This case note critically analyses the logic of M/V Enrica Lexie of 2020 with a particular focus on the issue of the immunity ratione materiae. This judgment is important in terms of the development of the principle of sovereign immunity. It first reviews the background of the case and the judgment. It then examines (1) the basis of the principle of sovereign immunity and (2) the territorial exception and its relevance to the law of the sea. It criticizes the logic of the judgment, particularly on its reference to the United Nations Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property, regardless of the fact that the instrument only applies to civil proceedings. Finally, it comments on the Award's implication for anti-piracy international cooperation.

The recently adopted Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver decision at the World Trade Organization is a grossly inadequate and insincere response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper criticizes the TRIPS waiver for being faulty on several fronts such as: excluding COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics from its fold and focusing only on COVID-19 vaccines; restricting its coverage to only patents and leaving out other intellectual property rights; excluding developed countries that possess manufacturing and technological capability from being eligible exporters of COVID-19 vaccines; and its perplexing silence on the transfer of technology. It will have negligible impact on fighting the pandemic, sets an enfeebled example for the future, and is a classic case of “too little too late”.

This paper aims to examine the legitimacy of Ryukyuans/Okinawans’1 right to self-determination (RSD) under international human rights law. To this end, it first details the evolution of the RSD from the traditional right to independence for colonial peoples, to the continuing right to self-governance for wider groups of peoples, which is followed by an analysis of holders of the RSD. The paper then turns to Ryukyu/Okinawa to discuss the RSD of its peoples. Three historical events, the Disposition of Ryukyu, the Treaty of San Francisco, and the reversion of Okinawa to Japan, are analysed from a legal perspective, followed by an examination of the peoplehood of Ryukyuans/Okinawans. These lead to the conclusion that the Ryukyuans/Okinawans may legitimately claim that they possess the “unexercised” RSD as a quasi-non-self-governing people, and that they are entitled to claim the RSD as a “people” under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and other United Nations declarations.

This paper historicizes the current challenges brought about by digitization to the Third World by revisiting a movement launched by the Non-Aligned Movement countries during the 1970s and early 1980s. Also known as the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), the movement contested the dominant liberal notion of freedom of information and spotlighted the critically material inequality and power asymmetry often concealed by the liberal vision of the free flow of information. Not only did NWICO present a counter-model to the liberal notion of freedom of information, it also provides a vital case for understanding the interrelations between information and domination and the role of international law therein. This paper retells the story of NWICO, its normative ambition as well as its internal contentions and practical limitations, and reflects on its legacy for TWAIL scholarship and the current politics of digitization.

India acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women with a Declaration (CEDAW) to Article 5(a) stating that it will implement the principle on gender-based equality only to the extent of non-interference in the personal affairs of its religious communities. The due diligence obligation in the CEDAW, which was adopted through General Recommendation No. 19 in 1992, normatively expanded Article 5 to imply an obligation on nation states to redress traditional cultural attitudes that cause gender-based violence. This article argues that the cultural nature of GBV in India converts the Declaration of India into an inconsistent reservation under public international law. This implies that India's Declaration is an egregious breach of the CEDAW's due diligence obligation. Accession to the CEDAW's Optional Protocol is advocated as a solution to this serious breach. Theoretical implications for the three-stage norm life cycle and epiphenomenal norms are presented.

In investment treaties, the self-judging security exception clause allows states to restrict the exercise of investors’ rights and protections provided for by such treaties during security emergencies. During the last decade, such a clause has been included in numerous investment treaties to support state positions vis-à-vis foreign investors. States consider that this provision gives them a very broad discretion to limit or derogate from obligations which arise under the treaty. In this article, after having identified the self-judging character of this clause, it will be demonstrated that such a clause does not affect the jurisdiction of the tribunal but requires the tribunal to apply the principle of good faith as the proper standard of review to interpret the elements of the clause, preventing states’ abuse of such a clause.

Paragraph 5(a) of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf has been invoked by states to block the Commission's consideration of several submissions made by coastal states. The paragraph introduces several new factors into the delineation process of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, which had not been envisaged by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. In addition, this has had significant consequences in respect of the completion of the delineation process, and thus the realization of one of the key objects and purposes of the Convention – that is, to create certainty about the extent of the continental shelf and the limits of the area. This article examines whether Paragraph 5(a) is in accordance with the Convention, and whether there is an alternative approach that may have a more limited impact on the delineation process.

The study of the Western classics of international law with Francisco de Vitoria and Hugo Grotius at its core is the foundational stone on which the whole edifice of today's ever-expanding history of international law was built upon. The article provides a gateway to Vitoria and Grotius's significance for international law and its history by providing a tenfold list of attributes of what makes a classic of international law. It then examines the rise to pre-eminence of the study of the classics of international law and surveys the main methodological responses addressed to correcting the historiographical blind spots and large gaps in legal history that the privileging of these Western “great men” have triggered. The conclusion recaps the importance of looking forward through, but also beyond, the deeply West-centric and male-dominated intellectual canon of international law in an international order the centre of gravity of which is inexorably moving eastwards.

This article proposes a new theory, “premise theory”, to account for recent international criminal courts’ practice on finding general principles of law. After analysing the traditional theory of transposition from national to international legal settings, and the modification/choice model, this article demonstrates that the focus should be shifted from arbitrariness to the determinants of results of recognizing general principles of law. Premise theory explains a mechanism that judges modify a common legal principle or choose the most appropriate national legal principle to apply to the issue at hand to reflect the premises of the legal field, the court, and, sometimes, even the individual case. This article concludes with a proposal for utilizing premise theory as an explanatory tool and as a guide for legal reasoning to increase judicial transparency and predictability. Lastly, it advocates for the application of premise theory to other areas of international law.