As with any rapid technological development, the biotechnology revolution is putting great strains on the ability of law to adapt to new challenges and threats. Although there is general agreement on the need to regulate biotechnology in many different fields of human activity (agriculture, life sciences, forensic science) domestic law remains deeply divided over the best approach to take. This book is the first attempt at covering the most pressing legal issues raised by the impact of biotechnologies on different categories of international norms. Through the contribution of a selected group of international scholars and experts from international organizations, the book addresses 1) the international status of genetic resources, both in areas of national jurisdiction and in common spaces such as the international sea bed area and Antarctica; 2) the relevance of environmental principles in the governance of modern biotechnologies; 3) the impact of biotechnologies on trade rules, including intellectual property law; 4) the human rights implications, especially in the field of human genetics; and 5) the intersection between general international law and regional systems, especially those developed in Europe and Latin America. The overall objective of the book is to provide an up-to-date picture of international law as it stands today and to stimulate critical reflection and further research on the solutions that will be required in years to come.

This thought-provoking book conceptualizes femicide as a multifaceted human rights violation and proposes state responsibility for group-related risks of violence against women and girls. In doing so, it reassesses the concept of femicide, analysing it in view of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, as well as several facets of human rights. Angela Hefti challenges the common definition of femicide, extending it beyond the killing of women due to their gender to include elements of victim blame, sexual abuse, forced marriage and delayed investigations by authorities. Chapters address femicide in the context of the African, Inter-American and European regional and universal human rights systems. Case studies from Iraq, Nigeria and Mexico provide a fundamental understanding of the multidimensional and worldwide nature of femicide. Spanning several key academic debates, the book incorporates underlying feminist legal theory and approaches pertaining to the subordination of women and girls in society, arguing that femicide should qualify as an autonomous human rights violation. Providing an impetus for further research on femicide, particularly on state responsibility for crimes committed by private actors, this book will be a crucial resource for academics in human rights and humanitarian law, criminal law and justice. The book will also be highly valuable to activists, practitioners, and lawyers with an interest in advancing aspects of femicide in international human rights law.

This book examines the way in which judges in the top courts of nine different common law countries go about developing the law by devising new principles to allow themselves to be innovative and justice-oriented, and to ensure that human rights are universally protected.
The book surveys the decisions of these top courts over the last generation to determine how 'judicially active' they have been. It seeks to compare and contrast the different experiences and to identify the principles in accordance with which the various courts have decided to develop the law. How do they interpret legislation? What use do they make of standards derived from other countries or from international law? How willing are they to make law in areas which are traditionally the preserve of elected politicians?
The contributors are all experts in their own jurisdictions and have already published widely in the field of judicial activism. The jurisdictions covered include Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. The chapter on the judicial work of the House of Lords anticipates the transformation of that institution into the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009 and the book as a whole suggests that there is plenty of scope for that new court to learn from other common law supreme courts about the appropriate limits of judicial creativity.

This book presents an interdisciplinary collection of expert analyses and views of existing verification systems. It provides guidelines and advice for the improvement of those systems as well as for new challenges in the field.

Since the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration for international dispute resolution in 1899, the number of international courts and tribunals has multiplied and the reach of their jurisdiction has steadily expanded. By providing a synthetic overview and critical analysis of these developments from multiple perspectives, this Research Handbook both contextualizes and stimulates future research and practice in this rapidly developing field. Made up of specially commissioned chapters by leading and emerging scholars, the book takes a thematic and interpretive, system-wide and inter-jurisdictional comparative approach to the main issues, debates and controversies related to the growth of international courts and tribunals. Its review of influential international judgements traverses the areas of international peace and security law, international human rights law, international criminal law, and international economic law, while also including critical reflection by practitioners. This nuanced review of the latest thinking on scholarly debates and controversies in international courts and tribunals will be both a key resource for academic researchers and a concise introduction to the subject for post-graduate students. Its chapters also contain topics of practical relevance to lawyers and international decision-makers. Contributors include: A.M. Barreto, J. Chylinski, T. Dannenbaum, W. Elmaalul, M. Farrell, K. Gibson, J. Jones QC, M.G. Karnavas, M.M. Mbengue, Y. Mcdermott Rees, L. Obregon, K. Oellers-Frahm, R.F. Oppong, G. Pecorella, M. Pinto, J. Powderly, Y. Ronen, L.E. Salles, W.A. Schabas, D. Shelton, N. Strapatsas, M. Taylor, M. Varaki

