New Issue: Journal of International Criminal Justice

The latest issue of the Journal of International Criminal Justice (Vol. 18, no. 3, July 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Aldo Zammit Borda, History in International Criminal Trials: The ‘Crime-driven Lens’ and Its Blind Spots
• Hannes Jöbstl, Bridging the Accountability Gap: Armed Non-state Actors and the Investigation and Prosecution of War Crimes
• Symposium: The Extraordinary Chambers in Cambodia: Revisiting the Experiment
• Paolo Lobba & Niccolò Pons, Rethinking the Legacy of the ECCC: Selectivity, Accountability, Ownership
• Diane Orentlicher, ‘Worth the Effort’? Assessing the Khmer Rouge Tribunal
• Göran Sluiter & Marc Tiernan, The Right to an Effective Defence During ECCC Investigations
• Natasha Naidu & Sarah Williams, The Function and Dysfunction of the Pre-Trial Chamber at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
• Kai Ambos, The ECCC’s Contribution to Substantive ICL: The Notion of ‘Civilian Population’ in the Context of Crimes Against Humanity
• Elinor Fry & Elies van Sliedregt, Targeted Groups, Rape and Dolus Eventualis: Assessing the ECCC’s Contributions to Substantive International Criminal Law
• Sergey Vasiliev, ECCC Appeals: Appraising the Supreme Court Chamber’s Interventions
• Yvonne McDermott, The ECCC’s Approach to Evidence and Proof
• Cases Before International Courts and Tribunals
• Daley J Birkett, Managing Frozen Assets at the International Criminal Court: The Fallout of the Bemba Acquittal

New Issue: International Studies Review

The latest issue of International Studies Review (Vol. 22, no. 3, September 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Swati Srivastava, Varieties of Social Construction
• Ingvild Bode, Women or Leaders? Practices of Narrating the United Nations as a Gendered Institution
• Alexander Anievas & Richard Saull, Reassessing the Cold War and the Far-Right: Fascist Legacies and the Making of the Liberal International Order after 1945
• Thorsten Wojczewski, Populism, Hindu Nationalism, and Foreign Policy in India: The Politics of Representing “the People”
• Yuichi Kubota, The Rebel Economy in Civil War: Informality, Civil Networks, and Regulation Strategies
• Ricardo Villanueva, How Norman Angell Reveals the Significance of Marxism and Socialism in Early IR and a Debate before the “First Great Debate”
• Rodger A Payne, Grappling with Dr. Strangelove’s “Wargasm” Fantasy
• Daniel Lambach, The Territorialization of Cyberspace
• Linus Hagström & Astrid H M Nordin, China's “Politics of Harmony” and the Quest for Soft Power in International Politics
• Benjamin M Jensen, Christopher Whyte, & Scott Cuomo, Algorithms at War: The Promise, Peril, and Limits of Artificial Intelligence
• Jörn Ege, Michael W Bauer, & Nora Wagner, Improving Generalizability in Transnational Bureaucratic Influence Research: A (Modest) Proposal
• Ingo Henneberg & Friedrich Plank, Overlapping Regionalism and Security Cooperation: Power-Based Explanations of Nigeria's Forum-Shopping in the Fight against Boko Haram
• Daniel Hywel Nicholls, All Hegemons Are Not the Same: The Role(s) of Relational Structures and Modes of Control
• Radoslav S Dimitrov, Empty Institutions in Global Environmental Politics
• Esra Cuhadar & Thania Paffenholz, Transfer 2.0: Applying the Concept of Transfer from Track-Two Workshops to Inclusive Peace Negotiations
• Shamel Azmeh, Christopher Foster, & Jaime Echavarri, The International Trade Regime and the Quest for Free Digital Trade
• Michelle Jurkovich, What Isn't a Norm? Redefining the Conceptual Boundaries of “Norms” in the Human Rights Literature

Bottini: Admissibility of Shareholder Claims under Investment Treaties

Gabriel Bottini (Uría Menéndez) has published Admissibility of Shareholder Claims under Investment Treaties (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

