EJIL: In this Issue (Vol. 27 (2016) No. 2)

This issue opens with a pair of articles that address questions of normative coherence and contestation in two central areas of international law. In the first article, Monica Hakimi and Jacob Katz Cogan address the presence of a puzzling incoherence in the legal regime relating to the use of force. Their article theorizes that this incoherence derives from the combination within the regime of two distinct ‘codes’, thus offering a useful framework for thinking through interpretive debates in the field. In our second article, Karen Alter, James Gathii and Laurence Helfer offer an insightful and timely discussion of the causes and consequences of state backlash against sub-regional courts across the African continent. Their article usefully highlights the work of courts that may remain unfamiliar to many of our readers, while casting new light on a range of theoretical debates relating to international courts. Our EJIL: Live! interview with Karen Alter deepens the discussion.

The next three articles likewise address important questions of normative authority in international law. Nicole Roughan argues that international law’s claims to authority should be understood as claims to relative authority, dependent upon the relationships and interactions with other institutions. Elisa Morgera offers some conceptual clarity in the little-investigated notion of fair and equitable benefit-sharing, identifying shared normative elements from different regimes to help develop a common core to this concept. Finally, David McGrogan provides an incisive analytical framework for understanding both the growth of the culture of human rights indicators and its unintended consequences, showcasing the competing priorities of certainty and uniformity on the one hand, and experiential and conversational approaches on the other.

Our occasional series on The European Tradition in International Law returns in this issue, featuring a remarkably rich and varied collection dedicated to the controversial 19th-century Scottish jurist, James Lorimer. The collection opens with a short overview by Stephen Tierney and Neil Walker, highlighting the tension between Lorimer’s remarkable foresight in relation to a number of developments in international law, cast against his deeply embedded racial prejudice. This darker side of Lorimer’s legal science is examined further by Martti Koskenniemi, whose article considers the importance of racial hierarchies that underpinned Lorimer’s conception of statehood. Gerry Simpson traces the legacies of these attitudes in international law, including the extension of Lorimer’s hierarchies in legally codified power. Karen Knop likewise explores the continuing resonances of Lorimer’s thought in the present day, focusing in particular on his notion of ‘private citizens of the world’. Stephen Neff discusses Lorimer’s views on war and neutrality, highlighting the remarkable modernity of his approach in seeking a systematic global regulatory framework.

Roaming Charges in this issue features a photograph of pupils at the Jean Paul II High School, Kibera, Nairobi.

In the last article in this issue, appearing in our regular series Critical Review of International Jurisprudence, Katie Sykes explores the use of science in the emerging field of ‘global animal law’, through an analysis of two recent and important international legal decisions, the first by the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization in the EC–Seal Products dispute, and the second by the International Court of Justice in Whaling in the Antarctic.

The Last Page in this issue, entitled ‘Reasons’, is by Liam McHugh-Russell.