Search: Syria Insta-Symposium
17 May Symposium: Lies, Damned Lies, and the International Rule of Law
[ Simon Chesterman is Dean and Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. This is the second post in the Defining the Rule of Law Symposium, based on this article (free access for six months). You can find the first post here.] Imprecision of meaning in international law is rarely accidental. Diplomacy is an architecture of compromise, with states routinely adopting malleable or self-serving definitions depending on their interests or aspirations. So it is with the international rule of law. A decade ago, every member state of...03 Apr HILJ Online Symposium: The Next Step
[Michael Waterstone is the Associate Dean for Research and Academic Centers and J. Howard Ziemann Fellow and Professor of Law at Loyola Law School Los Angeles.] This post is part of the HILJ Online Symposium: Volumes 54(2) & 55(1). Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. I am grateful that the Harvard International Law Journal and Opinio Juris have asked me to write a response to The Democratic Life of the Union: Toward Equal Voting Participation for Europeans with Disabilities, written by Janos Fiala-Butora,...
28 May Futureproofing Human Rights Symposium: Human Rights in the Era of Blockchain – A Polycentric Accountability Framework
...responsibility, actors like NGOs, corporations, and international organizations also play crucial roles. Yet key functions such as standard-setting and decision-making still follow a predominantly top-down logic, driven by states and international judicial or quasi-judicial bodies. This creates a system where decentralized participation coexists with hierarchical authority . There are several new developments of blockchain infrastructures that illustrate the relation between human rights accountability and blockchain nature. For instance, projects like the UN World Food Programme’s Building Blocks sought to enhance refugee aid distribution, while digital identity initiatives attempted to provide...28 Jun YJIL Symposium: Non-Instrumental Public Morals Justification of Trade Restrictions: A Comment on Howse and Langille
[Isabel Feichtner is a professor of law and economics at Goethe Universität Frankfurt] This post is part of the Yale Journal of International Law Volume 37, Issue 2 symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. Robert Howse’s and Joanna Langille’s article on the Seal Products Dispute is a truly admirable piece of normative doctrinal scholarship. The authors do not hide their preferences with respect to animal welfare and the protection of seals in particular. Their propositions as to the interpretation of WTO law...
19 Aug Introduction to the Symposium: The Panorama of Informers Up Close
...we are all informers, no?: cellphones in hands, social media as our vehicles, always recording, shearing and exposing, all the while, cancelling and liking, amid the indelibility of the internet. We are delighted that four distinguished scholars and brilliant readers – Sergey Vasiliev, Saira Mohamed, Mia Swart, and Nesam McMillan — have immersed themselves into the panorama of our words. Their thoughts will follow ours, sequentially, in this symposium, and we will conclude it all with our own responses. Photo attribution: “Panorama Mesdag” by Mark A. Drumbl and Barbora Holá...04 Apr HILJ Online Symposium: Hague Peace Conference Courts v. The Universe of International Courts
[Karen J. Alter is a Professor of Political Science and Law at Northwestern University. Alter’s most recent book is The New Terrain of International Law: Courts, Politics, Rights (Princeton University Press, 2014).] This post is part of the HILJ Online Symposium: Volumes 54(2) & 55(1). Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. Suzanne Katzenstein’s article is a very welcome systematic investigation of the Hague era and post-Cold War proposals to generate international courts (“ICs”). Katzenstein puts her finger on a serious problem in the...
27 May Futureproofing Human Rights Symposium: Learning from the Nasa Indigenous Justice System to Rethink Accountability
...earlier draft of this blog. Furthermore, we would like to extend our gratitude to all the research participants who generously dedicated their time to provide their insights on the themes of this blog post. An academic article that analyses in depth the themes raised in this blog post is currently in the making. This blog is part of a seven-part symposium which was reviewed and edited by members of the IBOF Futureproofing human rights’ team: Tine Destrooper (Ghent University), Wouter Vandenhole (Antwerp University), Ben Grama (Ghent University), and Marion Sandner (Hasselt University)....04 Apr HILJ Online Symposium: Suzanne Katzenstein Responds to Karen J. Alter
[Suzanne Katzenstein is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Duke University School of Law.] This post is part of the HILJ Online Symposium: Volumes 54(2) & 55(1). Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. Thank you to Opinio Juris and the Harvard Journal of International Law for hosting this exchange and to Karen Alter for her thoughtful comments. My article’s central question is why governments create global international courts or, put more precisely, why some government attempts to create such courts succeed and other...04 Mar HILJ Symposium: Convergence, Reaction, and Translation: Human Rights in History
the American Jewish Congress, the American Association for the United Nations, the World Government Association, the editorial board of Free World, and the American Law Institute also drafted human rights declarations—all before the 1948 UDHR came into being. A few of them even predated Wells’ declaration. By 1946, the UN Secretariat had at least 12 different drafts of such international bills of human rights in its possession. The UDHR—which, for instance drew upon the ALI’s text—shared much in common with some of these early human rights documents. Others—for instance, Chancellor...
09 May New Technologies Symposium: How Law and Autonomy (Should) Interact in War and Peace
[Markus Wagner is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Wollongong. This post is part of our New Technologies and the Law in War and Peace Symposium .] The question of how law relates to technological innovation is far from new. For the most part, law has played catchup to technological developments – both in the civilian and military realm. While digital technologies are not exactly new, we are in the midst of a qualitative leap in how computational decision-making will shape our lives. Whether law merely follows technological...