Fundamentals of Public International Law, by Giovanni Distefano, provides an overview of public international law's main principles and fundamental institutions. By introducing the foundations of the legal reasoning underlying public international law, the extensive volume offers essential tools for any international lawyer, regardless of the specific field of specialization. Dealing expansively with subjects, sources and guarantees of international law, university students, scholars and practitioners alike will benefit from the book's treatment of what has been called the "Institutes" of public international law.

Entry into force of the UN Watercourses Convention in August 2014, and the opening of the UNECE Water Convention to all states in March 2016, are significant milestones in international water law. A comparative analysis of these two global water conventions and the 1995 Mekong Agreement reveals that all three instruments are generally compatible. Nonetheless, the international legal principles and processes set forth in the two conventions can render the Mekong Agreement more up-to-date, robust and practical. The Governance Regime of the Mekong River Basin: Can the Global Water Conventions Strengthen the 1995 Mekong Agreement? contends that strengthening the Agreement would be timely, given the increasing pressures associated with the rapid hydropower development within the basin and the gradually emerging disputes therein. Due to these fast-moving developments, Kinna and Rieu-Clarke strongly recommend that the Mekong states should seriously consider joining both conventions in order to buttress and clarify key provisions of the 1995 Mekong Agreement.

In a growing number of instances after the cold war, the United Nations and other international actors have sought to rebuild or establish new political institutions in states or territories recovering from violent conflict. From Afghanistan, Iraq, and the western Balkans to less prominent wars in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central America, and the South Pacific, the international community's response involves extensive intrusions into the domestic affairs of sovereign states. Extending beyond the narrow mandates of traditional peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations, these interventions aspire to reconstitute local power within a democratic framework. Democratic Peacebuilding examines the evolution of international peacebuilding during this tumultuous period, identifying the factors that limit the progress of international actors to institutionalize democratic authority and the rule of law in war-shattered societies.
Based on extensive field research, the book gives particular attention to Afghanistan's Bonn Agreement process (2001-2005) and Post-Bonn period (2006-2009), in which the country's multiple, competing forms of authority (e.g. religious leaders, tribal elders, militia commanders, and technocrats) challenged efforts to create "modern" forms of political authority rooted in democratic norms and the rule of law. Despite the significant risks involved, Democratic Peacebuilding argues that the institutionalization of democratic legal authority can create the conditions and framework necessary to mediate competing domestic interests and to address the root causes of a conflict peacefully. At the same time, one overlooked problem of international peacebuilding stems from the divergent conceptions, between international officials and the local population, of authority and its sources of legitimacy. By helping a conflict-affected society reconcile the inherent tensions between competing forms of authority and, over time, deepen democracy--rather than lower the metrics for progress and conditions for exit, international peacebuilders can contribute to improved conditions for governance and a reduction in intra-state political violence. This examination of the peacebuilding-democratization nexus in war-torn societies aims to generate new insights for scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners in both the study and practice of politics and international relations.

The third edition of this book incorporates more than 10 years of fascinating dynamics since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Apart from analysing the general basis of the Union's external action and its relationship to international law, the book explores the law and practice of the EU in more specialized fields of external action, such as common commercial policy, neighbourhood policy, development cooperation, cooperation with third countries, humanitarian aid, external environmental policy, and common foreign and security policy, as well as EU sanctions. Five years after the second edition published, this fully updated edition contains major developments within the law itself, along with changes and restructuring of the themes within the book. Carefully selected primary documents are accompanied with analytic commentary on the issues they raise and their significance for the overall structure of EU external relations law. The primary materials selected include many important legal documents that are hard to find elsewhere but give a vital insight into the operation of EU external relations law in practice.

The Irish Yearbook of International Law supports research into Ireland's practice in international affairs and foreign policy, filling a gap in existing legal scholarship and assisting in the dissemination of Irish policy and practice on matters of international law. On an annual basis, the Yearbook presents peer-reviewed academic articles and book reviews on general issues of international law, as well as topics with significant interest for an Irish audience. Designated correspondents provide reports on international law developments in Ireland, Irish practice in international bodies, and the law of the European Union as relevant to developments in Ireland. This volume of the Yearbook includes contributions on international humanitarian law, including intersections with international human rights law and the law of state responsibility, the concept of due diligence in international law, and the exercise of international criminal jurisdiction with specific reference to Irish law.

