Calls for Papers

• Applications are due this week on January 15 for a workshop on European and transnational rulemaking in Amsterdam between July 1-5, 2013. More information can be found here.
• The Committee of Non-State Actors of the International Law Association (ILA), The Institute
  for Transborder Studies (ITS) at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the Leuven Centre for
  Global Governance Studies, Oxford Brookes University, in collaboration with the ILA-
  Canada, the Flemish Scientific Research Fund (FWO, ‘the network’), and the Canadian Bar Association – British Columbia Branch invite papers on the responsibilities of non-state actors in international law for a conference in Vancouver on 27-28 June 2013. A paper abstract should be submitted by 10 February 2013. The organizers will get back to the author by 28 February 2013. Draft papers (5000 – 6000 words) should be submitted by 1 June 2013. More information, including contact details for the submission of the abstracts, is available here.
• The Customs and International Trade Bar Association (CITBA) and Brooklyn Law School
  (BLS) are calling for submissions by students enrolled as a JD or LL.M student in a US law school, interested in customs or international trade law, for the Fifteenth Annual Andrew P. Vance Memorial Writing Competition.  Winning papers will be considered for publication in the Brooklyn Journal of International Law and cash prizes of $500 and $1000 are awarded to the top two papers. Details on the paper requirements and the judging criteria can be found here.

This week on Opinio Juris, Kevin responded to Eugene Kontorovitch’s post over at The Volokh Conspiracy on the comparability of Israel’s settlement of the West Bank to Turkey’s settlement of Northern Cyprus, by arguing that both settlements are not comparable. Eugene rebutted by advancing five reasons why Turkey’s settlement is the graver violation of international law.

Reflecting on Zero Dark Thirty, Deborah wrote about the responsibility of film makers for the story they decide to tell, and deplored that Bigelow and Boal were not willing to engage more deeply in the public conversation on the use of torture in the war on terror. Further on the War on Terror, Ken argued that Jen Daskal’s NYTimes op-ed on keeping Guantanamo open for now is less heretic for a human rights lawyers than its title suggests.

Meanwhile, Duncan is still waiting for the US Supreme Court to decide on whether to grant certiorari, and in the process revisit Missouri v Holland, in the case of Carol Ann Bond.

Roger Alford posted a graph showing the growth of international law scholarship on Westlaw since 1987. Kevin brought two pieces of new scholarship to your attention by posting links to his essay on the role of the international prosecutor, forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication, and to a very timely essay by Luc Reydams on the US-Rwanda relationship.

In addition to posts by our regular contributors, we welcomed three guests on the blog this week. First, William Dodge contributed a guest post updating us on recent developments in official acts immunity. In her post, Jennifer Trahan hailed the extension of the US Rewards for Justice program to include the arrests of those wanted by international criminal tribunals, and suggested other ways to strengthen the US-ICC relationship. Finally, Başak Çalı offered a different framework to look at the often difficult relationship between domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the latter is only engaged in weak international judicial review.

As always, we also provided you with our weekday news wraps and a listing of events and announcements.

Many thanks to our guest contributors and have a nice weekend!

• More than 100 people were killed in bombings in Pakistan yesterday, and Pakistan Human Rights Watch is sounding alarm bells about increasing Sunni-Shia violence.
• Tensions in Kashmir are rising with Pakistan now claiming that India has killed another of its soldiers.
• Three women, including a founding member of the PKK, were assassinated at the Kurdish Information Centre were they worked in Paris.
• The Czech Republic is electing a new President today and tomorrow, and while there is no frontrunner among the nine candidates, the new President will be more pro-EU than the incumbent.
• A top Kremlin official has confirmed that adoptions by US parents that have been confirmed by a court order will still be able to go ahead, despite the recent legislative ban. The situation raises a range of basic international law questions about the withdrawal from an international agreement and the position of treaties in the domestic legal hierarchy.
• Lawyers took part in protests in Sri Lanka against the pending impeachment of the Chief Justice, in a power struggle between the government and the courts.
• It took less than ten days before the first WTO complaint of 2013 was filed, with the US taking aim at Indonesian import restrictions on horticultural products, animal products and animals, adopted by the latter in an effort to become more self-sufficient.

