Public International Law

This book evaluates the impact on state behaviour of international norms adopted in forms that are not legally binding. The use of such ‘soft law’ has increased dramatically with the proliferation of international organizations. Whether and how such norms can be used effectively to supplement or substitute for legally binding obligations forms the heart of this discussion. The study examines four areas of international law: human rights, the environment, arms control, and trade and finance. For each area, they assess the use of non-binding norms and ask whether such norms engender state compliance. More generally, the discussion also addresses the nature of international law and the role of non-binding norms in the international legal system.

The proliferation of international courts and tribunals has given rise to several new issues affecting the administration of international justice. This book makes a significant contribution to understanding the impact of this proliferation by addressing one important question: namely, whether international courts and tribunals are increasingly adopting common approaches to questions of procedure and remedies. The central argument is that there is an increasing commonality in the practice of international courts and tribunals to the application of rules concerning these issues, and that this represents the emergence of a common law of international adjudication. This book examines this question by considering several key issues relating to procedure and remedies, and analyses relevant international jurisprudence to demonstrate that there is substantial commonality. It then looks at why international courts are increasingly adopting common approaches to such questions, and why a greater degree of commonality may be found with respect to some issues rather than others. In doing so, light is shed on the methods adopted by international courts to engage in the cross-fertilization of legal principles. The emergence of a common law of international adjudication has important practical and theoretical implications, as it suggests that international courts can also devise common approaches to the challenges that they face in the age of proliferation. It also suggests that international courts do not generally operate as self-contained regimes, but rather that they regard themselves as forming part of a community of international courts, therefore having positive implications for the development of the international legal system.

This book assembles the works of scholars from around the world, forming a contextual demonstration of the increasing encounters and tensions among legal cultures. In recognizing the lack of consensus on how to define transnational law, the text includes carefully selected works that originally appeared in the German Law Journal in order to help show the challenges of defining transnational law, and to help with the appreciation of the differing approaches towards it. Some, for example, maintain that the processes of transnationalization has created a space for a new, discrete corpus of law—a field in its own right that is the equal of public international law or conflict of laws. Others understand the perceived transnational phenomena to be illustrations of an emerging legal culture that no longer fits the traditional distinction between national and international jurisdictions. In offering different approaches to such an understanding of transnational law, the chapters also bring out the important consequences of a more global outlook in legal scholarship, legal practice, and legal education.

This book presents a detailed study on compensation and restitution in investor state arbitration pursuant to investment treaties. The study begins by examining the historical roots of the principles of reparation, restitution, and compensation in international law as reflected in the landmark Chorzów Factory case. The roots of these principles are traced to Roman law and private law concepts that entered into the European continent's legal systems. Moving to modern times, the study focuses on the principle of reparation set out in the Chorzów Factory case and its requirement that reparation put the aggrieved party in the ‘hypothetical position’ that would have existed if not for the wrongful act. Restitution, both material and judicial, is discussed as a form of reparation. Compensation, by far the more common form of reparation in modern international investment disputes, is discussed in detail. In dealing with compensation for expropriation, this book examines the recent trends in which lawful and unlawful expropriation cases are distinguished and the impact that this distinction can have on the amount of compensation. This book additionally outlines some of the main valuation and accounting methods used in setting the hypothetical position to measure compensation due. Various forms of supplemental compensation, such as moral damages, interest, or arbitration costs, may also be necessary to fully restore the hypothetical position; these are discussed along with applicable limitations. This study also sets out important principles that may limit compensation generally, such as causation and the prohibition on double counting.

Recent years have witnessed a sharp increase in the number of international courts and tribunals (WTO, NAFTA, ITLOS, ICC, etc.) and greater willingness on the part of states and other international actors to subject themselves to the compulsory jurisdiction of international adjudicative mechanisms. However, because of the uncoordinated nature of these developments, overlaps between the jurisdictional ambits of the different judicial bodies might occur, i.e., the same dispute could fall under the jurisdiction of more than one forum. This raises both theoretical and practical issues of coordination between the various jurisdictions. The purpose of this book is to explore the implications of jurisdictional competition and to identify standards that may alleviate problems associated with the phenomenon, which arguably threatens the unity of international law. The first part of the book examines the jurisdictional ambits of the principal international courts and tribunals and delineates areas of overlap between their respective jurisdictions. There follows a discussion of some of the potential systematic and practical problems that arise out of jurisdictional competition (such as forum shopping and multiple proceedings) and a consideration of the expediency of mitigating them. The book concludes by identifying existing rules of international law, which govern inter-jurisdictional competition, and by considering the desirability of introducing additional norms and arrangements.

