Hufgard: Das Recht auf Informationszugang bei Internationalen Organisationen am Beispiel der Weltbank

Katharina Hufgard has published Das Recht auf Informationszugang bei Internationalen Organisationen am Beispiel der Weltbank: Eine Untersuchung zum Beschwerdeverfahren der Access to Information Policy (Nomos 2021). Here's the abstract:

Wird die Weltbank ihrer Vorreiterrolle in Bezug auf Transparenz und Informationszugang gerecht? Die Autorin hat dies kritisch hinterfragt und anhand von 75 Einzelfallentscheidungen untersucht, wie eine der zentralsten Institutionen der Entwicklungsverwaltung ihre Access to Information Policy in der Praxis umsetzt und sich dabei im Spannungsfeld zwischen Entwicklungsmandat, Souveränität der Mitgliedstaaten und Menschenrechten bewähren muss. Konkrete Vorschläge zur Reform dieser Policy zeigen auf, wie die Weltbank das subjektive Recht auf Informationszugang stärken und ihre Entwicklungspolitik transparenter gestalten kann. Diese Untersuchung leistet damit einen wichtigen Beitrag auf dem noch jungen Feld des internationalen Verwaltungsrechts.

New Issue: Global Trade and Customs Journal

The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 16, nos. 7-8, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Stephanie Noel, Editorial: Guest Editorial: Selected Perspectives On Sustainable Trade
• Stephanie Ghislain, Animal Welfare in Trade Policy After the Covid-19 Pandemic: Another Set of learnings
• Gabrielle Marceau & Pramiti Parwani, COVID-19 and International Trade: The Role of the WTO in Fighting the Pandemic and Building Back Better
• Valentina Ferraro & Hong Nguyen, Customs Fostering Sustainability: Leading by Example in the International Arena
• Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Ronald Steenblik, Mahesh Sugathan, & David Vivas Eugui, A Review of Trade Policies and Measures Relevant to Trade in Plastics and Plastic Pollution
• Joachim Monkelbaan, Interactions Between Trade and Climate Governance: Policy Options and Innovative Ways Forward Through Climate Clubs
• Apoorva Singh Vishnoi & Rishabha Meena, Technology Transfer at the WTO: Old Promises and New Hopes of the Developing World
• Anzhela Makhinova & Mariia Shulha, The Arbitration Panel Ruling on Ukraine’s Certain Wood Restrictions under the EU-UA Association Agreement
• Hoda Ahmadi, Maryam Mohebi, Hossein Nikbeen, Karim Rasoli, Yousef Sharifpour, Abdorreza Soleymani, Vahid Mohamad Taghvaee, & Abdolaziz Yousefi, Sustainable Development and Modern Customs: A Review on Customs Conventions of World Customs Organization (p. 363)

New Issue: Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 54, no. 2, March 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Jeremie Bracka, A False Messiah? The ICC in Israel/Palestine and the Limits of International Criminal Justice
• Luke Nwibo Eda, How Transnationally Effective Are the UK Migration Policies in Relation to Missing Migrants? A Transnational Law Perspective
• Ana Santos Rutschman, Intellectual Property as a Determinant of Health

Call for Submissions: NLIU International Trade Law Journal

The NLIU International Trade Law Journal has issued a call for submissions for its inaugural issue. The call is here.

Socher: Russia and the Right to Self-Determination in the Post-Soviet Space

Johannes Socher (Freie Universität Berlin) has published Russia and the Right to Self-Determination in the Post-Soviet Space (Oxford Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

The right to self-determination is renowned for its lack of clear interpretation. Broadly speaking, one can differentiate between a 'classic' and a 'romantic' tradition. In modern international law, the balance between these two opposing traditions is sought in an attempt to contain or 'domesticate' the romantic version by limiting it to 'abnormal' situations, that is cases of 'alien subjugation, domination and exploitation'.

This book situates Russia's engagement with the right to self-determination in this debate. It shows that Russia follows a distinct approach to self-determination that diverges significantly from the consensus view in international state practice and scholarship, partly due to a lasting legacy of the former Soviet doctrine of international law. Against the background of the Soviet Union's role in the evolution of the right to self-determination, the bulk of the study analyses Russia's relevant state practice in the post-Soviet space through the prisms of sovereignty, secession, and annexation. Drawing on analysis of all seven major secessionist conflicts in the former Soviet space and a detailed study of Russian sources and scholarship, it traces how Russian engagement with self-determination has changed over the past three decades. Ultimately, the book argues that Russia's approach to the right of peoples to self-determination should not only be understood in terms of power politics disguised as legal rhetoric but in terms of a continuously assumed regional hegemony and exceptionalism, based on balance-of-power considerations.