This book addresses a growing problem in international law: overlapping claims before national and international jurisdictions. Its contribution is, first, to revisit two pillars of investment arbitration, i.e., shareholders' standing to claim for harm to the company's assets and the contract/treaty claims distinction. These two ideas advance interrelated (and questionable) notions of independence: firstly, independence of shareholder treaty rights in respect of the local company's national law rights and, secondly, independence of treaty claims in respect of national law claims. By uncritically endorsing shareholder standing in indirect claims and the distinctiveness of treaty claims, investment tribunals have overlooked substantive overlaps between contract and treaty claims. The book also proposes specific admissibility criteria. As opposed to strictly jurisdictional approaches to claim overlap, the admissibility approach allows consideration of a broader range of legal reasons, such as risks of multiple recovery and prejudice to third parties.

Scandinavian Studies in Law: Investigation and Prosecution in Scandinavia of International Crimes

Scandinavian Studies in Law has published Investigation and Prosecution in Scandinavia of International Crimes (2020). Here's the abstract:

Although none of the Scandinavian countries have had armed conflicts on their soil since the Second World War, there are in Scandinavia at present war criminals, and witnesses and victims of atrocity crimes. The crimes have been committed in different situations outside Scandinavia and it is only lately that the investigation and prosecution of these crimes have gained adequate attention.

This volume presents 21 articles on the investigation and prosecution in Scandinavia of international crimes. The articles present decisions and cases tried at domestic level in a thematic manner, by examining some overarching questions. For instance, to what extent and how international law sources are considered and/or implemented in the Scandinavian countries and how the objectives of international criminal law are brought into action. The volume is organized into five parts: Introduction, General Principles and Matters of Criminal Law, International Crimes, Procedural Matters, and Comparative Outlook.

New Issue: International Studies Quarterly

The latest issue of the International Studies Quarterly (Vol. 64, no. 3, September 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Christopher Linebarger & Alex Braithwaite, Do Walls Work? The Effectiveness of Border Barriers in Containing the Cross-Border Spread of Violent Militancy
• Anna A Meier, The Idea of Terror: Institutional Reproduction in Government Responses to Political Violence
• Robert Schub, When Prospective Leader Turnover Promotes Peace
• William Spaniel, Peter Bils, & Gleason Judd, Stall Wars: When Do States Fight to Hold onto the Status Quo?
• Tim Wegenast, Arpita Asha Khanna, & Gerald Schneider, The Micro-Foundations of the Resource Curse: Mineral Ownership and Local Economic Well-Being in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Inwook Kim, Swinging Shale: Shale Oil, the Global Oil Market, and the Geopolitics of Oil
• Jonathan N Markowitz, Suzie Mulesky, Benjamin A T Graham, & Christopher J Fariss, Productive Pacifists: The Rise of Production-Oriented States and Decline of Profit-Motivated Conquest
• Deepak Nair, Emotional Labor and the Power of International Bureaucrats
• Stéphanie Martel, The Polysemy of Security Community-Building: Toward a “People-Centered” Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)?
• Rebecca L Perlman, The Domestic Impact of International Standards
• Kelebogile Zvobgo, Demanding Truth: The Global Transitional Justice Network and the Creation of Truth Commissions
• Jonas Tallberg, Magnus Lundgren, Thomas Sommerer, & Theresa Squatrito, Why International Organizations Commit to Liberal Norms
• Martin Weber, The Normative Grammar of Relational Analysis: Recognition Theory's Contribution to Understanding Short-Comings in IR's Relational Turn
• Helen M Kinsella & Giovanni Mantilla, Contestation before Compliance: History, Politics, and Power in International Humanitarian Law
• Sasikumar S Sundaram, The Practices of Evaluating Entitlements: Rethinking “Reputation” in International Politics
• Matt Buehler, Kristin E Fabbe, & Kyung Joon Han, Community-Level Postmaterialism and Anti-Migrant Attitudes: An Original Survey on Opposition to Sub-Saharan African Migrants in the Middle East
• Michael Intal Magcamit, Imagined Insecurities in Imagined Communities: Manufacturing the Ethnoreligious Others as Security Threats
• Shengkuo Hu & Courtenay R Conrad, Monitoring via the Courts: Judicial Oversight and Police Violence in India
• Kaitlyn Webster, Priscilla Torres, Chong Chen, & Kyle Beardsley, Ethnic and Gender Hierarchies in the Crucible of War
• Christine Hackenesch & Julia Bader, The Struggle for Minds and Influence: The Chinese Communist Party's Global Outreach
• Adam Scharpf, Why Governments Have Their Troops Trained Abroad: Evidence from Latin America
• Ala’ Alrababa’h, Rachel Myrick, & Isaac Webb, Do Donor Motives Matter? Investigating Perceptions of Foreign Aid in the Conflict in Donbas

