New Issue: Indian Journal of International Economic Law

The latest issue of the Indian Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 3, no. 1, 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Julien Chaisse, Debashis Chakraborty, & Jaydeep Mukherjee, Managing India's Foreign Exchange Reserve: an Exploration of the SWF Temptation
• Akshay Kolse Patil, Precedents in Investor State Arbitration
• A Jayagovind, Anti-Dumping Agreement and Exhaustion of Law Remedies
• Ishupal Singh Kang, TRIPS through the Lens of Global Public Goods: Are TRIPS-plus FTAs eating up all the Good there is?
• Michael Reynolds & Michelle Chowdhury, Article 102 and High Technology Industries: the Impact of the European Microsoft and and Intel Cases

Call for Papers: ASIL International Organizations Interest Group Works-in-Progress Workshop

The International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law has issued a call for papers for a works-in-progress workshop, to be held on October 29, 2010, at the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington, DC. Here's the call:

Call for Papers

Works-in-Progress Workshop

ASIL International Organizations Interest Group

The International Organizations Interest Group of the American Society of International Law will hold a works-in-progress workshop on October 29, 2010, at the headquarters of the Organization of American States, Washington, DC.

If you are interested in presenting a paper at the workshop, please submit an abstract to Kristen Boon (Kristen.Boon[at]shu.edu), Jacob Cogan (jacob.cogan[at]uc.edu), and Lorena Perez (LPerez[at]oas.org) by the end of the day on August 27. Abstracts should be a couple of paragraphs long, but no more than one page. Papers should relate to the subject “international organizations.”

Papers selected for presentation are due no later than October 18. Papers should not yet be in print; ideally, authors will have time to make revisions based on the comments from the workshop.

The workshop’s format will be as follows. Each paper will be introduced by a commentator for about ten minutes. The author will have the opportunity to respond, if he or she wishes to do so. The floor will then be opened up for a little more than an hour of comments, reactions, and discussion from the group as a whole. The workshop is conducted on the assumption that everyone has read all of the papers in advance. After we have selected papers, we will ask for volunteers to serve as commentators. One need not present a paper or comment on a paper to participate.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions at all about the workshop or paper submissions.

Kristen Boon

Jacob Katz Cogan

Lorena Perez

Sporadic Blogging Ahead

For the next two weeks, I will be at an undisclosed location vacationing with the family. There will only be sporadic blogging during this time.

Nettelfield: Courting Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Hague Tribunal's Impact in a Postwar State

Lara J. Nettelfield (Simon Fraser Univ. - School for International Studies) has published Courting Democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The Hague Tribunal's Impact in a Postwar State (Cambridge Univ. Press 2010). Here's the abstract:

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) struggled to apprehend and try high-profile defendants like the Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević, and often received more criticism than praise. This volume argues that the underappreciated court has in fact made a substantial contribution to Bosnia and Herzegovina's transition to democracy. Based on more than three years of field research and several hundred interviews, this study brings together multiple research methods, including surveys, ethnography, and archival materials, to show the court's impact on five segments of Bosnian society, emphasizing the role of the social setting in translating international law in domestic contexts. Much of the early rhetoric about the transformative potential of international criminal law helped foster unrealistic expectations that institutions like the ICTY could not meet, but judged by more realistic standards, international law is seen to play a modest yet important role in postwar transitions. The findings of this study have implications for the study of international courts around the world and the role law plays in contributing to social change.

Clapham: The Subject of Subjects and the Attribution of Attribution

Andrew Clapham (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies - Law) has posted The Subject of Subjects and the Attribution of Attribution (in International Law and the Quest for its Implementation, Laurence Boisson de Chazournes & Marcelo G. Kohen eds., 2010). Here's the abstract:

This chapter revisits the idea of subjects of international law and suggests that there may be multiple entities that enjoy international personality even if they do not all have the same capacities as states to hold international rights and obligations. The scope of these obligations, however, remains unclear. In cases brought against international organizations the issue has been seen as one of attribution and here it is argued that the same act can be simultaneously attributed to the international organization as well as the relevant member states. The concept of complementarity is used to highlight how we need to be able to consider simultaneous responsibilities and not see the acts of peacekeepers as exclusively attributable to the entity that authorized the operation.

