Saturday, April 5, 2008

New Issue: Arbitration: The International Journal of Arbitration, Mediation and Dispute Management

The latest issue of Arbitration: The International Journal of Arbitration, Mediation and Dispute Management (Vol. 74, no. 1, February 2008) is out. Contents include:

  • Michael McIlwraith & Roland Schroeder, The view from an international arbitration customer: in dire need of early resolution
  • Justin Michaelson & Gordon Blanke, Anti-suit injunctions and the recoverability of legal costs as damages for breach of an arbitration agreement
  • Nicholas Tse & Natasha Peter, Confronting the matrix: do the IBA Rules require amendment to deal with the challenges posed by electronically stored information?
  • Stephen Hardy, ADR’s coming of age in the work place
  • Peter Gillies, Forum non conveniens in the context of international commercial arbitration
  • Steven Caplow, Arbitration class action waivers in the United States and Canada
  • Emanuela Lecchi & Michael Cover, Arbitrating competition law cases
  • Quentin Tannock, Public policy as a ground for setting aside an award: is Zimbabwe out of step?
  • Sam Luttrell, The enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Indonesia: a comment on Karaha Bodas Co. LLC v Perusahaan Pertambangan Minyak Dan Gas Bumi Negara

Friday, April 4, 2008

Stephens, et al.: International Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts

Beth Stephens (Rutgers Univ., Camden - Law), Judith Chomsky (Center for Constitutional Rights), Jennifer Green (Center for Constitutional Rights), Paul Hoffman (Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris and Hoffman LLP), & Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights) have published the second revised edition of International Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2008). Here's the abstract:

Written by leading human rights litigators and theorists, this treatise offers a comprehensive analysis of human rights litigation in U.S. courts under the Alien Tort Statute and related provisions, including jurisprudential complexities and litigation guidance. The book includes discussion of the Alien Tort Statute, the Torture Victim Protection Act, and less common jurisdictional bases. The issues raised by suing corporations are also discussed. Separate chapters address lawsuits against the U.S. and foreign governments. A section on defenses includes analysis of topics such as immunities, forum non conveniens, and the intervention of the executive branch. The final section discusses litigation strategies.

New Issue: International Organization

The latest issue of International Organization (Vol. 62, no. 2, Spring 2008) is out. Contents include:
  • Richard Price, Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics
  • Judith Kelley, Assessing the Complex Evolution of Norms: The Rise of International Election Monitoring
  • Vincent Pouliot, The Logic of Practicality: A Theory of Practice of Security Communities
  • Ben W. Ansell, Traders, Teachers, and Tyrants: Democracy, Globalization, and Public Investment in Education
  • Bumba Mukherjee & David Andrew Singer, Monetary Institutions, Partisanship, and Inflation Targeting
  • Celeste Montoya, The European Union, Capacity Building, and Transnational Networks: Combating Violence Against Women Through the Daphne Program

Dupuy & Vierucci: NGOs in International Law: Efficiency in Flexibility?

Pierre-Marie Dupuy (European Univ. Institute - Law) & Luisa Vierucci (Univ. of Florence - Law) have published NGOs in International Law: Efficiency in Flexibility? (Edward Elgar Publishing 2008). Contents include:
  • Christine Bakker & Luisa Vierucci, Introduction: A Normative or Pragmatic Definition of NGOs?
  • Emanuele Rebasti, Beyond Consultative Status: Which Legal Framework for an Enhanced Interaction between NGOs and Intergovernmental Organizations?
  • Olivier de Frouville, Domesticating Civil Society at the United Nations
  • Valentina Bettin, NGOs and the Development Policy of the European Union
  • Attila Tanzi, Controversial Developments in the Field of Public Participation in the International Environmental Law Process
  • Luisa Vierucci, NGOs Before International Courts and Tribunals
  • Cesare Pitea, The Legal Status of NGOs in Environmental Non-compliance Procedures: An Assessment of Law and Practice
  • Pierre-Marie Dupuy, Conclusion: Return on the Legal Status of NGOs and on the Methodological Problems which Arise for Legal Scholarship

New Issue: New York University Journal of International Law and Politics

The latest issue of the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics (Vol. 40, no. 2, Winter 2008) is out. Contents include:
  • Christopher M. Bruner, Culture, Sovereignty, and Hollywood: UNESCO and the Future of Trade in Cultural Products
  • Susan Rose-Ackerman & Benjamin Billa, Treaties and National Security
  • Kristi Samuels, Constitution-Building During the War on Terror: The Challenge of Somalia

