We are pleased to announce that the Spring 2010 issue of the Journal of International Politics is now available online.  The bulk of Issue 42:3 is dedicated to discussion of the ICRC Interpretive Guidance on the Notion of Direct Participation in Hostilities, which was released last year.  The Forum features four responses to the work International Committee of the Red Cross:

• Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Kenneth Watkin, of the Canadian Forces, discusses the concept of “organized armed groups” in the ICRC document.
• Prof. Michael N. Schmitt, of Durham University Law School, analyzes the ICRC’s framing of the constitutive elements of “direct participation.”
• Air Cdre. Bill Boothby of the RAF focuses on the temporal dimension of direct participation.
• Col. (Ret.) W. Hays Parks, of the U.S. Department of Defense Office of General Counsel, criticizes the document’s restraints on the use of force in direct attack.

The Forum also contains a detailed response from Nils Melzer, legal adviser to the ICRC and author of the Interpretive Guidance document.  Professors Ryan Goodman (NYU School of Law) and Derek Jinks (University of Texas at Austin; U.S. Naval War College, 2009-10) present a brief introduction.

In addition, Issue 42:3 contains two illuminating discussions of the TRIPS regime, the World Trade Organization’s agreement on intellectual property rights.  Both examine the bilateral IP treaties frequently known as TRIPS-Plus, which generally provide IP protection above and beyond that guaranteed by the original mulitilateral TRIPS agreement.  Beatrice Lindstrom focuses on TRIPS-Plus agreements in Asia and the Pacific, and aruges that they have negative external effects on stakeholders who are not represented in negotiations.  Matthew Turk presents a much more sanguine view of TRIPS-Plus.  He argues that, while defects in the bargaining process argue for a “pro-development” interpretation of the original TRIPS agreement, no such defects existed in TRIPS-Plus negotiations.  Therefore, he concludes that the terms of TRIPS-Plus treaties should be interpreted literally, to best effectuate the intent of the parties.

The issue also contains our usual roundup of book annotations, many of which will be posted on this blog in the coming weeks.  Click the jump for more on Direct Participation in Hostilities.