General

[Anna Hankings-Evans is a German-Ghanaian attorney with focus on foreign investments into Sub-Saharan Africa.] It was a pleasure reading Andreas Buser’s book on the development and potential transformation of International Economic Law through the engagement of Emerging Powers. The book carefully weighs the perspectives of powerful and less powerful States to dissect and challenge what has been conventionally understood as the truth. Power is indeed...

What is power? Which states have it, and which don’t? Are there some processes that accelerate its ascendancy and others that quicken its decay? Most of all, how does public international law (PIL) correspond to this concept and to these processes? In Emerging Powers and the International Order, Andreas Buser touches upon all of these questions. In the following post,...

[Congyan Cai is a Professor of International Law at Fudan University School of Law.] The landscape of international power has seen considerable realignment in the past decade, which is expected to continue in coming years. A couple of former less powerful states whose voices were silenced have increased their capability to influence international economic governance and their economic power continues to grow. In contrast, those great powers...

[Helmut Philipp Aust is a Professor of Law at the Freie Universität Berlin.] For the last few years, the world has been enthralled by the gradual withdrawal of the United States from its previous role as a key actor shaping the global economic order through multilateral institutions and based on rules of international law. Probably the trademark of the Trump administration, its slogan “America first” easily translated...

This week, we have the pleasure of hosting an exciting discussion on Andreas Buser's recent book, Emerging Powers, Global Justice and International Economic Law: Reformers of an Unjust Order? published by Springer. From the Publisher: The book assesses emerging powers’ influence on international economic law and analyses whether their rhetoric of reforming this ‘unjust’ order translates into concrete reforms. The questions at the...

Call for Papers Second call for inputs: report on the role of PMSCs in humanitarian action: Twice a year, the United Nations (UN) Office of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Working Group (WG) on the use of mercenaries issues calls for inputs to inform its thematic studies to be presented at the Human Rights Council in...

[Kelisiana Thynne is a Legal Adviser in the Advisory Services on IHL, Legal Division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This is a post in our joint blog symposium exploring the new ICRC Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention (GCIII Commentary)]. Respecting the Conventions in case of an armed conflict regularly presupposes that preparations have been made in advance (ICRC 2020 Commentary...

[Enrico Benedetto Cossidente is an Italian Army officer and legal advisor specialized in international law and security issues. He is a PhD candidate at Ghent University. He writes in his personal capacity. The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the Italian Army, the Ministry of Defense or the Italian Government. Twitter: @falleninlaw.] The...

[Konstantina Stavrou is a researcher and PhD candidate at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights in Vienna.] Introduction Seventy-five years after the initiation of the first international criminal trials for the atrocities committed amid the Second World War, the fight against impunity continues. Over recent years, core international crimes, encompassing genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression, are being perpetrated across the globe,...

[Abhishek Trivedi holds an LLM in International Law from the South Asian University, and is currently working on his PhD at the South Asian University as well.] India should focus on negotiating to save Jadhav’s life through diplomatic channels as the remedy before Islamabad High Court (IHC) and subsequently before the International Court of justice (the ICJ or the Court) and the Security Council is inadequate. India...

[Chanel Chauvet earned her Master of Laws in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. She also holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. This is a post in our joint blog symposium with ICRC's Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog exploring the new ICRC...

[Craig Martin is a Professor at Washburn University School of Law, specializing in legal constraints on the use of force and armed conflict, in both international law and comparative constitutional law. He can be found on Twitter: @craigxmartin.] It is now widely accepted that the climate change crisis is going to contribute to increasing levels of armed conflict among and within states in the coming decades....