New Issue: Rivista di Diritto Internazionale

The latest issue of the Rivista di Diritto Internazionale (Vol. 90, no. 3, 2007) is out. Contents include:
  • C. Focarelli, I limiti dello jus cogens nella giurisprudenza più recente
  • M. Arcari, Sviluppi in tema di tutela dei diritti di individui iscritti nelle liste dei comitati delle sanzioni del Consiglio di sicurezza
  • P. Palchetti, Azioni di forze istituite o autorizzate dalle Nazioni Unite davanti alla Corte europea dei diritti dell'uomo: i casi Behrami e Saramati
  • S. Dorigo, Sulla protezione diplomatica degli azionisti: il caso Diallo di fronte alla Corte internazionale di giustizia
  • L. Castagnetti, Note e commenti - Il problema del diritto all'uso della forza nelle relazioni internazionali di fronte alla Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission
  • M.J.A. Oyarzábal, Note e commenti - Il Protocollo aggiuntivo che modifica l'Accordo italo-argentino sulla cittadinanza
  • A. Leandro, Note e commenti - Limiti materiali del regolamento (CE) n. 44/2001 e immunità degli Stati esteri dalla giurisdizione: il caso Lechouritou
  • N. Recanati, Panorama - Sul rilievo interpretativo di regole internazionali vincolanti per le parti nel sistema dell'OMC
  • G. Gaja, Panorama - Per quali reati deve essere data esecuzione ad un mandato d'arresto europeo?

Nagareda: Aggregate Litigation across the Atlantic and the Future of American Exceptionalism

Richard A. Nagareda (Vanderbilt Univ. - Law) has posted Aggregate Litigation across the Atlantic and the Future of American Exceptionalism(Vanderbilt Law Review, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This article analyzes the emerging phenomenon of trans-Atlantic civil litigation on an aggregate basis - chiefly, though not exclusively, by way of class actions. European systems have shown a growing receptiveness for aggregate litigation, but treatments of this development have consisted largely of description. This article offers an analytical framework with which to anticipate the structural dynamics of transnational aggregate litigation in the twenty-first century.

Simply put, these structural dynamics will tend to recreate the difficulties seen in the context of nationwide class action litigation within the United States. The nationalization of US commerce led to aggregate litigation of a commensurately national scope. The result, however, was regulatory mismatch - for the scope of aggregation to expand to match the scope of the disputed nationwide activity, rather than the jurisdictional sovereignty of the forum. The globalization of commerce, coupled with the very multiplicity of approaches to aggregate litigation seen today, has a considerable tendency to replicate these mismatches - now, with international proportions. The recent Vivendi securities class action in the United States and the pathbreaking Royal Dutch Shell settlement under the 2005 Dutch collective settlement act confirm this trend.

The article then analyzes the vehicles by which to address regulatory mismatches. Here, too, the US experience is instructive, underscoring both the centrality and the limitations of the two vehicles by which to achieve a kind of de facto, informal governance: the principles for transnational claim preclusion and the latitude available for private contracts to shift disputes from litigation to arbitration.

McCaffrey: Comments on the International Law Commission's Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers (2006)

Stephen C. McCaffrey (Univ. of the Pacific - Law) has posted Comments on the International Law Commission's Draft Articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers (2006). Here's the abstract:
The U.N. International Law Commission (ILC) adopted a set of draft articles on the Law of Transboundary Aquifers on first reading at its 2006 session. It is likely that the ILC will give the draft a second and final reading at its session to be held in the summer of 2008. The draft, which many expected to deal with a form of transboundary groundwater not covered by the 1997 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, in fact overlaps with the 1997 Convention in terms of the subject matter it covers and thereby gives rise to confusion. Moreover, the draft introduces a dangerous and novel concept into the law of shared freshwater resources: sovereignty over the portion of those resources located in the territory of a state. For these reasons, the draft is fundamentally flawed and should not be adopted by the Commission without revisions that eliminate these problems.

Workshops: Caron, Flaherty

David Caron (Univ. of California, Berkeley - Law) will give a talk today at the University of Georgia School of Law International Law Colloquium on "Towards a Political Theory of International Courts and Tribunals."