Gibraltar is an Overseas Territory of the UK within the EU, which has for three centuries been at the centre of a dispute between Britain and Spain, a dispute based on traditional perceptions of sovereignty. Hitherto the dispute has been managed in a predominantly bilateral way, but this has prevented the people of Gibraltar having an equal say on the issue of Gibraltar's sovereignty and decolonisation. It has produced a paradox of governance and constitutionalism that encases the Gibraltar people. This book considers the effects of sovereignty and the culture of bilateralism on the dispute, and examines the resulting deficits of governance and democracy. In assessing the evolution of the themes underlying the dispute it asks how its resolution might be facilitated by the application of ideas drawn from the modern legal context of late sovereignty, pluralism and stateless nationalism, suggesting that a productive trilateral approach and recognition of the legal and societal context could enable an enduring settlement. The author marries theories from international relations, constitutional law and public international law in the context of modern literature on sovereignty and nationalism, applying these theories to the case-study of Gibraltar with emphasis on constitutionalism in its international and EU context to produce a ground-breaking addition to the literature on stateless nationalism, late sovereignty and constitutional pluralism. As such it also complements recent studies of sub-state societies, regions or nations within Europe and elsewhere, including Catalunya, the Basque Country and Scotland and Wales, and in the broader Commonwealth context, other British overseas territories. This book will be of interest to lawyers, political scientists, constitutional historians and constitutionalists.

The current policy for climate change prioritises mitigation over adaptation. The collected papers of Climate Change as Environmental and Economic Hazard argue that although efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are still vital, the new policy paradigm should shift the priority to adaptation, with a special focus on disaster risk reduction. It should also consider climate change not purely as a hazard and a challenge, but as a window of opportunity to shift to a new sustainable development policy model, which stresses the particular importance of communities' resilience. The papers in this volume explore the key issues linked to this shift, including: ' Increasing research into the Earth Sciences, climate reconstruction and forecasting in order to decrease the degree of uncertainty about the origin, development and implications of climate change; ' The introduction of more binding and comprehensive regulation of both greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation measures, like that in the United Kingdom; ' Matching climate policy with that for disasters and mainstreaming it into overall development strategies. The volume is a valuable addition to previous climate change research and considers a new policy approach to this new global challenge.

Nuclear breakout or nuclear weapon free zones, which do we encourage? In the past, legal studies focused on regulating military rather than peaceful uses of the atom. This volume assesses the legal regime pertaining to the peaceful transfer of nuclear technology, which includes the NPT, IAEA Statute, and the work of the nuclear supplier groups. It offers a new perspective to the interaction between international law and politics in the Middle East, a region that continues to be a hotspot for attempts at nuclear proliferation. Israel, in a state of war with most of its neighbours, turned into a nuclear power decades ago, consequently, it drove Iraq to develop a military nuclear programme. This has affected the rights of Iran as a non-nuclear weapon state to develop its peaceful nuclear capabilities. This book supports the establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons as the only way to cease the arms race and ensure a long-lasting peace in the region.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has often been characterised both as a motor of integration and a judicial law-maker. To what extent is this a fair description of the Court's jurisprudence over more than half a century? The book is divided into two parts. Part one develops a new heuristic theory of legal reasoning which argues that legal uncertainty is a pervasive and inescapable feature of primary legal material and judicial reasoning alike, which has its origin in a combination of linguistic vagueness, value pluralism and rule instability associated with precedent. Part two examines the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the EU against this theoretical framework. The author demonstrates that the ECJ's interpretative reasoning is best understood in terms of a tripartite approach whereby the Court justifies its decisions in terms of the cumulative weight of purposive, systemic and literal arguments. That approach is more in line with orthodox legal reasoning in other legal systems than is commonly acknowledged and differs from the approach of other higher, especially constitutional courts, more in degree than in kind. It nevertheless leaves the Court considerable discretion in determining the relative weight and ranking of the various interpretative criteria from one case to another. The Court's exercise of its discretion is best understood in terms of the constraints imposed by the accepted justificatory discourse and certain extra-legal steadying factors of legal reasoning, which include a range of political factors such as sensitivity to Member States' interests, political fashion and deference to the 'EU legislator'. In conclusion, the Court of Justice of the EU has used the flexibility inherent in its interpretative approach and the choice it usually enjoys in determining the relative weight and order of the interpretative criteria at its disposal, to resolve legal uncertainty in the EU primary legal materials in a broadly communautaire fashion subject, however, to i) regard to the political, constitutional and budgetary sensitivities of Member States, ii) depending on the constraints and extent of interpretative manoeuvre afforded by the degree of linguistic vagueness of the provisions in question, the relative status of and degree of potential conflict between the applicable norms, and the range and clarity of the interpretative topoi available to resolve first-order legal uncertainty, and, finally, iii) bearing in mind the largely unpredictable personal element in all adjudication. Only in exceptional cases which the Court perceives to go to the heart of the integration process and threaten its acquis communautaire, is the Court of Justice likely not to feel constrained by either the wording of the norms in issue or by the ordinary conventions of interpretative argumentation, and to adopt a strongly communautaire position, if need be in disregard of what the written laws says but subject to the proviso that the Court is assured of the express or tacit approval or acquiescence of national governments and courts.

