Sari: The Status of Foreign Armed Forces Deployed in Post-Conflict Environments: A Search for Basic Principles

Aurel Sari (Univ. of Exeter - Law) has posted The Status of Foreign Armed Forces Deployed in Post-Conflict Environments: A Search for Basic Principles (in Jus Post Bellum: Mapping the Normative Foundations, Carsten Stahn, Jennifer S. Easterday & Jens Iverson eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Foreign armed forces frequently play an important part in the transition from a state of conflict to a state of peace, yet their presence more often than not is a source of controversy. Under these circumstances, we may legitimately expect the rules of international law governing the legal status of such forces to serve a dual function: the relevant rules should lay down certain general standards of behaviour and provide a framework for interaction between sending States and host States, thus injecting a measure of predictability and procedural legitimacy into an otherwise highly volatile legal and political setting. The chapter argues that two distinct concerns relating to the legal position of foreign forces arise in post-conflict situations: the effect that changes in the legal basis of their presence have on their legal status and the need to balance the principle of territorial sovereignty and the jurisdictional exemptions of foreign forces in a manner that reflects the specific features and demands of post-conflict environments. As this chapter shows, both of these two concerns point towards the need for a more contextual and dynamic understanding of the legal status of foreign forces deployed in post-conflict situations. Such an approach provides greater conceptual clarity and offers a vantage point from which the position of sending States and host States can be critically assessed.

Top 10 Sports Law Stories in 2013 & Predictions for 2014

I've authored a Top 10 Sports Law Stories of 2013 article for Sports Illustrated.  My list from 2013:

10. Chris Christie and sports betting in NJ
9. NHL concussion litigation and fighting
8. Jonathan Martin and the forthcoming Ted Wells Report
7. Lance Armstrong admits to doping and hit with lawsuits
6. NFL reaches proposed settlement in Concussion Litigation, but some retired players say no
5. Jameis Winston cleared in rape investigation, but civil lawsuits may follow
4. New Legal Strategy in Biogenesis case, but A-Rod fights back
3. Ed O'Bannon's class certified, setting table for historic trial
2. Aaron Hernandez charged with murder
1. Boston Marathon bombing

Hope you have a chance to check out my analysis and predictions.

New Issue: Law and Development Review

The latest issue of Law and Development Review (Vol. 6, no. 2, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Special Issue: Integrating Africa into the World Economy through International Economic Law
• James Thuo Gathii, Tomer Broude, & Laurence Boulle, Integrating Africa into the World Economy through International Economic Law: An Introduction
• Olabisi Delebayo Akinkugbe, The Dilemma of Public–Private Partnerships as a Vehicle for the Provision of Regional Transport Infrastructure Development in Africa
• Senai W. Andemariam, The Missed and Missing Benefits to Africa in the Absence of Harmonized International Regulation of Traditional Medicinal Knowledge
• Lorand Bartels, Making WTO Dispute Settlement Work for African Countries: An Evaluation of Current Proposals for Reforming the DSU
• Ciaran Cross & Christian Schliemann-Radbruch, When Investment Arbitration Curbs Domestic Regulatory Space: Consistent Solutions through Amicus Curiae Submissions by Regional Organisations
• Isabelle Deschamps, Assessing the Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires’s Contributions to Poverty Reduction in Africa: A Grounded Outlook
• Malebakeng Forere, Revisiting African States Participation in the WTO Dispute Settlement through Intra-Africa RTA Dispute Settlement
• Dennis Ndonga, Increasing Africa’s Share of Vertical Investments through Single Window Systems
• Priscilla Schwartz, Capitalism, International Investment Law and the Development Conundrum
• Regis Y Simo, Integrating African Markets into the Global Exchange of Services: A Central African Perspective

Head Injuries and Baseball

I have a short piece in the December Sports Litigation Alert, called Head Injuries and Baseball. It elaborates on an exchange between Nathaniel and me on this post regarding what baseball can do about concussions.

Rooney Rule

Check out the third item ("My Pal the Tortoise") and footnote 7. If this is really how teams operate--and I have no doubt it is--then the Rooney Rule is a joke.

New Issue: World Politics

The latest issue of World Politics (Vol. 66, no. 1, January 2014) is out. Contents include:

• Symposium: The Regime for International Investment—Foreign Direct Investment, Bilateral Investment Treaties, and Trade Agreements
• Helen V. Milner, Introduction: The Global Economy, FDI, and the Regime for Investment
• Beth A. Simmons, Bargaining over BITs, Arbitrating Awards: The Regime for Protection and Promotion of International Investment
• Todd Allee & Clint Peinhardt, Evaluating Three Explanations for the Design of Bilateral Investment Treaties
• Tim Büthe & Helen V. Milner, Foreign Direct Investment and Institutional Diversity in Trade Agreements: Credibility, Commitment, and Economic Flows in the Developing World, 1971–2007
• Research Articles
• Daniel W. Drezner, The System Worked: Global Economic Governance during the Great Recession

Call for Papers: Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law Third Annual Conference

The Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law has issued a call for papers for its third annual conference, which will take place May 10-11, 2014, at the University of Cambridge. The theme is "Stepping Away from the State: Universality and Cosmopolitanism in International and Comparative Law." Here's the call:

Stepping Away from the State:

Universality and Cosmopolitanism in International and Comparative Law

Call for Papers

The Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law (CJICL) will hold its Third Annual Conference on 10–11 May 2014 at the St John’s College Divinity School, University of Cambridge.

This conference will explore approaches that question the traditional state-centric view of international and comparative law. The idea of universality suggests that international law applies equally and indiscriminately across domestic legal systems, and within sub-systems of international law itself. Cosmopolitanism conceives of the world as a single entity, with resonances between people irrespective of their location, nationality and culture, and asks how legal actors can access legal regimes beyond their state’s domestic framework.

The CJICL welcomes a wide variety of proposals in the fields of comparative and international law (both public and private) that encompass empirical approaches, theoretical discussions and perspectives from practice. Research topics related to the theme of this conference include (but are not limited to):

• The universality of international law as a moral principle, especially the interaction between such a principle and the consensual theory of international law;
• The idea of a global public law that recognises the legal personality of actors other than states, including international organisations, individuals, corporations and NGOs;
• The extent to which international law is a cohesive corpus as opposed to a fragmented collection of related but fundamentally separate legal regimes;
• Theoretical perspectives on cosmopolitanism and comparative law methodology;
• Historical perspectives on citizenship, including the rights and duties of citizens in individual jurisdictions;
• Analysis of concrete examples of cosmopolitanism in private law institutions, including contracts and trusts;
• The growth of international arbitration as an instrument of cosmopolitanism; and
• Dialogues between courts in different jurisdictions as expressions of universality and/or cosmopolitanism.

Abstract submissions must be no longer than 300 words in length and should be accompanied by a brief biography or CV. The closing date for submissions is 26 January 2014. Successful applicants will be informed by 10 February 2014 and must submit their papers by 27 April 2014. Applications should be submitted at www.cjicl.org.uk/conference.

