The Italian Yearbook of International Law, Volume 17 (2007)


Book Description

The Italian Yearbook of International Law aims at making accessible to the English speaking public the Italian contribution to the practice and literature of international law. Volume XVII (2007) is organised in three main sections. The first contains doctrinal contributions on the timely issue of the individual right of access to justice and focuses on the Inter-American human rights system, on remedies against acts of international organisations and UN Security Council's targeted sanctions, and on the participation of amici curiae in investor-State arbitrations. This section includes also shorter notes on current developments in the field of private military contractors and foreign direct investment in the recovery of cultural heritage, as well as surveys of the practice of ICJ, ITLOS, international criminal tribunals, WTO, ICSID, and the ECtHR. The second section covers the Italian practice in the areas of i) judicial decisions; ii) diplomatic and parliamentary practice; iii) treaty practice; and iv) national legislation. The third section contains a systematic bibliographical index of Italian literature in the field of international law and reviews of recent books. The volume ends with an analytical index for ready consultation that includes the main judicial cases and legal instruments cited throughout the Yearbook.




The Settlement of International Cultural Heritage Disputes


Book Description

The past forty years have seen a wide proliferation of disputes under international law concerning cultural heritage. These have included the restitution of stolen art objects or the protection of monuments. Unlike other fields of international law, international cultural heritage law does not have an ad hoc mechanism of dispute settlement. As a result, controversies are to be settled through negotiation or, if it fails, through existing dispute resolution means. This can result in similar cases being settled in different ways, thereby bringing about an incoherent and fragmentary enforcement of the law. This book offers a comprehensive and innovative analysis of the settlement of cultural heritage disputes. This examination is two-fold. First, it assesses the existing legal framework and the available dispute settlement means. Second, it explores the feasibility of two solutions for overcoming the lack of a specialized forum. The first is the establishment of a new international court. The second concerns existing judicial and extra-judicial fora and their interaction through the practice of 'cross-fertilization'. The book focuses on the substance of such interaction, and identifies a number of culturally-sensitive parameters (the 'common rules of adjudication'). It argues that existing judicial and non-judicial fora should adopt a cross-fertilizing perspective to use and disseminate jurisprudence containing these common rules of adjudication. It sets out how such an approach would enhance the effectiveness and coherence of decision-making processes and would be conducive to the development of a lex culturalis. This can be defined as a composite body of rules designed to protect cultural heritage by excluding the mechanical application of the norms established for standard business transactions of ordinary goods.







The Conventions on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and Its Specialized Agencies


Book Description

The Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the Specialized Agencies entered into force more than 60 years ago. This Commentary offers for the first time a comprehensive discussion covering both Conventions in their entirety, providing an overview of academic writings and jurisprudence for a legal field of particular practical relevance and gives both the academic researcher as well as the practitioner a unique source to understand the complexity of legal issues that the UN, its Specialized Agencies, their officials, Member States' representatives, and experts face in today's world.




The Global Community Yearbook of International Law and Jurisprudence 2010 Volume II


Book Description

a. The set generally: [Please note that the following description applies to both volumes in the 2010 Yearbook, not solely to Volume II.] The Global Community Yearbook is a one-stop resource for all researchers studying international law generally or international criminal tribunals specifically. The Global Community Yearbook appears annually in two-volume editions of carefully chosen primary source material and corresponding expert commentary. The general editor, Professor Giuliana Ziccardi Capaldo, employs her vast expertise in international law to select excerpts from important court opinions and also to choose experts from around the world who contribute essay-guides to illuminate those cases. Although the main focus is recent case law from the major international tribunals and regional courts, the first volume of each year's edition always features expert articles by renowned scholars who address broader themes in international law, themes that appear throughout the case law of the many courts covered by the series as a whole. b. This particular edition (2010): Beginning with the 2010 edition, the Yearbook will include the new section, Forum-Jurisprudential Cross-Fertilization: An Annual Overview. This section aims to compare and analyze the interconnections between the decisions of international courts and tribunals, as a way of exploring and examining judicial dialogue and the development of common legal principles and concepts in all branches of international law. The Yearbook is the first academic journal to present an annual overview of the process of jurisprudential cross-fertilization between the courts, based on the drafting and systematic classification of legal maxims (i.e. points of law decided by various international courts) in the section entitled Decisions of International Courts and Tribunals. A comprehensive and complete survey by eminent international law scholars exploring, evaluating and documenting this process has the potential to enhance our contribution and thus further guide our understanding of how to reduce conflicts and create an effective exchange of legal reasoning between different courts. The aim is to promote a favorable environment for the courts to advance the process of judicial cooperation with a view to the possible harmonization of legal principles governing the global community. c. Individual volumes: Volume 1: The 2010 edition of the Global Community Yearbook presents three categories of material wholly beneficial to any international law-researcher: International tribunals' court opinions, excerpted with scholarly skill by General Editor Giuliana Ziccardi Capaldo; expert guidance on those cases in the form of commentary by globally recognized luminaries whom Ziccardi has chosen personally; and more broadly focused introductory essays by similarly prominent scholars whom Ziccardi has also selected for that purpose. In the introductory essays, those scholars take on current topics such as global intellectual property law and policy, the nature of international law and human development, and the legal-political connotation of material support to terrorism. These incisive and knowledgeable introductory articles help frame the debates currently raging in international law before this edition leads the reader on to expert commentary on the noteworthy cases from this past year's dockets of the following tribunals: - The International Court of Justice - The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea - WTO Dispute Settlement System - International Criminal Court - International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia - International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - Court of Justice of the European Union Ziccardi has arranged the sections of this volume according to that list of tribunals, and she has included a short, targeted index for each of those sections, making any research in this volume efficient and fruitful. The 2010 edition of the Global Community Yearbook also gives researchers an illuminating tour through the varied and dynamic law of regional and organizational courts. In the court opinion excerpts and expert commentary that fill this volume, researchers will find detailed guidance on a rich diversity of legal topics. On these questions and a host of others, this volume provides to students, scholars, and practitioners alike a valuable combination of expert discussion and direct quotes from the court opinions to which that discussion relates. The courts covered in this edition include: - The Court of Justice - The European Court of Human Rights - Inter-American Court of Human Rights - International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes




