Call for Papers: The Borderlands of Criminal Law Conference

The Transnational Criminal Law Review and the University of Windsor Faculty of Law have issued a call for papers for the first Transnational Criminal Law Review Conference, to take place June 20-21, 2024. The topic is: "The Borderlands of Criminal Law Conference." The call is here.

Call for Submissions: The evolving role of international judicial advisory opinions

The International Community Law Review has issued a call for submissions for a special issue on "The evolving role of international judicial advisory opinions." The call is here.

Besson: Due Diligence in International Law

Samantha Besson (Collège de France) has published Due Diligence in International Law (Brill | Nijhoff 2023). Here's the abstract:

Since the concept of due diligence first appeared in arbitral decisions at the end of the nineteenth century, its success in international law has been growing steadily. Yet its nature, sources and regime remain indeterminate in many ways. In response to the objections currently raised against it, this book provides a critical analysis of the practice of due diligence in international law. Its aim is to determine whether a principle, standard and/or obligation of due diligence does indeed exist under general international law; to identify what could constitute its normative structure, foundation and general regime; to establish the conditions, content and modalities of implementation of international responsibility for negligence; and, finally, to examine the specificities of due diligence in special regimes of international law, such as international environmental law, international cybersecurity law and international human rights law. More generally, the book also examines the reasons for due diligence’s “renaissance” in international law’s recent history and explains what this revival says about the state of the international legal and institutional order and the possibilities for its reform.

Conference: 2023 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum

The 2023 ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum will be held December 3-4 in Taipei and hosted by the Research Center for International Legal Studies of National Chengchi University and the Chinese (Taiwan) Society of International Law. The theme is: "Indo-Pacific Strategies and International Law." The program is here. Registration is here.

New Issue: Journal of Human Rights

The latest issue of the Journal of Human Rights (Vol. 22, no. 4, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Shanshan Lian & Amanda Murdie, How closing civil society space affects NGO-Government interactions
• Yuan Zhou, Ghashia Kiyani & Charles Crabtree, New evidence that naming and shaming influences state human rights practices
• Hans Morten Haugen, A decade of revitalizing UN work concerning freedom of religion or belief (2010–2020)
• Demet Yalcin Mousseau & Michael Mousseau, The economic origins of democratic civil liberties: A cross-country analysis
• Gina R. Rosich & Elba Caraballo, Perceptions of a human rights lens in relation to the training of social work field educators
• Douaa Sheet, On conceptions of time in human rights studies: The afterlife, Islam, and reparative justice in post-uprising Tunisia
• Marie Claire Van Hout & Jakkie Wessels, #ForeignersMustGo versus “in favorem libertatis”: Human rights violations and procedural irregularities in South African immigration detention law
• Elizabeth J. Kolbe, The right to work? For whom? Exploring international migration for tourism employment and its effects on local workers through phenomenology

Parrish & Ryngaert: Research Handbook on Extraterritoriality in International Law

Austen Parrish (Univ. of California, Irvine - Law) & Cedric Ryngaert (Utrecht Univ. - Law) have published Research Handbook on Extraterritoriality in International Law (Edward Elgar Publishing 2023). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

By engaging with ongoing discussions surrounding the scope of cross-border regulation, this expansive Research Handbook provides the reader with key insights into the concept of extraterritoriality. It offers an incisive overview and analysis of one of the most critical components of global governance.

Authored by central voices in the global extraterritoriality debate, the Research Handbook on Extraterritoriality in International Law offers legal, interdisciplinary, and regional perspectives on this evolving field. It covers a variety of issues, such as the economics of extraterritorial crime, judicial extraterritoriality, and extraterritorial human rights obligations.

Freeman & Taylor: Research Handbook on International Child Abduction: The 1980 Hague Convention

Marilyn Freeman (Univ. of Westminster - Law) & Nicola Taylor (Univ. of Otago - Law) have published Research Handbook on International Child Abduction: The 1980 Hague Convention (Edward Elgar Publishing 2023). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

With a focus on the 1980 Hague Convention, this cutting-edge Research Handbook provides a holistic overview of the law on international child abduction from prevention, through voluntary agreements and Convention proceedings, to post-return and aftercare issues.

