Queen Mary Studies in International Law - Böcker

In Article 31(3)(c) VCLT and the Principle of Systemic Integration: Normative Shadows in Plato’s Cave the author tackles a provision on treaty interpretation that has risen in prominence, Article 31(3)(c) VCLT. This article, which enshrines the principle of systemic integration, and its exact scope has become and continues to be a hotly debated subject in academic and judicial circles. Through an examination of both its written and unwritten elements, the author argues that the ‘proximity criterion’ is the optimal way of understanding and utilizing this provision, that conflict resolution principles may be of use within Article 31(3)(c) and finally, that the principle of systemic integration is indispensable not only for interpreting treaty provisions but customary international law as well.

The Challenges of Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development from Rio to Rio+20 and Beyond is an innovative and original book which addresses in an analytical and critical way the issues raised by Rio+20. Its content offers a wealth of information from world leading experts in the fields of international law, international environmental law and international health law. The book provides a unique insight in issues which are at the core of the contemporary management of social, environmental and economic questions and thus represents a very important contribution to our further understanding of the concept of sustainable development. It is aimed at a global audience and at anybody interested in the future of our Planet and the fate of future generations. Contributors are: Pia Acconci, Estelle Brosset, Francesco Buonomenna, Lucien Chabason, Carina Costa de Oliveira, Angela Di Stasi, Jérôme Dubois, Malgosia Fitzmaurice, Leonardus Gerber, Elizabeth Hodson de Jaramillo, Sophie Lavallée, Antonio Leandro, Sandrine Maljean-Dubois, Panos Merkouris, Claudia Napoli, Stefania Negri, Anna Oriolo, Rossana Palladino, Teresa Russo, Ingrid Schuler, Francesco Sindico, José Manuel Sobrino Heredia, Hélène Tigroudja, Valentina Vadi, Anna Vigorito

Exclusion from refugee status for the suspected commission of serious crimes is a topic fraught with political and legal controversy. This is an area which sees the intersection of refugee law with international criminal and humanitarian law and, increasingly, measures taken in the fight against terrorism. In Terrorism and Exclusion from Refugee Status in the UK, Sarah Singer examines whether and how ‘terrorism’ has featured in the UK’s interpretation and application of the Refugee Convention’s ‘exclusion clause’. A number of sources are drawn on including questionnaires and interviews conducted with immigration judges, the Home Office’s exclusion unit and legal practitioners. She therefore provides an unprecedented and thorough analysis of the UK’s approach to asylum seekers suspected of serious criminality.

This publication gives an in-depth analysis of a very important but complex case before the International Court of Justice. It deals with substantive and procedural aspects of the case, analysed extensively by eminent international lawyers and practitioners. The Whaling in Antarctic case is a landmark case in international law.Contributors: Malgosia Fitzmaurice and Dai Tamada (eds.); Caroline E. Foster; Shotaro Hamamoto; Theodore Christakis; Christian Tams; Mika Hayashi; Joji Morishita; Donald R. Rothwell; Hironobu Sakai; Anthony Press; Akiho Shibata; Yuri Takaya.

The Legal Regulation of Environmental Crime - The International and European Dimension provides a comprehensive analysis of the international and EU legal regimes for tackling environmental crime. The book includes an in-depth analysis of the major international conventions as they relate to the regulation of environmental crime (CITES, Basel, MARPOL) and provides a holistic overview of the evolution and content of EU law in the field of environmental crime, covering substantive criminal law harmonisation, judicial cooperation and the role of EU criminal justice bodies and agencies (Europol, Eurojust and the EPPO) in fighting environmental crime. Further, the book addresses key recent policy and legislative developments in the field and offers a timely contribution to legal reform in view of the publication of new proposals on legislation on environmental crime at EU level.

In The Seal Hunt: Cultures, Economies and Legal Regimes, Nikolas Sellheim offers a deep analysis of the seal hunt worldwide. He engages on a journey from the northern to the southern hemisphere and explores how the seal hunt has shaped cultures all over the world up to this day. By analysing the different national and international regimes dealing with the seal hunt, Sellheim shows how the perception of the seal and the seal hunt has changed over time and space. Focusing on the European Union and the World Trade Organization, the volume offers an account on how opposition towards the seal hunt has found its way onto the international spheres of governance and trade.

