bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Environment
Authors: Damilola S Olawuyi
Published: June 2024

Questions on the relationships and possible conflicts between trade law and environmental law have resulted in some of the most charged debates in international law over the last few decades. While a lot of progress has been made in clarifying the legal interactions between, and the complementary benefits of, these two important areas of law, a number of questions remain unresolved. These debates have assumed greater significance and urgency as the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development underscores the need for enhanced partnership—globally, regionally, and nationally—on trade and environment issues.

The first objective of this chapter is to consider the key phases in efforts to harmonize trade and environmental regimes at the international level. It examines how the interactions between both regimes have moved from an informal alliance phase, confrontation and formal recognition phase, and then to an increasingly formalized partnership phase. The second objective of this chapter is to examine key unresolved challenges and questions that remain about how to effectively interpret and implement international treaty obligations on free trade and the environment in a coordinated, coherent, and less fragmented manner. The key issues remain threefold: harmonizing existing WTO rules with obligations set out in MEAs; advancing coordination and partnership between trade and MEA institutions; and reducing or eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in environmental goods and services. This chapter considers these questions and suggests a wide array of mutually supportive solutions to maximize coherence and harmonization between trade and environmental regimes.
Interpretation
Authors: Peter Van den Bossche , Parika Ganeriwal
Published: June 2024

This chapter on the interpretation of WTO agreements and regional trade agreements seeks to answer the relevant ‘how’ and ‘what’ questions, namely ‘how’ to interpret these agreements and ‘what’ rules apply to the interpretation. To that end, this chapter addresses the principles of and the jurisprudence on the interpretation of trade agreements. It begins with an exploration of the provisions of the WTO agreements that provide guidance on the interpretation of WTO law. It subsequently discusses the codified rules on treaty interpretation as comprised in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) and examines the application of these rules by the WTO Appellate Body in its interpretation of provisions of the WTO agreements. The application by the Appellate Body of non-codified principles of interpretation, such as the principle of effectiveness and the principle of in dubio mitius, as well as the evolutionary approach to interpretation are also discussed. This chapter concludes with an examination of the rules applicable on, and applied to, the interpretation of free trade agreements other than the WTO agreements.
What the Treaty Means
Authors: Gardiner Richard
Published: June 2024

This chapter covers the application and interpretation of treaties. In giving effect to a treaty it is necessary first to ascertain when, where, and to what it applies. These factors, and substantive investigation of the terms of the treaty, will require that the treaty is interpreted. In other words, its terms must be given meaning. Most of this chapter is concerned with the principles for identifying what interpretation to place on a treaty. The codified rules for treaty interpretation in the 1969 Vienna Convention are extremely condensed. The chapter therefore amplifies them, giving examples from case law to show how the rules are applied in practice. Time factors and ‘evolutionary’ interpretation also come into play when considering older and long-standing treaties, approaches which require an appreciation of what is permissible in this regard.
Artificial Intelligence and LGBTQ+ Rights
Authors: Masuma Shahid
Published: June 2024

Much research has been conducted on artificial intelligence (AI) and its interplay with human rights in general, yet little research is available on AI’s impact on LGBTQ+ rights and the queer community in particular. While the LGBTQ+ community has benefitted from certain forms of AI, its use also poses discernible threats for LGBTQ+ individuals in the contexts of privacy, health, safety, employment, censorship, and discrimination, among other issues. Weighed against each other, the pertinent question is whether AI is to be considered a friend or a foe for the LGBTQ+ community. This chapter aims to answer that question. It discusses how sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) are protected by the current international and regional regulatory human rights frameworks when being affected by AI applications. It then discusses the positive examples of AI applications that have improved the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals and advanced or promoted the protection of their rights. It also ventures into the negative examples of AI applications and indicates the risks and ethical implications of this ever-evolving technology for LGBTQ+-related rights. The chapter also discusses what queer theory is and how its application from the beginning stages of AI-development on could resolve some of the human rights concerns that are prevalent. Finally, three case studies are provided to illustrate how an actual queerification of AI in the future could lead it to being more inclusive, diverse, and fair towards the queer community.
Artificial Intelligence and Fair Trial Rights
Authors: Helga Molbæk-Steensig , Alexandre Quemy
Published: June 2024

