Kai Tik Au Yeung on Significance of Coordination: A Comparison between the Cape Town Convention and Hague Securities Convention (AsianJIL)

"Significance of Coordination: A Comparison between the Cape Town Convention and Hague Securities Convention"
Kai Tik Au Yeung (LLB Graduate 2022 and PCLL Graduate 2023)
Asian Journal of International Law
Published online: October 2025

Abstract: The Cape Town Convention is widely regarded as the most successful international convention in terms of ratifications. This essay aims to explore the fundamental reasons behind this success. While it is undeniable that the Cape Town Convention receives substantial industrial support in response to urgent market demands and the innovative protocols it established, this essay argues that this alone does not fundamentally explain its success.

Instead, the underlying reason lies in the Convention’s ability to avoid the trap of a false dichotomy – where one side seeks to convince the other to agree with its viewpoint. Rather, the key is to strive for a viable compromise that accommodates the perspectives of both, or even multiple stakeholders. This proposition will be illustrated by drawing on the social science concept of coordination, through a comparative analysis of the drafting processes of the Cape Town Convention and the Hague Securities Convention.

Valeria Vázquez Guevara and Claerwen O’Hara on ‘We, the peoples of the Earth’: ALBA, populism and the making of an alternative international law (London Review of International Law)

 "‘We, the peoples of the Earth’: ALBA, populism and the making of an alternative international law"
Claerwen O’Hara, Valeria Vázquez Guevara
London Review of International Law
Published online: May 2025

Abstract: This article explores the populist approach to international law of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA). Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of scholarship depicting populist politics as hostile to international law. Yet, across the global South, there are examples of leaders promoting regional unity, creating multilateral alliances, and engaging with international law, all while advancing a populist discourse based around an idea of ‘the people’. We argue that ALBA is one such example. Focusing on its activities as a fluid coalition in international institutions between 2009 and 2019, we demonstrate how ALBA developed a unique technique of international legal engagement and contestation, based around claims to represent ‘the people’ (or ‘peoples’) of the earth. In this way, ALBA shows how the adoption of a populist register can provide an alternative way of both belonging to, and resisting, the international legal order.

HKU Law Welcomes Prof. Valeria Vázquez Guevara

Welcome to Prof. Valeria Vázquez Guevara, who joins the Faculty of Law as an Assistant Professor.

Valeria researches and teaches across the areas of international law, law-and-humanities, and land/property law. Valeria’s research engages with law-and-humanities methodologies to address questions of international law, its institutions, contestations, and geopolitical implications, especially between North-South and South-South actors. The research builds on Valeria’s personal and professional experiences in international development and peacebuilding projects in El Salvador, Spain, the Basque Country, and South Africa.

Valeria is the author of Truth Commissions and International Law (Cambridge University Press, in press). The book examines how Truth Commissions deal with the plurality of (rival) accounts that exist across communities to establish an authoritative account of the past. It expands on her doctoral thesis at Melbourne Law School, which won the University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis and Melbourne Law School’s Harold Luntz Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis. Valeria’s next major research project focuses on the historical and contemporary relationship between ASEAN and international law, with a particular focus on land tenure issues.

Valeria serves as member of the executive committee of the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia, and as co-convener of the Critical Approaches to International Law Interest Group of the European Society of International Law (ESIL). Previously, Valeria has served as co-chair of the History and Theory of International Law Interest Group of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (2022-2025), and as Managing Editor and Editorial Board member of the Australian Feminist Law Journal (2021-2023).

Weixia Gu comments on the establishment of the International Organization for Mediation

"Hong Kong hits a high with global legal body, but now comes the hard part"
Jess Ma, Jeffie Lam, Harvey Kong
South China Morning Post
31 May 2025

Hong Kong made a groundbreaking move on Friday (30 May 2025) when it became the headquarters for a new intergovernmental mediation body but the unit’s real tests will be in the types of substantive cases it handles and whether more countries will join the convention, experts have said.

