International Law Between Universalism And Fragmentation

This Festschrift is published on the occasion of Gerhard Hafner’s 65th birthday and his retirement as a professor at the University of Vienna. It assembles a great number of renowned friends and colleagues in international law honouring Gerhard Hafner’s outstanding career as scholar, diplomat, legal adviser and arbitrator. The diversity of areas selected for this Festschrift reflects the generalist approach of Gerhard Hafner towards international law. Among the topics on which his contribution was particularly influential are the fragmentation of international law, the law of State immunity and international criminal law, which feature prominently in the Festschrift. Other areas covered are the theory of international law (including sources), basic principles of international law, codification of international law, subjects of international law, international dispute settlement, the law of the sea and international environmental law, human rights and humanitarian law and the law of the European Union.

The current system of international law is experiencing profound transformations. Indeed, the simultaneous processes of globalization combined with the disintegration of international systems of governance and law-making pose complex challenges for legal scholarship. The doctrinal response to these challenges has been theorized within two seemingly contradictory discourses in international law: fragmentation and constitutionalisation. This book takes an innovative approach to international law, viewing the processes of the fragmentation and constitutionalisation as being profoundly interconnected and reflective of each other. It brings together a select group of contributors, including both established and emerging scholars and practitioners, in order to explore the ways in which the problems of fragmentation and constitutionalisation are viscerally linked one to the other and thus mutually conditioning and stimulating. The book considers the theory and practice of international law looking at the two phenomena in relation to the various fields of international law such as international criminal law, cultural heritage law and international environmental law.

Exploring the role of the International Court of Justice in the re-convergence of international law, this book contends that the court's jurisprudence is transforming traditional concepts such as sovereignty, rights and jurisdiction and in so doing is leading a trend towards the reunification of international law.

In a world where powerful intermediaries like Google and Facebook are de facto regulators of the communication of copyright-protected works, the democratization of access to content has both substantially expanded the availability of new markets and dramatically increased copyright infringements. Does this mean that the long-sought ideal of a “universal” copyright regulation, which would harmoniously combine effective protection of intellectual creations with public interest goals, is a lost cause? Taken together, the contributions to this insightful and thoroughly researched book suggest that despite the prevailing labyrinthine mosaic of divergent national responses to fragmentation at international level, the foundations of a universal approach can be found in the interaction of regional, national and international copyright law instruments when responding to current and emerging technologies. Emphasizing the adaptation of copyright law to the needs of the information society, this volume provides critical approaches by leading copyright scholars on whether pluralism or universalism is the appropriate path to follow for the development of international copyright law. The authors deal with such issues and topics as the following: the application of core copyright law principles worldwide; authorship, rights and exceptions in the international copyright acquis; Internet copyright enforcement; global collective management of copyright; copyright contracts; database and design rights; intermediary liability; the global reach of the U.S. Fair Use doctrine; World Intellectual Property Organization’s role and strategy in international copyright lawmaking; and bilateral trade and investment agreements involving copyright. Specific evolutions and emerging trends in national and regional digital copyright laws are analyzed and assessed as they have developed in the European Union, the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as in several Asian and African countries. Throughout, attention is paid to compatibility with the Berne Convention, the perceived core of copyright law in the international copyright acquis, and the key question of the balancing of copyright law with fundamental rights from an international and comparative law perspective. As a comprehensive analysis of how core copyright law concepts and principles function in today’s fragmented copyright legal system, this book has no peers. Its detailed treatment of numerous specific instruments and regimes, as well as its insightful approaches to the future of international copyright lawmaking, will prove of immeasurable value to lawyers, judges, policy makers, academics and researchers working in the field of copyright law.

The Netherlands Yearbook of International Law was first published in 1970. It has two main aims. It offers a forum for the publication of scholarly articles of a more general nature in the area of public international law including the law of the European Union. In addition, it aims to respond to the demand for information on state practice in the field of international law. Each Yearbook therefore includes an overview of state practice of the Netherlands.

Concepts shape how we understand and participate in international legal affairs. They are an important site for order, struggle and change. This comprehensive and authoritative volume introduces a large number of concepts that have shaped, at various points in history, international legal practice and thought; intimates at how the many projects of international law have grappled with, and influenced, the world through certain concepts; and introduces new concepts into the discipline.