International Law Reporter

New Issue: World Trade Review

2026-05-02T05:38:00.015-04:00

The latest issue of the World Trade Review (Vol. 25, no. 2, May 2026) is out. Contents include:

Hao-Zhe He, Gen-Fu Feng, & Chun-Ping Chang, The Impact of ESG Gaps on Green Exports in Bilateral Trade: A Linear and Nonlinear Analysis
Romus Noufelie & Boris Landry Djamen, Global Value Chain Integration, Quality of Institutions and Multidimensional Energy Poverty in African Countries
Axel Berger, Ali Dadkhah, Florian Gitt, Zoryana Olekseyuk, & Jakob Schwab, The Investment Facilitation Index (IFI): Quantifying Domestic Investment Facilitation Frameworks
Leopoldo Biffi & Christian Winkler, Tightening or Loosening? The Effects of Uncertainty on the Design of Preferential Trade Agreements
Niels Lachmann, Technical Dialogue or Political Statements? Members’ Concerns about Digital Trade at WTO Committees and Councils
Sunayana Sasmal, Let’s Get Critical: Critical Minerals Mini Deals as Evolving Models of Trade Cooperation

Call for Papers: Asian Cities and the International Legal Order 2.0: Urban Challenges and International Law in Asia

2026-05-01T04:26:00.003-04:00

A call for papers has been issued for the SMU-Max Planck Workshop "Asian Cities and the International Legal Order 2.0: Urban Challenges and International Law in Asia," which will take place November 2-3, 2026, at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University. The call is here.

New Issue: Human Rights Quarterly

2026-04-30T10:10:00.000-04:00

The latest issue of the Human Rights Quarterly (Vol. 48, no. 2, May 2026) is out. Contents include:

Paul Hunt, Empowering Human Rights for Revolutionary Change
Jennifer Bates, Beyond Territorialization? State Constructions of the Indigenous Subject of Rights in Multicultural Colombia
Omar G. Encarnación, Confronting Historical Injustices: The Politics of Gay Reparations
Aleydis Nissen, The Right to Access Sport for All in Europe
Jeremy Julian Sarkin & Benjamin Dugdale, How Selective Interventionism Trumps Human Rights Protection: A Configurational Analysis of the United Nations Security Council’s Disparate Response to Genocide
Katarzyna Sękowska-Kozłowska & Katarzyna Ważyńska-Finck, Vulnerable and Empowered? Girls in the Practice of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child

Webinar: Global Health Law and Governance Between Progress and Challenges

2026-04-30T04:22:00.009-04:00

On May 5, 2026, a third webinar will be held in the ESIL Conversations series “Multilateralism in Times of Unilateralism.” The topic is: “Global Health Law and Governance Between Progress and Challenges.” Details are here.

Sayapin: A Central Asian Perspective on International Law

2026-04-29T15:44:00.003-04:00

Sergey Sayapin (KIMEP Univ. - Law) has published A Central Asian Perspective on International Law (Hart Publishing 2026). Here's the abstract:

This book offers the first full-length, systematic account of international law as seen and applied from the perspective of Central Asia.
Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have gradually emerged as active participants in the international legal order. Drawing on their evolving statehood and regional cooperation, this book explores how the Central Asian States engage with the rules, principles, and institutions of international law.
Across 15 chapters, the book covers key areas of international law – from the nature and sources of international law to the law of treaties, international responsibility, and peaceful settlement of disputes – as well as specialist regimes including international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law, international peace and security, and international trade law. Dedicated chapters address the status of the Caspian Sea, the role of international organisations and non-State actors, and the domestic implementation of international norms.
Through rigorous legal analysis and rich empirical references, the book also examines Central Asian constitutional and policy approaches to international law, regional mechanisms of dispute settlement, and case studies such as the legal status of the Caspian Sea, the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, and the development of institutional arbitration in the region, including the Astana International Financial Centre and the Tashkent International Arbitration Centre. The analysis highlights how the region's engagement with international law reflects both adaptation to global norms and the emergence of context-specific legal practices.

