Call for Papers: TTIP and Beyond

The Jean Monnet Network LAWTTIP, a partnership between the University of Bologna, King’s College London, and University of Rennes 1, has issued a call for papers for a conference on "TTIP and Beyond: Negotiating and Implementing the EU’s Free Trade Agreements in an Uncertain Environment," to take place June 15-16, 2017, in Rennes. The call is here.

New Issue: Global Policy

The latest issue of Global Policy (Vol. 8, Supplement no. 1, February 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Critical Perspectives on Human Mobility in Times of Crisis
• Christiane Fröhlich, A Critical View on Human Mobility in Times of Crisis
• André Bank, Christiane Fröhlich & Andrea Schneiker, The Political Dynamics of Human Mobility: Migration out of, as and into Violence
• Polly Pallister-Wilkins, Humanitarian Rescue/Sovereign Capture and the Policing of Possible Responses to Violent Borders
• Dawn Chatty, The Syrian Humanitarian Disaster: Understanding Perceptions and Aspirations in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey
• Giovanni Bettini, Where Next? Climate Change, Migration, and the (Bio)politics of Adaptation
• Delf Rothe, Gendering Resilience: Myths and Stereotypes in the Discourse on Climate-induced Migration
• Henri Myrttinen, The Complex Ties that Bind: Gendered Agency and Expectations in Conflict and Climate Change-related Migration
• Pinar Bilgin, Resisting Post-truth Politics, a Primer: Or, How Not to Think about Human Mobility and the Global Environment
• Review Essay
• Brecht De Smet, Neoliberalism and The Future of Social Movements (Studies)

Nollkaemper: Responsibility

André Nollkaemper (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Responsibility (in Concepts for International Law - Contributions to Disciplinary Thought, Jean d’Aspremont & Sahib Singh eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The idea that international law requires that a breach is undone and reparation is provided is central to law as such – no less so to international law. Take away the notion of responsibility, and much of how we think about international law and why it matters starts to transform. This paper explores the structuring role of responsibility in international legal discourse, and discusses how transformations in the international legal system that move the dominant interstate system to the background inevitably affect the structuring role of international responsibility.

New Volume: Yearbook of Polar Law

The latest volume of the Yearbook of Polar Law (Vol. 8, 2016) is out. Contents include:

• Harry Badera, Tribute to Walt Parker
• Mead Treadwell, Support and Opposition: An Informal History of the Law of the Sea Convention in the United States and Alaska, Including a Tribute to Walter B. Parker
• Lisa Parker, Responsible Resource Development in Alaska: A Developer’s Perspective on the Red Dog Mine
• Rachael Lorna Johnstone, Respectful Neighbourliness: The United Kingdom’s Arctic Approach
• Simon Marsden, From the High North to the Roof of the World: Arctic Precedents for Third Pole Governance
• Kathryn Mengerink; David Roche & Greta Swanson, Understanding Arctic Co-Management: The U.S. Marine Mammal Approach
• Bent Ole Gram Mortensen & Ulrike Barten, The Greenland Self-Government Act: The Pitfall for the Inuit in Greenland to Remain an Indigenous People?
• Akiho Shibata & Maiko Raita, An Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation: Only for the Eight Arctic States and Their Scientists?
• Kristoffer Svendsen, The Impact of Choice-of-Law Rules in Cross-Border Pollution Damage Caused by Petroleum Spills from Offshore Rigs and Installations: The Case of the Barents Sea
• Małgorzata Śmieszek, Adam Stępień & Paula Kankaanpää, The Recent Arctic Council Assessments: Influential Tools in Policy-Making in the Council and Beyond?
• Matti Niemivuo & Lotta Viikari, The Nordic Welfare State and the Development of Northern Finland
• Johnny Grøneng Aase & Julia Jabour, How Satellites Can Support the Information Requirements of the Polar Code
• Aileen M. Nimick & Bradley P. Harris, Essential Fish Habitat Regulation in the United States: Lessons for High Latitudes?