New directives in the European Union forced the national governments to release new laws on the collection and recycling of electronic waste. Producers of electrical/electronic equipment are now required to fulfill several tasks on an administrational level, such as registration and regular declarations, as well as ensure take back and recycling operationally. The national laws and requirements strongly differ from country to country and created a lot of confusion in the past. In this book, consultants from 26 EU member states give a clear and structured recipe how this complicated procedure can be done in the corresponding country. This makes the book being an essential tool for the electrics industry, in particular for international companies.

This book provides a theoretical framework for explaining the choices made by international decision-makers in terms of what constitutes law. It comprehensively analyzes the practice of human rights courts in applying legal instruments outside their competence and proposes that this practice recognizes that different normative instruments coexist in an un-ordered space, and that meaning can be produced by the free interaction of those instruments around a problem. Based on this, the book advances its normative plurality hypothesis, which states that decision-makers must survey the acquis of international law in order to identify all the instruments containing relevant normative information for a particular situation. The set of rules of law applicable to the situation must then be complemented with other instruments containing specific normative information relevant to the situation, resulting in a complete system of norms advancing a common purpose.

The contributions included in this book, all written by renowned scholars, examine some of the long-standing fundamental issues of international law. The main part concerns the question: how is international law made and applied? A highly original, systematic assessment of the formation of customary international law by Herman Meijers - now for the first time published in English - provides an answer to this question. Two other long-standing fundamental issues are examined. Firstly, the plausibility of the hypothesis that international law is complete on the basis of the existence of a so-called 'closing rule'. Secondly, a study of the principle of the genuine link in the modern law of the sea demonstrates that its livelihood is so limited that a post mortem is justified. The volume is concluded by a discussion on a paradoxical aspect of the law of treaties, namely regarding the right of the parties to terminate their agreements.

This timely interdisciplinary work on current developments in ICT and privacy/data protection, coincides as it does with the rethinking of the Data Protection Directive, the contentious debates on data sharing with the USA (SWIFT, PNR) and the judicial and political resistance against data retention. The authors of the contributions focus on particular and pertinent issues from the perspective of their different disciplines which range from the legal through sociology, surveillance studies and technology assessment, to computer sciences. Such issues include cutting-edge developments in the field of cloud computing, ambient intelligence and PETs; data retention, PNR-agreements, property in personal data and the right to personal identity; electronic road tolling, HIV-related information, criminal records and teenager's online conduct, to name but a few.

This volume provides a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the source and scope of international law on migration. It explores international norms on state authority to regulate migration, freedom of movement, forced migration, human rights, family unification, trafficking and smuggling of migrants, national security, rescue at sea, health, development, integration, and nationality. Migration and International Legal Norms shows that, despite the absence of a comprehensive legal instrument governing international migration, there is a wide range of legal norms relevant to migration embodied in multilateral treaties and conventions, regional agreements, and customary international law. It also identifies some significant gaps in international law, recommending areas for further cooperative efforts. This volume will be of interest to scholars and policy-makers, and to all those interested in how the community of nations is responding to the increasingly significant phenomenon of international migration.

