The United Nations is the central node in the system of global governance, organizing and managing the interaction and cooperation of the organs and specialized agencies of the institution with NGOs, corporate and civil society actors and increasingly, the global public. Despite the important role of the UN in this nexus, existing histories of the organization place an emphasis on the role of Western actors and often overlook the agency of countries from the Global South. This workshop will investigate how individuals, organizations, civil society actors and states from the Global South impacted upon the UN and the system of global governance in the latter half of the 20th century as they expanded the meaning of decolonization to address a range of North/South inequalities.
Significance of workshop
From the moment of its inception, counties from the Global South began to organize in formal and informal groups around specific issues at the UN, an organization that was perceived as being full of promise for the construction of a more equitable and just world order. Through discussions and public debates in the General Assembly, and in the corridors and working groups of the UN, the campaign for decolonization became the primary focus of countries from Africa and Asia. As more countries became independent, the decolonization movement shifted from the assertion of sovereignty and the right to self-determination, to a host of other claims for a broad range of social, economic and political rights. Alongside Latin American countries and smaller neutral nations, the African and Asian groups and the Afro-Asian bloc cooperated at the UN on a range of issues from economic development to human rights, to the struggle against apartheid. The workshop seeks to analyze this cooperation to trace the way this dynamic activity changed the UN and impacted upon the various issues around which the Global South groups came together through issue based alliances and solidarity networks.
In recent years the historical role of international organizations has been the subject of increased attention from historians seeking to reassess their role in shaping the global order. Leading historians from Mark Mazower to Matthew Connolly have encouraged scholars to ‘take off the Cold War lens’ in analyzing international institutions and their impact on local, national and international politics. Others, such as Susan Pedersen have reminded us about the long-term significance of organizations in functioning as networked platforms and agents of international change. Drawing on this scholarship, the workshop will invite proposals which take innovative views of the UN as a space for international and transnational cooperation, a dynamic forum which reveals interactions between the Global South and the West as the latter tried to challenge the liberal world order leading to the resurgence of UN activism from 1990-2000.
This workshop will consider a variety of contributions using sources from empirical research while also taking account of interdisciplinary reflections on the historical role of international organizations from a transnational and global perspective. Topics may include:
- The emergence of ‘Third-Worldism’;
- How decolonization interacted with the Cold War at the UN;
- The evolution of the Afro-Asian Bloc and cooperation between the African and Asian groups;
- Economic Development, NIEO, UNCTAD, etc.;
- The response of the major powers to Global South demands for reform;
- The role of Global South countries in the campaign for human rights;
- The dynamism of Latin American states at the UN;
- The role of UN officials and the UN Secretariat;
- The participation of non-state actors and NGOs;
- The influence of officials from the Global South across these dimensions;
- The formation and import of transnational groups such as the G77 and the Non-Aligned movement;
- South-South and South-Soviet interactions;
- The resuscitation of the UN in 1990.
Practicalities
The workshop will take place from 8-9 May with a Keynote Lecture from Vijay Prashad during the afternoon of 8 May followed by a selection of workshop panels on 9 May. Adopting a different format in order to allow for more panels, there will be no formal presentations of work but a commentator will give a brief reflection of the papers to kick-off each panel. In this way it is hope that all participants will read the papers and a deep discussion will follow.
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Workshop: Challenging the Liberal World Order: The History of the Global South, Decolonization and the United Nations, 1955-2000
New Issue: Nordic Journal of Human Rights
The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 36, no. 1, 2018) is out. Contents include:- Eleonora Del Gaudio & Stephen Phillips, Detention of Child Asylum Seekers in the Pursuit of State Interests: A Comparison of the Australian and EU Approaches
- Janelle M Diller, Economic, Social and Cultural Human Rights: The Journey towards Peremptory Norms in International Law
- Ann Quennerstedt, Carol Robinson & John I’Anson, The UNCRC: The Voice of Global Consensus on Children’s Rights?
