Job Opening: NUS Centre for International Law (Research Associates)

The National University of Singapore Centre for International Law is accepting applications for two positions: (1) Research Associate/Fellow (CIL’s Oceans Law and Policy Programme); and (2) Research Associate/Fellow (MPA-CIL Oceans Governance Research Programme). The advertisement is here.

Bertolini: Die Durchsetzung von ISDS-Entscheidungen in Deutschland: Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung aktueller Entwicklungen in der EU

Sebastian Bertolini has published Die Durchsetzung von ISDS-Entscheidungen in Deutschland: Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung aktueller Entwicklungen in der EU (Duncker & Humblot 2019). Here's the abstract:

Die Investitionsschiedsgerichtsbarkeit stellt heute die wichtigste und effektivste Form der Beilegung von Investitionsstreitigkeiten dar. Immer wieder beklagen Investoren jedoch, dass sie die hart erstrittenen Schiedssprüche nicht oder nur unter großen Anstrengungen vor staatlichen Gerichten durchsetzen bzw. zwangsvollstrecken konnten. Probleme bei der Durchsetzung bzw. Zwangsvollstreckung innerhalb der EU ergeben sich nach der »Achmea«-Entscheidung des EuGH nicht nur aus dem EU-Recht und Konflikten im Mehrebenensystem des Rechts, sondern auch aus der Anwendung nationalen Rechts, beispielsweise durch das unterschiedliche Verständnis von Staatenimmunität. Auch die geplante Schaffung neuer Streitbeilegungsmechanismen wie eines Investment Court Systems oder eines internationalen Investitionsgerichtshofs wirft Fragen der Durchsetzbarkeit ihrer Entscheidungen auf. Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt diese Problembereiche im Detail, geht insbesondere auf die aktuellen Entwicklungen innerhalb der EU ein und bietet eigene Lösungsansätze zur Ermöglichung der Durchsetzbarkeit von ISDS-Entscheidungen in der EU.

Workshop: Democracies and Structural Changes in the Digital Age

A workshop on "Democracies and Structural Changes in the Digital Age" will take place December 16-17, 2019, in Hamburg. The program is here. Registration is open until December 11.

Heffes, Kotlik, & Ventura: International Humanitarian Law and Non-State Actors: Debates, Law and Practice

Ezequiel Heffes (Geneva Call), Marcos D. Kotlik (Univ. of Buenos Aires - Law), & Manuel J. Ventura (International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals) have published International Humanitarian Law and Non-State Actors: Debates, Law and Practice (Asser Press 2020). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

This book challenges the traditional approach to international law by concentrating on international humanitarian law and placing the focus beyond States: it reflects on current legal, policy and practical issues that concern non-State actors in and around situations of armed conflict. With the emergence of the nation-State, international law was almost entirely focused on inter-State relations, thus excluding - for the most part - non-State entities. In the modern era, such a focus needs to be adjusted, in order to encompass the various types of functions and interactions that those entities perform throughout numerous international decision-making processes.

Call for Papers: The Question of Solidarity in Peace and Security (Reminder)

The Interest Group on Peace and Security of the European Society of International Law has launched a call for papers for a side event to the 2020 ESIL Research Forum, which will be held at the University of Catania, on April 23-24, 2020. The IGPS side event's theme is: "The Question of Solidarity in Peace and Security." The call is here. The deadline is January 17, 2020.

Call for Papers: Dynamics and Legal Challenges in Armed Conflict in the DRC

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "Dynamics and Legal Challenges in Armed Conflict in the DRC," to take place April 2-3, 2020, at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. The call is here.

Conference: Dealing with tensions, crisis and war in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles

On May 12-16, 2020, the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War will hold a conference on "Dealing with tensions, crisis and war in accordance with international law and humanitarian principles," at Aix-en-Provence Law School. The program is here.

Lohne: Advocates of Humanity: Human Rights NGOs in International Criminal Justice

Kjersti Lohne (Univ. of Oslo) has published Advocates of Humanity: Human Rights NGOs in International Criminal Justice (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here’s the abstract:

Advocates of Humanity offers an analysis of international criminal justice from the perspective of sociology of punishment by exploring the role of human rights organizations in their mobilization for global justice through the International Criminal Court (ICC). Based on multi-sited ethnography, primarily in The Hague and Uganda, the author approaches the transnational networks of NGOs advocating for the ICC as an ethnographic object. A central objective is to explore how connections are made, and how forces and imaginations of global criminal justice travel. By analyzing how international criminal justice is arranged spatially, and as such expresses social, political, and cultural relations of power, Advocates of Humanity shows how international criminal justice is situated in particular spaces, networks, and actors, and how they structure the imaginations of justice circulating in the field. From a sociology of punishment perspective, it compares the 'penal imaginations' of domestic and international criminal justice, and considers the particularly central role of victims as a universalized symbol of humanity for the legitimacy of international criminal justice. With clear global asymmetries emerging from the work, Advocates of Humanity provides descriptive as well as explanatory understandings of criminal punishment 'gone global', analyzing its social causation while examining its cultural meanings, particularly as regards its role as an expression of 'the international' will to punish. To whom is it meaningful, and why?

Li, Qi, & Bian: China, the EU and International Investment Law: Reforming Investor-State Dispute Settlement

Yuwen Li (Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam - Law), Tong Qi (Wuhan Univ. - Law), & Cheng Bian (Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam - Law) have published China, the EU and International Investment Law: Reforming Investor-State Dispute Settlement (Routledge 2019). The table of contents is here. Here’s the abstract:

This book provides an original and critical analysis of the most contentious subjects being negotiated in the China–EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI). It focuses on the pathway of reforming investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) from both Chinese and European perspectives in the context of the China–EU CAI and beyond. The book is divided into three parts. Part I examines key and controversial issues of the China–EU CAI negotiations, including market access, sustainable development and human rights, as well as comparing distinct features between the China–EU CAI and the China–US BIT. Part II concentrates on the institutional reform of investor-state arbitration with an extensive analysis of the EU’s approach to replacing the private nature of investment arbitration with the public nature of an investment court. Part III addresses the core substantive and procedural issues concerning ISDS, such as the role of domestic courts in investment dispute settlement, the status of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as investors, transparency and the protection of victims in investment dispute resolution.

Meshel & Yahya: International Water Law and Fresh Water Dispute Resolution: A Coasean Perspective

Tamar Meshel (Univ. of Alberta - Law) & Moin A. Yahya (Univ. of Alberta - Law) have posted International Water Law and Fresh Water Dispute Resolution: A Coasean Perspective. Here’s the abstract:

When it comes to resolving interstate freshwater disputes, International Law has developed a set of rules that relate to both the substance of these disputes, and the conduct of the disputing countries. ‘Equitable and reasonable utilization’ is commonly considered as the leading ‘substantive’ rule, ‘no significant harm’ as subsidiary to it, and the ‘duty to cooperate’ as the central ‘procedural’ rule. The purpose of this article is to analyze the merits of these substantive and procedural rules under the lens of the celebrated Coase theorem. The second part of the Coase Theorem observes that if transaction costs are present, then the legal rule governing the dispute between two parties should be one that minimizes the bargaining costs. This will ensure that the legal rule will generate an optimal allocation of resources. When it comes to international freshwater disputes there are usually high transaction costs such as unequal and asymmetric access to information by both the disputing parties and adjudicating tribunal, enforcement uncertainty, and unclear political goals of the parties. Therefore, a liability rule such as ‘equitable and reasonable utilization’ only furthers the uncertainty and bargaining costs, whereas a property rule such as ‘no significant harm’ is better at achieving dispute resolution (both theoretically and empirically). Moreover, when a so-called procedural rule such as the ‘duty to cooperate’ is imposed on the parties, this ensures a better negotiation environment, which leads to better dispute resolution outcomes even when imposed by a third party.