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:

PALESTINE YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

Call for papers (Volume XX)

The Palestine Yearbook of International Law is now inviting submissions of scholarly articles for publication for Volume XX (2017). This is a general call for papers, but the Yearbook would particularly welcome submissions that focus on the themes associated with three anniversaries that will be marked in 2017 and which are relevant to Palestine. These are the 100 year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the 70 year anniversary of the UN Plan of Partition for Palestine, and the 50th anniversary of the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. As always, the editors also encourage the submission of scholarly pieces of relevance to public international law in general, including but not necessarily in relation to Palestine.

The Yearbook is published in the English language, 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.

Important dates and contact information

Prospective authors should express interest by e-mailing an abstract (of under 750 words) of the suggested paper as indicated above, along with a CV by 15 March 2017. If full manuscripts are available by that date, prospective authors should feel free to send those instead by that date. All submissions should be made to:

• Mr. Ardi Imseis: ai295@cam.ac.uk;
• Mr. Jamil Salem: j.salem@birzeit.edu; and
• Mr. Ata Hindi: ahindi@birzeit.edu.

For more on the Palestine Yearbook of International Law, see here.

Conference: IntLawGrrls! 10th Birthday Conference

The IntLawGrrls! blog's tenth birthday conference will take place March 2-3, 2017, at the Dean Rusk International Law Center, University of Georgia School of Law. The program is here. Registration is here.

Call for Papers: Evaluating the ‘Turn to History’ in International Law

The Interest Group on the History of International Law of the European Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for a workshop on "Evaluating the ‘Turn to History’ in International Law," to take place on the occasion of the Society's 13th Annual Conference, in Naples. Here's the call:

On the occasion of the ESIL 13th Annual Conference (Naples, 7-9 September 2017) the ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law hereby invites submissions, in English or in French, for its annual Workshop.

Call for Papers

During the past two decades the history of international law has evolved from a relatively marginal enterprise into a core professional concern and, in certain fields, a controlling vocabulary. The phenomenon, which is often captioned as a “turn to history”, is marked both by an exponential growth in publications and activities (journals, conferences, interest groups, blogs) and a re-invention of historical work as mode of critical analysis. One could begin to list several characteristics of the turn to history: the move away from trans-historical evolutionary accounts towards global, micro-, and subaltern histories; critiques of Eurocentrism; the emergence of histories of sub-fields of international law; socio-historical accounts of the international law profession; a renewed interest in archival work; an unprecedented interest in methodological questions; the role of historical accounts in judicial decisions; and so on. The purpose of the Workshop of the ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law is to trace these disciplinary developments and evaluate their impact on contemporary international law scholarship and practice.

In this context, the IGHIL invites submissions by scholars working within the fields of international law, history, and politics on the following inter-related themes:

• The impact of the historical turn on the methods of international legal history
• The impact of the historical turn in sub-fields of international law (e.g. human rights, international criminal law, diplomatic history etc)
• The impact of the historical turn on evaluating the historical function of international courts and tribunals
• The impact of the historical turn on Eurocentrism
• The impact of global, micro, subaltern, and other histories on international law historiography

Each submission should include

a) An abstract of no more than 400 words;
b) The intended language of presentation;
c) A short curriculum vitae containing the author’s name, institutional affiliation, contact information and e-mail address.

Abstracts must be submitted no later than 15 March 2017 to esilighil@gmail.com on behalf of the Steering Committee of the Interest Group, which shall collectively supervise the blind peer-review process of the abstracts. Applicants will be notified on the outcome of the selection process by 30 March 2017.

Selection will be based on scholarly merit and with regard to producing an engaging workshop, without prejudice to gender, seniority, language or geographical location. Please note that the ESIL Interest Group on the History of International Law is unable to provide funds to cover the conference registration fee or related transport and accommodation costs.

The IG currently investigates publication possibilities for selected abstracts.