- Hans Schmeets, How World Bank Governance Indicators May Predict the Assessment of Elections by International Observers: Evidence From the OSCE-Region
- Gudrun Monika Zagel, International Organisations and Human Rights: The Role of the UN Covenants in Overcoming the Accountability Gap
- Juan Pablo Pérez-León-Acevedo, The Katanga Reparation Order at the International Criminal Court: Developing the Emerging Reparation Practice of the Court
Call for Panel Proposals: International Law Weekend 2018
The American Branch of the International Law Association and the International Law Students Association have issued a call for panel proposals for International Law Weekend 2018, which will take place October 18-20, in New York City. The theme is "Why International Law Matters." Here's the call:International Law Weekend 2018 (ILW 2018) – the premier international law event of the fall season – is scheduled for October 18-20, 2018 in New York City. The conference will be held at the New York City Bar Association (42 West 44th Street) on October 18, 2018 and at Fordham Law School (150 West 62nd Street) on October 19-20, 2018.
ILW 2018 is sponsored and organized by the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA) – which welcomes new members from academia, the practicing bar, and the diplomatic world – and the International Law Students Association (ILSA). This annual conference attracts an audience of more than one thousand academics, practitioners, diplomats, members of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and law students.
The unifying theme for ILW 2018 is Why International Law Matters
Like any legal system, international law is a reflection of the past. Its norms, rules, and institutions are built upon a foundation that is moored in prior decades and steeped in previous centuries. And yet, international law plays an important role today, while setting the stage for the future. Current developments and emerging trends will form into future law. International lawyers must, therefore, serve as both historians and fortune tellers, while applying international legal norms in the present. How does the past inform our present? What current events and movements will most impact our future? And why does international law matter today? Wading through these moments in time, panels at ILW 2018 will consider the past, reflect on the present, and survey the future of our discipline and our profession, while addressing the fundamental question of why international law matters.
Proposal SubmissionThe ILW Organizing Committee invites proposals to be submitted online by May 25, 2018. Panels will only be accepted through the online ILW Panel Proposal Submission Form located here.
When submitting your proposal, please consider the following points.
- Panel proposals may concern any aspect of contemporary international law and practice including, but not limited to, international arbitration, international environmental law, national security, cyber law, use of force, human rights, international humanitarian law, international organizations, international criminal law, international intellectual property, the law of the sea and outer space, and trade law. When submitting your proposal, please identify the primary area(s) of international law that your proposed panel will address.
- Provide the names, titles, and affiliations of the chair and likely speakers. One of the objectives of ILW 2018 is to promote dialogue among scholars and practitioners. Panels should include presenters with diverse experiences and perspectives.
- Please identify what format you are proposing for your panel. We welcome various formats, such as debates, roundtables, lectures, and break-out groups, as well as the usual practice of panel presentations.
- Please indicate whether you are an ABILA member and whether or not your panel is sponsored by an ABILA committee. Panel organizers are encouraged to include at least one ABILA member on the panel.
- We hope to offer several CLE panels at ILW 2018. The CLE accreditation is very easy. More information will be provided once panels have been selected for the conference. If asked, we encourage you to consider taking the necessary steps to qualify your panel for CLE credit.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
New Issue: Chinese Journal of International Law
The latest issue of the Chinese Journal of International Law (Vol. 17, no. 1, March 2018) is out. Contents include:- Editorial Comment
- Jiuyong Shi, Prohibition of Use of Force in International Law
- Articles
- Luca Ferro & Nele Verlinden, Neutrality During Armed Conflicts: A Coherent Approach to Third-State Support for Warring Parties
- Francis Grimal & Jae Sundaram, The Incremental Militarization of Outer Space: A Threshold Analysis
- Bradly J Condon, Does International Economic Law Impose a Duty to Negotiate?
- Chunlei Zhao, Investor-State Mediation in a China-EU Bilateral Investment Treaty: Talking About Being in the Right Place at the Right Time
- Giovanni Zarra, The Issue of Incoherence in Investment Arbitration: Is There Need for a Systemic Reform?
- Comment
- Sienho Yee, AALCO Informal Expert Group’s Comments on the ILC Project on “Identification of Customary International Law”: A Brief Follow-up
Puma: Complicità di Stati nell'illecito internazionale
The aim of this study is an analysis of complicity of States in internationally wrongful acts of other States or international organizations, set forth by art. 16 of the Draft of articles on the international responsibility of States and art. 58 of the Draft of articles on the responsibility of international organizations. The work is divided into two parts: in the first one, the author examines whether the rule on complicity may be ascribed to customary international law as well as the constitutive elements of such a rule. The second part deals with complicity of States in the wrongful acts committed by international organizations in the performance of their normative and operative functions.