Call for Papers: Old and new threats to freedom of expression - Can the European Court of Human Rights meet the challenges?

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Old and new threats to freedom of expression - Can the European Court of Human Rights meet the challenges?," to take place at the Hertie School on June 12, 2020. The call is here.

Barrett: Child Perpetrators on Trial: Insights from Post-Genocide Rwanda

Jastine C. Barrett has published Child Perpetrators on Trial: Insights from Post-Genocide Rwanda (Cambridge Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

Following a devastating genocide in 1994, the Rwandan government elected to hold all perpetrators accountable - including children. Thousands of children were held in prisons while awaiting charges; some were later convicted. This book is about these children. Drawing on interviews and extensive archival research in Rwanda, it documents their journey through prisons, formal courts, gacaca proceedings or re-education centres. Its insights extend beyond Rwanda, looking at how international law protects children accused of even the most serious atrocities. The book is about law in action, and how states, and international organisations, operationalise international standards on child perpetrators in challenging post-conflict conditions. Engaging with theories from international law, international relations and anthropology, it illuminates strategies utilised by UNICEF to promote the rights of alleged child génocidaires and traces UNICEF's positive influence on their protection. It makes the case for principled pragmatism as an approach to human rights promotion in post-conflict societies.

New Addition to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added a lecture to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. It was given by Vera Rusinova on “Human Rights in Armed Conflicts” in both English and Russian.

New Issue: Ethics & International Affairs

The latest issue of Ethics & International Affairs (Vol. 33, no. 4, Winter 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Essay
• George Vasilev, The Ethics of Kin State Activism: A Cosmopolitan Defense
• Symposium: Just War and Unjust Soldiers
• Scott D. Sagan & Benjamin A. Valentino, Just War and Unjust Soldiers: American Public Opinion on the Moral Equality of Combatants
• Michael Walzer, On Reciprocity and Practical Morality: A Response to Sagan and Valentino
• Jeff McMahan, Extremism and Confusion in American Views about the Ethics of War: A Comment on Sagan and Valentino
• Robert O. Keohane, The Condemnation-Absolution Syndrome: Issues of Validity and Generality
• Scott D. Sagan & Benjamin A. Valentino, On Reciprocity, Revenge, and Replication: A Rejoinder to Walzer, McMahan, and Keohane
• Feature
• Tendayi Bloom, When Migration Policy Isn't about Migration: Considerations for Implementation of the Global Compact for Migration
• Review Essay
• Gordon Hull, Privacy, People, and Markets

Ortino: The Origin and Evolution of Investment Treaty Standards: Stability, Value, and Reasonableness

Federico Ortino (King's College London - Law) has published The Origin and Evolution of Investment Treaty Standards: Stability, Value, and Reasonableness (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

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This book provides a conceptual and legal analysis of the core of investment protection guarantees that emerge from international treaties signed since 1959 for the promotion and protection of foreign investment. It focuses on both the origin and evolution of investment treaty standards. Beginning with origins, the work considers the broader context at the time when the first modern investment treaty was concluded. It goes on to examine the many decisions of ad hoc arbitral tribunals that have since been called upon to apply these treaties in order to resolve the several hundred investor-State disputes. It also looks at some of the recent investment treaties that have attempted to clarify and/or reform the content and scope of investment protection guarantees.

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Federico Ortino posits that the key investment protection provisions in investment treaties, and thus much of the controversy associated with such treaties, revolve around three concepts: legal stability, investment's value, and reasonableness. He argues that, from the very beginning, the protections afforded to foreign investments by modern investment treaties have been exceptionally broad, and as such restrictive of host States' ability to regulate. And whilst a growing number of investment treaty tribunals, as well as new investment treaties, have to some extent reined in such broad protections, the evolution of key investment protection standards has been marred by inconsistency and uncertainty.

Marks: A False Tree of Liberty: Human Rights in Radical Thought

Susan Marks (London School of Economics - Law) has published A False Tree of Liberty: Human Rights in Radical Thought (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

This book is concerned with the history of the idea of human rights. It offers a fresh approach that puts aside familiar questions such as 'Where do human rights come from?' and 'When did human rights begin?' for the sake of looking into connections between debates about the rights of man and developments within the history of capitalism. The focus is on England, where, at the end of the eighteenth century, a heated controversy over the rights of man coincided with the final enclosure of common lands and the momentous changes associated with early industrialisation. Tracking back still further to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writing about dispossession, resistance and rights, the book reveals a forgotten tradition of thought about central issues in human rights, with profound implications for their prospects in the world today.

New Issue: International Interactions

The latest issue of International Interactions (Vol. 45, no. 6, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Ammar Shamaileh, Never out of Now: Preference Falsification, Social Capital and the Arab Spring
• Joshua C. Fjelstul & Dan Reiter, Explaining incompleteness and conditionality in alliance agreements
• Christoph V. Steinert, Trial fairness before impact: Tracing the link between post-conflict trials and peace stability
• Special Data Feature
• Thorsten Gromes & Matthias Dembinski, Practices and outcomes of humanitarian military interventions: a new data set
• Research Note
• Javier Osorio, Viveca Pavon, Sayeed Salam, Jennifer Holmes, Patrick T. Brandt & Latifur Khan, Translating CAMEO verbs for automated coding of event data

New Issue: Journal of Conflict Resolution

The latest issue of the Journal of Conflict Resolution (Vol. 64, no. 1, January 2020) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Konstantin Ash & Nick Obradovich, Climatic Stress, Internal Migration, and Syrian Civil War Onset
• Håvard Hegre, Michael Bernhard, & Jan Teorell, Civil Society and the Democratic Peace
• Raymond Kuo, Secrecy among Friends: Covert Military Alliances and Portfolio Consistency
• Anouk S. Rigterink, Diamonds, Rebel’s and Farmer’s Best Friend: Impact of Variation in the Price of a Lootable, Labor-intensive Natural Resource on the Intensity of Violent Conflict
• Rafat Mahmood & Michael Jetter, Communications Technology and Terrorism
• Michelle Benson & Theodora-Ismene Gizelis, A Gendered Imperative: Does Sexual Violence Attract UN Attention in Civil Wars?
• Data Set Feature
• Dongfang Hou, Khusrav Gaibulloev, & Todd Sandler, Introducing Extended Data on Terrorist Groups (EDTG), 1970 to 2016

Sutton: Enacting the 'Civilian Plus': International Humanitarian Actors and the Conceptualization of Distinction

Rebecca Sutton (Univ. of Edinburgh - Law) has posted Enacting the 'Civilian Plus': International Humanitarian Actors and the Conceptualization of Distinction (Leiden Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The civilian-combatant frame persists as the main legal lens through which lawyers organize the relationships of conflict zone actors. As a result, little attention has been paid in international legal scholarship to different gradations of ‘civilianness’ and the ways in which some civilians might compete to distinguish themselves from each other. Drawing attention to international humanitarian actors—particularly those working for NGOs—this article explores the micro-strategies these actors engage in to negotiate their relative status in war. Original qualitative empirical findings from South Sudan illuminate the way in which humanitarians struggle over distinction with individuals working for the UN peacekeeping mission, UNMISS. As is shown, humanitarian actors are doing away with a static civilian-combatant binary in their daily practice. A more fluid logic informs both their self-conceptualization and their interactions with others who share the operational space. Humanitarian actors envision civilianness as a contingent concept, and they operate according to a continuum along which everything is a matter of degree and subtle gradation. As civilianness is detached from the civilian, any given actor might acquire or shed civilian-like, or combatant-like, characteristics at any moment. The distinction practices that humanitarian actors enact can be understood as a bid for legibility, so that they might be rendered intelligible in international law and in the eyes of other actors as a special kind of civilian—the ‘civilian plus’.