This Book attempts to deduce regulatory standards that can close the gaps between the Promises made and the Outcomes secured by the United Nations in relation to its use of force. It explores two broad questions in this regard: why the contemporary legal framework relevant to the regulation of force during Armed Conflict cannot close the gaps between the said Promises and Outcomes and how the 'Unified Use of Force Rule' formulated herein, achieves this. This is the first book to coherently analyse the moral as well as legal aspects relevant to UN use of force. UN peace operations are rapidly changing. Deployed peacekeepers are now required to use force in pursuance of numerous objectives such as self-defence, protecting civilians, and carrying out targeted offensive operations. As a result, questions about when, where, and how to use force have now become central to peacekeeping. While UN peace operations have managed to avoid catastrophes of the magnitude of Rwanda and Srebrenica for over two decades, crucial gaps still exist between what the UN promises on the use of force front, and what it achieves. Current conflict zones such as the Central African Republic, Eastern Congo, and Mali stand testament to this. This book searches for answers to these issues and identifies how an innovative mix of the relevant legal and moral rules can produce regulatory standards that can allow the UN to keep their promises. The discussion covers analytical ground that must be traversed 'behind the scenes' of UN deployment, well before the first troops set foot on a battlefield. The analysis ultimately produces a 'Unified Use of Force Rule', that can either be completely or partially used as a model set of Rules of Engagement by UN forces. This book will be immensely beneficial to law students, researchers, academics and practitioners in the fields of international relations, international law, peacekeeping, and human rights.

The Finnish Yearbook of International Law aspires to honour and strengthen the Finnish tradition in international legal scholarship. Open to contributions from all over the world and from all persuasions, the Finnish Yearbook stands out as a forum for theoretically informed, high-quality publications on all aspects of public international law, including the international relations law of the European Union. The Finnish Yearbook publishes in-depth articles and shorter notes, commentaries on current developments, book reviews and relevant overviews of Finland's state practice. While firmly grounded in traditional legal scholarship, it is open for new approaches to international law and for work of an interdisciplinary nature.

In Europe and throughout the world, competence in English is spreading at a speed never achieved by any language in human history. This apparently irresistible growing dominance of English is frequently perceived and sometimes indignantly denounced as being grossly unjust. Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World starts off arguing that the dissemination of competence in a common lingua franca is a process to be welcomed and accelerated, most fundamentally because it provides the struggle for greater justice in Europe and in the world with an essential weapon: a cheap medium of communication and of mobilization.
However, the resulting linguistic situation can plausibly be regarded as unjust in three distinct senses. Firstly, the adoption of one natural language as the lingua franca implies that its native speakers are getting a free ride by benefiting costlessly from the learning effort of others. Secondly, they gain greater opportunities as a result of competence in their native language becoming a more valuable asset. And thirdly the privilege systematically given to one language fails to show equal respect for the various languages with which different portions of the population concerned identify. Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World spells out the corresponding interpretations of linguistic justice as cooperative justice, distributive justice and parity of esteem, respectively. And it discusses systematically a wide range of policies that might help achieve linguistic justice in these three senses, from a linguistic tax on Anglophone countries to the banning of dubbing or the linguistic territoriality principle.
Against this background, the book argues that linguistic diversity is not valuable in itself but it will nonetheless need to be protected as a by-product of the pursuit of linguistic diversity as parity of esteem.

