Whether the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is being praised or criticized, the focus often is on the perceptions of it in African countries rather than how it is conceptualized in those countries and by continental entities such as the African Union (AU). As a result, there is no understanding of the collective African conceptualization of the BRI and how that conceptualization shapes the continent’s engagement with China and, in turn, the perceptions of the BRI. By employing the intentionality, instrumentalist, and geopolitical approaches, this study analyzes Africa’s conceptualization of the BRI as a global project through the lens of strategic utility, intentionality, and geopolitical positioning, which can be summarized as “strategic globalism.”

Due regard obligations require both States and non-State actors to reasonably consider the rights or interests of other States or non-State actors when exercising their own rights and performing their duties. This article examines how due regard obligations should be interpreted in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) in light of the adoption of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement). As human activities in ABNJ increase, due regard obligations become crucial for balancing the competing rights and interests of States, non-State actors and relevant institutions, frameworks and bodies (IFBs). The literature and case law have mainly addressed conflicts between coastal and flag States concerning the application of due regard obligations within national jurisdictions. Different dynamics arise in ABNJ from potentially conflicting activities and disagreements between States with the same rights or interests, or those between States, non-State actors and IFBs. This article addresses this gap by analysing the new dynamics of due regard that are expected to arise concerning marine genetic resources and area-based management tools with the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.

Armed conflicts often spill over from the land to the sea, rendering the law of naval warfare key for governing such conflicts. Against this background, the United States Naval War College developed the Newport Manual on the Law of Naval Warfare (Newport Manual) in 2023, which attempted to codify the existing rules of customary international law. However, this manual differs from the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts (San Remo Manual), adopted in 1994, particularly regarding the rights of neutral coastal States over their exclusive economic zones (EEZs). While the San Remo Manual requires belligerents to have due regard for such rights, the Newport Manual assumes that such due regard is not required under customary international law. These divergences are derived from different understandings of the relationship between the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the law of naval warfare. This article analyses this by examining the two manuals as well as the domestic military manuals of maritime powers. It concludes that due regard should be paid to neutral States’ EEZ rights, but the standard of due regard during an armed conflict differs from that applicable during peacetime.

In this essay, I analyse how practices of press denunciation operated within Hungary and impacted the theatrical landscape during the Cold War era. I examine how this technique of denunciatory criticism was transformed in Hungary with the change from the Stalinist ideocratic field of power to a post-Stalinist, now post-ideocratic, system, and also how denunciatory theatre criticism in the press, in its most severe form in the given circumstances, operated in this system. Adopting a structural approach, my aim is to examine what I am calling the ‘denunciatory article or criticism’ – the published article denouncing a particular artist or work aiming at ‘withdrawing from circulation’ the targeted artist, work or, indirectly, sometimes a whole series of artworks, or an entire movement. I argue that the denunciatory article is part of the system of state cultural control rather than simply aesthetic criticism. I am taking a well-known case in Hungary – the neo-avant-garde artists of Balatonboglár – to explore the operations of sociopolitical and professional power that resulted in the exile of these artists from Hungary in the early 1970s. In an era of ‘fake news’ and of increasing censorship of publications, this operation of power is becoming increasingly relevant and urgent.

In January 2019, Nigeria enacted the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, which provides for a joint legal framework for both competition and consumer protection. This article examines the theoretical and practical rationale for integrating competition and consumer protection, recognizing that, while related, the two may pursue distinct goals and operate under different principles. It provides a lens to review the issues an African country faces following integration, especially in the broader normative discussion of the goals of competition law. Although there is literature investigating the integration of consumer protection and competition, there is still nothing that examines the place of consumer protection in the wider theoretical context of competition for developing countries, particularly how they balance efficiency with other goals of competition. The article also offers the first academic review of the five-year practice of competition law and its application in Nigeria.