New Issue: International Relations

The latest issue of International Relations (Vol. 33, no. 4, December 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Rubrick Biegon, A populist grand strategy? Trump and the framing of American decline
• Daniel Voelsen & Leon Valentin Schettler, International political authority: on the meaning and scope of justified hierarchy in international relations
• Andreas Pacher, The diplomacy of post-Soviet de facto states: ontological security under stigma
• Forum
• Jean-Christophe Graz, Oliver Kessler, & Rahel Kunz, International Political Economy (IPE) meets International Political Sociology (IPS)
• Jean-Marie Chenou, Elites and socio-technical Imaginaries: The contribution of an IPE-IPS dialogue to the analysis of global power relations in the digital age
• Juanita Elias, Lena Rethel, & Lisa Tilley, International political economy and international political sociology meet in Jakarta: Feminist research agendas seen through everyday life
• Luis Lobo-Guerrero, Insurance, subjectivity and governance
• Elisa Lopez Lucia, Unpacking the politics of regionalism: What to expect from a socio-political economy of regionalism?
• Nils Moussu, Assessing the cohesion and disunity of business associations: Towards a socio-economic framework

Conference: EU Trade Agreements and the Duty to Respect Human Rights Abroad

On December 11, 2019, the T.M.C. Asser Institute, the Centre for the Law of EU External Relations (CLEER), and the ESIL Interest Group on the EU as a Global Actor will hold a workshop on "EU Trade Agreements and the Duty to Respect Human Rights Abroad," at the Asser Institute in The Hague. The program is here.

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 19, no. 6, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Twenty Years of the Rome Statute: Functions, Goals, Effectiveness – Challenges of the International Criminal Court
• Julia Geneuss & Triestino Mariniello, Introduction
• Olympia Bekou, Dealing with Non-cooperation at the ICC: Towards a More Holistic Approach
• Frédéric Mégret, Peering behind the ‘Institutional Veil’ to Assess State Behaviour in the Security Council: Does/Should icc Membership Make a Difference?
• Triestino Mariniello, Judicial Control over Prosecutorial Discretion at the International Criminal Court
• Barrie Sander, The Expressive Limits of International Criminal Justice: Victim Trauma and Local Culture in the Iron Cage of the Law
• Volker Nerlich, Audiences of the International Criminal Court
• Alice Riccardi, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Twenty Years of icc Practice: An International Law Perspective

New Issue: Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies

The latest issue of the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies (Vol. 10, no. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Elina Almila, Protecting Children from Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict under International Humanitarian Law: Discrepancies between Conventions and Practice of International Criminal Courts and Tribunals
• Pouria Askary & Katayoun Hosseinnejad, Non-state Courts: Illegal or Conditional? The Case of Da'esh Courts
• Ximena Galvez Lima, Inked or Not: Maras and Their Participation in El Salvador’s Recent Armed Conflict
• Hilly Moodrick-Even Khen, From Knives to Kites: Developments and Dilemmas around the Use of Force in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict since ‘Protective Edge’
• Frédéric Mégret & Chloe Swinden, Returning the ‘Fallen Terrorist’ for Burial in Non-international Armed Conflicts: The Rights of the Deceased, the Obligations of the State, and the Problem of Collective Punishment

Conference: International law’s invisible frames – Social cognition and knowledge production in international legal processes

Tomorrow and Thursday, December 4-5, 2019, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Law will host a conference on "International law’s invisible frames – Social cognition and knowledge production in international legal processes." The program is here.

New Volume: Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal

The latest volume of the Anuario Iberoamericano de Derecho Internacional Penal (Vol. 7, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Sección de Artículos de Investigación desde el Derecho Internacional Penal
• Héctor Olasolo, Justicia como memoria y derecho a la verdad frente a la política de silencio y olvido en El Salvador: Apuntes sobre la percepción de la figura de Óscar Arnulfo Romero y la experiencia de los diálogos intergeneracionales en las parroquias de la Arquidiócesis de San Salvador
• Sección de Ensayos de Investigación seleccionados en la VI edición del Certamen Blattmann, Odio Benito y Steiner
• Angie Katherine García Atehortúa, Concepto restringido de la responsabilidad de mando en el marco jurídico transicional en Colombia, ¿puerta giratoria hacia la intervención de la Corte Penal Internacional?
• Nicolás Eduardo Buitrago Rey, El Estatuto de Roma desde una perspectiva LGBT
• Sección de Ensayos de Investigación seleccionados en la I edición del Certamen de Estudios Críticos sobre la Justicia
• Héctor Gonzalo Ana Dobratinich, Secciones y disecciones epistemológicas del discurso jurídico: un estudio desde la iusfilosofía crítica
• Joe Nayib Campos Salazar, Análisis de la Carta de la ONU a la luz de los postulados del texto “Zum ewigen Frieden” de Immanuel Kant. El objetivo de la paz y el mecanismo de la guerra
• Carmen Montero Ferrer, La participación de las víctimas y la sociedad civil en la reformada Corte Africana de Justicia y Derechos Humanos: un estudio comparativo a la luz de la jurisprudencia de la Corte Penal Internacional The participation of victims and civil

Ramji-Nogales: Non-Refoulement under the Trump Administration

Jaya Ramji-Nogales (Temple Univ. - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on Non-Refoulement under the Trump Administration.

Call for Applications: Intensive Doctoral Week

The Sciences Po Law PhD Program and the Law and Political Science Doctoral School of Paris Nanterre University have issued a call for applications for the tenth Intensive Doctoral Week, which will take place June 15-19, 2020, at Sciences Po. Here's the call:

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Initiated in 2011, and successfully continued since then, the Intensive Doctoral Week (IDW) is a co-organised initiative led by Sciences Po Law School and the Law and Political Science Doctoral School of Paris Nanterre University as well as a great number of partners in the world (For more information on previous IDW events).

Limited to a small number of PhD researchers coming from partners’ institutions and from other Law Schools, the IDW is designed as a PhD-training Lab. It aims at enabling researchers to present their own topics, to discuss their own work, and to engage their ideas with renowned Law professors, from France or abroad.

The IDW combines events taking many different forms, such as conferences or presentations by PhD researchers, thematic workshops, reading groups, panels, and informal discussions, in small groups or one-to-one meetings. The topics addressed may come from different areas of law, but they should always be treated in a general way that arouses curiosity from all the researchers including the ones working on other fields.

Researchers are thus given the opportunity to present their own research, the questions they struggle with, the methodological problems that they face, and the arguments that they wish to develop in their work. Their research will benefit from the comments made by professors and other PhD researchers. The IDW is an occasion for senior and junior researchers to discuss and to gather information on cross-cutting issues on different areas, but also to confront their views, and discuss new methods and perspectives for legal research.

The two working languages are French and English. Participants can speak the language of their choice. Once registered, participants are expected to actively participate in the various working sessions. The active involvement of all participants has been a key element for the success of previous editions. PhD researchers are thus strongly encouraged to consider themselves not as simple beneficiaries of the IDW activities, but rather as equal members of a collective academic endeavor. Participants should be willing to offer their support if organizational purposes so require.

Registration is free. Applications will be examined and selected by an independent committee of experts. To apply, fill in the online application. The deadline for application is 10 February 2020.

Contact : [email protected]

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Alcala & Jensen: The Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Law of Armed Conflict

Ronald T.P. Alcala (United States Military Academy) & Eric Talbot Jensen (Brigham Young Univ. - Law) have published The Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Law of Armed Conflict (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

Emerging technologies have always played an important role in armed conflict. From the crossbow to cyber capabilities, technology that could be weaponized to create an advantage over an adversary has inevitably found its way into military arsenals for use in armed conflict. The weaponization of emerging technologies, however, raises challenging legal issues with respect to the law of armed conflict. As States continue to develop and exploit new technologies, how will the law of armed conflict address the use of these technologies on the battlefield? Is existing law sufficient to regulate new technologies, such as cyber capabilities, autonomous weapons systems, and artificial intelligence? Have emerging technologies fundamentally altered the way we should understand concepts such as law-of-war precautions and the principle of distinction? How can we ensure compliance and accountability in light of technological advancement? This volume of the Lieber Studies explores these critical questions while highlighting the legal challenges—and opportunities—presented by the use of emerging technologies on the battlefield.