While the China-led International Organisation for Mediation launched on Friday with 33 signatories, and the conspicuous absence of major Western countries, leading lawyers said they expected more nations would join once the body’s work was promoted.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was front and centre at a high-level ceremony for countries to formally sign as founding members of the organisation…

Asked about the participating countries, former justice minister Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah stressed that each one was an equal entity that should not be judged as “big or small”…

Hong Kong’s traditional rival Singapore had earlier spearheaded the formation of the Singapore Convention on Mediation, a treaty which came into force in 2020 and governs the enforcement of mediation outcomes in international commercial disputes.

The two world superpowers – China and the United States – were among the 46 nations that signed the multilateral treaty in 2019, alongside countries such as Britain, Japan and Australia.

Gu Weixia, an associate professor of the University of Hong Kong’s law faculty, said that the Singapore convention was a treaty led by the UN Commission on International Trade Law and acted as an enforcement tool for mediation outcomes.

“Its scope of application is comparatively restrictive,” she explained.

“It only targets international commercial mediation, and it only affects enforcement [of mediation settlement agreements].”

Gu, a dispute resolution specialist, also highlighted that more than 40 countries had signed the treaty, but only 18 had ratified it. Singapore and Japan are the only developed nations to have ratified the convention.

She said the International Organisation for Mediation has a wider scope of application, including interstate and investor-state disputes. It also offers additional options for legal services in the city.

“Most international legal capitals are in the West, such as The Hague, Geneva, New York and Washington,” Gu said. “The International Organisation for Mediation established in Hong Kong is a big booster for the city’s status in international law.”

Click here to read the full text on SCMP website.

Book review of Allison Powers's Arbitrating Empire: United States Expansion and the Transformation of International Law by Jedidiah Kroncke

"Recovering an Erased Era of Early American Imperial Legal Experimentation"
Jedidiah Kroncke
Jotwell - The Journal of Things We Like (Lots)
Published online: March 2025

Book Review: Inherent in historical work is recovering aspects of the past lost to contemporary awareness. In her new book, Arbitrating Empire: United States Expansion and the Transformation of International Law, Allison Powers recovers one such aspect that has been more than passively forgotten—it was actively erased. Her target is a series of state-to-state arbitral claims commissions central to American international law during the country’s rise as a global power. Here Arbitrating Empire revises understandings of early international arbitration as an instrument of “civilized” non-violent dispute resolution by exposing its function as a legal technology of imperial power. Powers’s intervention is a powerful and persuasive addition to the rapidly expanding literature on the evolution of the legal forms used to project American power abroad while denying accountability for its violence. The initial history of American international arbitration, she shows, was governed by the imperative “to secure territory, wealth, and political power across the globe while disavowing charges of colonial aggression.” (P. 7.)

Arbitrating Empire centers on five different claims commissions......

(Please click here to view full text of the book review)

Zealot Kenneth Tsui and Wang Tat Max Lam on Knowing receipt, characterisation, and proper law: a persistent duty and the cloak of invisibility (Trusts & Trustees)

"Knowing receipt, characterisation, and proper law: a persistent duty and the cloak of invisibility"
Zealot Kenneth Tsui (PCLL student), Wang Tat Max Lam (PCLL Graduate 2023)
Trusts & Trustees
Published online: February 2025

Abstract: The categorisation of knowing receipt remains uncertain in both domestic and private international law contexts, despite efforts by judges and scholars to clarify it. This article argues that knowing receipt is viewed as a breach of a continuing restorative and custodial duty owed to the beneficiary. It explains how these duties arise and outlines their content. Under this view, the traditional proprietary and fault-based perspectives on knowing receipt can be reconciled while establishing an equitable nexus for the claim. Additionally, this article suggests that this perspective aligns with the sui generis characterisation in private international law, preventing circumvention of liability.

