Panel Discussion: Environmental Goods and Services: Unlocking the Full Potential

On June 24, 2025, the Center for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London will host a panel discussion on "Environmental Goods and Services: Unlocking the Full Potential." Details are here.

Call for Papers: The Law and Political Economy of 21st-Century Authoritarianism

A call for papers has been issued for the 2025 Australian Progressive Legal Studies workshop, to take place December 8–9, 2025, in Brisbane, at the University of Queensland. The theme is: "The Law and Political Economy of 21st-Century Authoritarianism." The call is here.

New Issue: Global Responsibility to Protect

The latest issue of Global Responsibility to Protect (Vol. 17, nos. 2-3, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Accountability in and after Frozen Conflicts: Lessons from Syria
• Dara Conduit & Yasmine Nahlawi, Legal Accountability in Frozen Conflicts: Lessons from Syria
• Roua Al Taweel, Responsibility to Protect and Syria’s Displacement: Unprotected at Home and Abroad
• Yasmine Nahlawi, Accountability Pursuits in the Syrian Context: an r2p Success?
• Danny Singh & Haian Dukhan, From Libya to Syria: Assessing the Impact of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine on Global Intervention Strategies
• Linda Osman, Reflections on the Dabbagh Case: Challenges and Implications for Justice
• Ruham Hawash, Restoring Faith in Justice – the Imperative of Impartiality in the Pursuit of Justice
• Lubna Alkanawati, A First-Hand Account of Surviving Atrocities in Syria, and Fighting for Justice
• Mohamad Katoub, From Syria to Gaza: the Dangerous Normalisation of Attacks on Healthcare

Engle: Toward an Abolitionist Human Rights Court: Rethinking Responses to Gendered and Racialized Violence

Karen Engle (Univ. of Texas, Austin - Law) has published Toward an Abolitionist Human Rights Court: Rethinking Responses to Gendered and Racialized Violence (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025). This book is free online from May 22, 2025 to June 5, 2025. Here's the abstract:

Contemporary international human rights law increasingly obligates states to heighten their criminalization of certain human rights violations, including gendered, racialized, and homophobic violence. This Element uses prison and police abolitionist thought to challenge this trend. It focuses on the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), arguing that the Court's reliance on punishment and policing threatens to undo earlier European approaches to criminal law and human rights that resonate with abolitionist thought. It also contends that the criminalization approach provides the Court with an alibi for not recognizing or attending to the deeply structural racialized, colonial, sexual, gendered, and homophobic violence in Europe, particularly but not only against Roma communities and Black and Muslim migrants. Encouraging human rights advocates and judges to take seriously prison and police abolition in Europe and elsewhere, the Element calls for the ECtHR to pave the way for an abolitionist-oriented turn among human rights courts.

New Issue: Archiv des Völkerrechts

The latest issue of Archiv des Völkerrechts (Vol. 62, no. 4, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Abhandlungen
• Paul Gragl, Sanktionen und Strafe - Rechtskonformität und Verwebungseffekt von restriktiven Maßnahmen der EU gegen Russland
• Darius Hashemolhosseini & Patricia Wiater, International law approaches to state-owned enterprises
• Valentin Schatz & Aziz Epik, Zur völker- und verwaltungsrechtlichen Einordnung der zivilen Seenotrettung
• Julian A. Hettihewa, Potenziale der Youth Studies im Völkerrecht: Ein Plädoyer für einen wissenschaftlichen Austausch

New Issue: Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international

The latest issue of the Journal of the History of International Law / Revue d'histoire du droit international (Vol. 27, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: The Turn to Historiography in International Law
• Thomas Kleinlein & Jean d’Aspremont, The Turn to Historiography in International Law: Limitations and New Horizons
• Felix Lange, The ‘Narrative Turn’ and Its Limits
• Ryan Martínez Mitchell, The Narrative Fragmentation of International Legal History
• Tor Krever, Recovering the Radical Tradition in the International Legal History of Decolonisation
• Michele Tedeschini, Authorial Labour in the Postcolonial Historiography of International Law
• Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi, Futurism: Neglected Histories of International Law

New Volume: Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law

The latest volume of the Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (Vol. 26, 2023) is out. Contents include:

• Humanitarian Actors
• David Matyas, Humanitarians and Their Law(s): A Comprehensive Inquiry
• Oscar A. Gómez, The State as a Humanitarian Actor: Opportunities and Challenges in Decolonizing Humanitarianism
• Other Articles
• Neil Davison, Nerve Agents by Another Name: The Thirty-Year Effort to Close a Loophole on Chemical Weapons
• Robin Sebastiaan David Sinnige, On the Sideline or on the Pitch? The Classification of Third States Supporting Active Belligerents in an International Armed Conflict with Satellite Imagery
• Year in Review
• Belén Guerrero Romero, Wamika Sachdev, & Baptitste Beurrier, Year in Review 2023

Kysar: The Stakes of the Global Tax Deal for International Economic Governance

Rebecca M. Kysar (Fordham Univ. - Law) has posted The Stakes of the Global Tax Deal for International Economic Governance. Here's the abstract:

These remarks, prepared for the Richard Crawford Pugh Lecture on Tax Law & Policy at the University of San Diego Law school, tell the story of how the global tax deal, which was agreed upon by over 140 countries in 2021, came to be. Specifically, they explore a new version of international economic governance--one aimed at a more equitable distribution of the gains from globalization from both international and intranational perspectives--that ultimately propelled its success. Importantly, however, the story of the global tax deal is a contingent one. The dissatisfaction with globalization that led towards tax multilateralism can just as easily lead to nations to turn inwards, away from all forms of international economic governance, as we are now seeing. And given today’s fraught political moment, these remarks also explore the alternative, and darker, geopolitical vision with which opponents of the global tax deal are aligning themselves, perhaps unknowingly.

Conference: 32nd Annual ANZSIL Conference

On July 2-4, 2025, the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law will hold its 32nd Annual Conference at Australian National University. The theme is: "Silence, Forgetting and Remembrance." Program and registration are here.

New Issue: Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies

The latest issue of the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies (Vol. 16, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Aneta Peretko, States of Silence: The Growing Influence of Human Rights Courts in Interpreting International Humanitarian Law in the Absence of Opinio Juris
• Samuel Hartridge & Brendan Walker-Munro, Autonomous Weapons Systems and the ai Alignment Problem
• Mohammed R. M. Elshobake & Alaa Sakka, Forced Returns and Fragile LivesStrategies for Safeguarding Syrian Refugees and Ensuring Their Protection
• Caroline Sweeney, The International Response to the Humanitarian Crisis in Syria: A Socio Legal Critique
• Pratik Purswani & Adithi Rajesh, Beyond Bombs and Bullets: Natural Resource Management in the Indo-Naxalite Non-International Armed Conflict
• J. P. Vallejo, Manipur: a Genocide?

Gidney: An International Anomaly: Colonial Accession to the League of Nations

Thomas Gidney has published An International Anomaly: Colonial Accession to the League of Nations (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

It is often assumed that only sovereign states can join the United Nations. But this was not always the case. At the founding of the United Nations, a loophole drafted by British statesmen in its predecessor organisation, the League of Nations, was carried forward, allowing colonies to accede as member-states. Colonies such as India, Ireland, Egypt, and many more were afforded a tokenistic representation at the League in Geneva during the interwar years, decades before their independence. Thomas Gidney unites three geographically distinct case studies to demonstrate the evolution of Britain's policy from a range of different viewpoints, exploring how this policy came into being, and why it was only exploited by the British Empire. He argues that this membership shaped colonial norms around sovereignty and international recognition in the interwar period and to the present day.

Conference: The COE Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law: Comparative, EU, and International Law Perspectives

On May 29, 2025, a conference on "The COE Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law: Comparative, EU, and International Law Perspectives" will be held at the University of Trieste, Gorizia Campus, and virtually. Details are here.

Feihle: An International Human Rights Law of Cooperation: International Cooperation, State Responsibility and the European Convention on Human Rights

Prisca Feihle has published An International Human Rights Law of Cooperation: International Cooperation, State Responsibility and the European Convention on Human Rights (Edward Elgar Publishing 2025). This is the latest volume in the Elgar International Law series. Here's the abstract:

This incisive book examines how states bear responsibility for human rights protection when they cooperate. Focusing on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), it explores the challenges of international cooperation to international human rights law and uncovers how, nonetheless, human rights provisions may turn into an international human rights law of cooperation and regulate inter-state interaction.

