This book analyzes the function and role of international law in a framework of increased global governance by focusing on how 'community interests' are articulated and protected in various areas, including the global commons, and human rights and security related issues.

This book explores the extent to which contemporary international law expects states to take into account the interests of others - namely third states or their citizens - when they form and implement their policies, negotiate agreements, and generally conduct their relations with other states. It systematically considers the various manifestations of what has been described as 'community interests' in many areas regulated by international law and observes how the law has evolved from a legal system based on more or less specific consent and aimed at promoting particular interests of states, to one that is more generally oriented towards collectively protecting common interests and values. Through essays by experts in the field, this book explores topics such as the sources of international law and the institutional aspects of developing the law and covers a range of areas within the law.

This book analyses three key concepts, global public goods, global commons, and fundamental values, as tools geared towards the protection of the general interests of the international community. After providing an overview of these concepts, the book examines how international law has responded to them in a wide range of fields, and investigates how global governance has improved, or worsened, this response. Contributions from a group of experts explore the legal foundations of general interests, and discuss which interests have or have not been deemed to deserve the protection of international law. Other chapters focus on whether, and to what extent, it is appropriate that international law intervenes to regulate such interests, considering the interplay between multiple actors including states, international and regional organisations, and non-state actors. The book explores how states and other actors have used international law to protect general interests, what lessons can be learned from these efforts, and what significant challenges still need to be addressed.

This book explores the notions of global public goods, global commons, and fundamental values as conceptual tools for the protection of the general interests of the international community. It explores how states and other actors have used international law to protect general interests, and outlines significant challenges still to be addressed.

This collection brings together a series of essays which address some of the challenges that globalization poses to the international legal order. The book examines the interaction of globalization and international law through four sub-themes: the adaptation of classical international legal tools to regulate and adjudicate community interests and conflicts in the era of globalization; coordinating dialogues and governance strategies within and between international legal systems and institutions; globalization and the diversification of actors; and the exposure of State sovereignty to private actors and the need to preserve the regulatory powers of States. The volume will be of interest to international law scholars, practitioners and students, as well as to those working in the fields of international relations and globalization.

This timely book reimagines responsibility in international law, establishing the concept of non-bilateral responsibility as an objective legal situation generated by the commission of an internationally wrongful act. It examines the nature, operation and impact of this new form of responsibility, exploring its deep consequences for the legal system.

This festschrift, dedicated to Judge Bruno Simma, traces the development of international law from regulating bilateral state-to-state relationships towards strengthening the entire international community by protecting human security, the global environment, and human rights. It provides both theoretical and practical insights into these sometimes conflicting goals, their basis in international law, and the role played by international institutions charged with upholding these values and interests. The work thus examines the mechanism by which international law contributes to the realization not only of individual State interests, but the interests of the international community as a whole. From this vantage point, it looks at the various functions that international law fulfills in the international community, from law-making and institution-building towards adjudication and the securing of human rights. Taken together, the contributions to this book paints a detailed, but nevertheless comprehensive picture of the realization of community interest in contemporary international law. As professor and judge, Bruno Simma has contributed to all of these tasks: providing ground-breaking theoretical work, serving in the International Law Commission and in the Committee for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and finally, as a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The three introductory chapters express this unity of life and work.

In a world of growing public interest in global matters and criticisms of multilateralism to adequately address them, the role of international courts and tribunals in the resolution of disputes is shifting. A central aspect of this shift is whether and how international courts and tribunals can be used to resolve such disputes in the public interest. This practice, referred to as public interest litigation, is the object of this collection, which identifies some recent developments, trends and prospects in this growing practice. Its aim is to assess the degree to which the bilateral design of international courts and tribunals can adapt to the shift towards a public approach to international litigation. Engaging with various fields where public interest litigation exists – such as human rights, climate change, global health and criminal law – it identifies recent developments, trends and prospects in this practice. The selected pieces provide a flavour of the types of issues that have arisen before international judicial bodies – for instance, the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, international arbitral tribunals, regional human rights bodies or criminal courts – and explores issues that may arise in the future

Provides clear, systematic and comprehensive coverage of fundamental and contemporary issues of the law of the sea.

This book explores the extent to which contemporary international law expects states to take into account the interests of others - namely third states or their citizens - when they form and implement their policies, negotiate agreements, and generally conduct their relations with other states. It systematically considers the various manifestations of what has been described as 'community interests' in many areas regulated by international law and observes how the law has evolved from a legal system based on more or less specific consent and aimed at promoting particular interests of states, to one that is more generally oriented towards collectively protecting common interests and values. Through essays by experts in the field, this book explores topics such as the sources of international law and the institutional aspects of developing the law and covers a range of areas within the law.