"Children's Rights and Sustainable Development: Interpreting the UNCRC for Future Generations" (April 2019), edited by Claire Fenton-Glynn

Children often fare the worst when communities face social and environmental changes. The quality of food, water, affection and education that children receive can have major impacts on their subsequent lives and their potential to become engaged and productive citizens. At the same time, children often lack both a private and public voice, and are powerless against government and private decision-making. In taking a child rights-based approach to sustainable development, this volume defines and identifies children as the subjects of development, and explores how their rights can be respected, protected and promoted while also ensuring the economic, social and environmental sustainability of our planet.

More information: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/childrens-rights-and-sustainable-development/C8FFFEC537FC20F78A1192CF1D49C337

The Future of International Courts: Regional, Institutional and Procedural Challenges (published March 2019) edited by Avidan Kent, Nikos Skoutaris, Jamie Trinidad

This book has been edited by Dr Jamie Trinidad, a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge and the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge. His research and publications address, among other things, issues of self-determination, territory (land and sea) and the practice of international courts and tribunals. He is a practising barrister and he has a PhD from Cambridge. ‘The Future of International Courts: Regional, Institutional and Procedural Challenges’ addresses some of the most pressing challenges faced by international courts and tribunals today: from geopolitical shifts, to rising populism and authoritarianism, to increasing demands for third-party participation in international proceedings. It includes a keynote chapter by Karen Alter, and several of the other contributors are friends of the Lauterpacht Centre. The book is due to be published in March 2019.

More information: https://www.routledge.com/The-Future-of-International-Courts-Regional-Institutional-and-Procedural/Kent-Skoutaris-Trinidad/p/book/9781138615182

Sustainable Development Principles in the Decisions of International Courts and Tribunals (published January 2019) - Edited by Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Judge C.G. Weeramantry

The 2002 New Delhi Declaration of Principles of International Law relating to Sustainable Development set out seven principles on sustainable development, as agreed in treaties and soft-law instruments from before the 1992 Rio ‘Earth Summit’ UNCED, to the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, to the 2012 Rio UNCSD. Recognition of the New Delhi principles is shaping the decisions of dispute settlement bodies with jurisdiction over many subjects: the environment, human rights, trade, investment, and crime, among others.

   More information: https://www.routledge.com/Sustainable-Development-Principles-in-the-Decisions-of-International-Courts/Cordonier-Segger-Weeramantry/p/book/9781138780057

Community Interests Across International Law (published June 2018) - Eyal Benvenisti

We are happy to announce that OUP just published “Community Interests Across International Law” edited by Eyal Benvenisti and Georg Nolte

This book explores the extent to which contemporary international law expects states to take into account the interests of others - namely third states or their citizens - when they form and implement their policies, negotiate agreements, and generally conduct their relations with other states.

It systematically considers the various manifestations of what has been described as ‘community interests’ in many areas regulated by international law and observes how the law has evolved from a legal system based on more or less specific consent and aimed at promoting particular interests of states, to one that is more generally oriented towards collectively protecting common interests and values. Through essays by experts in the field, this book explores topics such as the sources of international law and the institutional aspects of developing the law and covers a range of areas within the law.

More information: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/community-interests-across-inter...

Justification and Excuse in Internationa Law - Concept and Theory of General Defences (published January 2018) - Federica Paddeu

Cambridge University Press has published Justification and Excuse in International Law: Concept and Theory of General Defences by Dr Federica Paddeu as part of the Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law series.

The defences available to an agent accused of wrongdoing can be considered as justifications (which render acts lawful) or excuses (which shield the agent from the legal consequences of the wrongful act). This distinction is familiar to many domestic legal systems, and tracks analogous notions in moral philosophy and ordinary language.

Nevertheless, it remains contested in some domestic jurisdictions where it is often argued that the distinction is purely theoretical and has no consequences in practice. In international law too the distinction has been fraught with controversy, though there are increasing calls for its recognition.

More information: http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/law/public-international-l...

About Parliament’s Secret War (published February 2018) - Veronika Fikfak

The invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the Coalition Government’s failure to win parliamentary approval for armed intervention in Syria in 2013, mark a period of increased scrutiny of the process by which the UK engages in armed conflict.

For much of the media and civil society there now exists a constitutional convention which mandates that the Government consults Parliament before commencing hostilities. This is celebrated as representing a redistribution of power from the executive towards a more legitimate, democratic institution.

This book offers a critical inquiry into Parliament’s role in the war prerogative since the beginning of the twentieth century, evaluating whether the UK’s decisions to engage in conflict meet the recognised standards of good governance: accountability, transparency and participation.

The analysis reveals a number of persistent problems in the decision-making process, including Parliament’s lack of access to relevant information, government ‘legalisation’ of parliamentary debates which frustrates broader discussions of political legitimacy, and the skewing of debates via the partial public disclosure of information based upon secret intelligence.

The book offers solutions to these problems to reinvigorate parliamentary discourse and to address government withholding of classified information. It is essential reading for anyone interested in war powers, the relationship between international law and domestic politics, and the role of the Westminster Parliament in questions of national security.

More information: https://www.bloomsburyprofessional.com/uk/parliaments-secret-war-9781509...

What's Wrong with International Law? (published May 2015) - Editors: Cedric Ryngaert, Erik J. Molenaar and Sarah Nouwen

This is the question Professor A.H.A. Soons provocatively posed to his colleagues around the world when leaving his chair in public international law at Utrecht University. Meant to provoke discussion about what actually is wrong with international law as well as act in defence of the discipline, his conclusion was a resounding 'nothing!' 

Honouring Professor Soons's achievements throughout his long career as a scholar and a practitioner of international law, this Liber Amicorum exmaines whether, indeed, there is something wrong with international law. The contributors identify gaps or 'wrong norms' in specific fields of international law, and assess whether there is something wrong with the regulatory function of international law as a system for creating global public order.

More information: https://brill.com/view/title/24591

Complementarity in the Line of Fire - The Catalysing Effect of the International Criminal Court in Uganda and Sudan (published November 2013) - Sarah Nouwen

Of the many expectations attending the creation of the first permanent International Criminal Court, the greatest has been that the principle of complementarity would catalyse national investigations and prosecutions of conflict-related crimes and lead to the reform of domestic justice systems. Sarah Nouwen explores whether complementarity has had such an effect in two states subject to ICC intervention: Uganda and Sudan. Drawing on extensive empirical research and combining law, legal anthropology and political economy, she unveils several effects and outlines the catalysts for them. However, she also reveals that one widely anticipated effect – an increase in domestic proceedings for conflict-related crimes – has barely occurred. This finding leads to the unravelling of paradoxes that go right to the heart of the functioning of an idealistic Court in a world of real constraints.

More information: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/complementarity-in-the-line-of-fire/9AD8A8B07D7728C1296132DAB3B04314#fndtn-information

Select Proceedings of the European Society of International Law, Volume 3, 2010 (January 2012) - Editors James Crawford, Sarah Nouwen

This book continues the series Select Proceedings of the European Society of International Law, containing the proceedings of the Fourth Biennial Conference organised by ESIL and the University of Cambridge in 2010. The title of the conference was 'International Law 1989-2010: A Performance Appraisal'. The highlights, selected for publication in this volume, cover a wide spectrum of topics in international law.

More information: https://www.bloomsburyprofessional.com/uk/select-proceedings-of-the-european-society-of-international-law-volume-3-2010-9781849462020/