European Journal of International Law - recent issues

Editorial

JHHW — 2008-07-15

European Exceptionalism in International Law

Lickova, M. — 2008-07-15

For Member States of the European Union, participation in this supranational organization has increased the number of difficulties in the international arena. Occasionally, the expanding legislative activity of the European institutions reaches out beyond the borders of the European legal system and incidentally affects the EU Member States’ autonomous relations with third parties. Consequently the EU and its members, often with success, seek third parties’ consent to exceptional treatment. Because of their number and significance, such derogations have inspired this article to inquire into their expansion and legal status under international law. Even though the EU-related exceptions have not created an international customary rule, the article observes that European integration shapes international rules in diverse fields and adjusts them to its needs. Since European integration is designed to administer and regulate an increasing number of issues, the autonomous international obligations of the EU Member States may become an obstacle. Because the European Union is likely to continue using special treatment in the future, it is important to assess how far the supranational exception can go in order to accommodate all interests at stake.

Human Rights and the Magic of Jus Cogens

Bianchi, A. — 2008-07-15

There is an almost intrinsic relationship between jus cogens and human rights. Peremptory human rights norms, as projections of the individual and collective conscience, materialize as powerful collective beliefs. As such, they inherently possess an extraordinary force of social attraction that has an almost magical character. This article investigates the legal effects of peremptory human rights norms at both the systemic and contextual levels. If these norms have been successful in providing the societal body with a set of identity values, they have dramatically failed to operate as an ordering factor of social practices. To wonder why this is so and to see what can be done (and by whom) to enhance their impact on the contextual level is the main goal of this article.

Attribution of Conduct in Peace Operations: The 'Ultimate Authority and Control' Test

Larsen, K. M. — 2008-07-15

The article addresses the issue of whether conduct in international peace operations is attributable to the troop contributing states or to the United Nations, taking the European Court of Human Rights’ admissibility decision in the Behrami and Saramati cases as a point of reference. The Court concluded that conduct by UNMIK and KFOR troops in Kosovo is attributable to the United Nations. The article examines the content of the ‘ultimate authority and control’ test that is applied by the Court, and argues that the Court should have taken a different approach. The Court's test is in the author's view difficult to reconcile with the International Law Commission's work on the responsibility of international organizations, with United Nations practice on responsibility for unlawful conduct in peace operations, and with the Court's own jurisprudence concerning attribution of conduct to the state. The author argues further that the Court's arguments are incomplete even if the Court's approach were to be considered correct. The article concludes by expressing concern that the Court's decision, when seen in connection with previous case law, in practice renders the European Convention on Human Rights irrelevant in international peace operations.

Terrorist Crimes and International Co-operation: Critical Remarks on the Definition and Inclusion of Terrorism in the Category of International Crimes

Di Filippo, M. — 2008-07-15

Notwithstanding the emphasis placed on the need for concerted international action to confront the problem of terrorism, positive international law is far from treating the issue of defining the criminal notion of terrorism coherently; the discussion of such a notion is being made hostage [sic!] to the abuse of the term ‘terrorism’ in the course of the debate and to the confusion between an empirical description of a phenomenon and its treatment under criminal law. Proposing a core-definition approach, this article elaborates a notion based upon the basic rights of civilians and on the unacceptability of their violation by terrorist methods carried out by private organized groups. The definition proposed here, which does not recognize in the perpetrator’s motivations any material relevance because of the overwhelming importance of the value infringed, is able to minimize the relevance of some abused arguments (such as state terrorism or the treatment of ‘freedom fighters’), could quickly gain customary status and would prove useful in interpretation and in drafting exercises, both at international and national level. As for the inclusion of terrorism in the category of international crimes, it is submitted that two interpretive options are open: to consider the category of crimes against humanity as already able to embrace core terrorism; or to place the strong rationale underlying the stigmatization of terrorist crimes in the perspective of the gradual emerging of a discrete international crime of terrorism. National case law seems to point to the latter option, but the question does not appear settled: for this reason, the discussion regarding the prospect of an amendment to the ICC Statute expressly to include terrorist crimes continues to be of interest. An express inclusion could be useful to avoid doubts or discrepancies at national level and to solve some outstanding issues of the international community's criminal policy.

