bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Diplomatic Mission, the Corps, Breach of Relations, and Protection of Interests
Authors: Denza Eileen
Published: June 2024

This chapter covers the key concepts concerning diplomatic mission, the corps, breach of relations, and protection of interests. Diplomatic body comprises the heads and the diplomatic staff of all the missions accredited to a particular receiving State. The chapter looks into communication in the absence of diplomatic relations. It then explains that the mission of a diplomatic agent may come to an end on a break in diplomatic relations between the sending and receiving States. Under the situation of recalling or withdrawing from the mission indefinitely, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations provides a basic framework concerning the protection of interests.
Privileges and Immunities of Diplomatic Agents
Authors: Denza Eileen
Published: June 2024

This chapter elaborates on the privileges and immunities of diplomatic agents. It explains the distinction between privileges and immunities. Although a diplomat’s immunity from jurisdiction does not imply any exemption from liability, special provision is sometimes made in local law to provide that diplomats shall be exempt from certain obligations. Meanwhile, the privileges of diplomatic agents include nationality and several exemptions from several factors like taxation and customs duties. The chapter then considers Article 40 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) providing an approach concerning a diplomatic agent passing through a third State to or from his post.
Consuls: Appointment, Functions, and Status
Authors: Denza Eileen , Wickremasinghe Chanaka
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses the appointment, functions, and status of consuls. Over the recent decades, consuls have become closely assimilated to diplomats in the manner of their appointment and in many of the functions they perform. In modern practice, consuls are appointed by the government of a State to protect the practical, legal, and commercial interests of its own nationals in another State. The chapter also considers the privileges and immunities of consuls while also looking into the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. It then elaborates on the notion of consular protection and the end and nature of consular functions.
The European Union I—Development, Structure, and Decision-Making
Authors: Berman Paul
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses the origins, development, structure, and decision-making of the European Union. While the European Union may be classified as an international organization, the nature of its powers and procedures mean that it is usually regarded as a sui generis entity. The Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provide the Union powers to adopt legislation and other legal instruments across a wide range of policy areas. The chapter also considers the Parliament's powers and influence as a legislator, budgetary authority, overseer of the Commission, and the adoption of resolutions. It mentions the Court of Justice has played a significant role in shaping the character and development of the Communities and institutional framework.
Other International and Regional Organizations
Authors: Roberts Ivor
Published: June 2024

This chapter looks into the work and significance of international and regional organizations. It starts with the concept of the Commonwealth, which features freedom of decision, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings, privileges, immunities, and consular functions. Nowadays, the Commonwealth is regarded as one of the largest intergovernmental organizations in the world. The chapter mentions how the Queen remains the symbolic head of the Common despite varying constitutional divergences. It then looks into several organizations, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Council of Europe, Organization of American States, African Union, and Association of South-East Asian Nations.
International Conferences
Authors: Berman Frank , Bjorge Eirik
Published: June 2024

This chapter highlights the importance of international conferences in international life regardless of formats and levels. Nowadays, many of the functions served by international conferences are equally capable of being performed either by a separate conference or plenary convened for a specific purpose. Many international conferences are convened to negotiate and conclude treaties. The chapter then looks into the substantial changes concerning languages used at international conferences. It notes the participation in international conferences and the failed attempts of the League of Nations and the United Nations to codify in standard form the procedures to be followed at international conferences.
Treaties and Other International Instruments I—General Definition, Treaty Formalities
Authors: Berman Frank , Bjorge Eirik
Published: June 2024

This chapter looks into treaties and other international instruments. It starts with the modern definition of treaties, which references how the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties did not provide one. The formalities in the drawing up of treaties involve initialling and signature, preparation of signature texts, languages, registration, and publication. The chapter notes that the International Law Commission is designed to regulate the treaties of international organizations. It mentions the requirement that the agreement of treaties must be governed by international law, which then serves as a distinction from a treaty to other agreements regulated by some national legal system.
Prosecutions
Authors: Wilmshurst Elizabeth
Published: June 2024

This chapter looks into the prosecutions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and other tribunals. It explains the residual mechanism set up to deal with the remaining work of the two ad hoc Tribunals and other courts with international elements. The creation of the ICC emphasizes the importance of complying with international law on matters, such as the conduct of hostilities and the treatment of civilians. The chapter discusses the establishment of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. It also elaborates on the international elements of courts by referencing the Special Court of Sierra Leone, Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Engagement of United States Courts with International Law
Authors: Sloss David
Published: June 2024