Sekalala et al.: Decolonising human rights: how intellectual property laws result in unequal access to the COVID-19 vaccine

Sharifah Sekalala, Lisa Forman, Timothy Hodgson, Moses Mulumba, Hadijah Namyalo-Ganafa, & Benjamin Mason Meier have published Decolonising human rights: how intellectual property laws result in unequal access to the COVID-19 vaccine (BMJ Global Health, Vol. 6, no. 7, 2021). Here's the abstract:

The recent rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines offers hope in addressing the worst pandemic in a hundred years. However, many countries in the Global South face great difficulties in accessing vaccines, partly because of restrictive intellectual property law. These laws exacerbate both global and domestic inequalities and prevent countries from fully realising the right to health for all their people. Commodification of essential medicines, such as vaccines, pushes poorer countries into extreme debt and reproduces national inequalities that discriminate against marginalised groups. This article explains how a decolonial framing of human rights and public health could contribute to addressing this systemic injustice. We envisage a human rights and global health law framework based on solidarity and international cooperation that focuses funding on long-term goals and frees access to medicines from the restrictions of intellectual property law. This would increase domestic vaccine production, acquisition and distribution capabilities in the Global South.

Conference: Nuremberg Forum 2021

The Nuremberg Forum 2021 will be held October 15-16, 2021 online. The theme is: "The Fight against Impunity since 1950: Living up to the Nuremberg Principles?" Program and registration are here.

Call for Papers: Conference on the United Nations War Crimes Commission

The Maynooth University Law Department and the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS have issued a call for papers for an online conference on the United Nations War Crimes Commission, to be held November 19, 2021. The call is here.

Ho & Sattorova: Investors’ International Law

Jean Ho (National Univ. of Singapore - Law) & Mavluda Sattorova (Univ. of Liverpool - Law) have published Investors’ International Law (Hart Publishing 2021). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This book is the first book-length analysis of investor accountability under general and customary international law, international human rights law, international environmental law, international humanitarian law, as well as international investment law.

International investment law is currently facing growing criticisms for its failure to address corruption, abuse, environmental damage, and other forms of investor misconduct. Reform initiatives range from the rejection of international law as a governing regime for investors, to the dramatic overhaul of investment treaties that supposedly enable investor overprotection, to the creation of a multilateral international instrument that would enable the litigation of claims against errant businesses before an international tribunal. Whether these initiatives succeed in disciplining investors remains to be seen. What these initiatives undeniably show however, is that change is warranted to counteract this lopsided investors' international law.

Each chapter in the book addresses a different and underexplored dimension of investor accountability, thus offering a novel and consolidated study of international law.

New Issue: Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History

The latest issue of Jus Gentium: Journal of International Legal History (Vol. 6, no. 2, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Olga Butkevych, Theory of the History of International Law: Methodology, Grounds, and Developments
• W. E. Butler, The English Translators and Publishers of Grotius on War and Peace: 1654–1928
• Zenghua Zhuo, China and the Unequal Treaties: Localization, Variation, and Response
• Notes and Comments
• W. E. Butler, Ruminations on DNA and the History of International Law
• P. Macalister-Smith, Georg von Gretschaninow (1892–1973): Émigré Jurist Stateless at Berlin and Heidelberg. A Concise Bio-Bibliography
• Documents and Other Evidence of State Practice
• W. E. Butler, Royal Naval Instructions Implementing the 1817 Anglo-Spanish Treaty on Illicit Trafficking of Slaves
• P. Macalister-Smith & J. Schweitzke, A Brief Calendar of State Practice for Shandong: 1897–1914. Part Four (1914): Into World War