Overcoming Jurisdictional Isolationism at the WTO-FTA Nexus: A Potential Approach for the WTO

Henckels, C. — 2008-07-15

The proliferation of free trade agreements which share dispute settlement jurisdiction with the WTO has added to claims of disintegration within international trade law. Recent WTO jurisprudence is indicative of the limits of WTO members’ ability to invoke provisions of an FTA as a ‘jurisdictional defence’ where the dispute implicates trade measures under both WTO and FTA rules. Such uncertainty in the law has the potential not only to create issues of incoherent jurisprudence, but also to threaten the stability and predictability of the multilateral trading system. These issues are likely to continue to arise as FTAs continue to grow in abundance while the Doha round is stalled. Based on analysis of a selection of state–state disputes before other fora such as the International Court of Justice, this article argues that in the interest of the effective administration of justice, the WTO's judicial organ should use its inherent power of comity to decline to exercise jurisdiction so that the dispute can be resolved by an FTA tribunal where a dispute is inextricably connected with a dispute under an FTA and that exercising jurisdiction would not be reasonable in the circumstances.

Some Thoughts on the Making of International Law

Pronto, A. N. — 2008-07-15

In their timely and thought-provoking book, Alan Boyle and Christine Chinkin explore contemporary methods of making international law. With the expansion of international law, and its increased specialization, it is no longer the case that it is ‘made’ by a finite number of entities (states) through a handful of intergovernmental processes. Instead, international law is made in a large number of fora, including a variety of multilateral processes, tribunals and the organs of international organizations. In addition, although states remain the primary makers of international law, they are joined by other participants such as international organizations and judges, as well as entities which are influential in the making of international law, including non-governmental organizations and even individuals. The authors’ approach is to seek to draw generalized inferences from an analysis of the processes, both within and beyond the United Nations, which led to the adoption (or not) of several significant international instruments and other documents. Although their treatment of the subject-matter is not without its difficulties, it nonetheless provides a useful overview, which should be of interest to the academic and practitioner alike. The book is also significant for the fact that, in reviewing the range of modern international law instruments, the authors inadvertently provide an insight into the modern sources of international law, particularly as regards the significance of the interplay between different types of law-making instruments. The present writer offers his perspective on the treatment of the question of participation in international law-making, the impact of NGOs in the making of international law, consensus-based decision-making, the role of innovation in securing consensus, and the concept of ‘soft law’.

The WTO and Government Procurement

Davies, A. — 2008-07-15

Key Issues in the WTO Dispute Settlement: The First Ten Years

Nielsen, L. — 2008-07-15

Interpretation, Revision and Other Recourses from International Judgments and Awards

Oellers-Frahm, K. — 2008-07-15

The Transformation of Administrative Law in Europe / La mutation du droit administratif en Europe

Schmitz, T. — 2008-07-15

Making Foreign Investment Safe: Property Rights and National Sovereignty

Schneiderman, D. — 2008-07-15

Books Received

2008-07-15

Editorial: Medellin; In this Issue

JHHW, — 2008-05-23

The European Union as Situation, Executive, and Promoter of the International Law of Cultural Diversity - Elements of a Beautiful Friendship

von Bogdandy, A. — 2008-05-23

Cultural diversity is an important political and legal topos in the European Union. At the same time, the concern for cultural diversity gives reason for grave reservations towards the Union. This article intends to assist, on the basis of international law, in distinguishing appearance and reality. The Union will be analysed first as a situation of the application of the international law of cultural diversity, secondly as the regional executive of this international law, and thirdly as its global promoter. It shows that international law and Union law reinforce each other. The former conveys to the Union instruments to pursue European unification which at the same time serve its own implementation. Furthermore, it does not set limits to European unity since it protects only cultural pluralism but not state-supporting distinctiveness. A prerequisite for this consonance is that the Union's constitutional law allows for political unity without cultural unity and that international law remains mute about important questions on European unification. The international law perspective thus does not fully exhaust the problem: conformity with international law alone cannot dissipate concern for the future of cultural diversity in the Union.

The Sociology of International Economic Law: Sociological Analysis of the Regulation of Regional Agreements in the World Trading System

