2017.

Please note that the ESIL Interest Group on International Human Rights Law is unable to provide funds to cover the conference registration fee or related transport and accommodation.

Marini: Pirateria marittima e diritto internazionale

Luca Marini has published Pirateria marittima e diritto internazionale (G. Giappichelli Editore 2016). Here's the abstract:

Il presente volume si affianca a quello intitolato 'Società militari private e contractors nel diritto internazionale', anch'esso edito da Giappichelli, con l'intento di diffondere, come è nel costume e negli scopi universitari, i risultati di ricerche condotte nell' ambito degli insegnamenti di diritto internazionale e di diritto dell'Unione europea attivi presso la Facoltà di Economia dell'Università di Roma 'La Sapienza' e finalizzate all'analisi di fenomeni e problematiche di rilevanza internazionale. Fino a qualche tempo fa, alcuni di questi fenomeni - ed è il caso della pirateria - si ritenevano in via di estinzione o del tutto scomparsi e comunque sottratti alla ribalta mediatica, nonché all'attenzione dell' opinione pubblica. Le cronache degli ultimi anni (si pensi all'incidente che ha coinvolto, in India, i fucilieri italiani di marina) dimostrano, invece, che i pirati godono di ottima salute e che il loro rinnovato attivismo è dovuto, almeno in parte, alle stesse cause che sono alla base dell'incontrastato successo dei contractors: l'espansione dei traffici commerciali conseguente al consolidamento del mercato globale, la diluizione dello Stato-apparato, la crescente rilevanza delle attività svolte dai privati e l'impatto da esse prodotto sull'ordinamento internazionale.

Toth: The Lex Mercatoria in Theory and Practice

Orsolya Toth (Allen and Overy LLP) has published The Lex Mercatoria in Theory and Practice (Oxford Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

The book offers a theoretically justified and pragmatic concept of the so-called 'lex mercatoria' contributing to the debate concerning the existence of this law as an autonomous, a-national and universal legal system established by trade practice. This new work equips commercial arbitrators and counsel with a formula to 'recognize' and apply a rule of the lex mercatoria in practice. It argues that a rule of the lex mercatoria is established if there is a majority congruent behaviour within a business community followed out of fear of criticism and a willingness to criticize others in case of deviation. This two-element test increases legal certainty and potentially reduces the time and costs of proving the rule. Case studies are included to illustrate the practical implications of the analysis and more difficult issues such as burden of proof, admissible evidence and the role of written harmonization measures are also considered. The approach adopted in the book reduces the elusiveness of the concept and offers an analysis which makes the lex mercatoria clearer for scholars and more attractive for practitioners.

Crawford: Tracing the Historical and Legal Development of the Levée En Masse in the Law of Armed Conflict

Emily Crawford (Univ. of Sydney - Law) has posted Tracing the Historical and Legal Development of the Levée En Masse in the Law of Armed Conflict (Journal of the History of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Levée en masse – the spontaneous uprising of the civilian population against an invading force – has long been a part of the modern law of armed conflict with regards to determining who may legitimately participate in armed conflict. The concept originated during the revolutionary wars in America and France, and was incorporated into the first codified rules of armed conflict. However, despite the prevalence of the category of levée en masse in the modern laws of armed conflict, there have been few, if any, instances of levée en masse taking place in modern armed conflicts. This article examines how and why the category of levée en masse developed. In doing so, this paper situates the concept and evolution of levée en masse within the history of international humanitarian law more generally.

New Issue: Journal of World Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Trade (Vol. 51, no. 1, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Faizel Ismail, The Changing Global Trade Architecture: Implications for Africa’s Regional Integration and Development
• Patricia Garcia-Duran & Leif Johan Eliasson, The Public Debate over Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and Its Underlying Assumptions
• Michael O. Moore, Carbon Safeguard? Managing the Friction Between Trade Rules and Climate Policy
• Jadranka Petrovic & Benjamin Grunberg, Intersecting Trade, Politics and Human Rights: The Negotiation Phase of the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement
• Juscelino F. Colares & William P. Canterberry, US–COOL: How the Appellate Body Misconstrued the National Treatment Principle, Severely Restricting Agency Discretion to Promulgate Mandatory, Pro-Consumer Labeling Rules
• Chenguo Zhang, Enhancing the Standards of Civil Damages Remedies to Fight Copyright Piracy in International Trade? A Commentary on the Proposed TRIPS-Plus Damages Reforms in the Third Amendment to the Copyright Law of the PRC Through Comparison with the US and EU
• Desmond McNeill, Pepita Barlow, Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Anand Grover, Ted Schrecker, & David Stuckler, Trade and Investment Agreements: Implications for Health Protection

Rachovitsa: On the Sidelines of the Failed Coup d’État in Turkey

Adamantia Rachovitsa (Univ. of Groningen - Law) has published On the Sidelines of the Failed Coup d’État in Turkey: Can Greece Extradite the Eight Turkish Military Officers to Turkey? (European Human Rights Law Review 645, 2016). Here's the abstract:

The article discusses the pending extradition case of eight Turkish military officers who, on the night of the recent failed coup d’état in Turkey, defected and resorted to Greece. The analysis addresses the public emergency in Turkey, insofar as it is relevant for the extradition case, against the European Convention on Extradition, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Greek Supreme Court’s case law. The discussion finds that, according to the circumstances currently prevailing in Turkey, there are substantial grounds for believing that the eight Turkish military officers will run a real risk of treatment contrary to art.3 of the ECHR, a real risk of a flagrant denial of justice and a risk of being subjected to the death penalty. The article concludes that it will be ill-advised for Greek authorities to grant Turkey’s extradition request.

Hilpold: Quotas as an Instrument of Burden-Sharing in International Refugee Law

Peter Hilpold (Universität Innsbruck - Law) has posted Quotas as an Instrument of Burden-Sharing in International Refugee Law – The Many Facets of an Instrument Still in the Making. Here's the abstract:

Starting with the year 2015 Europe has come under unprecedented migratory pressure that put into question the very structure of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). In fact, according to the so-called Dublin regime the country of first entrance is responsible for carrying out the asylum procedure leaving it open how the burden the granting of asylum involves should eventually be shared between the EU Member States (MS). Both the Geneva Convention on the Rights of Refugees of 1951 (GCR) as the CEAS are built upon the implicit assumption that refugee protection should be of a temporary nature but in reality protection has most often become permanent. In order to avoid excessive burdens for frontline states in Europe and for Europe as a whole the call for the introduction of burden-sharing mechanisms is becoming ever louder. In this context, quota systems have been presented as ideal problem solution instruments. The European Union has tried to establish such mechanisms but so far all these attempts proved to be insufficient and they met with considerable resistance by some EU MS. As a consequence, the insufficiencies of the GRC and the CEAS become evident and the international asylum system as a whole becomes imperilled. The growing resistance in Europe against the uncontrolled immigration both by asylum seekers and by economic migrants is strongly opposed by considerable parts of the population. Some countries like Austria consider therefore the unilateral introduction of a quota system for asylum seekers. Such a system would violate international and EU law but on the other hand the respective discussion has triggered a necessary debate about a reform of the international refugee system involving some form of a fairer burden-sharing.

Call for Submissions: Utrecht Journal of International and European Law (Reminder)

The Utrecht Journal of International and European Law has issued a call for submissions for its 85th edition on "General Issues in International and European Law." The call is here. The deadline is April 18, 2017.

New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added two lectures to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. They were given by Kenneth Keith on “The Advisory Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice” and Donald Rothwell on “The Law of the Sea and the Polar Regions.”