Conference papers should be no longer than 10,000 words, including footnotes. A selection of papers will be considered for publication in a special issue of the CJICL (volume 3 issue 4) and abstracts should be submitted on the basis that the subsequent paper will be available for publication.

General registration for the conference will open in mid February 2013 on our website, www.cjicl.org.uk. Numbers are limited and early registration is highly recommended.

Athlete speech and hate speech

Mike passed along this story about French soccer player Nicolas Anelka, who made a possibly anti-Semitic neo-Nazi salute after scoring a goal in an EPL game yesterday. Anelka (who converted to Islam and whose parents emigrated to France from Marinique) made the "quenelle" signal, in which the right hand is pointed downward and the left hand grasps the right shoulder. The signal, which was created by a controversial French comedian, is becoming popular among neo-Nazis and anti-Semites in France, where the Nazi salute is banned under strict hate-speech laws. The signal sort of looks like an inverted Nazi salute, but is unknown outside of France and thus allows people to express themselves without anyone out-of-the-known understanding what was being said; there have been stories and photos of people making the gesture outside Auschwitz and at the Western Wall. Anelka denies that he was doing the gesture as a racist or anti-Semitic statement and claims to be "gobsmacked" by the international uproar he has caused; he insists the gesture is "anti-system" (which I assume means anti-establishment). The English Football Association has opened an investigation.

The reaction is doubly intense here, as compared to if a U.S. athlete had done this after scoring a touchdown or hitting a home run. Europe's approach to hate speech is much different than ours (although the First Amendment would not be in play in any event). More importantly, Europe is especially sensitive to anti-Semitic and Nazi speech, given its history.

On a different part of this, on-field athlete speech is a different and interesting issue, one I hope to  examine if/when I get back to writing about the sport/speech connection. Expression--verbal and physical--is endemic to what athletes do on the field. Content aside, it is a nice question how much room sports teams and leagues should leave the players to express themselves, especially on what must be understood as political matters (even if hateful ones).

Update 12/30: The plot thickens and comes across the pond. French NBA players Tony Parker and Boris Diaw posed with the comedian who started all this while making this gesture; the photos, which are a few years old, hit the interwebs on Sunday. Parker apologized, saying he saw the gesture as part of a comedy act and only recently learned about its anti-Semitic connotations. The Simon Wiesenthal Center asked that he make a further statement, in French, directed to French Jews.

Anelka has promised not to make the gesture again.

Mercurio & Ni: Science and Technology in International Economic Law: Balancing Competing Interests

Bryan Mercurio (Chinese Univ of Hong Kong - Law) & Kuei-Jung Ni (National Chiao Tung Univ. - Law) have published Science and Technology in International Economic Law: Balancing Competing Interests (Routledge 2014). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

Science and technology plays an increasingly important role in the continued development of international economic law. This book brings together well-known and rising scholars to explore the status and interaction of science, technology and international economic law. The book reviews the place of science and technology in the development of international economic law with a view to ensure a balance between the promotion of trade and investment liberalisation and decision-making based on a sound scientific process without hampering technological development.

New Volume: Recueil des Cours

Volume 365 of the Recueil des Cours, Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law is out. Contents include:

• Volume 365
• James Crawford, Chance, Order, Change: The Course of International Law, General Course on Public International Law

New Volume: Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law

The latest volume of the Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law (2013) is out. Contents include:

• Part I (Thematic Part): New Values after Lisbon
• Catherine Barnard, Social Europe after Lisbon: Putting the ‘Social’ into the ‘Market Economy’
• Eva Nanopoulos, The Implementation of Security Council Resolutions in the European Union Revisited
• Jan Klabbers, On Myths and Miracles: The EU and Its Possible Accession to the ECHR
• Ottavio Quirico, The International Responsibility of the European Union: a Basic Interpretive Pattern
• Balázs Fekete, Does the Emperor Really Have New Clothes? A Critical Assessment of the Post-Lisbon Regime of Division of Competences
• Petra Lea Láncos, From the Principle of Linguistic Diversity to Enforceable Language Rights in the European Union
• Part II Forum: The Sólyom Case
• Ernő Várnay, Hungary versus Slovakia – EU Membership versus Sovereign Statehood
• Petra Bárd, Is László Sólyom a European Citizen? Hungary versus Slovak Republic
• Part III Developments in International Law
• Tamas Vince Ádány, International Law at the European Court of Justice A Self-Contained Regime or an Escher Triangle
• László Blutman, Treaty Interpretation by Relying upon Other International Legal Norms
• Erzsébet Kardos Kaponyi, International Discussions on the Progressive Realization of the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation
• Adrienne Komanovics, Old-Age Discrimination: The Age-Blindness of International Human Rights Law
• Sándor Szemesi, Questions of Environmental Protection in the Practice of the European Court of Human Rights
• Marcel Szabó, The Case of Franz Joseph and Lajos Kossuth before the English Court of Chancery

New Issue: Chinese Journal of International Law

The latest issue of the Chinese Journal of International Law (Vol. 12, no. 4, December 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Articles
• Ralph Wilde, Human Rights Beyond Borders at the World Court: The Significance of the International Court of Justice's Jurisprudence on the Extraterritorial Application of International Human Rights Law Treaties
• José Manuel Cortés Martín, The Responsibility of Members Due to Wrongful Acts of International Organizations
• Henry Hailong Jia, Entangled Relationship between Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement and Certain Other WTO Provisions
• Comments
• Jianjun Gao, The Responsibilities and Obligations of the Sponsoring States Advisory Opinion
• Erika de Wet, From Kadi to Nada: Judicial Techniques Favouring Human Rights over United Nations Security Council Sanctions
• Jun Zhao, Developed Countries' Cap-and-Trade Border Measures: China's Possible Reactions

Merry Christmas from Wise Law

A Merry Christmas to readers, colleagues and clients from all of us at Wise Law Office.

We will be taking our usual seasonal hiatus.   Our office will be closed until January 2nd and our daily 140 Law postings on Wise Law Blog will also resume in the new year.

I might drop in to write the occasional blog post over the break as well, if I am inclined.  And of course, there will be Clawbie nominations later in the week...

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net

Sheeran & Rodley: Routledge Handbook of International Human Rights Law

Scott Sheeran (Univ. of Essex - Law) & Nigel Rodley (Univ. of Essex - Law) have published Routledge Handbook of International Human Rights Law (Routledge 2013). The table of contents is here. Here's the abstract:

The Routledge Handbook of International Human Rights Law provides the definitive global survey of the discipline of international human rights law. Each chapter is written by a leading expert and provides a contemporary overview of a significant area within the field.

As well as covering topics integral to the theory and practice of international human rights law the volume offers a broader perspective though examinations of the ways in which human rights law interacts with other legal regimes and other international institutions, and by addressing the current and future challenges facing human rights.