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
Roundtable: The Codification of International Law: Back to the Future?
The “progressive codification of international law” has long been an ideal on par with disarmament and economic integration. In the 19th century, it was considered an essential condition for peace. Throughout the 20th century, it inspired lawyers and diplomats pursuing a stable legal basis for international relations. The Charter of the United Nations lists codification of international law as one of the primary responsibilities of the General Assembly, which in 1948 established a permanent organ for this purpose: the International Law Commission.
As the International Law Commission celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2018, it is time to take stock of the past achievements and future challenges of the codification movement. This panel assesses the lofty objectives and practical results of two centuries of codification, paying special attention to the role of the International Law Commission. To what extent has the Commission fulfilled its mission? Have the codification efforts by the Commission and others contributed to a more peaceful world? And what is the future of codification in the 21st century?
Speakers include Sean Murphy (ILC and Georg Washington University), Patricia Galvão Teles (ILC and Autonomous University Lisbon), Hélène Tigroudja (Aix-Marseille and NYU) and Patrick Luna (Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN). The event will be moderated by Kristen Boon (Seton Hall) and is convened by Christiane Ahlborn and Bart Smit Duijzentkunst (ABILA UN Law Committee). It is co-sponsored by the NYC Bar Association (International Law and UN Committees), Seton Hall Law School, and the ASIL International Organizations Interest Group.
Dothan: When Immediate Responses Fail
Tit-for-tat is a strategy of immediate and proportional responses. Game theorists showed that this strategy often leads to fruitful cooperation. Indeed, many legal regimes resemble a tit-for-tat strategy and benefit from its ability to avoid unnecessary conflicts. But in situations of uncertainty—when actors cannot be sure about the actions of their adversaries—a tit-for-tat strategy would destroy cooperation and lead to continuous clashes. Because tit-for-tat responds immediately, a single mistake about the intentions of the adversary can lead to retaliation and start an endless string of counter-strikes. When uncertainty prevails, a strategy of many-tits-for-many-tats is optimal. Actors applying this strategy study the actions of their adversary over multiple rounds without issuing an immediate response. Only when the actor is convinced that the adversary intentionally defects, the actor will issue a disproportionately forceful response. The laws of war, criminal law, and international sales law all face some situations of uncertainty. This paper argues that each of these legal fields adopts a strategy of many-tits-for-many-tats to address conditions of acute uncertainty.
New Issue: Netherlands International Law Review
- Cedric M. J. Ryngaert & Duco W. Hora Siccama, Ascertaining Customary International Law: An Inquiry into the Methods Used by Domestic Courts
- Elena Fasoli & Alistair McGlone, The Non-Compliance Mechanism Under the Aarhus Convention as ‘Soft’ Enforcement of International Environmental Law: Not So Soft After All!
- Renshan Liu, Determination of Habitual Residence in Chinese Private International Law: Lessons from Extraterritorial Experience
New Issue: Criminal Law Forum
The latest issue of Criminal Law Forum (Vol. 29, no. 1, March 2018) is out. Contents include:- Cedric Ryngaert, Accountability for Corporate Human Rights Abuses: Lessons from the Possible Exercise of Dutch National Criminal Jurisdiction over Multinational Corporations
- Ali Emrah Bozbayindir, The Advent of Preventive Criminal Law: An Erosion of the Traditional Criminal Law?
- Manisuli Ssenyonjo, State Withdrawal Notifications from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: South Africa, Burundi and the Gambia
- Paromita Chattoraj & Bernd-Dieter Meier, Legal Responses and Sentencing in Murder Cases – A Comparison of Law and Judicial Reactions in India and Germany
Cimiotta: L’uso della forza nei rapporti tra Nazioni Unite e organizzazioni regionali e sub-regionali
This book addresses the relationships between the United Nations and regional and sub-regional organizations endowed with powers of military intervention for collective security purposes. It argues that over time regional and sub-regional organizations have developed a degree of autonomy, both at the decisional and operational level, in resorting to armed force. Particular attention is paid to Article 53(1) of the UN Charter, the relevant regional and sub-regional legal systems, the interactions among them, the role and effects of the UN Security Council’s authorization to use force, the most recent practice of regional and sub-regional military operations, the growing partnership between the organizations involved in military crisis management.