This superb introduction to NATO is written for the national security novice, yet is full of insights for the more seasoned hand interested in how and why NATO reached its current state. In the more than half-century since NATO was founded, there has been endless debate about its purpose, about whether it is meeting that purpose, and about the strategies it employs to that end. Speculation has also been rife about the organization's "imminent demise." Those questions and more are the subject of NATO: A Guide to the Issues. Covering the organization from its founding in 1949 through the present, the guide examines aspects of NATO that have undergone tremendous change over the years, including its purpose, military mission, geographic concept of operations, and membership. At the same time, it explores key aspects of NATO's organization that have remained constant. These include the ability of members to participate in operations as much or as little as they desire, decision-making by consensus, and a general belief that people from different countries working together on a daily basis promotes cooperation, understanding, and friendship. Illustrations Maps A chronology

With the advent of globalization--where corporate organizations and the commercial relations that accompany them are argued to be becoming increasingly transnational--the locus of powers, authorities, and responsibilities has shifted to the global level. The nation-state arena is losing its capacity to regulate and control commercial processes and practices as a transformational logic kicks-in, associated with new forms of global rule-making and governance. It is this new arena of global rule-making that can be considered as a surrogate form of global constitutionalization, or "quasi-constitutionalization." But as might be expected, this surrogate process of constitutionalization is not a coherent system or set of rounded outcomes but full of contradictory half-finished currents and projects: an "assemblage" of many disparate advances and often directionless moves--almost an accidental coming together of elements. It is this assemblage that is to be investigated and unbundled by the analysis of the book.
The book discusses governance, law, and constitutional matters in the context of international corporate constitutional governance. It examines how and why the business world, commercial relations, and company activities have increasingly become subject to legal and constitutional forms of regulation and governance at the international level. It analyzes how we should characterize the process that has seen the international corporate arena increasingly subject to juridical and constitutional-like regulatory initiatives and interventions and whether this amounts to a new attempt to subject international commercial relations to the "rule of law" and, indeed, to rule the world through these very means.

The recent proliferation of international courts and jurisdictions raises a number of important issues ranging from the redefinition of the role of the International Court of Justice to the recent emergence of domestic courts as international jurisdictions. Towards a Universal Justice? Putting International Courts and Jurisdictions into Perspective, containing edited articles presented at the International Law Association's Regional Conference held in Lisbon, offers a comprehensive overview of those issues and outlines challenges ahead for every branch of international law.

In this set of interdisciplinary essays leading scholars discuss the future of the Rule of Law, a concept whose meaning and import has become ever more topical and elusive. Historically the term denoted the idea of 'government limited by law'. It has also come to be equated, more broadly, with certain goods suggested by the idea of legality as such, including the preservation of human dignity and other individual and social benefits predicated upon or conducive to a rule-based social order. But in both its narrow and broader senses the Rule of Law remains a much contested concept. These essays seek to capture the main areas and levels of controversy by 'relocating' the Rule of Law not just at the philosophical level, but also in its main contemporary arenas of application - both national, and increasingly, supranational and international.

China and International Commercial Dispute Resolution presents important contributions from eminent legal scholars from Europe, the United States, Australia, South America, and China in a variety of areas of international commercial law with relevance to China. The authors provide expert analyses from a number of perspectives - doctrinal, comparative, empirical, economic, and legal - on an array of issues, private and public, involved in or arising from international commercial dispute resolution in China.

In 1999, the Alliance mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Around the same period, allegations were made regarding its involvement in human trafficking and forced prostitution in Bosnia-Herzegovina. A decade later, NATO airplanes hit a fuel truck causing significant civilian casualties in Kunduz, Afghanistan. After more than 60 years of existence and a track-record of more than 30 missions performed worldwide, it is surprising that there is still uncertainty on the scope and content of NATO's responsibility for wrongful conduct during its military operations. This timely book deals with the international responsibility of NATO during military operations. It examines, the status of the Alliance, the existence of international obligations and conditions of attribution of conduct in NATO.

Professor Roger Stenson Clark has played a pivotal role in developing International Criminal Law, and the movement against nuclear weapons. He was one of the intellectual and moral fathers of the International Criminal Court. This Festschrift brings together forty-one appreciative friends to honour his remarkable contribution. The distinguished contributors provide incisive contributions ranging from the reform of the Security Council, to rule of law and international justice in Africa, to New Zealand cultural heritage, to customary international law in US courts, and more. Threaded through these richly diverse contributions is one common feature: a belief in values and morality in human conduct, and a passion for transformative use of law, 'for the sake of present and future generations.'