The Exploitation of Marine Genetic Resources in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction by Valérie Wyssbrod begins by identifying the legal regime applicable to these underexploited resources which offer vast potential for the development of new drugs, bioplastics, depolluting products and other innovations. The author then outlines provisions for a new treaty, currently under discussion at the UN and presents alternatives to a new regime including revised legal instruments, the development of soft law and the creation of an applicable ecolabel.Dans L’exploitation des ressources génétiques marine hors juridiction nationale, Valérie Wyssbrod détermine en premier lieu le régime juridique actuellement applicable à ces ressources. Ces dernières représentent à l’heure actuelle un potentiel énorme pour le développement de nouveaux médicaments, bioplastiques, dépolluants, etc. Encore peu exploitées, elles seront sans aucun doute au coeur d’un futur processus d’innovation et de nouveaux brevets. Dans un second temps, l’auteur dessine les contours et les principaux axes d’un nouveau traité spécifique, projet actuellement discuté à l’ONU. Valérie Wyssbrod explore finalement trois alternatives au nouveau traité : le remplacement du régime actuel par un autre régime existant, le développement d’un instrument de soft law et la création d’un écolabel.

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.

In The Spratly Islands and International Law, Xuechan Ma offers a detailed analysis of legal solutions to achieve coexistence and cooperation in the Spratly Islands in the absence of maritime delimitation. This book challenges the classical territoriality model of jurisdiction in international law, which is ineffective in the Spratly Islands context where complex and contentious situations call for different solutions. Based on the substance-procedure duality of international law, Ma draws on extensive sources of international law including cases, treaties, practice and doctrine, and formulates novel, concrete proposals to indicate the way forward for the Spratly Islands.

This book is an essential contribution to understanding Russian law for English speakers. In a time when the energy markets in Europe are changing away from Russian dependence on oil and gas, Dr Svendsen explains what the legal consequences will be if we would experience cross-border harm as a result of an oil spill from offshore installations on the Norwegian and the Russian side of the sea border in the Barents Sea. This book examines Russian and Norwegian rules governing liability, choice-of-law, recognition and enforcement, damage, third-party losses, environmental harm, and valuation of environmental harm.

The Polish dispute on an adequate approach towards the Białowieża Forest has been significantly internationalised, primarily by UNESCO and the European Union. The judgment of the CJEU has not settled the substance of the dispute, although it points to a violation of EU legal standards. The authors of The Disputed Białowieża Forest: Legal Remedies for the Protection of Cross-border Properties address the dispute in a constructive and interdisciplinary manner, rather than merely expressing concern towards in situ conservation, and derive universal legal remedies from it. They conclude that in the case of unique invaluable goods, adequate individual solutions should be applied in the form of a localised agreement, open to many entities (interested states, international organisations and even socially responsible private corporations), on the condition that organisational and financial co-responsibility are accepted.

The 2018 Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean (CAOF Agreement) is a unique international treaty. It sets up conditions for potential future (commercial) fisheries in the central Arctic Ocean, furthered by climate change, until ecosystem dynamics are well understood. As a product of balancing interests of various stakeholders after a multi-year drafting process, the agreement protects both fish stocks and the environment. Based on international maritime law, scientific research and principles of international environmental law, such as the precautionary approach, it sets a precedent for future fisheries agreements.

"In a world where inter-State multi-forum litigation multiplies, so does the risk of courts becoming diplomatic platforms to air State grievances." Nowadays, the ICJ is called to confront this risk when dealing with the main political issues of the day. The book draws inferences from legal and political sciences to assess ICJ authority when crises make their way to it as part of a multi-forum litigation strategy. It identifies the essential characteristics of this strategy and delineates ICJ instrumentalization against this background. Three running examples expose the many roles implanted in the ICJ when it is so instrumentalized. And they determine the legal and policy ramifications ensuing from a State’s attempt to engage in such a judicial-'diplomatic' campaign.

Statehood, territory and international spaces are at the heart of a specific branch of international law: the international law of territory. International territorial disputes and their settlement are investigated from the standpoint of legal titles: acquisition and loss of territorial sovereignty, use of force (annexation, conquest), the right of peoples to self-determination (and secession), ius cogens norms etc. The existence, among others, of de facto states, puppet states, ‘drowning’ and ‘failed’ States shows the Protean character of statehood. Peculiar territorial regimes are likewise examined: international administration, leases, servitudes, protectorates, international cities and territories, as well as the League of Nations Mandates and the United Nations Trusteeship system.

How does the hybrid nature of SWFs affect the application of state immunity to these funds? May an SWF be sued in foreign courts for wrongful acts committed in the course of its investment activities? Can SWF investments be attached by a private creditor seeking to enforce an investment arbitration award against the fund’s state of nationality? This monograph addresses these questions from the perspective of the 2004 New York Convention and six selected jurisdictions (US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, China), with the broader aim of highlighting potential new standards for implementation of the state immunity rule to SWFs.