This highly topical collection of specially commissioned papers is split into four sections:

• The nature and evolution of international human rights law discussing the origins, theory and practice of the discipline.
• Interaction of human rights with other key regimes and bodies including the interaction of the discipline with international economic law, international humanitarian law, and development, as well as other legal regimes.
• Evolution and prospects of regional approaches to human rights discussing the systems of Europe, the Americas, Africa and South East Asia, and their relationship to the United Nations treaty bodies.
• Key contemporary challenges including non-State actors, religion and human rights, counter-terrorism, and enforcement and remedies.

Ginsburg: Political Constraints on International Courts

Tom Ginsburg (Univ. of Chicago - Law) has posted Political Constraints on International Courts (in The Oxford Handbook of International Adjudication, Cesare Romano, Karen Alter, & Yuval Shany eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

The complicated relationship between politics and law has long been a central concern among international lawyers. The project of international law has, for more than a century, sought to construct a zone for autonomous legal decision-making, immune from political considerations, to solve international disputes. Yet the context of international adjudication is, almost by definition, an intensely political one, and the efficacy of international law requires some consideration of that context. International disputes frequently involve high stakes, and so the dream of autonomous law providing technically correct solutions to resolve problems has always confronted the hard realities of international politics.

Heller: 'A Stick to Hit the Accused with': The Legal Recharacterization of Facts Under Regulation 55

Kevin Jon Heller (SOAS, Univ. of London - Law) has posted 'A Stick to Hit the Accused with': The Legal Recharacterization of Facts Under Regulation 55 (in The Law and Practice of the International Criminal Court: A Critical Account of Challenges and Achievements, Carsten Stahn et al. eds., forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Regulation 55 was one of 126 regulations adopted by the judges of the International Criminal Court on 26 May 2004. It permits a Chamber to legally recharacterize the facts contained in the prosecution’s Document Containing the Charges, subject to certain important procedural constraints. This Chapter provides a comprehensive critique of Regulation 55, which has already had a significant impact on at least three cases: Lubanga, Bemba, and Katanga. Section I argues that the judges’ adoption of Regulation 55 was ultra vires, because the Regulation does not involve a ‘routine function’ of the Court and is inconsistent with the Rome Statute’s procedures for amending charges. Section II explains why, contrary to the practice of the Pre-Trial Chamber and Trial Chamber, Regulation 55 cannot be applied either prior to trial or after trial has ended. Finally, Section III demonstrates that Pre-Trial Chamber and Trial Chamber have consistently applied Regulation 55 in ways that violate both prosecutorial independence and the accused’s right to a fair trial.

Liivoja & Petman: International Law-making: Essays in Honour of Jan Klabbers

Rain Liivoja (Univ. of Melbourne - Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law) & Jarna Petman (Univ. of Helsinki - Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights) have published International Law-making: Essays in Honour of Jan Klabbers (Routledge 2013). Contents include:

• Rain Liivoja & Jarna Petman, Preface
• Eyal Benvenisti, Legislating for Humanity: May states compel others to promote global interests?
• Martti Koskenniemi, Declaratory Legislation: Towards a geneology of neoliberal legalism
• Friedrich Kratochwil, Legalism and the 'Dark' Side of Global Governance
• Gianluigi Palombella, Global Legalisation and its Discontents
• Joost Pauwelyn, Ramses A. Wessel & Jan Wouters, Informal International Law as Presumptive Law: Exploring new modes of law-making
• Wouter Werner, Mankind's Territory and the Limits of International Law-making
• Inger Österdahl, (International) Law!
• Kaarlo Tuori, Perspective in Law
• Rene Uruena, Law-making through Comparative International Law? Rethinking the role of domestic law in the international legal system
• Katja Creutz, International Responsibility and Problematic Law-making
• Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Law-making and International Environmental Law: The legal character of decisions of conferences of the parties
• Panos Kautrakos, In Search of a Voice: EU law constraints on member states in international law-making
• Päivi Leino, 'In Principle the Full Review': What justice for Mr Kadi?
• Geir Ulfstein, Law-making by Human Rights Treaty Bodies
• Enzo Cannizzaro, Peremptory Law-making
• James E. Hickley Jr., Law-making and the Law of the Sea: The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
• Marja Lehto, Slowly but Surely? The challenge of the responsibility to protect
• Rain Liivoja, Treaties, Custom and Universal Justisdiction
• Jarna Petman, Making the Right Choice: Constructing rules for antiterrorist operations

Call for Papers: Property and Investment in Contemporary Jus Post Bellum: Clarifying Norms, Principles and Practices

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University has issued a call for papers for a seminar on "Property and Investment in Contemporary Jus Post Bellum: Clarifying Norms, Principles and Practices," to take place June 12–13, 2014, in The Hague. The call is here.

Call for Papers: Peacebuilding and Environmental Damage in Contemporary Jus Post Bellum: Clarifying Norms, Principles and Practices

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University has issued a call for papers for a seminar on "Peacebuilding and Environmental Damage in Contemporary Jus Post Bellum: Clarifying Norms, Principles and Practices," to take place June 11–12, 2014, in The Hague. The call is here.

Call for Submissions: Refugee Law and International Criminal Justice

The Journal of International Criminal Justice has issued a call for submissions for a special issue on "Refugee Law and International Criminal Justice." Here's the call:

Special Issue: Refugee Law and International Criminal Justice

Deadline for abstract submission: 28 February, 2014

The Journal of International Criminal Justice (JICJ) invites submissions for a Special Issue provisionally titled ‘The Interaction between Refugee/Migration Law and International Criminal/Humanitarian Law' to be co-edited by Fannie Lafontaine, Associate Professor, Law Faculty, Laval University, Member, Board of Editors, JICJ; Laurel Baig, Appeals Counsel, ICTY, Co-Chair, Editorial Committee, JICJ; and Joseph Rikhof, Part-Time Professor, Law Faculty, University of Ottawa.

While on the surface it may appear that refugee/migration law and international humanitarian/criminal law are distinct legal disciplines, a more in-depth examination shows that there have been a number of areas of cross-fertilization between these areas of law with varying results. The Special Issue will provide an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to explore the evolution of the various intersections between refugee and migration law on one hand and international humanitarian and criminal law on the other.

We will focus, for example, on examining the questions raised at the intersections of these areas of law. The wording of four regional refugee instruments — the 1966 Bangkok Principles on Status and Treatment of Refugees, the 1969 Convention on the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa and the 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees — extend the definition of ‘refugee’ beyond what is contained in the 1951 Refugee Convention, and explicitly invite the consideration of international humanitarian/criminal law. The reference to armed conflict in the context of subsidiary protection in the European Qualification Directive indicates a similar approach. In a similar vein, the UNHCR has commissioned a number of papers as part of its Legal and Protection Policy Research Series with mandate to include notions of armed conflict, foreign aggression and other terms used in these four regional instruments as well as related concepts such as forced displacement or persecution.