New Issue: Journal of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the Journal of International Arbitration (Vol. 34, no. 1, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Ank Santens & Jaroslav Kudrna, The State of Play of Enforcement of Emergency Arbitrator Decisions
• Beata Gessel-Kalinowska Vel Kalisz, UNCITRAL Model Law: Composition of the Arbitration Tribunal Re-considering the Case upon Setting Aside of the Original Arbitration Award
• Jakob B. Sørensen & Kristian Torp, The Second Look in European Union Competition Law: A Scandinavian Perspective
• César R. Ternieden, Tarek Badawy, & Sarwat Abd El-Shahid, Arbitrability and Choice of Law in Transfer of Technology Agreements Under Egyptian Law
• Philippe Hovaguimian, The Res Judicata Effects of Foreign Judgments in Post-Award Proceedings: To Bind or Not to Bind?

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 61, no. 2, February 2017) is out. Contents include:

• David B. Carter & Paul Poast, Why Do States Build Walls? Political Economy, Security, and Border Stability
• Seung-Whan Choi & James A. Piazza, Foreign Military Interventions and Suicide Attacks
• Erica Chenoweth & Jay Ulfelder, Can Structural Conditions Explain the Onset of Nonviolent Uprisings?
• Andrew H. Kydd & Roseanne W. McManus, Threats and Assurances in Crisis Bargaining
• Angelo Antoci, Alessandro Fiori Maccioni, Pier Luigi Sacco, & Mauro Sodini, Self-protection, Psychological Externalities, and the Social Dynamics of Fear
• Rotem Nagar & Ifat Maoz, Predicting Jewish-Israeli Recognition of Palestinian Pain and Suffering
• Christina L. Davis & Krzysztof J. Pelc, Cooperation in Hard Times: Self-restraint of Trade Protection
• Michael A. Bailey, Anton Strezhnev, & Erik Voeten, Estimating Dynamic State Preferences from United Nations Voting Data
• Fırat Bilgel & Burhan Can Karahasan, The Economic Costs of Separatist Terrorism in Turkey

Kammerhofer: Der Stufenbau des Völkerrechts: Strukturanalyse statt Quellenmystik

Jörg Kammerhofer (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg - Law) has posted Der Stufenbau des Völkerrechts: Strukturanalyse statt Quellenmystik (The Hierarchy of International Law: Abandoning the Mysticism of the Sources of Law for the Structural Analysis of Legal Orders) (in Hans Kelsen – eine inspirierende Persönlichkeit für Rechtslehre, Philosophie, Politik und Internationale Beziehungen, Thomas Olechowski et al. eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Der Völkerrechtler ist mit den "Quellen" des Völkerrechts zuvörderst in Artikel 38 des IGH-Statuts konfrontiert, die herrschende Lehre ist jedoch von widersprüchlichen Thesen sowie von einer gehörigen Portion Aberglauben durchsetzt. Um Licht ins Dickicht des traditionellen Quellenverständnisses zu bringen, wird in diesem Beitrag die Lehre vom Stufenbau der Rechtsordnung - das Aushängeschild par exemple der Reinen Rechtslehre - auf das Völkerrecht und seine Lehre angewandt. Nach einer Darstellung der Stufenbaulehre in ihrem Verhältnis zum traditionellen Quellenverständnis werden die Möglichkeiten einer "Völkerrechtsquellenarchitektur" ausgelotet. Der Beitrag schließt mit der Frage, ob die Grundnorm eine Klammerfunktion für nicht durch positivrechtliche Normen verbundene (Teil)rechtsordnungen ausüben kann. Dem Völkerrechtler soll mit diesem Beitrag nahegebracht werden, daß die Stufenbaulehre nichts anderes als der zu Ende gedachte juristische Commonsense ist. Statt unkritischer Übernahme tradierter Autoritäten baut sie auf den rechtstheoretisch kritischen Blick auf die Dogmatik. Der Rechtstheoretiker hingegen lernt das Völkerrecht und seine Lehre als Labor kennen, denn die Erzeugung und Struktur des Völkerrechts können wegen ihrer einfachen, stark an das 19. Jahrhundert erinnernde Normstrukturen und Lehrgebäude als besonders lehrreicher Anwendungsfall gesehen werden.

