The International Responsibility of NATO and Its Personnel during Military Operations

Book review: Nauta, David: The International Responsibility of NATO and Its Personnel during Military Operations. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2018, 194 pp, ISBN 9789004354616Non peer reviewe

Participation of International Organizations in UN Treaties

This chapter addresses some of the complexities of having regional economic integration organizations (above all the European Union) participate in treaty-making under UN auspices. Discussing conceptual matters such as how participation can take place (as full member, as observer, or anything in-between), it delves into some of the relevant legal issues on both sides of the equation: on the part of the regional economic integration organization as well as on the part of the UN and specialized agencies, devoting some attention to the solutions agreed upon within the framework of the Food and Agricultural Organization when it admitted the EU as a member in its own right. These include the delegation and distribution of treaty-making powers, negotiating mandates, and the like, as well as some practical matters. The discussion is situated against a backdrop of functionalist theorizing about the law of international organizations.Peer reviewe

Schermers' Dilemma

This article, part of the symposium on ‘theorizing international organizations law’, discusses the work (and a little of the life and in uence) of Henry G. (Hein) Schermers, arguably the leading functionalist international organizations lawyer of the post-war era. The article discusses how Schermers’ work solidi ed and consolidated functionalism and unwittingly laid bare its ‘Achilles heel’. Confronted with the growing popularity of human rights and keenly devoted to human rights, Schermers faced a dilemma when the possible responsibility of international organizations for human rights violations came up – a dilemma his function- alism was unable to solve. Therewith, zooming in on Schermers’ handling of the dilemma con rms that functionalist international organizations law is unable to address the respon- sibility of international organizations towards third parties. International organizations law will need to nd different theoretical resources in order to come to terms with responsibility.Peer reviewe

Principled Pragmatist? : Bert Röling and the Emergence of International Criminal Law

Peer reviewe

Constitutionalism as Theory

Peer reviewe

The Love of Crisis

This contribution takes issue with the very idea of crisis narratives, and suggests that such narratives are inevitable parts of our political culture. International law can always be said to be in crisis – which says something about international lawyers as well. If there currently is a crisis, it is a crisis of liberal democracy, not of international law. International law is perfectly capable of propping up all sorts of projects, whether benign or malign.Peer reviewe

Dystopian Legalities : A Reply to Nico Krisch

As its title indicates, this is a reply of sorts to recent work by Nico Krisch, published in this issue. The notion of entangled legalities, I argue, shows considerable analytical promise, much like the notion of inter-legality as developed by my colleague Gianluigi Palombella and myself a few years ago. Both may help us understand how large chunks of contemporary law works. Where Krisch's approach departs from ours is in his background assumptions and his chosen actorial perspective: his interest resides mainly with the regulator. In this reply, I zoom in on some of the consequences this may have.Non peer reviewe

International Law and World Order : A Critique of Contemporary Approaches

Book Review: B. S. Chimni, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017 (2nd edn.), xviii + 629 pp. ISBN 978-1-107-06526-0Non peer reviewe

Revisiting Rainbow Warrior : Virtue and Understanding in International Arbitration

In the burgeoning realm of global governance, ethics has occupied an increasingly prominent place in recent years. One of the buzzwords of the last two decades or so has been ‘accountability’, a term which carries overtones of proper behaviour, control and responsibility. Persons in a position of leadership emphasize their concern for such things as full financial disclosure and transparency. The humanitarian intervention over Kosovo may have been illegal but was nonetheless, many have claimed, ethically justifiable. Codes of ethics have been devised both for the international bar and, somewhat lukewarm, for the international judiciary. The infamous ‘torture memos’ have thrown into perspective the need for legal advisors to behave ethically; writings have appeared on the ethical aspects of humanitarian missions, and several studies have been published focusing on the ethics of the international legal order as such, the ethics of international commercial arbitration, or the ethics of the international bar.Peer reviewe

Beyond Functionalism : International Organizations Law in Context

Even the most casual observer of international organizations must at times be puzzled. It is puzzling to realize, for instance, that regardless of the public outcry over nasty acts done on the watch of some international organization or another, nothing ever seems to happen: accountability is much-discussed, but rarely materializes. It is somewhat mystifying that for all the discussion of the reform of international organizations and of their policies, and for all that these are often amended, nothing much ever seems to change. Likewise, few international organizations have lawmaking powers properly so-called, and yet international organizations seem to be highly influential. By the same token, international organizations often engage in co-operation with one another without anyone noticing it, and seemingly without having strong authorization to do so. And it must be puzzling to realize that the law tends to treat all international organizations in much the same way, regardless of whether they work for the global common good or are better seen as interest groups for a particular group of states; regardless of whether they serve a global cause or manage a particular industry; and regardless also of the sort of activities they engage in – whether they occupy themselves with questions of peace, security and disarmament or are, effectively, institutions of higher learning set up as international organizations.Peer reviewe