International humanitarian/criminal law has played a major role in the development of the definition of who should be excluded from the protections of the Refugee Convention. Naturally, international criminal law has been influential in determining if a refugee claimant meets the requirements of Article 1F(a), which permits exclusion if the claimant ‘has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity, as defined in the international instruments drawn up to make provision in respect of such crimes’. National courts and tribunals have tended to adhere to the parameters of the international crimes mentioned in Article 1F(a), especially regarding crimes against humanity, while also referring to international instruments and jurisprudence to circumscribe the defences of superior orders and duress. Recent domestic jurisprudence, notably at the highest levels in the UK and Canada, has also turned to international sources to determine the legal definition of complicity for exclusionary purposes. Courts have also looked to international humanitarian/criminal law to determine whether a claimant should be excluded pursuant to Article 1F(c) on the basis that he has ‘been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations’.

National courts have considered that most such ‘acts’ have been in the nature of human rights violations or terrorist activities. In some jurisdictions, such as the UK and Ireland, however, activities against international peacekeepers acting pursuant to a mandate of the UN Nations Security Council were brought within the parameters of this provision. Furthermore, international humanitarian/criminal law has also proven to be influential in relation to the issue of conscientious objectors.

International criminal law and international refugee law interact in a number of other ways, all of which raise issues related to the possible fragmentation of international law and the need for coherence while taking into account the different purposes of each legal regime: the post exclusion phase and its relationship with extradition and prosecution, including with the obligation aut dedere aut judicare; the consequences on exclusion of an acquittal or of the end of a served sentence following a criminal trial in a domestic or international court; the possible asylum claims of defendants or witnesses in international courts’ host states; and so on.

Some of the key questions to explore in this regard include:

• Is recourse to international humanitarian or criminal law an appropriate approach in defining a refugee or providing subsidiary protection?
• Are all aspects of international criminal and humanitarian law desirable for transposition into refugee law?
• What are the parameters of exclusion and how far can reliance on international humanitarian or criminal law help or hinder the proper development of the concepts contained in these provisions?
• Could international criminal or humanitarian law provide answers to the dilemma of the inability of states to remove a person because of non-refoulement obligations or human rights concerns?
• Are there jurisprudential or policy trends in refugee or migration law which could assist international humanitarian or criminal law?
• To what extent is it appropriate for international humanitarian/criminal law concerning forcible displacement to rely on refugee/migration law?
• Do recent international criminal law decisions raise concerns for refugee agencies working in the field?

The editors welcome submission of abstracts not exceeding 400 words on any of the themes described above, or related areas of interest, on or before 28 February 2014, by email, at jicj@geneva-academy.ch. The abstract should contain the author’s name, home institution, and the title of the proposed paper. Please also send a current CV.

After the abstracts have been reviewed, in March we will invite a number contributors to submit full papers of no more than 9,000 words (including an abstract and all footnotes) by 1 June 2014. All papers will be subject to the JICJ's double blind peer-review policy.

It is expected the Special Issue will be published as the fifth issue of the Journal in December 2014.

For questions, further information, including on the Journal's stylesheet please contact the Executive Editor at jicj@geneva-academy.ch.

New Issue: Journal of World Investment & Trade

The latest issue of the Journal of World Investment & Trade (Vol. 14, no. 6, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Robert Ginsburg, Political Risk Insurance and Bilateral Investment Treaties: Making the Connection
• Tarcisio Gazzini & Attila Tanzi, Handle with care: Umbrella clauses and MFN treatment in investment arbitration
• Alphanso Williams & William A. Kerr, Investment and Trade in Biofuels: Will there be a Market in the US for Developing Country Ethanol?
• Charles B. Rosenberg & Peter D. Fox, Leveraging the Trade Preference Program to Secure a State’s Compliance with International Law Obligations
• Srikanth Hariharan, Distinction between Treaty and Contract The Principle of Proportionality in State Contractual Actions in Investment Arbitration

New Issue: Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen

The latest issue of Zeitschrift für Internationale Beziehungen (Vol. 20, no. 2, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Aufsätze
• Sophie Eisentraut, Autokratien, Demokratien und die Legitimität internationaler Organisationen: Eine vergleichende Inhaltsanalyse staatlicher Legitimationsanforderung an die UN-Generalversammlung
• Konstanze Jüngling, Großmächtige Worte?: Zur Wirkung verbaler Menschenrechtskritik auf Russland im Falle des Grosny-Ultimatums
• Literaturbericht
• Philipp Brugger, Andreas Hasenclever, & Lukas Kasten, Vertrauen lohnt sich: Über Gegenstand und Potential eines vernachlässigten Konzepts in den Internationalen Beziehungen
• Forum
• Maximilian Terhalle, Kritische Anmerkungen zur „Politisierung internationaler Institutionen“
• Mathias Albert & Michael Zürn, Über doppelte Identitäten: Ein Plädoyer für das Publizieren auch auf Deutsch

New Issue: Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht

The latest issue of the Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (Vol. 73, no. 4, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Abhandlungen
• Diane A. Desierto & Colin E. Gillespie, Evolutive interpretation and subsequent practice: Interpretive communities and process in the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR
• Ulf Linderfalk, The principles of rational decision-making: As applied to the indentification of normative conflicts in international law
• Cameron A. Miles, The origins of the law of provisional measures before international courts and tribunals

140 Law - Legal Headlines for Monday, December 23, 2013

Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter for Monday, December 23, 2013:

• Would you go to law school if you had a do-over? 40% of young lawyers in this survey said no
• Supreme Court prostitution decision: 5 questions
• Group sues California over new transgender law - Times-Standard Online
• New York City set to ban e-cigarettes in public places
• State AG joins prosecutors’ call for SC supreme court justice to be recused from criminal cases
• Tom Cruise settles libel suit over claims he ‘abandoned’ his daughter
• ‘A blow to equality’: Tories look to defang ruling after court strikes down prostitution laws
• Wisconsin Bar Association task force report on challenges facing new lawyers
• Supreme Court strikes down prostitution laws (With Video)
• Get strategic or risk getting lost (Lawyers Weekly )
• Supreme Court Rules for Bedford in prostitution ruling

