The latest issue of Global Trade and Customs Journal (Vol. 18, no. 10, 2023) is out. Contents include:
Through its careful consideration of the status of armed groups within a complex legal landscape, this insightful book identifies and examines the tensions that arise due to their actions existing across a spectrum of legality and illegality. Considering the number of armed groups currently exercising governance functions and controlling territory and population in the world, its analysis is especially topical.
Armed Groups and International Law provides essential peer-reviewed analyses of the place of armed groups in the legal framework. A collaborative effort between eminent scholars from different disciplines, it summarises various points of contention within the study of these armed actors, detailing examples that are highly relevant to the contemporary world, such as Afghanistan and Syria.
Separate opinions are common across many international courts and tribunals, yet their great variety and their impacts on judicial independence, judicial legitimacy, and the development of law are poorly understood. This paper provides a synoptic overview of separate opinions in international adjudication and arbitration by analyzing more than a century of debates over, and practice regarding, these judicial writings. To do so, it examines enduring normative debates over the desirability and impact of separate opinions and leading theories regarding the motivations for and frequency of separate opinions. It then explores the use and impact of separate opinions at the International Court of Justice, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, regional human rights courts, WTO dispute settlement, regional integration courts, international criminal courts, arbitration tribunals, and human rights treaty bodies.
Scholars have studied international organizations (IOs) in many disciplines, thus generating important theoretical developments. Yet a proper assessment and a broad discussion of the methods used to research these organizations are lacking. Which methods are being used to study IOs and in what ways? Do we need a specific methodology applied to the case of IOs? What are the concrete methodological challenges when doing research on IOs? International Organizations and Research Methods: An Introduction compiles an inventory of the methods developed in the study of IOs under the five headings of Observing, Interviewing, Documenting, Measuring, and Combining. It does not reconcile diverging views on the purpose and meaning of IO scholarship, but creates a space for scholars and students embedded in different academic traditions to reflect on methodological choices and the way they impact knowledge production on IOs.
On November 9-11, 2023, the American Society of International Law will hold its Midyear Meeting in PIttsburgh. Program and registration are here.
International law is usually conservative, with lawyers and judges emphasizing consistency, stability and predictability as the major advantages of the law. Legal scholars often prefer not to challenge the status quo, to suggest amendments, or to reform institutions, advocating simply to focus on the implementation of the laws that already exist. This collection stands different. It shares the authors’ discomfort with the present legal order and some of its institutions and courts, and dives into either a corrective or a profound reimagination of these, so that they can better address rising global challenges. Leading experts in their areas present their new and cutting-edge perspectives. Divided into six parts, the volume paints a vast yet solid thematic landscape of unique and critical approaches. The book invites and allows for a deep engagement with a wide range of opinions from across the world. It enables a free and courageous reimagining of the international legal order, detached from the endless feasibility skepticism.
The 1995 WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) is concerned with trade and food safety regulation, and with the regulation of pests and diseases in agriculture. It establishes legal standards while affirming the right of each member to choose its own level of SPS protection. However, the question of whether the balance has been properly struck remains a matter of ongoing debate.
The Commentary provides a detailed update of the first edition authored by Joanne Scott in 2007. It reflects 15 years of change in SPS case law and practice. It critically examines current issues such as use of experts in the dispute settlement process, applicable standard of review, or legal treatment of private standards in food safety. Moreover, the Commentary assesses the suitability of the current regime to address the existing needs of developing countries
The commentary also examines how science-based criteria and the traditional GATT standards (non-discrimination and least-trade-restrictive means) are used to discipline national SPS measures. It explores the transparency obligations and procedural rules that govern control, inspection, and approval processes in importing countries. A separate section is dedicated to the operation of the SPS Committee as an arena for transnational governance in the SPS field. The book also investigates the agreement's attempt to establish a framework to draw together the diverse institutions and regulatory regimes already populating the food safety arena. Two new chapters are also included: one reviewing Article 5.7 SPS in greater detail, and one dealing with the SPS rules in selected regional trade agreements (the CETA, EU-Japan EPA, USMCA, RCEP, and CPTPP).
