New Issue: Global Environmental Politics

The latest issue of Global Environmental Politics (Vol. 18, no. 3, August 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Joshua B. Horton, Jesse L. Reynolds, Holly Jean Buck, Daniel Callies, Stefan Schäfer, David W. Keith, & Steve Rayner, Solar Geoengineering and Democracy
• Eric K. Chu, Transnational Support for Urban Climate Adaptation: Emerging Forms of Agency and Dependency
• Ralph Borland, Robert Morrell, & Vanessa Watson, Southern Agency: Navigating Local and Global Imperatives in Climate Research
• Sandra Schwindenhammer, The New Regionalism in Global Organic Agricultural Governance Through Standards: A Cross-Regional Comparison
• Jesse Abrams, Erik Nielsen, Diana Diaz, Theresa Selfa, Erika Adams, Jennifer L. Dunn, & Cassandra Moseley, How Do States Benefit from Nonstate Governance? Evidence from Forest Sustainability Certification
• Ryan Rafaty, Perceptions of Corruption, Political Distrust, and the Weakening of Climate Policy
• David Ciplet, Kevin M. Adams, Romain Weikmans, & J. Timmons Roberts, The Transformative Capability of Transparency in Global Environmental Governance

Banu: Nineteenth Century Perspectives on Private International Law

Roxana Banu (Western Law School) has published Nineteenth Century Perspectives on Private International Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

Private International Law is often criticized for failing to curb private power in the transnational realm. The field appears disinterested or powerless in addressing global economic and social inequality. Scholars have frequently blamed this failure on the separation between private and public international law at the end of the nineteenth century and on private international law's increasing alignment with private law.

Through a contextual historical analysis, Roxana Banu questions these premises. By reviewing a broad range of scholarship from six jurisdictions (the United States, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the Netherlands) she shows that far from injecting an impetus for social justice, the alignment between private and public international law introduced much of private international law's formalism and neutrality. She also uncovers various nineteenth century private law theories that portrayed a social, relationally constituted image of the transnational agent, thus contesting both individualistic and state-centric premises for regulating cross-border inter-personal relations.

Overall, this study argues that the inherited shortcomings of contemporary private international law stem more from the incorporation of nineteenth century theories of sovereignty and state rights than from theoretical premises of private law. In turn, by reconsidering the relational premises of the nineteenth century private law perspectives discussed in this book, Banu contends that private international law could take centre stage in efforts to increase social and economic equality by fostering individual agency and social responsibility in the transnational realm.

New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 29, no. 2, May 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
  • JHHW, Black Lies, White Lies and Some Uncomfortable Truths in and of the International Trading System; Authors of EJIL – Customer Care; In this Issue
• Articles
• Itamar Mann, Maritime Legal Black Holes: Migration and Rightlessness in International Law
• Leora Bilsky & Rachel Klagsbrun, The Return of Cultural Genocide?
• David Kosař & Jan Petrov, Determinants of Compliance Difficulties among ‘Good Compliers’: Implementation of International Human Rights Rulings in the Czech Republic
• Devika Hovell, The Authority of Universal Jurisdiction
• Symposium: International Law and the First World War: Belligerency and Neutrality
• Stephen C Neff, Disrupting a Delicate Balance: The Allied Blockade Policy and the Law of Maritime Neutrality during the Great War
• Andrew J Norris, Uninvited and Unwelcome: The SS Appam and the US Law of Neutrality
• Roaming Charges
• Roaming Charges: Moments of History
• Focus: Investment Arbitration
• Gus Van Harten, Leaders in the Expansive and Restrictive Interpretation of Investment Treaties: A Descriptive Study of ISDS Awards to 2010
• Malcolm Langford & Daniel Behn, Managing Backlash: The Evolving Investment Treaty Arbitrator?
• Focus: Geography of Human Rights
• Tilmann Altwicker, Transnationalizing Rights: International Human Rights Law in Cross-Border Contexts
• Barbara Oomen & Moritz Baumgärtel, Frontier Cities: The Rise of Local Authorities as an Opportunity for International Human Rights Law
• Review Essay
• Akbar Rasulov, A Marxism for International Law: A New Agenda
• Book Reviews
• Jochen von Bernstorff, reviewing Benjamin Allen Coates, Legalist Empire: International Law and American Foreign Relations in the Early Twentieth Century
• Monica Hakimi, reviewing Ian Hurd, How to Do Things with International Law
• Jan Klabbers, reviewing Michael Ignatieff, The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World
• The Last Page
• Ela Kotkowska, A Migrant Song