This book discusses megatrends and subsequently applies them to the air transport industry from a legal, ethical and economic perspective. Starting with a detailed discussion on what these megatrends are, the book provides an essential overview of megatrends and air transport, including analytical discussions on how megatrends could affect basic issues such as nationalism and sovereignty, market access in air transport, and commercial space transport. It also delves into the rights of the airline passenger as affected by megatrends. Further, the book analyses a broad range of topics, including: the digital transformation of air transport; technology and air transport; robotic pilots and their legal ramifications; the human-robot interface and the law with focus on the pilot; cognitive computing; and issues of empowerment and connectivity. It discusses in detail United Nations initiatives and initiatives of the International Civil Aviation Organization, considering aspects such as: the new world order; e-trends and air transport; apps that make air travel easier; and apps designed to help the aviation authorities. Further topics include artificial intelligence and air transport and related technical, ethical and economic issues, as well as a legal inquiry into manufacturer's defects; design defects; and liability for failure to warn of defects. Questions are posed and answers provided on the effects of artificial intelligence and legal issues stemming from its use in air transport. Two major discussions follow on millennials and air transport, and on the Internet of everything as related to air transport. The conclusion ties in megatrends with air transport and offers the industry a way forward for adapting to these trends.

This book traces the impact that the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, has had on various areas of international law. A number of prominent international experts examine whether, and to what extent, international law has been shaped by the Court's jurisprudence. The informal development of international law through the Court's judgments contrasts with the development of international law through more deliberate means, such as treaty-making. Assessing key areas of international law over which the ICJ has exercised its jurisdiction, such as international environmental law, international human rights, the law of the sea, and the law of immunities, this book comprehensively details the impact of international jurisprudence on contemporary international law. Continuing the work started by Sir Hersch Lauterpacht's influential book The Development of International Law by the Permanent Court of International Justice, this book provides key new insights into the role of the Court in wider international law. It makes required reading for anyone studying the ways in which international courts have in shaped the evolution of international law.

This, the first volume of a major work, describes the establishment of the United Nations, the controversies and debates within the organization and the political factors surrounding these during the first ten years of its life.

How could privacy play a key role in protecting digital identities? How could we merge privacy law, policies, regulations and technologies to protect our digital identities in the context of connected devices and distributed systems? In this book, the author addresses major issues of identity protection and proposes a service-oriented layered framework to achieve interoperability of privacy and secure distributed systems. The framework is intended to distill privacy-related digital identity requirements (business interoperability) into a set of services, which in turn can be implemented on the basis of open standards (technical interoperability). The adoption of the proposed framework in security projects and initiatives would decrease complexities and foster understanding and collaborations between business and technical stakeholders. This work is a step toward implementing the author's vision of delivering cyber security as a set of autonomous multi-platform hosted services that should be available upon user request and on a pay-per-use basis.

International Law in the Long Nineteenth Century gathers ten studies that reflect the ever-growing variety of themes and approaches that scholars from different disciplines bring to the historiography of international law in the period. Three themes are explored: 'international law and revolutions' which reappraises the revolutionary period as crucial to understanding the dynamics of international order and law in the nineteenth century. In 'law and empire', the traditional subject of nineteenth-century imperialism is tackled from the perspective of both theory and practice. Finally, 'the rise of modern international law', covers less familiar aspects of the formation of modern international law as a self-standing discipline. Contributors are: Camilla Boisen, Raphael Cahen, James Crawford, Ana Delic, Frederik Dhondt, Andrew Fitzmaurice, Vincent Genin, Viktorija Jakjimovska, Stefan Kroll, Randall Lesaffer, and Inge Van Hulle.

This book reflects the research output of the Committee on the International Protection of Consumers of the International Law Association (ILA). The Committee was created in 2008, with a mandate to study the role of public and private law to protect consumers, review UN Guidelines, and to model laws, international treaties and national legislations concerning protection and consumer redress. It has been accepted to act as an observer not only when the UNCTAD was updating its guidelines, but also at the Hague Conference on Private International Law. The book includes the contributions of various Committee members in the past few years and is a result of the cooperation between the Committee members and experts from Australia, Brazil, Canada and China. It is divided into three parts: the first part addresses trends and challenges in international protection of consumers, while the second part focuses on financial crises and consumer protection and the third part examines national and regional consumer law issues.