New Issue: Journal of International Economic Law

The latest issue of the Journal of International Economic Law (Vol. 22, no. 3, September 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Joost Pauwelyn, WTO Dispute Settlement Post 2019: What to Expect?
• Rohini Acharya, Olga Falgueras Alamo, Salma Mohamed Thabit Al-Battashi, Anoush der Boghossian, Naghm Ghei, Tania Parcero Herrera, Lee Ann Jackson, Ulla Kask, Claudia Locatelli, Gabrielle Marceau, Ioana-Virginia Motoc, Anna Caroline Müller, Nora Neufeld, Simon Padilla, Josefita Pardo de Léon, Stella Perantakou, Nadezhda Sporysheva, & Christiane Wolff, Trade and Women—Opportunities for Women in the Framework of the World Trade Organization
• Pierre Sauvé, To fuse, Not to Fuse, or Simply Confuse? Assessing the Case for Normative Convergence Between Goods and Services Trade Law
• Petros C Mavroidis & Damien J Neven, Greening the WTO Environmental Goods Agreement, Tariff Concessions, and Policy Likeness
• Andrew D Mitchell & Neha Mishra, Regulating Cross-Border Data Flows in a Data-Driven World: How WTO Law Can Contribute
• Jaemin Lee, Subsidies for Illegal Activities?—Reframing IUU Fishing from the Law Enforcement Perspective
• Yong-Shik Lee, Are Retaliatory Trade Measures Justified under the WTO Agreement on Safeguards?
• Cherise Valles, Vitaliy Pogoretskyy, & Tatiana Yanguas, Challenging Unwritten Measures in the World Trade Organization: The Need for Clear Legal Standards
• Prakhar Bhardwaj, Towards a Coherent Theory of Panel Recommendations for Expired Measures
• Christian Riffel, The CETA Opinion of the European Court of Justice and its Implications—Not that Selfish After All

Francois & Hoekman: Behind-the-Border Policies: Assessing and Addressing Non-Tariff Measures

Joseph Francois (Universität Bern) & Bernard Hoekman (European Univ. Institute) have published Behind-the-Border Policies: Assessing and Addressing Non-Tariff Measures (Cambridge Univ. Press 2019). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

One feature of globalization is that barriers to international competition have come to be associated with differences in regulatory policies that increase the costs of engaging in cross-border sales. Such non-tariff measures (NTMs) have attracted growing attention from policy makers and raise important questions for policy research. This book provides a valuable overview of key issues related to NTMs and domestic regulation. It covers the classification and definition of NTMs, new sources of data on NTMs, the impacts of (different types of) NTMs, the challenges that confront efforts to reduce the negative trade effects of NTMs and what can and should be done through international cooperation to promote good practices in the design and implementation of NTMs. The contributors comprise a mix of leading trade policy experts - both academics and practitioners - and younger researchers who have specialized in the analysis of NTMs.

New Issue: Questions of International Law

The latest issue of Questions of International Law / Questioni di Diritto Internazionale (no. 63, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• ‘In Clinical Isolation.’ Is there a meaningful place for the World Trade Organization in the future of International Economic Law?
• Introduced by Paolo Turrini and Angelica Bonfanti
• Steve Charnovitz, A WTO if you can keep it
• Giorgio Sacerdoti, The stalemate concerning the Appellate Body of the WTO: What way out?
• Leonardo Borlini, A crisis looming in the dark: Some remarks on the reform proposals on notifications and transparency
• Peter-Tobias Stoll, forthcoming

Fassbender & Traisbach: The Limits of Human Rights

Bardo Fassbender (Univ. of St. Gallen - Law) & Knut Traisbach (Univ. of Barcelona - Law) have published The Limits of Human Rights (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

What are the limits of human rights, and what do these limits mean? This volume engages critically and constructively with this question to provide a distinct contribution to the contemporary discussion on human rights. Fassbender and Traisbach, along with a group of leading experts in the field, examine the issue from multiple disciplinary perspectives, analysing the limits of our current discourse of human rights. It does so in an original way, and without attempting to deconstruct, or deny, human rights. Each contribution is supplemented by an engaging comment which furthers this important discussion. This combination of perspectives paves the way for further thought for scholars, practitioners, students, and the wider public. Ultimately, this volume provides an exceptionally rich spectrum of viewpoints and arguments across disciplines to offer fresh insights into human rights and its limitations.

New Issue: Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law

The latest issue of the Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law (Vol. 28, no. 3, November 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: New Frontiers in Ocean Environmental Governance
• Beatriz Martinez Romera & Katrina M. Wyman, New frontiers in ocean environmental governance: Private actors, public goods
• Alex G. Oude Elferink, Exploring the future of the institutional landscape of the oceans beyond national jurisdiction
• Ronán Long, Restoring marine environmental damage: Can the Costa Rica v Nicaragua compensation case influence the BBNJ negotiations?
• Felicity Deane, Anna Huggins, & Md Saiful Karim, Measuring, monitoring, reporting and verification of shipping emissions: Evaluating transparency and answerability
• Meinhard Doelle & Aldo Chircop, Decarbonizing international shipping: An appraisal of the IMO's Initial Strategy
• Jesper Jarl Fanø, Enforcement of the 2020 sulphur limit for marine fuels: Restrictions and possibilities for port States to impose fines under UNCLOS
• Nikolaos Giannopoulos, Global environmental regulation of offshore energy production: Searching for legal standards in ocean governance
• Makoto Seta, The contribution of the International Organization for Standardization to ocean governance
• Solène Guggisberg, The roles of nongovernmental actors in improving compliance with fisheries regulations
• Original Articles
• Matthew Volk, Spiegl Arie Trouwborst, & Ingrid Natasha Visser, Mission creep in the application of wildlife law: The progressive dilution of legal requirements regarding a wild‐born orca kept for ‘research’ purposes
• Florian Rabitz, Gene drives and the international biodiversity regime
• Case Notes
• Kathleen Garnett, Hold your pipettes: The European Court of Justice's findings in Confédération Paysanne & Others stirs GMOtions

Goeble: Freiraum oder Herrschaftsgebiet: Menschenrecht auf Zugang und völkerrechtliche Prinzipien als Schranken staatlichen Handelns im Internet

Thilo Goeble has published Freiraum oder Herrschaftsgebiet: Menschenrecht auf Zugang und völkerrechtliche Prinzipien als Schranken staatlichen Handelns im Internet (Nomos 2019). Here's the abstract:

Der Autor beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob und wie völkerrechtliche Schranken die Macht der Staaten im Internet schon heute begrenzen und wie diese in Zukunft aussehen könnten. Insbesondere geht er auf ein Menschenrecht auf Zugang zum Internet ein. Ein Schwerpunkt bildet die Meinungsäußerungs- und Informationsfreiheit auf der Ebene der Vereinten Nationen sowie des Europarates, die aus der Sichtweise verschiedener Eingriffsdimensionen untersucht werden. Hierzu erfolgt eine ausführliche Auswertung der bestehenden Dokumente und der Rechtsprechung. Im Anschluss liefert der Autor einen eigenen Formulierungsvorschlag für ein Menschenrecht auf Zugang zum Internet de lege ferenda. Aufgrund der Qualifizierung des Internets als internationaler (Über-)Raum werden des Weiteren völkerrechtliche Schranken, die sich insbesondere aus dem Bereich des Umweltvölkerrechts, den Regeln der internationalen Beziehungen und des humanitären Völkerrechts ergeben, auf ihre Übertragbarkeit hin untersucht.