Prisca Feihle discusses the meaning of international cooperation to human rights law, engaging in detailed analysis of case-law to illustrate how the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) addresses cooperation between states in a range of areas including migration policies, surveillance measures or criminal investigations. Developing a comprehensive framework for states’ human rights responsibilities in international cooperation, she puts forward insightful recommendations on what human rights law under the ECHR demands of states beyond these specific subject matters. Suggestions concern the ECHR’s interactions with the law of international responsibility, interpretational method and the scope of application and content of human rights provisions in relation to inter-state interaction affecting individuals.

Conference: Present human rights challenges in Europe and beyond

On June 6, 2025, a conference on "Present human rights challenges in Europe and beyond" will be held in Innsbruck and virtually. Details are here.

Jeutner: The Aesthetic Authority of Law: Experiments with Legal Form

Valentin Jeutner (Lund Univ.) has published The Aesthetic Authority of Law: Experiments with Legal Form (Media-Tryck 2025). Here is the abstract:

The legal form dictates the contours of law’s appearance. Texts are neatly divided into (often) numbered paragraphs. Pages must conform to specified layouts. Conventions regulate the use of fonts, punctuation, and colours. Legal terms of art replace colloquial expressions. Human experiences enter legal texts only in mediated, sanitized forms. The dictates of legal form are all but incidental. They condition law’s authority. By repeatedly modifying the Case of the S.S. Lotus (Permanent Court of International Justice 1927), this book invites readers to consider how modifications of law’s appearance alter law’s authority.

New Issue: ICSID Review: Foreign Investment Law Journal

The latest issue of the ICSID Review: Foreign Investment Law Journal (Vol. 39, no. 3, Fall 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Agora on the 'Certain Iranian Assets' Judgment
• Chester Brown & Jeremy K Sharpe, Certain Iranian Assets (Iran v United States) An Introduction to the Agora
• Ursula Kriebaum, Judicial Expropriation
• Daniel Purisch, Fair and Equitable Treatment, Non-Impairment and Effective Means Protections: The ICJ’s Judgment in Certain Iranian Assets
• Nartnirun Junngam, The ICJ’s Treatment of the FPS Standard in Certain Iranian Assets: A Clarifying Contribution or Unsteady Step Back into a Comfort Zone?
• Prabhash Ranjan, Essential Security Interests in International Investment Law—A Trend towards GATTization
• Carlotta Ceretelli, Mala Fides Exceptions in Certain Iranian Assets: Lessons for Inter-State and Investment Disputes
• Berk Demirkol, Local Remedies Rule and Its Application by the International Court of Justice
• Julian Arato & Fernando Lusa Bordin, Determining the Juridical Status of Companies under International Law
• Jake Jerogin & Chester Brown, The Determination of Bank Markazi’s Claims and Implications for the Claims of Central Banks under Investment Treaties
• Case Comments
• Arman Sarvarian, Koch Industries, Inc. and Koch Supply & Trading, LP v Canada: Emissions Allowances as ‘Investment’?
• Alexander G Leventhal, Espíritu Santo Holdings, LP and L1bre Holding, LLC v Mexico:A New Piece of the Corpus of Interim Measures Orders in Relation to Criminal Proceedings
• Articles
• Joseph Ho, International Investment Treaty Compliance in Canadian Federalism: A Multidimensional Challenge
• Kseniia Soloveva, Instrumentalising Nationality of Natural Persons: Legitimate Strategic Planning versus Abuse of Procedural Rights
• Sara Nicola D’Sousa, The Protection of Crypto-Assets in International Investment Law
• Amr Arafa F Hasaan, A Chronicle of Building an Attractive Domestic Regulation of Foreign Direct Investment in Egypt

Call for Papers: New Tech, New Frontiers: Redefining Space Law in the Age of Technological Breakthroughs (Young Scholars)

A call for papers has been issued for the 2025 International Young Scholars Conference on Space Law, to take place September 5, 2025, in Athens at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The theme is: "New Tech, New Frontiers: Redefining Space Law in the Age of Technological Breakthroughs." The call is here.