Olásolo: International Criminal Law, Transnational Criminal Organizations and Transitional Justice

Héctor Olásolo (Universidad del Rosario - Law; Instituto Iberoamericano de La Haya) has published International Criminal Law, Transnational Criminal Organizations and Transitional Justice (Brill | Nijhoff 2018). Here's the abstract:

Parties negotiating the end of authoritarian regimes or armed conflicts are almost inevitably left in a situation of legal uncertainty. Despite their overlapping scope of application, the differences between the approaches of International Criminal Law (ICL) and Transitional Justice (TJ) are so profound that, unless dogmatisms are left aside and a process of dialogue is entered into, it will not be possible to harmonize the current legal regime of international crimes with the need to articulate transitional processes that are capable of effectively overcoming authoritarian regimes and armed conflicts. The serious material limitations shown by national, international and hybrid ICL enforcement mechanisms should be acknowledged and the goals pursued by ICL should be redefined accordingly. A minimum level of consensus on the scope of application, goals and elements of TJ should also be reached. Situations of systematic or large scale violence against the civilian population by transnational criminal organizations increase the challenge.

SFDI: Le standard de due diligence et la responsabilité internationale

The Société Française pour le Droit International has published Le standard de due diligence et la responsabilité internationale : Journée d'étude franco-italienne du Mans (Pedone 2018). Contents include:

• Sarah Cassella, Les travaux de la Commission du droit international sur la responsabilité internationale et le standard de due diligence
• Yann Kerbrat, Le standard de due diligence, catalyseur d’obligations conventionnelles et coutumières pour les Etats
• Serena Forlati, L’objet des différentes obligations primaires de diligence : prévention, cessation, répression… ?
• Karine Bannelier, Le standard de due diligence et la cyber-sécurité
• Arnaud de Nanteuil, Due diligence et investissements étrangers
• Helene Raspail, Due diligence et droits de l’homme
• Gabriella Venturini, Les obligations de diligence dans le droit international humanitaire
• Sandrine Maljean-Dubois, Les obligations de diligence dans la pratique : la protection de l’environnement
• Ida Caracciolo, Due diligence et droit de la mer
• Evelyne Lagrange, La responsabilité des organisations internationales pour violation d’une obligation de diligence
• Paolo Palchetti, La violation par l’Union européenne d’une obligation de diligence
• Pasquale de Sena, La « due diligence » et le lien entre le sujet et le risque qu’il faut prévenir : quelques observations
• Pierre d’Argent & Alexia de Vaucleroy, Le contenu de l’omission illicite : la non utilisation de moyens raisonnables
• Patrick Jacob, Le contenu de la responsabilité de l’Etat négligent
• Massimo Starita, Négligence illicite et responsabilités multiples : partage ou cumul de responsabilités ?
• Riccardo Pisillo Mazzeschi, Le chemin étrange de la due diligence : d’un concept mystérieux à un concept surévalué

Chalabi: National Human Rights Action Planning

Azadeh Chalabi (Ulster Univ. - Law) has published National Human Rights Action Planning (Oxford Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

This book deals with human rights action planning, as a largely under-researched area, from theoretical, doctrinal, empirical, and practical perspectives, and as such, provides the most comprehensive studies of human rights planning to date. At the theoretical level, by advancing a novel general theory of human rights planning, it offers an alternative to the traditional state-centric model of planning. This new theory contains four sub-theories: contextual, substantive, procedural, and analytical ones. At the doctrinal level, by conducting a textual analysis of core human rights conventions, it reveals the scope and nature of the states' obligation to adopt a plan of action for implementing human rights. At the empirical level, a cross-case analysis of national human rights action plans of 53 countries is conducted exploring the major problems of these plans in different phases of planning and uncovering the underlying causes of these problems. At the practical level, this volume sets out how these plans should be developed and implemented, how they can be best monitored by international human rights bodies, and how to maximize their effectiveness.