- Elysia Cherry, Legal Assistant 

Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net

New Issue: Cuadernos de Derecho Transnacional

The latest issue of Cuadernos de Derecho Transnacional (Vol. 5, no. 2, October 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Estudios
• Angelo Davì &Alessandra Zanobetti, Il nuovo diritto internazionale privato delle successioni nell’unione Europea
• Lorenzo Álvarez de Toledo Quintana, La cuestión previa de la “existencia de matrimonio” en el proceso de divorcio con elemento extranjero
• Sergio Cámara Lapuente, ¿De verdad puede controlarse el precio de los contratos mediante la normativa de cláusulas abusivas? : De la STJUE de 3 junio 2010 (Caja de Madrid, C-484/08) y su impacto aparente y real en la jurisprudencia española a la STS (pleno) de 9 mayo 2013 sobr
• Beatriz Campuzano Díaz, La politica legislativa de la UE en DIPr de familia. Una valoración de conjunto
• María Asunción Cebrián Salvat, Daños causados por un Estado en la comisión de crímenes de guerra fuera de su territorio inmunidad de jurisdicción, competencia judicial internacional y tutela judicial efectiva
• Ornella Feraci, La nuova disciplina europea della competenza giurisdizionale in materia di successioni mortis causa
• Ángel García Vidal, El comercio paralelo de medicamentos
• Miguel Gómez Jene, La responsabilidad civil del árbitro: cuestiones de derecho internacional privado
• Raúl Lafuente Sánchez, Hacia un sistema unitario europeo en materia de ley aplicable a las sucesiones internacionales
• Inmaculada Llorente San Segundo, La adaptación de la normativa reguladora del derecho de desistimiento a las exigencias de la directiva 2011/83/UE sobre derechos de los consumidore
• Carolina Macho Gómez, Los ADR «alternative dispute resolution» en el comercio internacional
• Helena Mota, El ámbito de aplicación material y la ley aplicable en la propuesta de Reglamento Roma IV: algunos problemas y omisiones
• Juan Jorge Piernas López, La libre circulación de mercancías entre la Unión Europea y Turquía. Algunas consideraciones a propósito de la aplicación del principio de reconocimiento mutuo
• Luis Antonio Velasco San Pedro, La propuesta de reglamento de compraventa europea: cuestiones generales, en especial su ámbito de aplicación
• Alfonso Ybarra Bores, El sistema de notificaciones en la Unión Europea en el marco del Reglamento 1393/2007 y su aplicación jurisprudencial
• Pablo Zapatero Miguel, Long-term trends in World Bank rule-based supervision: overcoming the yes-men culture
• Pablo Zapatero Miguel, Made on Earth: environmental externalities of global supply chains
• Varia
• María Jesús Elvira Benayas, Tratamiento de la aplicación facultativa del Reglamento 1206/2001 sobre obtención de prueba en la UE
• Laura García Álvarez, Daños privados por contaminación en el tráfico externo: a propósito del caso Akpan vs. Shell (Nigeria)
• Carla Gulotta, The first two decisions of the European Court of Justice on the law applicable to employment contracts
• Mónica Herranz Ballesteros, Conflicto de jurisdicciones y declinación de la competencia: los asuntos Honeywell y Spanair
• Rosa Miquel Sala, Transformación transfronteriza: exigencias para el estado miembro de acogida Comentario a la stjue c-378/10 (vale építési kft)
• Miguel Unceta Laborda, Principios de Unidroit e ilicitud del contrato internacional

New Issue: Archiv des Völkerrechts

The latest issue of Archiv des Völkerrechts (Vol. 51, no. 3, September 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Abhandlungen
• Roman Kwiecien, On some contemporary challenges to statehood in the international law between Lotus and global administrative law
• Antje v. Ungern-Sternberg, Die Konsensmethode des EGMR: Eine kritische Bewertung mit Blick auf das völkerrechtliche Konsens- und das innerstaatliche Demokratieprinzip
• Björnstjern Baade, Eine "Charta für Kriminelle?": Zur demokratietheoretischen Kritik am EGMR und dem aktiven Wahlrecht von Strafgefangenen
• Beitrag
• Patrick Abel, Menschenrechtsschutz und Individualbeschwerdeverfahren: Ein regionaler Vergleich aus historischer, normativer und faktischer Perspektive

New Issue: Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Comercial Internacional

The inaugural issue of the Revista Latinoamericana de Derecho Comercial Internacional/Latin American Journal of International Trade Law (Vol. 1, no. 2, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Artículos
• Graham Cook, Razonabilidad en el derecho de la OMC
• Jan Wouters, Bregt Natens & David D’Hollander, Relaciones entre Brasil y la Unión Europea en la Organización Mundial del Comercio: el uso de la solución de controversias como influencia
• Vera Thorstensen, Daniel Ramos, Carolina Muller & Fernanda Bertolaccini, Economías de mercado y de no mercado en la OMC: El caso híbrido de China
• Natividad Martínez Aguilar, Los incidentes en el proceso de revisión por un panel binacional del artículo 1904 del Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte
• Attila Tanzi, ¿Se reduce la distancia entre el Derecho Internacional de Inversión y los Derechos Humanos en el Arbitraje Internacional de Inversión?
• Manuel Conthe & Antonio Delgado, ¿Podría la remisión corregir las ineficiencias de anulaciones de laudos del CIADI?

New Issue: Revista de Derecho Económico Internacional

The latest issue of the Revista de Derecho Económico Internacional (Vol. 4, no. 1, December 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Artículos académicos
• María Fernanda Gómez, Cambio climático y ajustes fiscales en frontera: análisis jurídico y viabilidad institucional
• Yetzy Villarroel, Capacidades estratégicas de la sub-región andina para contrarrestar la dependencia en el caso alimentario
• Juan Antonio Gaviria, Una propuesta de expansión del sistema de solución de controversias de la OMC como contrapeso a la tendencia creciente de los tratados de comercio preferencial
• Comentarios
• Hugo Quiñones Pescador, Comentario sobre China – Aparatos de rayos X, Informe del Grupo Especial
• José Manuel Vargas Menchaca, Comentario sobre China – Derechos compensatorios y antidumping sobre el acero magnético laminado plano de grano orientado procedente de los Estados Unidos (GOES), Informes del Grupo Especial y del Órgano de Apelación
• Yahir Acosta, Comentario sobre Estados Unidos – EPO (COOL), Informes del Órgano de Apelación

If Facebook’s Zuckerberg Was A Sports Fan What Would He Do With His Billions In Charity?

I am not the one to tell someone how to spend his or her money. But if it is acceptable to dream about winning the lotto, it’s still OK to imagine a movie on how a nerdy Harvard dropout became the richest youngster in the world, and then had a sports epiphany. If done well, it could top Adam Sandler’s golf dreams in Happy Gilmore. So in the most unusual of dreams, and without a man-crush, and like most good comedies, there is a touch of reality.

The reality is that billionaire Zuckerberg is so rich he has a tax bill bigger than many city budgets. He has the acumen to say something like, “OK, I am not going to use my cash to pay the IRS. It hurts at a visceral level to do that – and I have choices.”  Rather, SEC filings reveal a complex transaction where he will take advantage of Facebook’s doubling in stock price since January 2013 to pay those taxes and donate to education, including the local school district around Facebook’s headquarters.  His wife is a teacher and influenced him to teach as well.

The plan is that he will exercise his options on 60 million shares, sell 41.35 million of them to pay capital gains taxes he will have on the transaction. He had the option to buy at – get this – 6 cents a share. That will net him about $1 billion.  Then by donating about 18 million shares ($990 million in value) to a nonprofit, he can save the same amount in taxes – i.e. a little-known dollar-for-dollar tax benefit under a certain adjusted gross income threshold.

But what if his passion was for sports, not teaching? Or why not a passion that weds the two? My movie (which I am writing and is already copyright protected) has him playing touch football, getting knocked unconscious, having a concussion and then having the following epiphany:

“I am providing a matching grant to the NFL, NBA, and MLB and their respective players associations if they amend their collective bargaining agreements (“CBAs”) to mandate two items noted below.

First, 10% of the player salaries will be allocated to certain education-related designated charities designed to equalize opportunities. Many inner city and Appalachian-like rural schools are severely under-resourced compared to suburban schools, with teachers buying materials from their own pockets without comparable technology.