Dojčinović: Propaganda and International Criminal Law: From Cognition to Criminality

Predrag Dojčinović has published Propaganda and International Criminal Law: From Cognition to Criminality (Routledge 2019). Here's the abstract:

This book addresses the conceptual and evidentiary issues relating to the treatment of propaganda in international criminal law. Bringing together an interdisciplinary range of scholars, researchers and legal practitioners from Africa, Australia, Europe and the United States, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the nature, position and role of the concept of propaganda in mass atrocity crimes trials. A sequel to the earlier Propaganda, War Crimes Trials and International Law: From Speakers’ Corner to War Crimes (Routledge, 2011) this book is the first to synthesize the knowledge, procedures and methods of international criminal law with the social cognitive sciences. Including a comprehensive overview of the most relevant case law, jurisprudence and scientific studies, the book also offers a series of practical insights and strategies for both academics and legal professionals.

New Issue: International Review of the Red Cross

The latest issue of the International Review of the Red Cross (Vol. 101, no. 910, April 2019) is out. The theme is: "Memory and War." Contents include:

• Vincent Bernard, Memory: a new humanitarian frontier
• Interview with Boris Cyrulnik: Director of studies at the Université du Sud, Toulon-Var
• Hélène Dumas, When children remember: A history of the Tutsi genocide through the eyes of children (1994–2006)
• David Rieff, …And if there was also a duty to forget, how would we think about history then?
• Marijn C. W. Kroes & Rain Liivoja, Eradicating war memories: Neuroscientific reality and ethical concerns
• Jill Stockwell, Does individual and collective remembrance of past violence impede or foster reconciliation? From Argentina to Sri Lanka
• Phuong N. Pham, Mychelle Balthazard, Niamh Gibbons, & Patrick Vinck, Perspectives on memory, forgiveness and reconciliation in Cambodia's post-Khmer Rouge society
• Aaron Weah, Declining ethnic relations in post-war Liberia: The transmission of violent memories
• Germán Parra Gallego, The role of freedom of expression in the construction of historical memory
• Cédric Cotter, The role of experience and the place of history in the writings of ICRC presidents
• Pierre Ryter, A personal experience in Turkey, Iran and China: The need for the ICRC to adapt in a multipolar world
• Gilbert Holleufer, Heroic memory and contemporary war
• Danielle Drozdzewski, Emma Waterton, & Shanti Sumartojo, Cultural memory and identity in the context of war: Experiential, place-based and political concerns
• Helen Walasek, Cultural heritage and memory after ethnic cleansing in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Annaïg Lefeuvre, The Shoah Memorial: A history retraced from the Drancy site
• Annette Becker, Dark tourism: The “heritagization” of sites of suffering, with an emphasis on memorials of the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi of Rwanda
• Michael N. Schmitt, Wired warfare 3.0: Protecting the civilian population during cyber operations

Ciampi: History and International Law: An Intertwined Relationship

Annalisa Ciampi (Univ. of Verona - Law) has published History and International Law: An Intertwined Relationship (Edward Elgar Publishing 2019). Contents include:

• Giorgio Gaja, Forward
• Rolf Einar Fife, Creative Forces and Institution Building in International Law
• Stefan Troebst, Eastern Europe’s Imprint on Modern International Law
• Annalisa Ciampi, History, Isolation and Effectiveness of International Human Rights Law
• Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, EU Human Rights Law and History: A Tale of Three Narratives
• Gilad Ben-Nun, ‘Treaty after Trauma’: ‘Protection for All’ in the Fourth Geneva Convention
• Olympia Bekou, History and Core International Crimes: Friends or Foes?
• Katarina Ristic, ‘Imaginary Trials’: The Legacy of the ICTY in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia
• Erika de Wet, Gilad Ben-Nun, Olympia Bekou, Annalisa Ciampi, Sionaidh Douglas-Scott, Rolf Einar Fife, Katarina Ristic, Stefan Troebst, & Erika de Wet, The Rise and Demise of the ICC Relationship with African States and the AU

New Issue: Korean Journal of International and Comparative Law

The latest issue of the Korean Journal of International and Comparative Law (Vol. 7, no. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Historic Rights and the Law of the Sea
• Anthony Carty, Carl Schmitt, Nomos of the Earth, and the Question of Historic Title in International Law
• Christopher Whomersley, The International Law of the Sea: Historic and Similar Rights in the British Experience
• Ying Wang, Rethinking the Concept of Historic Rights in International Law
• Edwin Egede, Historic Rights in African State Practice
• Anastasia Telesetsky, Maritime Historic Rights in United States Jurisprudence
• Qiang Ye, Historic Rights in the South China Sea: A Chinese Perspective
• Sourabh Gupta, Historic Fishing Rights in Foreign Exclusive Maritime Zones: Preserved or Proscribed by UNCLOS?
• Renyuan Li, Legality of China’s Entitlements of Historic Rights beyond the UNCLOS in the South China Sea: An Analysis of the Negotiation History
• Chenhong Liu, Regional Customary International Law Related to China’s Historic Rights in the South China Sea

New Issue: International Journal of Transitional Justice

The latest issue of the International Journal of Transitional Justice (Vol. 12, no. 3, November 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial Note
• M Brinton Lykes & Hugo van der Merwe, Critical Reflexivity and Transitional Justice Praxis: Solidarity, Accompaniment and Intermediarity
• Articles
• Larissa van den Herik & Mirjam van Reisen, International Commissions of Inquiry in a Networked World: Unveiling the Roles of Diasporas through an Eritrean Case Study
• Fidelma Ashe, Sexuality and Gender Identity in Transitional Societies: Peacebuilding and Counterhegemonic Politics
• Adriana Rudling, What’s Inside the Box? Mapping Agency and Conflict within Victims’ Organizations
• Philipp Wesche, Business Actors, Paramilitaries and Transitional Criminal Justice in Colombia
• Andrea Purdeková, Rectified Sites of Violence from Westgate to Lampedusa: Exploring the Link between Public Amnesia and Conflict in Ongoing Confrontations
• Cynthia E Milton & Anne-Marie Reynaud, Archives, Museums and Sacred Storage: Dealing with the Afterlife of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
• Elizabeth A Cole & Pamina Firchow, Reconciliation Barometers: Tools for Postconflict Policy Design
• Dustin N Sharp, What Would Satisfy Us? Taking Stock of Critical Approaches to Transitional Justice
• Elham Kazemi, Transitional Justice in Tunisia: When Religion Meets State
• Review Essay
• Kiran Grewal, The Role of Victims in Transitional Justice: Agency, Cooption and Exclusion

Bado: The Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States as a Constitutional Court

Kangnikoé Bado has published The Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States as a Constitutional Court: Member States obligations resulting from the Court´s rulings (Nomos 2019). Here's the abstract:

One of the major innovations made by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is the unequivocal granting of a supranational role to the Court of Justice of the organisation. However, its human rights mandate has led to real and potential tensions within the ECOWAS legal order. The tensions stem from the legal force of judgments of constitutional courts of member states and the admissibility of individual petitions before the Court. This work identifies some deficiencies in the current regime of the human rights mandate of the Court. Gaps exist at the level of the member states’ constitutional order, as well as at the community level. The supranational competence of the jurisdiction must be implemented by the possibility of ordering concrete measures to be taken by states for the reparation of human rights violations. Innovative solutions are suggested in this work in order to fill procedural and substantial gaps in the protection system established in West Africa.