New Issue: Review of International Organizations

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 13, no. 3, September 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Daniela Donno & Michael Neureiter, Can human rights conditionality reduce repression? Examining the European Union’s economic agreements
• Yasemin Bal Gündüz & Masyita Crystallin, Do IMF programs catalyze donor assistance to low-income countries?
• Asif Efrat & Abraham L. Newman, Divulging data: Domestic determinants of international information sharing
• Iain Osgood & Yilang Feng, Intellectual property provisions and support for US trade agreements
• Heidi Hardt, Who matters for memory: Sources of institutional memory in international organization crisis management

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 62, no. 8, September 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Burcu Savun & Daniel C. Tirone, Foreign Aid as a Counterterrorism Tool: More Liberty, Less Terror?
• Civil Conflicts Abroad, Foreign Fighters, and Terrorism at Home Alex Braithwaite, Tiffany S. Chu
• Casey Crisman-Cox, Enemies within: Interactions between Terrorists and Democracies
• Eric Mvukiyehe, Promoting Political Participation in War-torn Countries: Microlevel Evidence from Postwar Liberia
• Yossi David, Nimrod Rosler, & Ifat Maoz, Gender-empathic Constructions, Empathy, and Support for Compromise in Intractable Conflict
• Julia Elad-Strenger & Golan Shahar, Revisiting the Effects of Societal Threat Perceptions on Conflict-related Positions: A Three-wave Study
• Benjamin A. T. Graham, Noel P. Johnston, & Allison F. Kingsley, Even Constrained Governments Take: The Domestic Politics of Transfer and Expropriation Risks
• Sarah Kreps & Sarah Maxey, Mechanisms of Morality: Sources of Support for Humanitarian Intervention

Margalit: Investigating Civilian Casualties in Time of Armed Conflict and Belligerent Occupation

Alon Margalit has published Investigating Civilian Casualties in Time of Armed Conflict and Belligerent Occupation: Manoeuvring between Legal Regimes and Paradigms for the Use of Force (Brill | Nijhoff 2018). Here's the abstract:

In Investigating Civilian Casualties in Time of Armed Conflict and Belligerent Occupation Alon Margalit discusses the appropriate State response to civilian casualties caused by its armed forces. Various legal and practical challenges, arising when investigating the fatal consequences of the use of force, are examined through the practice of the US, the UK, Canada and Israel during military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and the occupied Palestinian territory. Alon Margalit considers this topical and sensitive issue within a broader context, namely the public scrutiny of State behaviour and influence of human rights law during armed conflict. The debate over the scope of the duty to investigate reflects competing approaches looking to (re)shape the balance between military necessity and humanitarian considerations.

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 40, no. 3, August 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Dustin N. Sharp, Pragmatism and Multidimensionality in Human Rights Advocacy
• Monika Heupel, How do States Perceive Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations? Insights from the Universal Periodic Review
• Jean H. Quataert, A New Look at International Law: Gendering the Practices of Humanitarian Medicine in Europe's "Small Wars," 1879–1907
• Douglas Irvin-Erickson, Prosecuting Sexual Violence at the Cambodian War Crimes Tribunal: Challenges, Limitations, and Implications
• Kristine Eck & Christopher J. Fariss, Ill Treatment and Torture in Sweden: A Critique of Cross-Case Comparisons
• Sara E. Lahti, The Limits of Shock and Shame: An Ethnographic Case Analysis of the Naming and Shaming Technique to Promote Human Rights for the Taalibe Qur'anic School Students of Senegal
• Lauren Eyler, Saira Mohamed, Isabelle Feldhaus, Rochelle Dicker, & Catherine Juillard, Essential Surgery as a Component of the Right to Health: A Call to Action
• Siobhán Wills, Use of Deadly Force by Peacekeepers Operating Outside of Armed Conflict Situations: What Laws Apply?

