In A Scrap of Paper, Isabel V. Hull compares wartime decision making in Germany, Great Britain, and France, weighing the impact of legal considerations in each. She demonstrates how differences in state structures and legal traditions shaped the way the three belligerents fought the war. Hull focuses on seven cases: Belgian neutrality, the land war in the west, the occupation of enemy territory, the blockade, unrestricted submarine warfare, the introduction of new weaponry, and reprisals. A Scrap of Paper reconstructs the debates over military decision-making and clarifies the role law played—where it constrained action, where it was manipulated, where it was ignored, and how it developed in combat—in each case. A Scrap of Paper is a passionate defense of the role that the law must play to govern interstate relations in both peace and war.

Focusing on the Constitutional Court of Belgium, the approach of this book is to combine normative ideas on how the Court should act with an empirical case law analysis. It explores the extent to which the Court performs as a deliberative institution, while operating within a consensual political system.

International law requires that, before any new weapon is developed, purchased or modified, the legality of its use must be determined. This book offers the first comprehensive and systemic analysis of the law mandating such assessments – Article 36 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. Underpinned by empirical research, the book explores the challenges the weapons review authorities are facing when examining emerging military technology, such as autonomous weapons systems and (autonomous) cyber capabilities. It argues that Article 36 is sufficiently broad to cover a wide range of military systems and offers States the necessary flexibility to adopt a process that best suits their organisational demands. While sending a clear signal that law should not simply follow technological developments, but rather steer them, the provision has its limits, however, which are shaped and defined by the interpretative decisions made by States.

Foreword by Mr. Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and European Affairs. Belgium hosts numerous diplomatic missions. These are either accredited to the Kingdom of Belgium or to one of the international organisations headquartered in Belgium. Their operation, as well as the legal status and privileges and immunities of their members, are essentially regulated by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, dated 18 April 1961. This handbook describes Belgium’s practice vis-à-vis these missions, and analyses the day-to-day implementation of the Vienna Convention by the various Belgian authorities. It systematically reviews the limited number of legislative or regulatory provisions, the Government’s practice – set out inter alia in several ‘circular notes’ communicated to the missions present in Belgium – and, additionally, identifies the jurisprudence of courts and tribunals and highlights the possible deviations from the practice of the executive branch. Designed as a guide intended primarily for diplomatic missions established in Belgium, this handbook is also relevant for civil servants, judges, lawyers and bailiffs encountering questions of diplomatic law in Belgium, as well as for students and researchers seeking information on national practice in this area of law.

The Brussels I Regulation, which ensures the free circulation of judgments within the EU, was recently revised; one of the main issues addressed was whether the Regulation affects the efficient resolution of international commercial disputes through arbitration within the Union. This book provides an in depth examination of the interface between the Regulation and international commercial arbitration. The author demonstrates that the consequences of this interface can encourage the use of delaying tactics, hampering the efficient resolution of international disputes.