The right to a fair trial is the most frequently violated human right before international human rights bodies, and it is more the rule than the exception that national judicial systems are overburdened and overly slow. This chapter asks whether artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning (ML) applications can help alleviate this problem, or if they are a threat to securing the right to the independent and impartial application of the law. It argues that the answer depends on whether the applications are designed with a clear vision of what courts are for and finds several current AI applications in various courts and public administrations to be missing this fundamental requirement. It identifies three key problems, namely the failure of current systems to differentiate between groups and individuals, the failure to take the fundamentally posterior nature of courts into account, and the tendency to abduct systems for another use than that which they were designed for. The chapter then builds a theoretical framework for determining which judge tasks can be allocated to or assisted by an AI application and which cannot. It argues that with careful application, cognitive computing type applications that extend the abilities of judges and clerks carry great potential for improving consistency and expediency of court cases. Finally, the chapter reviews emerging legislation on the usage of AI in judicial systems, and finds it to contain many of the same aims as the theoretical framework suggests incorporating, but to still lack detail for optimal application.
Artificial Intelligence and the Right to an Effective Remedy
Authors: Sarah de Heer
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on the right to an effective remedy. The potential adverse impact on this right is particularly worrisome, since the right to an effective remedy safeguards alleged violations to substantive human rights. The right to a fair trial, and more specifically the right to a fair hearing, safeguards the individual’s right to an effective remedy. Thus, this chapter outlines the legal framework containing the three elements of the right to a fair hearing, namely (i) the adversarial principle; (ii) the principle of equality of arms; and (iii) the right to a reasoned judgment. Next, this chapter assesses the effects of generic AI applications on these three requirements and specifically focuses on one AI application, namely automated decision-making (ADM) systems. Subsequently, this chapter describes the general characteristics of ADM systems, namely (i) the opaqueness surrounding how they work and, (ii) their ability to process vast amounts of data, and argues that these features may hamper the three criteria of the right to a fair hearing. Last, this chapter examines the regulatory framework and possible policy proposals to overcome the unfavourable impact of these two common characteristics of ADM systems.
Artificial Intelligence and the Right to Food
Authors: Adekemi Omotubora
Published: June 2024

The challenge of reducing hunger has persisted despite the right to food being enshrined in international and regional instruments and national laws and policies. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the primary instrument guaranteeing the right to food provides that states parties must take measures, including technical and scientific methods, to improve food production and distribution towards realising the right to food. This chapter examines the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for agriculture, food security, and sustainability. It uses the ‘smart farm system’ to examine how AI can increase food production and enhance food quality and supply chains. The chapter expounds the normative content and scope of the right to food under the ICESCR. It argues that the extensive framework on the right to food has not translated into the full realisation of the right. Rather natural, environmental, and social factors continue to limit its realisation. While technological interventions in the form of smart farm systems are imperative to boosting food production and distribution, they also raise critical concerns around food and systemic inequality and could create conflicts between competing rights such as the rights to privacy and work. The chapter concludes with proposals on how governments can strike the correct balance between implementing the right to food, promoting AI innovations in agriculture, and protecting other fundamental rights.
Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights at Work
Authors: Joe Atkinson , Philippa Collins
Published: June 2024

While debates surrounding the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the ‘future of work’ have largely focused on automation of production processes and job destruction, it is increasingly clear that it is the use of AI to manage and govern the workplace that presents the more immediate challenge. This chapter argues that employers’ use of AI in algorithmic management and workplace surveillance technologies poses a significant and pervasive threat to human rights at work, one that is not confined to the rights of privacy and equality concerns that have so far dominated scholarly attention. The chapter sets out the ways in which technology is being used to undertake or augment managerial functions at all stages of the employment relationship and illustrates how these algorithmic management practices present a risk to a wide range of workers’ human rights. In addition to privacy and non-discrimination rights, this includes freedom of association and expression, due process rights, and the right to decent working conditions. The chapter then argues that ex ante forms of regulation are necessary to address the risk that AI poses to human rights at work and identifies and assesses two such frameworks that can be used to help secure human rights in this context, namely human rights impact assessments and collective bargaining over the use of technology in the workplace.
Human Rights, Legal Personality, and Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Klaus Heine
Published: June 2024