Credibility and intent are important but imprecise legal categories that need to be assessed in criminal trials as neither common nor civil legal systems provide decision-makers with clear rules on how to evaluate them in practice. In this article, drawing on ethnographic data from trials and deliberations in Italian courts and prosecution offices, we discuss the emotive-cognitive dynamics at play in judges’ and prosecutors’ evaluations of credibility and intent, focusing on cases of murder, intimate partner violence and rape. Using sociological concepts of epistemic emotions, empathy, frame and legal encoding, we show that legal professionals use different reflexive practices to either avoid settling on feelings of certainty or overcome doubts when evaluating credibility and intent. Empathy emerges as a multifaceted tool that can either generate certainty or be used deliberately to instigate or overcome doubts. We contribute to the growing body of literature addressing the emotional dynamics of legal decision-making.

This article is concerned with the question whether a defendant in an unjust enrichment action can reduce or eliminate its liability by establishing that it could have obtained the enrichment (or part of it) from the claimant in a way that would not have given rise to liability. The answer in principle ought to be no. In arguing for that conclusion, I consider the meaning of “enrichment” and “loss”, the nature of the change of position defence and the basis of liability for unjust enrichment in cases involving ultra vires charges by public authorities and the taking of money without consent by private defendants.

Damage caused to underwater infrastructure has increased in frequency over the past few years. Incidents in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea have shown that anchor-dragging ships can easily cause disruption to internet or electrical networks, along with examples of other methods of deliberate harm, such as the use of explosives. The main legal challenges to the protection of critical offshore infrastructure lie outside the limits of the territorial sea. Relevant treaty law grants stronger legal protections to wrecks, unmanned platforms and floating buoys than to cross-border submarine telecommunications and power cables or gas and oil pipelines. Whilst the legal framework is fragmented and contains significant gaps, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea permits coastal States to enforce their laws for the protection of submarine cables and pipelines outside the territorial sea. Based on the effects doctrine and the protective principle, coastal States can extend their criminal jurisdiction over deliberate damage to submarine cables and pipelines connected to their territory. Furthermore, recent incidents in Europe show that suspected stateless ships can be interdicted by the coastal State.

In the aftermath of the adoption of the Implementing Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) and in view of the global target to protect at least 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030 (30×30), an issue that merits attention is the surveillance of marine protected areas (MPAs) on the high seas. The BBNJ Agreement is remarkably silent on how the relevant management measures in future MPAs will be implemented, despite the fact that enforcement challenges are prevalent in existing MPAs. This article discusses the potential use of maritime domain awareness (MDA) tools, including earth observation tools like satellites, in ensuring effective surveillance and subsequent enforcement of high seas MPAs. The article first introduces the concept of MDA and the use of earth observation tools in that context, highlighting the advantages that such tools may have in ensuring compliance in MPAs. It then explores the legal framework governing the employment of earth observation tools in high seas MPAs. The article argues that States are not merely permitted but also obligated to monitor their vessels’ activities in high seas MPAs. Furthermore, States are under a general obligation of cooperation, including the obligation to share information that is obtained by MDA tools. Finally, the article briefly discusses how evidence, like satellite imagery, could be used for enforcement purposes, including before domestic courts. It concludes that the use of earth observation tools would be instrumental to the effective surveillance and enforcement of high seas MPAs.

In its Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled not only that Israeli policies and practices in the occupied territory systematically violated international law, but also that Israel’s ‘continued presence’ (i.e. occupation) as such had become illegal, so that Israel was required to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territories as rapidly as possible. The ICJ’s finding that Israel engaged in a sustained abuse of its position as an occupying power, through annexation of territory and frustration of Palestinian self-determination, was central to its reasoning, as was its holding that the legality of the occupation was to be judged against the jus ad bellum. This article unpacks the concept of an illegal occupation. It argues that, as matter of the jus ad bellum, it is only the right to self-defence that could, in theory, justify Israel’s continued occupation. Curiously, however, the Opinion does not mention self-defence, although it preoccupied many of the judges writing separately. The article argues that two approaches to the occupation’s ad bellum illegality are most persuasive: first, that the occupation could not meet the necessity and proportionality criteria of lawful self-defence; and, second, that even a valid self-defence claim can be vitiated by a predominant ulterior purpose.

