International criminal law has witnessed a rapid rise after the end of the Cold War. The United Nations refers to the birth of a new 'age of accountability', but certain historical objections, such as selectivity or victor's justice, have never fully gone away, and many of the justice dimensions of international criminal law remain unexplored. Various critiques have emerged in socio-legal scholarship or globalization discourse, revealing that there is a stark discrepancy between reality and e...

Evans' International Law is widely celebrated as an outstanding collection of interesting and diverse writings from the leading scholars in the field. Bringing together a broad range of perspectives on all the key issues in international law, it is a unique and invaluable resource for students and practitioners alike.

The concept of ‘real legal certainty’ provides a much needed corrective to the general attention for legal certainty in this day and age. It emphasises relations between citizens, adds socio-legal insight, provides a ‘view from below,’ and thus leads to more realistic insights on how to build state institutions. The concept was introduced by Leiden University’s professor of Law and Governance in Developing countries Jan Michiel Otto, and can be considered a central pillar of his work.

Against the backdrop of an ever-increasing interest in ‘legal certainty’ in policy-making and academia, friends and colleagues of Jan Michiel Otto engage with the concept provide a wide variety of examples of its relevance. Drawing on case material from all over the world, they show how real legal certainty can be understood in a bottom-up manner and how it is relevant for building state institutions. They also show how the concept can gain in relevance by taking into account actors other than the state. In all, the edited volume is important reading for all whom share professor Otto’s interest in what it takes to bridge law in the books and law in action...

Increasingly, new automation technology is built into motor vehicles, taking over part or even all of the drivers' tasks. Who bears the risk when this new technology causes damage to individuals? Is it the owner or user of the autonomous vehicle itself or other traffic members?

Liability for Damage Caused by Autonomous Vehicles contains an assessment of how the current rules for product liability, traffic liability and fault liability could be applied to autonomous vehicles within six EU mem...

The legislative efforts of the European Union with respect to insolvency were, for a long time, limited to providing uniform rules of international private law on the competent court, applicable law and recognition by means of the European Insolvency Regulation. In recent years, the legislative efforts have shifted towards harmonization of substantive insolvency law at a European level. The most defining characteristic of this harmonization attempt is the focus on reorganization instead of li...

After the authoritarian regime of General Franco, the Constitution of 1978 established a new constitutional system in Spain which stands as a concrete political reality and as a compendium of European constitutional history of the end of the twentieth century.

After a brief historical introduction, the text deals critically, and with some comparative aspects, with the value system on which the Constitution is founded (the Social and Democratic State of Law), the relative sources of law, funda...

Invasive alien species constitute the greatest threat to marine biodiversity after habitat destruction. The problem today is growing tremendously, as the introduction of these species is accelerated by activities related to globalisation, such as trade, transport, and tourism. The current book presents possibilities to stimulate the international regime to address the problematic alien invasive species issue. Apart from the relevant multilateral environmental treaties and soft law instruments...

This book provides an in-depth examination of the instrument of collaboration with justice, one of the more far-reaching investigative tools in criminal cases by which promises are made to otherwise unwilling 'offender witnesses' in order to persuade them to testify in the prosecution of others. In it a comparison is made between the law and practice of the Netherlands and that of several other jurisdictions - Germany, Italy and Canada - in which provision is made for the instrument. Drawing ...

"There is no gap between Is and Ought, but there is a gap between fact and norm."

"There is a difference between legal powers and legal competences, but there are no power-conferring rules."

"There is no obligation to comply with contracts."

"There are no regulative rules, and all rules are constitutive."

All these claims are controversial in the eyes of many legal theorists. This book argues that they are all true, or justified, if understood in the proper context. The argument starts from t...

For some years now, certain EU Member States have been promoting their national courts as the best places to litigate cross-border commercial disputes. This has led to a competition between jurisdictions, which recently has been re-energised by the upcoming withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU. This civil justice competition affects, among other things, governments' policies, court organisation, and cross-border litigation strategies.

Building on an interdisciplinary methodology, this...