This chapter considers the ‘globalisation’ of empirical legal studies (ELS). Yet, is ELS, in fact, a global enterprise or even a mainstream approach to analysing law and legal institutions in the United States and Europe? Hence the question mark at the end of the chapter’s title. To develop an answer, the chapter begin by asking what is meant by ‘empirical legal studies’; specifically, how can projects falling into this genre be categorised? The chapter proposes an answer by focusing on the goals of the research rather than on (contentious matters of) data and methods. Based on this characterisation of ELS, the chapter inventories academic journals to gauge the spread of ELS. Finding that ELS hasn’t gone as mainstream as the term ‘globalisation’ might suggest, it offers proposals for forward movement.

The introduction traces the history of legal discrimination against women in the UK, from exclusion in university education and voting rights to the legal profession. Courts presumed sex-based distinctions as default, requiring parliamentary intervention for reforms including women’s suffrage, equal pay, and the protection of women from sex discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 prohibited discrimination while allowing exceptions for protection of women, including single-sex spaces. These legal developments operated on a tacit understanding of sex as biological sex, which can be distinguished from emerging concepts of gender as a system of social norms overlayed on biological sex and gender identity as an individuals internalised experience of these norms. The chapter then provides a descriptive overview of the Equality Act 2010 as a resource for readers unfamiliar with its structure and core principles.

This chapter sets out the rationale for and provides an overview of the content of Submarines in International Law. It discusses a definition of submarines and describes a legal taxonomy of submarines; explaining how submarines may be categorized in a way that is legally relevant by considering the owner/operator, the purpose, their mode of power, and weaponry aboard. A critical consideration in addressing the international laws regulating submarine operations is the sovereign immunity that may apply and legal consequences of that immunity. Whether a submarine is nuclear powered or nuclear armed may also hold legal relevance. It is also important to acknowledge the growing private use of submarines for diverse reasons: criminal activity, research and for leisure. These uses are also regulated under international law and the chapter explains the different bodies of international law that are canvased in the book.

Chapter 7 examines climate change as a transnational and existential threat to humanity generally, and to certain smaller and vulnerable states most dramatically. Since it poses an existential threat to low-lying coastal states and raises the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, Chapter 7 makes the case that climate change should be understood to trigger duties of international cooperation.

Chapter 8 considers international territorial administration through multilateral governance structures, devoting special attention to Antarctica as a global res communis for peaceful exploration and scientific study.

There is no doubt that the Bulgarian Jewish population was at extreme risk of genocide during the Holocaust. At one stage, the cattle cars were literally waiting at the station to begin deportations. Bulgaria, a Nazi ally, introduced discriminatory laws targeting its 48,000 or so Jewish citizens, who experienced escalating persecution. Jews in Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were denied Bulgarian citizenship and deported to the death camps in early 1943. At the same time, the Bulgarian government approved a secret plan to commence deporting Bulgarian Jewry. Yet through an extraordinary series of events, political and public opposition forced the planned deportations to be repeatedly postponed, and ultimately abandoned. In this way, almost the entirety of the Bulgarian Jewish population survived the Holocaust. This chapter examines the key factors that led to their survival. It considers the role of the government, politicians, the church and ordinary Bulgarian citizens in contributing to this outcome. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the insights for genocide prevention that can be gleaned from this case study.

This chapter analyses submarines activities against requirements under the law on the use of force (jus ad bellum). Key actions at issue in this regard are the submerged passage of a foreign-flagged submarine in the territorial waters of a coastal State, as well as coastal State responses against a submerged submarine. We examine when submarine activities may constitute a prohibited threat of the use of force, as well as an unlawful use of force, in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. Military submarines may be deployed lawfully in response to an armed attack, provided the requirements of the right of self-defence are met. Submarines may also exercise a lawful right of unit self-defence where that response is necessary and proportionate. Responses of coastal States against submarine operations are also assessed within the law on the use of force.