New Issue: International Community Law Review

The latest issue of the International Community Law Review (Vol. 12, no. 3, July 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Attila Tanzi, Reducing the Gap between International Water Law and Human Rights Law: The UNECE Protocol on Water and Health
• Stefania Negri, Waterborne Disease Surveillance: The Case for a Closer Interaction between the UNECE Protocol on Water and Health and the International Health Regulations (2005)
• Olivier De Schutter, The Emerging Human Right to Land
• Fabrizio Marrella, On the Changing Structure of International Investment Law: The Human Right to Water and ICSID Arbitration
• Stephen Stec, Humanitarian Limits to Sovereignty: Common Concern and Common Heritage Approaches to Natural Resources and Environment

Call for Submissions: Indian Journal of International Economic Law

The Indian Journal of International Economic Law has issued a call for submissions for its fourth issue. Here's the call:

We, the editorial board of the Indian Journal of International Economic Law (IJIEL), 2010-2011 invite submissions from academicians, scholars and graduate students for the fourth issue of the Journal. Submissions are invited in the following categories: full length articles (10,000-12,000 words); case reviews, legislative analyses, short comments and short articles by 'qualified graduate and doctoral students (7000-8000 words); Law in Focus and Case Comments by practitioners (3000-5000 words).

IJIEL is an annual journal that is managed, edited and produced by students of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore – India’s premier law school. The Journal’s mandate extends to all academic scholarship relevant to International Economic Law, including international finance and taxation, cross-border regulatory reform, interrelations between trade, human rights and the environment, international competition law, economic aspects of intellectual property rights and TRIPS, etc. We are particularly interested in scholarship that focuses on recognising the staggering impact of international trade and commerce on developing countries.

This double blind refereed journal with peer reviewing has steadily grown since its inception and the three issues we’ve published thus far have been a tremendous success in terms of the breadth and quality of the submissions and the enthusiastic support of stalwarts in the field. We are proud to state that the forwards of our issues have been penned by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, Mr. Arvind Subramaniam from the Peterson Institute and Dr. Thomas Cottier, Managing Director at WTI, Berne. In addition to the third issue which is currently in the process of publication, as an attempt to tap niche aspects of this dynamic field, we will be publishing a special issue on Space Law and International Economic Law with a forward by Judge Abdul G. Koroma, Member of the International Court of Justice.

We accept only electronic submissions. All submissions may be e-mailed to ijiel@nls.ac.in

For more information on our Editorial Board, circulation policy and submission guidelines kindly refer to www.ijiel.com

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Thanking You,

Sowjhanya Shankaran

Convenor, IJIEL, 2010-2011

Tasneem Deo

Chief Editor, IJIEL, 2010-2011

Indian Journal of International Economic Law (IJIEL),

National Law School of India University (NLSIU),

Nagarbhavi,

Bangalore – 560240

ijiel@nls.ac.in

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 64, no. 3, Summer 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Branislav L. Slantchev, Feigning Weakness
• Sonal S. Pandya, Labor Markets and the Demand for Foreign Direct Investment
• Cristina Bodea, Exchange Rate Regimes and Independent Central Banks: A Correlated Choice of Imperfectly Credible Institutions
• Matthew A. Baum & Tim Groeling, Reality Asserts Itself: Public Opinion on Iraq and the Elasticity of Reality
• Xun Cao & Aseem Prakash, Trade Competition and Domestic Pollution: A Panel Study, 1980–2003
• David Bach & Abraham L. Newman, Transgovernmental Networks and Domestic Policy Convergence: Evidence from Insider Trading Regulation