Douglas: The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice

2026-04-28T04:32:00.001-04:00

Lawrence Douglas (Amherst College) has published The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice (Princeton Univ. Press 2026). Here's the abstract:

The Criminal State offers a gripping account of how law has confronted the most radical forms of state violence. Beautifully written, broad in scope, and bracingly original, it weaves history with political thought to trace the shifting legal response to state aggression and atrocities, from Leopold’s rule over the Congo to Putin’s war in Ukraine.
At its heart is Lawrence Douglas’s fresh interpretation of the law’s reckoning with Nazi aggression and atrocity. He shows how the Nuremberg trials challenged centuries of thought—rooted in Hobbes and other canonical thinkers—that shielded sovereigns from legal scrutiny. Yet Nuremberg’s bid to frame aggression as the cornerstone of a new order of international criminal law largely failed, giving way to a system now centrally concerned with crimes against humanity and genocide—while leaving unresolved the legality and effectiveness of using force to stop the worst violations of human rights.
Providing rare historical perspective on the dilemmas facing international courts, The Criminal State is a sweeping, provocative history of the struggle to bring perpetrators of state violence to justice.

Workshop: International Law and the Strategic Use of Economic Coercion

2026-04-27T15:08:00.002-04:00

On May 5, 2026, Bocconi University will host a workshop on "International Law and the Strategic Use of Economic Coercion." The event will also be accessible online. Details are here.

New Issue: Chicago Journal of International Law

2026-04-27T04:37:00.015-04:00

The latest issue of the Chicago Journal of International Law (Vol. 26, no. 2, Winter 2026) is out. Contents include:

Rangita de Silva de Alwis, "Because We Take Our Values to War": Analyzing the Views of UN Member States on AI-Driven Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems
Shai Dothan, The Seeds of Peace and Justice
Aaron X. Fellmeth, The Territorial Independence of Intellectual Property Rights
Peter J. Spiro, Balancing Nationalities in International Investment Law

Cimiotta: Ukraine peace treaty, territorial concessions, and international law

2026-04-26T15:47:00.002-04:00

Emanuele Cimiotta (Università degli Studi di Perugia) has posted Ukraine peace treaty, territorial concessions, and international law (Journal of Conflict and Security Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

Shortly after, in January 2025, the new US administration took office, and Ukraine peace talks began. To end the war that Russia started more than three years ago, a peace deal is not a utopia anymore. Ukraine has consistently made clear that no negotiations are possible until its territorial integrity is fully restored. In contrast, Russia has repeatedly stated that talks are only possible based on the ‘new realities’ on the ground. To date, lawyers have debated the question of whether international law permits aggressor States to retain territorial gains under a peace treaty. This article investigates the legal position of Ukraine. It discusses whether international law permits attacked States to give up territory as a last resort measure to reach a viable peace deal. More specifically, it explores the extent to which international law restrains Ukrainian consent to territorial concessions. As under the circumstances of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, the legality of land transfers pursuant to the law of state responsibility and the law of treaties is controversial, and its assessment overlooks the manifold interests at stake, this article suggests reframing the matter in terms of a conflict between two jus cogens norms. On the one hand, the prohibition of aggression, assuming that it goes as far as forbidding territorial concessions that would indirectly condone forceful territorial acquisitions. On the other hand, the right of self-determination, assuming that it grants the Ukrainian people the absolute right to freely determine their territorial status in a peace treaty. Thus, the issue arises of how to solve this conflict. Apparently, positive international law lacks a ready-to-use rule to do so. However, the principles of proportionality and of peaceful dispute settlement may guide the process. They require a complex interpretative activity, in light of a number of criteria, to craft a treaty that could balance both norms. The goal is to preserve each norm as much as possible and ensure lasting peace.