Dieser Beitrag ist die gekürzte und mit einem - dem deutschsprachigen und eher rechtstheoretischen Leserkreis angepaßten - anderen Argumentationsgang versehene deutsche Fassung von: "Sources in Legal Positivist Theories: The Pure Theory’s Structural Analysis of the Law".

We look for the law in its 'sources.' However, as many recognise, the main-stream riverine metaphor is fatally flawed. This chapter argues that there is an unlikely saviour - the Kelsen-Merkl Stufenbau theory of the hierarchy of norms. This may seem far-fetched, but this theory is the closest we have to a legal common-sense theory of the sources of international law. It is close to the main-stream, but provides a solid theoretical basis. It does so by fashioning the only necessary link between norms into the ordering principle of legal orders: the basis of validity of one norm is another. A special type of rule - the empowerment norm - is this basis; norms are created 'under it.' This understanding of hierarchy avoids many of the misconceptions of orthodox scholarship. False necessities are deconstructed: the sources are neither a priori nor external to the law. Applying the Stufenbau theory to international law, this chapter concludes by sketching out the possibilities of ordering the sources of international law.

This chapter is a shortened and overhauled (i.e. a different style and emphasis in constructing the argument) German version of 'Sources in Legal Positivist Theories: The Pure Theory’s Structural Analysis of the Law'.

Note: Downloadable document is available in German.

Zahar: A Bottom-Up Compliance Mechanism for the Paris Agreement

Alexander Zahar (Wuhan Univ. - Law) has posted A Bottom-Up Compliance Mechanism for the Paris Agreement (Chinese Journal of Environmental Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The article discusses the development of the Paris Agreement’s provision on a compliance mechanism contained in Article 15 of the treaty. There is a risk that a compliance mechanism set up as a separate body within the new regime will be duplicative and dysfunctional. Keeping state parties to their Paris Agreement obligations can be achieved, instead, through the elaboration of pre-existing and already well-developed reporting-and-review processes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In the past, these have generated sufficient pressure on states to maintain compliance with their UNFCCC obligations, and are likely to have the same effect for the new treaty. The fact that the Paris Agreement does not impose any onerous new obligations on states is a reason to continue to rely on existing processes. I show that the separate compliance body envisaged by the Paris Agreement has no obvious way to improve on the diffuse ‘compliance mechanism’ currently operating under the UNFCCC. The most efficient approach to ‘Paris Agreement compliance’, therefore, would be to delay implementation of the Article 15 mechanism and allow current practices, suitably modified, to continue for as long as their performance is satisfactory.

Call for Papers: Settlement and Unsettlement - The Ends of World War I and their Legacies

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Settlement and Unsettlement - The Ends of World War I and their Legacies," to be held March 22-24, 2018, in Washington, DC. Here's the call:

Call for Papers

Settlement and Unsettlement -
The Ends of World War I and their Legacies

The armistice of November 11, 1918, is widely commemorated as the end of World War I, but that event was only part of a protracted process with far-reaching consequences. A series of peace treaties, starting with Brest-Litovsk in 1918 and continuing through Lausanne in 1923, brought the war to a stuttering conclusion. The 1919 Paris Peace Conference and the agreements it produced rank as the most prominent and most controversial aspect of that process. Scholarly debate has long focused on the Paris conference in the context of debates on war guilt, the burdens imposed on defeated Germany, or President Woodrow Wilson’s failure to realize his vision of a liberal world order. This focus was in line with addressing questions such as the rise of fascism, the causes of World War II, or the roots of the Great Depression. Yet the postwar settlements reached far beyond West and Central Europe. They shaped a new global order that, some hoped, would prevent another disastrous global war.

Many consequences of that reorganization are still being felt. The postwar order and the new respect paid to the right of self-determination sparked hopes and expectations while setting up the forces that would deflate them. Regardless of whether the postwar settlements led directly to the renewal of world-wide conflict in the 1930s, as many have charged, they created structures in which the later conflicts arose. A century later, participants in conflicts across the world still trace their grievances back to the pivotal period 1917–1923.