A key issue in the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments is jurisdiction, with a distinction drawn between ‘direct’ jurisdictional rules, which are applied by the court of origin at the time of initial adjudication, and ‘indirect’ rules applied by a court at the recognition and enforcement stage. While some commentators and national laws suggest that no jurisdictional ‘gap’ should exist between direct and indirect rules, in this article it is contended that, outside the context of a federal system or international convention with uniform rules, no compelling justification exists for eliminating the gap.

This Article discusses the design of an innovative approach to the traditional medical-legal partnership. This potentially transformative service model proposes the use of unauthorized practice of law (UPL) reform to embed civil legal problem solving within a patient care setting. Unlike in the traditional medical-legal partnership — a service model which embeds lawyers within patient care settings to address patients’ justice needs — we explore the promise of patient advocacy through community-based justice workers (CBJWs): members of the community who are not lawyers but who have specialized legal training and authorization to provide civil legal help to those who need it most. This work is the result of a partnership between Innovation for Justice, a social justice legal innovation lab housed at both the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, and University of Utah Health. The present framework for UPL-reform-based medical-legal partnerships was developed through robust community-engaged research and design work across the 2022–23 academic year. This article discusses the research findings and proposes a framework for replication in other jurisdictions.

This paper reviews current theoretical and numerical approaches to optimization problems governed by partial differential equations (PDEs) that depend on random variables or random fields. Such problems arise in many engineering, science, economics and societal decision-making tasks. This paper focuses on problems in which the governing PDEs are parametrized by the random variables/fields, and the decisions are made at the beginning and are not revised once uncertainty is revealed. Examples of such problems are presented to motivate the topic of this paper, and to illustrate the impact of different ways to model uncertainty in the formulations of the optimization problem and their impact on the solution. A linear–quadratic elliptic optimal control problem is used to provide a detailed discussion of the set-up for the risk-neutral optimization problem formulation, study the existence and characterization of its solution, and survey numerical methods for computing it. Different ways to model uncertainty in the PDE-constrained optimization problem are surveyed in an abstract setting, including risk measures, distributionally robust optimization formulations, probabilistic functions and chance constraints, and stochastic orders. Furthermore, approximation-based optimization approaches and stochastic methods for the solution of the large-scale PDE-constrained optimization problems under uncertainty are described. Some possible future research directions are outlined.

Higher educational cooperation has long been central to China’s foreign relations. This article examines the political ramifications of the exodus of international students from China during the COVID-19 pandemic. China introduced some of the world’s most restrictive entry requirements for international travelers, forcing most international students at Chinese universities to study remotely between the Spring semesters of 2020 and 2022. This affected the 221,700 foreign students who were enrolled in Chinese universities, 81,600 of whom were from African countries (Mulvey 2021; UNESCO 2022). Travel restrictions were barely eased until late in the spring semester of 2022, and the border was finally opened for most students during the fall semester of 2022 (Liu and Peng 2024). Some students missed five semesters of in-person classes, and others gave up on their studies in China altogether. Thousands of students campaigned globally for the right to travel to China, attend classes in person, and get the educational experience they had envisioned.

Climate change resulting from human activity is causing sea-levels to rise. Rising sea-levels pose an existential threat to small islands. Some have argued that this might result in islands losing their status as ‘islands’ and, at the same time, their maritime areas. The present article disagrees. In order to qualify as an ‘island’, a coastal feature must be ‘a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide’: Article 121(1) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). A feature that meets these requirements is, according to Article 121(2), entitled to a territorial sea, an exclusive economic zone and a continental shelf. Article 121(3) provides that rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or an economic life of their own have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf. The words ‘naturally formed area of land’, as well as broader considerations, suggest that the status of a feature is determined on the basis of its natural condition—not changes generated by human activity. Just as construction through human artifice cannot elevate a coastal feature into an island, man-made climate change which causes sea-level rise cannot turn an island into something other than what is described in Article 121(1).