New Issue: International Peacekeeping
- Marta Iñiguez de Heredia, The Conspicuous Absence of Class and Privilege in the Study of Resistance in Peacebuilding Contexts
- Walt Kilroy & Helen S. A. Basini, Social Capital Made Explicit: The Role of Norms, Networks, and Trust in Reintegrating Ex-combatants and Peacebuilding in Liberia
- Joanne Richards, High Risk or Low Risk: Screening for Violent Extremists in DDR Programmes
- Bryce W. Reeder, The Spatial Concentration of Peacekeeping Personnel and Public Health During Intrastate Conflicts
- Charles P. Martin-Shields & Nicholas Bodanac, Peacekeeping's Digital Economy: The Role of Communication Technologies in Post-conflict Economic Growth
- Allard Duursma, Information Processing Challenges in Peacekeeping Operations: A Case Study on Peacekeeping Information Collection Efforts in Mali
Vadi: Proportionality, Reasonableness and Standards of Review in International Investment Law and Arbitration
International investment law is one of the most dynamic fields of international law, and yet it has been criticised for failing to strike a fair balance between private and public interests. In this valuable contribution to the current debate, Valentina Vadi examines the merits and pitfalls of arbitral tribunals’ use of the concepts of proportionality and reasonableness to review the compatibility of a state’s regulatory actions with its obligations under international investment law.
Investment law scholars have hitherto given greater attention to the concept of proportionality than to reasonableness; this pivotal book combats this trajectory by examining both concepts in such a way that it does not advocate one over the other, but instead enables the reader to make informed choices. The author also explores the intensity of review as one of the main tools to calibrate the different interests underlying investor-state arbitrations.
New Issue: Questions of International Law
- Disaster risk reduction: An International Law perspective
- Introduced by Giulio Bartolini and Tommaso Natoli
- Flavia Zorzi Giustiniani, Something old, something new: Disaster risk reduction in international law
- Emanuele Sommario and Silvia Venier, Human Rights Law and disaster risk reduction
AJIL Unbound Symposium: Batifort & Heath's “The New Debate on the Interpretation of MFN Clauses in Investment Treaties: Putting the Brakes on Multilateralization”
Monday, April 30, 2018
New Issue: Diritti umani e diritto internazionale
- Studi
- Francesca De Vittor, Responsabilità degli Stati e dell’Unione europea nella conclusione e nell’esecuzione di ‘accordi’ per il controllo extraterritoriale della migrazione
- Andrea Saccucci, Il divieto di espulsioni collettive di stranieri in situazioni di emergenza migratoria
- Enzamaria Tramontana, Uccisioni mirate, legittima difesa preventiva e diritti umani
- Interventi
- Alice Riccardi, The Use of UN Smart Sanctions in Connection with ICC Proceedings: A (Human Rights-Oriented) Rebuttal
- International Protection of Human Rights in Africa, Asia and the Middle East
- Giuseppe Pascale, Introduction
- Konstantin D. Magliveras, The Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in the League of Arab States and in the Arab-Islamic World: An Overview
- Yota Negishi, Homo Oeconomicus or Homo Juridicus? Human Rights as Neoliberal Governmentality of Asian Sovereign States
- Giuseppe Pascale, An Optimistic Perspective on the Proliferation of Human Rights Monitoring Bodies in Africa
- Osservatorio
- Luigi Crema, Le consultazioni popolari in Catalogna e nel Kurdistan iracheno
- ElenaKaiser, Libertà di espressione e tutela della privacy: la pronuncia della Grande Camera della Corte di Strasburgo nel caso Satakunnan Markkinapörssi Oy
- Federico Ferri, Il Codice di condotta per le ONG e i diritti dei migranti: fra diritto internazionale e politiche europee
- Laura Salvadego, I respingimenti sommari di migranti alle frontiere terrestri dell’énclave di Melilla
Call for Paper Proposals: 2018 ASIL Midyear Meeting
The American Society of International Law has issued a call for paper proposals for its 2018 Research Forum at the UCLA School of Law, a part of the Society's Midyear Meeting, which will be held November 8-10. The deadline is June 25, 2018. Here's the call:The American Society of International Law calls for submissions of paper proposals for the 2018 ASIL Research Forum to be held at ASIL Academic Partner UCLA School of Law in Los Angeles, California as part of the Society's Midyear Meeting.