New Issue: Review of International Political Economy

The latest issue of the Review of International Political Economy (Vol. 27, no. 5, 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Manufacturing development: how transnational market integration shapes opportunities and capacities for development in Europe’s three peripheries
• László Bruszt & Julia Langbein, Manufacturing development: how transnational market integration shapes opportunities and capacities for development in Europe’s three peripheries: Introduction to the special issue
• László Bruszt & David Karas, Diverging developmental strategies beyond “lead sectors” in the EU’s periphery: the politics of developmental alliances in the Hungarian and Polish dairy sectors
• Visnja Vukov, European integration and weak states: Romania’s road to exclusionary development
• Gergő Medve-Bálint & Vera Šćepanović, EU funds, state capacity and the development of transnational industrial policies in Europe’s Eastern periphery
• Vera Šćepanović, Transnational integration in Europe and the reinvention of industrial policy in Spain
• Julia Langbein & Olga Markiewicz, Changing modes of market integration, domestic developmental capacities and state-business alliances: insights from Turkey’s automotive industry
• Julia Langbein, Shallow market integration and weak developmental capacities: Ukraine’s pathway from periphery to periphery
• Olga Markiewicz, Stuck in second gear? EU integration and the evolution of Poland’s automotive industry
• Laszlo Bruszt, Ludvig Lundstedt & Zsuzsa Munkacsi, Collateral benefit: the developmental effects of EU-induced state building in Central and Eastern Europe

Conference: International Law Weekend 2020

The American Branch of the International Law Association and the International Law Students Association will hold International Law Weekend 2020 on October 22-24, virtually. The theme is "International Law in Challenging Times." The program is here.

Call for Papers: Celebrating the 'Historical Turn': International Law in Global Histories

A call for papers has been issued for the 29th Annual SLS/BIICL Workshop on Theory in International Law, to be held virtually on November 25, 2020. The theme is: "Celebrating the 'Historical Turn': International Law in Global Histories." The deadline is October 12, 2020. The call is here.

Cornu, Vaivade, Martinet, & Hance: Intangible Cultural Heritage Under National and International Law: Going Beyond the 2003 UNESCO Convention

Marie Cornu (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), Anita Vaivade (Latvian Academy of Culture), Lily Martinet (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law), & Clea Hance (University Paris-Saclay; Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine) have published Intangible Cultural Heritage Under National and International Law: Going Beyond the 2003 UNESCO Convention (Edward Elgar Publishing 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This illuminating book offers an authoritative analysis of the legal issues relating to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage. Taking a critical approach, it provides a unique insight into the impact of international and national law on the present and future safeguarding processes of intangible cultural heritage.

Expert contributors draw on the results of an international study conducted in 26 countries to illustrate how domestic laws comprehend the notion of intangible cultural heritage. The book explores the relationship that these states maintain with the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, and highlights challenging concepts, including the principle of participation and community and the nature of safeguarding. Through the analysis and synthesis of empirical data, the book also identifies new developments in cultural heritage law.