Second, to the maximum extent permitted by ERISA laws, player salaries over a certain multi-million dollar threshold are placed in a trust fund or a vetted deferred compensation plan. That appears to be the most immediate way to reverse the sad statistic that approximately 60% of the NBA players file for bankruptcy protection after retirement. That way, the CBA can protect the athletes from themselves, and redirect their futures away from being an impending lost resource and into a future family and community asset. Hence, a burgeoning class of New Age Athletes.

These provisions are legal because the players have to agree to it, so it is voluntary. It is also likely immune from any antitrust concerns of third-party contractors who provide financial services to the players or the leagues because the clauses fall within the well-established nonstatutory labor exemptions for collectively bargained items.

Sometimes dreams come true. Even business plans start with imagination – a vision of what can be, not what already is, a reality.

Symposium: Toward a Multipolar Administrative Law – A Theoretical Perspective

A symposium on "Toward a Multipolar Administrative Law – A Theoretical Perspective," organized by the Jean Monnet Center of the New York University School of Law and the Institute for Research on Public Administration, took place on September 9-10, 2012. A selection of the papers has been posted here.

Call for Submissions: Journal of Arbitration and Intellectual Property Law

A call for submissions has been issued for the inaugural issue of the Journal of Arbitration and Intellectual Property Law. Here's the call:

The Journal of Arbitration and Intellectual Property Law is a tri-annual academic journal, published online, that seeks to provide an international forum for the publication of articles in the field of Arbitration and Intellectual property Rights.

The Journal is currently soliciting submissions for Volume I, Issue 1, which will be published in February 2014.

The submission deadline for Volume I, Issue 1 is December 25 2013.

We welcome submissions from academicians, practitioners, students, researchers and experts from within the legal community. We have a strong preference for articles that assert and defend a well-reasoned position.

We welcome students to contribute their write-ups in the form of Long Articles, Short Articles, Case Comments, Legislative Comments, and Book Reviews.

The submissions should be well-researched and involve critical analyses of domestic or international legal issues/developments that are relevant and contemporary. Authors should also strike a balance between being crisp yet comprehensive.

Green: Rethinking Private Authority: Agents and Entrepreneurs in Global Environmental Governance

Jessica F. Green (Case Western Reserve Univ. - Political Science) has published Rethinking Private Authority: Agents and Entrepreneurs in Global Environmental Governance (Princeton Univ. Press 2013). Here's the abstract:

Rethinking Private Authority examines the role of non-state actors in global environmental politics, arguing that a fuller understanding of their role requires a new way of conceptualizing private authority. Jessica Green identifies two distinct forms of private authority--one in which states delegate authority to private actors, and another in which entrepreneurial actors generate their own rules, persuading others to adopt them.

Drawing on a wealth of empirical evidence spanning a century of environmental rule making, Green shows how the delegation of authority to private actors has played a small but consistent role in multilateral environmental agreements over the past fifty years, largely in the area of treaty implementation. This contrasts with entrepreneurial authority, where most private environmental rules have been created in the past two decades. Green traces how this dynamic and fast-growing form of private authority is becoming increasingly common in areas ranging from organic food to green building practices to sustainable tourism. She persuasively argues that the configuration of state preferences and the existing institutional landscape are paramount to explaining why private authority emerges and assumes the form that it does. In-depth cases on climate change provide evidence for her arguments.

Groundbreaking in scope, Rethinking Private Authority demonstrates that authority in world politics is diffused across multiple levels and diverse actors, and it offers a more complete picture of how private actors are helping to shape our response to today's most pressing environmental problems

New Issue: Journal of International Law and Diplomacy

The latest issue of the Journal of International Law and Diplomacy (Vol. 111, no. 4, March 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Kohki Abe, Human Rights-ization of International Law: A Critical Analysis of the "Ethical Turn"
• Tetsuya Nakano, Reservations to Human Rights Treaties
• Hiromi Sato, The Theory of Joint Criminal Enterprise and Customary International Law
• Donald McRae, The Interrelationship of Codification and Progressive Development in the Work of the International Law Commission

140 Law - Legal Headlines for Friday, December 20, 2013

Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter for Friday, December 20, 2013:

• How Long Can Cloud Servers Hold Off Hackers? Not as Long as You Think
• Ashley Smith inquest: Death a homicide, jury rules
• French Veil Ban Goes to European Court of Human Rights
• Rolling out law practice management software at Akin Gump (video)
• Federal judge rules Detroit bankruptcy deal "too generous" towards banks
• Accused campus rapists are using US anti-discrimination law to challenge investigations
• University of Kansas School of Law censured, fined for ‘willful’ accrediting violations
• Crack-smoking Toronto mayor offers some Christmas advice: Women love money
• Appeal court upholds decision that Norval Morrisseau painting is authentic
• BP oil spill engineer obstructed justice by deleting text messages
• Homicide numbers down across Canada in 2012: StatsCan
• Legal hiring outlook hopeful for 2014
• Calif. Bill Would Require 'Kill Switch' For Smartphones
• 2013: Number of US states permitting gay marriage doubled from 8 plus DC to 17 states plus DC.
• Ontario revamps public access to court documents
• New Mexico becomes 17th US state to back gay marriage
• Obama commutes unduly harsh sentences for 8 drug convictions
• Supreme Court of Canada rules against police practice of having lawyers help cops prep notes - CTV News
• Supreme Court of Canada to rule on prostitution laws Friday
• Ashley Smith: Verdict a chance to rethink how prisoners with mental illness are dealt with
• Lawyer Julian Falconer has built a career representing families of people killed by police or in custody
• Law society head defends secrecy policy

- Rachel Spence, Law Clerk

Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net

New Issue: Diritto del Commercio Internazionale

The latest issue of Diritto del Commercio Internazionale (2013, no. 2) is out. Contents include:

• Ugo Draetta, Italy as a place for international arbitrations: the myths of the “Italian torpedo”, the “irritual” arbitration et alia
• Lorenzo Melchionda, The Assignment of Claims in International Investment Arbitrations
• Paolo D. Farah & Elena Cima, L’energia nel contesto degli accordi dell’OMC: sovvenzioni per le energie rinnovabili e pratiche OPEC di controllo dei prezzi

Video of UNH Law & Sports Illustrated Town Hall on O'Bannon v. NCAA and Future of College Sports

Last month, the University of New Hampshire School of Law's Sports and Entertainment Law Institute and Sports Illustrated co-hosted a Town Hall on the O'Bannon case and the future of college sports.  The Town Hall examined how this class action lawsuit could radically change college sports as we know it.  As you know if you've followed this case, through legal arguments sounding in intellectual property and antitrust, O'Bannon—a former basketball star at UCLA—contends that current and former Division I men's basketball and football players should be paid for their image and likeness on television broadcasts, video games, trading cards, apparel and other commercial ventures. The Town Hall also considered related cases, including Sam Keller v. NCAA and Ryan Hart v. Electronic Arts, as well as pending federal legislation in the NCAA Accountability Act. Collectively, these legal developments could lead to the compensation of college student-athletes and impact their unionization and quasi-employment rights.