The chapter addresses the engagement of United States courts with international law. It applies the analytical framework developed by the International Law Association Study Group and examines cases in which courts have engaged in various forms of avoidance, alignment, and contestation. United States courts routinely engage in evasive avoidance by deciding cases without reference to international law, even though it could potentially apply. They also sometimes invoke the non-self-execution doctrine to justify a posture of affirmative avoidance. On the other hand, United States courts routinely practice both fair weather alignment and consubstantial alignment to harmonize domestic law with international law. In contrast, cases involving overriding alignment or hyper-alignment are quite rare. In the early twenty-first century, courts decided numerous cases involving the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR) that entailed either affirmative or negatory contestation of international law. Aside from VCCR cases, though, judicial decisions involving affirmative or negatory contestation are relatively rare.
Engagement of English Courts with International Law
Authors: Fatima Shaheed
Published: June 2024

Against the backdrop of the increasing use and application of international law in English courts, the chapter summarizes the principal ways in which English courts have engaged with the primary sources of international law. It shows that it is constitutional theory and practice and, less overtly, political reality that guide and shape English courts’ engagement with international law, rather than a consistent response to either specific norms of, or the general idea of, international law. Overall, the underlying constitutional principles that explain the engagement of English courts with international law are settled and uncontroversial. However, the proper limits and application of those principles continue to be challenged and developed through caselaw, as this chapter shows by reference to the status and use of incorporated treaties, unincorporated treaties, and customary international law in English courts. It also touches on how English courts have approached issues concerning foreign relations.
The Relationship Between Intellectual Property and Trade Through the Lens of Geographical Indications
Authors: Irene Calboli
Published: June 2024

This chapter addresses the relationship between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and trade through the lens of the international, and controversial, protection of geographical indications (GIs). This methodological choice—focusing on a specific IP topic instead of multiple rights—is not only due to the wording limitations of the chapter, but also to the fact that the international regulation of GIs well illustrates the changes, successes and challenges of the international IP system, at the multilateral, regional and bilateral levels. In particular, this chapter recounts how the international system of GI protection developed across several periods. At first, GIs were protected at the multilateral level, but only by a small number of countries. Then, in the 1990s, the TRIPS Agreement included GIs into the global IP agenda. At the turn of the century, however, GI negotiations shifted—even more than other IPRs—to regional and bilateral FTAs. Still, multilateralism showed its resilience precisely with the revisions of a GI agreement, the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement, in 2015. Ultimately, this chapter supports that the main take away of the journey across international GI protection is that the international IP landscape has become more complex and multilayered and the ‘new normal’ relationship between IPRs and trade is the co-existence and combination of multilateralism, bilateralism and regionalism.
Digital Trade
Authors: Shin-yi Peng
Published: June 2024

Digital technology has transformed the way trade is conducted, and the need to modernize trade agreements to reflect this reality is long overdue. In terms of market access, WTO case law has confirmed that GATS disciplines and obligations apply to digital means of service delivery that have emerged since the WTO was concluded in 1994. However, judicial interpretation may not be the most appropriate method of clarifying whether the W/120 and the CPC cover certain international trade enabled by digital technologies. GATS classification/scheduling system must be reformed in light of innovative advances and trends toward a data-driven economy. In terms of domestic regulation, governments are facing dilemmas between maximizing opportunities stemming from digital trade by freeing the flow of data and managing the impact of cross-border data flows for other policy objectives, which include privacy and cybersecurity. Drawing from the experiences of the FTAs, an obvious challenge is the inherent sensitivity of interfering with other parties’ ‘digital sovereignty’. Particular attention should be paid to the soft legal nature of certain provisions and loose exceptions under the digital trade/e-commerce chapters. Furthermore, ‘special and differential treatment’ will eventually be the focal points of digital trade and data governance.
Treaties in Development of International Law
Authors: Gardiner Richard
Published: June 2024