New Issue: Rivista di Diritto Internazionale

The latest issue of the Rivista di Diritto Internazionale (Vol. 101, no. 2, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Articoli
• F. Salerno, L’influenza di Santi Romano sulla dottrina e la prassi italiana di diritto internazionale
• P. Fois, Il principio del consenso nel diritto dei trattati, dalla Convenzione di Vienna del 1969 al quadro attuale
• A. Scioli, Il rapporto tra diritto internazionale consuetudinario e ordinamento statunitense nella prospettiva della giurisprudenza ATCA
• F. Ippolito, Vulnerability on Trial: An Emerging Concept for Strengthening the Protection of Migrants in International Adjudication
• Note e Commenti
• Z. Crespi Reghizzi, Domande riconvenzionali davanti alla Corte internazionale di giustizia: l’ordinanza del 15 novembre 2017 nel caso delle pretese violazioni di diritti sovrani e spazi marini nel mare dei Caraibi (Nicaragua c. Colombia)
• P. Pirrone, Obbligo di conformazione alla pronuncia della Corte di Strasburgo e revocazione della sentenza amministrativa: la sentenza n. 123/2017 della Corte costituziona
• Panorama
• M. Arcari, La decisione statunitense di trasferimento dell’ambasciata a Gerusalemme e la portata dell’obbligo di non-riconoscimento in diritto internazionale
• E. Milano, Tensioni diplomatiche nel Mediterraneo orientale: il caso Saipem 12000
• P. Franzi, L’inserimento di norme materiali in misure legislative dell’Unione nel campo del diritto internazionale privato

von Staden: Strategies of Compliance with the European Court of Human Rights

Andreas von Staden (Univ. of Hamburg - Political Science) has published Strategies of Compliance with the European Court of Human Rights: Rational Choice Within Normative Constraints (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

In Strategies of Compliance with the European Court of Human Rights, Andreas von Staden looks at the nature of human rights challenges in two enduring liberal democracies—Germany and the United Kingdom. Employing an ambitious data set that covers the compliance status of all European Court of Human Rights judgments rendered until 2015, von Staden presents a cross-national overview of compliance that illustrates a strong correlation between the quality of a country's democracy and the rate at which judgments have met compliance. Tracing the impact of violations in Germany and the United Kingdom specifically, he details how governments, legislators, and domestic judges responded to the court's demands for either financial compensation or changes to laws, policies, and practices.

Framing his analysis in the context of the long-standing international relations debate between rationalists who argue that actions are dictated by an actor's preferences and cost-benefit calculations, and constructivists, who emphasize the influence of norms on behavior, von Staden argues that the question of whether to comply with a judgment needs to be analyzed separately from the question of how to comply. According to von Staden, constructivist reasoning best explains why Germany and the United Kingdom are motivated to comply with the European Court of Human Rights judgments, while rationalist reasoning in most cases accounts for how these countries bring their laws, policies, and practices into sufficient compliance for their cases to be closed. When complying with adverse decisions while also exploiting all available options to minimize their domestic impact, liberal democracies are thus both norm-abiding and rational-instrumentalist at the same time—in other words, they choose their compliance strategies rationally within the normative constraint of having to comply with the Court's judgments.

Call for Engaged Listeners: Conference on "Politics and the Histories of International Law"

The Journal of the History of International Law has issued a call for engaged listeners for its conference on "Politics and the Histories of International Law," which will take place February 15-16, 2019, at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, in Heidelberg. The call is directed at those who are interested in participating in the audience of the conference (not as a speaker) and thus contribute to the discussion. The deadline is September 30, 2018. The full call is here.

Call for Submissions: Roman Yearbook of International Law

The Roman Yearbook of International Law has issued a call for submissions for its inaugural volume. The focus theme is: "The 90th anniversary of the creation of the Vatican City State: an international law perspective." The call is here.