The centenary of the 1918 Armistice in 2018 provides a perfect occasion to reassess the postwar settlement’s global repercussions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In light of the fresh scrutiny historians have recently given to the world these settlements created, the time is ripe for such a reassessment. That scrutiny commonly centers on the consequences of the Paris Peace Conference itself, the clash of different visions of an international order in full view of a newly assertive global public. The peace settlements created new forms of international organization and global governance. They spelled the end of centuries-old continental empires—the Habsburg and the Ottoman empires—and stripped Germany of its overseas colonies and important parts of its European territory. They initiated the remaking of the political landscape not only of Europe and the Middle East but also of colonized regions far from the wartime fronts, leading to forced population movements and “minority problems” of an unprecedented kind and scale. Political turmoil in Russia and parts of Central Europe brought about the specter of revolution and triggered Western military interventions in paramilitary conflicts and civil wars. International organizations, above all the League of Nations, came into existence after the war that were intent on overseeing interstates relations and creating political, economic, legal, labor, and other codes to regulate them. At the same time, a wide range of groups resisted the postwar political order and advocated alternative systems of sovereignty and sources of power.

With the Armistice, the idea of national self-determination began its global career as a pivotal principle of world order as it fed hopes of peoples around the world for an end to alien rule. The Wilsonian program inspired and mobilized people as far from the negotiations in Paris as East Asia. Enduring problems arose from the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, and challenges to colonialism evolved in response to the creation of the League of Nations’ Mandates Commission. Disappointment with the international order would fuel conflicts for decades.

Events and decisions linked to the end of World War I continue to resonate throughout the world today. The 1920 Treaty of Trianon, for instance, remains a point of reference in nationalist rhetoric in many of the successor states to the Hapsburg Empire. The refusal by the U.S. Congress to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and to approve membership in the League of Nations is still held up as the textbook example of the country’s deep-seated ambivalence about its role as a world power. The Greek-Turkish “population exchange” sanctioned by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne initiated a century of mass expulsions. The reorganization of the Middle East into several proto-nation-states sowed the seeds of regional conflicts that now, a century later, seem as firmly rooted as ever.

In view of exciting new and emerging scholarship on the legacies of World War I, the Max Weber Foundation, the German Historical Institute (GHI) in Washington DC, the American Historical Association (AHA) with the National History Center (NHC), and the German Historical Association propose to convene a conference that takes a fresh look at the events of 1917–1923, at the immediate post-Versailles period and at the cultural, social, and political ripples that the postwar settlements sent across the globe in subsequent decades. The conference seeks to reassess the global dimensions of the postwar moment and toexamine both the short- and long-term consequences of the end of World War I from comparative and transregional perspectives.

Themes to be discussed at the conference include, but are not limited to:

• the suite of treaties and international agreements that sought to bring the military conflicts between belligerent states to an end and their lasting consequences for the states and regions whose boundaries and relations they codified;
• the regime of international organizations that were created or strengthened to oversee postwar relations between states, among them the League of Nations, its Mandate Commission, the International Labor Office, the International Red Cross, and the international court in The Hague;
• the idea of national self-determination as a founding principle of the postwar world order, its reverberations and consequences in different world regions and for different population groups, and its uses by different groups of actors;
• the postwar expansion and transformation of imperial rule by the victorious powers and the struggle against that rule by subject peoples;
• the plans for social and economic postwar order and responses to expectations of disadvantaged and disempowered social groups: demobilization and demilitarization, postwar economic order, gender order, etc.

The conference will take place from March 22-24, 2018 in Washington, DC, at the German Historical Institute. The conference language is English. The organizers will cover travel and lodging expenses.

Please send a short abstract of no more than 400 words and a brief academic CV with institutional affiliation in one file by March 31, 2017 to hudson(at)ghi-dc.org.