This chapter explains how treaties can come to state rules of customary international law through codification, crystallization, and by setting the basis for subsequent practice which coalesces into such rules. It provides examples of codification and progressive development of international law using the history of the development of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties as a prime example, as well as providing essential material for understanding the role and content of the law of treaties. The 1969 Convention provides an illustration of how a major treaty is developed under the aegis of an international organization, in this case through the work of the United Nations’ International Law Commission and the 1968–1969 Vienna Conference on the Law of Treaties. Outlined are major issues addressed at the conference, which included reservations to treaties, treaty interpretation, and ‘peremptory norms’ of international law.
AI Life Cycle and Human Rights
Authors: Martina Šmuclerová , Luboš Král , Jan Drchal
Published: June 2024

This interdisciplinary chapter, based on the collaboration of international lawyers and artificial intelligence (AI) experts, introduces various phases of the AI life cycle in light of possible human rights violations that may arise from each of them. It identifies the root cause of the risks to human rights and analyses the possible remedies that are common to all AI systems despite their great diversity and domain of use today. The risk of human rights violation arises notably due to unbalanced or biased data, insufficiently identified system boundary conditions or modified context, the existence of the black box, malicious use, or abuse of AI. The gist is to introduce the human rights risk assessment throughout the whole AI life cycle and integrate it into the user requirements and the system specifications in the initial phase. This ensures, inter alia, that the AI system will be developed, tested, and monitored in light of the applicable human rights limitations. Requirements related to transparency, explainability, certification, or the selection of development data are all highly relevant for protection of human rights.
Artificial Intelligence and the Right to Property
Authors: Letizia Tomada , Raphaële Xenidis
Published: June 2024

In the era of fast-developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, the tension between proprietary rights and transparency requirements represents a key regulatory issue. The legislator has to some extent acknowledged the need of achieving a balanced interplay between safeguarding intellectual property rights (IPRs) and ensuring transparency. Yet, the currently applicable legal framework presents challenges of implementation and limitations, which deserve particular attention. In this chapter, stemming from the underpinnings of the right to property, first, an examination is presented of the several means of intellectual property (IP) protection for AI, including in particular patents, copyright, and trade secrets. The chapter then highlights the extent to which property rights may collide with the need to open the AI ‘black box’ to guarantee transparency, explainability, and to safeguard related rights. Finally, current regulatory solutions capable of mitigating those clashes are analysed with a view towards proposing directions aimed at achieving more balance between the rights involved.
Artificial Intelligence, the Public Space, and the Right to Be Ignored
Authors: Andrea Pin
Published: June 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of occupying, patrolling, and even controlling physical space. The issue of automated facial recognition (AFR) is only the most visible aspect of a much broader phenomenon, as computer vision empowers private and public entities to capture a great deal of information that is available in the public sphere in an unprecedented way, challenging how public law conceives public spaces. Despite significant differences, various legal orders are similarly concerned with this phenomenon, which is shifting the boundaries between what is private and what is public. This chapter (i) explains how, because of AI, public spaces are morphing into something new; (ii) argues for the protection of anonymity; (iii) demonstrates the failures of several contemporary theorisations of public places and that the standard privacy paradigm fails to provide sufficient protection; and (iv) proposes a new approach to the topic. Drawing from different legal orders, it ultimately argues for a reconceptualisation of the public sphere in a way that mitigates the impact of AI on social life.
Artificial Intelligence and Racial Discrimination
Authors: Louis Koen , Kgomotso Mufamadi
Published: June 2024

This chapter provides an overview of contemporary concerns over racial discrimination in the application of artificial intelligence (AI), showing that racial discrimination which permeates through many of our societies is also manifested in or through AI. Research reflects that AI may entrench racism and racial bias. The chapter critically analyses the contemporary international law framework for the combatting of racial discrimination which includes an analysis of states’ due diligence obligations and the responsibilities of private entities to prevent racial discrimination. It then proceeds to consider the value of imposing positive obligations on government and private entities alike to prohibit racial discrimination perpetuated by AI.
Artificial Intelligence and Gender-Based Discrimination
Authors: Fabian Lütz
Published: June 2024