This chapter ventures into the question of whether artificial intelligence (AI) can have human rights. If it can, this chapter further inquires, does that automatically mean that AI has legal personality and becomes an autonomous subject in its interactions with society? Are these the wrong questions? Is the answer simply ‘no’—AI can possess neither human rights nor legal personality? Or, do we not know the right answers yet? A more adequate response to those questions is that they are not necessarily wrong, the chapter argues, but that any meaningful answer would need more specification in the body of the questions. Also, the possible answers may play out on different analytical levels, may aim at different purposes, and—finally—may be dependent on the epistemological point of view that one takes. A meaningful answer requires, on the one hand, the clarification of the relationship between humans and AI in the dimension of human rights and, on the other hand, what this clarification means for the attribution of legal personality to AI.
Robot Rights/Human Responsibility
Authors: David Gunkel
Published: June 2024

Robot rights are not necessarily about robots and their plight—whatever that might or might not be—they are also about us. They concern how we—human beings—decide to scale our moral systems and legal institutions to respond to the opportunities and challenges that now confront us in the face or the faceplate of the robot and other seemingly intelligent and socially interactive technologies. This chapter engages the subject of robot rights, not to decide either for or against these rights but to elucidate the term and conditions of the debate as it currently stands, to identify and correct common misunderstandings about the concept, and to provide a framework for responding to and taking responsibility for these decisions.
Artificial Intelligence Human Rights Impact Assessment
Authors: Alessandro Ortalda , Paul De Hert
Published: June 2024

The chapter presents a proposal for a Human Rights Impact Assessment in the context of Artificial Intelligence (HRIA-AI). Such a proposal builds from the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) approach sanctioned in the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The chapter identifies how this DPIA already amounts to a human rights impact assessment under certain circumstances. However, some of its aspects limit the use of DPIA as a HRIA-AI, primarily the link with personal data, which prevents DPIA from being required when no personal data processing occurs. The chapter acknowledges how certain uses of AI might impact human rights even in the absence of personal data processing. Therefore, a new approach to assessing such impacts is proposed.
The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This commentary interprets the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention in accordance with the international law of treaties and describes State practice in its implementation. The Convention is an international disarmament treaty adopted in 1997 that binds 164 States. It obligates its States Parties to forgo all possession and use of anti-personnel mines, to destroy stockpiles, to clear mined areas, and to support assistance to mine victims. The commentary also identifies violations of the Convention by particular States. While relatively small in number, some, in relation to the prohibition on use and stockpiling, are extremely serious. The analysis of State practice since 1997 includes the war in Ukraine, which has seen use by Russia (which has not joined the Convention) and by Ukraine (which has). In 2023, the Convention’s formal compliance procedure was involved for the first time in the history of the Convention when a request was made to Eritrea by the United Nations Secretary-General to clarify its compliance with the obligation to destroy anti-personnel mines in mined areas.
Exceptions
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 3 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Article 3 primarily indicated the two main exceptions to a number of the general obligations in Article 1 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, specifically the prohibitions on the retention and transfer of anti-personnel mines. Many States have taken advantage of the option to retain anti-personnel mines for training in mine clearance. The chapter also looks into the exception surrounding the transfer of anti-personnel mines. The Second Austrian Draft Treaty Text incorporated a duty on each State Party to report on any anti-personnel mines that it transfers for destruction.
Transparency Measures
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter notes how Article 7 addresses the transparency measures on the implementation of the obligations in the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Every State Party must send the report as soon as practicable but not later than 180 days after becoming a party to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. Each report contains information on national implementation measures, stockpiled anti-personnel mines, anti-personnel mines in mined areas, retained anti-personnel mines, decommissioning of landmine production facilities, the progress of destruction, characteristics of anti-personnel mines produced, and a warning to the population. Moreover, the reports are primarily significant to the credibility of the Convention as a disarmament treaty. The chapter mentions how the summary forms available to States Parties allow the process to be quick.
Costs
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter considers the costs of the Meetings of the States Parties while referencing Article 14 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. It explains that treaties often make specific provisions for the payment of costs for activities they require. Additionally, Article 14 used the United Nations scale of assessment adjusted according to the States Parties and States, not parties that participate in them. The chapter then clarifies that costs incurred by the UN Secretary-General for the receipt and communication of Article 7 transparency reports are the sole responsibility of the States Parties. It cites how Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom bear a particularly heavy financial burden for the costs incurred by the UN Secretary-General.
Authentic Texts
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter considers the authentic texts of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which references Article 22. The six official United Nations languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish) are all deemed equally authentic. The provision prescribing equal authenticity for the six UN languages was established without amendment in the three drafts of the Convention. Thus, the equal authenticity of the certified copies of the six official UN languages is commonly included in multilateral treaties. The chapter mentions how certified copies of the Convention in the six languages are available on the dedicated online page in the UN Treaty Series.
‘End Poverty in All Its Forms Everywhere’
Authors: Krista Nadakavukaren Schefer
Published: June 2024