Discussing the repercussions of abduction from the perspectives of both abducted children and the therapeutic and family justice professionals engaged in their cases, chapters consider the contributions of the many professionals and key agencies involved in the field. Identifying the 1980 Hague Convention as the principal global instrument for dealing with child abduction, the Research Handbook traces its role, history, development and impact, alongside the mechanisms required for its effective use. Evaluating current trends, areas of concern in legal/judicial practice and various regional initiatives, it also considers alternatives to high-conflict court proceedings in international child abduction cases. The Convention’s strengths, successes, weaknesses and gaps are discussed, and the Research Handbook concludes by addressing how best to tackle the challenges in its future operation.

New Issue: International Community Law Review

The latest issue of the International Community Law Review (Vol. 25, no. 5, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Ergün Cakal, Law and Torture: Contemporary Legal Scholarship on Torture, from the Doctrinal to the Critical
• Ulf Linderfalk, Neither Fish, Nor Fowl: A New Way to a Fuller Understanding of the lex specialis Principle
• Imad Antoine Ibrahim, Redefining the Principle of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources from a Geographical Perspective: A Case Study of Transboundary Aquifers
• Sondra Faccio, The World Health Organization’s Response to the Health Emergency and its Impact on Investment Arbitration and Human Rights Case Law
• Tarcisio Gazzini, International Community? What International Community?

Tzanakopoulos: The Master's Tools and the Master's House: Marxist Insights for International Law

Antonios Tzanakopoulos (Univ. of Oxford - Law) has posted The Master's Tools and the Master's House: Marxist Insights for International Law (in The Oxford Handbook of International Law in Europe, Anne van Aaken, Pierre d'Argent, Lauri Mälksoo, & Johann Justus Vasel eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Audre Lorde wrote a text in 1979 to which she gave the title: ‘The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House’. In it, she argued that using the tools of racist patriarchy to examine the fruits of that very same racist patriarchy would only allow the narrowest parameters of change, if any. This is, in a way, the predicament faced by any Marxist approach to (international) law. This chapter traces the impact of Marxist thought on international law by focusing on structural aspects of international law, grouping them under the structure of the (international) legal relation, aka ‘the legal form’ (section III); the content of the legal relation with particular emphasis on interpretation (section IV); and the justification of the legal relation through ideology (section V). The chapter traces that impact without aspiring to be comprehensive; but aspiring to avoid as much as possible the jargon that tends to alienate (pun intended) non-specialist (in Marxism!) readers, thereby rendering the debate esoteric.

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 67, nos. 7-8, August-September 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Special Feature: Ceasefire in Civil Wars
• Govinda Clayton, Håvard Mokleiv Nygård, Siri Aas Rustad, & Håvard Strand, Ceasefires in Civil Conflict: A Research Agenda
• Govinda Clayton, Håvard Mokleiv Nygård, Siri A. Rustad, & Håvard Strand, Costs and Cover: Explaining the Onset of Ceasefires in Civil Conflict
• Corinne Bara & Govinda Clayton, Your Reputation Precedes You: Ceasefires and Cooperative Credibility During Civil Conflict
• Magnus Lundgren, Isak Svensson, & Dogukan Cansin Karakus, Local Ceasefires and De-escalation: Evidence From the Syrian Civil War
• Jessica Maves Braithwaite & Charles Butcher, Muddying the Waters: The Anatomy of Resistance Campaigns and the Failure of Ceasefires in Civil Wars
• Allard Duursma, Peacekeeping, Mediation, and the Conclusion of Local Ceasefires in Non-State Conflicts
• Data Set Feature
• Govinda Clayton, Håvard Mokleiv Nygård, Håvard Strand, & Siri A. Rustad, Introducing the ETH/PRIO Civil Conflict Ceasefire Dataset
• Articles
• Justin Melnick & Alastair Smith, International Negotiations in the Shadow of Elections
• Omer Zarpli, When Do Imposed Sanctions Work? The Role of Target Regime Type
• Graeme AM Davies, Kingsley Edney, & Bo Wang, Modelling Chinese Youth Support for Military Intervention in the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands: Beyond Nationalism and Militarism
• Joshua Alley, Elite Cues and Public Attitudes Towards Military Alliances
• Christoph V. Steinert & Christoph Dworschak, Political Imprisonment and Protest Mobilization: Evidence From the GDR
• Michael Freedman & Esteban F. Klor, When Deterrence Backfires: House Demolitions, Palestinian Radicalization, and Israeli Fatalities
• Ashlyn W. Hand & Nilay Saiya, Democracy’s Ambivalent Effect on Terrorism

