EJIL Vol. 24:2 – In This Issue

We open this issue with three articles showcasing the variety of high-quality international law scholarship that finds a welcome home in EJIL. Christopher McCrudden and Brendan O’Leary examine the recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Sejdić and Finci, exploring the difficult issues that arise where consociational or power-sharing arrangements, implemented to secure peaceful constitutional settlements in divided societies, are seen to conflict with the deep-seated norms and values of international human rights institutions. Boris Rigod analyses the purpose of the SPS Agreement in light of its negotiating history and economic theory; if properly applied, he concludes, it will neither undermine democratic self-government nor lead to a ‘post-discriminatory’ world trade regime. Anne Peters offers further reflections on Nino Cassesse’s last book, defending a ‘critical’ or ‘ideational’ positivist approach to international legal scholarship.

This issue sees the launch of what we hope will become a regular EJIL feature in succeeding years: a selection of papers from the Annual Junior Faculty Forum for International Law. A short essay by the Faculty Forum convenors – Dino Kritsiotis, Anne Orford and myself – describes the organization and goals of the inaugural Forum, and introduces the three exceptional papers selected for publication in this issue. Christopher Warren’s contribution delves into the work of 17th-century English republican poet John Milton, delineating his vision of the law of nations and shedding new light on the humanist tradition in international law. Evan Criddle’s article identifies and analyses the mechanism of ‘humanitarian financial intervention’, surveying the range of possible purposes to which it can be directed and the variety of international regimes that determine its legality. And Martins Paparinskis advances our understanding of the law of state responsibility by exploring how it applies in the context of investment treaty arbitration, where the participation of non-state actors has the effect of producing some surprising variations.

Our occasional series Critical Review of International Jurisprudence returns in this issue with a piece by Aldo Zammit Borda, who takes a formal approach to Article 38(1)(d) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice   ̶ regarding the application of ‘judicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists’   ̶  and distils an original interpretation of that provision from the judgments of international criminal courts and tribunals.

Roaming Charges shifts back from Moments of Dignity to Places, with ‘Backviews’ of two great international cities, New York and Singapore.

In this issue’s EJIL: Debate! Emmanuelle Tourme-Jouannet introduces and outlines what she affirms is an emergent new branch of international law, the ‘international law of recognition’. In his reply, Jean d’Aspremont focuses on the ‘methodological and functional anthropomorphism’ underlying Tourme-Jouannet’s project, which he argues acts to destabilize it.

The Last Page presents a poem on a theme with unfortunate resonance in our times: Ballade of Schadenfreude, by Susan McLean.