• Another day, another drone strike? Pakistani officials are reporting a second drone strike in as many days in North Waziristan, killing at least four.
• Ethnic violence has claimed almost twenty lives in South-East Kenya.
• A lavish ceremony has welcomed back the ARA Libertad to Argentina, after ITLOS ordered its release from seizure in Ghana.
• Syrian rebels have released 48 Iranian hostages in a prisoner exchange deal with the Syrian government.
• Vietnam has convicted 14 democracy campaigners to prison terms of up to 13 years, drawing international condemnation.
• The US State Department has warned the UK that the US would prefer the UK to remain a strong voice within the EU.
• Laos will become the WTO’s 158th Member on February 2, 2013.

Over the holidays here at Opinio Juris, the comments section of Kevin’s post on the distinction between the legality and the morality of drone strikes was a hive of activity. The post itself was a follow-up to a first post in which Kevin applied a comparative criminal law lens to argue that under the broader understanding of intent prevailing outside the United States, the moral distinction between the intentional killing of children in Newtown and the unintentional killing of children during drone strikes isn’t all that clear.

Inspired by the suggestion that Palestine could limit an ICC referral to the situation in the West Bank, Kevin advanced legal and political arguments against the notion that a self-referral could be geographically limited. Further on the ICC, Jelia Sane contributed a guest post reflecting on the Court’s first acquittal.

The end of 2012 inspired Chris to look towards future areas of (international) law in 2013 and beyond, focusing in particular on the need for regulation to deal with the impact of technological change, such as flying cars and 3D printing. Ken has already made a new year’s resolution to post more about robots, but promised to cover other areas as well. His first post of the year covered adulteration of extra virgin olive oil, showing that there is no limit to potential international law questions. Kristen Boon also reflected on the role of international law in settling the East China Sea dispute.

If you need to catch up with the news of the past fortnight, our weekday news wraps may be helpful. As always, we also provided our weekly events and announcements posts (1, 2).

Best wishes for 2013 to all our readers!

• The UN Security Council has placed sanctions on two rebel groups, Democratic Republic of the Congo’s M23 and Rwanda’s FDLR, for alleged war crimes in the DRC’s eastern region.
• North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, in a rare speech, has called for an end to the confrontation between his country and South Korea.
• Syria’s PM has reportedly said that President Assad is willing to respond to any initiative to begin peace negotiations. In the meantime, the Syrian military is reportedly mounting an attack on a Damascus suburb that is a traditional stronghold of the rebels.
• One of the top Afghan negotiators is optimistic about the chances of reaching a peace deal that would include the Taliban.
• In Iraq, 2012 ended with a string of violent attacks that killed at least three dozen civilians.
• Gabriela Knaul, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, has expressed concern about threats to the independence of the judiciary in Sri Lanka, culminating in the impeachment procedure started against the Chief Justice.
• Ukraine is reportedly allowing foreign nations to kidnap their nationals who have sought refugee status in Ukraine.
• A proposal has emerged to restructure EU membership into tiers, with the UK becoming an “associate member” only.
• Two more nominations for the job of WTO Director-General were made before yesterday’s deadline with Brazil nominating Mr Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo and the Republic of Korea nominating Taeho Bark. A decision is due by the end of May.

Upcoming Events

• The next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum takes place on January 7, 2013 at the IDC Radzyner School of Law. Adv. Sigall Horovitz will give a talk entitled “Think Different – Why Israel Should Join the ICC Rome Statute” – a discussion following the UN General Assembly resolution to recognize Palestine as a non-member State observer, and Adv. Ido Rosenzweig will talk on “Pillar of Defense & IHL – targeted killings, military objectives, proportionality etc.” – a discussion about the questions related to the Israeli and Palestinian conducts during the recent November conflict. More information can be found here.

Calls for Papers

• Submissions are requested for the 2013 International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Student Writing Competition, co-organized by the American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the American Society of International Law’s Lieber Society. Submissions are due by January 31, 2013. More information is available here.

