JOURNAL: Journal of the History of International Law/Revue d'histoire du droit international XXV (2023), No. 2

 

(image source: Brill)

Petro-States’ Shaping of International Law (Lys Kulamadayil)
DOI 10.1163/15718050-12340214
Abstract:

This article highlights the marks left on international law by Iran’s and Algeria’s early, and mid-20th century paths to re-claiming sovereignty over their petroleum reserves. It shows that Iran has significantly affected the contractual model of petroleum operations, whereas Algeria has championed the international law turn of third world internationalism. It thus hopes to shift attention from the frequently cited non-consequentialism of key moments in Third World Internationalism, such as Bandung and the NIEO to the significance of these domestic and transnational processes. While so doing, it is careful to point to the extraordinary bargaining power given to petro-states by the fossil-fuel dependent global economy, which elevated their influence in global affairs over that of other states in the Global South.

Planning for the Aftermath. Longue Durée Histories for a New International Legal Order in Kelsen, Lauterpacht and De Visscher (Jacob Giltaij) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI  10.1163/15718050-bja10084
Abstract:

As early as the 1930s, the development of plans for an international legal order to be created in the aftermath of the Second World War were commonplace. This particularly concerned a group of refugee scholars hailing from the German-speaking academic world. The plans of three scholars that were personally affected by the Nazi regime are discussed, those of Hans Kelsen, Hersch Lauterpacht and Charles De Visscher. This contribution compares the plans of the three scholars as formulated in the period between 1934 and 1947, as well as the historical narratives at their core, and ventures to answer the question whether these narratives should be seen as ‘invented traditions’ or that the scholars perceive them as significant and crucial stages of development at the basis of their plans for a post-War international legal order.

A History of Double Criminality in Extradition (Neil Boister) [OPEN ACCESS]
DOI 10.1163/15718050-bja10089

Abstract:

This article sets out the history of double criminality in the law of extradition. It shows how that it only emerged as a legal requirement in the ‘Jay Treaty’, the 1794 treaty between theUSand UK. The article explores how the ‘Jay proviso’, a procedural requirement that the requesting state produce sufficient evidence to satisfy the requested state of the criminality of the requested person, morphed through interaction between common law and civil law states into a substantive requirement that the acts for which extradition is requested be criminal under the laws of both states. The article diccusses the evolution of the idea, and of its rationale, and then concludes that acceptance of this idea by the early part of the 20th Century confirmed its status as a general principle of law, or perhaps even a rule of customary international law. 

The Alaskan Fur-Seal Crisis: Science, Capital, and Multilateralism in the Settlement of International Biodiversity Disputes (James Hickling) 
DOI 10.1163/15718050-12340217
Abstract:

The history of the Alaskan fur-seal crisis shows that the development of international environmental law and the peaceful settlement of biodiversity-related disputes can occur over the very long term, through a dynamic, iterative, and cyclical process that involves four key steps: the sorting of competing interests; the sifting of evidence and expert opinion; convergence on shared values; and the articulation of new regulatory regimes that reflect those values. The fur-seal dispute followed this pattern; it occurred over a period of more than 25 years during which the parties initiated several resets of the cycle until finally reaching a durable multilateral agreement grounded in a commitment to the rule of law and the rational use of natural resources. The main obstacles that prevented a more timely and efficient resolution were scientific uncertainty and risk to investment capital. The parties found they could not reach agreement on the causes of the decline of fur-seal populations, but they could agree on a regulatory model that incented the reallocation of private capital away from unsustainable activities, and that provided for an equitable sharing of public revenues in the long term, including through compensatory payments in exchange for restraint in the exercise of legal rights. This manuscript traces the origins of the dispute and the steps taken to reach a solution, including the several joint scientific inquiries commissioned by the parties, and invites discussion about how the lessons of the fur-seal crisis could be applied to avoid and resolve future biodiversity-related disputes.

Book review
The Invention of Custom. Natural Law and the Law of Nations, ca. 1550–1750 , written by Francesca Iurlaro (by Alain Wijffels)

Read all contributions here.