The Town Hall featured some of the most influential and insightful people in college sports. It was moderated by B.J. Schecter (Sports Illustrated & SI.com executive editor and UNH Law adjunct professor of sports law and investigative reporting) and panelists were: Sonny Vaccaro (unpaid adviser to O'Bannon and leading advocate for college athletes' rights), Charles Grantham (former executive director of the National Basketball Players' Association), Alan Milstein (litigator for Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Maurice Clarett & other sports personalities), Pete Thamel (Sports Illustrated senior writer), Marty Scarano (UNH Director of Athletics), Alexandra Roberts (UNH Law entertainment law professor) and me.

The Town Hall attracted more than 140 people to attend, including students, attorneys and former basketball players, including NBA Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtics forward Satch Sanders.

On December 17, 2013, video highlights of the Town Hall and accompanying commentary were shown on SI.com.

Yesterday the complete Town Hall video was made available on Youtube.  I hope you have a chance to watch:

New Issue: Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The latest issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (Vol. 46, no. 4, October 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Symposium: The Role of Non-State Actors in International Law
• Ian Smillie, Blood Diamonds and Non-State Actors
• Harlan Grant Cohen, Lawyers and Precedent
• Peter Margulies, Constraining Targeting in Noninternational Armed Conflicts: Safe Conduct for Combatants Conducting Informal Dispute Resolution
• Suzanne Katzenstein, Reverse-Rhetorical Entrapment: Naming and Shaming as a Two-Way Street
• Peter J. Spiro, Constraining Global Corporate Power: A Short Introduction
• Jean d’Aspremont, Cognitive Conflicts and the Making of International Law: From Empirical Concord to Conceptual Discord in Legal Scholarship

New Issue: Review of International Political Economy

The latest issue of the Review of International Political Economy (Vol. 20, no. 6, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• IPE with China's characteristics
• Gregory Chin, Margaret M. Pearson & Wang Yong, Introduction – IPE with China's characteristics
• Wang Yong & Louis Pauly, Chinese IPE debates on (American) hegemony
• Pang Zhongying & Hongying Wang, Debating international institutions and global governance: The missing Chinese IPE contribution
• Tianbiao Zhu & Margaret Pearson, Globalization and the role of the state: Reflections on Chinese international and comparative political economy scholarship
• Xin Wang & Gregory Chin, Turning point: International money and finance in Chinese IPE
• Qingxin K. Wang & Mark Blyth, Constructivism and the study of international political economy in China

New Issue: International Legal Materials

The latest issue of International Legal Materials (Vol. 52, no. 4, 2013) is out. Contents include:

• Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga (Int’l Crim. Ct.), with introductory note by Steven Arrigg Koh
• Apotex Inc. v. United States: Award on Jurisdiction and Admissibility (NAFTA Arb.), with introductory Note by Ronald J. Bettauer
• Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (U.S. Sup. Ct.), with introductory note by Chimène I. Keitner
• The Arms Trade Treaty, with introductory note by Scott Stedjan
• Resolutions of the World Health Organization on the Election of the Director-General, with introductory note by Gian Luca Burci
• Agreement and Statute of the Extraordinary African Chambers, with introductory note by Roland Adjovi
• European Union Unitary Patent Package, with introductory note by Yohan Benizri

Call for Papers: Il futuro delle organizzazioni internazionali – Prospettive giuridiche / L’avenir des organisations internationales. Perspectives juridiques

A call for papers has been issued for the 19th annual conference of the Italian Society of International Law, which will take place June 26-28, 2014, in Courmayeur. The theme is "Il futuro delle organizzazioni internazionali – Prospettive giuridiche / L’avenir des organisations internationales. Perspectives juridiques." Here's the call (Italian/French):

APPEL A COMMUNICATIONS

La Società Italiana di Diritto Internazionale (SIDI), en collaboration avec la Société Française pour le Droit International et la Fondazione Courmayeur Mont Blanc, invite les chercheurs de Droit International (public et privé) et de Droit de l’Union Européenne à soumettre leurs propositions de communication en vue du Colloque international “L’avenir des organisations internationales. Perspectives juridiques” qui se tiendra à Courmayeur (Italie) du 26 au 28 juin 2014, dans le cadre des thématiques suivantes (la liste n’est pas exhaustive):

• Cas de superposition ou/et synergie entre organisations internationales dans des secteurs spécifiques, tels que la protection de l’environnement, le commerce international, la protection des droits de l’homme et l’utilisation de la force;
• Anciennes et nouvelles formes de participation de la société civile aux organisations internationales et exigences de démocratisation;
• Problèmes de coordination et de représentation de l’Union Européenne et de ses Etats membres au sein des organisations internationales universelles et régionales;
• L’Union Européenne comme “modèle” pour d’autres expériences de coopération entre Etats en ce qui concerne, en particulier, le système juridictionnel;
• Le rôle des organisations internationales universelles et régionales dans la solution pratique de la crise économique des années 2008-2013 et conséquences de la crise sur la structure de gouvernance desdites organisations et, en particulier, de l’Union Européenne;
• Le rôle des organisations internationales dans l’harmonisation du droit international privé au moyen de divers types d’instruments normatifs: cas spécifiques liés à leur application au niveau national;
• La contribution de sujets autres que les Etats au développement du droit international privé et processuel dans les organisations internationales.

Les propositions seront exposées dans un résumé de 500 mots maximum. Le texte de la communication et sa présentation durant le Colloque pourront être en italien ou en français, au choix de l’auteur.

Le résumé de la proposition de communication, au format PDF, devra être adressé, avant le 28 février 2014, à la SIDI à l’adresse suivante info@sidi-isil.org. Ce résumé devra porter le prénom, le nom et l’affiliation de l’auteur et être accompagné de l’engagement de l’auteur à soumettre, au cas où il serait sélectionné, la version presque définitive de sa communication avant le 31 mai 2014, de façon à ce qu’elle puisse être mise à la disposition des participants lors du Colloque.

Avant le 15 mars 2014, la SIDI communiquera les résultats de la sélection à tous ceux qui auront soumis un résumé. Les auteurs sélectionnés seront les invités des organisateurs du Colloque.

Les communications sélectionnées, dans leur version définitive, seront publiées dans les actes du Colloque, dans une collection spéciale éditée par les soins de l’Editeur Editoriale Scientifica de Naples. Les actes du Colloque seront publiés au cours du premier semestre 2015.