Job Announcement

• Columbia Law School invites applications for a position at the Professor or Associate Professor Level. The individual will also serve as Director of the Human Rights Clinic and Faculty Co-Director of the Human Rights Institute, beginning on July 1, 2013. The incumbent will be responsible for teaching the Human Rights Clinic as well as serving as its Director. This will include developing clinical projects for experiential learning both in and outside of the classroom. As Faculty Co-Director of the Human Rights Institute, the individual will also be responsible for collaborating in developing the Institute’s programmatic work and strategic agenda, helping to supervise the Institute’s post-graduate human rights fellows on projects relating to the Institute and Clinic, and assisting with fundraising for projects being pursued by the Institute and Clinic. More information, and an online only application, is available here. Applications are due by January 31, 2013.

Last week’s announcements can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us. Best wishes for 2013!

This week on Opinio Juris, Kristen Boon followed up on her discussion last week about changes towards more transparency and fairness in the UN’s Al Qaida sanctions regime.

Craig Allen contributed a guest post on the ITLOS’ interim order for the release by Ghana of Argentina’s ARA Libertad. UNCLOS was also central to Duncan Hollis’ post on China’s submission to the Continental Shelf Commission in relation to the dispute regarding the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

Peggy McGuinness congratulated Diane Amann, Leila Sadat and Patricia Sellers on their appointments as special advisor to the ICC’s OTP, but was saddened that Diane’s appointment meant a goodbye from IntLawGrrls.

In response to John Bellinger’s NYTimes op-ed, Chris Borgen argued that it is up to Republican leadership to address their base’s aversion towards international treaties. Further on news from the US Senate, Deborah Pearlstein posted the open letter by Senators Feinstein, Levin and McCain to Sony Pictures, protesting against the depiction of torture as an effective means of intelligence gathering in the new movie Zero Dark Thirty. She followed up with a post on the CIA’s press release about the movie.

We concluded the week with our final journal symposium of the year, on the latest issue of the Leiden Journal of International Law. Dov Jacobs introduced the two articles to be discussed, and the comments, here. The first article, by Monika Ambrus, looked through the lens of discrimination law at the question of defining a group for the purpose of the definition of genocide. William Schabas questioned why the definition of genocide needs to be broadened given that the definition of a crime against humanity has already been expanded to include peacetime atrocities. Frederic Mégret’s comment focused on the 19th century understanding of race and ethnicity that permeates the genocide definition. Monika Ambrus’ response is here. Samantha Besson’s article on extra-territoriality of the European Convention of Human Rights was the second article in the symposium. Comments were provided by Cedric Ryngaert and Marko Milanovic, to which Samantha Besson responded here.

Our weekly events and announcements and weekday news wraps completed the week.

Have a nice weekend!