New Issue: American Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the American Journal of International Law (Vol. 115, no. 3, July 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Jorge Contesse, The Rule of Advice in International Human Rights Law
• Benoit Mayer, Climate Change Mitigation as an Obligation Under Human Rights Treaties?
• Frédéric Mégret, Are There “Inherently Sovereign Functions” in International Law?
• Current Developments
• Dapo Akande, Payam Akhavan, Eirik Bjorge, Economic Sanctions, International Law, and Crimes Against Humanity: Venezuela's ICC Referral
• International Decisions
• James G. Devaney & Christian J. Tams, In re Arbitration Between the Italian Republic and the Republic of India Concerning the “Enrica Lexie” Incident
• Craig D. Gaver, Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary Between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius/Maldives)
• Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
• Kristen Eichensehr, Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law
• Recent Books on International Law
• Peter J. Spiro, reviewing Nationals Abroad: Globalization, Individual Rights, and the Making of Modern International Law, by Christopher A. Casey

New Issue: European Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law (Vol. 32, no. 1, February 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
  • Editorial: On My Way In II: Countering Gender Stereotypes in Letters of Reference and Shifting Academic Valorization While We Are at It; Changes in the Masthead; In This Issue; In this Issue – Reviews
• EJIL Symposium Issue: International and Democracy Revisited
• Jan Klabbers, Doreen Lustig, André Nollkaemper, Sarah Nouwen, Michal Saliternik, & Joseph H H Weiler, International Law and Democracy Revisited: Introduction to the Symposium
• EJIL Debate!
• Akbar Rasulov, ‘From the Wells of Disappointment’: The Curious Case of the International Law of Democracy and the Politics of International Legal Scholarship
• Brad R Roth, The Trajectory of the Democratic Entitlement Thesis in International Legal Scholarship: A Reply to Akbar Rasulov
• Articles
• Giacomo Tagiuri, Can Supranational Law Enhance Democracy? EU Economic Law as a Market-Democratizing Project
• Deborah Whitehall, The Ship of Democracy
• Jochen von Bernstorff, New Responses to the Legitimacy Crisis of International Institutions: The Role of ‘Civil Society’ and the Rise of the Principle of Participation of ‘The Most Affected’ in International Institutional Law
• Barrie Sander, Democratic Disruption in the Age of Social Media: Between Marketized and Structural Conceptions of Human Rights Law
• Roaming Charges: Barrista, San Juan
• Critical Review of Governance
• Erika de Wet, The African Union’s Struggle Against ‘Unconstitutional Change of Government’: From a Moral Prescription to a Requirement under International Law?
• Ayelet Berman, Between Participation and Capture in International Rule-Making: The WHO Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors
• Critical Review of Jurisprudence
• Dmitry Kurnosov, Pragmatic Adjudication of Election Cases in the European Court of Human Rights
• Matthew Saul, Shaping Legislative Processes from Strasbourg
• Review Essays
• Itamar Mann, Attack by Design: Australia’s Offshore Detention System and the Literature of Atrocity
• Richard Clements, Near, Far, Wherever You Are: Distance and Proximity in International Criminal Law
• Book Reviews
• Kirsten Sellars, reviewing Francine Hirsch, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II
• Robert McCorquodale, reviewing of Martina Buscemi, Nicole Lazzerini, Laura Magi and Deborah Russo (eds), Legal Sources in Business and Human Rights: Evolving Dynamics in International and European Law
• Gail Lythgoe, reviewing Alex Jeffrey, The Edge of Law: Legal Geographies of a War Crimes Court
• Umut Özsu, reviewing Christopher R. W. Dietrich, Oil Revolution: Anticolonial Elites, Sovereign Rights, and the Economic Culture of Decolonization
• Helmut Philipp Aust, reviewing Malgosia Fitzmaurice and Panos Merkouris, Treaties in Motion: The Evolution of Treaties from Formation to Termination
• Fernando Dias Simões, reviewing Katia Fach Gómez, Key Duties of International Investment Arbitrators: A Transnational Study of Legal and Ethical Dilemmas
• The Last Page
• 29 and 30 November 2020