140 Law - Legal Headlines for Thursday, December 19, 2013

Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter for Thursday, December 19, 2013:

• Delaware work-at-home lawyer suspended partly for lack of a ‘bona fide office'
• Former White House lawyer ordered to pay $28.6M in beating of wife
• Law society confirms death of lawyer Javad Heydary
• Mark Zuckerberg, banks sued over Facebook IPO
• Ryerson looking for input on LPP program
• Judge won't toss amended Omar Khadr lawsuit, but wants changes
• Online retailer sued by couple it fined $3,500 over disparaging review
• The Law School Bubble Bursts
• Getting to “yes” too soon: when negotiations create obligations - Lexology
• Rob Ford apologizes again, Daniel Dale drops lawsuit
• Mayor Rob Ford's support holding at 39%, Ipsos Reid poll finds
• Ottawa 'could have repealed' all refugee care, federal lawyer tells court - Toronto Star
• Killer 'affluenza' teen could still face jail
• Residential school survivors battle Ottawa over access to police records
• “@PapillonOnFront: @wiselaw please note Le Papillon on Front and Le Papillon on the Park have not been affiliated for 6 years. Thank you.”
• Residential school survivors battle Ottawa over access to police records
• Russia approves amnesty covering Pussy Riot, Greenpeace
• Lawsuit: Mississippi school forced ‘pathetic dyke’ to use the boys’ bathroom

- Rachel Spence, Law Clerk

Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net

ESIL Lecture Series (Video)

The European Society of International Law has posted on YouTube three more installments in the ESIL Lecture Series. (ESIL has its own YouTube Channel.) The lectures are:

• "Individual and Collective Responsibility of States for Acts of International Organizations" by James Crawford (Univ. of Cambridge), September 19, 2013, at the T.M.C. Asser Institute
• "The Evolution of the Charter Concept of Collective Security" by Vera Gowlland-Debbas (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies), November 26, 2013, at the University of Geneva
• "Constitutional Foundations of EU External Relations" by Marise Cremona (European Univ. Institute), November 28, 2013, at the University of Grenada

Call for Papers: Fifth International Four Societies Conference

The American Society of International Law, the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law, the Canadian Council on International Law, and the Japanese Society of International Law have issued a call for papers for their fifth joint conference and invite paper proposals from their members. The theme is "Experts, Networks and International Law." Here's the call:

The Fifth International Four Societies Conference

Australian National University

1-2 July 2014

Call for Papers

The international law societies of Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Japan and the United States of America (the “Four Societies”) have held four conferences bringing together early career scholars around a theme, generally leading to an edited conference volume. The underlying goal of this initiative is to foster a scholarly network between individuals associated with the four sponsoring societies. The first cycle of the Four Societies Project saw events hosted by the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL) at University of Wellington in 2006, the Canadian Council on International Law held at Edmonton in 2008, the Japanese Society of International Law held on Awajishima Island in 2010, and the American Society of International Law held at Berkeley Law School in 2012 ANZSIL will host the Fifth International Four Societies Conference at the Australian National University on 1-2 July 2014, on the theme of Experts, Networks and International Law. The Steering Committee for the Fifth Conference now invites paper proposals from members of the Four Societies.

The Theme: Experts, Networks and International Law

A decade ago, in her book A New World Order, Anne-Marie Slaughter presented a novel answer to the question of how best to govern the world. Slaughter argued that global governance already existed, but that it was not to be found where most people expected to find it. She focused particularly on the emergence of ‘government networks’ as a ‘key feature of world order in the twenty-first century’ (1). Slaughter argued that it was necessary ‘to stop imagining the international system’ as a system of unitary states, and to start thinking about the ways in which states had become ‘disaggregated’ (5-6). The state could best be understood as the sum of its aggregate parts (legislatures, regulators, judiciaries), with those parts increasingly having the capacity (and at times the imperative) to interact with their foreign counterparts in order to address issues of common concern. For Slaughter, the emergence of a ‘world of government networks’ was not just an ‘underappreciated’ fact of international life (1), but also offered ‘a more effective and potentially more just world order’ than either ‘what we have today’ or ‘a world government in which a set a global institutions perched above nation-states enforced global rules’ (7). Government networks, operating alongside international institutions, could often provide a more efficient and just way of ordering a globalized world: more efficient, because management of transnational problems (such as pandemics, natural disasters, or terrorism) required flexibility and an ability to harmonize and coordinate government responses between counterpart national officials; more just, because the decentralized and dispersed nature of networks, when guided by principles such as deliberative equality, legitimate difference, positive comity and subsidiarity, were able to exercise power without a centralized coercive authority (30). Slaughter concluded that ‘(g)lobal governance through government networks is good public policy for the world’ – a ‘world order self-consciously created out of horizontal and vertical government networks could … create a genuine global rule of law without centralized global institutions’ (261).

This conference will reflect upon how the vision of a new world order based upon networked, disaggregated state institutions has held up over the past ten years. How has this ideal of global governance fared in the face of world events since 2004 (such as the Global Financial Crisis and the Arab Spring), or the perceived failure to achieve consensus on core policy questions relating to pressing global issues such as climate change, agricultural liberalisation, international criminal prosecution, the responsibility to protect, or financial market reform? Does international law today in fact operate through diffused networks? Have (and how have) domestic courts lived up to their promise in enforcing a new transnational legal system? What do empirical studies of networks reveal about their effectiveness as mechanisms of decision- making and governance? Do network principles of ‘harmonisation’ and ‘convergence’ work in ‘hard’ issue areas (such as security, scarcity, and global redistribution)? How does power operate within and between transnational networks? Is strengthening governance by experts across fields such as policing, counter-terrorism, environmental protection, human rights promotion, food safety, public health, financial regulation, international criminal prosecution, investment liberalisation, and security sector reform equally desirable and effective? What is the power of networks and norm entrepreneurs in setting global policy agendas, and how much control do global policy-makers really have over the implementation of those agendas? Do networks complement or compete with traditional institutions of global governance, and how do these dynamics vary in different institutional and substantive settings? Should international lawyers support the development of global governance through government networks, or should they take a more critical approach to the rise of networked governance? The 2014 Four Societies conference provides an opportunity for exploring these and related aspects of the broad theme of experts, networks and international law. We encourage proposals from both theoretical and practical perspectives, and from all areas of international law. We welcome applications from those who are interested in working within the discipline of international law, as well as those taking an interdisciplinary approach to the theme.

Submission of Proposals and the Process of Selection

Applications to take part in the conference should include a paper description not exceeding 300 words and the applicant’s curriculum vitae. Papers should cover work that has not been published. The Four Societies intend to publish the papers in an edited collection with a leading international publisher. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to the Society of which the applicant is a member; applicants who are members of more than one of the Societies should make a submission to only one Society. The deadline for submission of proposals is February 1, 2014. Submissions should be made to the following individuals:

ANZSIL: Professor Anne Orford a.orford@unimelb.edu.au

ASIL: Ms Elizabeth Andersen events@asil.org

CCIL: Professor Joanna Harrington Joanna.Harrington@ualberta.ca

JSIL: Professor Akio Morita a.morita@hosei.ac.jp

Each sponsoring society will select four papers, subject to the review and approval of the Steering Committee comprised of members from the Four Societies. Preference will be given to papers by those who are in the early stages of their careers. The selected participants will be notified in March 2014. Each participant will submit a full paper to the organizers by 1 June 2014 for distribution to the other participants. Transportation to the venue will be subject to arrangement between each sponsoring organisation and its conference participants (and may include the seeking of internal university support or use of an existing grant). Lodging and meals at the venue during the conference will be provided by ANZSIL. The working language of the Conference will be English.