Sustainable Development Goal 1, ‘End poverty in all its forms everywhere’, is the heart of the global sustainable development agenda. This chapter explains the Goal in light of the global move toward Agenda 2030. Goal 1’s drafters recognized that impoverishment is a cause and a result of climate change and that durable environmental health and social prosperity requires governments to lessen the economic and social inequalities facing their populations. Going well beyond the Millennium Development Goal’s call to halve extreme poverty, Goal 1 addresses relative poverty as well as extreme poverty and focuses on the myriad deprivations that accompany each type. It calls on all states to ensure that their worst off receive priority support through social protection programmes, that access to natural, financial, and technological resources exists for all, and that states build up their resilience against disasters to reduce the vulnerabilities of the disadvantaged populations in particular.
‘Good Health and Well-Being—Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Well-Being for All at All Ages’
Authors: Jane A Hofbauer , Christina Binder
Published: June 2024

goal of good health and well-being (SDG 3) is central amongst the overall SDG framework and constitutes one of the centrepieces of the objective of sustainable development and development policies more generally. The 2030 Agenda has defined the overall objective in a comprehensive and overarching manner and can be viewed as the basis for and an inherent part of other SDGs. This chapter commences with a detailed discussion and analysis of the preparatory proceedings that resulted in SDG 3. This is followed with a section addressing SDG 3 from a comprehensive perspective. This includes an assessment of the role of the World Health Organization, which serves as the lead agency under SDG 3, as well as a developmental and human rights critique. Finally, each of the thirteen targets and twenty-eight indicators is analysed on their potential to achieving the overall objective of ‘Good Health and Well-Being’.
‘Ensure Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promote Lifelong Learning Opportunities for All’
Authors: Jane Kotzmann , , Morgan Stonebridge , John R Morss
Published: June 2024

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) recognizes the pivotal role of education in improving quality of life and responding to global challenges. Major progress is needed to ensure that education fulfils this role for children and adults globally, particularly in light of the significant disruptions to learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ten targets corresponding to SDG 4 pinpoint key areas for states to focus on in this respect, capturing important themes such as the need for equality in the provision of education, inclusivity, and early childhood development. Importantly, SDG 4 also requires states to consider education as a lifelong endeavour. This chapter details the historical background and travaux préparatoires on SDG 4, before reviewing SDG 4 itself and the 10 targets that comprise it. The chapter also provides observations on the progress made towards the realization of the various targets, highlighting certain domestic and international efforts that contribute to achieving SDG 4 commitments.
‘Achieve Gender Equality and Empower All Women and Girls’
Authors: Rangita de Silva de Alwis
Published: June 2024

Ending all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls is not only a basic human right but also crucial to accelerating sustainable development. The very first target of Goal 5, target 1.1 calls to end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere and the indicator for the goal is ‘[w]hether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex’. In many countries around the world the legal frameworks themselves allow for both direct (de jure) and indirect (de facto) discrimination against women. This essay identifies some areas of de jure discrimination in laws and examines some recent law reform in this area. Power acts by laying down the rules. As Foucault has argued, ‘power’s hold on sex is maintained through language, or … from the very fact that it is articulated, a rule of law’.
‘Ensure Availability and Sustainable Management of Water and Sanitation for All’
Authors: Owen McIntyre
Published: June 2024

