Two Weeks in Review, 1 – 14 February 2021

EJIL:The Podcast!

Episode 6 ‘Trumping International Law’ was released. In this episode Dapo is joined by Joseph Weiler, Neha Jain, and Chimene Keitner. Together they discussed the impact of the last four years of a Trump presidency on the future of multilateralism and the effect of Trump Administration policies on a range of international institutions, including the World Trade Organization and the International Criminal Court. 

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EJIL News

The latest issue of the European Journal of International Law  (Vol. 31 (2020) No. 3) is now out. You can read the Table of Contents here.

Sarah Nouwen and Joseph Weiler discuss what is in this issue of EJIL in their editorial which is a helpful overview of the different contributions.

The free access article in this issue is Laurence Helfer’s and Erik Voeten’s, Walking Back Human Rights in Europe? EJIL subscribers have full access to the latest issue of the journal at EJIL’s Oxford University Press site. Apart from articles published in the last 12 months, EJIL articles are freely available on the EJIL website.

Henri de Waele has written a blog post rejoinder, responding to Janne Nijman’s response to his article in this issue. Both of the original articles can be read online:  Henri de Waele’s here and Janne E Nijman’s response here. Nijman’s article argues ‘that doing history today requires us first to raise ‘the woman question’’…and second to include Dutch colonialism as an important backdrop to the work of the interwar international law scholars.’ She emphasises the ‘importance of methodological choices made in the (re)construction of a relevant context and in the identification of the issues at stake for Dutch interwar scholars.’ de Waele argues in the blog post rejoinder, where he wanted to account for the choices that were made, that ‘what matters is whether these left a visible imprint on their activities, enabling us to draw decisive inferences on how they evolved as professionals.’ 

Covid Vaccines and International Law

Diane Desierto examines the legal responsibilities of states under the ICESCR to progressively realise economic, social and cultural rights (Article 2, ICESR) and the right to development under both the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development and the pending draft Convention on the Right to Development. She argues that states must take these obligations into consideration when the WTO TRIPS Council next discusses on the TRIPS waiver proposal put forward by South Africa and India on 10 and 11 March 2021.

Marko Milanovic sets out a series of questions and scenarios on which assumptions, intuitions or theories, legal or ethical, about prioritising access to and distribution of vaccinations can be tested. 

Other International Law Issues

Saba Pipia writes about another potential inter-state litigation between Georgia and Russia that may be in the making. Pipia explores some of the international law issues raised by the reported agreement between Russia and Abkhazia that Russia will restore Sokhumi airport, including those related to sovereignty over air space, the designation of airports without state consent, and prospects of a new inter-state dispute.

Sarah Thin focuses on the reasoning of the ITLOS Special Chamber in relation to the ‘legal effects’ of ICJ Advisory Opinions in its recent judgement on the admissibility of the Dispute Concerning Delimitation of the Maritime Boundary Between Mauritius and Maldives in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius/Maldives). Thin analyses the Special Chamber’s conclusion that it should recognise and take into consideration the determinations of the ICJ and its finding that ‘Mauritius’ sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago can be inferred from the ICJ’s determinations.‘

Mark Konstantinidis discusses some of the political and legal issues arising from the European Union – China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), arguing that while the timing may impact EU-US economic relations, and while many objected to the CAI on grounds that it could legitimise China’s human rights record, the actual text of the treaty does not radically alter the current EU-China relationship.

Rodolfo Ribeiro offers commentary on the recent View adopted by the UN Human Rights Committee which found that the Netherlands violated a child’s right to a nationality by registering his nationality as “unknown” in his records, thus removing access to international protection as a stateless child and also making him ineligible to acquire Dutch nationality.

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