At Greg Shaffer’s invitation I’m joining the discussion to make a couple of small points about some of the concepts used in Greg and Mark’s very interesting and carefully researched book. The first concerns the GMO case as an example of a “regime complex.” When David Victor and I first proposed the concept of a regime complex, we used the...
I have a scholarship question for our readers, particularly those who have been article editors on a law review. On three separate occasions recently, I have seen CVs that identify a particular publication as a "lead article." I always assumed that the order of articles in a non-thematic issue of a law review was more or less random -- or...
The complex and often antagonistic interaction of hard and soft law was clearly one of the most interesting points in the book for several of the commentators, as indeed it was for us. Our core argument here is that hard and soft law can serve not just as complements but also as “antagonists,” both in a conflict-of-laws sense and in...
We are grateful for the praise and the criticisms of our book from distinguished scholars like Sungjoon Cho, Rebecca Bratspies, and Tomer Broude. We are particularly pleased that all three appreciated our efforts to engage in an interdisciplinary and multi-level analysis, to do empirical justice to the complexities of the GMO dispute, and to identify the broader implications of...
Cross-posted at Balkinization The new year starts with no shortage of Gitmo-related matters to blog about, starting with today’s important decision from a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling (for the first time) on the merits of one of the few dozen decided Gitmo habeas petitions. The ruling, affirming the lower court’s decision to deny habeas to...
In their recently published book (“When Cooperation Fails”), Mark Pollack and Gregory Shaffer provided a rare panoramic view of one of the most intractable trans-Atlantic regulatory disputes, i.e., the regulation of genetically modified (GM) foods. One may discover the richness of their thorough study mainly in two aspects. First, the methodology which they employ is not only interdisciplinary but also...
I want to congratulate Mark Pollack and Gregory Shaffer for their recently published book When Cooperation Fails: The International Law and Politics of Genetically Modified Foods (Oxford 2009). Using the WTO proceeding as a focal point, When Cooperation Fails explores the vexing question of why multiple international and bilateral initiatives have failed to resolve the transatlantic GMO dispute. The book...
As its title suggests, When Cooperation Fails has two distinct aims. The specific empirical aim is to provide a definitive and theoretically informed account of one of the most bitter and politically charged international disputes of the past two decades, between the United States and the European Union over the regulation of genetically modified foods and crops. Our theoretical aim,...
I have just been informed that Sir Ian Brownlie, one of the true legends of international law, has died in a car crash in Egypt. I have no other information, as it has apparently not been reported yet. Tremendously sad news. I'm sure we will have much more information in the coming days....
Happy New Year to all. For those of you looking for "new" things in international law this year, check out the newly redesigned website of the Private International Law office in the State Department's Office of the Legal Adviser (L/PIL for short). It has links to other relevant websites and resources as well as listings of the status of U.S. treaties...
A couple of years ago I wrote a paper on ways in which the American political class is riven by deep foundational disagreements about the proper way to approach transnational terrorism. It is partly implicated in the “war” versus “law enforcement” argument, but actually it goes deeper than that — is it possible to have an offensive strategy against terrorism,...
The New York Times has a very interesting article on the mining of rare earths, a group of elements that are particularly important for green technologies. The Times piece begins like this: Some of the greenest technologies of the age, from electric cars to efficient light bulbs to very large wind turbines, are made possible by an unusual group of elements called rare...