Ilda Cristina Ferreira on The Legal Status of the Financial Action Task Force in the International Legal System (Brill)

The Legal Status of the Financial Action Task Force in the International Legal System
Ilda Cristina Ferreira (PhD 2023)
Brill
Published in January 2025
356 pp.

Description: The FATF challenges traditional axioms and patently illustrates the dynamics of the international legal system. This book fills a significant gap in academic literature by studying FATF’s legal nature and its responsibilities in the international legal system as an organisation with public authority. It makes a bold argument that the FATF has gradually evolved into an international organisation, addressing international law and international organisation law discourse, combining theory and practice.

This book’s analytical framework can be applied to any organisation whose legal nature remains undefined, attempting to provide clarity and legal certainty in the international legal system’s architecture of the 21st century.

Holly Leung on The Extended Continental Shelf in Nicaragua v Colombia: Identifying a Customary Rule Based on CLCS Submissions? (Ocean Development & International Law)

"The Extended Continental Shelf in Nicaragua v Colombia: Identifying a Customary Rule Based on CLCS Submissions?"
Holly Leung (PCLL Graduate)
Ocean Development & International Law (Volume 55, 2024 - Issue 1-2)
Published online: 25 July 2024

Abstract: In Nicaragua v Colombia, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) identified a rule in customary international law which prohibited a state from asserting an extended continental shelf (ECS) that encroaches on maritime areas within 200 nautical miles (NM) of another state. While the ICJ reached this conclusion based on the practice of states parties’ submissions to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), in which a vast majority of states parties had refrained from asserting an ECS that extends within the 200 M line of another state, the ICJ’s approach appears flawed. On an inductive examination of the existing CLCS submissions, it is evident that while a number of states have exercised restraint when asserting their ECS, the CLCS submissions do not indicate sufficiently widespread and uniform state practice nor opinio juris supporting the identification of a customary rule as asserted by the ICJ.

Roda Mushkat on Authoritarian International Law: An Unfinished Research Odyssey (CICLR)

"Authoritarian International Law: An Unfinished Research Odyssey"
Roda Mushkat
Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review (Volume 7, Issue 1, pp. 51-118)
Published online: 2024

Abstract: The concept-rich international legal space has expanded in the past few years by incorporating the notion that there is a distinct form of international law possessing authoritarian traits. This notion stands in contrast with the time-honored mainstream variant which is assumed to have liberal-democratic roots and dispositions. A product of the current decade, authoritarian international law has nevertheless left a palpable mark on international legal theory and is believed to have materially reshaped the international legal landscape. The primary aim of this Article is to summarize the achievements made in analyzing the dimensions of this new concept and its considerable practical implications, with a view to suggesting some additional lines of inquiry.

HKU Law Welcomes Dr Massimo Lando, Assistant Professor

Welcome to Dr Massimo Lando, who joins the Faculty of Law as an Assistant Professor. Dr Lando is a general international lawyer. Before joining HKU, he was Assistant Professor at the School of Law of City University of Hong Kong (2020-2023). Previously, he was an Associate Legal Officer at the International Court of Justice, working with Judge Dalveer Bhandari and Judge ad hoc Charles N. Brower (2017-2020). Dr Lando completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He obtained an LLM also from the University of Cambridge and an LLB from the University of Milan. He is a member the Bar of England and Wales (Gray’s Inn). Dr Lando is a Global Fellow at the Centre for International Law of the National University of Singapore. He will be Director of Studies at the 2027 Winter Session of The Hague Academy of International Law.

