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481. Baku Dialogues

Author:
Zaur Shiriyev
Publication Date:
06-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Baku Dialogues
Institution:
ADA University
Abstract:
“Baku Dialogues” is a series of events featuring leading world personalities who will address subjects of current international interest by presenting their views and participating in discussion of these subjects with interested Azerbaijani and international figures. These presentations and discussions, along with other submissions, will be recorded in the “Baku Dialogues”, ADA University’s new journal of record for academic and policy research.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Development, Diplomacy, Treaties and Agreements, International Security, Partnerships, Peace, and Berlin Wall
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, Turkey, Finland, Latvia, and Global Focus

482. Land Rights in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman State Succession Treaties

Author:
Ilias Bantekas
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Ottoman state practice in the field of state succession in the 19th century displayed strict adherence to the European notions of international law. This is evident from the ratification of cession treaties, attention to reciprocity, the use of mediation and reliance on the existing laws of war principles, including the legal effects of occupation, conquest and the rights and duties of belligerents. This article focuses on state succession treaties with Greece since they represented the paradigm for all future treaties, and it examines the Islamic origin of Ottoman land regulation. The Ottomans succeeded in attaching a further condition to their cession arrangements with the new Greek state, namely the latter’s obligation to respect the property rights of Muslim citizens. This arrangement brought into play the application of Ottoman land law, to which Greece was under no obligation to succeed. This body of law, particularly the set of property rights bestowed under it, became a focal point in the ensuing state succession negotiations. It was the actual basis of Muslim property rights – a precursor to contemporary property rights – and a sine qua non element of Ottoman practice in the law of state succession. In this light, Ottoman land law and institutions should correctly be considered to be general principles of law – with origins from the Quran and the early caliphates – as well as regional custom, at least in the territories liberated from Ottoman rule, which continued to apply and enforce it not only among Muslims but also in the property relations of the indigenous ethnic communities.
Topic:
International Law, Islam, Treaties and Agreements, History, and Land Law
Political Geography:
Europe, Greece, and Ottoman Empire

483. James C. Hathaway, Michelle Foster. The Law of Refugee Status

Author:
Rosemary Byrne
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The claims made by migrants seeking protection under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention) have created a staggering body of state practice emerging from the interpretation by national courts of what is the earliest universal human rights treaty. The first edition of James Hathaway’s The Law of Refugee Status, alongside Guy Goodwin-Gill and Jane McAdam’s The Refugee in International Law, is one of the essential texts on every refugee lawyer’s bookshelf. Now in its second edition, co-authored by Hathaway and Michelle Foster, The Law of Refugee Status is likely to maintain its standing.
Topic:
International Law, Treaties and Agreements, United Nations, Refugees, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe, United Nations, and Mediterranean

484. Arnaud de Nanteuil. Droit International de l'investissement

Author:
Eric De Brabandere
Publication Date:
04-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
There clearly is no dearth in publications dealing with the burgeoning field of international investment law. And one might wonder whether another handbook is needed on the subject. Yet Arnaud de Nanteuil’s Droit International de l’investissement has certain features that make the book of particular interest. Notably, it constitutes the first francophone handbook exclusively dedicated to international investment law.
Topic:
International Law, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe and France

485. Who Wants What? – Final Offer Arbitration in the World Trade Organization

Author:
Jaime Tijmes
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) favours negotiated settlements for disputes. However, arbitrations according to Article 22.6 of the DSU have been carried out as compulsory conventional arbitrations, even though such arbitrations do not offer strong incentives for the parties to reach a settlement. For quite some time, scholars have studied other forms of arbitration that may encourage settlements more strongly, such as final offer arbitration. Yet this form of arbitration has received rather limited attention in the academic discussion about dispute settlement under the WTO. This article explores to what extent final offer arbitration might make sense for settling WTO disputes and concludes that it would be suitable for arbitrations pursuant to Article 22.6 of the DSU, specifically for setting the level of suspension of obligations and, under certain circumstances, for deciding on so-called cross-retaliation pursuant to Article 22.3 of the DSU. Before negotiations start, parties to a dispute should agree on final offer arbitration if arbitration should be deemed necessary. Such an agreement might be expressed in a pre-emptive joint proposal on procedural aspects. Amendment of the DSU would then be unnecessary.
Topic:
International Law, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and World Trade Organization
Political Geography:
Europe and Global Focus

486. International Investment Law and the European Union: Towards a New Generation of International Investment Agreements