The Research Forum, a Society initiative introduced in 2011, aims to provide a setting for the presentation and focused discussion of works-in-progress. All ASIL members are invited to attend the Forum, whether presenting a paper or not.
Papers may be on any topic related to international and transnational law and should be unpublished (for purposes of the call, publication to an electronic database such as SSRN is not considered publication). Interdisciplinary projects, empirical studies, and jointly authored papers are welcome.
Proposals should be submitted here by Monday, June 25, 2018. Interested authors should submit an abstract (no more than 500 words in length) summarizing the paper to be presented at the Forum. Abstracts will be considered via a blind review process. Papers that do not follow these guidelines will not be considered. Notifications of acceptance will go out in late July.
Papers accepted for presentation will be assembled into panels based on common themes of international law addressed by the authors. The organizers welcome volunteers to serve as discussants who will comment on the papers. All authors of accepted papers will be required to submit a draft paper four weeks before the Research Forum, on Thursday, October 11, 2018. Accepted authors must commit to being present on both Friday, November 9 and Saturday, November 10, 2018. Draft papers will be posted in advance of the Forum on the Midyear Meeting App, accessible only by participants in the Meeting.
Call for Papers: Taking Stock of Global Constitutionalism – To What Extent Did It Really Change International Law?
Call for papers
Taking Stock of Global Constitutionalism – To What Extent did it Really Change International Law?
A Workshop at the Annual Ius Commune Conference,
Amsterdam, Thursday 29 November 2018, 14.00-18.00h
Over the past twenty years or so the study of international law has been confronted with an abundant attention for ‘constitutionalism’. The main reason was that international law had changed, at least in the eyes of its observers. No longer was international law a law between states; it had become a law within states, with a clear impact on individuals. Examples include rules on terrorism, on climate change, on migration and refugees, on health and food safety, on trade or on technical standards. The idea was that with the transfer of the regulation of these issues from the state to the global level – using all kinds of formal and informal international cooperation fora – constitutional safeguards (mainly in terms of rule of law principles) needed to be reassessed and perhaps recreated at different levels. Studies on global constitutional law, global administrative law, post-national rule-making, the exercise of public authority or informal international lawmaking suddenly became a main focus of attention. Public international law was believed to change into international public law, underlining the more hierarchical public dimension rather than the original private or contract law dimension; and terms like law-making by international organizations and international legislation became more commonly used. It is very well accepted to think in terms of an existing global constitution, both in general terms or in relation to specific issue areas (e.g. the global economic constitution).
This workshop aims to collect papers that either clearly confirm that these developments (or at least our perception of them) have indeed changed the nature and/or the study of international law, or that argue that in the end nothing really changed in the nature or the study of international law. The workshop takes place in the framework of the research theme Constitutional Processes in the Global Legal Order.
Paper proposals (no longer than 500 words) can be sent to the organisers of the workshop: Cedric Ryngaert (UU), Denise Prevost (UM), Jan Wouters (KUL) and Ramses Wessel (UT) at r.a.wessel@utwente.nl by 15 June 2018. We welcome proposals by both Ius Commune members and other interested colleagues (hence, feel free to share this call). The result of the selection process will be made known by 1 July 2018. The deadline for draft papers is 15 November 2018. Depending on the quality of the papers, the organisers will consider drafting a proposal for a special issue of a journal in the field. Unfortunately, Ius Commune will not be able to cover travel and accommodation. Further information on the Annual Congress will soon be available here.
Conference: 14th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law
The 2018 conference will take a hard and unflinching look at the multitude of roles and functions played by universality in international legal discourses as well as its associated narratives of progress and virtues. In doing so, it will provide a critical appraisal of the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion that come with international law and its universalist discursive strategies. This will require that universality is not reduced to the question of the geographical outreach of international law, but instead, is understood in terms of boundaries. This will also entail examining how the idea of universality – which does not lend itself to a translation in all languages – was developed in some of the dominant vernaculars of international law – primarily English and French – before being universalised and imposed upon international lawyers from all traditions. This will simultaneously offer an opportunity to revisit the ideologies that constitute the identity of international lawyers today, as well as the socialisation, reproduction and legal educational processes which they undergo to become international lawyers. Special attention will be paid to the place which Europe has secured for itself by virtue of the progress and historical narratives built around the idea of universality.