Martin Flaherty (Fordham Univ. - Law) will give a talk today at the Georgetown University Law Center International Human Rights Colloquium on "Executive Authority, Fundamental Rights, and Global Separation of Powers."

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Francioni & Scheinin: Cultural Human Rights

Francesco Francioni (European Univ. Institute - Law & Univ. of Siena - Law) & Martin Scheinin (Åbo Akademi Univ. - Law) have published Cultural Human Rights (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2008). Contents include:
  • Francesco Francioni, Culture, Heritage and Human Rights: An Introduction
  • Tore Lindholm, The Cross-Cultural Legitimacy of Universal Human Rights: Plural Justification Across Normative Divides
  • A.F. Vrdoljak, Self-Determination and Cultural Rights
  • William K. Barth, Cultural Rights: A Necessary Corrective to the Nation State
  • Matthias Ǻhrén, Protecting Peoples’ Cultural Rights: A Question of Properly Understanding the Notion of States and Nations?
  • Federico Lenzerini, Indigenous Peoples’ Cultural Rights and the Controversy over Commercial Use of their Traditional Knowledge
  • Martin Scheinin, The Right of a People to Enjoy Its Culture: Towards a Nordic Saami Rights Convention
  • Enikő Horváth, Cultural Identity and Legal Status: Or, the Return of the Right to Have (Particular) Rights
  • Timo Makkonen, Minorities’ Right to Maintain and Develop Their Cultures: Legal Implications of Social Science Research
  • Stéphanie Lagoutte & Eva Maria Lassen, The Role of the State in Balancing Religious Freedom with Other Human Rights in a Multicultural European Context
  • Evangelia Psychogiopoulou, Accessing Culture at the EU Level: An Indirect Contribution to Cultural Rights Protection?
  • Susanna Mancini & Bruno de Witte, Language Rights as Cultural Rights: A European Perspective
  • John Morijn, The Place of Cultural Rights in the WTO System
  • Yvonne Donders, A Right to Cultural Identity in UNESCO
  • Sanford Levinson, Political Change and the ‘Creative Destruction’ of Public Space

New Issue: Virginia Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Virginia Journal of International Law (Vol. 48, no. 3, Spring 2008) is out. Contents include:

ICTY: Trial Chamber Judgment in the Case Against Haradinaj, Balaj, and Brahimaj

Today, the ICTY Trial Chamber rendered its judgment in the case (No. IT-04-84) against Ramush Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj, and Lahi Brahimaj, former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The defendants were charged (fourth amended indictment here) with thirty-seven counts of crimes against humanity (persecution, including harassment, torture, deportation or forcible transfer of civilians, murder, and rape) and war crimes (cruel treatment, torture, rape, and murder) relating to their alleged joint criminal enterprise to, among other things, unlawfully remove and mistreat Serbs living in northwestern Kosovo from March through September 1998. The trial began on March 5, 2007; closing arguments were given from January 21-23, 2008. The defendants chose not to present any evidence.

In today's decision (summary here; press release here; New York Times story here; judgment not yet available online), the Trial Chamber acquitted Haradinaj and Balaj of all charges and convicted Brahimaj of two counts of war crimes (cruel treatment and torture). He was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. Regarding the acquittal of the defendants on the charges of crimes against humanity, the Trial Chamber found that the evidence “did not always allow the Chamber to conclude whether a crime was committed or whether the KLA was involved as alleged.” The judges also noted that the “evidence on some of the other counts indicates that the victims may have been targeted primarily for reasons pertaining to them individually rather than as members of the targeted civilian population.” With regard to some of the counts, the Chamber concluded, as well, that the alleged acts were “not on a scale of frequency that would allow for a conclusion that there was an attack against a civilian population.” Regarding the charges of war crimes, the Trial Chamber found that there was only sufficient evidence to convict Brahimaj on two of the counts in the indictment.

Workshop: Goodman

Ryan Goodman (Harvard Univ. - Law) will give a talk today at the New York University School of Law Institute for International Law and Justice International Legal Theory Colloquium on "Sociological Theory Insights into International Human Rights Law."

