Nuevo blog de la Asociación Española para el Estudio del Derecho Europeo
noviembre 26, 2013
¡Bienvenido el nuevo blog de la Asociación Española para el Estudio del Derecho Europeo! Los editores son Daniel Sarmiento y Sara Iglesias Sánchez.
El mercado mundial de refugiados y sus límites morales
noviembre 26, 2013
Leyendo el libro de Michael Sandel sobre los límites morales de los mercados, me encontré con un ejemplo muy interesante de derecho internacional: una ‘modesta propuesta’ del profesor Peter H. Schuck para crear un mercado mundial de refugiados. Se trataría de que un organismo internacional estableciera cuotas de refugiados por países de acuerdo con su riqueza y que luego se pudieran comprar y vender esas obligaciones en un mercado mundial de refugiados. Aun cuando este esquema pueda llevar a resultados muy positivos para los refugiados, es decir, que más refugiados encuentren un país de refugio como consecuencia del nuevo mercado, Sandel alerta sobre una objeción importante: «un mercado de refugiados cambia nuestra visión sobre quiénes son los refugiados y cómo deben ser tratados» (64). Los refugiados no son mercancía, son seres humanos en peligro en su propio país. Ese es tema central del libro de Sandel: la expansión del mercado y sus valores a esferas donde no resultan apropiados. Claro que hoy en día casi todo se puede comprar y vender.
La respuesta de Schuck (296-297), sin embargo, está bien pensada y no es fácil de rebatir: Schuck dice que la crítica de la mercantilización le merece cuatro respuestas: primero, que este cambio ocurre siempre con bienes que tradicionalmente suelen ser regulados con mecanismos alternativos al mercado, no es una novedad; segundo, que la crítica supone que el mecanismo actual funciona sobre la base de altos principios de justicia, lo cual no es cierto; tercero, que su propuesta es compatible con regulaciones que protejan valores públicos superiores; y, cuarto, porque la crítica se desvanecería si el nuevo sistema logra proteger más refugiados, con una calidad de protección no peor que la actual y a un menor coste. Como decía antes, es una respuesta seria.
ASIL/ESIL Joint Conference on «The Changing Nature of International Environmental Law: Evolving Approaches of the United States and of the European Union»
noviembre 21, 2013
Espero ver a algún lector del blog en esta conferencia organizada por los grupos de interés en derecho internacional del medioambiente de la ASIL y la ESIL que empieza mañana en Ginebra. Aquí está la información y el programa.
150 años del discurso del Presidente Lincoln: del pueblo, por el pueblo, para el pueblo.
noviembre 21, 2013
El 19 de noviembre de 1963, hace ahora 150 años, el Presidente Abraham Lincoln pronunció un discurso muy muy corto, de 271 palabras, sólo un par de minutos, cuyo eco no ha parado de sonar. Copio el original, tal como está en su monumento en Washington, y una traducción al español, que encontré aquí.
FOUR SCORE AND SEVEN YEARS AGO OUR FATHERS BROUGHT FORTH ON THIS CONTINENT A NEW NATION CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY AND DEDICATED TO THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL •
NOW WE ARE ENGAGED IN A GREAT CIVIL WAR TESTING WHETHER THAT NATION OR ANY NATION SO CONCEIVED AND SO DEDICATED CAN LONG ENDURE • WE ARE MET ON A GREAT BATTLEFIELD OF THAT WAR • WE HAVE COME TO DEDICATE A PORTION OF THAT FIELD AS A FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR THOSE WHO HERE GAVE THEIR LIVES THAT THAT NATION MIGHT LIVE • IT IS ALTOGETHER FITTING AND PROPER THAT WE SHOULD DO THIS • BUT IN A LARGER SENSE WE CAN NOT DEDICATE~WE CAN NOT CONSECRATE~WE CAN NOT HALLOW~THIS GROUND • THE BRAVE MEN LIVING AND DEAD WHO STRUGGLED HERE HAVE CONSECRATED IT FAR ABOVE OUR POOR POWER TO ADD OR DETRACT • THE WORLD WILL LITTLE NOTE NOR LONG REMEMBER WHAT WE SAY HERE BUT IT CAN NEVER FORGET WHAT THEY DID HERE • IT IS FOR US THE LIVING RATHER TO BE DEDICATED HERE TO THE UNFINISHED WORK WHICH THEY WHO FOUGHT HERE HAVE THUS FAR SO NOBLY ADVANCED • IT IS RATHER FOR US TO BE HERE DEDICATED TO THE GREAT TASK REMAINING BEFORE US~THAT FROM THESE HONORED DEAD WE TAKE INCREASED DEVOTION TO THAT CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY GAVE THE LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION~THAT WE HERE HIGHLY RESOLVE THAT THESE DEAD SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN~THAT THIS NATION UNDER GOD SHALL HAVE A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM~AND THAT GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH •«Hace ochenta y siete años, nuestros padres hicieron nacer en este continente una nueva nación concebida en la libertad y consagrada en el principio de que todas las personas son creadas iguales.