New Volume: South African Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the South African Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 38, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Erika De Wet, Invoking obligations erga omnes in the twenty-first century: progressive developments since Barcelona Traction
• Jeremy Sarkin, Putting in place processes and mechanisms to prevent and eradicate enforced disappearances around the world
• Michelle Barnard & Werner Scholtz, Fiat Lux! Deriving a right to energy from the African charter on human and peoples' rights
• Odile Juliette Lim Tung, Genetically modified organisms and trans-boundary damage: a two-pronged compromise for redress under the liability and redress protocol to the Cartagena Protocol
• Mikhalien Du Bois, Protection of intellectual property rights as human rights in international law

Conference: International Law Year in Review

The Sydney Centre for International Law at Sydney Law School will hold its fifth International Law Year in Review Conference, on February 17, 2017. The program is here.

Ronen: Security of Residence to Non-Citizens: Palestinian Residents of East Jerusalem

Yaël Ronen (Sha'arei Mishpat Academic Center) has posted Security of Residence to Non-Citizens: Palestinian Residents of East Jerusalem (ביטחון בתושבות ללא אזרחות: התושבים הפלסטינים של מזרח ירושלים). Here's the abstract:

In 1967, Israel annexed East Jerusalem, and extended the application of its law to the area. Israeli law allows the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to acquire Israeli nationality, but for the most part, they have refrained from doing so and are stateless. Consequently, there is a large population of permanent non-nationals. Long-term residence without nationality is increasingly perceived as undesirable by international institutions. It jeopardizes the whole gamut of human rights, including those that are not nationality-dependent. This contribution describes the phenomenon of permanent residence without nationality on a global level. It then considers the legal norms applicable, in particular the right to remain within the state, which is reserved almost exclusively to nationals. It therefore focuses on the right to acquire nationality based on long-term residence, and on arrangements for security in residence without nationality.

בשנת 1967 ישראל ספחה את מזרח ירושלים, והחילה בה את המשפט הישראלי. על פי המשפט הישראלי, תושבי מזרח העיר יכולים לרכוש אזרחות מכוח ישיבה, אך רובם נמנעים מלעשות זאת, והם חסרי אזרחות. כתוצאה מכך, ישנה אוכלוסיה גדולה של תושבי קבע שאינם אזרחי המדינה. מצב זה נתפס בזירה הבין לאומית כבלתי רצוי. היעדר האזרחות מסכן את מימושן של זכויות רבות, גם כאלו שאינן באופן פורמלי תלויות-אזרחות. הממאר מתאר את התופעה של תשובות קבע ללא אזרחות בזירה הבין לאומית. הוא דן בנורמות המשפטיותהחולשות על הסוגיה, במיוחד הזכות להישאר בשטח המדינה, אשר מוקנית באופן כמעט בלעדי לאזרחים. לפיכך מתמקד המאמר בזכות לרכוש אזרחות מכוח תושבות ארוכת-טווח, ובהסדרים לביטחון בתושבות ללא אזרחות

Note: Downloadable document is in Hebrew.

Call for Applications: Redistribution and the Law in an Antagonistic World

The Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Stiftung – Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland have issued a call for applications for doctoral and postdoctoral scholars from the humanities and social sciences (in particular law, political sciences, political economy, history, anthropology and economy) for a Transregional Academy on the topic "Redistribution and the Law in an Antagonistic World." The call is here.

New Issue: Review of International Organizations

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 12, no. 1, March 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Andrew Kerner, Morten Jerven, & Alison Beatty, Does it pay to be poor? Testing for systematically underreported GNI estimates
• Daniel McDowell, Need for speed: The lending responsiveness of the IMF
• Dursun Peksen & Robert G. Blanton, The impact of ILO conventions on worker rights: Are empty promises worse than no promises?
• Simone Dietrich & Amanda Murdie, Human rights shaming through INGOs and foreign aid delivery
• Diana Panke, Speech is silver, silence is golden? Examining state activity in international negotiations

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 39, no. 1, February 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Geoff Dancy & Christopher J. Fariss, Rescuing Human Rights Law from International Legalism and Its Critics
• Chelsea Lee & Robert L. Ostergard, Jr., Measuring Discrimination Against LGBTQ People: A Cross-National Analysis
• Payam Akhavan, Is Grassroots Justice a Viable Alternative to Impunity? The Case of the Iran People's Tribunal
• Andrea Schapper, Children's Rights Implementation as Multi-Level Governance Process
• Vincenzo Ferrone, The Rights of History: Enlightenment and Human Right
• Rowland Brucken, Conservative at Birth: The Creation and Paradoxes of United States Human Rights Policy During World War II
• Courtney Hillebrecht & Scott Straus, Who Pursues the Perpetrators? State Cooperation with the ICC
• Francesca Laguardia, Deterring Torture: The Preventative Power of Criminal Law and Its Promise for Inhibiting State Abuses