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

New Volume: Baltic Yearbook of International Law

The latest volume of the Baltic Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 7, 2007) is out. Contents include:
  • Symposium: The History of International Law Scholarship in Central Eastern and Eastern Europe
    • Christian Tomuschat, Foreword
    • Lauri Mälksoo, Insula deserta? Thoughts on the History of International Law Scholarship in Central Eastern and Eastern Europe
    • Karl-Heinz Ziegler, The International Law of Europe since the Middle Ages
    • Carmen Schmidt, The Minority Protection System of the League of Nations and the Central and Eastern European States
    • Vygante Milašiute & Arunas Bučnys, The Lithuanian Tradition of International Law Scholarship
    • Wladyslaw Czaplinski, Paweł Włodkowic (Paulus Wladimiri) and the Polish International Legal Doctrine of the 15th Century
    • Anthony Carty, Hersch Lauterpacht: A Powerful Eastern European Figure in International Law
    • Karolina Wierczynska, Judge Manfred Lachs and His Role in International Adjudication
    • Janne E. Nijman, Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670): Reformer of Humanity
    • Pavel Šturma, The Czech Tradition of International Legal Scholarship
    • Péter Kovács, László Buza and His Heritage for Hungarian International Lawyers
    • Vladimir-Djuro Degan, An Essay on the Doctrine of International Law in Croatia and the Former Yugoslavia
    • Olga Bytkevich, Ukrainian Legal Science on the History of the Ancient and Medieval International Law
    • William E. Butler, Russian International Legal History: A Plea for Revisionism
    • Peter Holquist, The Dilemmas of an “Official with Progressive Views” - Baron Boris Nolde

Workshops: Gargarella, Paulsson

Roberto Gargarella (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella & Universidad de Buenos Aires) will give a talk today at the Oxford Transitional Justice Research Group on "International Criminal Law and Gross Human Rights Violations."

Jan Paulsson (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) will give a talk today on "The Denial of Justice" as part of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law's Investment Law Forum.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

New Issue: American Review of International Arbitration

The latest issue of the American Review of International Arbitration (Vol. 17, no. 2, 2006) is out. Contents include:
  • Loukas Mistelis, Reality Test: Current State of Affairs in Theory and Practice Relating To "Lex Arbitri"
  • S. Breckenridge Thomas, International Arbitration: A Historical Perspective and Practice Guide Connecting Four Emerging World Cultures: China, Mexico, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia
  • Adewale A. Olawoyin, Safeguarding Arbitral Integrity in Nigeria: Potential Conflict Between Legislative Policies and Foreign Arbitration Clauses in Bills of Lading
  • Christopher Kee, Current Developments International Arbitration and Security for Costs - A Brief Report on Two Developments
  • Valerio Sangiovanni, Some Critical, Observations on the Italian Regulation of Company Arbitration

Cho: Constitutional Adjudication in the World Trade Organization

Sungjoon Cho (Chicago-Kent College of Law) has posted Constitutional Adjudication in the World Trade Organization. Here's the abstract:
Although a court, as a judicial organ, usually fulfils its mission by resolving specific disputes brought to it, it occasionally goes beyond this simple dispute-resolving function and more actively engages in building policies which define, and "constitute" the very polity to which the court belongs, as was seen in Brown v. Board of Education. If this "constitutional adjudication" is an integral function of any domestic high court, could (and should) an international tribunal, in particular the World Trade Organization (WTO) tribunal, also play such a distinctive role? This paper contends that the WTO tribunal has in fact assumed such role by having recently struck down a hoary antidumping practice called "zeroing" which tends to inflate dumping margins and thus is a central vehicle for contingent protection embedded in the antidumping mechanism. The paper observes that the recent proliferation of antidumping measures as a new protectionist instrument has motivated the AB's hermeneutical departure from the past interpretation which had endorsed the practice. This, it argues, is a "constitutional" turn of the WTO which a positivist, inter-governmental mode of thinking, as is prevalent in other international organizations such as the United Nations, cannot fully expound. Critically, this turn originates from bold ideas which envision, and thus "constitute," new institutional meaning and possibilities within the WTO. In other words, the AB's exegesis is anchored firmly by a discernible purpose of cabining trade distortive/restrictive consequences from the use of zeroing which have long been left unchecked. Finally, the paper maintains that WTO members cannot (or should not) overturn the AB's such constitutional adjudication even via political bargaining.