Ahora estamos empeñados en una gran guerra civil que pone a prueba si esta nación, o cualquier nación así concebida y así consagrada, puede perdurar en el tiempo. Estamos reunidos en un gran campo de batalla de esa guerra. Hemos venido a consagrar una porción de ese campo como lugar de último descanso para aquellos que dieron aquí sus vidas para que esta nación pudiera vivir. Es absolutamente correcto y apropiado que hagamos tal cosa.
Pero, en un sentido más amplio, nosotros no podemos dedicar, no podemos consagrar, no podemos santificar este terreno. Los valientes hombres, vivos y muertos, que lucharon aquí ya lo han consagrado, muy por encima de lo que nuestras pobres facultades podrían añadir o restar. El mundo apenas advertirá y no recordará por mucho tiempo lo que aquí digamos, pero nunca podrá olvidar lo que ellos hicieron aquí. Somos, más bien, nosotros, los vivos, quienes debemos consagrarnos aquí a la tarea inconclusa que los que aquí lucharon hicieron avanzar tanto y tan noblemente. Somos más bien los vivos los que debemos consagrarnos aquí a la gran tarea que aún resta ante nosotros: que de estos muertos a los que honramos tomemos una devoción incrementada a la causa por la que ellos dieron la última medida colmada de celo. Que resolvamos aquí firmemente que estos muertos no habrán dado su vida en vano. Que esta nación, Dios mediante, tendrá un nuevo nacimiento de libertad. Y que el gobierno del pueblo, por el pueblo y para el pueblo no desaparecerá de la Tierra».
Call for Papers: Subsidiarity in Global Governance
noviembre 12, 2013
The Hertie School of Governance has issued a Call for Papers for a workshop on ‘Subsidiarity in Global Governance’ in Berlin on 19 and 20 June 2014. The workshop will gather around 25 scholars from law, politics and related disciplines for an in-depth debate over two days. The organizers welcome proposals from scholars at any level – PhD students at an advanced stage, postdoctoral and more senior researchers alike. The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2013. Details can be found here.
El Presidente de Irlanda y The Role of Courts in Transitional Justice
noviembre 5, 2013
El Presidente del Irlanda, Mr. Michael D. Higgins, ha pronunciado una conferencia ante la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos el pasado 29 de octubre de 2013, titulada «Humans Rights in the Twenty-First Century: Reasons for Hope», donde hace una cita elogiosa de nuestro libro The Role of Courts in Transitional Justice:
In their introduction to the impressive collection of essays The Role of Courts in Transitional Justice, Voices from Latin America and Spain, the editors Jessica Almqvist and Carlos Espósito, point out that:
“The international institutional advances over the last twenty years bear witness to a growing international conviction that grave crime cannot go unpunished and that courts have a crucial role to play in times of transition, including in conflict situations, and to the establishment of the basic conditions for lasting peace in a given country or region.”
Muchas gracias, Presidente Higgins, por tenernos en cuenta.
Oskar Kokoschka, Die Wiener Staatsoper, 1956. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
The call for papers or posters for the ESIL Vienna Conference on 4-6 September 2014 includes:
Agora 7: International law and History: The Return of the Past?