The world today is overwhelmed by wars between nations and within nations, wars that have dominated American politics for quite some time. Point of Attack calls for a new understanding of the grounds for war. In this book John Yoo argues that the new threats to international security come not from war between the great powers, but from the internal collapse of states, terrorist groups, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and destabilizing regional powers. In Point of Attack he rejects the widely-accepted framework built on the U.N. Charter and replaces it with a new system consisting of defensive, pre-emptive, or preventive measures to encourage wars that advance global welfare. Yoo concludes with an analysis of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, failed states, and the current challenges posed by Libya, Syria, North Korea, and Iran.

Launched in 1965, the Australian Year Book of International Law (AYBIL) is Australia's longest standing and most prestigious dedicated international law publication. The Year Book aims to uniquely combine scholarly commentary with contributions from Australian government officials. Each volume contains a mix of scholarly articles, invited lectures, book reviews, notes of decisions by Australian and international courts, recent legislation, and collected Australian international law state practice. It is a valuable resource for those working in the field of international law, including government officials, international organisation officials, non-government and community organisations, legal practitioners, academics and other researchers, as well as students studying international law, international relations, human rights and international affairs. It focuses on Australian practice in international law and general international law, across a broad range of sub-fields including human rights, environmental law and legal theory, which are of interest to international lawyers worldwide. Volume 38 features a set of Special Issue papers on the theme of 'The Backlash against International Law: Australian Perspectives'. These articles originated as papers presented to a June 2019 workshop at the Australian National University (ANU), which launched a global research partnership project between scholars at ANU, Indiana University and the University of Maryland.

The Finnish Yearbook of International Law aspires to honour and strengthen the Finnish tradition in international legal scholarship. Open to contributions from all over the world and from all persuasions, the Finnish Yearbook stands out as a forum for theoretically informed, high-quality publications on all aspects of public international law, including the international relations law of the European Union. The Finnish Yearbook publishes in-depth articles and shorter notes, commentaries on current developments, book reviews and relevant overviews of Finland's state practice. While firmly grounded in traditional legal scholarship, it is open for new approaches to international law and for work of an interdisciplinary nature. The Finnish Yearbook is published for the Finnish Society of International Law by Hart Publishing. Volumes prior to volume 19 may be obtained from Martinus Nijhoff, an imprint of Brill Publishers.

In The Juridical Nature of Unilateral Acts of States in International Law Eva Kassoti explores the question of the legal nature of unilateral acts by focusing on their essential characteristics, namely unilateralism and the manifest intention to be bound. By analysing the legal and factual context surrounding the making of unilateral acts, this volume offers a list of indicators of the elements of unilateralism and manifest intention that will facilitate the determination of the existence of a unilateral juridical act in practice. Kassoti explores the legal nature of unilateral acts from the viewpoint of the theory of international juridical acts and thus, attests to the validity of this theory as a comprehensive framework for the analysis of all juridical acts in international law.

In the years to come the international legal order will have to face a broad range of challenges, of both an institutional and substantive nature. That is precisely the focus of this collective volume written by contributors from Flanders and the Netherlands. Although they are specialists in different fields of international law, what unites them is their position as Emeritus professors, with long and respected careers and a wealth of experience and insight. Their brief was to reflect - from their silver perspective - on the future of their respective fields and the most pressing challenges that lie ahead for them. The result is a thought-provoking and above all original collection, offering the reader the benefit of the collective wisdom of this group of eminent "silver" scholars.

This book canvasses the autonomous position of victims before the International Criminal Court. It seeks to provide an objective and balanced perspective, and neither rejects the idea of victims' participation nor seeks to extend it beyond the contours determined by the founders of the ICC. The author contributes to the existing debate in academia and in practice by delineating the core, most complex and contentious matters ensuing from the role assigned to victims. The scrupulously selected issues unveil and blueprint the essential characteristics that delimit the standing of victims as independent actors in the ICC's arena, distinct from the parties and other non-party participants. As an integral part of the ICC's synergy, victims converge and interact with its other components. Therefore, the position and role of victims are contemplated in the context of the Court's procedural mechanism and the mission pursued by the parties and the Chamber. The philosophy underpinning the ICC's design and the standing of victims therein also requires analysis from a wider perspective. Accordingly, the volume draws an in-depth parallel with relevant developments and trends at the international and domestic level. Close attention is paid to the legal instruments and jurisprudence of international(ized) criminal justice bodies, human rights institutions and non-criminal jurisdictions to the extent useful for shedding further light on the issues at hand. Recourse is also made to various national systems, whenever relevant.