New Issue: Revue de Droit International et de Droit Comparé

The latest issue of the Revue de Droit International et de Droit Comparé (Vol. 84, no. 4, 2007) is out. Contents include:
  • E. Bodson, DOCTRINE - Le brevet européen est-il différent? L'arrêt Roche Nederland de la Cour de justice: vers une révision du règlement de Bruxelles en ce qui concerne la concentration de litiges transfrontaliers en matière de contrefaçon de brevets européens?
  • A. Moriceau, DOCTRINE - La Cour européenne des droits de l'homme et la garantie de l'avortement thérapeutique
  • F.M. Sawadogo, DOCTRINE - La question de la saisissabilité ou de l'insaisissabilité des biens des entreprises publiques en droit OHADA

ICJ: Ecuador Files Application Against Colombia

Yesterday, March 31, Ecuador filed an application with the International Court of Justice concerning a longstanding dispute with Colombia regarding "aerial spraying [by Colombia] of toxic herbicides at locations near, at and across its border with Ecuador," allegedly in violation of Colombia's obligations under international law. In particular, Ecuador claims that "the spraying has already caused serious damage to people, to crops, to animals, and to the natural environment on the Ecuadorian side of the frontier, and poses a grave risk of further damage over time." Ecuador also states that it has made "repeated and sustained efforts to negotiate an end to the fumigations," but that "these negotiations have proved unsuccessful." Ecuador bases the Court's jurisdiction on Article XXXI of the American Treaty on Pacific Settlement (the Pact of Bogotá) of April 30, 1948, to which both States are parties. Colombia's spraying is part of a counternarcotics program that is funded by the United States. Ecuador's application comes amid tensions between the two countries in the wake of a March 1st Colombian cross-border raid against a FARC camp in Ecuador. The ICJ press release is here; news reports are here, here, and here.

Ecuador requests that the Court adjudge and declare that:

(a) Colombia has violated its obligations under international law by causing or allowing the deposit on the territory of Ecuador of toxic herbicides that have caused damage to human health, property and the environment;

(b) Colombia shall indemnify Ecuador for any loss or damage caused by its internationally unlawful acts, namely the use of herbicides, including by aerial dispersion, and in particular:

(i) death or injury to the health of any person or persons arising from the use of such herbicides; and

(ii) any loss of or damage to the property or livelihood or human rights of such persons; and

(iii) environmental damage or the depletion of natural resources; and

(iv) the costs of monitoring to identify and assess future risks to public health, human rights and the environment resulting from Colombia’s use of herbicides; and

(v) any other loss or damage; and

(c) Colombia shall:

(i) respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ecuador; and

(ii) forthwith, take all steps necessary to prevent, on any part of its territory, the use of any toxic herbicides in such a way that they could be deposited onto the territory of Ecuador; and

(iii) prohibit the use, by means of aerial dispersion, of such herbicides in Ecuador, or on or near any part of its border with Ecuador.

Workshop: Trujillo

Elizabeth Trujillo (Suffolk Univ. - Law) will give a talk today at the University of Connecticut School of Law Faculty Workshop on "Deconstructing the Public/Private Overlaps in Foreign Investment and Trade Regimes."