New Issue: International Criminal Law Review

2026-04-26T11:00:00.011-04:00

The latest issue of the International Criminal Law Review (Vol. 26, no. 2, 2026) is out. Contents include:

Mark Klamberg, War Crimes Trials Before Domestic Courts in Ukraine – Making the Case for a Differentiated Approach to International Law
Roman Tashian, Nataliia Smetanina, Ilona Konovalova, Sergiy Kharytonov, & Oleksii V. Tavolzhanskyi, Implementation of International Anti-Corruption Standards into Ukrainian Legislation
Achmad Irwan Hamzani, Sami’an Sami’an, & Nur Khasanah, Restorative Justice and Legal Pluralism in Indonesia: Implications for Atrocity Crimes and Global Criminal Justice Reform
Ligeia Quackelbeen, Rethinking Treaty Interpretation and Crime Interpretation at the ICC
Karolina Nabożna & Klaus Bachmann, Taking Stock of Syria’s Approach to Transitional Justice

New Issue: American Journal of International Law

2026-04-23T17:42:00.001-04:00

The latest issue of the American Journal of International Law (Vol. 120, no. 2, April 2026) is out. Contents include:

Article

Jason Yackee, Legal Entrepreneurship and the Invention of Legal Meaning: Revisiting Lord Asquith’s Abu Dhabi Award

Current Development

Aldo Zammit Borda, Stefan Mandelbaum, & Andrea Maria Pelliconi, The ILC Study on Teachings as Subsidiary Means: Arguments for a Pluralist Reading

In Memoriam

Adrien Wing, In Memoriam Henry J. Richardson III (1941–2025)

International Decisions

John H. Knox, Obligations of States in Respect of Climate Change, Advisory Opinion
Riccardo Di Marco, Case of The J. Paul Getty Trust and Others v. Italy, Judgment
Fabian Eichberger, Angel Samuel Seda and Others v. The Republic of Colombia, Award
Yury Rovnov, European Union and Certain Member States — Certain Measures Concerning Palm Oil and Oil Palm Crop-Based Biofuels (Malaysia); European Union — Certain Measures Concerning Palm Oil and Oil Palm Crop-Based Biofuels (Indonesia), Panel Report
Arman Sarvarian, Land and Maritime Delimitation and Sovereignty Over Islands (Gabon v. Equatorial Guinea), Judgment

Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law

The Security Council Adopts Resolution Endorsing the United States’ “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict”
The United States Withdraws Its Participation in the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review
The United States Attacks Venezuela and Abducts President Nicolás Maduro
President Trump Instructs the Department of War to Start Testing Nuclear Weapons
President Trump Issues Executive Order Providing Qatar with a U.S. Security Guarantee

Recent Books on International Law

Christian Tams, reviewing A “Constitution for the Oceans”: The Long Hard Road to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, by Kirsten Sellars
Kristina Daugirdas, reviewing Ways of Seeing International Organisations: New Perspectives for International Institutional Law, edited by Negar Mansouri and Daniel R. Quiroga-Villamarín
Afroditi Giovanopoulou, reviewing The New Haven School: American International Law, by Ríán Derrig
Rachel Brewster, reviewing Industrial Policy, National Security, and the Perilous Plight of the WTO, by Petros C. Mavroidis

AJIL Unbound Symposium: The Future of a Melting Arctic: Challenges for International Law

2026-04-22T04:30:00.022-04:00

AJIL Unbound has posted a symposium on “The Future of a Melting Arctic: Challenges for International Law.” The symposium includes an introduction by Daniel Bodansky and Beatriz Martinez Romera, and contributions by Amanda H. Lynch and Charles H. Norchi , Carl Graefe and Sherri Goodman, David Balton and Timo Koivurova, Kevin A. Baumert, Romain Chuffart and Aaron M. Cooper, A. Stella Ebbersmeyer and Beatriz Martinez Romera, and Daniel Bodansky and Yoshifumi Tanaka.

Call for Papers: IHL Beyond States: New Patterns, New Spaces, and New Actors in Armed Conflicts

2026-04-21T04:29:00.003-04:00

A call for papers has been issued for a conference on "IHL Beyond States: New Patterns, New Spaces, and New Actors in Armed Conflicts," to take place October 16, 2026, at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Political Science. Topics include: The Globalization of Non-International Armed Conflicts; Civilian Protection at the Breaking Point; New Spaces of Conflict: From Cyberspace to the Global Commons; and New Actors in Armed Conflicts. Marco Sassòli (Univ. of Geneva) will deliver a keynote. The call is here.