New Issue: Netherlands International Law Review

The latest issue of the Netherlands International Law Review (Vol. 67, no. 2, September 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Natalie L. Dobson, Competing Climate Change Responses: Reflections on EU Unilateral Regulation of International Transport Emissions in Light of Multilateral Developments
• Ruth A. van der Pol, Article 75 of the Rome Statute: Reparations and Their Implementation in the Dutch Legal System
• Yulia Levashova, Fair and Equitable Treatment and Investor’s Due Diligence Under International Investment Law
• Evelien Campfens, Whose Cultural Objects? Introducing Heritage Title for Cross-Border Cultural Property Claims
• Remy Jorritsma, The Nomination of International Judges by ‘the Enlightened Few’: A Comment on the Royal Decree of 23 January 2020 Concerning the Establishment of a Dutch National Group at the Permanent Court of Arbitration
• Jaap Spier, ‘The “Strongest” Climate Ruling Yet’: The Dutch Supreme Court’s Urgenda Judgment

New Issue: Journal of International Dispute Settlement

The latest issue of the Journal of International Dispute Settlement (Vol. 11, no. 3, September 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Prabhakar Singh, Indian Princely States and the 19th-century Transformation of the Law of Nations
• Ka Lok Yip, The Missing Elephant in the Room—the Jurisdiction of International Human Rights Tribunals over International Humanitarian Law
• Clemens Treichl, The Singapore Convention: Towards a Universal Standard for the Recognition and Enforcement of International Settlement Agreements?
• Massimiliano Sassoli de Bianchi, The Missing Reading of the Parable: Comment on ‘The Twelfth Camel, or the Economics of Justice’, by F Ost [(2011) 2(2) J Int Disp Settlement 333–51]
• Current Developments
• Sandrine De Herdt, Judges ad hoc and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: An Overview of its Practice
• Gracious Timothy Dunna, Keeping with the Times, Revisiting the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration
• Jason Rudall, The Tribunal with a Toolbox: On Perenco v Ecuador, Black Gold and Shades of Green

New Issue: Swiss Review of International and European Law

The latest issue of the Swiss Review of International and European Law (Vol. 30, no. 3, 2020) is out. Contents include:

• SVIR-Tagung 2019
• Daniel Girsberger & Fabian Loretan, Neue Entwicklungen im Internationalen Privatrecht
• Ning Zhao, Completing a long-awaited puzzle in the landscape of cross-border recognition and enforcement of judgments: An overview of the HCCH2019 Judgments Convention
• Barbara Graham-Siegenthaler & Philipp Eberhard, Entwicklungen und Tendenzen im Internationalen Erbrecht und die damit verbundenen Neuerungen im IPRG: Ein Überblick über die IPRG-Revision des 6. Kapitels
• Daniel Girsberger & Fabian Loretan, Internationale Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit: Revision des 12. Kapitels IPRG

d'Aspremont: A Worldly Law in a Legal World

Jean d'Aspremont (Sciences Po - Law; Univ. of Manchester - Law) has posted A Worldly Law in a Legal World (in International Law’s Invisible Frames, Andrea Bianchi & Moshe Hirsch eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Most of international legal thought and practice rests on a distinction between international law and the world to which international law applies. One commonly distinguishes between international law and the world to which international law applies when, for example, seeking to ground international law in practice, explicating the origin of international law, appreciating the impact of international law on global actors, elucidating the actual formation and functioning of international law, historicizing international legal discourses and international legal institutions, and even when shedding light on the world-making role of international law. Most international legal thought and practice is informed, in this sense, by what is called here a form of ontological dualism whereby the actuality, historicity, and materiality of international law is distinct from the actuality, historicity, and materiality of the world to which international law applies.

This chapter questions the ontological dualism that dominates international law and shows that, notwithstanding this common ontological dualism, international law and the world to which it applies are better construed as having no distinct actuality, historicity, and materiality, because international law exists nowhere else than in the world to which it applies and the world to which international law applies exists nowhere else than in international law. This chapter argues accordingly that the relationship between international law and the world to which it applies should be understood in totalizing rather than dualistic terms.

New Issue: International Relations

The latest issue of International Relations (Vol. 34, no. 3, September 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Facing Human Interconnections: Thinking IR into the Future
• Charalampos Efstathopoulos, Milja Kurki, & Alistair Shepherd, Facing human interconnections: thinking International Relations into the future
• Vicki Squire, Migration and the politics of ‘the human’: confronting the privileged subjects of IR
• Audra Mitchell & Aadita Chaudhury, Worlding beyond ‘the’ ‘end’ of ‘the world’: white apocalyptic visions and BIPOC futurisms
• Amy Niang, The slave, the migrant and the ontological topographies of the international
• Richard Beardsworth, Climate science, the politics of climate change and futures of IR
• Madeline Carr & Feja Lesniewska, Internet of Things, cybersecurity and governing wicked problems: learning from climate change governance
• Oliver Kessler & Marc Lenglet, Between concepts and thought: digital technologies and temporal relationality
• Jairus Grove, From geopolitics to geotechnics: global futures in the shadow of automation, cunning machines, and human speciation

