Abstract: This chapter explores the dynamics of international law within a horizontal legal order, characterised by the absence of a central enforcement mechanism and the layered system of compliance that emerges. It conceptualises international law as a normative framework shaped by interactions rather than hierarchy, examining how states are induced to comply with legal norms despite the lack of centralised coercive sanctions. The chapter develops a five-layer model of compliance control, ranging from voluntary internal compliance to institutionally authorised sanctions, highlighting the interplay between internal state mechanisms, bilateral enforcement, collective responses, and institutional determinations. It examines how a horizontal normative order can operate under realist and rationalist assumptions about state behaviour, while showing that insights from behavioural theory, two-level analysis of state conduct, and constructivism enhance the understanding of state compliance with norms. International law operates by facilitating interaction, shaping expectations, and leveraging decentralised enforcement mechanisms to influence state behaviour.

On December 6, 2023, the Indonesian Parliament passed Indonesia’s Criminal Code. The new Criminal Code replaces the Dutch-language colonial-era Penal Code and after fifty years of debate marks a milestone in Indonesian law. However, the new Code is controversial. It continues to criminalize interpersonal relations such as adultery and cohabitation. The framing of those offences is an accommodation of conflicting preferences among a wide range of domestic and international actors including those from the Islamic world, notably Saudi Arabia. This chapter examines the new Code as an arena of contestation, among inter-regional influences and between secular and religious actors seeking to shape Indonesian state law. It highlights three under-studied phenomena in Asia: inter-regional religious networks; their intersection with colonial legal legacies; and the migration of legal values, not only geographically or jurisdictionally, but also across internal domains within pluralist legal systems.

In this chapter, we explore how Israel approaches its protection from cyber threats with a focus on disinformation. The chapter relies on primary source material in English and Hebrew and interviews with Israeli researchers and disinformation experts. This chapter outlines the overview of the disinformation threats Israel has been facing in the recent past and present, diagnoses the presence and absence in legislative policy concerning disinformation, and analyzes Israel’s private industry efforts to bolster cyber security defense. Finally, our conclusion considers a variety of overarching outlooks on the future of countering internal disinformation in Israel.

The success of the development project of the twentieth century relied on economic growth to lift incomes, and on a tax-and-welfare state to share the wealth. It also relied fundamentally on an unequal and gendered care economy, primarily focused on care of children, in which women bore much of the cost of care. Today, economic and demographic conditions are increasingly unlike conditions of the mid-twentieth century. Population ageing increases care needs, but also contributes to higher wealth inequality and slower economic growth. Most governments have failed to address the tensions in the gendered distribution of work, care, and wealth. Tax and welfare policies must adjust in the context of these changing conditions to enable a more equal distribution of the cost of care and economic returns, so that we can live long and well in the next 100 years.

This chapter considers the potential of neurorehabilitation to interfere with a person’s identity, and hence its potential to infringe human rights that protect (different aspects of) personal identity. It builds upon previous arguments and suggestions in the literature that some forms of interference with the brain, such as the use of brain stimulation techniques, can cause psychological changes that disrupt a person’s identity. Until now, this debate has focused strongly on the side effects of brain stimulation for therapeutic purposes, such as DBS in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. We extrapolate this discussion to the context of criminal justice. In addition to earlier ethical evaluations of brain stimulation vis-à-vis personal identity, scholars are now considering the legal protection that should be offered to personal identity in this context, particularly through human rights. Some have argued for the introduction of a specific human right for this purpose: a right to psychological continuity.

The book begins by situating my key phrase ‘making-good-again’ through contrasting the history of the terms Wiedergutmachung and restitution. I give a brief history of understandings of responsibility and introduce my argument regarding material practice. Part two gives a brief overview of the methods used in the book, situating my approach in relation to jurisprudence and current approaches in law, humanities and their intersections.