Hirsch, M. — 2008-05-23

International economic law (IEL) is influenced by diverse theoretical approaches. This article emphasizes that international economic activity is a social phenomenon and international trade should also be conceived as a specific type of social interaction. The scarcity of sociological analysis in contemporary IEL literature does not diminish the influence of social factors that are active in the under-explored layer of the international economic arena. Sociological analysis may recast well-known dilemmas in a different manner and generate insights regarding better legal mechanisms for coping with modern challenges faced by IEL. These properties of sociological analysis are illustrated in this article, which addresses one of the most challenging dilemmas in current IEL literature: the relationship between the World Trade Organization (WTO) and regional trade agreements (RTAs). The underlying argument of this article is that the economic dimension of RTAs is overlaid with a sociological dimension. Consequently, the global/regional debate is analysed with new conceptual tools: sociological theories, mainly the structural-functional perspective, the symbolic-interactionist approach, and the social conflict perspective. The core sociological theories lead to different conceptions of IEL and different interpretations of existing WTO legal provisions regarding RTAs. This article argues that while each of the above sociological approaches underscores certain significant aspects of the global/regional debate, the symbolic-interactionist perspective should generally serve as a point of departure for law- and policy-making in this sphere. This approach suggests that the relevant WTO legal rules should be interpreted in a liberal manner.

The Legal Reasoning of ICSID Tribunals - An Empirical Analysis

Fauchald, O. K. — 2008-05-23

This empirical analysis of the use of interpretive arguments by ad hoc tribunals of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes covers almost 100 cases decided during the past 10 years. The cases are analysed with a view to determining which arguments the tribunals use and how the arguments are used in light of Articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The analysis provides a basis for addressing the extent to which ICSID tribunals contribute to creating a predictable legal framework in which the interests of investors, states, and third parties are taken properly into account; the extent to which ICSID tribunals contribute to a coherent development of international investment law; and whether ICSID tribunals contribute to a ‘fragmentation’ of international law. Despite ICSID tribunals being ad hoc tribunals that solve legal disputes on the basis of heterogeneous legal sources, the article indicates that there is a tendency among ICSID tribunals to contribute to a homogeneous development of the methodology of international law. Nevertheless, the article concludes that ICSID tribunals could do significantly more to align their approaches to interpretive arguments with those of other international tribunals.

Determining the Necessity of Domestic Regulations in Services: The Best is Yet to Come

Delimatsis, P. — 2008-05-23

A necessity test is a tool that reflects the balance between each country's prerogative to regulate in its own jurisdiction and the multilateral interest in progressive liberalization of services trade. Experience gained in goods trade indicates that the principle of necessity can be a useful proxy allowing the judiciary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to draw the dividing line between legitimate regulation and protectionist abuse. This article explores the possibility of creating a necessity test that would be applicable to all services sectors. Such a horizontal test may yet emerge from the current negotiations within the Working Party on Domestic Regulation (WPDR), which aim to fulfil the legal mandate contained in Article VI(4) of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS or the ‘Agreement’). At the core of this mandate, as clarified by various negotiating documents, lies the requirement that Members ensure that domestic regulatory measures relating to licensing, qualifications, and technical standards do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade in services.

Making Markets Work: A Review of CDM Performance and the Need for Reform

Streck, C., Lin, J. — 2008-05-23

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is the first global market mechanism in international environmental law. It has been much lauded for its success. However, doubts whether the CDM governance structure is robust enough to meet the challenges of regulating an international market mechanism in the long term are emerging. The Executive Board (EB)’s decision-making practice is often not predictable and many of its decisions have come as a surprise to project participants and technical project experts. Members of the EB often have multiple responsibilities which result in a complicated situation of conflicting interests. Finally, private sector participants in the CDM who have been aversely affected by EB decisions have no right of recourse and essentially little if any due process rights. This article argues that incorporating mechanisms to promote procedural fairness and creating an appeals process for aggrieved CDM participants will promote transparency and accountability in the CDM decision-making processes. This is essential for the sound operation of the CDM regulatory regime which will have a direct positive effect on the international carbon market. After conducting a comparative analysis of other regimes in which international bodies take decisions that directly affect individuals, most notably the system of targeted sanctions of the UN Security Council and the Anti-Doping Regime, as well as examining the World Bank Inspection Panel and the European Ombudsman as models of international review mechanisms, the authors set out proposals for reform of the CDM, including professionalizing the EB and the panels, securing better and more consistent funding, the elimination of political interference, and the introduction of administrative law-like processes.