New Issue: International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics

The latest issue of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics (Vol. 19, no. 6, December 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Noémie Laurens & Jean-Frédéric Morin, Negotiating environmental protection in trade agreements: A regime shift or a tactical linkage?
• Jesse L. Reynolds, An economic analysis of international environmental rights
• Juan He, Do unilateral trade measures really catalyze multilateral environmental agreements?
• Stephan Hoch, Axel Michaelowa, Aglaja Espelage, & Anne-Kathrin Weber, Governing complexity: How can the interplay of multilateral environmental agreements be harnessed for effective international market-based climate policy instruments?
• Anna A. Klis, Identity and equal treatment in negative externality agreements
• Hyun Jung Kim, Inducing state compliance with international fisheries law: lessons from two case studies concerning the Republic of Korea’s IUU fishing

New Issue: Air & Space Law

The latest issue of Air & Space Law (Vol. 44, no. 6, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Aurélia Cadain & Chloé Rezlan, Overview of Recent Case-Law and Trends on Regulation (EC) 261/2004, Both from a European and a French Law Perspective
• Jochem Croon & Fina Verbeek, Regulation (EC) 261/2004 and Internal Strikes Under Article 5.3: ‘It’s All About Control, Stupid’
• Geoffrey Deasy, European Union Competition Law Developments in the Aviation Sector: January to June 2019
• Jeffrey Ellis, The Nature of Some Subjects Requires Uniform Regulation and Aviation Is a Prime Example
• Matthias Reuleaux, Morten L. Hans Jakobsen, & Peter Sand, Aircraft Repossession Under Leasing Arrangements Pursuant to Article 83bis Chicago Convention
• Jenni Tapio & Alexander Soucek, National Implementation of Non-Legally Binding Instruments: Managing Uncertainty in Space Law?
• Chloe A. S. Challinor, Defending Just Culture in Air Accident Investigations: The Decision of the English High Court in British Broadcasting Corporation & Anor V. Secretary of State for Transport & Anor

New Issue: The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals

The latest issue of The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (Vol. 18, no. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Neil B. Nucup, Infallible or Final?: Revisiting the Legitimacy of the International Court of Justice as the “Invisible” International Supreme Court
• Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida, International Procedural Regulation in the Common Interest: The Role of Third-Party Intervention and Amicus Curiae before the ICJ
• Ksenia Polonskaya, International Court of Justice: The Role of Consent in the Context of Judicial Propriety Deconstructed in Light of Chagos Archipelago
• Gaiane Nuridzhanian, Ne Bis In Idem in Article 20(3) of the Rome Statute and Non-State Courts
• Ciarán Burke & Alexandra Molitorisová, (Not) Proving the Public Good: Scientific Evidence and the Margin of Appreciation

Call for Nominations: Prix Daniel Vignes

L’Association Internationale du Droit de la Mer (AssIDMer) met au concours, tous les deux ans, à l’occasion de son Colloque ordinaire, un prix pour le meilleur article publié dans une revue ou une œuvre collective, aux fins de la diffusion de la connaissance du Droit international de la mer. Les articles peuvent être rédigés en anglais, espagnol, français, italien, portugais. A la seule exception des Membres et anciens Membres du Conseil de l’Association, le concours est ouvert à toute personne âgée de moins de 40 ans à la date limite d’envoi de l’article.

New Issue: Criminal Law Forum

The latest issue of Criminal Law Forum (Vol. 30, no. 4, December 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Boaz Sangero, Safe Convictions
• Paul Bleakley, A Thin-Slice of Institutionalised Police Brutality: A Tradition of Excessive Force in the Chicago Police Department
• Pieter G. du Toit, A critical evaluation of the prohibition on the South African prosecuting authority to appeal against decisions on questions of fact

Call for Papers: Multiplicity: IR’s Strangely Familiar Common Ground

The project Multiplicity: Common Ground for International Relations has issued a call for papers for a workshop to take place at EISA's 7th European Workshops in International Studies, in Brussels, on July 1-4, 2020. The theme is: "Multiplicity: IR’s Strangely Familiar Common Ground." The call is here.

Call for Papers: Multiple Legalities: Conflict and Entanglement in the Global Legal Order

The research group Overlapping Spheres of Authority and Interface Conflicts in the Global Order has issued a call for papers for a conference on "Multiple Legalities: Conflict and Entanglement in the Global Legal Order," which will take place July 6-8, 2020, in Berlin. The call is here.

New Journal: European Convention on Human Rights Law Review

An announcement of a new journal: the European Convention on Human Rights Law Review:

The ECHR Law Review (ECLR) is a new law review published by BRILL and devoted exclusively to the legal regime of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Its editors-in-chief are Dr K. Dzehtsiarou and Dr V.P. Tzevelekos. The editorial and advisory boards include world leading scholars and practitioners in the law of the ECHR. One of the missions of the journal is to connect law and practice, and explore the ECHR from a multi-disciplinary perspective. ECLR will be publishing legal scholarship on the protection of fundamental human rights within the ECHR framework and on its implications for other regional human rights regimes. It is a forum for, inter alia, international law, comparative (constitutional) law, human rights law, and philosophy of law analysis of the practice and procedures of the ECHR regime. While favouring legal (doctrinal, theoretical and philosophical) analysis, ECLR also publishes multi-disciplinary works at the crossroads of law, history, political science and economics. It is open to all methods and schools of thought, including, comparative, doctrinal, quantitative and economic analysis of (case) law. ECLR accepts submissions of longer articles (up to 18000 words), case comments (up to 10000 words) and book reviews. Manuscripts should be submitted through this link. More information, including instructions to authors, is available here. Twitter: @LawECHR

Call for Engaged Listeners: The Individual in International Law – History and Theory (Reminder)

A call for engaged listeners has been issued by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law for a workshop on "The Individual in International Law – History and Theory," which will take place June 25-26, 2020, in Berlin. The call is here. The deadline is November 30, 2019.

Dederer & Singer: Adverse Cyber Operations: Causality, Attribution, Evidence, and Due Diligence

Hans-Georg Dederer (Univ. of Passau) & Tassilo Singer (Univ. of Passau) have posted Adverse Cyber Operations: Causality, Attribution, Evidence, and Due Diligence (International Law Studies, Vol. 95, 2019). Here's the abstract:

Adverse cyber operations against States are on the rise, and so are the legal challenges related to such incidents under public international law. This article will not delve into already intensely debated problems of classification, such as whether adverse cyber operations constitute “armed attacks” or “use of force.” Rather, the article will focus on causality and attribution with special regard to problems of evidence. In particular, the article will elaborate on the applicable standards of proof to be met by the victim State when submitting, or having to submit, evidence to justify self-defense or countermeasures against the State of origin. We propose a “sliding scale” of standards of proof depending on the gravity, or seriousness, of the deviation from public international law. Accordingly, the standard of proof differs depending on whether the victim State strikes back through use of force or through action below the use of force threshold. Importantly, even in light of a high standard of proof, the burden of proof incumbent on the victim State may be discharged based on indirect evidence only. Particularly for satisfying proof of attribution, we suggest distinguishing between cyber operations traceable to State IT systems of the State of origin and cyber operations traceable to private IT systems located within the State of origin. This distinction is significant with regard to the requirements for a rebuttal of attribution by the State of origin. These requirements are expressions of due diligence obligations on the part of the State of origin.

New Issue: International Community Law Review

The latest issue of the International Community Law Review (Vol. 21, no. 5, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Judicial Dialogue in Human Rights
• Elżbieta Karska & Karol Karski, Judicial Dialogue in Human Rights: Introductory Remarks
• Bożena Gronowska, Judicial Dialogue in the Human Rights Domain: Thoughts and Selected Dilemmas
• Anna Podolska, Between Informal Dialogue and Official Criticism: The Bundesverfassungsgericht, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the European Court of Human Rights concerning the Protection of Human Rights and Mutual Recognition of Judgments
• Katarzyna Trzpis-Szysz, Judicial Dialogue after the Genocide in Rwanda: The Example of Cooperation between the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and Gacaca Courts
• Bartłomiej Oręziak, Judicial Dialogue between the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Field of Legal Liability for Posting Hyperlinks
• Łukasz Dawid Dąbrowski, Entitlement of Legal Entities to Hold Rights under the Inter-American Human Rights Protection System
• Paul Weismann, Peoples’ Right to Self-Determination: The Case of the Chagos Archipelago

Workshop: The End of International Public Authority? Contestation, Crisis, and Resilience in International Institutions

On November 28-29, 2019, the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law will host a workshop on "The End of International Public Authority? Contestation, Crisis, and Resilience in International Institutions." The program is here.