Foreign Investment, International Law and Common Concerns


Book Description

Increasingly, transnational corporations, developed countries and private actors are broadening the boundaries of their investments into new territories, in search of a higher return on capital. This growth in direct foreign investment involves serious concerns for both the investor and host state. Various exponents of international civil society and non-governmental organisations persuasively claim that such growth in foreign investments constitutes potential and serious hazards both to the environment and the fundamental rights and freedoms of local populations. This book explores from an international law perspective the complex relationship between foreign investments and common concerns, i.e. values that do not coincide, or do not necessarily coincide, with the interests of the investor and of the host state. It pays particular attention to the role of the main international development banks in reconciling the needs of foreign investors with the protection of common concerns, such as the environment, human rights and labour rights. Among its collection of essays, the volume asks how much "regulatory space" investment law leaves; whether international investment law is an effective means of balancing contrasting interests, and whether investment arbitration currently constitutes a mechanism of global governance. In collecting the outlooks of various experts in human rights, environmental and international economic law, this book breaks new ground in exploring how attention to its legal aspects may help in navigating the relationship between foreign investment and common concerns. In doing so, the book provides valuable insights into the substantive issues and institutional aspects of international investment law.




International Crimes: Volume I: Genocide


Book Description

Judge Mettraux's four-volume compendium, International Crimes: Law and Practice, will provide the most detailed and authoritative account to-date of the law of international crimes. It is a scholarly tour de force providing a unique blend of academic rigour and an insight into the practice of international criminal law. The compendium is un-rivalled in its breadth and depth, covering almost a century of legal practice, dozens of jurisdictions (national and international), thousands of decisions and judgments and hundreds of cases. This first volume discusses in detail the law of genocide: its definition, elements, normative status, and relationship to the other core international crimes. While the book is an invaluable tool for academics and researchers, it is particularly suited to legal practitioners, guiding the reader through the practical and evidential challenges associated with the prosecution of international crimes.




China, the EU and International Investment Law


Book Description

This book provides an original and critical analysis of the most contentious subjects being negotiated in the China–EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI). It focuses on the pathway of reforming investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) from both Chinese and European perspectives in the context of the China–EU CAI and beyond. The book is divided into three parts. Part I examines key and controversial issues of the China–EU CAI negotiations, including market access, sustainable development and human rights, as well as comparing distinct features between the China–EU CAI and the China–US BIT. Part II concentrates on the institutional reform of investor-state arbitration with an extensive analysis of the EU’s approach to replacing the private nature of investment arbitration with the public nature of an investment court. Part III addresses the core substantive and procedural issues concerning ISDS, such as the role of domestic courts in investment dispute settlement, the status of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as investors, transparency and the protection of victims in investment dispute resolution. This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in the field of international investment and trade law, particularly investment dispute settlement.




Transboundary Marine Spatial Planning and International Law


Book Description

Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is an integrated and comprehensive approach to ocean governance and is used to establish a rational use of marine space and reconcile conflicting interests of its users. MSP allows both a high level of environmental protection and a wide range of human activities and emphasizes coordinated networks of national, regional and global institutions. This book focuses on the framework of international law behind MSP and especially on the transboundary aspects of MSP. It first sets out a general framework for transboundary MSP and then moves on to compare and assess differences and similarities between different regions. Specific detailed case studies include the EU with the focus on the Baltic Sea and North Sea, the Bay of Bengal and Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The authors examine the national and regional significance of MSP from an integrated and sustainable ocean governance point of view. They also show how transboundary MSP can create opportunities and positive initiatives for cross-border cooperation and contribute to the effective protection of the regional marine environment.




Sentencing in International Criminal Law


Book Description

This book deals with sentencing in international criminal law, focusing on the approach of the UN ad hoc Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR). In contrast to sentencing in domestic jurisdictions, and in spite of its growing importance, sentencing law is a part of international criminal law that is still 'under construction' and is unregulated in many aspects. International sentencing law and practice is not yet defined by exact norms and principles and as yet there is no body of international principles concerning the determination of sentence, notwithstanding the huge volume of sentencing research and the extensive modern debate about sentencing principles. Moreover international judges receive very little guidance in sentencing matters: this contributes to inconsistencies and may increase the risk that similar cases will be sentenced in different ways. One purpose of this book is to investigate and evaluate the process of international sentencing, especially as interpreted by the ICTY and the ICTR, and to suggest a more comprehensive and coherent system of guiding principles, which will foster the development of a law of sentencing for international criminal justice. The book discusses the law and jurisprudence of the ad hoc Tribunals, and also presents an empirical analysis of influential factors and other data from ICTY and ICTR sentencing practice, thus offering quantitative support for the doctrinal analysis. This publication is one of the first to be entirely devoted to the process of sentencing in international criminal justice. The book will thus be of great interest to practitioners, academics and students of the subject.