The aviation community, in which the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (CANSO) play leading roles, is hard at work in bringing aviation into the 21st Century. In doing so, the United States and Europe have taken proactive steps forward in introducing modernization, particularly in moving towards more efficient air traffic management systems within NextGen and SESAR. Elsewhere, in the fields of personnel licensing, rules of the air, accident investigation and aeronautical charts and information, significant strides are being made in moving from mere regulation to implementation and assistance calculated to make all ICAO member States self sufficient in international civil aviation. However, these objectives can be achieved only if the aviation industry has a sustained understanding of the legal and regulatory principles applying to the various areas of air navigation. This book provides that discussion. Some of the subjects discussed in this book are: sovereignty in airspace; flight information and air defence identification zones; rules of the air; personnel licensing; meteorological services; operations of aircraft; air traffic services; accident and incident investigation; aerodromes; efficiency aspects of aviation and environmental protection; aeronautical charts and information; the carriage of dangerous goods; and NextGen and SESAR . Except for NextGen and SESAR, these subjects form the titles of the Annexes to the Chicago Convention that particularly involve the rights and liabilities of the key players involved in air navigation.

Written by the leading commentator on the subject, this is the seminal textbook on the law of international armed conflict. Focusing on recent issues arising in the course of hostilities between States, it explores the dividing line between lawful and unlawful combatants, the meaning of war crimes and command responsibility, the range of prohibited weapons, the distinction between combatants and civilians, the parameters of targeting and proportionality, the loss of protection from attack (including 'direct participation in hostilities') and special protection (granted, pre-eminently, to the environment and to cultural property). In a completely revised and updated text, the author expertly covers the key principles and includes important new issues, including the use of autonomous weapons and the complexities of urban warfare. The subtleties and nuances of the international law of armed conflict are made accessible to the student and practitioner alike, whilst retaining the academic rigour of previous editions.

"Republican Principles in International Law" considers the fundamental requirements of a just world order, as applied to public international law. The republican principles of deliberation, popular sovereignty and the public good first formed and justified the law of nations two centuries ago. They still clarify the most contested legal question and explain why people and states should obey international law. This book sets the standard for legitimate government, both within and beyond the jurisdiction of separate states and nations.""

Natural disasters such as large-scale flooding are on the increase. Climate change directly affects our basis of existence. This includes residential buildings, and commercial and industrial properties. The author highlights the requirements that will have to be met by a protection system for buildings in the future. Insurance against natural hazards lies at the heart of such a system. The insurance systems of Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland and the USA are presented. The author explains what type of insurance system is best suited to meet the challenge of climate change. The starting point of the legal section is statutory insurance with a monopoly. The question of whether such insurance is compatible with Swiss and EU law is examined. Keywords in this respect are economic freedom, competition, services of general interest and universal service.

This book examines the historical and contextual background to the oil and gas resources in the Kurdish territories, placing particular emphasis on the reserves situated in the disputed provinces. The volume is singularly unique in focusing on an examination of the rules reflected in both the national and the regional constitutional, legislative, and contractual measures and documents relevant to the question of whether the central government in Baghdad or the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil has a stronger claim to legal control over the oil and gas resources in the disputed Kurdish territories. As a subsidiary focus, the author also draws attention to how the basic thrust of the volume connects to broader jurisprudential issues regarding the nature and purpose of law, the matter of claims by native peoples to natural resources on traditional lands, and the place of regional minorities operating in a federal system. Since the law examined is domestic or municipal in origin, additional reference is made to the role that such law can play in the "bottom up" (as opposed to more conventional "top down") development of international law. The book's opening chapters provide a valuable contextual introduction, followed by a number of substantive chapters providing an analytical and critical assessment of the controlling legal rules. Written in a scholarly, yet accessible style, and covering matters of basic importance to academics, lawyers, political scientists, government representatives, and students of energy and natural resources, as well as those of developing legal structures, Oil and Gas in the Disputed Kurdish Territories is an essential addition to any collection.