This chapter explores the negative and positive effects of algorithms on human rights and gender-based discrimination. It presents the existing legal framework including its shortcomings and the main constitutive elements of a future human rights law (HRL) framework on algorithmic gender-based discrimination. Rather than being neutral and overcoming all potential decision-making errors of humans, algorithms perform only as accurately as the design of the algorithm and the underlying (training) data. Data can be the source of bias, inaccuracy, and discrimination and can reflect existing inequalities and stereotypes in society and reinforce discrimination. In addition to the regulation of algorithms’ potential negative impacts for society, this chapter argues for using artificial intelligence (AI), to detect gender discrimination, and more generally achieving less biased and noisy decision-making. Although the importance—and ubiquitous presence—of AI and the risk of algorithmic discrimination have been recognised in policy documents, no specific legal instrument has been adopted at the United Nations (UN) level. Against this background, this chapter sketches out avenues for regulation from a HRL perspective and advocates a hybrid approach ensuring the respect of human rights and the principle of gender equality at both global (UN) and local (regional and national) levels.
Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics
Authors: Migle Laukyte
Published: June 2024

This chapter investigates artificial intelligence (AI)-driven data analytics from a human rights perspective. While transparency, the fostering of innovation, and economic growth may be framed as strong qualities, a closer inspection of specific kinds of analytics—judge and physician analytics in particular—evidences a dark side of professional (employee) analytics that could lead to abuses and manipulations not only in terms of privacy and personal data protection, but also in terms of discriminatory practices and challenges to individual autonomy. Although the problem to balance different stakeholders’ rights and interests is an old one, data analytics present us with a novel way of framing this problem and forces us to ask whose human rights should prevail in an environment where data analytics could reveal to us information about others that we did not know about or even be used to manipulate this information and make us see an altered—for the benefit of someone—reality.
Artificial Intelligence Technologies and the Right to Seek and Enjoy Asylum
Authors: Raimy Reyes
Published: June 2024

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can be detrimental to the rights of those forced to flee, breaching international obligations on the right to seek asylum. Certainly, AI technologies have an appeal as tools to manage forced migration. However, the very same AI algorithms that claim to save lives by detecting people at high-sea or deserts, distributing humanitarian assistance through iris scans, and making automated decisions without human intervention, could be technologies used to turn away people seeking international protection, to segregate populations, to automate mass rejection decisions, and to deport people back to countries where their lives and liberties are at risk. Thus, the use of AI can lead to the breach of multiple international obligations when applied to life-or-death decision-making procedures such as access to territory, filing for asylum, the right to receive a reasoned and substantiated decision, and being able to appeal negative decisions. Overall, AI technologies for migration issues remain largely unregulated, opaque, and lack accountability. The nuanced and complex nature of forced displacement cannot be properly addressed by these new emergency technologies without breaching existing international obligations on the right to seek asylum. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the development of current—and future—AI applications in the field of forced migration is done within a legal framework that is regulated and limited by international human rights obligations and standards on the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution.
Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights
Authors: Kostina Prifti , Alberto Quintavalla , Jeroen Temperman
Published: June 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies may contribute to the advancement of human rights, but they also pose obvious risks: one needs only to think of the many instances where biased algorithms discriminate against ethnic minorities and women. In this vein, scientific literature has begun to investigate the matter closely, varying in scope. Existing research attempts to provide a general framework for the impact of AI on human rights on an international governance level or focuses on specific issues in the interaction between AI and human rights. Scholarship that comprehensively addresses the impact of AI technologies on human rights, linking it with an in-depth discussion on regulation and governance of the impact on various governance levels, is missing and needed. This chapter builds on the work conducted in this book and aims to fill the gap by laying the groundwork for a comprehensive review of the impact of AI on human rights. The results reveal points of convergence in what may be termed common risks and benefits that AI poses in relation to human rights. Risks are divided into the categories of structural risks, related to the nature and design of AI technologies, and functional risks, related to what AI does from an agent-oriented viewpoint. Last, a discussion on regulatory and governance responses to the common risks is offered and further research required is highlighted.
The Limits of AI Decision-Making
Authors: Florian Gamper
Published: June 2024