New Issue: Business and Human Rights Journal

2026-04-20T04:23:00.038-04:00

The latest issue of the Business and Human Rights Journal (Vol. 11, no. 1, February 2026) is out. Contents include:

Articles

Etienne Roy Grégoire, Marc-André Anzueto, Bonnie Campbell, Mélisande Séguin, Nancy R. Tapias Torrado, & Karen Hamilton, ‘Do-it-Yourself FPIC’: The Political Grammar of Canada’s Normative Entrepreneurship in the Global Extractive Sector
Leonard Feld, Leading the Way or Crossing the Line? The Extraterritorial Dimension of the EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence
Eva Nave, Criminal Hate Speech Attributable to Online Platforms: A Call for a Thorough Corporate Remedial Responsibilities Framework in Europe
Naphtali Ukamwa, Towards a Definition of a Sustainable Corporation Under the International Frameworks on Business and Human Rights

Developments in the Field Symposium; Business and Human Rights and the arms industry: challenges, prospects, and current dynamics

Valentina Azarova, León Castellanos-Jankiewicz, Tomas Hamilton, Cannelle Lavite, & Chloe Bailey, Corporate Accountability in the Arms Sector: Possibilities, Limits, and Visions of Justice
Shahd Hammouri, Reckoning With the Paradox of Regulating the Arms Industry: The Context of Palestine
Lana Baydas, Human Rights Due Diligence Within the Arms Industry: Challenges, Practices and Opportunities
Marina Aksenova, The Arms Industry and International Criminal Liability: Challenging the Status Quo?
Michael Marchant & Zenkosi Mathe, ‘Offshoring’ Weapons Production and Implications for Export Controls: Lessons from South Africa
Hiruni Alwishewa, Addressing the Human Rights Risks of Financing the Arms Industry: Insights from Banks’ Corporate Policies
Emma Baldi, Arms Exports and the Right to Life: The RWM Italia Case
Cynthia L. Ebbs, Advancing the Humanitarian Imperative of the Arms Trade Treaty: Public and Private Sector Engagement in Responsible Arms Transfers
Antonio Guzmán Mutis, Corporate Duties of the Arms Industry at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: A Tale of Risk and Attribution
Julie Février & Sarra Dajean, Corporate Complicity in International Crimes: Implications of the Lafarge Jurisprudence for the Arms Industry

Webinar: Toward a Treaty on Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters

2026-04-19T12:54:00.002-04:00

On April 22, 2026, a second webinar will be held in the ESIL Conversations series “Multilateralism in Times of Unilateralism.” The topic is: “Towards a Treaty on Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters.” Details are here.

New Issue: Global Responsibility to Protect

2026-04-19T04:37:00.015-04:00

The latest issue of Global Responsibility to Protect (Vol. 18, nos. 1-2, 2026) is out. Contents include:

Articles

Md Syful Islam, Were Crimes Against Humanity Committed During the July 2024 Crackdown on Student Protests in Bangladesh? A Legal Analysis
Havva Yeşil, The Compatibility of the EU-Turkey Statement with EU Law and International Human Rights Law
Jan Hornat, Aporia and Responsibilisation in the Liberal International Order

Intervention

Helder Ferreira do Vale, The Venezuelan Crisis: From Multilateral R2P to US Unilateral Control

New Issue: The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals

2026-04-18T21:28:00.000-04:00

The latest issue of The Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals (Vol. 24, no. 2, 2025) is out. Contents include:

Niccolò Lanzoni, The International Judicial Function and How We Think About It: Non Liquet, Revisited
Zhifeng Jiang, Negotiation as a Precondition for Seizing the International Court of Justice
Antoine De Spiegeleir, Consecutive Provisional Measures Requests at the World Court: More of the Same?
Bruno Simma, When “Community Interest” Intervenes: Article 62 of the ICJ Statute Facing Obligations erga omnes (partes)
Nasim Zargarinejad, Shadowing Adversarial Proceedings? The ICJ’s Lesser-Known Discretion in Advisory Procedure
Miłosz Gapsa, Clarifying the Unclear: Requests for Modification, Revocation, and New Provisional Measures

Nakajima & Kato: The Governing Law of Unlawfully Issued Sovereign Debt

2026-04-18T19:09:00.001-04:00

Kei Nakajima (Univ. of Tokyo - Law) & Shiho Kato (Univ. of Tokyo - Law) have published The Governing Law of Unlawfully Issued Sovereign Debt (Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business, Vol. 46, no. 1, p. 39, 2026). Here's the abstract:

In October 2019, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), a Venezuelan state owned oil and natural gas company, filed a complaint against the trustee and the collateral agent of PDVSA’s bondholders, alleging that certain bonds due in 2020 issued in exchange for the defaulted bonds due in 2017 are null and void ab initio. The main cause of action was that the 2020 bonds had been issued in violation of the provisions of the Venezuelan Constitution. This contention was advanced notwithstanding that the 2020 bonds provide that “all matters arising out of or relating in any whatsoever” to the instruments shall be governed by the law of New York. At the same time, New York’s conflict-of-laws statute contains a rule providing that “[t]he local law of the issuer’s jurisdiction … governs … the validity of a security,” which was discovered and invoked by the (sub-)sovereign debtor as a relatively uncommon ground for the repudiation of its external debt. The federal district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ contention by adopting a narrow reading of the term “validity” within the meaning of New York’s conflict of-laws rule, whereas the Court of Appeals of New York State showed an opposite but nuanced interpretation by concluding that Venezuelan law does govern the validity of the PDVSA’s bonds, but with the repeated caveats that the consequences of eventual invalidity remain to be governed by New York law. The present article examines the governing law of sovereign debt issued allegedly in contravention of the sovereign debtor’s constitutional and budgetary constraints, with special reference to the case brought by PDVSA before New York courts. It aims to identify the role of private international law as a device for global governance by which the application of a sovereign’s budgetary disciplines is ensured to serve the public policy objectives of sovereign debt sustainability.

Subedi: Interlinkages between human rights, climate action and due diligence obligations of states: Potential impact on business organizations

2026-04-18T17:58:00.000-04:00

Surya P. Subedi (Univ. of Leeds - Law) has published Interlinkages between human rights, climate action and due diligence obligations of states: Potential impact on business organizations (Environmental Policy and Law, Vol. 55, no. 6, 2025). Here's the abstract:

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its landmark Advisory Opinion of 23 July 2025, has established a clear connection between human rights, climate action and due diligence obligations of States under treaty and customary international law. The Court appears to have elevated the concept of due diligence from a relatively soft principle to a powerful standard, against which to assess compliance of international obligations by states. In their turn, States are likely to pass on these obligations to business organisations too through various human rights and environmental due diligence schemes. There are various reporting requirements of the European Union for business organisations through several schemes that already point to a move in this direction. Thus, the impact of this ICJ Advisory Opinion is not limited to States per se. It has the potential to require business organisations to adhere to an international human rights and environmental due diligence standard, against which their own policies and practices can be evaluated. The paper seeks to examine this perspective.

Burgers, Kooijman, Pantazopoulos, & Paulussen: Ecocide: Criminalising Serious Harm against the Environment

2026-04-15T05:54:00.004-04:00

Laura Burgers (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law), Merle Kooijman (Univ. of Amsterdam - Law), Stavros Evdokimos Pantazopoulos (National and Kapodistrian Univ. of Athens – Law), & Christophe Paulussen (T.M.C. Asser Institute) have published Ecocide: Criminalising Serious Harm against the Environment (Asser Press 2026). Here’s the abstract:

Ecocide: Criminalising Serious Harm against the Environment explores the concept of ecocide and critically assesses how the criminalisation of serious harm against the environment fits within international criminal law broadly construed. It aims to assist in fleshing out crucial parameters in the lead-up to the potential inclusion of the fifth core international crime in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as in relation to efforts to criminalise ecocide at the national level, both of which have gained unprecedented momentum in recent times.
To this end, the volume’s chapters address four key questions: what constitutes ecocide, how can it be prosecuted, where should it be prosecuted, and who are its perpetrators and victims? In addition to more practice-focused chapters, including case studies on the Netherlands and Ukraine, the book analyses and challenges fundamental conceptual issues, including the binary opposition between ‘anthropocentrism’ and ‘ecocentrism’ in the ecocide discourse. The reader is confronted with and forced to reflect on intriguing questions such as: is it fair to only prosecute representatives of large business corporations and state officials, while letting consumers of polluting products off the hook? And does the legal framework of the ICC allow for the recognition of nonhumans, such as the environment, as victims of ecocide?

New Issue: Swiss Review of International and European Law

2026-04-15T04:58:00.007-04:00

The latest issue of the Swiss Review of International and European Law (2026, no. 1) is out. Contents include:

Robert Kolb, L’interdiction de livraison « indirecte » d’armes à un belligérant par un Etat neutre
Denise Wohlwend, Beyond Territory – Jurisdictional and Legitimacy Reflections on the EU CSRD and CSDDD

New Issue: Yale Journal of International Law

2026-04-14T09:40:00.001-04:00

The latest issue of the Yale Journal of International Law (Vol. 51, no. 1, 2026) is out. Contents include:

Eliav Lieblich, The Death and Life of the Prohibition on Forcible Reprisals
Monica Hakimi, Thinking Constructively About International Law
Abadir M. Ibrahim & Angela Hefti, Contributions of the African Human Rights System to International Climate Law

New Issue: Military Law and the Law of War Review / Revue de Droit Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre

2026-04-14T05:27:00.013-04:00

The latest issue of the Military Law and the Law of War Review / Revue de Droit Militaire et de Droit de la Guerre (Vol. 63, no. 2, 2025) is out. Contents include:

Joop Voetelink, Export control and international law
Liron A. Libman & Amichai Cohen, Why do we enforce the law against IHL violations? Reason-giving in Israeli court-martial judgments
Winthrop Wells, Military information as evidence of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s crimes
Maxime Nijs, The invisible battlefield: applying the rules of international humanitarian law on the conduct of hostilities to jamming and spoofing operations

New Issue: Review of International Organizations

2026-04-14T04:21:00.028-04:00

The latest issue of the Review of International Organizations (Vol. 21, no. 1, March 2026) is out. Contents include:

Special Issue: Domestic politics and international organizations

T. Renee Bowen, J. Lawrence Broz, & Christina J. Schneider, Domestic politics and international organizations
Tom Hunter & Stefanie Walter, International organizations in national parliamentary debates
Bernd Schlipphak, Constantin Schäfer, & Oliver Treib, Cosmopolitan identity, authority, and domestic support of international organizations
Haillie Na-Kyung Lee & Jong Hyun Lee, Why settle?: Partisan-based explanation of investor-state dispute outcomes
Jennifer L. Tobin, Beyond investment flows: How perceptions of property rights drive the impact of IIAs
Michael-David Mangini, How effective is trade conditionality? Economic coercion in the Generalized System of Preferences
Rachel J. Schoner, Naming and shaming in UN treaty bodies: Individual petitions’ effect on human rights
Arianna Bondi, Leonardo Baccini, Matteo Fiorini, Bernard Hoekman, Carlo Altomonte & Italo Colantone , Global value chains and the design of trade agreements

Call for Papers: The Future of International Peace and Security: Conceptualizing the Securitization of Climate Change

2026-04-13T21:02:00.005-04:00

A call for papers has been issued for a workshop on "The Future of International Peace and Security: Conceptualizing the Securitization of Climate Change," to take place October 19, 2026, at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. The call is here. The deadline is April 20, 2026.