     His Research areas include:

• Sources of International Law
• Law of the Sea
• International Dispute Settlement
• International Law & National Law
• Immunity
• International Economic Law
  

     Dr Lando's Editorial Positions and Professional Affiliations include:

• Member of the Bar of England and Wales (Gray’s Inn)
• Global Fellow, Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore
• Editorial Board, Ocean Development & International Law
• Academic Review Board, Cambridge International Law Journal
• Co-chair, International Courts and Tribunals Interest Group, American Society of International Law
• Member, American Society of International Law
• Member, Italian Society of International Law

Wilson Lui on The Need for Finality and Certainty in International Commercial Dispute Resolution (new book chapter)

"The Need for Finality and Certainty in International Commercial Dispute Resolution"
Wilson Lui (Pre-Doctoral Fellow)
in Sundaresh Menon and Anselmo Reyes (eds), Transnational Commercial Disputes in an Age of Anti-Globalism and Pandemic (Hart Publishing: 2023),
Chapter 7, pp 183–208
Abstract: This chapter considers the notions of finality and certainty in international commercial dispute resolution, including their interactions with party autonomy, comity, and sovereignty. It looks at the different approaches to manage concurrent proceedings and to recognise and enforce judgments and awards, as well as the considerations of due process and public policy. It discusses how the Hague Conference on Private International Law, in particular the 2005 and 2019 HCCH Conventions, may promote finality and certainty by attempting to harmonise these different approaches. Lastly, it examines some of the effects and developments that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the landscape of international commercial dispute resolution.

Roda Mushkat on China, Hong Kong, and International Law: Rethinking Path Dependence (MSU Int'l L Rev)

"China, Hong Kong, and International Law: Rethinking Path Dependence"

Roda Mushkat
Michigan State University International Law Review, 

Volume 30, Issue 3, pp. 443-503
Published in 2022

Abstract: International governance regimes, such as that underpinned by the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong, feature prominently in the literature on international law and international relations. The efforts of scholars operating at the intersection of these two academic disciplines, however, are heavily geared toward creating and sustaining the “right” entities possessing these structural attributes with scant attention accorded to their demise. The unraveling of the Hong Kong “one country-two systems” governance regime, embodying the vision of the Chinese and British institutional architects who devised it, in the wake of Beijing’s recent imposition of a heavy-handed national security law on a capitalist enclave embedded in a common law setting featuring political checks-and-balances, offers an opportunity to methodically examine the intricacies of path dissolution/ governance regime demise, as distinct from path dependence. The results suggest that the analytical building blocks for exploring the subject do exist, but that the theoretical foundation on which they rest needs to be expanded and that they should be productively synthesized within a coherent multivariable framework.

Weixia Gu & Jacky Tam on the Global Rise of International Commercial Courts: Typology and Power Dynamics (Chicago J Int'l L)

"The Global Rise of International Commercial Courts: Typology and Power Dynamics"

Weixia Gu & Jacky Tam
Chicago Journal of International Law, 
Volume 22, Issue 2, pp. 444-493
Published in 2022

Abstract: Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of International Commercial Courts (ICCs) across the globe. ICCs are specialized tribunals within the domestic court hierarchy tailored for the adjudication of complicated cross-border commercial disputes. Most ICCs share similar features, such as a set of flexible procedural rules comparable to those in international arbitration, multilingual court proceedings, and the recruitment of overseas judges or foreign legal experts.

     The global phenomenon calls for a systematic comparative study of the different generations of ICCs and their power dynamics. This Article will offer a unique typological framework to study the evolution of ICCs. In particular, emphasis will be placed on the power dynamics among the ICCs such as horizontal power dynamics among the ICCs inter se, and diagonal power dynamics between the ICCs and international arbitration. This Article argues that the most apt characterization of the two dimensions of power dynamics is “co-opetition,” a combination of “cooperation/collaboration/complementarity” and “competition.” While a race for cases and foreign litigants is inevitable, we argue that there is significant room for inter-regional cooperation and coordination to allow for and capitalize on different ICC niches and specialties.