Arrabal Ward: Wartime Sexual Violence at the International Level: A Legal Perspective

Caterina E. Arrabal Ward has published Wartime Sexual Violence at the International Level: A Legal Perspective (Brill | Nijhoff 2018). Here's the abstract:

In Wartime Sexual Violence at the International Level: A Legal Perspective Dr. Caterina E. Arrabal Ward discusses the understanding of wartime sexual violence by the international tribunals and argues that wartime sexual violence often takes place without the explicit purpose to destroy a community or population and is not necessarily a strategic choice. This research suggests that a more focused approach based on a much clearer definition of these crimes would help to remedy deficiencies at the different stages of international justice in relation to these crimes.

Moser & Peters: Legal Uncertainty and Indeterminacy – Immutable Characteristics of the OSCE?

Carolyn Moser (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) & Anne Peters (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) have posted Legal Uncertainty and Indeterminacy – Immutable Characteristics of the OSCE? (in The Legal Framework of the OSCE, Mateja Steinbrück Platise, Carolyn Moser, & Anne Peters eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This paper disentangles the complex questions relating to the legal status of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). It unfolds in five steps. First, the political context, institutional development and operational realities of the OSCE – from its inception during the Cold War until its present situation – are briefly outlined. Then, the analysis moves on to describe the patchy legal environment of the OSCE, in particular the interrogations revolving around the entity’s legal nature. Thirdly, the discussion turns to the international legal personality, domestic legal capacity and the privileges and immunities of the OSCE. The inquiry brings to the fore its current lack of a unified international legal personality, which is coupled with a lack of explicit and unequivocal rules on domestic legal personality (‘capacity’), both of which, in turn, lead to the status of the OSCE and its members of staff depending on domestic law or, more precisely, on a patchwork of national legal regimes of various participating States. Building on these insights, the fourth section of the paper outlines different formalisation options with a view to coping with the current legal uncertainty and indeterminacy surrounding the OSCE. Finally, the paper sketches out the content of the book by briefly recapitulating the main arguments made by the paper’s authors.

Call for Submissions: Modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT)

Transnational Dispute Management has issued a call for submissions for a special issue on "Modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT)." The call is here.

Kunz: Teaching the World Court Makes a Bad Case - Revisiting the Relationship between Domestic Courts and the ICJ

Raffaela Kunz (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) has posted Teaching the World Court Makes a Bad Case - Revisiting the Relationship between Domestic Courts and the ICJ. Here's the abstract:

Sentenza 238/2014 of the Italian Constitutional Court (ItCC) highlights the important role domestic courts play in international law. More than prior examples, it illustrates the ever more autonomous and self-confident stance of domestic courts on the international plane. But the ruling of the Italian Constitutional Court also shows that more engagement with international law does not necessarily mean that domestic courts enhance the effectiveness of international law and become ‘compliance partners’ of international courts. The Sentenza rather suggests that domestic courts in times of global governance and increased activity of international courts see their role at the intersection of legal orders also as ‘gate-keepers’, ready to cushion the domestic impact of international law if deemed necessary. The judgment of the ItCC thus offers a new opportunity to examine the multifaceted and complex role of these important actors that apply and shape international law, while always remaining bound by domestic (constitutional) law. This paper does so by exploring how domestic courts deal with rulings of the World Court. It shows that despite the fact that in numerous situations domestic courts could act as compliance partners of the ICJ, in reality more often than not, they have refused to do so and deferred in the implementation of its judgments to the political branches. Assessing this practice, the paper argues that domestic courts should take a more active stance and overcome the purely interstate view which seems at odds with present day international law. While it seems too far-reaching to expect domestic courts to follow international courts unconditionally, the paper cautions that the risk of setting dangerous precedents by openly defying international judgments is considerable. Given that there is no simple way out for domestic courts in cases of conflict between international and domestic (constitutional) law, courts should carefully balance the different interests at stake, namely the interest of an effective system of international adjudication on the one hand and the protection of fundamental domestic principles on the other hand, keeping in mind that at the end of the day a functioning international legal system will to a large extent depend on them.