Calls for Papers

• The Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, American University College of Law; the Intellectual Property Law Center, Drake University Law School; the Center for International and Comparative Law, Duke University Law School; the Institute for Information Law and Policy, New York Law School; and the Committee on International Intellectual Property, American Branch of the International Law Association are co-sponsoring a Conference and Roundtable on Intellectual Property and Human Rights on February 21-22, 2013 at the American University Washington College of Law. The conference will focus on three distinct sets of issues being explored as part of a forthcoming book project edited by Molly Land and Peter Yu: (1) the right to free expression and enforcement of copyright on the internet; (2) the intersection of intellectual property laws and rights to benefit from culture and scientific progress; and (3) the right to health and access to patented medications. The conference welcomes presentations from participants who not wish to be involved in the project and on topics outside these three main themes. On Friday, February 22, registered participants are invited to a half-day roundtable discussion (under Chatham House Rule) on developing a working group of scholars and advocates engaged in work at the intersection of intellectual property and human rights. If you are interested to attend either or both events, please register here by January 22, 2013. If you want to present during the conference on February 21, please fill out the abstract section with a submission of no more than 500 words.
• The American Society of International Law’s Lieber Society on the Law of Armed Conflict is calling for submissions for the Francis Lieber Prize. Both monographs and articles (including chapters in books of essays) are eligible for consideration, as the prize is awarded to the best submission in each of these two categories.
  • Criteria: Any work in the English language published during 2012 or whose publication is imminent at the time of submission may be nominated for this prize. The re-submission of works which have already been considered for this prize is not allowed. Entries may address such topics as the use of force in international law, the conduct of hostilities during international and non‑international armed conflicts, protected persons and objects under the law of armed conflict, the law of weapons, operational law, rules of engagement, occupation law, peace operations, counter‑terrorist operations, and humanitarian assistance. Other topics bearing on the application of international law during armed conflict or other military operations are also appropriate.
  • Age Limit: Competitors must be 35 years old or younger at the time of submission. They need not be members of the American Society of International Law. Multi-authored works may be submitted if all the authors are eligible to enter the competition. Should a multi-authored submission win the competition, the cash component of the prize shall be divided, pro rata, between the authors. Submissions from outside the United States are welcomed.
  • Submission: Submissions, including a letter or message of nomination, must be received by 21 January 2013. Three copies of books must be submitted. The electronic submission of articles is encouraged. Authors may submit their own work. Any work not already published must be accompanied by documentation indicating that it has been accepted for publication. All submissions must include contact data (e‑mail, fax, phone, address). The Prize Committee will acknowledge receipt of the submission by e‑mail.
  • Printed submissions must be sent to: Professor Iain Scobbie, Department of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom. Electronic submissions must be sent to: is17 [at] soas [dot] ac [dot] uk . Please indicate clearly in the subject line that the email concerns a submission for the Lieber Prize.
  • Prize: The Selection Committee will select one submission for the award of the Francis Lieber Prize in the book category and one in the article category. The Prizes consist of $500, a certificate of recognition, and a year’s membership of the American Society of International Law. The winner of the Lieber Prize in both categories will be announced at the American Society of International Law’s Annual Meeting in March 2013.
• The Global Norms Project at the Universität Bremen is calling for abstracts of up to 500 words, due by February 15, 2013, for a conference on The Legitimation and Delegitimation of Global Governance Organizations to take place in Bremen, Germany, on September 11-13, 2013. More information can be found here.

Announcements

• Elizabeth Trujillo from Suffolk University Law School and Jason Yackee from University of Wisconsin School of Law have been elected to be Co-Chairs of the International Economic Law Interest Group for ASIL, after 2 years as being Co-Vice Chairs under the leadership of Sungjoon Cho and Claire Kelly.  New Co-Vice-Chairs are David Zaring and Sonia Rolland.  The election took place at the ASIL-IEcLIG Biennial conference held at George Washington Law School in Washington DC on Nov. 29-Dec. 1, 2012.  The new leadership will be assuming their positions at the ASIL 2013 Annual Meeting in April.

Last week’s announcements can be found here. If you would like to post an announcement on Opinio Juris, please contact us.

This week on Opinio Juris, a guest post by Daniel Bethlehem, following up on a post by Julian Ku last week, offered three more legal bases for the legality of an intervention in Syria. Also continuing on some of last week’s themes, Kevin Jon Heller wrote how a recent decision by the ICC’s Appeals Chamber confirms his argument on retroactive ad hoc jurisdiction, and Deborah Pearlstein couldn’t resist taking apart Eric Posner’s Slate article on Jeh Johnson’s recent speech in Oxford. In another post, Deborah refused to read too much into the decisions by Harold Koh and Jeh Johnson to step down from their respective roles at the State Department and the Pentagon.

Ken Anderson recapped the recent debate on autonomous weapon systems and regulation, about which he has created a brief bibliography over at Lawfare. He also extended his congratulations to various members of the OJ community, including Kevin who was recently promoted to Associate Professor & Reader.

Kevin discussed rumours that the OTP is investigating the actions of the M23 movement and others in eastern Congo, and Kirsten Boon discussed the UN Security Council’s upcoming review of the mandate of the Ombudsperson and monitoring regime for al-Qaida sanctions.

On a lighter note, Duncan Hollis provided a link to Jimmy Fallon’s routine on the best treaty in the world and Kevin posted about international relations as depicted by cats.

As always, we provided a listing of upcoming events and daily news wraps.

Have a nice weekend!