Monday, March 31, 2008

Chetail: Ghebali Festschrift

Vincent Chetail (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies - Law) has published Conflits, sécurité et coopération / Conflicts, security and cooperation: Liber Amicorum Victor-Yves Ghebali (Bruylant 2007). Contents include:
  • Vincent Chetail, Parcours et autres chemins de traverse
  • Manuela Tortora, De l’organisation internationale aux leçons de l’histoire: rencontre avec Victor-Yves Ghebali
  • Georges Abi-Saab, De l’efficacité des organisations internationales: À propos de l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce
  • Maurice Bertrand, Les lecons des erreurs d’une réforme manquée. Le problème de la «mondialisation politique»
  • Marie-Thérèse Bitsch, La CEE et la mise en route de la CSCE (1970-1975)
  • Pierre du Bois, L’évolution de la guerre idéologique entre l’Est et l’Ouest de 1975 à 1991
  • Hervé Cassan, La diplomatie multilatérale de la paix: Plaidoyer pour un code de procédure
  • Vincent Chetail, Le Conseil des droits de l’homme des Nations Unies: réformer pour ne rien changer?
  • Andrew Clapham, Responsibility To Protect - “Some Sort Of Commitment”
  • Mohammad-Reza Djalili & Thierry Kellner, L’organisation de coopération de Shanghai: nouveau léviathan eurasiatique ou colosse aux pieds d’argile?
  • Daniel Dormoy, Les modalités de réforme de l’Organisation des Nations Unies
  • Jean F. Freymond, Regards sur un monde en devenir
  • Vera Gowlland-Debbas, Collective Security Revisited in Light of the Flurry over UN Reform: An International Law Perspective
  • A.J.R. Groom, The Security Council: A Case for Change by Stealth?
  • Jean-François Guilhaudis, Réflexions sur le blocage de la Conférence du Désarmement
  • István Gyarmati, Potential Conflicts in the Border Regions of the OSCE
  • Walter Kemp, The OSCE’s Conscience, by Walter Kemp
  • Jean Klein, La pertinence du modèle européen pour l’instauration d’un nouvel ordre de sécurité en Asie du Nord-est: le cas de l’unification de la Corée et les négo­ciations en vue du désarmement
  • Marcelo G. Kohen, Le Kosovo: un test pour la communauté internationale
  • Robert Kolb, Regards croisés vers la Société des Nations - De la SDN à l’ONU en matière de maintien de la paix
  • Alexandre Lambert, Democratic Security Governance and Multilateral Cooperation: the European Approach
  • Ivo Rens, La fin du pétrole bon marché? Effondrement ou décroissance de la civilisation industrielle?
  • Jean-Christophe Romer, De l’URSS et la CSCE à la Russie et l’OSCE
  • Max van der Stoel, Dilemma’s Confronting the OSCE
  • Serge Sur, Trois visions de la Guerre Froide, Les espions (G.-H. Clouzot, 1957) - La mort aux trousses (North by Northwest, A. Hitchcock, 1959) - Dr Fola­mour (Dr Strangelove, S. Kubrick, 1963)
  • Thierry Tardy, Les conflits yougoslaves: analyse critique de la réponse institutionnelle
  • Daniel Warner, The United States: Nostalgia, The Kiss and Great Deception
  • Andrei Zagorski, 33 years of CSCE (OSCE) Studies: Myths and Realities
  • Wolfgang Zellner, Redefining the OSCE’s Future: Strategic Uncertainty and Political Contradic­tions are Delaying Progress
  • Jean Ziegler, La barbarie et son miroir

Symposium: Transformation in Iraq

The Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review will host a symposium this Friday, April 4, 2008, on "Transformation in Iraq: From Ending a Modern War to Creating a Modern Peace." The program is available here. Why attend?
This symposium will assess the legitimacy and viability of current international law, insofar as it governs the transformation from post-war occupation to post-occupation peace. Using Iraq as a test case, the symposium will test this modern law against both changed contemporary realities and recent developments in moral and political thought. The first panel will will bring together a number of renowned moral, political, and legal philosophers to address the question of what fundamental obligations the U.S. has to Iraq in moving from occupation to post-occupation. The second panel assess the current state of the law, and consider whether it has evolved sufficiently from its origins to encompass democratic "nation building" and economic reforms within its ambit. The third panel will, finally, explore the possibility of developing American exit strategies from Iraq that meet these broad moral and legal requirements.

Symposium: The Changing Tide of Trade

The Saint Louis University Public Law Review and the Saint Louis University School of Law Center for International and Comparative Law will host a symposium this Friday, April 4, 2008, on "The Changing Tide of Trade." The program is here. Why attend?

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) have become a very important part of the world trade system in recent years. As World Trade Organization (WTO) membership has grown to over 150 countries, the interests of the WTO Members have diverged on numerous issues and negotiations have become more cumbersome. Many nations have turned to negotiating RTAs, which focus on the interests of countries in a particular region or group of regions, and not on global interests. RTAs allow for more efficient trade negotiations and permit countries greater freedom to choose their trading partners, trade deals and conditions of trade. By 2010, the WTO estimates that nearly 400 RTAs will be in effect.

This symposium will bring together a group of leading legal scholars to examine the social, political, and environmental issues that arise as a result of the proliferation of RTAs. Some of the key questions to be addressed are: What are the impacts of RTAs on developed versus developing countries? What do governments gain or lose from pursuing such agreements? Will RTAs play a role in shaping the rights of women, children, minorities and the poor? And finally, how will they affect labor and environmental laws, regulations and standards?