The basics of international criminal law, how it is actually enforced, and the arguments it has provoked are all introduced in a book that is as current as the headline news. International Crime and Punishment: A Guide to the Issues explores the many facets of this relatively new field of criminal law, an autonomous branch of law that concerns international crimes and the systems set up to handle individuals who are accused of committing them. As the author explains, international crimes include crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, war crimes, trafficking in human beings, drug trafficking, money laundering, arms trafficking, and smuggling of cultural artifacts. The laws may seem straightforward, but the system is not without controversy. As the author shows, the United States has opposed certain actions of the International Criminal Court, while other countries have objected to U.S. plans to refer persons accused of terrorism to military tribunals. Clearly and cogently, this work introduces the principles of international criminal law, its enforcement, and the conflicts that have arisen as a result. Journalists, policymakers, students, and educated citizens will find the book an essential tool for unraveling today's news stories.

Resolving Conflicts in the Law, edited by Chiara Giorgetti and Natalie Klein, honours the work of Professor Lea Brilmayer whose intellectual contribution and influence span scholarly debate and the practice of both public and private international law. The book's essays are from leading international law scholars and practitioners in the field-including Michael Reisman, Stephen Schwebel, Erin O'Connor O'Hara, John Crook, Philippa Webb, Kermit Roosevelt, Harold Koh-and reflect on contemporary and cutting-edge questions of international law. Each contribution enriches and advances scholarly debate on topics of law for which Lea Brilmayer is well known, including: international dispute settlement; conflicts of law; international relations theory; secession and territorial and maritime sovereignty.

There is new movement in the discussion about self-determination and statehood. The contested declaration of independence by Kosovo and Russia's recognition of the purported independence of Abkhasia and South Ossetia have caused significant controversy. These developments may well put an end to the attempt by governments to keep in place the highly restricted doctrine of self-determination that has previously only been made available in the colonial context. This monograph argues that classical self-determination, narrowly conceived in the colonial context. cannot contribute to the resolution of the presently ongoing self-determination conflicts around the world. However, this study finds that over the past few years a new practice of addressing self-determination conflicts has emerged. This practice significantly extends our understanding of the legal right to self-determination and of the means that can be brought to bear in terminating secessionist conflicts.

Listen to the podcast with Philip Drew and Bruce Oswald In Rwanda Revisited: Genocide, Civil War, and the Transformation of International Law, the contributing authors seek to recount, explore, and explain the tragedy that was the Rwanda genocide and the nature of the international community's entanglement with it. Written by people selected for their personalized knowledge of Rwanda, be it as peacekeepers, aid workers, or members of the ICTR, and/or scholarship that has been clearly influenced by the genocide, this book provides a level of insight, detail and first-hand knowledge about the genocide and its aftermath that is clearly unique. Included amongst the writers are a number of scholars whose research and writings on Rwanda, the United Nations, and genocide are internationally recognized. Contributors are: Major (ret'd) Brent Beardsley, Professor Jean Bou, Professor Jane Boulden, Dr. Emily Crawford, Lieutenant-General the Honourable Romeo Dallaire, Professor Phillip Drew, Professor Mark Drumbl , Professor Jeremy Farrall, Lieutenant-General John Frewen, Dr. Stacey Henderson, Professor Adam Jones, Ambassador Colin Keating, Professor Robert McLaughlin, Linda Melvern, Dr. Melanie O'Brien, Professor Bruce Oswald, Dr. Tamsin Phillipa Paige, Professor David J. Simon, and Professor Andrew Wallis. This book was previously published as Special Issue of the Journal of International Peacekeeping, Volume 22 (2018), Issue 1-4 (published April 2020); with updated Introduction.