Beyond the Law: The Bush Administration's Unlawful Responses in the 'War' on Terror

Drumbl, M. A. — 2008-05-23

Interpretation and Revision of International Boundary Decisions

Milano, E. — 2008-05-23

International Institutional Reform: 2005 Hague Joint Conference on Contemporary Issues of International Law

Hanschel, D. — 2008-05-23

The World Trade Organization: Law, Practice, and Policy

Broude, T. — 2008-05-23

Regional Trade Agreements and the WTO Legal System

Kurtz, J. — 2008-05-23

Geistiges Eigentum in konkurrierenden volkerrechtlichen Vertragsordnungen: Das Verhaltnis zwischen WIPO und WTO/TRIPS

Dreier, T. — 2008-05-23

National Parliaments and European Democracy: A Bottom-up Approach to European Constitutionalism

Duina, F. — 2008-05-23

EU Administrative Governance

Thurner, P. W. — 2008-05-23

Families and the European Union: Law, Politics, and Pluralism

di Torella, E. C. — 2008-05-23

EU Competition Law: Procedures and Remedies

Vedder, H. — 2008-05-23

Editorial

JHHW, — 2008-04-11

Vote-trading in International Institutions

Eldar, O. — 2008-04-11

There is evidence that countries trade votes among each other in international institutions on a wide range of issues, including the use of force, trade issues, and elections of judges. Vote-trading has been criticized as being a form of corruption, undue influence, and coercion. Contrary to common wisdom, however, I argue in this article that the case for introducing policy measures against vote-trading cannot be made out on the basis of available evidence. This article sets out an analytical framework for analysing vote-trading in international institutions, focusing on three major contexts in which vote-trading may generate benefits and costs: (1) agency costs (collective good), (2) coercive tendering, and (3) agency costs (constituents). The applicability of each context depends primarily on the type of decision in question – i.e. preference-decision or judgement-decision – and the interests that countries are expected to maximize when voting. The analytical framework is applied to evidence of vote-trading in four institutions, the Security Council, the General Assembly, the World Trade Organization, and the International Whaling Commission. The application of the analysis reveals that while vote-trading can create significant costs, there is only equivocal evidence to this effect, and in several cases vote-trading generates important benefits.

The Concept of Appeal in International Dispute Settlement*

Gal-Or, N. — 2008-04-11

The WTO Appellate Body represents an innovation in international law in that an international adjudication authority now operates as a final instance to hear appeals arising from international arbitral (panel) procedures. It is thereby strongly emulating domestic appellate courts without, however, possessing the characteristics that make appellate courts the institutions of justice that they are. Following this trend in a cutting-edge fashion are several other inter-governmental arrangements that had been either concluded (Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Olivos Protocol in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur)) or proposed (the US Congresses' 2002 Trade Promotion Authority Act, the ICSID Discussion Paper of 22 October 2004, the third draft Free Trade Area for the Americas). They embrace the concept of a permanent international instance for appeal from arbitral awards, particularly regarding investment agreements including also disputes arising between the state (public) and the individual legal person (private).

Status of Forces and Status of Mission Agreements under the ESDP: The EU's Evolving Practice

Sari, A. — 2008-04-11

The conduct of EU military and civilian crisis management operations in third states within the context of the European Security and Defence Policy has presented the EU with new administrative and operational challenges in recent years, including the need to define the international legal position of such operations and their personnel during their presence abroad. In some cases, the EU has entered into agreements with host states to determine the legal status of EU crisis management operations, while in other cases the application of already existing arrangements has been extended to them. The status agreements negotiated directly by the EU confer more extensive privileges and immunities on EU operations and their personnel than current international practice in this area would warrant. Despite opposition to this policy within the EU, it has remained in place under the two model status agreements adopted by the Council of the European Union in 2005 to serve as a basis for negotiations with prospective host states in all future EU operations. Even though no norm of international law compels the EU to request only such privileges and immunities as are absolutely necessary for the purposes of an operation, its practice of negotiating extensive privileges and immunities does not sit well with the growing emphasis on the accountability of peace support operations. This article offers an overview of the evolution of the EU's practice of concluding status agreements in the context of the European Security and Defence Policy and examines the key provisions of the two model status agreements.

Import, Export, and Regional Consent in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

Neuman, G. L. — 2008-04-11

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has elaborated a significant body of human rights jurisprudence through interpretation of regional human rights conventions and the adaptation of European and global precedents and global soft law. The Inter-American Court has also aspired to influence outside its region by offering innovative interpretations of human rights and by identifying norms as jus cogens. The Court's methodology in recent years has appeared to give insufficient consideration to the consent of the regional community of states as a factor in the evolutive interpretation of a human rights treaty. The article illustrates and criticizes that trend, and contends that greater attention to indicia of regional consent could improve the acceptance and effectiveness of the inter-American human rights system.