Joyner: Why I Stopped Believing in Customary International Law

Daniel Joyner (Univ. of Alabama - Law) has posted Why I Stopped Believing in Customary International Law (Asian Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

There has been a recent proliferation of scholarly treatment on the development, identification, and determination of customary international law (CIL), in response to the International Law Commission’s work program on this topic, which it began in 2012. Much of this scholarship has focused on explication of the theoretical and practical problems inherent in the modern use of CIL as a source of international law. At the same time, there are influential voices who argue that, notwithstanding these problems, some of which they contend are overstated, CIL nevertheless continues to play a practically useful and necessary role in the international legal system, and that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the orthodox process for identifying CIL. This article maintains that the problems which have been identified by scholars in the processes of identification and determination of CIL, and their implication for the international legal system, are of such a serious and institutionalized nature as to give rise to a presumptive distrust of any statement about what is or is not a rule of CIL. It argues that if CIL is going to retain its place as a source of international legal obligation, the process of identifying and authoritatively determining CIL must evolve to more objectively evidence the positive assent of states to the making of customary rules.

Jackson & O'Malley: The Institution of International Order: From the League of Nations to the United Nations

Simon Jackson (Univ. of Birmingham - History) & Alanna O'Malley (Leiden Univ. - History and International Relations) have published The Institution of International Order: From the League of Nations to the United Nations (Routledge 2018). Contents include:

• Susan Pedersen, Foreword: From the League of Nations to the United Nations.
• Simon Jackson & Alanna O’Malley, Introduction: Rocking on its Hinges? The League of Nations, the United Nations and the New History of Internationalism in the Twentieth Century.
• Andrew Arsan, ‘He Tampers with the Source of Life itself who Tampers with Freedom’: Personhood, the State, and the International Community in the Thought of Charles Malik.
• José Antonio Sánchez Román, From the Tigris to the Amazon: Peripheral Expertise, Impossible Cooperation and Economic Multilateralism at the League of Nations, 1920-1946.
• Mats Ingulstad & Lucas Lixinski, Pan-American Exceptionalism: Regional International Law as a Challenge to International Institutions.
• Nathan A. Kurz, Jewish Memory and the Human Right to Petition, 1933-1953.
• Florian Hannig, The 1971 East Pakistan Crisis and the Origins of the UN’s Engagement with Humanitarian Aid.
• Nova Robinson, "Women’s point of view was apt to be forgotten": The Liaison Committee of International Women’s Organizations’ Campaign for an International Women’s Convention, 1920-1953.
• Sarah Shields, The League of Nations and the Transformation of Representation: Sectarianism, Consociationalism, and the Middle East.
• Konrad M. Lawson, Reimagining the Postwar International Order: The World Federalism of Ozaki Yukio and Kagawa Toyohiko.
• Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo & José Pedro Monteiro, Internationalism and Empire: The Question of Native Labour in the Portuguese Empire (1929­1962).
• Ryan Irwin, Epilogue

New Issue: International Peacekeeping

The latest issue of International Peacekeeping (Vol. 25, no. 4, 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Haldun Yalçınkaya, Emre Hatipoglu, Dilaver Arıkan Açar & Mitat Çelikpala, Turkish Efforts in Peacekeeping and the Introduction of the TUBAKOV Dataset: An Exploratory Analysis
• Paolo Foradori, Cops in Foreign Lands: Italy’s Role in International Policing
• Yf Reykers, Holding Accountable UN-Authorized Enforcement Operations: Tracing Accountability Mechanisms
• Megan Bastick & Claire Duncanson, Agents of Change? Gender Advisors in NATO Militaries

Alter: The Contested Authority and Legitimacy of International Law: The State Strikes Back