New Issue: International Community Law Review

The latest issue of the International Community Law Review (Vol. 23, nos. 2-3, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: The Impact of Climate Change on International Law and European Union Law
• Łukasz Kułaga, The Impact of Climate Change on States: The Territorial Aspect
• Vladyslav Lanovoy & Sally O’Donnell, Climate Change and Sea-Level Rise. Is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea up to the Task?
• Agata Bator & Agnieszka Borek, Adaptation to Climate Change under Climate Change Treaties
• Karolina Mordasewicz & Marcin Kowalczyk, Legal Aspects of Adaptation Finance under the UNFCCC Regime with Special Reference to the Adaptation Fund
• Jason Rudall, The Obligation to Cooperate in the Fight against Climate Change
• Przemysław Siwior, The Potential of Application of the ECHR in Climate Change Related Cases
• Piotr Szwedo, Climate Change and the Human Right to Water
• Stefania Negri, Climate Change and Global Health: Exploring Regime Interaction and the Role of the Right to Health Argument in International Climate Litigation
• Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Biodiversity and Climate Change
• Dorota Pyć, Ship Energy Efficiency Measures and Climate Protection
• Bartłomiej Krzan, Protecting the Environment from the Perspective of the Law of Armed Conflict: Trying to Fit in Climate Change
• Joanna Bukowska, Piotr Świat, & Anna Sosnowska, The Participation of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in the Process of Concluding International Agreements on Climate Protection
• Marek Jaśkowski, External Aspects of the EU ETS in Aviation in Light of CORSIA
• Monika Adamczak-Retecka & Olga Śniadach, Towards a Redefinition of the Food Security Concept in the Light of Climate Change: The European Union Law Perspective
• Sarah Mead & Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, Pacific Island Countries’ Contributions

Paiusco: Nullum Crimen Sine Lege, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Foreseeability of the Law

Sara Paiusco has published Nullum Crimen Sine Lege, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Foreseeability of the Law (Nomos 2021). Here's the abstract:

This book investigates nullum crimen sine lege as European principle in its interpretation by the European Court of Human Rights. The research focuses on the role of foreseeability as a solution to the legality issues raising from judge-made law in criminal law. The rationale and application of foreseeability in ECtHR case-law are scrutinised, trying to extract its main development paths. Current solutions adopted by civil law States (Italy and Germany) are analysed also considering the theoretical foundations of ncsl. Moreover, the role of foreseeability in EU law is considered, as an example of an effectiveness-oriented legal order. In the end, future perspectives for the implementation of the principle of foreseeability are analysed.

Conference: Fourth "Silent leges inter arma?" Conference

On September 28-October 1, 2021, the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War will hold the fourth "Silent leges inter arma?" conference in Bruges. The program is here. The invitation is here. The application form is here.

New Issue: Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht

The latest issue of the Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (Vol. 81, no. 2, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Comment
• Achilles Skordas, Authoritarian Global Governance? The Russian-Chinese Joint Statement of March 2021
• Abhandlungen
• Csongor István Nagy, Ein Vorschlag zur Lösung der europäischen Rechtsstaatlichkeitskrise: die Lehre der Diagonalität
• Lisa Mardikian, In-Between an Economic Freedom and a Human Right: A Hybrid Right to Private Property
• Diego Zannoni, Something or Somebody? The Human Embryo Between Protection of Life and Interest in Scientific Research
• Jean Mohamed, Aspects of European Legal Harmonisation: When European Politicised Law Meets Freedom of Establishment and Vice Versa
• Tobias Mast, Gute Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und die Europäische Union
• Mark Somos, Edward Jones Corredera, & George Gallwey, Sir Daniel Dun’s Mare liberum and the 1613 Anglo-Dutch Conference
• Caroline Omari Lichuma, (Laws) Made in the ‘First World’: A TWAIL Critique of the Use of Domestic Legislation to Extraterritorially Regulate Global Value Chains
• Silvia Steininger, With or Without You: Suspension, Expulsion, and the Limits of Membership Sanctions in Regional Human Rights Regimes

New Issue: Michigan Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Michigan Journal of International Law (Vol. 42, no. 3, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Cochav Elkayam-Levy, A Path to Transformation: Asking “The Woman Question” in International Law
• Juliette McIntyre, Revisiting the International Court of Justice Procedure for the Revision of Judgments
• Mark Nevitt, Is Climate Change a Threat to International Peace and Security?
• Sara L. Ochs, Propaganda Warfare on the International Criminal Court

Leiter: Protecting Concessionary Rights: General Principles and the Making of International Investment Law

Andrea Leiter (Univ. of Amsterdam - Amsterdam Center for International Law) has posted Protecting Concessionary Rights: General Principles and the Making of International Investment Law (Leiden Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article engages with the history of international investment law in the first half of the 20th century. It traces how British international lawyers and economists inscribed their vision of an international legal order protecting private property of Western companies against attempts at nationalisation in the wake of socialist revolutions and the decolonisation of large parts of the world. The article focuses on the role of ‘general principles of law as recognized by civilized nations’ as building blocks for an international legal order today called international investment law. Based on the analysis of arbitrations over disputes resulting from concession agreements and scholarly writings in the interwar period, this contribution draws out the modes of authorisation upon which these invocations rested. At the heart of the vision were ideas of ‘modernity’ ‘civilisation’ ‘equity’ and ‘justice’ that enabled a temporalization of difference, locating Western claims to legality above rivalling claims of socialist and ‘newly independent’ states. These ideas ultimately constituted the paradox of a ‘modern law of nature’ that claimed timeless universality while authorising the ordering of foreign property in line with Western conceptions of modernity.