Payandeh: Internationales Gemeinschaftsrecht: Zur Herausbildung gemeinschaftsrechtlicher Strukturen im Völkerrecht der Globalisierung

Mehrdad Payandeh has published Internationales Gemeinschaftsrecht: Zur Herausbildung gemeinschaftsrechtlicher Strukturen im Völkerrecht der Globalisierung (Springer 2010). Here's the abstract:

Im Zeitalter der Globalisierung finden Interessen und Werte der internationalen Gemeinschaft zunehmend ihren Niederschlag im Völkerrecht. Dieser inhaltliche Wandel geht einher mit Veränderungen in der Struktur der internationalen Rechtsordnung: Soweit Gemeinschaftsinteressen betroffen sind, wird der Grundsatz, dass Staaten nicht ohne oder gegen ihren Willen Verpflichtungen unterworfen werden können, nicht mehr durchgehend eingehalten und im Rahmen der Rechtsdurchsetzung können nicht unmittelbar von einer Rechtsverletzung betroffene Staaten im Interesse der internationalen Gemeinschaft tätig werden. Zur theoretischen und dogmatischen Erfassung dieses strukturellen Wandels wird der Begriff des internationalen Gemeinschaftsrechts vorgeschlagen. Dieses bezeichnet normativ eine Kategorie von Rechtsnormen, die sich durch besondere gemeinschaftliche Mechanismen der Normentstehung und Rechtsdurchsetzung auszeichnen. Deskriptiv bezeichnet es eine dritte Stufe der Völkerrechtsentwicklung, die neben das Koexistenzvölkerrecht und das Kooperationsvölkerrecht tritt.

Robinson: A Response to William Schabas and a Reflection on Discursive Assumptions: One Vision or Many?

Darryl Robinson (Queen's Univ. - Law) has posted A Response to William Schabas and a Reflection on Discursive Assumptions: One Vision or Many? Here's the abstract:

This article critically examines some of the criticisms leveled by Professor William Schabas with respect to early policies and jurisprudence of the ICC, namely self-referrals and admissibility due to inaction. That examination serves as a springboard for broader observations about discursive assumptions in international criminal law.

One observation is that although discourse focuses on points of disagreement, it is also a vehicle through which the interpretive community implicitly absorbs and acquiesces in countless assumptions and propositions, which limit and shape legal debate.

For example, it is today an almost universally-shared belief that territorial state referrals were ‘not contemplated’ by the Rome Statute drafters and hence that they represent an ‘innovation’. This widespread belief is the diametric opposite of the actual drafting history, which expressly shows not only that territorial state referrals were repeatedly discussed but also that they were not even controversial. The controversy was whether referrals by states parties without an ‘interest’ in the situation should be permitted. Yet the distorted belief about history has framed and shaped the present legal debate. In this way, a straightforward application of the text, in a manner expressly contemplated by the drafters, has generated a significant literature and in opposite discussions about creative re-interpretations. Similarly, the widespread but incorrect conviction that Article 17 contains only the oft-cited criteria of ‘unwilling’ and ‘unable’ has generated a distorted debate about admissibility in inaction scenarios, culminating in unsubstantiated and legitimacy-draining accusations against the Court. The controversy shows the power of collective perception to reconstruct not only history but text itself.

A related observation concerns the tendency of members of the interpretive community to assume a single vision or model of the Court and to impose that expectation onto the Statute. Such arguments are easily supported by invocations of ‘drafters intent’. However, this article recommends skepticism about portrayals of the drafters as having a monolithic vision or of any single philosophy underlying the Statute. Multiple plausible models are compatible with the Statute, and open-minded assessment of the merits and implications of each is needed. Such models may include, for example, an ‘antagonistic’ model, a ‘catalyst’ model, a ‘reverse cooperation’ model and a ‘facility’ model.