Creutz: State Responsibility in the International Legal Order: A Critical Appraisal

Katja Creutz (Finnish Institute of International Affairs) has published State Responsibility in the International Legal Order: A Critical Appraisal (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

State responsibility in international law is considered one of the cornerstones of the field. For a long time it remained the exclusive responsibility system due to the primacy of States as subjects of international law. Its unique position has nonetheless been challenged by several developments both within and outside the international legal order, such as the rise of alternative responsibility ideas and practices, as well as globalization and its consequences. This book adopts a critical and holistic approach to the law of State responsibility and analyzes the functionality of the general rules of State responsibility in a changed international landscape characterized by the fragmentation of responsibility. It is argued that State responsibility is not equally relevant across the broad spectrum of international obligations, and that alternative constructions of responsibility, namely international criminal law and international liability, have increased in standing.

New Issue: Security Studies

The latest issue of Security Studies (Vol. 29, no. 3, 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Jack Hoagland, Amy Oakes, Eric Parajon & Susan Peterson, The Blind Men and the Elephant: Comparing the Study of International Security Across Journals
• Robert Jervis, Liberalism, the Blob, and American Foreign Policy: Evidence and Methodology
• Ron E. Hassner, The Cost of Torture: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition
• Sean I. Kay, Realist Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Security Institutions
• Madison Schramm & Alexandra Stark, Peacemakers or Iron Ladies? A Cross-National Study of Gender and International Conflict
• Karl C. Kaltenthaler, Daniel M. Silverman & Munqith M. Dagher, Nationalism, Threat, and Support for External Intervention: Evidence from Iraq

O'Rourke: Women's Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law

Catherine O'Rourke (Univ. of Ulster - Law) has published Women's Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2020). Here's the abstract:

Laws and norms that focus on women's lives in conflict have proliferated across the regimes of international humanitarian law, international criminal law, international human rights law and the United Nations Security Council. While separate institutions, with differing powers of monitoring and enforcement, implement these laws and norms, the activities of regimes overlap. Women's Rights in Armed Conflict under International Law is the first book to account for this pluralism and institutional diversity. This book identifies key aspects of how different regimes regulate women's rights in conflict, and how they interact. Using country case studies to reveal the practical implications of the fragmented protection of women's rights in conflict, this book offers a dynamic account of how regimes and institutions interact, the extent to which they reinforce each other, and the tensions and gaps in regulation that emerge.

Lieblich: Can There Be a Crime of Internal Aggression?

Eliav Lieblich (Tel Aviv Univ. - Law) has posted Can There Be a Crime of Internal Aggression? (in Rethinking the Crime of Aggression: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Eckart Conze & Stefanie Bock eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Aggression is usually conceived as a phenomenon of inter-state relations. However, this view seems lacking in an era in which most – and certainly the deadliest – wars are conflicts within states. Yet, much in line with the general view in international law that there is no internal jus ad bellum, there is no international norm that criminalizes, in a straightforward manner, the wrongful resort to armed force within states. Crucially, if the normative core of the crime of aggression is to address the unjust killings that it entails – including killings that might be lawful under jus in bello – then the absence of an internal equivalent of aggression reflects an inconsistency. This Chapter, therefore, offers a preliminary discussion of a crime of internal aggression. Building on a previous work, it argues that international human rights law can serve as an internal equivalent of jus ad bellum. It then discusses whether existing international criminal law captures wrongful killings that do not violate international humanitarian law, when these occur in internal conflicts. Arguing that the answer is negative, this Chapter imagines a crime of internal aggression, applicable both to the leaders of states and of armed opposition groups.