Author:
Catharine Titi
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
For about half a century, the European investment treaty model has been associated with European Union (EU) member states’ bilateral investment treaty practice, often referred to as their ‘best practices’. Member state bilateral investment treaties, which are liberal instruments strongly protective of investor interests, have remained relatively unchanged over the years, in contrast with their North American counterparts, which have come to represent a new type of investment treaty, cognizant for the first time of the contracting parties’ right to regulate. With the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon and the exercise of the EU’s new competence over the conclusion of treaties covering foreign direct investment, Europe marks its distances with the old approach of the member states and appears eager to set its own ‘model’. While broadly in harmony with the new generation of North American investment treaties, the nascent EU policy aims to improve international investment law in innovative ways, targeting both substantive and procedural protections, and leading to a yet newer generation of international investment treaties. The present article explores this new EU standard, which is set to change the face of international investment law as we know it.
Topic:
International Law, Treaties and Agreements, Foreign Direct Investment, and European Union
Political Geography:
Europe and European Union

487. Applying the Extra-Legal Measures Model to Humanitarian Interventions: A Reply to Devon Whittle

Author:
Oren Gross
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
In ‘The Limits of Legality and the United Nations Security Council: Applying the Extra-Legal Measures Model to Chapter VII Action’, Devon Whittle analogizes the United Nations Security Council’s Chapter VII powers to domestic emergency powers. He then seeks to apply the extra-legal measures (ELM) model of emergency powers, which I developed some 20 years ago, to exercise by the Council of its Chapter VII powers. This brief comment seeks to expand the discussion of ELM in international affairs beyond the collective security system by exploring the application of ELM in the setting of unilateral humanitarian intervention.
Topic:
International Law, Treaties and Agreements, United Nations, International Security, and Humanitarian Intervention
Political Geography:
Europe, Kosovo, United Nations, and Syria

488. How Should States Own? Heinisch v. Germany and the Emergence of Human Rights-Sensitive State Ownership Function

Author:
Mikko Rajavuori
Publication Date:
07-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
State ownership is thriving. Emerging economies are extending their growing economic power outward through sovereign wealth funds. State-owned multinationals have become top sources of foreign direct investment. Bailouts have recreated powerful state ownership structures in regions where private ownership has traditionally prevailed. The state is back – in shareholder capacity. Approaching the rise of state ownership from a human rights perspective, this article submits that a new conceptualization of state ownership function is emerging. State ownership provides a strong link connecting corporate actions with the international human rights system. Yet the conventional methods used to integrate state ownership in human rights treaty bodies’ discretion seem unable to grasp the changing economic role of governments in the global economy. The article suggests that the notion of the ‘public shareholder’, introduced by the European Court of Human Rights in Heinisch v. Germany (2011), provides a useful lens for interrogating how states should govern the human rights performance of corporations through ownership. When exposed to the recent practice of a range of United Nations treaty bodies, internationalizing state ownership activity becomes framed in human rights terms. In this vision, the whole ownership function becomes a site for turning companies in the state’s portfolio into responsible corporate citizens who take the impact of human rights seriously. Specifically, treaty bodies should advise states to seek human rights governance through private mechanisms in the capacity of the shareholder. In the process, human rights’ checks and balances should constitute a counterweight for market-based initiatives that regulate state activity in the capacity of the shareholder.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, Treaties and Agreements, Foreign Direct Investment, Economies, and Courts
Political Geography:
Europe, Norway, and Germany

489. Humanity Considerations Cannot Reduce Wars Hazards Alone: Revitalizing the Concept of Military Necessity

Author:
Yishai Beer
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
The exercise of brute force by militaries, though common, reflects professional incompetency. A well-trained military has an inherent interest in enhancing its operational effectiveness and constraining unnecessary brutality. The law of armed conflict, however, generally ignores the constraining effect of the necessity principle, originally intended to allow only the minimally necessary use of force on the battlefield. Consequently, the prevailing law places the burden of restricting the exercise of brute military force upon humanitarian considerations (and the specific norms derived from them). Humanity alone, however, cannot deliver the goods and substantially reduce war’s hazards. This article challenges the current dichotomy between the two pillars – mistakenly assumed to be polar opposites – of the law of armed conflict: necessity and humanity. It calls for the transformation of the military’s self-imposed professional constraining standards into a revised legal standard of necessity. Though the necessity principle justifies the mere use of lethal force, it should not only facilitate wielding the military sword but also function simultaneously as a shield, protecting combatants and non-combatants alike from excessive brutality. The suggested transformation would bind and restrain the prospective exercisers of excessive force, political and military alike, and restrict the potential damage that might be caused both intentionally (to combatants) and collaterally (to non-combatants). The combined effect of the current changes in war’s pattern and the law of armed conflict, in the military and social thinking of recent decades, and the new strategies available due to the development of new military technologies have all created a new war environment – one that may be ready to leverage the constraining potential of military professionalism into a binding legal standard and norms.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, International Law, Treaties and Agreements, and War
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, and Europe