SDG 6 enshrines the international community’s solemn commitment to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. As such, it is an important developmental goal in its own right but also due to its impact on all other sectoral SDGs. Efforts to achieve the goal needs to be supported by formal rules of domestic and international water law, environmental law, and human rights law. Moreover, SDG 6 is likely to act as a strong catalyst for the development of international and domestic rules for sustainable water management and sanitation services provision. The chapter aims at illustrating the two-way interrelationship between international law and the SDGs by exploring the mutually supportive approaches embodied in international water, environmental and human rights law, and SDG 6, and by identifying the key values enshrined in each of its targets and their relationship with international law. Simultaneously, it gives due account to the progress made so far in the implementation of the goal.
‘Ensure Access to Affordable, Reliable, Sustainable and Modern Energy for All’
Authors: Francesco Seatzu , Katerina Akestoridi
Published: June 2024

The chapter discusses the role of energy in achieving developmental objectives. Navigating the preparatory proceedings that led to the adoption of SDG 7, the authors demonstrate energy’s instrumentality for the realization of human development in an intra- and intergenerational context while signalling the issues that became a point of contestation among country delegates and other stakeholders in the deliberations of the Open Working Group. Against this background, core aspects of the so-called Energy trilemma, namely accessibility, affordability, and sustainability, are analysed by reference to SDG 7’s individual targets. In drawing the nexus between energy, society, and the environment, the authors exercise a critique of the goal’s conceptualization and implementation drawing arguments from international law, in particular energy and human rights law, ethics, and country policies aiming to give effect to the goal’s prescripts.
‘Reduce Inequality Within and Among Countries’
Authors: Johanna Aleria P Lorenzo
Published: June 2024

The chapter identifies the public international law dimensions of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10 concerning the reduction of inequalities within and among states. It analyses whether and how international legal norms from different fields could support or impede the realization of targets relating to this component of sustainable development. Among the key findings pertains to the generally robust and positive role of international human rights law in this effort to close the gaps among peoples and between states. On the other hand, one finds less rigorous bases in international economic law—trade, investment, finance—to regulate global financial transfers or redistribution and to address some of the sustainability related needs of developing countries. These observations are contextualized in the tensions between the principle of sovereign equality of states and the duty to cooperate, including the implementation of the latter via the special and differential treatment principle under international trade law.
‘Conserve and Sustainably Use the Oceans, Seas, and Marine Resources for Sustainable Development’
Authors: Eirini-Erasmia Fasia , Christos Kypraios
Published: June 2024

Ocean sustainability has only recently become a top priority at the international agenda. States’ responsibilities for marine sustainability are reflected in soft law and policy texts and, more importantly, in legally binding instruments and international judgments and awards. SDG 14 forms part of this broad framework. The present commentary offers a detailed overview and in-depth analysis of SDG 14. It summarizes the travaux préparatoires of SDG 14 revealing the process and the deliberations according to which the goal and the targets were created. It then provides an overview of the two main objectives of SDG 14, that is, conservation and sustainable use; outlines the current legal and policy framework governing the oceans; addresses the main challenges of that framework; and analyses the key notion of cooperation, which can facilitate the advancement of SDG 14. Finally, it examines and evaluates the targets and indicators employed to enable and monitor the implementation of SDG 14.
Global Health Landscape
Authors: Meier Benjamin Mason , Sirleaf Matiangai
Published: June 2024

This chapter, “Global Health Landscape,” delineates the actors involved in global health law and policy. International law traditionally pertains to states and international organizations. Yet, traditional international actors like the United Nations and World Health Organization are now being joined—and in many ways challenged—by a far larger set of state and non-state actors, coming together in new policy efforts to advance global health. This expanding global health governance landscape encompasses the proliferating initiatives of individual governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, foundations, and corporations, each seeking to address specific global health concerns. However, with so many actors joining the global health architecture, this proliferation of actors has given rise to concerns of duplicative initiatives, unsustainable programs, and inefficient efforts. These concerns have raised an imperative for partnerships to bring together actors—both public and private—under shared goals for health promotion. As more actors join in efforts to advance global health law and policy, coordination and cooperation in global health governance will be more important than ever—to realize sustainable development and “decolonize” colonial structures in global health governance.
Commercial Determinants of Health
Authors: Habibi Roojin , Campos-Rudinsky Thana C de
Published: June 2024