The book examines the principle of complementarity in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the implications of that principle for the suppression of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes on the domestic level. The book is set against the general background of the national suppression of these crimes, its potential and pitfalls. It traces the evolution of complementarity as a principle governing the allocation of the respective competences of the ICC and national criminal jurisdictions, and its translation into one of the central requirements for the admissibility of situations and cases before the ICC. It provides a critical and comprehensive analysis of the provisions in the Rome Statute and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence relevant to complementarity. In so doing, it addresses the notions of ‘unwillingness’ and ‘inability’, and the procedural framework for the application, invocation, and litigation of questions of admissibility. The early practice of the ICC in operationalizing complementarity is also considered. The book further devotes attention to the question whether and to what extent the Rome Statute in general, and the regulation of complementarity in particular, imposes on States Parties an obligation to investigate and prosecute core crimes domestically. In that context, it analyses the room for States to opt for substitutes of criminal proceedings, such as truth commission processes and the granting of amnesties. Finally, the book examines the potential of the complementary regime to function as a catalyst for States to conduct domestic criminal proceedings vis-à-vis core crimes.

This book considers the legal obligations countries have to people who do not meet the legal definition of a ‘refugee’, but who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. This is known as ‘complementary protection’, because it complements the central international instrument in this area, the 1951 Refugee Convention. Chapter 1 identifies pre-1951 examples of complementary protection, demonstrating how the content of the status afforded to extended categories of refugees was historically the same as that granted to ‘legal’ refugees. It traces unsuccessful attempts at the international and European levels to codify a system of complementary protection, prior to the EU's adoption of the Qualification Directive in 2004 and international support for an ExCom Conclusion in 2005. The Qualification Directive, examined in Chapter 2, represents the first supranational codification of complementary protection, but is hampered by a hierarchical conceptualization of protection that grants a lesser status to beneficiaries of ‘subsidiary protection’ vis-à-vis Convention refugees. Chapters 3 to 5 examine a number of human rights treaties (CAT, ECHR, ICCPR, and CRC) to identify provisions that may give rise to a claim for international protection. Chapter 6 illustrates why all persons protected by the principle of non-refoulement should be entitled to the same legal status as refugees, demonstrating the Refugee Convention's role in providing a rights blueprint for beneficiaries of complementary protection.

The enlargement of the EU has highlighted the challenges of compliance, but it has also helped to suggest new compliance methodologies. The combination of methodologies used by the EU and the differing levels of enforcement available are characteristic of the EU's compliance system, permitting the remarkable reach and penetration of EU norms into national systems. This study offers assessment of the enforcement procedures and compliance processes that have been developed to ensure Member State compliance with EU law. The first three chapters examine the merits of combing both coercive and problem-solving strategies, describing the systems in place and focusing on the different levels at which compliance mechanisms operate: national, regional, and international. It also looks at horizontal compliance as well as ‘from above’ compliance, creating a complex and rich picture of the EU's system. The final three chapters of the book focus on different aspects of compliance seen from a national perspective. The first analyses the two bases for the use of criminal sanctions to enforce EU law: the ability of Member States to choose to include criminal penalties for non-compliance in their national law; and the imposition of criminal sanctions at a national level by EU law itself. The book then moves on to a discussion of the role of national courts in ensuring Member State compliance with, and enforcement of, EU law. It examines the role of national constitutional courts in facilitating compliance with EU law and draws comparisons between EU law and international law and their interactions both with each other and with national constitutional courts.

This book examines the compliance record of state parties to proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial body of the United Nations. It undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the follow-up of the ICJ's judgments and interim measures from the Court's creation in 1945 until the present day. ICJ judgments and provisional measures from the Corfu Channel case in the late 1940s to the Arrest Warrant Case decided in 2002 are examined, with particular focus on state practice. After explaining the legal basis for the obligation of compliance and the enforcement of ICJ decisions, the book analyses all decisions that gave rise to an obligation of compliance. The analysis is contextual, taking into account the history of the dispute, the underlying political interests, the parties' attitudes towards involvement of the ICJ, and the substance of the applicable law. This analysis reveals that the compliance record for judgments is generally satisfactory, whereas that for provisional measures is at first sight rather poor. Yet the record for provisional measures must be understood in a more nuanced light. In several cases, the applicant gained at least a certain benefit from the decision even though it was not (or was not fully) implemented. The book examines the reasons for the difference in the track records of judgments and provisional measures and explores mechanisms that could be conducive to enhanced compliance.

This book brings together and subjects to critical scrutiny the core controversies connected to the so-called ‘War on Terror’: When is it legitimate and prudent to use force? Is torture ever justified? Do we need to suspend human rights in order to fight terrorism? Is multi-culturalism the answer to communal conflict? Is Israel's treatment of the Palestinians illegal and immoral, an accelerator of terrorism, or legitimately defensive and largely irrelevant to the terrorism problem? Are terrorists responding to concrete U.S. policies or do they simply hate and wish to destroy Western societies? Liberal intellectuals and political leaders have been slow to articulate a grand strategy informed by liberal values for confronting these issues surrounding global terrorism. This book outlines the framework of a liberal strategy providing ideas and actions. It also gives clear and concise definitions of key terms in current foreign policy discussions, including liberalism, human rights, neo-conservatism, multilateralism and terrorism. This book exposes the costs of the neo-conservative alternative that has driven US foreign policy since 9/11.