Koskenniemi: International Law and the Far Right: Reflections on Law and Cynicism

Martti Koskenniemi (Univ. of Helsinki - Law) has published International Law and the Far Right: Reflections on Law and Cynicism (Fourth Annual T.M.C. Asser Lecture). Here's the abstract:

Since the emergence of the profession in the 1870s, international lawyers have lent themselves to supporting various political projects, from ruling of empire to decolonisation, from supporting national self-determination to arguing in favour of global governance of the transnational economy. They have celebrated sovereignty and supported human rights.

The recent backlash against global rule and the international institutions of the liberal 1990s, should be viewed as a political attack from a relatively privileged part of the world on the system of values and distributive power that have governed post-1968 internationalism. This backlash is often treated as a social pathology, arisen from the anger felt by European and American middle classes “left behind” by globalisation.

I do not share this analysis. Whatever the social composition of the “backlash”, the policies of its leaders are neither reformist nor “conservative”. They are reactionary, and the question is, how to devise an effective policy to counter them.

The coming struggle will be about whether reactionary, colonialist, white and male supremacist values will play a role in the international world after globalisation. If international law is not to become a servant to far right policies, or fall into irrelevance, it had better sharpen its strategic insights. Alongside self-criticism, this involves taking a break from the interminable production of minor reforms. Greater openness is needed. Not to “populist” leaders, but to problems of global inequality.

New Issue: Chinese Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chinese Journal of International Law (Vol. 18, no. 3, September 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Sienho Yee, Notes on the International Court of Justice (Part 8)—Interim Accord (FYROM v. Greece) and the Settlement of the Macedonian Name Dispute: Knowing and Seizing upon Many Things or One Big Thing in Treaty Interpretation and International Dispute Settlement in General
• Thomas Schwartz & John Yoo, Asian Territorial Disputes and the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty: The Case of Dokdo
• Matthew Garrod, The Emergence of “Universal Jurisdiction” in Response to Somali Piracy: An Empirically Informed Critique of International Law’s “Paradigmatic” Universal Jurisdiction Crime
• Stefan Talmon, The United States under President Trump: Gravedigger of International Law
• Xinxiang Shi, Official Acts and Beyond: Towards an Accurate Interpretation of Diplomatic Immunity Ratione Materiae under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
• Comments
• Chao Wang, Invocation of National Security Exceptions under GATT Article XXI: Jurisdiction to Review and Standard of Review

Borlini: When the Leviathan Goes to the Market: A Critical Evaluation of the Rules Governing State-Owned Enterprises in Trade Agreements

Leonardo Borlini (Bocconi Univ.) has posted When the Leviathan Goes to the Market: A Critical Evaluation of the Rules Governing State-Owned Enterprises in Trade Agreements (Leiden Journal of International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

State-owned enterprises have long constituted, and are likely to remain, an important instrument in any government’s toolbox for a variety of economic and societal goals. However, the significant extent of state ownership among the world’s top companies, and the quantitative and qualitative transformation and hybrid nature of SOEs, raises the issue of their impact on international trade flows and the competitive process. This article addresses the question of how international trade agreements regulate SOEs, with a view to furthering the international contestability of markets, while, at the same time, allowing governments to provide support to SOEs as a means of dealing with market failures and the pursuit of public goals. After a brief introduction to contemporary state capitalism, the argument is developed in three main parts. The first part situates SOEs within the GATT and WTO frameworks and elaborates on the findings of previous literature with a view to highlighting the main shortcomings of such discipline. The second part re-examines the notion of ‘competitive neutrality’ by locating contemporary trade agreements within the larger contextual relationships between the state, the market and the social, and thus reconstructs the normative rationales and general policy implications of the disciplines under examination. Against this background, the third part critically assesses the new disciplines on SOEs in recent PTAs. The main conclusion is that the search for binding rules has not led to balanced regimes and, despite the wider scope of the new rules, notable problems that have emerged within the WTO context remain unsolved.

New Issue: World Trade Review

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 18, no. 4, October 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Susan Ariel Aaronson, What Are We Talking about When We Talk about Digital Protectionism?
• Susannah Hodson, Applying WTO and FTA Disciplines to Data Localization Measures
• Bedri Kamil Onur Taş, Kamala Dawar, Peter Holmes, & Sübidey Togan, Does the WTO Government Procurement Agreement Deliver What It Promises?
• James Harrison, Mirela Barbu, Liam Campling, Franz Christian Ebert, Deborah Martens, Axel Marx, Jan Orbie, Ben Richardson, & Adrian Smith, Labour Standards Provisions in EU Free Trade Agreements: Reflections on the European Commission's Reform Agenda
• Noemie Laurens, Zachary Dove, Jean Frederic Morin, & Sikina Jinnah, NAFTA 2.0: The Greenest Trade Agreement Ever?

Simo: Trade and Morality: Balancing Between the Pursuit of Non-Trade Concerns and the Fear of Opening the Floodgates

Regis Y. Simo (Univ. of Witwatersrand - Law) has published Trade and Morality: Balancing Between the Pursuit of Non-Trade Concerns and the Fear of Opening the Floodgates (George Washington International Law Review, Vol. 51, no. 3, p. 407, 2019). Here's the abstract:

The liberalization of trade is the main objective of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its numerous agreements. However, trade liberalization often conflicts with some important societal values and interests. This is the reason why a set of exceptions were devised in WTO-covered agreements to reconcile these conflicting interests. These exceptions allow Members to adopt measures for the protection of a number of values, including the protection of “public morals.” But because the term “public morals” is not defined by WTO agreements, the task of ascribing meaning to such a vague concept is left to the WTO judiciary. Highly ambiguous and subjective, “public morals” introduces a dose of uncertainty into the law of the WTO, which may have to deal with as many different conceptions of morality as there are Member States. Since the scope and limits of “public morals” remain uncertain, the adjudicator is left with a difficult task as it is confronted with cases pleading a public morality defense. This Article reviews the cases in which the adjudicator has indulged in the delicate exercise of balancing the preservation of public morals and the imperative of trade liberalization. This Article also critiques the standard of review and sets out to determine the degree of deference accorded to Members to define what constitutes public morals within their respective territories and whether, by so doing, the adjudicator has acted consistently within the delegated power of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU).

Call for Submissions: Posters for Protected Persons: The Geneva Conventions at 70

The Kalshoven-Gieskes Forum on International Humanitarian Law has announced that it is accepting submissions for its art competition “Posters for Protected Persons: The Geneva Conventions at 70.” The announcement is here.

Call for Papers: International Law and Distribution: Sustainable Development, Security, and the Governance of Resources (Reminder)

In April 2019, the University of Edinburgh hosted "Edingow" – the inaugural conference marking a new collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow in the field of international law. This call for papers is for Glasginburgh 2020 – the second conference in this series – to be held at the University of Glasgow on June 8-9, 2020. The theme is: "International Law and Distribution: Sustainable Development, Security, and the Governance of Resources." The call is here. The deadline is November 30, 2019.

Call for Papers: Historicization of International Law and its Limits: Preconditions, Modes and Legacies

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "Historicization of International Law and its Limits: Preconditions, Modes and Legacies," to take place at the Altes Schloss von Dornburg, on June 4-5, 2020. The program is here.

Call for Submissions: Trade, Law and Development Special Issue on "Trade in Services: A Holistic Solution to New-Found Issues in Trade Law?"