This chapter suggests a novel explanation as to why certain decisions should not be made by artificial intelligence (AI), but instead should be reserved for humans. Several such explanations have already been proposed. They range from arguing that the preference for human decision-making (over AI decision-making, or automated decision making (together ADM)) is an irrational bias, to arguing that in some areas ADM is still inferior to humans, or that AI cannot make ethical decisions. This chapter does not claim that these accounts are wrong, but that they are incomplete. The central claim of this chapter is that there is an important (yet often overlooked) distinction between decisions that convey information only and decisions that cause something to happen. The argument is that only decisions that cause something to happen have the potential to change a person’s normative situation by virtue of the decision alone. However, if AI makes these decisions, the decision may fail to produce a normative change. Rights are a normative concept, and ADM may lead to a situation where the concept of rights applies to fewer instances and, as such, human rights may apply to fewer instances.
Smart Cities, Artificial Intelligence, and Public Law
Authors: Sofia Ranchordás
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses how smart cities—in particular through the use of artificial intelligence (AI)—deepen existing inequalities between citizens and governments and how traditional public law principles, rights, and doctrines fail to correct them. Specifically, the chapter focuses on the discrepancy between the predictive nature of smart urban solutions fuelled by AI and the primarily reactive public law principles and instruments in the context of smart cities.
Conclusion
Authors: Alberto Quintavalla , Jeroen Temperman
Published: June 2024

This chapter presents the concluding reflections on the part of this volume’s editors. First, artificial intelligence (AI) and human rights, as discussed throughout this volume, relate to each other in a double-edged fashion. Black or white conclusions are impossible, since AI technology does not establish a bilateral relationship with a single (specific set of) human right(s), the relationship between AI technology and human rights is rather a web of multilateral coexisting relationships, often entailing significant risks and, at times, offering significant benefits. Second, human rights do impact AI, too. There exists a regulatory system in the form of human rights law (HRL), offering the tools for prevention, mitigation, and redress of human rights violations—and if complied with, significant impacts follow vis-à-vis the entire AI life cycle, from design to deployment. Third, pushback against the adverse effects stemming from AI is needed from societies in addition to states. Pervasive weaknesses and blind spots, however, in the current regulatory system include, the chapter concludes, notably the lack—despite gradual paradigm shifts—of responsibility and accountability by the private sector, the sheer complexity of multilateral AI impacts on rights and public goods, and the uneven spread of AI, both in terms of benefits and adverse impacts.
Commentary
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter focuses on the Title and the Preamble of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. It then notes the Convention as the first comprehensive disarmament treaty outlawing a conventional weapon. Meanwhile, the Preamble to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is part of the ‘context’ for the purpose of interpreting its substantive provisions as per the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and general international law. The chapter elaborates on the terminologies within the Title and the Preamble, referencing various concepts such as States Parties. It also highlights the specificity of mine clearance, the principle of humanity, and international humanitarian law.
Definitions
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter tackles the definition of key terms featured in Article 2 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. It highlights the importance of defining anti-personnel mines and the notion of transfer. In practice, distinguishing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used by non-State armed groups that are de jure anti-personnel mines falling within the scope of the Convention from those that do not meet the definition in Article 2(1) has been problematic in several States Parties. On the other hand, the ambiguity in the definition of ‘transfer’ has not hindered compliance with the prohibition on transfer in Article 1(1)(b) of the Convention. The chapter also covers the definition of ‘mine’, ‘anti-handling devices’, and ‘mined areas’.
Destruction of Anti-Personnel Mines in Mined Areas
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter explores the provision within Article 5 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. It primarily discusses the duty to find, clear, and destroy all emplaced anti-personnel mines that are located in mined areas on territory under the jurisdiction or control of a State Party. Each affected State Party faces a deadline of ten years for the completion of clearance and destruction. The chapter acknowledges the slow work in progress of States Parties to implement the primary obligations of destruction and clearance. It then expounds on the several clearance methods and the State Parties that have ostensibly fulfilled their Article 5 survey, clearance, and destruction obligations.
Facilitation and Clarification of Compliance
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter details Article 8 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. It cites that Article 8 was the most contested set of provisions in the negotiation process as it features the measures to facilitate and clarify compliance with the Convention’s obligations. Cooperative compliance generally served the Convention well, though only up to a point since Greece and Ukraine remain in serious violation of Article 4. The chapter considers the provision to authorize, conduct, and review a compulsory fact-finding mission. It details the formal process States Parties can use to clarify their respective cooperative compliance with the appropriate information that provides evidence to support the concern motivating the request.
Meetings of the States Parties
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter looks into the annual Meetings of States Parties required under Article 11 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. During the annual meetings, the States Parties are empowered collectively to decide whether or not to grant an extension to the deadline under Article 5 under a request by an affected State Party. Moreover, States Parties must make important decisions at the annual meetings, such as by establishing an intersessional programme of work and creating standing committees of States Parties to address implementation issues. The chapter highlights the duty of States Parties to meet regularly indicated under Article 11. It considers the operation and status of the Convention that concerns its implementation in accordance with the States’ level of adherence.
Amendments
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter explains the negotiation and application of amendment as per Article 13 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. It notes that treaties often make specific provisions for their amendment and lay down the process to be followed to amend the Convention. According to Article 13, an amendment to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention may only be agreed upon at a dedicated conference of the States Parties. The chapter mentions how no amendment has been made to the Convention’s provisions to date. It explains issues of the direct application of the Convention to non-State armed groups and the use of anti-personnel mines as a war crime that could merit an amendment to the provisions.
Reservations
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter elaborates on the prohibition of reservations under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention’s Article 19. The Convention prohibits reservations to any of its twenty-two articles, which correlates to the Chemical Weapons Convention and Convention on Cluster Munitions. No State Party has ever claimed that it has a right to make a reservation to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. However, several States have made interpretative declarations to clarify their understanding of a particular term or provision. The chapter references the attempts of Australia, Canada, Czechia, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, and the United Kingdom, considering their declaration on the mere participation of their armed forces.
Duration and Withdrawal
Authors: Casey-Maslen Stuart
Published: June 2024