Conference: Ethical Governance of Surveillance Technologies in Times of Crisis: Global Challenges and Divergent Perspectives

On October 30 and November 5, 2020, the Utrecht Centre for Global Challenges will host virtually a conference on "Ethical Governance of Surveillance Technologies in Times of Crisis: Global Challenges and Divergent Perspectives." The program is here. Here’s the idea:

The interdisciplinary online conference will examine how crises and crisis-narratives interact with the ongoing transformation in the governance of surveillance technologies in different parts of the world. Seven speakers from diverse fields will examine the interplays between science and technology, human rights, ethics, culture and surveillance technologies, taking the Covid-19 pandemic as a starting point. Emphasis will be placed on translating theory to practice in interactive workshops, where participants will interact with each other as well as experts from a variety of cultural, institutional, and design perspectives.

Call for Papers: The extraterritorial application of EU law: A contribution to its global reach (Doctoral Workshop)

A call for papers has been issued for the 6th Jean Monnet Doctoral Workshop, to take place March 18-19, 2021. The topic is "The extraterritorial application of EU law: A contribution to its global reach." The call is here.

Hoekman & Mavroidis: To AB or Not to AB? Dispute Settlement in WTO Reform

Bernard Hoekman (European Univ. Institute) & Petros C. Mavroidis (Columbia Univ. - Law) have posted To AB or Not to AB? Dispute Settlement in WTO Reform. Here's the abstract:

Recent debates on the operation of the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism have focused primarily on the Appellate Body (AB). We argue that this neglects the first-order issue confronting the rules-based trading system: sustaining the principle of de-politicized conflict resolution that is reflected in the negative consensus rule for adoption of dispute settlement findings. Improving the quality of the work of panels by appointing a roster of full-time professional adjudicators, complemented by reforms to WTO working practices that reduce incentives to resort to formal dispute settlement, can resolve the main issues that led to the AB crisis. Effective, coherent, and consistent WTO dispute resolution need not include an AB. An appropriately redesigned single-stage process can serve just as well, if not better.

New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 31, no. 2, September 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
  • Gender in Academic Publishing; The Legality of the Israeli Annexation – Redux; In This Issue
• Articles
• Maria Laura Marceddu & Pietro Ortolani, What Is Wrong with Investment Arbitration? Evidence from a Set of Behavioural Experiments
• Daniel Statman, Raanan Sulitzeanu-Kenan, Micha Mandel, Michael Skerker and Steven De Wijze, Unreliable Protection: An Experimental Study of Experts’ In Bello Proportionality Decisions
• Jasenka Ferizović, The Case of Female Perpetrators of International Crimes: Exploratory Insights and New Research Directions
• Symposium: Theorizing International Organizations Law
• Jan Klabbers & Guy Fiti Sinclair, On Theorizing International Organizations Law: Editors’ Introduction
• Jochen von Bernstorff, Autorité oblige: The Rise and Fall of Hans Kelsen’s Legal Concept of International Institutions
• Guy Fiti Sinclair, C. Wilfred Jenks and the Futures of International Organizations Law
• Evelyne Lagrange, Functionalism According to Paul Reuter: Playing a Lone Hand
• Jan Klabbers, Schermers’ Dilemma
• Ian Johnstone, Louis Sohn’s Legacy
• Umut Özsu, Organizing Internationally: Georges Abi-Saab, the Congo Crisis and the Decolonization of the United Nations
• Roaming Charges: Still Life Portrait
• Focus: Human Rights and Science
• Anna-Maria Hubert, The Human Right to Science and Its Relationship to International Environmental Law
• Jacqueline Peel, The ‘Rights’ Way to Democratize the Science–Policy Interface in International Environmental Law? A Reply to Anna-Maria Hubert
• Rumiana Yotova & Bartha M. Knoppers, The Right to Benefit from Science and Its Implications for Genomic Data Sharing
• EJIL: Debates!
• Andreas J. Ullmann & Andreas von Staden, Challenges and Pitfalls in Research on Compliance with the ‘Views’ of UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies: A Reply to Vera Shikhelman
• Jochen von Bernstorff, Is IHL a Sham? A Reply to Eyal Benvenisti and Doreen Lustig
• Eyal Benvenisti & Doreen Lustig, Beyond the ‘Sham’ Critique and the Narrative of Humanitarianism: A Rejoinder to Jochen von Bernstorff
• Changing the Guards - Part II
• Daniel Sarmiento, The Juncker Presidency – A Study in Character
• Review Essays
• Jan Klabbers, The Days of Wine and Roses. Review of Rosalyn Higgins, Philippa Webb, Dapo Akande, Sandesh Sivakumaran and James Sloan, Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations
• Christiane Ahlborn, The Allocation of International Responsibility between International Organizations and Their Member States: A Case of Indirect Responsibility? Review of Nikolaos Voulgaris, Allocating International Responsibility Between Member States and International Organizations
• Book Reviews
• Samantha Besson, reviewing Fernando Lusa Bordin, The Analogy between States and International Organizations
• Frédéric Dopagne, reviewing Éric David, Droit des organisations internationales
• Lorenzo Gasbarri, reviewing Gerhard Ullrich, The Law of the International Civil Service
• The Last Page
• Judge Epitácio Pessoa, A Selection