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 64, no. 2, April 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Situation in Uganda (Prosecutor v. Dominic Ongwen) (Reparations Order) (Int'l Crim. Ct. Tr. Chamber), with introductory note by Arthur Traldi
• Specialist Prosecutor v. Mustafa (Kos. Specialist Chambers), with introductory note by Rudina Jasini
• Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (S. Afr. v. Isr.); Request for the Indication of Provisional Measures (I.C.J.), with introductory note by Ozlem Ulgen

New Issue: Business and Human Rights Journal

The latest issue of the Business and Human Rights Journal (Vol. 10, no. 1, February 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Business, Human Rights and Just Transition in the Energy and Extractive Industries
• Damilola Olawuyi, Claire Bright, Samentha Goethals, & Qaraman Hasan, Beyond Just Transition: Advancing Responsible and Rights-Based Business Practices in the Energy and Extractives Sector
• Oyeniyi Abe, Towards a Human Rights-based Approach to Energy Transition in Africa
• Godswill A. Agbaitoro & Eghosa O. Ekhator, Just Energy Transition in Africa: Towards Social Inclusion and Environmental Rights-Based Imperatives
• Nora Götzmann & Mathilde Dicalou, Towards a Feminist Energy Justice Framework
• Begüm Kilimcioğlu, Procedural Justice and Due Process Principle in the Context of Just Energy Transition: Learning from South Africa
• Susan L. Karamanian, International Investment Agreements, Human Rights, and the Path to Net-Zero: What Role for Corporate Codes?
• Chiara Macchi, Corporate Responsibility and Deep Seabed Mining: The Limits of Due Diligence
• Dorothée Cambou & Karin Buhmann, Indigenous Peoples, Business, and the Struggles for Justice in the Green Transition: Towards a Rights-Based Approach to Just Transitions
• Oana Burcu & Bethany Jackson, China’s Solar Dominance: Worker Rights in the Pursuit of a Just Transition
• Andy Symington, What Are the Success Factors for a Just Transition in Critical Mineral Extraction? Analysis From the Lithium Triangle
• Mark Aspinwall, Human Rights, Social Resistance and Mining Firm Behaviour in Latin America
• Developments in the Field
• Saksham Misra & Godswill Agbaitoro, Mapping Human Rights Violations Connected to Renewable Energy Development in India: A Case Study of the ‘Oran Land’ at Thar Desert and Energy Transition
• Chloé Bailey & Cannelle Lavite, Litigating Climate Justice in Renewable Energy Projects: Reflections from Unión Hidalgo v EDF
• Chiara Morfea, The Norwegian Transparency Act, Renewable Energy and Extractive Industries: Towards a Just Transition for the Indigenous Sámi People
• Stephanie Bijlmakers & Nicola Jägers, The Rights of Indigenous Peoples Towards a Just Energy Transition: The Dutch Approach to Mandatory Corporate Due Diligence

Somos, Cleary, Dufour, Jones Corredera, & Salerno: The Unseen History of International Law

Mark Somos (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), Matthew Cleary (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), Pablo Dufour (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), Edward Jones Corredera (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law), & Emanuele Salerno (Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) have published The Unseen History of International Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2025). Here's the abstract:

The Unseen History of International Law locates and describes almost one thousand surviving copies of the first nine editions of Hugo Grotius' De iure belli ac pacis (IBP) published between 1625 and 1650. Meticulously reconstructing the publishing history of these first nine editions and cataloguing copies across hundreds of collections,The Unseen History provides fundamental data for reconstructing the impact of IBP across time and space. It also examines annotations that thousands of owners and readers have left in IBP copies over four centuries, offering original insights into the development of international law.

Grotius' De iure belli ac pacis has been commonly regarded as the foundation of modern international law since its first appearance in 1625. Most major international law scholars have engaged with IBP, often owning and richly annotating their own copies. At key moments - including the demise of the Holy Roman Empire, the fall of Napoleon, and the end of both world wars - IBP was reissued with new commentaries by multinational projects devoted to restarting the international order. Despite the enormous literature on IBP's reception and influence, we cannot fully understand its impact without uncovering the history of IBP as a physical object, with hundreds of thousands of unpublished annotations arguing or agreeing with the text, updating and adapting its contents.