International law has developed a distinctively historical and historiographic turn in the last 15 years, rediscovering a historical approach to the study of international law and international lawyers which had largely faded from view since 1945. In part it has been revitalized by a renewed preoccupation with understanding the political and normative foundations of international law, its relationship with empire and colonialism, and as part of the search for clues about the origins of the present. But it has also been revitalized by the resurgence of intellectual history, postcolonial history and international history, which are reinvigorating the study of ‘classical’ figures in international political and legal thought, and trying to understand the origins of the political, social and economic foundations of the contemporary international legal order. Along with groundbreaking work in the history of international law in general, recent years have seen new studies in the history of the laws of war, renovations of the legal thought of classical figures such as Gentili and Vattel, and new histories of international institutions such as the League of Nations.
This agora will bring together intellectual historians, historians of law and historians of international thought to consider the ways in which new research into the history of international law is changing our understanding of past and present.
The deadline for proposals for papers or posters is 15 January 2014.
The call for papers or posters for the ESIL Vienna Conference on 4-6 September 2014 includes:
Agora 6: International law and Feminism: Anything New Under the Sun?
In the 1990s an intense debate on feminism and international law started to permeate journals and learned societies. Core concepts of international law were critiqued and de-constructed from a feminist perspective. Most recently, the ILA re-established a committee on ‘Feminism and International Law’ in 2010 focusing on the economic empowerment of women and the possible contribution of international law. Other initiatives, like the journal ‘Feminist Legal Studies’, continue; others were recently revived, such as the ‘IntLawGrrls’ blog.
Feminist methodological approaches to international law include the detection of silences in the law and the question of how to respond to the many (cultural, linguistic, religious, ethnic, economic) differences among women. Feminist international lawyers have added to the understanding of international law in various ways, e.g. through a feminist perspective on international criminal law and on women in armed conflicts.
These issues will be discussed in this agora, including questions such as: What is the current status of the debate? Is there still momentum in international law and feminism? What are the fields where international law and feminism might best contribute to the development of international law?
The deadline for proposals for papers or posters is 15 January 2014.
Convocatoria de siete nuevas Cátedras OMC en países en desarrollo
octubre 30, 2013
El Programa de Cátedras de la OMC publicó el 30 de octubre de 2013 una convocatoria de propuestas para la segunda fase de este programa en los países en desarrollo e invita a las instituciones académicas a presentar sus propuestas hasta el diciembre de 2013 . Más información acá.
ESIL Conference 2014 in Vienna: Call for Papers on International Law and Literature
octubre 30, 2013
The call for papers or posters for the ESIL Vienna Conference on 4-6 September 2014 includes:
Agora 5: International Law and Literature
Law and literature has become an established research interest and has found its way into a number of law school curricula. Obviously both academic fields are primarily about the interpretation of texts. But there are many other overlaps between the two fields, from lawyers turning novelists to novelists pushing legal change. However, international law seems to have been rather on the fringe of these developments. Even so, issues central to international law have been reflected in literature (e.g. terrorism, from Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel ‘The Secret Agent’ to the 2006 book ‘Terrorist’ by John Updike). Though more rarely, international lawyers have even become protagonists in literature like Frederic Martens in Jan Kross’ 1984 novel ‘Professor Martens’ Departure’, depicting the 19th century international lawyer already torn between apology and utopia. Conversely, international lawyers have taken a closer look at literature and studied the reflection of international law in Shakespeare’s plays like Theodor Meron in his 1994 study on ‘Henry’s Wars and Shakespeare’s Laws’ followed by his 1998 book ‘Bloody Constraint: War and Chivalry in Shakespeare’.
Building on this interest of international lawyers in literature, this agora will address general issues: Is there anything that law and literature can learn from each other? Is there a deeper overlap in the methodology? How would a lawyer cope with the prevailing subjectivist approach to art? Can writers adapt to the stringent interpretative canons of (international) lawyers? To what extent should lawyers draw on the methodology developed in the context of literary studies, e.g. as regards text analysis or interpretation?
The deadline for proposals for papers or posters is 15 January 2014.
aquiescencia 