This Liber Amicorum, dedicated to Judge Rüdiger Wolfrum of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, highlights paradigmatic changes in international law, a body of law which moved during the 20th century from a law of coexistence to one of cooperation and which is now about to reflect notions of solidarity going even beyond cooperative undertakings. This leitmotif of Rüdiger Wolfrum’s academic research and judgeship is represented in a comprehensive collection of essays by eminent scholars and practitioners of international law covering specific aspects of international law, including law of the sea, human rights, international environmental law, international dispute settlement, peace and security, global governance and domestic law. With its multifaceted and comprehensive overview of the evolution of international law in recent years and detailed study of current challenges this collection is a unique source of insight for all those interested in this fascinating field of law.

This collection identifies and discusses problems and opportunities for the theory and practice of international criminal justice. The International Criminal Court and project of prosecuting international atrocity crimes have faced multiple challenges and critiques. In recent times, these have included changes in technology, the conduct of armed conflict, the environment, and geopolitics. The mostly emerging contributors to this collection draw on diverse socio-legal research frameworks to discuss proposals for the futures of international criminal justice. These include addressing accountability gaps and under-examined or emerging areas of criminality at, but also beyond, the International Criminal Court, especially related to technology and the environment. The book discusses the tensions between universalism and localisation, as well as the regionalisation of international criminal justice and how these approaches might adapt to dynamic organisational, political and social structures, at the ICC and beyond. The book will be of interest to students, researchers and academics. It will also be a useful resource for civil society representatives including justice advocates, diplomats and other government officials and policy-makers.

Global risks present formidable challenges to international law. Although they have long been identified in many other scientific disciplines, they are currently only considered on a sectoral basis in international law in the absence of a legal definition. The aim of this book is threefold: to identify the main elements that characterise global risks in a legal perspective, to determine the characteristics that make them a new category of risk, and to analyse the changes they bring about in the main mechanisms of international law. Drawing on the relationship between international law and other legal systems, and in particular national law, this book highlights possible responses to the challenges posed by global risks. The study is based on extensive practice related to the examples of climate change and pandemics, but opens up perspectives on conclusions that could be common to other global risks, such as financial risks or cyber risks.

This work aims to be the definitive exploration of the possibility to conceptualize permanent sovereignty over natural resources vested in indigenous peoples rather than in States under international law.

This book analyzes China’s attitude to international law based on historical experiences and documents, and provides an explanation of China’s approaches to international legal issues. It also establishes several elements for a possible framework of Chinese theory on international law. The book offers researchers, university students and practitioners valuable insights into how China views international law and why it does so in the way it does.

The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. In WTO Law and Trade Policy Reform for Low-Carbon Technology Diffusion, Zaker Ahmad puts a spotlight on the crucial importance of dismantling market barriers and offering incentives to improve clean technology access and diffusion across borders. To that end, the author argues for a synergistic co-development of the international trade and climate legal regimes. Two case studies – one on carbon pricing, another on official export credit support – place the theoretical arguments in a practical trade policy setting. The emerging doctrine and principle of Common Concern of Humankind serves as the key theoretical and structural foundation of the work. A useful read for anyone interested in an effective role of trade law and policy to facilitate climate action.

This is the first comprehensive study on the refugee definition for persons with disabilities. It proposes a disability-specific approach to refugee status analysing the different elements of the refugee definition in light of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Providing an insightful contribution to literature on the topic, this book scrutinises how international courts and tribunals may respond procedurally to an ever-growing list of environmental disputes. In a time of environmental crisis, it lays crucial groundwork for strengthening the application of international environmental law, a topic of increasing relevance for global civil society.

Solidarity and community interest may appear to be purely abstract notions. But in fact they may form the basis of a more flexible approach to international lawmaking than traditional formulas of legally binding commitments. Through an empirical analysis of existing and emerging public international law, this book traces these concepts in existing regimes and investigates the impact they have had and will continue to have on the progressive development of specific international regimes, particularly those serving the protection of the environment and of human rights. It discusses how through these two regimes these concepts have changed the international normative order and explores the challenges such changes have created for implementation and enforcement. One such challenge is the lack of an adequate dispute settlement regime, and the book closes with some practical suggestions for an appropriate mechanism.

There is order on the internet, but how has this order emerged and what challenges will threaten and shape its future? This study shows how a legitimate order of norms has emerged online, through both national and international legal systems. It establishes the emergence of a normative order of the internet, an order which explains and justifies processes of online rule and regulation. This order integrates norms at three different levels (regional, national, international), of two types (privately and publicly authored), and of different character (from ius cogens to technical standards). Matthias C. Kettemann assesses their internal coherence, their consonance with other order norms and their consistency with the order's finality. The normative order of the internet is based on and produces a liquefied system characterized by self-learning normativity. In light of the importance of the socio-communicative online space, this is a book for anyone interested in understanding the contemporary development of the internet. This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.