New Issue: Cooperation and Conflict

The latest issue of Cooperation and Conflict (Vol. 58, no. 3, September 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Leslie E Wehner, Stereotyped images and role dissonance in the foreign policy of right-wing populist leaders: Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump
• Petr Kratochvíl, Political economy of Catholicism: The case of the sacred-market network at World Youth Day in Panama
• Linus Hagström, Charlotte Wagnsson, & Magnus Lundström, Logics of Othering: Sweden as Other in the time of COVID-19
• Jan Karlas, State commitments and inhumane conventional weapons: An explanatory analysis of treaty ratification
• Daniel Sobelman, Re-conceptualizing triangular coercion in International Relations
• Kristin Haugevik, United clubs of Europe: Informal differentiation and the social ordering of intra-EU diplomacy
• Joanne McEvoy & Jennifer Todd, Constitutional inclusion in divided societies: Conceptual choices, practical dilemmas and the contribution of the grassroots in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

Kleinheisterkamp: The Myth of Transnational Public Policy in International Arbitration

Jan Kleinheisterkamp has published The Myth of Transnational Public Policy in International Arbitration (American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 98–141, Spring 2023). Here's the abstract:

This Article traces the concept of transnational public policy as developed in the context of international arbitration at the intersection between legal theory and practice. The emergence of such a transnational public policy, it is claimed, would enable arbitrators to safeguard and ultimately to define the public interests that need to be protected in a globalized economy, irrespective of national laws. A historical contextualization of efforts to empower merchants and their practices in Germany and the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries highlights their reliance on the mythical lex mercatoria that shaped English commercial law. Further contextualization is offered by the postwar invocation of “general principles of law recognized by civilized nations,” to keep at bay the application of supposedly less civilized, parochial legal orders, and by the consequent emergence of the “new” lex mercatoria as conceptualized especially in France. These developments paved the way, on the theory side, for later conceptualizations of self-constitutionalizing law beyond the state, especially by Gunther Teubner, and, on the practice side, for the notion of transnational public policy developed by arbitrators, especially by Emmanuel Gaillard, culminating in jurisprudential claims of an autonomous arbitral legal order with a regulatory dimension. In all these constructions, the recourse to comparative law has been a crucial element. Against this rough intellectual history, the Article offers a critique of today’s construction of transnational public policy by probing into its constitutional dimension and the respective roles of private and public interests. This allows, in particular, to draw on parallels to historic U.S. constitutional debates on the allocation of regulatory powers in federalism.

Webinars: Legal History Talk Series

This fall, the Centre for International Law at BML Munjal University will host the "Legal History Talk Series," comprised of five webinars. Details are here.

New Issue: Ethics & International Affairs

The latest issue of Ethics & International Affairs (Vol. 37, no. 2, Summer 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Book Symposium: The Ethics of Espionage and Counterintelligence
• Juan Espindola, Introduction: Probing the Limits of Ethical Espionage
• Ross W. Bellaby, The Ethics of Economic Espionage
• Ron Dudai, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Informer: Revisiting the Ethics of Espionage in the Context of Insurgencies and New Wars
• Alex Leveringhaus, Technology in Espionage and Counterintelligence: Some Cautionary Lessons from Armed Conflict
• Rhiannon Neilsen, Cyber Intelligence and Influence: In Defense of “Cyber Manipulation Operations” to Parry Atrocities
• Juan Espindola, Facial Recognition in War Contexts: Mass Surveillance and Mass Atrocity
• Cécile Fabre, Reply to Critics
• Feature
• Thana C. de Campos-Rudinsky, Multilateralism and the Global Co-Responsibility of Care in Times of a Pandemic: The Legal Duty to Cooperate
• Review Essay
• Zeynep Pamuk, Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Judgment

Titi: Investment Treaty Arbitration Caught in the Public-Private Law Divide

Catharine Titi (CNRS; Univ. Paris II Panthéon-Assas) has posted Investment Treaty Arbitration Caught in the Public-Private Law Divide (Michigan Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The ongoing reform of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) underlines the pertinence of an old question that has received various and conflicting answers: is investment arbitration a public or a private method of dispute settlement? A key criticism levelled at investment treaty arbitration is that public interest disputes are decided by a system of private justice. This article critically reviews the dominant interpretations of investment treaty arbitration as public, private, or hybrid and argues that their subjective nature means that none of them can be definitively adopted. Rather, the real arguments in favor of or against arbitration lie beyond the traditional debate. The article shows that investment arbitration displays important commonalities with international court systems, its presumed unique features – including party autonomy – appearing a little less unique on closer inspection. Ultimately, a system is what states make it, irrespective of whether its particular features are described as public or private.