This chapter focuses on Article 20 of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. It explains how the Convention is a treaty of unlimited duration, but each State Party has the right to withdraw from the Convention following the deposit of an instrument of withdrawal. The withdrawal, then, will only take effect six months after or once the armed conflict ends. The chapter cites how no State Party has withdrawn from the Convention to date. It clarifies that a withdrawing State Party is required to continue fulfilling the obligations assumed under any relevant rules of international law, such as customary rules and general principles of law.
‘End Hunger, Achieve Food Security and Improved Nutrition and Promote Sustainable Agriculture (“Zero Hunger”)’
Authors: Elif Askin
Published: June 2024

Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) aims to end hunger, improve nutrition, and achieve food security and sustainable agriculture. The goal links the eradication of hunger and malnutrition to a transformation in agriculture and food systems and, in particular, to the empowerment of small-scale farmers. The nexus between food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture creates tensions between the different regimes of international law relevant to SDG 2. Unlike international human rights law, other fields of international law, such as international trade and investment law, pose serious challenges to the goal’s objectives and their effective implementation. These challenges are reinforced by an economic approach evident in SDG 2, which, for instance, prioritizes agricultural productivity over the human right to food. The chapter therefore calls for a human rights-based approach to SDG 2 and the need to systematically mainstream human rights in the entire Agenda 2030.
‘Promote Sustained, Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth, Full and Productive Employment and Decent Work for All’
Authors: Francesco Seatzu , Katerina Akestoridi
Published: June 2024

The chapter discusses the interplay between economic growth and decent and productive employment as underlying pillars of sustainable human development, yet their merger under a single goal has been met with both criticism and praise. After a detailed presentation of the preparatory proceedings that led to the formulation of SDG 8 as it currently stands, the chapter discusses each of the Goal’s components separately from the standpoint of international economic law, labour, and human rights law. In that respect, the World Bank’s and the ILO’s contribution to the normative content of the notions and the realization of Agenda 2030’s commitments are highlighted. The analysis is complemented by a thorough examination and critique of SDG 8’s individual targets and indicators adopted to monitor progress made towards the achievement of the goal at global, national, regional, and local levels. In so proceeding, the chapter incorporates an exposition and discussion of the main arguments behind the criticism that have been expressed against SDG 8 and looks at the consequences arising from the decision to combine economic growth and decent work under the banner of the same goal.
‘Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns’
Authors: Kateřina Mitkidis , Adriana Šefčíková
Published: June 2024

Shifting towards sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is considered an essential precondition of sustainable development. UN SDG 12 presents a global agreement on which aspects of production and consumption should be tackled to lead us to a sustainable future. A clear legal framework is a prerequisite to achieve SDG 12. This chapter reviews the international legal framework applicable to SDG 12 and provides a critical commentary of the goal and its individual targets from the international law perspective. The introductory part provides an insight into the preparatory works on SDG 12, its international context, and critique. A detailed commentary of the individual targets follows. In respect to each target, the historical, political, and legal roots are defined, followed by a review of its wording and suitability of its indicator(s). Then, a progress on the target is assessed and the initiatives at the national, regional, and international levels are presented.
‘Promote Peaceful and Inclusive Societies for Sustainable Development, Provide Access to Justice for All and Build Effective, Accountable, and Inclusive Institutions at All Levels’
Authors: Tom Kabau
Published: June 2024