The latest issue of the International Organizations Law Review (Vol. 20, no. 2, 2023) is out. Contents include:
The latest issue of the Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (Vol. 25, no. 2, 2023) is out. Contents include:
Despite a wealth of literature exploring the issues surrounding it, the legitimacy and authority of international criminal law remain in question. Adopting a perspective informed by legal and political philosophy, Clare Frances Moran considers the authority of international criminal law, why it can be conceived of as more than simply an exercise of power and how that power may be exercised legitimately. Advancing existing scholarship on the subject, Moran explores the roots of the authority of law at the domestic level and tests these ideas in an international context. She examines sovereignty, complementarity and postcolonial issues, and how each impact international criminal law. By developing a theory on the authority of international law, Moran considers how it might be possible to adjudicate more effectively at the international level.
Using Force to Protect Civilians offers the first comprehensive analysis of United Nations military protection operations across time and UN missions, drawing on a novel dataset that covers 200 operations from ten UN peacekeeping missions in Africa from 1999 to 2017. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the book finds that Blue Helmets succeed as often as they fail when they employ force to protect, indicating that they can wield force effectively - under the right conditions - to achieve this priority task. Stian Kjeksrud shows that effective UN military protection operations must rest on a deep understanding of perpetrators' motivation and modus operandi for attacking civilians, facilitating tailored military responses to stop or reduce physical threats in a timely manner. Adding to existing knowledge about the conflict-reducing effect of the presence of uniformed UN personnel, he also finds that specific actions matter more than the simple presence of Blue Helmets in large numbers. While protecting civilians is a priority task for military peacekeepers, we have limited knowledge about how they fare across time and in different UN missions when they use force to protect. We also remain largely ignorant of the conditions leading to successful outcomes when they intervene militarily to protect civilians from violence. Using Force to Protect Civilians addresses both of these knowledge gaps, and provides the building blocks for a theory of the utility of force to protect civilians in UN peace operations.
The latest issue of the Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy (Vol. 26, no. 2, 2023) is out. Contents include:
Examining the twenty years since China acceded to the World Trade Organization, this collection provides an original, systematic assessment of the opportunities and challenges that China has presented to the WTO. Offering in-depth analyses of the 'two-way' relationship between China and the WTO, the contributions explore a range of key issues from the varied effects of WTO membership for China and the global economy to the responses of the WTO members to China's rapid economic growth. It presents diverse perspectives of leading scholars from multiple disciplines, including law, economics, political science, and international relations, as well as practical insights from senior policymakers from both China and the United States. This is an invaluable contribution to ongoing debates about the implications of the rise of China for global economic governance and enriches discussions of the wide-ranging implications of China's growing integration into the multilateral trading system, both now and in the future.
This article examines the pitfalls and potentials of the recent deliberate legal-political strategy of individualising the systemic problem of corruption. Correlations between the quantity and quality of corruption on the one side and the level of enjoyment of human rights on the other side have been shown. In response to these observations, the policy agendas of anti-corruption and human rights have been converging on the international and regional levels. Nevertheless, it is not easy to conceptualise corruption as a human rights violation that triggers international state responsibility. Moreover, risks and opportunities of the convergence of the policy agendas need to be assessed. This leads to the conclusion that the human rights approach does convey an added value that outweighs its drawbacks. The question remains whether human rights are the proper normative framework to denounce and combat corruption. It is submitted that, by opening up new options for monitoring and litigation, the human rights perspective can usefully complement the criminal law approach. Therefore, the currently one-sided integration of corruption concerns into the human rights machinery should be supplemented by a full attention to human rights in all monitoring schemes in the various anti-corruption regimes. Then, the relevant policies will likely create a positive feedback loop in which anti-corruption is instrumental to improving the human rights situation while a range of human rights will work as enablers for fighting corruption.
It is beyond question that States have positive obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent and address harm and risks of harm. However, given the difficulties of determining and delimiting the role of the State, the conditions under which positive obligations may apply can be unclear. The search for balance between intrusion and restraint by the State—between protection and freedom from interference—further complicates the question of state responsibility for breach of positive obligations.
Vladislava Stoyanova directly addresses these challenges in Positive Obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. By systematising the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, the book provides key insights into the elements crucial for ascertaining state responsibility for omissions - state knowledge, causation, and reasonableness. It outlines different kinds of positive human rights obligations and identifies the circumstances under which they can be breached.
Stoyanova reflects upon what is at stake for political communities when the triggering, content, and scope of positive obligations has been determined. She offers serious evaluation of the dangers of ECHR obligations whose scope might be too expansive or intrusive, as well as the conceptual hurdles of applying positive human rights obligations extraterritorially.