Approaching Grotius' seminal work as a physical vehicle of the author's, the publishers', owners', and readers' engagement, The Unseen History radically expands and revises our understanding not only of IBP, but also of the academic discipline and lived practice of modern international law over the last four centuries. In addition to delving into the first nine editions' printing history, descriptive bibliography, and both Grotius' and the publishers' marketing and donation strategies, the book explores Grotius' subsequent impact on pro-slavery and abolitionist litigation as a case study of how the census' original findings can be applied to specific areas of reception.

Conference: Regulating Security in Cyberspace

On June 4-6, 2025, the ESIL Interest Group on Peace and Security, the ESIL Interest Group on International Law and Technology, and the University of Granada Research Project on the Regulation of Security in Cyberspace will convene a conference on "Regulating Security in Cyberspace," at the University of Granada. Details are here.

Seminar: Re-thinking Public/Private Divide

The 36th Helsinki Summer Seminar will take place August 25-29, 2025. The theme is: "Re-thinking Public/Private Divide." Details are here.

Orakhelashvili: The Essence and Reality of Statehood: Effectiveness, Recognition and Legitimacy

Alexander Orakhelashvili (Univ. of Birmingham - Law) has published The Essence and Reality of Statehood: Effectiveness, Recognition and Legitimacy (Edward Elgar Publishing 2025). Here's the abstract:

This comprehensive book examines the history and importance of three fundamental ideas underlying the concept of statehood: effectiveness, recognition and legitimacy. It explores the analytical and historical genesis of these concepts, as well as their practical application in navigating relationships between states.

Alexander Orakhelashvili examines the theoretical developments and state and judicial practices relating to the key concepts of effectiveness, recognition and legitimacy. Through detailed case studies, he explores the history of the ideas that inform the contemporary discourse on statehood in international law. Presenting a range of diverse and divergent views, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the modern concept of statehood and how this has come into fruition.

New Issue: European Convention on Human Rights Law Review

The latest issue of the European Convention on Human Rights Law Review (Vol. 6, no. 1, 2025) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: The New Agreement on the EU Accession to the ECHR: Can It Succeed?
• Vassilis P Tzevelekos, The EU’s Accession to the ECHR: The Future of the Revised Draft Accession Agreement and a Call to End the Bosphorus Doctrine
• Christos Giakoumopoulos & David Milner, Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights: A View From Inside the Council of Europe
• Paul Gragl, The New Draft Agreement on the EU Accession to the ECHR: Overcoming Luxembourg’s Threshold
• Tobias Lock, Implications of the Revised Draft EU Accession Agreement for the ECHR
• Jörg Polakiewicz & Irene Suominen-Picht, Now or Never – One Year After the Closure of the Second Negotiation Round for the EU’s Accession to the ECHR: Will the Agreement Reached Suffice to Make Accession (Finally) a Reality?

New Issue: Archiv des Völkerrechts

The latest issue of Archiv des Völkerrechts (Vol. 62, no. 3, 2024) is out. Contents include:

• Abhandlungen
• Andreas Th. Müller, Den Teufel mit dem Beelzebub austreiben? Die Neuvermessung der Opfereigenschaft im KlimaSeniorinnen-Urteil
• August Reinisch & Paulina Rundel, Eine völkerrechtliche Außenperspektive auf die extraterritoriale Geltung der EMRK im Zusammenhang mit den »Klimaklagen« vor dem EGMR
• Teresa Weber, Zum Locus Standi von NGOs in KlimaSeniorinnen: Hoffnung auf effektiven Menschenrechtsschutz in der Klimakrise?
• Daniel Ennöckl, Die Begründung eines Klimagrundrechts im EGMR-Urteil KlimaSeniorinnen
• Stefanie Schmahl, Zur Konventionsauslegung und zum Begründungsstil des EGMR im Urteil KlimaSeniorinnen
• Laura Pavlidis & Christoph Gärner, Das Verhältnis zwischen Demokratie und Menschenrechten in der KlimaSeniorinnen- Entscheidung des EGMR
• Peter Sander, Klimaklagen
• Johannes Hahn, Zur Beschwerdemöglichkeit für Interessens-/ Umweltverbände nach dem EGMR-Urteil KlimaSeniorinnen in Österreich