Chris Szabla on Reimagining Global Migration Governance: From Insufficient Ideas to South-South Solutions (Berkeley J Int'l L)

"Reimagining Global Migration Governance: From Insufficient Ideas to South-South Solutions"
Chris Szabla (Global Academic Fellow)
Berkeley Journal of International Law ,
Volume 39, Issue 1, pp. 19-80
Published in 2021

Abstract: The disarray produced by the “global migration crisis” has resulted in a number of ongoing and proposed reforms of global migration governance, defined as the international law and institutions concerned with all migration. Yet these reforms or proposals appear insufficient or ineffectual—especially to the extent that they often ignore political realities. Fulfilling the promise of global migration governance requires an architecture that instead materially addresses political difficulties. This Article reviews problems with the current and proposed models of global migration governance and proposes to ground reform in consideration of those realities, using a successful model that promoted and protected European emigration in the Twentieth Century. Today, a similar system could help achieve ambitions within the Global South to promote South-South migration among disadvantaged States. Such a model could shift the material incentives (and hence, politics) holding back openness toward migrants, help fulfill migrants’ rights or needs, and promote the fair distribution of migrants toward existing migrant destinations. It could also redress the historical injustices of earlier migration governance systems that advantaged Europeans.

New Book edited by Anselmo Reyes & Weixia Gu: Multi-Tier Approaches to the Resolution of International Disputes: A Global and Comparative Study (CUP)

Multi-Tier Approaches to the Resolution of International Disputes: 

A Global and Comparative Study
Editors: Anselmo Reyes & Weixia Gu 

Cambridge University Press 

Published in December 2021

Book Description: 

Multi-tier dispute resolution (MDR) entails an early attempt at mediation followed by arbitration or litigation if mediation is unsuccessful. Seemingly, everyone acknowledges MDR's attractiveness as a means of resolving disputes due to its combination of the flexibility and informality of mediation with the rigour and formality of arbitration or litigation. Yet, the question is why, except in China and some Asian jurisdictions, MDR is not resorted to around the world and MDR clauses in commercial contracts remain relatively uncommon. This book responds to that question by (1) surveying global regulatory approaches frameworks for MDR, (2) comparing MDR trends in Asia and the wider world, (3) identifying MDR's strengths and weaknesses, and (4) prescribing ways to address MDR's weaknesses (the enforceability of MDR clauses, the difficulties arising when the same person acts as mediator and decision-maker in the same dispute, and the enforcement of mediated settlement agreements resulting from MDR).
Review: 

'International arbitration is suffering from resurgent costs and delays (or formalization), underpinning the growth of multi-tiered dispute resolution clauses – requiring parties first to attempt mediation. The 2019 Singapore Convention should promote this by facilitating cross-border enforcement of settlements, despite few ratifications so far. But growth also depends on whether and how local legal systems allow enforcement of the mediation or other agreed step before arbitration. This timely and authoritative book examines 11 jurisdictions, mostly in the vibrant Asia-Pacific region, and wider developments across two other regions (OHADA and the EU). Some chapters also discuss Arb-Med, where an arbitration is – still somewhat controversially – combined with active settlement facilitation. The experienced editors assemble an impressive team of 16 other experts, mostly professors but often considerable experience in practice, to offer an invaluable and unique resource for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers.'

Professor Luke Nottage - Professor of Comparative and Transnational Business Law, University of Sydney & Williams Trade Law  

'This book provides a rich and insightful comparative analysis of the treatment of multi-tier dispute resolution clauses, a topic previously under-examined in the literature. These clauses are both practically significant and raise important questions of principle regarding the interaction between different modes of dispute resolution, and this very welcome book will be an invaluable reference point for practitioners and academics alike.'

Professor Alex Mills - Professor of Public and Private International Law, University College London

'Multi-tiered dispute resolution clauses are the new norm: and this is the one book you have to turn to if you want to understand them, and this irrespective of where you practice.'

Professor Franco Ferrari - Director, Center for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration, and Commercial Law, NYU School of Law

‘Anselmo Reyes and Weixia Gu give to us a precious gift on a topic which is becoming more and more common and increasingly challenging. The global perspective of the book with a standing point of observation in Eastern Asia is as unique as it is fascinating. This region has much to teach about its diverse experience of multi-tier dispute resolution. Furthermore, the team of authors gathered by the editors is simply outstanding. They have been capable of combining in their contributions useful data with theoretical thoughts and attractive proposals. Sincerely, none interested in the theory and practice of dispute resolution should ignore this wonderful book!’

