Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

[Andrea K. Bjorklund is the L. Yves Fortier Chair in International Arbitration and International Commercial Law at McGill University Faculty of Law, Canada] Mr. Alschner and Ms. Tuerk’s contribution very usefully highlights three areas where international investment law and sustainable development principles may intersect: climate change, industrial policy, and corporate social responsibility. This precision is particularly valuable given the less-than-concrete nature of the idea of “sustainable development”. Two common threads running through each section are the essential participation of the host state in fostering sustainable development and the...

...to challenge regulatory efforts aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. Since these policies often impose costs on particular investors e.g. by regulating the use of land or by increasing manufacturing costs, they may expose states to investment claims under an IIA. In response, states have sought to create space for green policies in their IIAs. Some agreements include a reference to the objective of combating climate change in the preamble of the agreement. Others include climate change related exceptions into the treaty text. Some treaties also have references to multinational environmental...

[Robert Howse is the Lloyd C. Nelson Professor of International Law at NYU School of Law] When International Law Works is a wide-ranging work with many important and original claims and arguments. Particularly congenial is the approach that the real world effects of international law be examined not through narrow studies of rule “compliance” but in a manner that takes into account the importance of the moral meaning(s) of international law. Professor Cheng’s colleague Ruti Teitel and I have pleaded for such a broader approach-transcending the fact/value distinction...

[Dr Mary E. Footer is Professor of International Economic Law at the University of Notthingham, School of Law.] The relationship between international investment law and trade has been a constant, if not consistent, one throughout the history of international economic relations. Drawing on the evolution of these two areas of economic activity over the course of six decades, this relationship is examined with a view to understanding its historical and contextual antecedents. The same relationship is also explored from a contemporary perspective. On the one hand, there are...

how the book can inform the debate on international organizations, and Rachel Brewster welcomed the book’s insights on the influence of international law on national politics. Katerina’s response is here. On the final day of the symposium, Pierre Verdier asked whether the mechanism of policy diffusion would also apply in other areas of international law and policy co-ordination; Harlan Cohen reflected on the book’ conclusions and implications; and Roger raised the question about the role of courts in the diffusion process. Katerina’s final response is here. The symposium also tied...

...an interesting and well thought through contribution by Dr Ambach which provides a very useful route into this important arena of international law for both the scholar and practitioner alike. He, in my view, rightly concludes that it is time to adjust the system on international criminal justice to the ‘modern landscape of perpetrators of the worst crimes in armed conflict’. This is a proposition difficult to argue against at any level. The reticence of some States to move this area of law forward in a decisive common international endeavour...

...number of aspects regarding the definition of “aiding and abetting” differ when compared between the UN ad hoc Tribunals, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the ICC (these aspects are highlighted in further detail in the article). In conclusion, international awareness fosters that corporate actors involved in business within zones of ongoing armed conflict often fuel and exacerbate these conflicts. It is now time to adjust the system of international criminal justice to the modern landscape of perpetrators of the worst crimes in armed conflict – including corporate actors....

As we have discussed, Part I of Posner and Vermeule’s book offered broad theoretical justifications for the historical deference that courts have afforded the executive in times of emergency, and rebutted systemic arguments of civil libertarians. In Part II of their book, Posner and Vermeule apply their tradeoff thesis to specific contexts. They emphasize that they do not endorse or criticize any particular counterterrorism measure used by the Bush administration. Rather they address the larger contextual question of the need for government to make tradeoffs, affirm the historical view that...

...investment law. Obviously, there are some dangerous consequences to such an approach. Investments may be most in need of protection and the very moment that humanitarian law is triggered. Moreover, if humanitarian law displaces investment law does it also displace other subfields of law such as human rights law? Derek Jinks, among others, has argued compellingly against just such a conclusion. Ultimately, these questions merit further consideration than this brief response can allow. Finally, again as Andreas von Staden and I have argued elsewhere, there is reason to think that,...

...examples. As Ioannis Prezas acknowledges (chapter 22, 387) there is often an assumption that unilateral coercive measures have an adverse impact on the enjoyment of human rights by the populations of the targeted States.   In this context, the book under review sheds much needed light on the normalisation of unilateral coercive measures in international relations despite (or perhaps because) of the limited applicable legal framework and its political divisiveness. In relation to international human rights, the relevant chapters of the book deliver unique insights on current political debates, legal...

of brutality that one finds in the American way of war (think of the mass fire-bombings of civilian targets in World War II); God and Gold also addresses these issues from time to time (particularly when it comes to Ireland), but neither book attempts to give anything like a comprehensive account of the wrongs done by either the British or their American cousins. Excellent books have been written on these subjects and more will no doubt follow; God and Gold like Special Providence is a book about how the system...

The book was in English. The publisher was Dutch. The reviewer was a distinguished German professor. The review was published on a New York website. Beyond doubt, once a text or image go online, they become available worldwide, including France. But should that alone give jurisdiction to French courts in circumstances such as this? Does the fact that the author of the book, it turned out, retained her French nationality before going to live and work in Israel make a difference? Libel tourism – libel terrorism to some — is...