Ziolkowski: Gerechtigkeitspostulate als Rechtfertigung von Kriegen

Katharina Ziolkowski has published Gerechtigkeitspostulate als Rechtfertigung von Kriegen: Zum Einfluss moderner Konzepte des Gerechten Krieges auf die völkerrechtliche Zulässigkeit (Nomos 2008). Here's the abstract:
Die internationalen Konflikte der letzten Jahre werfen zunehmend die Frage nach einer Wiederbelebung des Argumentationstopos des Gerechten Krieges auf. Das Abwenden eines Völkermordes oder die Bekämpfung des Terrorismus erscheinen als „gerechte“ Gründe für einen Krieg. Die Arbeit analysiert das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen der „Gerechtigkeit“ und der Legalität von Kriegen. Sie zeigt einerseits die ideologisch, religiös und moralisch bestimmten Gerechtigkeitspostulate auf, die als Legitimation für Kriege nach 1945 dienten oder derzeit gebraucht werden. Andererseits untersucht sie den Geltungsbereich des Gewaltverbotes sowie seiner Ausnahmen. Bei der Interpretation der Ausnahmetatbestände werden - de lege ferenda - insbesondere neue Sicherheitsgefahren und veränderte ethische Wertungen der internationalen Gemeinschaft berücksichtigt. Untersucht wird auch die Entwicklung des Völkerrechts hinsichtlich neuer Rechtfertigungsgründe für zwischenstaatliche Gewaltanwendung. Damit leistet die Arbeit einen differenzierten Beitrag zur Diskussion über den Gerechten Krieg, der sich nicht in einer Feststellung der Überwindung der Lehren vom Gerechten Krieg durch das moderne Völkerrecht erschöpft.

WTO Panel Reports: Hormones Disputes

Today, Panels established by the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body issued their Reports on the cases "US - Continued suspension of obligations in the EC Hormones Dispute" (DS320) and "Canada - Continued suspension of obligations in the EC Hormones Dispute" (DS321). The European Communities brought the complaints. The full Reports can be found here. Summaries of the cases can be found here (DS320) and here (DS321).

New Issue: International Arbitration Law Review

The latest issue of the International Arbitration Law Review (Vol. 11, no. 1, 2008) is out. Contents include:
  • Carolyn B. Lamm, Eckhard R. Hellbeck, & Chiara Giorgetti, Editorial: International Arbitration Law Review - Special Issue on US Law - Issue 1/2008
  • John Fellas, Using US Courts in Aid of Arbitration Proceedings in Other Countries
  • Arif Ali, Katherine Nesbitt, & Jane Wessel, Anti-Suit Injunctions in Support of International Arbitration in the United States and the United Kingdom
  • Mark Kantor, Arbitrator Disclosure: An Active but Unsettled Year
  • William W. Park, Arbitral Jurisdiction in the United States: Who Decides What?
  • William K. Slate, II & Eric P. Tuchman, Class Action Arbitrations
  • Carolyn B. Lamm, Eckhard R. Hellbeck, & Chiara Giorgetti, The New Frontier of Investor-State Arbitration: Annulment of Nafta Awards

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Symposium: The New Federalism: Plural Governance in a Decentered World

The latest issue of the Emory Law Journal (Vol. 57, no. 1, December 2007) contains a symposium on "Plural Governance in a Decentered World." Contents include:
  • Robert B. Ahdieh, From Federalism to Intersystemic Governance: The Changing Nature of Modern Jurisdiction
  • Judith Resnik, Foreign as Domestic Affairs: Rethinking Horizontal Federalism and Foreign Affairs Preemption in Light of Translocal Internationalism
  • Ernest A. Young, Toward a Framework Statute for Supranational Adjudication
  • Robert A. Schapiro, Federalism as Intersystemic Governance: Legitimacy in a Post-Westphalian World
  • Mark Tushnet, Judicial Enforcement of Federalist-Based Constitutional Limitations: Some Skeptical Comparative Observations
  • William W. Buzbee, Interaction's Promise: Preemption Policy Shifts, Risk Regulation, and Experimentalism Lessons
  • Charles H. Koch, Jr., The Devolution of Implementing Policymaking in Network Governments
  • David J. Bederman, Diversity and Permeability in Transnational Governance David J. Bederman
  • Robert B. Ahdieh, From Federal Rules to Intersystemic Governance in Securities Regulation