Rachovitsa: Rethinking Privacy Online and Human Rights

Adamantia Rachovitsa (Univ. of Groningen - Law) has posted Rethinking Privacy Online and Human Rights: The Internet's Standardisation Bodies as the Guardians of Privacy Online in the Face of Mass Surveillance. Here's the abstract:

There is a growing literature revolving around the role of non-State actors in the international law-making process. The starting point of this article is that although informal international law-making may not be legally binding, it would be unwise to dismiss it as legally irrelevant. Informal law-making can be relevant with respect to conceptualising and applying existing law, as well as guiding future regulation. The present discussion is placed in the context of cyberspace and, more specifically, the Internet standardisation bodies’ informal law-making functions when creating Internet protocols by setting Internet standards. The article addresses the legitimacy and the ongoing work of the Internet Advisory Board and Internet Engineering Task Force in setting Internet standards with the aim to protect Internet users from mass surveillance and serious threats to privacy online. The article makes two main arguments. First, the effective protection of online privacy cannot be understood only in terms of compliance with legal frameworks but– in practice - that also needs to be secured through technological means. Second, in the area of online privacy informal law-making and international law converge in a distinctive way. Internet standards should not necessarily be seen as “living a parallel life” to law or as displacing or merely complementing the law. Technical standards and international law can actively inform one another and converge in their application. The analysis explores the implications of the Internet’s technical features to policy-making and legal reasoning by discussing State and judicial practice. The article demonstrates how the technical perspective on privacy informs and enriches the manner in which the legal advisor argues about privacy, the legislator articulates the interests at stake and the judge and practitioner interpret and apply international human rights law.

Call for Submissions: Washburn Law Journal Special International Law Issue

The Washburn Law Journal has issued a call for submissions for a special issue on "America’s relationship with international law," which will feature an article by Harold Koh. Here's the call:

Call for Papers: Contributions to Special International Law Issue Featuring Professor Harold Koh

This summer, the Washburn Law Journal will be publishing a special Issue on the topic of America’s relationship with international law. Renowned International Law Scholar and former Dean of the Yale Law School Harold Hongju Koh will be writing the keynote article addressing international law and the process of treaty formation and compliance under the Trump administration. Several other renowned scholars writing in this area have already agreed to join Prof. Koh in contributing to this Issue.

The Editorial Board of the Washburn Law Journal is inviting other scholars to contribute companion articles for this special Issue.

Washburn Law is honored that Professor Koh will be introducing his keynote article during a lecture at the annual Foulston Siefkin Lecture Series on March 31, 2017. The Editorial Board of the Washburn Law Journal will provide material to selected authors to ensure that articles can, to some extent, be informed by and responsive to Prof. Koh’s thesis.

Submission Instructions

Interested participants should email an abstract of between 500-750 words by March 15, 2017. Abstracts should indicate whether the piece will be a full article or an essay-length submission, and should be emailed to Claire Hillman at claire.hillman@washburn.edu. They must include the author’s name, title of the paper, institutional affiliation, and contact information.

Authors already planning to submit articles this submission cycle that fit the topic of this Issue may also submit the article directly to the Claire Hillman, or send an email notifying the Journal that a relevant article has been submitted via ExpressO or Scholastica.

Selection

From the abstracts and/or articles submitted, the Editorial Board of the Washburn Law Journal will select 3-5 article-length or essay-length pieces to publish in Issue 3, Vol. 56 (August 2017). Authors will be notified of the acceptance of their submissions and proposals by March 20, 2017. A first draft of the completed article will be due no later than April 31, 2017.