Redesigning the European Court of Human Rights: Embeddedness as a Deep Structural Principle of the European Human Rights Regime

Helfer, L. R. — 2008-04-11

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is the crown jewel of the world's most advanced international system for protecting civil and political liberties. In recent years, however, the ECtHR has become a victim of its own success. The Court now faces a docket crisis of massive proportions, the consequence of the growing number of states subject to its jurisdiction, its favourable public reputation, its expansive interpretations of individual liberties, a distrust of domestic judiciaries in some countries, and entrenched human rights problems in others. In response to this growing backlog of individual complaints, the Council of Europe has, over the last five years, considered numerous proposals to restructure the European human rights regime and redesign the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This article argues that these proposals should be understood not as ministerial changes in supranational judicial procedure, nor as resolving a debate over whether the ECtHR should strive for individual or constitutional justice, but rather as raising more fundamental questions concerning the Court's future identity. In particular, the article argues for recognition of ‘embeddedness’ in national legal systems as a deep structural principle of the ECHR, a principle that functions as a necessary counterpoint to the subsidiary doctrine that has animated the Convention since its founding. Embeddedness does not substitute ECtHR rulings for the decisions of national parliaments or domestic courts. Rather, it requires the Council of Europe and the Court to bolster the mechanisms for governments to remedy human rights violations at home, obviating the need for individuals to seek supranational relief and restoring countries to a position in which the ECtHR's deference to national decision-makers is appropriate.

The Interaction between Human Rights and Humanitarian Law: Fragmentation, Conflict, Parallelism, or Convergence?

Orakhelashvili, A. — 2008-04-11

The principal question in terms of assessing the interaction between human rights applicable both in peacetime and war and humanitarian law applicable only to armed conflicts is whether the protection accorded to individuals under the latter is lower than that under the former. The clarification of this question requires the accurate assessment of the available evidence, and not the preconceived approach that tends to conceive one of these two fields as lex specialis that excludes or curtails the protection under the other field. This contribution examines the various aspects of this problem, such as the general interaction between human rights law and humanitarian law, and the relevance of particular human rights in the context of armed conflicts. The evidence dealt with in the course of this analysis exposes the fallacy of the argument that the humanitarian law protection may be lower than that under human rights law.

The Competence of the UN Human Rights Council and its Special Procedures in relation to Armed Conflicts: Extrajudicial Executions in the 'War on Terror'

Alston, P., Morgan-Foster, J., Abresch, W. — 2008-04-11

Since 2003, as part of its ‘war on terror’, the United States has taken the position that the UN Commission on Human Rights and its successor, the UN Human Rights Council, as well as the system of ‘special procedures’ reporting to both bodies, all lack the competence to examine abuses committed in the context of armed conflicts. The article examines the arguments put forward by the US in the specific context of the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The authors conclude that the consistent practice of the human rights organs for almost 25 years, often supported and until 2003 never opposed by the US, runs counter to the current US position. Acceptance of the US position would not only undermine efforts to hold the US accountable but would also have a major impact on the international system of accountability as a whole.

The History of International Legal Theory in Russia: a Civilizational Dialogue with Europe

Malksoo, L. — 2008-04-11

This review essay examines the main breaks and continuities in the history of international legal theory in Russia. In particular, it draws on works by leading Russian international law scholars: Peter Pavlovich Shafirov (1670–1739), Fyodor Fyodorovich Martens (1845–1909), Baron Mikhail Taube (1869–1956), Vladimir Emmanuilovich Hrabar (1865–1956), Fyodor Ivanovich Kozhevnikov (1893–1998) and Grigori Ivanovich Tunkin (1906–1993). The reception of these theoreticians’ works in today's Russia is also examined. The history of the discipline in Russia opens itself up as a civilizational dialogue with (Western) Europe. The main questions have been: Is international law universal or fragmented; what is the progressive force in international law? The Russian theory of international law has moved from proving that ‘we too are civilized/European’ in the early 18th century to an aspiration towards Western European civilization in the 18th and 19th centuries to the break with the West and an affirmation of Russia's own distinctiveness and primacy in the 20th century. Those who hurriedly celebrated Russia's reunion with Europe (and Western liberal theory of international law) following the end of the Cold War should not lose sight of the longer historical perspective and especially the experiment of the ‘civilizing’/Europeanizing/liberalizing project in 19th century Russian and Baltic German international law scholarship.

Fool Me Twice: Intelligence Failure and Mass Casualty Terrorism

Chesterman, S. — 2008-04-11

Democracy and International Law, Aldershot, Hampshire

Vandewoude, C. — 2008-04-11