This chapter, “Commercial Determinants of Health,” examines the rising influence of transnational corporations (TNCs) in global health and the promises and pitfalls of corporate social responsibility (CSR) doctrines in promoting accountability for global health policy. While corporate activity has contributed to the development of many health-promoting goods—including vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics—corporations have also threatened health and social well-being, in both the goods they sell and the ways in which those goods are produced. These health harms from commercial determinants have fallen inequitably on the most marginalized and disadvantaged communities. As a means of ensuring ethical and lawful corporate behavior and disincentivizing motives that harm individuals and environments, corporations have sought to self-regulate their activities through CSR doctrines. However, given past and current limitations of CSR doctrines in global health, global health governance has increasingly looked beyond CSR to develop mechanisms of corporate regulation—to promote accountability for corporate wrongdoing and ensure justice in global health under international law. It will be crucial to look to the clarifying normative force of international law, as elucidated by rapidly evolving standards governing business actors under international human rights law, to ensure that new laws and regulations uphold the global common good.
Definition of Torture
Authors: Zach Gerrit
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 1 of the Convention against Torture, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Article 1 of the Convention against Torture is the first provision in an international treaty which defines torture. It served as a model for the definition contained in Article 2 of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture adopted in 1985. Article 1 has to be read in conjunction with Article 16, which requires States parties to prevent ‘other acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article 1’. The main elements of the definition of torture are the following: involvement of a public official, infliction of severe pain or suffering, intention, and specific purpose.
Types of Jurisdiction over the Offence of Torture
Authors: Schmidt Roland
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 5 of the Convention against Torture, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Article 5 stipulates an obligation for State parties to establish their jurisdiction over the crime of torture in a comprehensive manner in order to avoid safe havens for perpetrators of torture. In addition to the territoriality and flag principle, as well as the active and passive nationality principle laid down in Article 5(1), Article 5(2), for the first time in a human rights treaty, establishes the obligation of State parties to establish universal jurisdiction in all cases where an alleged torturer is present in any territory under their jurisdiction. The provisions of Articles 6 to 9 are closely related to Article 5 and further define the various steps which States need to take in order to bring suspected torturers to justice.
Aut Dedere aut Judicare
Authors: Schmidt Roland
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 7 of the Convention against Torture, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Articles 6 and 7 establish increased obligations for State parties in whose territory a suspected torturer is present (the so-called forum States). They shall ensure the presence of such persons by effective custodial or non-custodial measures in accordance with Article 6, carry out preliminary inquiries into the facts, and notify other State parties of the custody and the findings of their investigations in order to facilitate possible extradition requests. After conducting these preliminary steps, the forum State has an obligation under Article 7(1) to submit the case to its competent authorities for the purpose of prosecution. In other words, the strongest obligation to avoid a safe haven for perpetrators of torture by bringing them to justice before their domestic courts applies to the forum State.
Notification by the Secretary-General
Authors: Monina Giuliana
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 32 of the Convention against Torture, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Article 32 is based on similar provisions in UN treaties, such as Article 24 of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Article 52 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It states that the Secretary-General of the United Nations shall inform all States Members of the United Nations and all States which have signed this Convention or acceded to it of the following: (a) signatures, ratifications, and accessions under Articles 25 and 26; (b) the date of entry into force of this Convention under Article 27 and the date of the entry into force of any amendments under Article 29; and (c) denunciations under Article 31.
Preamble
Authors: Krisper Stephanie
Published: June 2024

