Treaty-based Organization Research Articles

Reconciling Islamic Ethics, Fossil Fuel Dependence, and Climate Change in the Middle East

AbstractThe dominance of fossil fuel economies in the Middle East with large Muslim majority populations has led to a recurring question about the role Islamic ethics might play in galvanizing action on climate change. However, the perceived clash of economic values versus environmental norms in Islam deserves more careful examination. This brief article considers the advent of the “Islamic Declaration on Climate Change” which was promulgated in 2015 and considers the tangible steps Muslim government leaders and civil society have taken on this matter. The tangible steps that are being considered with an action plan are discussed in the light of earlier environmental movements within Islam. A brief discussion of environmental norms within Islamic scriptures is also provided to give theological context to this narrative. The establishment of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in the UAE as a treaty-based organization with United Nations affiliations is also considered. The environment can play an important peace-building role in the region as exemplified by organizations such as Eco-peace in Palestine, Israel, and Jordan. Based on the analysis of these developments, it is likely that Muslim countries will continue to play a more proactive role in addressing climate change than they are often given credit for in popular discourse.

Governing Sovereign Debt Restructuring Through Regulatory Standards

AbstractIn recent years, a number of costly and destabilizing sovereign debt crises – from Argentina and Greece to Ukraine – have served as a forceful reminder that the international community lacks an agreed-upon framework for resolving debt crises and, when necessary, restructuring sovereign debt in a timely, orderly, and equitable manner. To help address this apparent governance gap, the paper argues that there is an important but underutilized role for the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in governing sovereign debt restructuring. More specifically, in a governance domain that is relatively fragmented between uncoordinated, even sometimes competing, rules and rule-makers, the FSB could serve as the focal institution responsible for overseeing the coordination and further development of soft law regulatory standards for sovereign debt restructuring. The reasons for FSB governance in this domain are simple and compelling, relating to both the nature of the debt restructuring regime and its evolution to date, as well as the specific institutional features of the FSB and the core tasks it performs. Although there remains room for treaty-based organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations (UN) to develop a hard law approach to sovereign debt restructuring, the FSB, we argue, is best positioned to strengthen and oversee the existing soft law approach, which currently prevails as the modus operandi of the present debt restructuring framework.

Certain Legal Aspects of the Multilateral Trade System and the Promotion of Renewable Energy

The multilateral trade system aims at the eventual total liberalization of cross-border trade through the removal of as many trade barriers – such as tariffs, quantitative restrictions, and trade-distortive practices – as may be politically acceptable to the economic areas involved. For their part, the governing structures of the economic areas concerned – for the most part, the governments of sovereign States – are faced with the task of addressing a much broader set of interests than those pertaining to trade. However, the accession of sovereign actors and regional economic unions (such as the European Union) to international treaty-based organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), and their acceptance of the relevant international obligations, often commensurately condition their policy-making. In that respect, it is not uncommon for, say, certain measures that WTO members take in order to address some subjective policy objective that is, on the face of it, extraneous to cross-border trade, to infringe upon their international obligations – for instance, such measures may infringe upon obligations owed by WTO members under their WTO membership in a manner that is not in line with WTO rules. On the occasion of recent WTO cases that contain findings against Canada in relation to a regional measure aimed at the promotion of renewable energy, it may be pertinent to examine the degree to which the existing WTO normative framework may permit its members policy space to take measures aimed at promoting renewable energy. To that end, we provide a tour d’horizon of the WTO rules that are likely to be engaged by such policies. As part of this, we examine the GATT/WTO system’s evolved responsiveness towards environmental objectives. Finally, we highlight whatever perceived systemic obstacles might exist to the meaningful bridging of the WTO’s environmental objectives with its core trade liberalization objectives. In conclusion, we find the stronger view to be that the relevant WTO jurisprudence appears to suggest that the WTO system is being fully and effectively used on the part of members in relation to their environmental objectives, and that members’ bona fide environmentally-focused measures that, incidentally, distort or otherwise restrict cross-border trade are ultimately upheld by the WTO system so long as they are bona fide, applied evenhandedly, and not unduly restrictive. That said, while the system, as it stands, is considerably flexible towards ‘externalities’ such as environmental protection objectives, further trade liberalization remains the system’s principal objective. This, however, does not happen in a policy-value vacuum, given that the cause of trade liberalization is increasingly conditioned by environmental protection objectives.

Human Rights and the Internet

The Internet, and the broader class of networked communications technologies of which it is one, are enormously powerful tools of free expression, and to help to make public infringements of human rights. While the principles of human rights are widely understood and reflected in constitutional provisions and other laws in many nations, and in rulings and pronouncements of international bodies such as the United Nations and other treaty-based organizations, cyberspace requires that they be considered anew. This is not the first attempt to do so, as is set out below. This article attempts to further advance the thinking on these issues. It suggests a broad statement of principles of communication rights, and a commentary to help better understand it. Lawyers and other rule makers reading this article would also do well to consider how these broad principles may in turn be reflected in narrower rules of behaviour (i.e., government should not interfere with permitted terms to be used on an Internet search engine ; government should not use licensing requirements to restrict access to Internet service; etc.). This is the first of two articles. The second will discuss human rights and the Internet more broadly.

The appointment of executive heads in UN treaty-based organizations

The research reported in this article seeks to understand how and why individuals are appointed to serve as executive heads of international organizations. A simple statement of the behavioral rule used in selection of executive heads is developed in the form of an executive head appointment function. The type of data available for the analysis of the appointment of executive heads in international organizations is identified, and an empirical examination of changes in emphasis in the selection of executive heads is reported. The executive head appointment function utilized in the study views appointment as an executive head as a function of six factors (three organizational, one national, and two personal). Discriminant function analysis is used to determine if the function would distinguish between individuals appointed during the period 1945–57 and those appointed from 1958–70 as executive heads in UN treaty-based organizations. It is possible to distinguish, on the basis of the specified executive head appointment function, between executive heads appointed during the two halves of the time period under study. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that the emphasis involved in the selection of executive heads has changed over time in UN treaty-based organizations.