Professor Diego P. Fernández Arroyo - Professor of Law at Sciences Po and Secretary-General, International Academy of Comparative Law

‘Multi-tier dispute resolution (MDR) may give rise to profound conceptual and practical challenges. Through offering comprehensive and delicate analysis of the MDR, this book has made an unparalleled contribution to the cross-disciplinary study of dispute resolution, societal legal studies and international law. The insights of Judge Anselmo Reyes, Professor Weixia Gu, and a group of leading scholars and practitioners make this book an indispensable reference and a rich source of inspiration for anyone interested in the cutting-edge topic of MDR.’ 

Professor Manjiao Chi - Professor at University of International Business and Economics and Founding Director, Center for International Economic Law and Policy

Simon Young on Money Laundering in International Law (Oxford Bibliographies)

"Money Laundering in International Law"
Simon Young
Oxford Bibliographies
Published on 27 October 2021

Introduction: The international law of money laundering is found in several United Nations (UN) crime suppression treaties, United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, and a body of soft law, some of which arguably has crystallized as customary norms. Beginning with the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Vienna Convention), states agreed to establish anti-money laundering (AML) measures in their domestic law for drug-related offenses. This was followed by AML measures against organized crime and corruption, respectively, in the 2000 UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention), including its protocols and the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption (Merida Convention). The AML measures include the criminalization of money laundering, powers to freeze and confiscate the proceeds of crime, duties of the private sector to generate financial intelligence, the establishment of financial intelligence units (FIUs), and formal legal cooperation arrangements between states, necessary given the transnational dimension of money laundering. While AML originally covered only property derived from crime, its measures were extended to property used to finance or carry out crimes, most notably for terrorist acts and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Though countries concluded a treaty against terrorist financing in 1999, it was not until after the events of 11 September 2001 that anti-terrorism financing norms, as part of the panoply of AML measures, were diffused around the world by UNSC resolutions. International bodies, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), have prepared model laws to assist countries to incorporate AML measures. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), established in 1989 by the G7 industrialized nations, is the most important and influential body in setting detailed international standards on AML. Through replication of its norms and functions by regional bodies, the FATF’s soft law of AML measures has hardened into near universal domestic AML laws, adopted to signify the integrity of a country’s financial systems. European nations extensively adopted AML measures by treaties and directives, sometimes going beyond FATF recommendations. As AML measures have grown in number and global significance, critical literature has grown, questioning their effectiveness, whether their benefits outweigh their costs, and whether they are justified from the standpoint of principles of criminal liability and human rights law. For more criminological literature, readers may wish to consult the Oxford Bibliographies in Criminology article Money Laundering...

Chris Szabla's Critical Study of the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s Work on Migrants' Rights (Melbourne JIL)

"Entrenching Hierarchies in the Global Periphery: Migration, Development and the 'Native' in ILO Legal Reform Efforts"
Chris Szabla

Melbourne Journal of International Law

Vol 21(2) (Dec 2020), pp 1-39

Abstract: This article examines the historical imbrication of international law and institutions with both migration and development. Specifically, it examines legal initiatives of the interwar International Labour Organization ('ILO') that focused on migration in what is now known as the Global South -- and their aftermath. The Treaty of Versailles created the ILO as an institution related to the League of Nations in part to 'protect ... workers ... in countries other than their own' and invested it with other, more implicit powers related to migration. In subsequent years, the ILO's mandate to oversee migration and promote new migrant rights expanded. Yet such expanding oversight intersected with another feature of the interwar ILO: respecting -- and thereby entrenching in international law and governance -- existing hierarchies forged by colonial relationships or mentalities in regions beyond Europe. The Organization's efforts did shift some state behaviour towards respecting migrants' rights. Nonetheless, in providing largely African 'native' migrants fewer or different protections than those available for European migrants and in encouraging domestic legal reform to accommodate the needs of European settlers migrating to Latin America over those of locals -- each done in order to promote different forms of 'development' -- the institution enshrined and in some ways redoubled hierarchical divisions between Europeans and natives. Its actions, moreover, demonstrate the deep roots of -- and lessons for -- today's impoverished international migration law, forms of international development premised on international institutional control and the legal understanding of 'indigenous peoples'. This analysis therefore not only produces further evidence of the colonial entanglements of international law and institutions but also demonstrates unexplored links between the genealogies of migration, development and international law, as well as implications for rethinking their contemporary forms and their relationship with the Global South today.  Click here to read the full article.