Karen J. Alter (Northwestern Univ. - Political Science) has posted The Contested Authority and Legitimacy of International Law: The State Strikes Back (in Beyond Anarchy: Rule and Authority in the International System, Christopher Daase & Nicole Dietelhoff eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Written to engage IR theory debates, this chapter argues that the crafting, invocation, interpretation and application of international law are a primary means through which states collectively rule and contest politics in international relations today. Yet since international law (IL) draws its legitimacy and authority from public affirmations of and diffuse support for the rule of law, public support for the rule of law is a permissive condition for IL to be politically constraining. After explaining how national and transnational legal practices constitute international law’s de facto authority, the chapter explores both ordinary and extraordinary contestations of IL authority. Ordinary contestation takes place within a legal field, when lawyers, stakeholders, judges and government officials debate and contest over the meaning of international law. Political tactics are also part of ordinary contestation, but because the curators of IL authority are transnational, a state may be unable to impose its preferred IL interpretation. Where states fail to impose a preferred interpretation, three extra-ordinary contestation strategies can be used to escape IL authority: 1) states can seek to replace international law’s authority with domestic law’s authority; 2) states can pit different international laws against each other by maneuvering within and around international regime complexes; and (3) states can attack the legitimacy and authority of international law altogether. Where authority challenges enhance IL accountability, they are to be welcome. But each strategy can also be used to tear at the fabric of IL authority, potentially undermining the permissive conditions that make IL both constraining and effective.

Killean: Victims, Atrocity and International Criminal Justice: Lessons from Cambodia

Rachel Killean (Queen's Univ. Belfast - Law) has published Victims, Atrocity and International Criminal Justice: Lessons from Cambodia (Routledge 2018). Here's the abstract:

While international criminal courts have often been declared as bringing ‘justice’ to victims, their procedures and outcomes historically showed little reflection of the needs and interests of victims themselves. This situation has changed significantly over the last sixty years; victims are increasingly acknowledged as having various ‘rights’, while their need for justice has been deployed as a means of justifying the establishment of international criminal courts. However, it is arguable that the goals of political and legal elites continue to be given precedence, and the ability of courts to deliver ‘justice to victims’ remains contested. This book contributes to this important debate through an examination of the role of victims as civil parties within the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Drawing on a series of interviews with civil parties, court practitioners and civil society actors, the book explores the way in which both the ECCC and the role of victims within it are shaped by specific political, economic and legal contexts; examining the ‘gap’ between the legitimising value of the ‘imagined victim’, and the extent to which victims are able to further their interests within the courtroom.

New Issue: International Affairs

The latest issue of International Affairs (Vol. 94, no. 4, July 2018) is out. Contents include:

• Japan's Pivot in Asia
• Richard J. Samuels & Corey Wallace, Introduction: Japan's pivot in Asia
• Shogo Suzuki & Corey Wallace, Explaining Japan's response to geopolitical vulnerability
• Alexandra Sakaki & Junya Nishino, Japan's South Korea predicament
• Bjørn Elias Mikalsen Grønning, Operational and industrial military integration: extending the frontiers of the Japan–US alliance
• Mayumi Fukushima & Richard J. Samuels, Japan's National Security Council: filling the whole of government?
• Takako Hikotani, The Japanese Diet and defence policy-making
• Tomohiko Satake & John Hemmings, Japan–Australia security cooperation in the bilateral and multilateral contexts
• Rohan Mukherjee, Japan's strategic outreach to India and the prospects of a Japan–India alliance
• James D. J. Brown, Japan's security cooperation with Russia: neutralizing the threat of a China–Russia united front
• Corey Wallace, Leaving (north-east) Asia? Japan's southern strategy
• Masanori Nishi, Reflections of a practitioner: strategic adaptation in Japan since the 1970s

Bacchus: The Willing World: Shaping and Sharing a Sustainable Global Prosperity

James Bacchus (Univ. of Central Florida; formerly, Appellate Body, World Trade Organization) has published The Willing World: Shaping and Sharing a Sustainable Global Prosperity (Cambridge Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

In this time of unwillingness, the right kinds of global solutions are needed now more than ever. Climate change is here and intensifying. Anxieties over economic globalization grip many in the fear of change. While these fearful have turned inward into unwillingness, the world's willing are working harder than ever for international and other cooperative solutions. James Bacchus explains why most of the solutions we need must be found in local and regional partnerships of the willing that can be scaled up and linked up worldwide. This can only be achieved within new and enhanced enabling frameworks of global and other international rules that are upheld through the international rule of law. To succeed, these rules and frameworks must for the first time see and treat economy and environment as one. The Willing World explains how best we can build the right legal structure to attain our global goals - and summon and inspire the willingness needed to do it.