490. Surabhi Ranganathan. Strategically Created Treaty Conflicts and the Politics of International Law

Author:
Sabrina Safrin
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
Treaty conflicts may be inevitable, but what do we make of conflict by design? In Strategically Created Treaty Conflicts and the Politics of International Law, Surabhi Ranganathan thoughtfully explores nations’ purposeful creation of conflicts between treaties to advance their political goals and to restrict the impact of treaties to which they object. Essentially, states fight legal fire with legal fire. If they object to a multilateral treaty regime, they create another regime that effectively conflicts with, or cabins, the treaty regime that they object to rather than simply walking away.
Topic:
International Law, Treaties and Agreements, Book Review, and Law of the Sea
Political Geography:
Europe and United States of America

491. M. Sornarajah. Resistance and Change in the International Law on Foreign Investment

Author:
Harm Schepel
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Abstract:
In 1994, Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah published the first edition of his treatise, The International Law on Foreign Investment. There, he sought to demonstrate that investment law as a separate branch of international law was ‘in the process of development’ and could and should be isolated for separate study. Organizing his material from the disparate sources of domestic law, contract-based arbitration and public international law along the overarching tension between the interests of developing countries and those of traditionally capital-exporting states, his stated aim was to ‘help in the identification of the nature of the disputes’, which would lead, in turn, to the ‘formulation of acceptable solutions’. The treatise was a well-timed pioneering effort that rightfully earned the author a lasting reputation as one of the founding fathers and towering figures of the academic discipline. There seems to be no one better placed, then, to ask, 20 years on, what happened or, rather, what went wrong. Investment law has developed with breathtaking speed into a (very) separate branch of international law – yes – but almost entirely on the waves of treaty-based investor–state arbitration, which has all but eclipsed contractual and domestic processes, at least in terms of academic interest. And this system has, in the eyes of Sornarajah and many others, rather spectacularly failed to lead to ‘acceptable solutions’, especially for developing countries.
Topic:
International Law, Treaties and Agreements, Foreign Direct Investment, Neoliberalism, and Book Review
Political Geography:
Europe and United States of America

492. Las armas biológicas. Perspectivas de futuro

Author:
Nieva Machín
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Revista UNISCI/UNISCI Journal
Institution:
Unidad de investigación sobre seguridad y cooperación (UNISCI)
Abstract:
La valoración de bajo riesgo de sufrir un ataque con armas biológicas realizada por la estrategia nacional de seguridad resulta errónea ya que España como miembro de la OTAN debería recoger en su estrategia nacional de seguridad del año 2013 esta amenaza ya considerada como tal por la OTAN en el año 2002. Para una valoración efectiva del nivel de esta amenaza resulta preciso considerar que esta ha trascendido el ámbito militar. En el presente artículo se presentará la vulnerabilidad de España derivaba de las políticas y protocolos de seguridad de carácter reactivo y no preventivo establecidas en España así como aspectos mutidimensionales que requieren un replanteamiento y mejoras acordes a una valoración de riesgo más precisa.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Science and Technology, Terrorism, Treaties and Agreements, Chemical Weapons, Pharmaceuticals, and Biotechnology
Political Geography:
Europe, Spain, and Global Focus

493. Amérique latine -- L’année politique 2014

Author:
Olivier Dabène, Gaspard Estrada, Guillaume Fleury, Andrés Gómez, Erica Guevara, Damien Larrouqué, Frédéric Louault, Antoine Maillet, Frédéric Massé, Kevin Parthenay, David Recondo, Eduardo Rios, and Sebastián Urioste
Publication Date:
12-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
Amérique latine - L’Année politique is a publication by CERI-Sciences Po’s Political Observatory of Latin America and the Caribbean (OPALC). The study extends the work presented on the Observatory’s website (www.sciencespo.fr/opalc) by offering tools for understanding a continent that is in the grip of deep transformations.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, History, Elections, Sports, Political Science, Regional Integration, and Memory
Political Geography:
Colombia, South America, Uruguay, Latin America, Central America, Venezuela, North America, Mexico, Guatemala, and Bolivia