This chapter evaluates the role and significance of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 in guiding states in their pursuit of sustainable development. It critiques the diverse SDG 16 aspirational targets and evaluative indicators in the context of practices of states in respect to the thematic concepts of peace, access to justice, and accountable and inclusive institutions. The foundation of the SDG 16 targets is recognized as being international legal obligations, and the necessity of such sustainable development is also interrogated and justified from theoretical perspectives. The opportunities and limitations that arise in the use of particular indicators to empirically evaluate progress towards the realization of the SDG 16 targets are identified and scrutinized. It is appreciated that despite inevitable predicaments, setbacks, and limitations in the realization of SDG 16, the targets and indicators espoused under SDG 16 have nonetheless contributed to vital and tangible progress towards sustainable development.
Introduction
Authors: Gostin Lawrence O , Meier Benjamin Mason
Published: June 2024

This introduction, “Foundations of Global Health Law & Policy,” provides an overview of the field of global health law, exploring its major doctrinal boundaries and its enduring controversies. Law and policy are complementary approaches to global health governance, with the aim of promoting a healthier, more equitable world. Global health law has come to encompass both “hard” law treaties that bind states and “soft” law instruments that shape norms, processes, and institutions to realize the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health throughout the world. With the practice of global health law proving highly influential in international law and public health contexts, global health law has become an independent academic field. The academic discipline of global health law has thus become a basis to describe new legal and policy frameworks that apply to the new set of public health threats, non-state actors, and regulatory instruments that structure global health. Global health law and policy now reflect the changing global landscape, architecture, and governance necessary to respond to the health threats of the 21st century.
Global Health
Authors: Gostin Lawrence O , Finch Alexandra
Published: June 2024

This chapter, “Global Health,” examines the contested meaning of global health, the health implications of a globalizing world, and the importance of global health law and policy. Looking to public health principles as the foundation of health governance, efforts to advance health have shifted from a focus on individual medical care to approaches that address broad underlying determinants of population health. Where these determinants of health are increasingly structured by global forces, national responses are no longer sufficient to address determinants of health in a globalizing world, requiring global governance. Global governance for health seeks to address global health threats through global health law. Drawing from a long history of international cooperation to address infectious disease, the United Nations (UN) sought after World War II to develop international health law under the World Health Organization (WHO). Yet the early promise of international health law has been challenged by the limitations of national governments and international organizations in a globalizing world, giving rise to the global health law to advance public health standards; protect against health hazards; and promote physical, mental, and social well-being for all.
Mental Health
Authors: Rodríguez Priscila , Rosenthal Eric
Published: June 2024

This chapter, “Mental Health,” analyzes the evolution of global health law in shifting mental health policy from institutionalization to community inclusion. Recognizing the historical segregation, institutionalization, and abuse of people with mental disabilities, global policy developed under the United Nations (UN) to realize human rights in institutional settings. The adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was a groundbreaking development in international law and disability rights, bringing about a paradigm shift that moved mental health policy from a medical model to a social or “human rights” model of disability. Instead of seeing individuals as “ill” or “damaged,” the CRPD recognizes disability as “an evolving concept” that results from the interaction between persons with impairments and social barriers that hinder their full and equal participation in society. The CRPD thus creates a government obligation to remove attitudinal and environmental barriers to inclusion, guaranteeing the right of all persons to live in the community. To implement these rights, the CRPD creates an affirmative obligation on governments to ensure access to a full range of community support services to support independent living and inclusion in the community – mainstreaming human rights in mental health policy.
Pathogen Sharing
Authors: Eccleston-Turner Mark , Rourke Michelle
Published: June 2024