New Issue: Journal of International Maritime Law

The latest issue of the Journal of International Maritime Law (Vol. 16, no. 1, 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Karen N. Scott, Safety of shipping in the Southern Ocean
• Thomas M. Brown, For the "round and top of sovereignty": boarding foreign vessels at sea on terror-related intelligence tips

d'Aspremont: Responsibility for Coups d'Etat in International Law

Jean d'Aspremont (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law) has posted Responsibility for Coups d'Etat in International Law (Tulane Journal of International & Comparative Law, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 451-475, 2010). Here's the abstract:

It is the aim of this article to demonstrate that the impact of coups d’état in international political discourse outweighs actual consequences under the law of responsibility in international law. This article argues that - leaving aside the hypothesis of effective control by a foreign state - coups d’état, despite being systematically condemned in political discourse, do not engage the responsibility of any state as they cannot be attributed to any international legal subject. The article however argues that coups can constitute preparatory actions to a subsequent internationally wrongful act.

Weinberg: Non-State Actors and Global Informal Governance - The Case of ICANN

Jonathan Weinberg (Wayne State Univ. - Law) has posted Non-State Actors and Global Informal Governance - The Case of ICANN (in International Handbook on Informal Governance, Thomas Christiansen & Christine Neuhold eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This chapter examines the history of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. ICANN is an unusual beast. When it came into existence, it faced legitimacy challenges: some were unconvinced that it was an appropriate wielder of the power it claimed, that they had any obligation to cooperate in its governance functions, or that they should comply with its pronouncements. I argue in this chapter that ICANN’s key move in establishing its legitimacy was its expansion and bureaucratization. ICANN initially positioned itself as an informal technical coordination body in the tradition of the Internet Engineering Task Force: today, it has shifted to adopt the appearance, processes and culture of a modern large bureaucracy. In seeking to be accepted by business enterprises and governments, it structured itself so that it looks like a business enterprise or government. It negotiated successfully with influential players as to the goals it should pursue, and reframed its structure and culture so as to conform to their images of what a successful and legitimate organization ought to look like.

Asteriti & Tams: Transparency and Representation of the Public Interest in Investment Treaty Arbitration

Alessandra Asteriti (Univ. of Glasgow - Law) & Christian J. Tams (Univ. of Glasgow - Law) have posted Transparency and Representation of the Public Interest in Investment Treaty Arbitration (in International Investment Law and Comparative Public Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article addresses one of the crucial tensions facing modern investment arbitration: that between confidentiality and privacy on the one hand and transparency and inclusiveness on the other. It begins by reviewing how investment arbitration frameworks have addressed this tension so far, noting the traditional focus on confidentiality and privacy and the more recent trend towards transparency and inclusiveness of proceedings before ICSID and/or NAFTA tribunals.

In line with the central methodological premise of the book, the chapter then moves on to compare domestic public law approaches to questions of transparency and public interest representation. Having reviewed U.S., English, French, German and Greek law, it shows that domestic public law seems to accept the principle of transparency and provides for various forms of indirect public interest representation (e.g. through amicus curiae briefs) but also different forms of public interest claims. While this approach cannot be directly transposed to the international legal order, it can clearly – and arguably should – guide the approach of investment lawyers. In any event, the experience of many domestic legal systems suggests that there is no reason to be overly afraid of transparency and some degree of public interest representation.

Tomuschat, Lagrange, & Oeter: The Right to Life

Christian Tomuschat (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Law), Evelyne Lagrange (l’Université Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne) - Law), & Stefan Oeter (Universität Hamburg - Law) have published The Right to Life (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2010). Contents include:

• Christian Tomuschat, The Right to Life – Legal and Political Foundations
• Walter Kälin, ‘Death is different’ – The Death Penalty and the Right to a Fair Trial
• Paul Tavernier, Le recours à la force par la police
• Vera Rusinova, The Duty to Investigate the Death of Persons Arrested and/or Detained by Public Authorities
• Georg Nolte, The Bundesverfassungsgericht on the German Aerial Security Law: A Sonderweg from the Perspective of International Law?
• Rafaëlle Maison, Le crime de génocide dans la jurisprudence internationale : débats et hypothèses
• Vera Gowlland-Debbas, The Right to Life and the Relationship between Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
• Nils Melzer, The ICRC’s Clarification Process on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities under International Humanitarian Law
• Stefan Oeter, Collateral Damages – Military Necessity and the Right to Life
• Michael Bothe, The Status of Captured Fighters in Non-International Armed Conflict
• Philippe Weckel, Les « combattants irréguliers » en situation d’occupation militaire
• Stefanie Schmahl, Targeted Killings – A Challenge for International Law?
• Hélène Tigroudja, Assassinats ciblés et droit à la vie dans la jurisprudence de la Cour suprême israélienne
• Jean d’Aspremont, Le tyrannicide en droit international
• Emmanuel Decaux, Le droit à la vie et le droit à une alimentation suffisante
• Eibe Riedel, The Right to Life and the Right to Health, in particular the Obligation to Reduce Child Mortality
• Astrid Epiney, ‘Réfugiés écologiques’ et droit international
• Pierre d’Argent, Conclusions générales : « Le droit à la vie en tant que jus cogens donnant naissance à desobligations erga omnes ? »

New Volume: Select Proceedings of the European Society of International Law

Volume 2 (2008) of the Select Proceedings of the European Society of International Law (Hart Publishing 2010), edited by Hélène Ruiz Fabri (Univ. of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne) - Law), Rüdiger Wolfrum (Judge, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea & Director, Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public Law and International Law), and Jana Gogolin (Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public Law and International Law), is out. This volume includes papers presented at ESIL's 2008 Third Biennial Conference in Heidelberg.

Johns: Democratic Torture

Fleur E. Johns (Univ. of Sydney - Law) has posted Democratic Torture. Here's the abstract:

Something happened to international law between 2004 and 2009. It happened in fits and starts and was largely unforeseen. At various moments during that period, classified legal memoranda were released that analyzed and sought to affirm the legality of the United States’ programme of detention, interrogation and surveillance in connection with global anti-terrorism initiatives and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Through these memos’ release, international law encountered itself and found the encounter troubling. This paper explores prospects for critical intervention within prevailing understandings of that encounter. In particular, it asks: what forms of international legal subjectivity – and what prospects and sites for international law-making – could such intervention induce? Delivered as a plenary panel address at a conference dedicated to the theme ‘International Law in the Second Decade of the 21st Century: Back to the Future or Business As Usual?’ this paper presents portions of new research forthcoming in a book: Events – The Force of International Law (Fleur Johns, Richard Joyce & Sundhya Pahuja eds., Routledge-Cavendish, September 2010).

Conference: Socio-Legal Perspectives on the Adjudication of International Economic Disputes

Today and tomorrow, the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law is hosting a workshop on "Socio-Legal Perspectives on the Adjudication of International Economic Disputes." The program is here.

Froese: Evaluating the Speed at Which Member Countries Engage in Dispute Settlement: An Empirical Study

Marc D. Froese (Canadian Univ. College - Political Science) has posted Evaluating the Speed at Which Member Countries Engage in Dispute Settlement: An Empirical Study of the Time from Accession to First Dispute at the WTO. Here's the abstract:

A number of recent studies have shown that using the WTO’s dispute settlement procedure is seldom a straightforward proposition of dispute resolution through an open juridical process (Dunoff 2008, Froese 2010, Nordstrom 1999). A majority of members have never used the DSU, and for those who have used it, participation in dispute settlement can be explained by a number of factors such as trade volume, income level and legal capacity (Francois, Horn and Kaunitz, 2008). It stands to reason that members who use the panel system very little, or hardly at all, are also slow to use it – that there is an inverse correlation between number of dispute panels and time until first dispute.