Chapter 2 branches out to study one of the most noticeable – if unintended – impacts of the settlement legislation: the emergence of a huge body of administrative paperwork relating to the settlement of the poor. This chapter begins with the role of printers and stationers, masters of the metropolitan Stationers’ Company, who played a key role in the production and distribution of the settlement forms. Drawing on our north-western and south-eastern samples, the chapter explores how the business of forms took root. It also investigates the continued and highly significant use of manuscript. Influential social and political theorists – from Max Weber to Michel Foucault – have emphasised state control of bureaucratic procedures. Here we see how while dealing with the settlement laws, influences emerged from the bottom up, as stationers, scribes, local officers, and even paupers contributed to the rise of the form.

In this chapter, we examine the allocation of rights and duties between States in relation to foreign-flagged submarine activities in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of a coastal State. Submarine activities include military activities and intelligence gathering, as well as extending to different forms of research. We assess the difference between military research and other forms of marine scientific research and the concomitant rights and duties of States in relation to these different types of research. Privately owned submarines may also engage in commercial activities in the EEZ associated with the exploration and exploitation of natural resources, the laying of submarine cables and pipelines, and for leisure or tourism purposes. The chapter identifies the applicable rights and responsibilities under international law to regulate those activities, as well as explaining limits on the rights of States through reference to due regard and non-abuse of rights.

The chapter discusses the creation and maintenance of databases offering accurate, research-ready data for multidisciplinary use. It draws on the experience with the IUROPA CJEU Database Project (IUROPA), which has collected data about the decision-makers and the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). IUROPA and similar multi-user databases must live up to four criteria for databases, as proposed by Weinshall and Epstein. First, they must address real-world problems. Second, they must be open and accessible. Third, they must deliver reliable and reproducible data. Fourth, they must be ageless and easily calibrated to research purposes unknown at the time of data collection and cleaning. These criteria involve trade-offs: the quest for reliability may, first, precipitate difficult choices such as whether to discard or improve upon ‘imperfect’ data or tempt creators to endlessly postpone publication of ‘incomplete’ data; second, sustainability and human intervention are inversely proportionate when it comes to database maintenance; finally, a fledgling discipline like empirical legal studies in EU law imposes a disproportionate time commitment and financial responsibility on a small group of researchers.

This chapter demonstrates the divergence between textbook conceptions of the European Commission as the ‘Guardian of the Treaties’ and empirical practice by investigating developments in the centralised enforcement of EU law – that is, in the Commission’s use of the infringement procedure. Since the Barroso II Commission, the number of infringement files that the Commission has decided to refer to the CJEU has declined drastically. The chapter explores potential origins of this development and focuses on the consequences. It shows that the Commission has primarily reduced its enforcement action vis-à-vis the ‘old’ fifteen Member States. Previous ‘usual suspects’ such as Italy and Spain are now no longer discernible. Moreover, from a previous focus on the internal market, taxation, mobility and transport, and the environment, only the latter remains a substantive priority. The internal market, in particular, has gone from priority to afterthought in centralised enforcement.

Chapter 3, ‘The Amazon as a Place for Global Extractivism: Rethinking Extractivism and Infrastructure in Extractive Frontiers,” explores the governance of extractivism in the Amazon by reflecting on IIRSA infrastructure development and how it relates to extractive activities. The analysis of the entanglements between mega-infrastructures and extractive industries also allows a deeper understanding of extractivism. From a scalar dimension, the Amazon becomes an example of global extractivism, a place where infrastructure and extraction coalesce to feed the global economy and the endless transnational circulation of commodities. From material/immaterial dimensions, infrastructure might be a kind of extractivism in itself when its main goal is profit-making from construction, detached from real prospects for connectivity. In turn, its immaterial dimension refers to how extractive logics permeate infrastructure activities, such as the monetarizing of the knowledge and needs of locals to justify the projects’ socio-economic viability. Considering the re-dimensioning of extractivism, the Chapter provides reflections on how it promotes international economic integration while limiting environmental integration in the Amazon. This raises crucial insights on the proper ways to govern internationally extractive activities.