This week on Opinio Juris, we continued a few conversations from last week. Kevin Jon Heller clarified his argument about the retroactive acceptance of the ICC’s jurisdiction, and challenged the assumption that Palestine was not a state before last week’s UNGA vote. Deborah Pearlstein advanced three reasons for the importance of Jeh Johnson’s recent speech on the conditions for calling an end to the war on terror.

Continuing on the war on terror, Kevin expressed concern over the extension of US targeting policy in Afghanistan to “children with potential hostile intent“.

A few posts dealt with the growing divide between US law and international law. In a guest post on the Feinstein amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, Jonathan Hafetz argued that the amendment widens the rift between US constitutional law and international law by deepening discrimination against non-citizens.  Peter Spiro and Julian Ku both wrote about the Senate’s rejection of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Peter argued that the rejection does not prove that sovereigntism lives, but rather that the supermajority required by the US constitution’s Treaty clause is outdated. He also posted a link to a Daily Show segment on the vote. Julian argued that sovereigntists should have held their fire for other treaties that, contrary to the CRPD, may actually have an impact on US law. In another post, Julian argued that a unilateral US intervention in Syria if the Assad regime deploys chemical weapons would be illegal under international law.

Following a recent meeting of the International Commission on the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, Kristen Boon discussed possible incentives to avoid overfishing. Kristen also discussed whether the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States (CERDS) could fill the legal void surrounding land grabbing.

As always, we also provided a list of upcoming events and weekday news wraps.

Have a nice weekend!

Upcoming Events

• The next session of the Joint International Humanitarian Law Forum takes place on December 5, 2012 at the IDC Radzyner School of Law. Dr. Ben Clarke will discuss his new article “Beyond the Call of Duty: Integration of International Humanitarian Law in Video Games and Battlefield Training Simulators”. More information can be found here.

Calls for Papers

• The International Community Law Review has issued a call for papers for a special issue of its 2013 volume, to be edited by Professor Duncan French (University of Lincoln) and Dr. Russell Buchan (University of Sheffield). The focus of the Special Issue will be to assess to what extent recent case-law has seen a doctrinal restatement of international law by the International Court of Justice and other tribunals, with little regard to the complex and modern pressures upon States. Areas of the law that have seen restatement, if not retrenchment, include the use of force, State immunity and self-determination, as well as arguably a conservative view of the consensual jurisdiction of the Court. Equally, other commentators may wish to critique this understanding. Authors wishing to contribute an article to the Special Issue should submit an abstract of no more than 400 words to Dr. Russell Buchan by 18 February 2013. Authors will be informed by 1 March 2013 as to whether their abstract has been accepted. Subsequently, contributors will be required to submit their articles (approximately 10, 000 words in length) to the editors no later than 1 July 2013.
• The Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG) is calling PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers, from the fields of political science, law, sociology, and international relations to participate in a workshop on European and transnational rulemaking. The workshop will take place in Amsterdam between July 1-5, 2013. Applications are due by January 15, 2013 and more information can be found here.
• The Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law is calling for papers of its annual Human Rights Essay Award Competition. The competition seeks to stimulate the production of scholarly work in international human rights law. The 2013 topic is The Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People and International Human Rights Law. Participants have the flexibility to choose any subject related to the assigned topic. The best articles may be published in the American University International Law Review. The Academy will grant two Awards, best English article and best Spanish article. The Award in each case will consist of a scholarship to the Academy’s Program of Advanced Studies; travel expenses to Washington D.C.; housing at the university dorms; and a per diem for living expenses.

Journal Announcements

Volume XXI (2011) of The Italian Yearbook of International Law is out. It features a symposium on the international law questions arising from the Libyan crisis and a focus section analysing and discussing certain aspects of the ICJ Judgment in Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy). The articles by M. Mancini, The Day After: Prosecuting International Crimes Committed in Libya, and, R. Pavoni, An American Anomaly? On the ICJ’s Selective Reading of United States Practice in Jurisdictional Immunities of the State, are available here.

Last week’s announcements can be found here. If you are organizing a conference or other event and would like to see the call for papers or the program announced on Opinio Juris, please contact us.