New Issue: Jus Cogens

The latest issue of Jus Cogens (Vol. 3, no. 1, 2021) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Debating A. Buchanan's 'Our Moral Fate. Evolution and the Escape from Tribalism'
• Claudio Corradetti, What Makes Us Human? Evolution, Intentionality and Moral Progress
• Andrew Buchwalter, Human Dignity and the Intercultural Theory of Universal Human Rights
• John Tasioulas, “Fantasy Upon Fantasy”: Some Reflections on Dworkin’s Philosophy of International Law
• Kim Sterelny, On Our Moral Fate
• Simona Tiribelli, Debating Buchanan’s Our Moral Fate: Why Exercising Moral Reasoning Cannot Be a Luxury Good
• Colleen Murphy, Transitional Justice and Our Moral Fate
• Claudio Corradetti, Morality and Tribalism
• Allen Buchanan, Replies to Commentators

Burri: Big Data and Global Trade Law

Mira Burri (Univ. of Lucerne) has published Big Data and Global Trade Law (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This collection explores the relevance of global trade law for data, big data and cross-border data flows. Contributing authors from different disciplines including law, economics and political science analyze developments at the World Trade Organization and in preferential trade venues by asking what future-oriented models for data governance are available and viable in the area of trade law and policy. The collection paints the broad picture of the interaction between digital technologies and trade regulation as well as provides in-depth analyses of critical to the data-driven economy issues, such as privacy and AI, and different countries' perspectives.

Burci & Perron-Welch: International Sharing of Human Pathogens to Promote Global Health Security—Still a Work in Progress

Gian Luca Burci (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies) & Frederic Perron-Welch (Leiden Univ. - Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies) have posted an ASIL Insight on International Sharing of Human Pathogens to Promote Global Health Security—Still a Work in Progress.

Green & McKenzie: Looking Without and Looking Within: Nestlé v. Doe and the Legacy of the Alien Tort Statute

Kayla Winarsky Green (Danish Institute for Human Rights) & Timothy McKenzie (Internatonal Court of Justice) have posted an ASIL Insight on Looking Without and Looking Within: Nestlé v. Doe and the Legacy of the Alien Tort Statute.

Call for Papers: Method, methodology and critique in international law

The Asser Institute has issued a call for papers for a workshop on "Method, methodology and critique in international law." The call is here. The deadline is July 31, 2021.

Pappa: Non-State Actors' Rights in Maritime Delimitation: Lessons from Land

Marianthi Pappa (Univ. of Nottingham - Law) has published Non-State Actors' Rights in Maritime Delimitation: Lessons from Land (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

Most of the world's maritime boundary disputes involve privately held rights - relating to such matters as fishing, petroleum exploration and scientific research - that states have unilaterally granted to non-state actors in areas of overlapping national claims. An international lawyer would typically investigate the legality of a state's decision to create such rights without notifying or consulting its neighbour, and the legal consequences this action would have for the interests of the states concerned. Departing from this approach, Dr Marianthi Pappa examines such situations from the perspective of the non-state actors: what will happen to private rights in a disputed maritime area if it changes hands from state A to state B due to a subsequent delimitation treaty or judgment? Does the legal framework of maritime delimitation protect those rights effectively against a potential reallocation? To address these questions, the book considers the place that private rights have in land boundary-making.

AJIL Unbound Symposium: The Limitations of the Behavioral Turn in International Law

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on "The Limitations of the Behavioral Turn in International Law." The symposium includes an introduction by Eva van der Zee, Veronika Fikfak, and Daniel Peat and contributions by Emilie M. Hafner-Burton, Sungjoon Cho, Lauge Poulsen and Michael Waibel, Anne van Aaken, and Doron Teichman and Eyal Zamir.