EJIL Foreword and In this Issue (Vol. 27: 1)

The EJIL Foreword

This issue opens with the second entry under our new annual rubric, The EJIL Foreword. As I explained a year ago, the Foreword is designed to enable a distinguished scholar in our discipline to undertake a sweeping view of the field, a more extensive analysis, synthesis, conceptualization, or systemic theorization than is usually possible in an EJIL article. It is fitting, then, that Robert Howse’s contribution in this issue surveys the first two decades of judicial decision-making and judicialization under the auspices of the World Trade Organization. Howse presents a fresh and fascinating account of this seemingly well-known story, unearthing new insights and creating a new standard point of reference for studies of the WTO Appellate Body. An EJIL: Live interview with Professor Howse, available on our website complements the article.

In this Issue

The Foreword by Robert Howse is followed by four articles. In the first, Charles Leben presents a rich and original historical analysis of the influence of Hebrew sources on the development of international law in early modern Europe. In the second, Andreas Kulick explores the inconsistent use of estoppel in international investment arbitration and the lack of reasoning used to justify the different approaches taken, leading him to conclude that the ‘cart may have come before the horse’ in many of the decisions surveyed. Yoshiko Naiki examines the important but understudied area of international regulatory arrangements around biofuels, in the process making an important contribution towards understanding the functioning of a fragmented governance system with multiple coexisting regimes. Finally, Timothy Meyer adopts a rational choice approach to explain the choice of soft law over binding law forms of agreement, with particular reference to the context of uncertainty and shifting power dynamics in which such decisions are made.

In Roaming Charges, this issue features a photograph by Michael Klode, entitled Halls of Justice: At the African Court on Human and People’s Rights in Arusha, Tanzania.

The last article in this issue appears under our regular rubric, Critical Review of International Jurisprudence: in yet another example of the growing ‘empirical turn’ in international legal studies, Manley Stewart examines referencing patterns at the International Criminal Court.

We end the issue on a light, yet astute, note with The Last Page.  Niccolò Ridi and Sondre Torp Helmersen offer us Public International Limericks and by way of a teaser:

The Function of Law in the International Community

The place of international law and its sources

Is not just in books and university courses

It can actually mute

A protracted dispute

The views expressed here are personal to the Editor-in-Chief and do not reflect the official position of either the European Journal of International Law or the European University Institute.