The journal Trade, Law and Development has issued a call for submissions for its Summer 2020 issue (Vol. 12, no. 1), a special issue on "Trade in Services: A Holistic Solution to New-Found Issues in Trade Law?" The call is here.

Conference: The Dynamics of Disputes over Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: Regime Convergence and Lex Ferenda

On November 28-29, 2019, the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg and the University of Geneva will host a conference on "The Dynamics of Disputes over Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: Regime Convergence and Lex Ferenda," in Luxembourg. The program and registration are here. Here's the idea:

The multidimensional consequences of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing reflect a diverse range of legal regimes and jurisdictional challenges. This conference will bring together internationally renowned experts to evaluate the progress made thus far in addressing IUU fishing from these different perspectives, and to discuss the potential for future developments. By focusing on the prevention and resolution of disputes relating to IUU fishing, the conference aims to raise holistic considerations that may serve as the basis for constructive approaches to this phenomenon. The conference begins with an assessment of the legal scope of IUU fishing disputes, and concludes with proposals for improving the management of these disputes in light of the dispute settlement frameworks discussed over the course of two days: institutions for global and regional cooperation, international courts and tribunals, and domestic jurisdictions. The panels will address the most controversial and salient aspects of these frameworks for addressing IUU fishing disputes. Participants in the conference will include academics, practitioners, jurists, representatives of international organizations, and government officials from Luxembourg, Europe, and around the world.

Call for Papers: Groups and Spaces in International Economic Law: Focus on the BRICS

The Interest Group on International Economic Law of the European Society of International Law and St. Petersburg State University have issued a call for papers for a conference on "Groups and Spaces in International Economic Law: Focus on the BRICS," which will take place on June 5-6, 2020, in St. Petersburg. The call is here.

Weber: The Domestic Stronghold of Capital Punishment for Atrocity Crimes in the 21st Century

Marissa Kardon Weber has posted an ASIL Insight on The Domestic Stronghold of Capital Punishment for Atrocity Crimes in the 21st Century.

New Addition to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law

The Codification Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs recently added a lecture to the UN Audiovisual Library of International Law. It was given by Diane Marie Amann on “Child Rights, Conflict, and International Criminal Justice.”

Mishra: The Trade–(Cyber)security Dilemma and its Impact on Global Cybersecurity Governance

Neha Mishra (National Univ. of Singapore - Centre for International Law) has posted The Trade–(Cyber)security Dilemma and its Impact on Global Cybersecurity Governance (Journal of World Trade, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Governments are adopting various measures to address cybersecurity-related concerns. Some of these measures restrict cross-border flows of digital services/data, and thus inconsistent with obligations in trade agreements such as General Agreement on Trade in Services (‘GATS’). However, certain governments might argue that such measures are justified under the GATS security exception (art XIVbis) as they protect national security. This article investigates whether GATS art XIVbis is relevant in justifying cybersecurity measures and its potential impact on cybersecurity governance. It argues that GATS art XIVbis has limited relevance, and is potentially problematic, when used in justifying majority of cybersecurity measures. First, a large majority of cybersecurity measures do not fall within the limited set of exceptional circumstances listed in GATS art XIVbis. Further, in applying this exception to cybersecurity measures, WTO Panels will be unfairly forced to balance trade and security interests in an environment of political, technological and policy uncertainty. Given these practical limitations and the normative boundaries of GATS art XIVbis, countries must avoid casually relying upon security exceptions as a basis for adopting/implementing unilateral measures on cybersecurity, but rather engage in meaningful cyber-diplomacy and regulatory cooperation mechanisms to resolve their differences on cybersecurity governance.

Conference: La prohibition de l’esclavage et de la traite des êtres humains

On January 23-24, 2020, a conference on "La prohibition de l’esclavage et de la traite des êtres humains" will be held at Université de Poitiers. The program is here.

New Issue: Journal on the Use of Force and International Law

The latest issue of the Journal on the Use of Force and International Law (Vol. 6, no. 2, 2019) is out. Contents include:

• Editorial
• Francis Grimal, Twitter and the jus ad bellum: threats of force and other implications
• Articles
• Brian Drummond, UK Nuclear deterrence policy: an unlawful threat of force
• Nick van der Steenhoven, Conduct and subsequent practice by states in the application of the requirement to report under UN Charter Article 51

Kreuder-Sonnen: Emergency Powers of International Organizations: Between Normalization and Containment

Christian Kreuder-Sonnen (WZB Berlin Social Science Center) has published Emergency Powers of International Organizations: Between Normalization and Containment (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

Emergency Powers of International Organizations explores emergency politics of international organizations (IOs). It studies cases in which, based on justifications of exceptional necessity, IOs expand their authority, increase executive discretion, and interfere with the rights of their rule-addressees. This ''IO exceptionalism'' is observable in crisis responses of a diverse set of institutions including the United Nations Security Council, the European Union, and the World Health Organization.

Through six in-depth case studies, the book analyzes the institutional dynamics unfolding in the wake of the assumption of emergency powers by IOs. Sometimes, the exceptional competencies become normalized in the IOs' authority structures (the ''ratchet effect"). In other cases, IO emergency powers provoke a backlash that eventually reverses or contains the expansions of authority (the "rollback effect"). To explain these variable outcomes, this book draws on sociological institutionalism to develop a proportionality theory of IO emergency powers. It contends that ratchets and rollbacks are a function of actors' ability to justify or contest emergency powers as (dis)proportionate. The claim that the distribution of rhetorical power is decisive for the institutional outcome is tested against alternative rational institutionalist explanations that focus on institutional design and the distribution of institutional power among states. The proportionality theory holds across the cases studied in this book and clearly outcompetes the alternative accounts. Against the background of the empirical analysis, the book moreover provides a critical normative reflection on the (anti) constitutional effects of IO exceptionalism and highlights a potential connection between authoritarian traits in global governance and the system's current legitimacy crisis.

Whyte: The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism

Jessica Whyte (Univ. of New South Wales - Philosophy) has published The Morals of the Market: Human Rights and the Rise of Neoliberalism (Verso 2019). Here's the abstract:

Drawing on detailed archival research on the parallel histories of human rights and neoliberalism, Jessica Whyte uncovers the place of human rights in neoliberal attempts to develop a moral framework for a market society. In the wake of the Second World War, neoliberals saw demands for new rights to social welfare and self-determination as threats to “civilisation”. Yet, rather than rejecting rights, they developed a distinctive account of human rights as tools to depoliticise civil society, protect private investments and shape liberal subjects.

Van Hulle & Lesaffer: International Law in the Long Nineteenth Century (1776-1914)

Inge Van Hulle (Tilburg Univ. - Law) & Randall C.H. Lesaffer (KU Leuven; Tilburg Univ.) have published International Law in the Long Nineteenth Century (1776-1914): From the Public Law of Europe to Global International Law? (Brill | Nijhoff 2019). Contents include:

• Randall Lesaffer & Inge Van Hulle, Introduction
• James Crawford, Napoleon 1814–1815: A Small Issue of Status
• Camilla Boisen, The Law of Nations and the Common Law of Europe: The Case of Edmund Burke
• Viktorija Jakjimovska, Uneasy Neutrality: Britain and the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832)
• Andrew Fitzmaurice, Equality of Non-European Nations in International Law
• Inge Van Hulle, British Humanitarianism, International Law and Human Sacrifice in West Africa
• Raphael Cahen, The Mahmoud Ben Ayad Case and the Transformation of International Law
• Stefan Kroll, Public-Private Colonialism: Extraterritoriality in the Shanghai International Settlement
• Frederik Dhondt, Permanent Neutrality or Permanent Insecurity? Obligation and Self-Interest in the Defence of Belgian Neutrality, 1830–1870
• Ana Delic, The Role of Comparative Law in the Development of Modern Private International Law (1750–1914)
• Vincent Genin, The Institute of International Law’s Crisis in the Wake of the Franco-Prussian War (1873–1899)