This chapter, “Pathogen Sharing,” introduces the role of “access and benefit sharing” (ABS)—a transactional mechanism designed to allow countries to trade access to their sovereign genetic resources for monetary and non-monetary benefits—in global health law. Combating emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases requires a coordinated international scientific response that includes testing, surveillance, risk assessments, and the development of vaccines and other medical countermeasures. Each of these vital activities relies upon prompt access to pathogen samples. The international scientific community had long treated these pathogen samples as common resources, belonging to everyone, sharing samples freely and informally with scientists around the world to monitor the changing genetic sequences of pathogens and seeking to detect pathogens with pandemic potential before they take hold in the human population. However, international environmental law has come to impact the management of pathogen samples, recognizing genetic resources as the sovereign resources of the country of origin and allowing that country to negotiate the terms of access to these samples though an ABS transaction. Where countries seek to negotiate access to pathogen samples in exchange for sharing associated medicines and vaccines, the ABS transaction may not be the most efficient way to realize global health goals.
Universal Health Coverage
Authors: Gostin Lawrence O , Meier Benjamin Mason
Published: June 2024

This chapter, “Universal Health Coverage,” focuses on the dramatic inequities that dominate global health and examines how global health law has sought to alleviate these inequities within and between nations through a holistic approach to Universal Health Coverage (UHC). In removing barriers that prevent individuals from receiving health care and underlying determinants of health, UHC provides a path to ensure that all individuals receive the health services they need without financial hardship. The World Health Organization (WHO) has taken up UHC as a sweeping rights-based approach to health promotion across sectors, with the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development advancing UHC as a central health target under the Sustainable Development Goals – implicating a “whole of government” approach to address underlying determinants of health. This approach to global health law provides a path to revitalize WHO’s historic efforts to realize primary health care, pushing states to advance policies that not only ensure access to healthcare services, but also structure programming focused on health promotion, disease prevention, and other determinants of health. With the UN joining this effort to support health in all policies, UHC provides an encompassing policy foundation on which to advance global health.
Obligation to Criminalize Torture
Authors: Katona Nóra
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 4 of the Convention against Torture, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. The object and purpose of the Convention is to make the struggle against torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment more effective by establishing State obligations to prevent torture and other forms of ill-treatment, to assist victims as well as to punish the perpetrators of torture. Article 4 is the central norm in relation to the objective of fighting impunity as one of the root causes of the widespread practice of torture worldwide. It requires States parties to make torture, but not other forms of ill-treatment, an offense under their domestic criminal laws with appropriate penalties taking into account the grave nature of the crime of torture.
Procedural Safeguards During the Preliminary Investigation Phase
Authors: Schmidt Roland
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 6 of the Convention against Torture, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Articles 6 to 9 are closely linked to the obligation of States parties under Article 5 to establish jurisdiction over the offence of torture in accordance with the territoriality, flag, nationality, and universal jurisdiction principles. Most of the procedural safeguards provided for in Article 6 are fairly self-evident. If the suspected torturer is present in the territory of the State which initiates criminal proceedings, its authorities shall take him or her into custody or take other legal measures to ensure his or her presence. After taking the necessary measures to ensure the presence of the suspected torturer, the criminal investigation authorities shall make a preliminary inquiry into the facts and report the findings of such an inquiry to other States which may be interested or obliged under the Convention to exercise jurisdiction.
Right of Victims to Complain
Authors: Birk Moritz
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 13 of the Convention against Torture, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. While Article 12 requires States parties to carry out ex officio investigations whenever there is a suspicion of torture or other form of ill-treatment, Article 13 requires such investigation in response to a complaint by the victim. Article 13 constitutes the basic remedy of torture victims, and is aimed at having the facts established by a competent and independent authority. Depending on the facts of the case, a complaint may also lead to further action to bring the perpetrators to justice under criminal law (Articles 4 to 9).
Right of Torture Victims to Adequate Remedy and Reparation
Authors: Lober Johanna , Schuechner Andrea
Published: June 2024

This chapter discusses Article 14 of the Convention against Torture, covering the chronology of draft texts, analysis of Working Group discussions, and issues of interpretation. Article 14 aims at restoring the victims' dignity and preventing the reoccurrence of acts in contravention of the Convention in the future through the provision of full redress. The right to a remedy and to reparations enshrined in Article 14 is closely interrelated with a number of other provisions of the Convention. A failure of States parties to undertake prompt and impartial investigations whenever reasonable grounds exist that an act of torture or other forms of ill-treatment has been committed is a violation of Article 14.