This chapter presents the preamble of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. According to Article 31(1) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, an international treaty is not to be interpreted in isolation but rather in its context. A treaty's context comprises, in addition to the text and annexes, its preamble. This legal significance attributed to the preamble has been generally recognized under international law. The preamble to the Optional Protocol is more comprehensive than the preamble to the Convention against Torture and its drafting gave rise to lengthy discussions about controversial issues. The chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation are discussed.
Obligation to Allow Preventive Visits to All Places of Detention
Authors: Krisper Stephanie
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 4 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Article 4 establishes an unequivocal obligation of States parties to allow visits by both the Subcommittee on Prevention and the national preventive mechanisms ‘to any place under its jurisdiction and control where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue of an order given by a public authority or at its instigation or with its consent or acquiescence’. Second, it defines deprivation of liberty and places of detention.
Obligations of States Parties to Facilitate Visits by the National Preventive Mechanisms
Authors: Krisper Stephanie
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 20 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Article 20 mirrors Article 14 of the Optional Protocol, which foresees almost identical obligations for States parties regarding the Subcommittee (SPT). This reflects the desire of most States parties/delegations to grant the national preventive mechanisms a mandate as broad as the SPT's as compromise. However, the EU Draft, maintained the SPT as the body primarily responsible for conducting regular missions and visits to places of detention, whereas national preventive mechanisms were only foreseen if States parties wished to establish them.
Financing of the Subcommittee
Authors: Buchinger Kerstin
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 25 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. The system of financing of treaty-monitoring bodies by contributions of States parties, as provided for in Articles 17(7) and 18(5) of the Convention against Torture, has led to serious obstacles for the treaty bodies in performing their functions. This is the reason why Australia in 1991 submitted a proposal for amending these provisions, together with the respective provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Both provisions were amended in accordance with the procedure envisaged in Article 29 of the Convention against Torture. However, these amendments never entered into force as the required ratification by two-thirds of the States parties was never achieved. Nevertheless, the General Assembly, as a provisional measure, agreed to cover out of the general UN budget, the expenses of the Convention against Torture — and CERD.
Signature, Ratification, and Accession
Authors: Krisper Stephanie
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 27 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Article 27 stipulates that only States parties that have signed, ratified, or acceded to the Convention against Torture may likewise sign, ratify, or accede to the Optional Protocol. The mere signature of the Optional Protocol does not per se create an obligation to ratify the Protocol. However, in accordance with Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the signing of a multilateral treaty creates an obligation upon the signatory State to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and the purpose of the treaty in question, in this case the Optional Protocol. Therefore, signing the Protocol expresses the willingness to become legally bound by its obligations in the near or at least medium term.
Relation to Regional Systems of Preventive Visits to Places of Detention
Authors: Krisper Stephanie
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 31 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. This provision reflects the principle of cooperation, which is at the heart of the Optional Protocol's preventive approach. It aims to ensure not only that the work of other monitoring bodies in the field of torture prevention shall not be undermined by the Subcommittee on Prevention (SPT), but also that the experiences gained so far by regional mechanisms shall be shared with the SPT in order to promote the objectives of the Optional Protocol. Unnecessary duplication, however, shall be avoided in order not to waste valuable and limited resources.
Obligations of Members of the Subcommittee during Country Missions
Authors: Buchinger Kerstin
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 36 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Article 36 states that, ‘When visiting a State Party, the members of the Subcommittee on Prevention shall, without prejudice to the provisions and purposes of the present Protocol and such privileges and immunities as they may enjoy: (a) respect the laws and regulations of the visited State; (b) refrain from any action or activity incompatible with the impartial and international nature of their duties’.
The Energy Security Principles
Authors: Sourgens Frédéric G , Sempertegui Leonardo
Published: June 2024

This chapter focuses on the six key legal principles of energy security, which refers to reliable and resilient access to energy. It cites how energy security adds a further wrinkle to energy transition governance. Energy security is imperative to the system because energy equity remains necessary for energy systems to fulfil a core function in every economy. Energy transitions hold a highly competitive stance from a geopolitical perspective. The chapter explains that a bottom-up practice is needed to balance climate principles and energy equity principles as both binding and prudent while also taking competitive conditions, cooperation, and solidarity factors into account.
Identification and Delineation of World Heritage Properties
Authors: Ben Boer
Published: June 2024