Focus: The International Unification of Private Law

The latest issue of Rabels Zeitschrift fuer auslaendisches und internationales Privatrecht (Vol 81, no. 1, January 2017) includes a section on "The International Unification of Private Law." Contents include:

• Schwerpunkte
• Jürgen Basedow, The International Unification of Private Law in the Era of Globalization
• Ulrich G. Schroeter, Present and Future of Uniform Sales Law
• Stefan Huber, Secured Transactions Law: A Transnational Perspective
• Andreas Maurer, Uniform Law in the International Transport of Goods
• Alexander Peukert, Unification of Intellectual Property Law: Structures, Actors and Aims

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 12, no. 2, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• Susanne Aigner, The Union Customs Code
• Maarja Saluste, Rules of Origin and the Anti-Dumping Agreement
• Dylan Geraets, Accommodating Global Value Chains in the Union Customs Code: Towards Rules of Origin That Better Reflect Business Realities?
• Giorgia Orsi, The Union Customs Code and Innovation in Italian Customs Procedures
• Tom Cachet, The World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement: Legal Consequences and Impact on the Union Customs Code

New Issue: Legal Issues of Economic Integration

The latest issue of Legal Issues of Economic Integration (Vol. 44, no. 1, 2017) is out. Contents include:

• From the Board: How Much Democracy Can Economic Integration Bear?
• S. Dennis Engbrink, The European Union’s External Action: Coherence in European Union Foreign Policy Despite Separate Legal Orders?
• Ceren Zeynep Pirim, A Neverending Story: The Free Movement of Turkish Workers Within the European Union
• Elisa Faustinelli, Purely Internal Situations and the Freedom of Establishment Within the Context of the Services Directive

Koivurova, Qin, Duyck, & Nykänen: Arctic Law and Governance: The Role of China and Finland

Timo Koivurova (Univ. of Lapland - Arctic Centre), Qin Tianbao (Wuhan Univ. - Law), Sébastien Duyck (Univ. of Bern - Institute of European and International Economic Law), & Tapio Nykänen (Univ. of Lapland) have published Arctic Law and Governance: The Role of China and Finland (Hart Publishing 2017). Contents include:

• Timo Koivurova, Qin Tianbao, Sébastien Duyck & Tapio Nykänen, Introduction
• Qin Tianbao & LI Miaomiao, Strengthening China's Role in the Arctic Council
• Ren Shidan, Legal Issues in Arctic Scientific Research: A Chinese Perspective
• Julia Jalo & Tapio Nykänen, Chinese Arctic Discussion-a Micro Reading of World Affairs
• Xiaoyi Jiang & Xiaoguang Zhou, China and Maritime Sovereignty and Rights Issues in the Arctic
• Lassi Heininen, China and Finland in the Globalised Arctic
• Tapio Nykänen, A Common Heritage-the Place of the Arctic in the Chinese and Finnish Discourses
• Timo Koivurova, Waliul Hasanat,Piotr Graczyk & Tuuli Kuusama, China as an Observer in the Arctic Council
• Sébastien Duyck, Conservation of Marine Living Resources and Fisheries Management in the Arctic
• Adam Stepien, Incentives, Practices and Opportunities for Arctic External Actors' Engagement with Indigenous Peoples
• Nengye Liu & Kamrul Hossain, China and the Development of International Law on Arctic Shipping
• Sébastien Duyck, Tapio Nykänen, Timo Koivurova & Qin Tianbao, Concluding Chapter

New Volume: Irish Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Irish Yearbook of International Law (Volume 9, 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Seán Butler, 'To Unite Our Strength to Maintain International Peace and Security': The International Response to the Syrian Civil War & the Global Discourse on State Sovereignty
• Andrea Broderick, The Right to Inclusive Education: Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Irish Experience
• Amina Adanan, Accountability for Violations of International Humanitarian Law in Domestic Courts: Can War Crimes be Prosecuted in Ireland?
• Notes and Comments
• Susan Power, Occupying the Continental Shelf?-A Note Considering the Status of the Continental Shelf Delimitation Agreement Concluded between Turkey and the TRNC during the Belligerent Occupation of Northern Cyprus