HKU Law Welcomes Dr Wanshu Cong, Global Academic Fellow of 2020/21

Welcome to Dr Wanshu Cong, our new Global Academic Fellow at the Department of Law, HKU. Her research interests include theory and history of international law, critical legal studies and the intersection of law and technology. More recently, her work has been looking at transnational data governance by drawing from Marxist and Third World Approaches to International Law. During the Global Academic Fellowship, she will compare claims and practices of digital sovereignty by state and non-state actors around the world and analyze them from a historical perspective.  Before joining HKU, Wanshu was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute. She holds a D.C.L from McGill University and an LL.M. from Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. She is also an associate editor for the European Journal of International Law.

HKU Law Welcomes the Chair of Comparative and International Law, Professor Alec Stone Sweet

HKU Law Welcomes Professor Alec Stone Sweet who joins the Department of Law as the Chair of Comparative and International Law, working in the fields of comparative and international politics, comparative and international law, international arbitration and human rights. 

     Prior to moving to HKU, Alec was the Saw Swee Hock Centennial Professorship at NUS, and held chaired professorships at the Yale Law School and Nuffield College, Oxford. He has also held visiting appointments at the Columbia Law School, as well as in universities in Aix-en-Provence, Bologna, Florence, Hong Kong, Leiden, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Stockholm, Sydney, and Vienna.

     Alec has published thirteen books, ten with Oxford University Press, including the most recent: Proportionality Balancing and Constitutional Governance: A Comparative and Global Approach (2019); A Cosmopolitan Legal Order: Kant, Constitutional Justice, and the European Convention on Human Rights (2018); and The Evolution of International Arbitration: Judicialization, Governance, Legitimacy (2017). His current book project is a comparative analysis of regional human rights courts. A regular contributor to assorted American law reviews, he has also published articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the American Journal of Sociology, the American Political Science Review, Comparative Political Studies, the German Law Journal, the International Journal of Comparative Constitutional Law, the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of Global Constitutionalism, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of Law and Courts, and West European Politics.

Research Area

• International Law and Politics
• Comparative Law and Politics
• International Arbitration
• Human Rights

Miron Mushkat and Roda Mushkat on the Challenge of COVID-19 and the World Health Organization’s Response: The Principal-Agent Model Revisited (American University International Law Review)

"The Challenge of COVID-19 and the World Health Organization’s Response: The Principal-Agent Model Revisited"

Miron Mushkat and Roda Mushkat
American University International Law Review, Vol 36, Issue 3

Published in 2021

Overview: Despite post-Second World War aspirations to the contrary, the State-dominated Westphalian system remains the key ingredient of the global institutional architecture. Nevertheless, non-State entities have entered en masse the space accorded to them by the “gatekeepers” and have been able to exert some impact on policy outcomes across and within national borders. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, the most significant actors among the non-State players have been international organizations. A proper grasp of their relationship with their State “masters” is essential for students of international law and politics.  

      Agency theory has been invoked for this purpose and has proved to be a source of valuable conceptual and practical insights. The World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) underwhelming performance when confronted with an epidemic/pandemic of enormous magnitude and severity, however, suggests that there is considerable scope for placing the principal-agent model in a much broader context and examining it from an unconventional angle.