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Peremptory Norms of General International Law (Jus Cogens): Disquisitions and Dispositions brings together an impressive collection of authors addressing both conceptual issues and challenges relating to peremptory norms of general international. Covered themes in the edited collection include concepts relating to the identification of peremptory norms, consequences of peremptory norms, critiques of peremptory norms, the relationship between peremptory norms and particular areas of international law as well as the peremptory status of particular norms of international law. The contributions are presented from an array of scholars and experts with different perspective, thus providing an interesting mosaic of thoughts on peremptory norms. Written against the backdrop of the ongoing work of the International Law Commission, it exposes some tensions inherent in the jus cogens.
Abstract
This article analyses the relevance of investment and investment law in the environmental policy agenda post-Rio 2012. It is intended as a call for the mainstreaming of investment and investment law considerations in future negotiations concerning the environment.
This article explores the expression of State sovereignty through customary norms in a regulatory space dominated by investment treaties. It argues that, because most of the actionable concepts expressing sovereignty in international law are general (not specific to a “branch”) andcustomary, misunderstanding the role of customary law in investment regulation amounts to confining sovereignty to a few narrow carve-outs and exceptions in investment treaties. However, customary concepts operate autonomously and in parallel to treaties, unless specifically excluded by the latter. The lex specialis principle does not necessarily command the exclusion in toto of relevant customary rules. The article discusses the work of the Institut de Droit International in this regard and then analyses the investment case law relating to the application of the police powers doctrine, necessity, countermeasures and transnational public policy. It shows that failure to address specifically the articulation of treaty and customary norms even in the event the former apply as lex specialis is subtly eroding, without clear legal grounds,the customary expression of sovereignty in foreign investment disputes.
Abstract
This essay introduces the legal dimensions of the Anthropocene, i.e. the currently advocated new geological epoch in which humans are the defining force. It explores in this context two basic propositions. First, law as a technology of social organisation has been neglected in the otherwise highly technology-focused accounts by natural and social scientists of the drivers of the Anthropocene. Secondly, in those rare instances where law has been discussed, there is a tendency to assume that the role of law is to tackle the negative externalities of transactions (e.g. their environmental or social implications) rather than the core of the underlying transactions, i.e. the organization of production and consumption processes. Such focus on externalities fails to unveil the role of law in prompting, sustaining and potentially managing the processes that have led to the Anthropocene. After a brief introduction to the Anthropocene narrative and the possible role of law in it, it focuses on three main questions: the disconnection between natural and human history, the profound inequalities within the human variable driving the Anthropocene, and the technological transition required to reach a sustainable societal organisation.