New Issue: Revista Costarricense de Derecho Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista Costarricense de Derecho Internacional (No. 11, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Valentina Vera-Quiroz, Human Rights Implications of Face Recognition and Other Biometric Technologies
• Alejandro Muñoz Thuel, Challenges and Opportunities Originated from the Incorporation of Basel III in the Development of Public Infrastructure in Costa Rica and Latin America
• Stefan Haeussler Vesco, The Straight Bill of Lading: A Straight Document in Rough Waters
• Juan Carlos Caita-Moreno, Subjetividad internacional de los estados: el caso de Palestina, entre la autoderminación y el reconocimiento

New Issue: Chinese Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chinese Journal of International Law (Vol. 22, no. 2, June 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Rodoljub Etinski, Evolutive (Dynamic) Interpretation and Informal Modification of Constituent Instruments of International Organizations
• Miguel Lemos, The Appeals Chamber’s Jurisdictional Judgment in Abd-Al-Rahman and the Issue of Applicable Law at the International Criminal Court
• Comments
• Jinyuan Su, Outer Space: From Sanctuary to Warfighting Domain?
• Bradly J Condon, How Cultural Cognition Informs Differential Treatment in WTO Law and the Climate Regime

Call for Papers: The Province of International Law: Space, Time, and Representation in International Legal History

a call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "The Province of International Law: Space, Time, and Representation in International Legal History," tenatively scheduled to take place in May 2024 at the Graduate Institute. The call is here.

New Issue: The World Economy

The latest issue of The World Economy (Vol. 46, no. 8, August 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Pedro Esteban Moncarz, Manuel Flores, Sebastián Villano, & Marcel Vaillant, Intra- and extra-regional trade costs: A comparative approach to Latin-American performance
• Richard Bräuer, Matthias Mertens, & Viktor Slavtchev, Import competition and firm productivity: Evidence from German manufacturing
• Shujiro Urata & Youngmin Baek, Impact of International Investment Agreements on Japanese FDI: A firm-level analysis
• Gabriel Temesgen Woldu & Izabella Szakálné Kanó, Fiscal multipliers and structural economic characteristics: Evidence from countries in sub-Saharan Africa
• Aradhna Aggarwal, How special are special economic zones: Evidence from South Asia
• Jeongmeen Suh & Jaeyoun Roh, The effects of digital trade policies on digital trade
• Iman Cheratian, Saleh Goltabar, & Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, Firms persistence under sanctions: Micro-level evidence from Iran
• William Ridley, Sherzod B. Akhundjanov, & Stephen Devadoss, The COVID-19 pandemic and trade in agricultural products
• Cécile Bastidon, Michael Bordo, Antoine Parent, & Marc Daniel Weidenmier, Another history of global financial markets: Local stock market integration since 1913 from a network perspective
• Xingyuan Zhang, Rajeev K. Goel, Jiaming Jiang, & Salvatore Capasso, Do deep regional trade agreements strengthen anti-corruption? A social network analysis
• Yan Li, Yigang Wei, Hanxiao Xu, Huanwen Liu, & Julien Chevallier, Carbon monoxide and multi-pollutants flow between China and India: A multiregional input–output model
• Tingting Xiong & Hao Sun, The international service trade effects of bilateral investment treaties

New Issue: Global Society

The latest issue of Global Society (Vol. 37, no. 4, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Jaap de Wilde, Watch Out for Peace: The Polemic Nature of a Horizon Desired
• Laura Nordström & Teivo Teivainen, Inclusion of IMF in Eurozone Crisis Management: Legitimacy Through External Expertise and Internal Depoliticisation
• Senka Neuman Stanivuković, Roads of Europe—On Infrastructural Time, Near, Distant, and Past Futures
• Clara della Valle & Francesco Strazzari, Grasping Local Participation: The Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Western Balkans and North Africa
• Aydin Atilgan, Global Constitutionalism and the Rise of Authoritarianism: A New Era of “Sad Resignation”?
• Karoliina Hurri, Climate Leadership Through Storylines: A Comparison of Developed and Emerging Countries in the Post-Paris Era
• Liberty Chee, Play and Counter-Conduct: Migrant Domestic Workers on TikTok