494. Left in the Cold? The ELN and Colombia's Peace Talks

Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Crisis Group
Abstract:
Whether the National Liberation Army (ELN) joins the current peace process is one of the biggest uncertainties around Colombia's historic opportunity to end decades of deadly conflict. Exploratory contacts continue, and pressure to advance decisively is growing, as the Havana negotiations with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) approach a decisive point. However, hopes fresh negotiations with the second insurgency were imminent were repeatedly dashed in 2013. Agreeing on an agenda and procedures that satisfy the ELN and are consistent with the Havana frame-work will not be easy. The ELN thinks the government needs to make an overture or risk ongoing conflict; the government believes the ELN must show flexibility or risk being left out. But delay is in neither's long-term interest. A process from which the ELN is missing or to which it comes late would lack an essential element for the construction of sustainable peace. Both sides, therefore, should shift gears to open negotiations soonest, without waiting for a perfect alignment of stars in the long 2014 electoral season.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Treaties and Agreements, War on Drugs, Insurgency, and Narcotics Trafficking
Political Geography:
Colombia and Latin America

495. Compounding Uncertainty in Afghanistan: Economic Consequences of Delay in Signing the Bilateral Security Agreement

Author:
Casey Garret Johnson, William A. Byrd, and Sanaullah Tasal
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
The still unsigned Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) between Afghanistan and the United States provides the legal basis for continuing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan. In addition to its substantive importance, the BSA is also a confidence-building mechanism. The delay in putting it in place is compounding uncertainty and further diminishing economic confidence during Afghanistan's already challenging and uncertain transition. Afghans' responses include, among others, hedging behavior (legal and illegal), personal decisions on whether to come back to or stay in Afghanistan, delays in investments, incipient job losses, declining demand for goods and services and real estate prices, and farmers planting more opium poppy.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Democratization, Development, Treaties and Agreements, Insurgency, and Bilateral Relations
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, and Asia

496. Multilateral investment disciplines: Don't forget the GATS

Author:
Rudolf Adlung
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
A number of recent studies have discussed the implications of most-favored-nation (MFN) clauses in bilateral investment treaties (BIT s) and the possible need for, and role of, a multilateral framework for investment. Surprisingly, the relevance of existing multilateral disciplines, in particular under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), is seldom acknowledged in this context.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, and Foreign Direct Investment

497. The case for a framework agreement on investment

Author:
Gary Hufbauer and Sherry Stephenson
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
In Columbia FDI Perspectives, No. 102, Axel Berger claimed that the debate over a multilateral framework for investment is futile. We disagree. Following its achievements at the 9th Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia, the World Trade Organization (WTO) should launch negotiations to draft a 21st century Investment Framework Agreement (IFA).
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Treaties and Agreements, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Colombia

498. The "spaghetti bowl" of IIAs: The end of history?

Author:
Joachim Karl
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
In his famous book, "The End of History and the Last Man", published in 1992, Francis Fukuyama argued that Western democracy represents the end point of the socio-cultural evolution of humanity and the final form of government.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Treaties and Agreements, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
France

499. Recalibrating interpretive authority

Author:
Anthea Roberts
Publication Date:
01-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
There have been many calls for a rebalancing of investor protection and state sovereignty in the investment treaty system. However, another equally important shift is underway: the recalibration of interpretive authority between treaty parties and arbitral tribunals. In newer-style investment treaties, states are increasingly protecting and enhancing their role in interpreting and applying their treaties.
Topic:
Economics, Government, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Treaties and Agreements, and Foreign Direct Investment

500. The Conflict over Aviation Emissions: A Case of Retreating EU Leadership?

Author:
Antto Vihma and Harro van Asselt
Publication Date:
02-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Finnish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Notwithstanding the incremental steps taken in October 2013, meaningful action on regulating international aviation emissions through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) remains a distant prospect. The European Union (EU) must decide on its aviation Directive without the guarantee of a global market-based mechanism being agreed in 2016. The strong and uncompromising positions of countries opposed to the inclusion of foreign airlines in the EU's emissions trading system (ETS) are more related to a realist game of politics rather than to the design details of the policy instrument. The political and legal arguments against the European Commission's proposal to amend the EU ETS vis à vis aviation emissions are unconvincing. Europe should also insist on its own sovereign rights-such as the right to regulate international aviation in its own airspace-and consider ways of manifesting more assertiveness in the future in order not to create a precedent with the retreat in the Aviation Directive case. Otherwise, the EU ma y become vulnerable to pressure in other areas of regulation with extraterritorial implications, and the EU's credibility when faced with strong and coordinated external influences might be undermined.
Topic:
Climate Change, Health, Treaties and Agreements, and Infrastructure
Political Geography:
Europe