{"id":14658,"date":"2021-07-05T10:30:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T08:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/?p=14658"},"modified":"2021-07-05T14:50:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T12:50:13","slug":"editorial-7-on-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/editorial-7-on-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial #7: On Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

After James Crawford\u2019s first book, The Creation of States in International Law, his revised doctoral dissertation, was published in 1979, the reviews were split. Colin Warbrick in International Affairs enthusiastically describes it<\/a> as a \u201cformidable book\u201d and a \u201cmasterly compilation\u201d. Ignaz Seidl-Hohenveldern writes in<\/a> Zeitschrift f\u00fcr ausl\u00e4ndisches \u00f6ffentliches Recht und V\u00f6lkerrecht (in German): not entirely convincing, despite lots of diligence in the assembling of material. Nissim Bar-Yaacov in Israel Law Review points out minor shortcomings while judging the book overall a \u201cmethodologically sound and convincing analysis\u201d. A breadth of opinions on a book is nothing unusual \u2013 and at times the book review reveals as much about the reviewer as it says about the book.<\/p>\n

To look back at James Crawford\u2019s first book is prompted also, sadly, by the passing of this giant of international law. In the past weeks, many have shared their tributes<\/a> and memories. But to look at reviews of \u201cThe Creation of States in International Law\u201d is also prompted by the recent attention to the genre of the book review in legal scholarship, at least in German academic debates. Some discussion took place in reaction to scathing reviews of Hedwig Richter\u2019s Demokratie. Eine deutsche Aff\u00e4re<\/a>, followed by a reviews\u2019 review<\/a> (in German). In criminal law scholarship, two cases of polemical reviews have engaged debates about boundaries of fair criticism. Tatjana H\u00f6rnle wrote<\/a> (in German) about good academic practice regarding book reviews, including the advice to only comment on books you have actually read.<\/p>\n

We at V\u00f6lkerrechtsblog have been following these debates with interest, resharing a recommendation on why, when and how to write book reviews<\/a> by Michaela Hailbronner on the blog a few years ago. We are listening carefully also because we regularly feature book symposia, and try to follow good practices in whom we invite as reviewers and what guidelines we follow in the editing process. If you have thoughts on our book review symposia \u2013 let us know. This month\u2019s program on the blog included a book symposium<\/a> on the book Contingency in International Law<\/a>, edited by Ingo Venzke and Kevin Jon Heller, a symposium that was met with great interest from readers.\u00a0Another <\/span>review article <\/a><\/span>by Maryam Jamshidi looks at Craig Jones\u2019 \u201cWar Lawyers\u201d.\u00a0And we have some exciting book symposia coming up \u2013 so stay tuned.<\/p>\n

It was an eventful month for international law and many blogposts bear witness to those events: Anneloes Hoff and Angelo Golia discussed<\/a> the seminal Dutch judgment against Shell. Miriam Nomanni offered an analysis<\/a> of the final judgement in the Mladi\u0107 case. The blog livestreamed a series of discussions on COVID-19 Vaccinations and Human Rights<\/a>. Another symposium dealt with Rewarding in International Law<\/a>, and we continued the blog series on 70 years of the Geneva Refugee Convention and UNHCR<\/a>, inter alia with a post on the forgotten African Refugee Convention<\/a>. Nadia Kornioti reacted to the last editorial<\/a> and its reflections about silence. Engaging a conversation is what we hope to do \u2013 thus comments and reaction articles are always welcome.<\/p>\n

The month started with Podcast No. 6 on (Des)information<\/a> \u2013 which included an interview with Bj\u00f6rnstjern Baade on truth in law. On Friday, Podcast No. 7<\/a> came out, on Statehood, featuring an interview with Andreas Zimmermann \u2013 and some practical advice. End of last week, we also held our biannual editorial team meeting<\/a>, still online but with hope to return to occasional meetings in person in future. We welcomed new team members and are excited what the next months will bring with a growing and ever-changing V\u00f6lkerrechtsblog-Team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After James Crawford\u2019s first book, The Creation of States in International Law, his revised doctoral dissertation, was published in 1979, the reviews were split. Colin Warbrick in International Affairs enthusiastically describes it as a \u201cformidable book\u201d and a \u201cmasterly compilation\u201d. Ignaz Seidl-Hohenveldern writes in Zeitschrift f\u00fcr ausl\u00e4ndisches \u00f6ffentliches Recht und V\u00f6lkerrecht (in German): not entirely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6639],"tags":[],"authors":[3575],"article-categories":[3577],"doi":[],"class_list":["post-14658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","authors-dana-schmalz","article-categories-our-own-news"],"acf":{"subline":""},"meta_box":{"doi":"10.17176\/20210705-135714-0"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14658"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14667,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14658\/revisions\/14667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14658"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=14658"},{"taxonomy":"article-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-categories?post=14658"},{"taxonomy":"doi","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voelkerrechtsblog.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doi?post=14658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}