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 62, no. 4, August 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Resolution ES-11/4 Territorial Integrity of Ukraine: Defending the Principles of the Charter of the United Nations (U.N.G.A.), with introductory note by Lauri Mälksoo
• 2022 Amendments to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, with introductory note by Anne Trebilcock
• Case C-817/19, Ligue des Droits Humains v. Council of Ministers (C.J.E.U.), with introductory note by Sophie Duroy
• Case C-156/21, Hung. v. Eur. Parl. & Council and Case C-157/21, Pol. v. Eur. Parl. & Council (C.J.E.U.), with introductory note by Barbara Grabowska-Moroz

New Issue: International Journal of Transitional Justice

The latest issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (Vol. 17, no. 2, July 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Jasmina Brankovic, Transitional and Climate Justice: New Opportunities for Justice in Transition
• Articles
• Beatriz E. Mayans-Hermida, Barbora Holá & Catrien Bijleveld, Between Impunity and Justice? Exploring Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Colombia’s Special Sanctions (Sanciones Propias) for International Crimes
• Helga Malmin Binningsbø, Bård Drange & Cyanne E. Loyle, Justice Now and Later: How Measures Taken to Address Wrongdoings during Armed Conflict Affect Postconflict Justice
• Briony Jones, Lisa Ott, Mina Rauschenbach & Camilo Sanchez, Hiding in Plain Sight: Victim Participation in the Search for Disappeared Persons, a Contribution to (Procedural) Justice
• Victoria Hospodaryk, Male and Gender-Diverse Victims of Sexual Violence in the Rohingya Genocide: The Selective Narrative of International Courts
• Andrea Hepworth, Memory Activism as Advocacy for Transitional Justice: Memory Laws, Mass Graves and Impunity in Spain
• Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, Transitional Justice in Post-terror Contexts: The Norwegian 22 July Memorial and the Ambiguity of Litigation
• Charlotte Fiedler & Karina Mross, Dealing With the Past for a Peaceful Future? Analysing the Effect of Transitional Justice Instruments on Trust in Postconflict Societies
• Kiran Kaur Grewal, The Epistemic Violence of Transitional Justice: A View from Sri Lanka
• Notes from the Field
• Philipp Schulz, How Locally Owned and Sustainable Are Victims’ Groups in Postconflict and Transitional Settings? Reflections from Northern Uganda
• Review Essay
• Becoming More Informed About Informers

New Issue: Revue Générale de Droit International Public

The latest issue of the Revue Générale de Droit International Public (Vol. 127, no. 2, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Louis Savadogo, Incedences juridiques de la hause du neveau de la mer sur les frontières maritimes
• Giuseppe Puma, Complicité dans les violations graves du droit international humanitaire: observations à partir du cas du Yèmen
• Fabienne Quilleré Majzoub & Tarek Majzoub, A quand la "Révolution verte" du cours d'eau international?

Call for Papers: IHL and Constitutional Law

A call for papers has been issued for the 18th Annual Conference on International Humanitarian Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Minerva Center for Human Rights. The theme is: "IHL and Constitutional Law." The call is here.

Davis: Discriminatory Clubs: The Geopolitics of International Organizations

Christina L. Davis (Harvard Univ. - Government) has published Discriminatory Clubs: The Geopolitics of International Organizations (Princeton Univ. Press 2023). Here's the abstract:

Member selection is one of the defining elements of social organization, imposing categories on who we are and what we do. Discriminatory Clubs shows how international organizations are like social clubs, ones in which institutional rules and informal practices enable states to favor friends while excluding rivals.

Where race or socioeconomic status may be a basis for discrimination by social clubs, geopolitical alignment determines who gets into the room to make the rules of global governance. Christina Davis brings together a wealth of data on membership provisions for more than three hundred organizations to reveal the prevalence of club-style selection on the world stage. States join organizations to deepen their association with a particular group of states—most often their allies—and for the gains from policy coordination. Even organizations that claim to be universal, to target narrow issues, or to cover geographic regions use club-style admission criteria. Davis demonstrates that when it comes to the most important decision of cooperation—who belongs to the club and who doesn’t—geopolitical alignment can matter more than the merits or policies of potential members.

With illuminating case studies ranging from nineteenth-century Japan to contemporary Palestine and Taiwan, Discriminatory Clubs sheds light on how, for global and regional organizations such as the WTO and the EU, alliance ties and shared foreign-policy positions form the basis of cooperation.