In recent decades, however, the virtues and ostensible progress commonly associated with universality have been contested. As is illustrated by the several generations of Third World Approaches to International Law, international lawyers have argued that universality can function as an ideology as well as an instrument of domination and exclusion. They have come to realise that the way in which universality is deployed in international legal discourses constantly creates a periphery and an otherness which suppresses memory and struggle. Just as the use of the idea of humanity fuelled scepticism in the middle of the 20th century (see e.g. Schmitt), the invocation of universality has come to arouse suspicion among international lawyers. For many TWAIL and post-colonialist theorists, “whoever invokes universality wants to cheat”.
Aust: Zwischen Freirecht und Völkerpsychologie: Hermann Kantorowicz und die völkerrechtliche Kriegsschuldfrage
Hermann Kantorowicz is mostly remembered for his contributions to legal history, legal theory and criminal law. In 1923, he was asked by a Committee of the German Reichstag to write an expert opinion on the "war guilt question". It took Kantorowicz several years to submit an extremely rich an detailed opinion which was, however, never published during his lifetime for political reasons. This contribution sheds light on this expert opinion from the perspective of international law. In particular, it asks whether Kantorowicz' views might be seen as forerunners of a later turn to international criminal law. On balance, this is not the case. The contribution focuses in particular on the methodological bases of Kantorowicz' opinion on the outbreak of the First World War. His approach can be characterized by a mixture between his preference for a "Freirecht" approach and a rather suprising turn to collective psychology. Although the opinion would have been a much needed counterpoint to the nationalistic discourse in wide circles of the Weimar international law community, it convinces less as a contribution to the doctrinal development of international law.
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Buga: Modification of Treaties by Subsequent Practice
While treaties can be notoriously difficult to amend by formal means, they must nevertheless be adapted over time in order to remain useful. Herein lies the role of subsequent practice as a key tool for treaty change. Subsequent practice-a well-established means of treaty interpretation-sometimes diverges from the original treaty provision to such an extent that it can no longer be said to constitute an act of interpretation or application. Rather, it becomes, in effect, one of treaty modification.
The modification of treaties by subsequent practice extends to all fields of international law, from the law of the sea, environmental law, and investment law, to human rights and humanitarian law. Such modifications can have significant practical consequences, from revising or creating new rights and obligations, to establishing new institutional mechanisms. Determining when and how treaty modification by subsequent practice occurs poses difficulty to legal scholars and dispute settlement bodies alike, and impacts States' expectations as to their treaty obligations. This significant yet underexplored process is the focus of this book.
Modification of Treaties by Subsequent Practice proves that subsequent practice can-under carefully defined conditions that ensure strict accordance with the will of the treaty parties-alter, supplement, and terminate treaty provisions or even entire treaty frameworks. It can also generate customary law and fuel regime interaction. Ultimately, this book demonstrates the relevance and dynamism of the process of treaty modification by subsequent practice, emphasizing the need to deal with the issue head on, and explains-on a theoretical and practical level-how it can be identified and dealt with more consistently in the future. The book thus contributes to a deeper understanding of the process of treaty modification by subsequent practice and its continued role in striking the judicious balance between the stability of treaties on the one hand, and the organic evolution of the law on the other.
Friday, April 27, 2018
Conference: International Investment Law and NCD Prevention
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are responsible for almost 70% of all deaths worldwide. Almost three quarters of all NCD deaths, and 82% of the 16 million premature deaths, occur in low- and middle-income countries. NCDs have devastating consequences for individuals, families and communities; they threaten to overwhelm health systems; and they hinder development.
Since the first UN High Level Meeting on NCDs in 2011, the international community has acknowledged the scope of the problem and undertaken to take coordinated and coherent action to reduce the burden of NCDs. In particular, the WHO Global Action Plan on the Prevention and Control of NCDs for 2013-2020 lays down the foundation for the adoption of effective strategies intended to reduce the availability, acceptability and affordability of tobacco products, alcoholic beverages and unhealthy food, which include the adoption of marketing restrictions, labelling rules and fiscal measures. More recently, States renewed their commitment to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” and “reduce premature deaths from NCDs by one-third by 2030” (Sustainable Development Goal 3). In September 2018, the third UN High Level Meeting on NCDs will assess the progress that States have made towards their commitment to reduce the burden of NCDs.