This paper asks a simple question: what is the average time after accession that a member brings a complaint, receives a complaint, and joins a dispute as a third party? The first section provides a brief overview of some of the recent literature pertaining to dispute settlement participation at the WTO. The second section provides a statistical analysis of the pace of dispute settlement, by examining cases initiated in the fifteen years since the WTO Agreement came into force, between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2009. The third section examines a number of possible factors that may explain the pace at which countries at different income levels engage in dispute settlement. The paper concludes that there is much less uniformity in when members undertake dispute settlement than might be expected given the global divisions of wealth, access to information and availability of legal talent.

New Issue: Journal of International Peacekeeping

The latest issue of the Journal of International Peacekeeping (Vol. 14, nos. 3-4, September 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Bryn Hughes & Charles Hunt, Making Sense of Peace and Capacity-building Operations: Rethinking Policing and Beyond
• Otwin Marenin, Understanding Mission Environments: Local Contexts and the Legitimation of Reforms
• Eric Scheye, Redeeming Statebuilding's Misconceptions: Power, Politics and Social Efficacy and Capital in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States
• Bruce Baker, Grasping the Nettle of Nonstate Policing
• Sinclair Dinnen, From Ideals to Reality in International Rule of Law Work - the Case of Papua New Guinea
• Volker Boege, How to Maintain Peace and Security in a Post-conflict Hybrid Political Order - the Case of Bougainville
• Damien Kingsbury, Policing, Rule of Law, State Capacity and Sustainable Peace in Timor-Leste
• Bruce 'Ossie' Oswald & Adrian Bates, Privileges and Immunities of United Nations Police
• Charles Hunt & Bryn Hughes, Assessing Police Peacekeeping: Systemisation not Serendipity
• Gordon Peake, Understanding International Police Organisations: What the Researchers Do Not See

New Issue: Nordic Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Nordic Journal of International Law (Vol. 79, no. 3, 2010) is out. Contents include:

• Hanna Bertelman, International Standards and National Ownership? Judicial Independence in Hybrid Courts: The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia
• Vincent P. Cogliati-Bantz, Disentangling the "Genuine Link": Enquiries in Sea, Air and Space Law
• Athanasios Yupsanis, ILO Convention No. 169 Concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries 1989-2009: An Overview

Pirker: Interpreting Multi-Sourced Equivalent Norms: Judicial Borrowing in International Courts

Benedikt Pirker (Univ. of Fribourg - Law) has posted Interpreting Multi-Sourced Equivalent Norms: Judicial Borrowing in International Courts (in Multi-sourced Equivalent Norms in International Law, Tomer Broude & Yuval Shany eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The paper looks at the practice of judicial borrowing – the 'transplanting' of legal reasoning developed in one jurisdiction by another jurisdiction – and assess its relevance to the treatment of MSENs (using case studies from EFTA and MERCOSUR court decisions). It then discusses the policy implication of acts of judicial borrowing involving MSENs, cautioning against the challenge it offers to judicial independence and institutional legitimacy.

Call for Submissions: Yearbook on International Investment Law and Policy

Submissions are invited for the third edition of the Vale Columbia Center’s Yearbook on International Investment Law and Policy. The Yearbook is an annual publication dedicated to providing a forum for contemporary discussion and analysis of investment law and policy. Information about the Yearbook can be found here. Submissions for the third edition should be sent to ksauva@law.columbia.edu.

Conference: Africa and the Future of International Criminal Justice

Today through Friday, the Wits Programme in Law, Justice and Development in Africa at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Law, in association with the Africa Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, will host a conference on "Africa and the Future of International Criminal Justice." The program is here. Here's the idea:

This conference is convened to interrogate, in a robust academic and practical exchange, a number of issues, whether perceived or real, in terms of what international criminal justice portends for Africa and vice versa.

Alemanno: The European Volcanic Ash Crisis: Between International and European Law

Alberto Alemanno (HEC Paris - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on The European Volcanic Ash Crisis: Between International and European Law.