SFDI: Extraterritorialités et droit international : Colloque d'Angers

The Société française pour le droit international has published Extraterritorialités et droit international : Colloque d'Angers (Pedone 2020). The table of contents is here.

Hirsch: Social Movements, Reframing Investment Relations, and Enhancing the Application of Human Rights Norms in International Investment Law

Moshe Hirsch (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem - Law) has posted Social Movements, Reframing Investment Relations, and Enhancing the Application of Human Rights Norms in International Investment Law (Leiden Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The recent moderate trend to increasingly apply human rights law in investment awards is accompanied by certain new investment treaties which include expressed human rights provisions. An analysis of recent investment awards indicates that though there are some 'winds of change' in this field, it is equally noticeable that human rights law is far from being mainstreamed in international investment law. Investment arbitration procedural law is also undergoing a process of change, and the new procedural rules tend to enhance public elements in the investment arbitral system. This study is aimed at explaining these recent legal changes, highlighting the role of social movements in reframing investment relations as well as increasing public pressure to apply human rights law. These framing changes concern broadening the frame of investment arbitration (beyond the foreign investor–host state dyad), reversing the perceived balance of power between investors and host states, and zooming-in on local individuals and communities residing in host states. The discussion on factors impeding legal change in this field emphasizes the role of the private legal culture prevalent in the investment arbitration system, which is reflected and reinforced by certain resilient socio-legal frames. Informed by this analysis, the study suggests some legal mechanisms which can mitigate the inter-partes frame, and increase the application of human rights law in investment arbitration; inter alia, rigorous transparency rules that are likely to facilitate increased public pressure on tribunals and increase the participation of social movements representing local actors in arbitral processes.

Schultz & Ortino: The Oxford Handbook of International Arbitration

Thomas Schultz (King's College London - Law) & Federico Ortino (King's College London - Law) have published The Oxford Handbook of International Arbitration (Oxford Univ. Press 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This Handbook brings together many of the key scholars and leading practitioners in international arbitration, to present and examine cutting-edge knowledge in the field. Innovative in its breadth of coverage, chapter-topics range from the practicalities of how arbitration works, to big picture discussions of the actors involved and the values that underpin it. The book includes critical analysis of some of international arbitrations most controversial aspects, whilst providing a nuanced account overall that allows readers to draw their own informed conclusions.

The book is divided into six parts, after an introduction discussing the formation of knowledge in the field. Part I provides an overview of the key legal notions needed to understand how international arbitration technically works, such as the relation between arbitration and law, the power of arbitral tribunals to make decisions, the appointment of arbitrators, and the role of public policy. Part II focuses on key actors in international arbitration, such as arbitrators, parties choosing arbitrators, and civil society. Part III examines the central values at stake in the field, including efficiency, legal certainty, and constitutional ideals. Part IV discusses intellectual paradigms structuring the thinking in and about international arbitration, such as the idea of autonomous transnational legal orders and conflicts of law. Part V presents the empirical evidence we currently have about the operations and effects of both commercial and investment arbitration. Finally, Part VI provides different disciplinary perspectives on international arbitration, including historical, sociological, literary, economic, and psychological accounts.