This chapter expounds on the purpose of Article 3 that involved the identification and delineation of world heritage properties. It notes the central obligation under the 1972 Convention for all States Parties to identify and delineate cultural and natural heritage as items of outstanding universal value. The acts of identification and delineation of properties can include a range of legal and financial implications, and technical complexities. Meanwhile, in recent decades, the rights and involvement of First Nations entities and local communities also became a very significant consideration, especially in terms of the opportunities and requirements for participation in all stages of World Heritage decision-making. The chapter clarifies the implications of outstanding universal value under the context of the identification and delineation of properties.
The 1972 World Heritage Convention in the Framework of Other UNESCO Conventions and Other Instruments on Cultural Heritage
Authors: Guido Carducci
Published: June 2024

This chapter explores the 1972 World Heritage Convention in the framework of other UNESCO Conventions and other instruments on cultural heritage. It elaborates on the scope, coexistence, and overlapping of legal instruments. The notion of cultural property and heritage have a variety of legal definitions and regimes that exist in domestic law and international law. The chapter also considers the differences between the 1972 Convention, the 1954 Convention and its Protocols, while regarding the notion of armed conflicts and occupations. The chapter looks into some frameworks of the 1970 UNESCO and the 1995 UNIDROIT Conventions, the 1994 Council of Europe Archaeological Heritage Convention, and EU law.
The Future of the World Heritage Convention: Problems and Prospects
Authors: Francesco Francioni , Federico Lenzerini
Published: June 2024

This chapter considers the future of the World Heritage Convention. It acknowledges that the 1972 World Heritage Convention has proven to be a successful and effective instrument for the protection of cultural heritage and natural environments of exceptional interest to humanity. Moreover, the Convention created a global network including nearly all the outstanding examples of cultural and natural heritage existing in the world, ensuring their proper preservation and transmission to future generations. The chapter also covers the problems and gaps surrounding the Convention since its adoption in 1972. It explains possible actions in the future, such as reinforcing institutional framework correlation to the system of international cooperation.
WTO Law in Domestic Law
Authors: Herdegen Matthias
Published: June 2024

This chapter provides an overview of the World Trade Organization (WTO) law in domestic law. It then explains the reluctance of national courts to consider the WTO agreements as self-executing or directly applicable in US courts. In the European Union, an extensive discussion has focused on the applicability of WTO law by the European Court of Justice. The European Court of Justice has shown an astonishing lack of sensitivity to the binding effect of international legal obligations for the European Union. Nevertheless, the European Court of Justice recognizes the effects of procedural issues of the WTO agreements in domestic law.
The Regional Integration of Markets
Authors: Herdegen Matthias
Published: June 2024

This chapter explores the regional integration of markets. It starts with the key concepts of free trade areas, customs unions, and economic communities to elaborate on the forms of regional market integration. Meanwhile, mega-regionals refer to a recent and salient feature of sub-global trade liberalization wherein trade agreements often have an intercontinental reach. The chapter further details the free movement of goods and services in the European Union and the work of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) of 1992. It also considers regional integration across South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Asia, the Pacific, and Africa.
International Company Law
Authors: Herdegen Matthias
Published: June 2024

This chapter focuses on international company law, which governs the corporate issues of cross-border activities of companies. A key aspect of international company law is the recognition of a corporation as a legal person outside its home country. Additionally, the law of a single jurisdiction governs core internal issues, which ensures a uniform regime for corporate organizations by the founders’ intent. The chapter clarifies that the law governing a company (home law) follows the place of incorporation or the seat of administration, typically those with control and management. It notes how corporate governance became the conceptual platform for corporate and individual accountability and transparency.
The International Monetary Fund
Authors: Herdegen Matthias
Published: June 2024

This chapter outlines the objectives, organization, and functions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The establishment of the IMF ensures a stable international monetary system as a basis of international trade and capital movements while simultaneously fostering sound economic growth and contributing to a stable monetary regime of Member States. Moreover, under the IMF Agreement, stable exchange currency arrangements and the free convertibility of currencies are cornerstones of international monetary relations. The chapter further elaborates on the general obligations of IMF members and the exchange rate policies with stability and fair competitive conditions. It looks into the convertibility of currencies and restriction of exchange controls, which play a vital role in international capital movements and transboundary payments.