Over the last thirty years, globalisation and economic liberalisation have greatly increased foreign direct investment in the tobacco, alcohol and food industries. Foreign investors enjoy certain protections under international investment agreements which empower them to bring compensation claims against host states for any measure that interferes with foreign investment. Thus, state efforts to regulate the tobacco, alcohol and food industries to prevent NCDs and promote public health could give rise to expensive arbitrations, as illustrated by recent claims challenging tobacco control legislation in Australia and Uruguay. The regulation of alcoholic beverages and unhealthy food could face similar challenges under international investment law. This raises important and timely questions about how international investment law can affect state regulatory autonomy in designing and implementing measures for preventing NCDs.
The Law & NCD Unit at the University of Liverpool is organising a one-and-a-half day conference to discuss these questions and explore the relationship between the NCD prevention policies and international investment law.
Symposium: Heritage Destruction, Human Rights and International Law
Leiden Global Interactions recently awarded a GIAS grant to Dr Amy Strecker (Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University) and Dr Joseph Powderly (Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University) for their inter-faculty collaboration on ‘Heritage Destruction, Human Rights and International Law.’
Central to the project is the convening of a high level advanced seminar in Leiden from 30 May to 2 May 2018. Amongst the primary objectives of the advanced seminar is to move beyond the usual focus of international law on the destruction and threat to heritage in the context of armed conflict, to also include an examination of heritage destruction in peacetime, and the role of human rights law in this regard. Normative developments in international cultural heritage law increasingly advocate a human rights approach to heritage. Likewise in heritage studies, there has been a proliferation and assertion of ‘rights’ in relation to heritage protection. Yet ascertaining the exact nature of these rights remains a challenge, especially in terms of accessing justice for heritage destruction beyond the framework of international criminal law. For example, what happens when heritage is under threat in peacetime by the very state charged with its protection? Human rights are by nature limited by their focus on individual rights. Yet heritage is a collective good, and as such, cannot be measured in terms of personal injury in the same way that the loss of property can. As a consequence, it is difficult to make a case before a human rights court for heritage destruction, even though cultural heritage forms an inherent part of cultural rights. By scrutinizing the various areas of international law and governance dealing with heritage destruction, the advanced seminar hopes to consider creative ways as to how the protection of important heritage sites and landscapes can be advanced beyond rhetoric.
The symposium will begin in the afternoon of 30 April with a keynote address by Prof. Francesco Francioni on the question of, “Is International Law Ready for the Recognition of a General Obligation to Prevent and Avoid Destruction of Cultural Heritage?”.
Thursday, April 26, 2018
New Issue: Revue québécoise de droit international
- Études
- Ezéchiel Amani Cirimwami & Stefaan Smis, Le régime des obligations positives de prévenir et de poursuivre à défaut d’extrader ou de remise prévues dans le texte des projets d’articles sur les crimes contre l’humanité provisoirement adoptés par la Commission du droit international
- Marion Mompontet, La responsabilité civile de l’Organisation des Nations Unies, effectivité et efficacité des mécanismes de réparation offerts pour les personnes privées, le cas des exactions sexuelles commises par les casques bleus
- Rafal Soroczyński, Acquisition of Title to Territory in the Aftermath of the Use of Force in the United Nations Era. The Case of the State of Israel
- Seyed Hossein Tabatabaei, Les avantages et les inconvénients des contrats buy-back par rapport aux contrats de partage de production
- Blaise Tchikaya, Les orientations doctrinales de la Commission de l’Union africaine sur le droit international
New Additions to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law
Lauterpacht Centre Friday Lunchtime Lecture Series for Easter Term 2018
Here's the schedule for the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law's Easter Term 2018 Friday Lunchtime Lectures:- April 27, 2018: Mónica García-Salmones Rovira (Univ. of Helsinki), Human Rights, Natural Rights and the Ordering of Conquest
- May 4, 2018: Anthea Roberts (Australian National Univ. - School of Regulation and Global Governance), Is International Law in International?
- May 11, 2018: Hayk Kupelyants (Univ. of Cambridge), Conflict of Laws before International Courts and Tribunals