This chapter explores how judicial mechanisms employed by apex courts have migrated across South Asia and Southeast Asia, using India, Pakistan, and Malaysia as examples. The chapter focuses on two case studies – Pakistan and Malaysia – to examine how judicial mechanisms, like the basic structure doctrine articulated by the Indian Supreme Court, have been strategically adapted by courts in Pakistan and Malaysia to strengthen their institutional power. This chapter considers the use of judicial rhetoric and constitutional comparativism in crafting opinions of popular salience by examining the distinct ways in which these Asian courts have engaged with foreign and comparative case law.

Elections in Central Asia unfold against a backdrop of digital repression, characterized by network throttling, online content blocking to suppress dissent and targeted online harassment of political opposition and journalists. State-imposed limits on online information availability are compounded by cyber foreign interference, including espionage, information campaigns, and disruptive incidents that have increasingly played a geopolitical role. These multifaceted cyber threats underscore the urgent need for a rapid, concerted policy response aimed at bolstering the integrity of electoral systems and procedures, reducing censorship and enhancing cybersecurity culture and resilience. This chapter explores trends in influencing elections and threatening electoral integrity through cyber means, focusing on both the informational and technical domains, and proposes action-oriented recommendations for cross-sectoral cooperation toward securing elections and the broader digital ecosystem in the region.

Abstract: This chapter explores the procedural and substantive dimensions of compliance disputes before international courts (ICs), focusing on jurisdiction, admissibility, and available remedies. It considers consent to adjudication at the compliance stage and examines the legal bases for ICs to address claims of non-compliance with previous judgments. The chapter analyses objections to admissibility, including challenges based on res judicata, the absence of a meaningful dispute, and the lack of concrete legal effects, then discusses how ICs navigate these objections, employing procedural techniques and remedy escalation to address persistent non-compliance. This inquiry demonstrates the dual role of compliance adjudication: deterring breaches through authoritative declarations and enabling new remedies where prior rulings fail to lead to compliance. These mechanisms underscore the potential of compliance adjudication to enhance the enforceability of international obligations despite ICs’ inability to order the deployment of coercion against recalcitrant states.

The Introduction provides an overview of trademark laws that implicate the right to freedom of expression. It also introduces the concept of inherently valuable expression in trademark law. Examples include descriptive trademarks; popular phrases and designs claimed as marks for T-shirts and other types of expressive merchandise; political and social messages; words, names, and symbols important to religious or indigenous communities; popular colors and shapes; and culturally significant creative works claimed as trademarks. The introduction also discusses the proposed free speech framework for trademark law. Government decision-makers should (1) identify the purpose of this specific trademark law and determine whether it is sufficiently important; (2) evaluate whether that particular trademark law directly and materially furthers its purpose; and (3) determine whether this trademark law endangers free speech, and ensure that it suppresses or chills protected expression no more than necessary in pursuit of that important purpose. The introduction concludes with an overview of trademark registration and enforcement laws that may potentially conflict with the free expression right.

This contribution retells the familiar story of the international tax regime from an unconventional perspective, revealing how racial fears have burdened communities around the globe. It explores the impact of anti-Black racism on the international tax regime, tracing the evolution of international tax rules that have impoverished vulnerable states and eviscerated social safety nets in wealthier ones. Decolonisation granted political power and economic autonomy to erstwhile possessions only to watch it be stripped away by treaties designed to constrain fiscal sovereignty.

Globally, there exists no legitimate international tax policy-making institution. This has perpetually led to inequalities and deepening economic disparities in the current international tax governance system. This chapter argues that African countries should use the spirit of cooperation that the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) encapsulates to make difficult decisions about African tax governance. Since international tax governance is at a critical stage where it is uncertain that the status quo can continue, it is important for African countries to seize this opportunity to create a regional governance structure that could bring more fairness and justice to the international tax system as a whole. This chapter proposes that African countries through the African Union form their own international tax governance structure which would bring together existing regional economic communities (RECs) and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) to create an international tax forum that would address specifically African concerns. Moreover, such a structure would give African countries the critical mass needed to rebalance the unequal power relations in international tax while also offering benefits to the African people.