Chapter Ten provides an overall evaluation of China’s energy law and regulation and its effectiveness in achieving the carbon neutrality goal. The analysis of the book indicates that China’s energy laws and regulations have significantly evolved due to the energy market reform and the government’s policy emphasis on low-carbon development. The evolving energy law and regulation have created legal obligations towards energy decarbonisation from different sources of law and regulation, which can be interpreted and applied effectively. However, despite the progress made, the book’s analysis highlights several shortcomings of China’s current energy laws and regulations in facilitating the energy transition and achieving carbon neutrality. To address these challenges, Chapter Ten suggests areas for further legal development and research.

This chapter explores the extraterritorial application of the U.S. sanctions: namely, the ability of those sanctions regulations to reach non-U.S. actors or activities taking place outside of the United States. The chapter examines a recent trend towards increasing extraterritorial enforcement by the U.S. sanctions authority. In particular, the chapter discusses the objections of China to such extraterritorial application of U.S. sanctions laws. Of particular focus are Russia’s and China’s attempts to de-dollarize and resort to alternative financial networks to lessen the impact of these sanctions.

In this chapter, Richard Collins assesses the contribution of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea’s dispute settlement procedures to the resolution of maritime disputes. In particular, this chapter explains that recent decisions of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) have grappled with a range of international legal issues that are not directly related to the law of the sea, such as sovereignty, human rights, and sovereign immunities. This chapter observes that this development has led some commentators to criticise ITLOS for jurisdictional overreach. This chapter pushes back against this criticism. It argues that ITLOS’ engagement with international law regimes going beyond the law of the sea is a necessary recognition of the integrated and interconnected nature of the modern international legal system and, ultimately, leads to a strengthening of the rule of law.

Chapter 15 examines how the law of international responsibility relates to the jus ad bellum. It also examines the scope of the crime of aggression under the ICC Statute

Chapter 11 looks at how new technologies and methods of warfare relate to and impact on the law relating to the use of force. They include cyber warfare, hybrid warfare, drones, autonomous weapons and hypersonic weapons.

In this chapter, Massimo Lando focuses on the advisory jurisdiction of international courts and tribunals. This chapter explains that, traditionally, advisory opinions are not seen as a means of inter-State dispute settlement. However, it argues that recent developments justify re-assessing this traditional view. This chapter claims that the most significant development in this context is the judgment on preliminary objections delivered by the Special Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in the maritime dispute between Mauritius and Maldives, which gave binding effect to the determinations made by the International Court of Justice in its 2019 advisory opinion concerning the decolonisation of Chagos. This chapter evaluates the Special Chamber’s decision by considering its impact on the Eastern Carelia doctrine and the Monetary Gold principle, as well as its implications for the legal effects of advisory opinions and for the legitimacy of exercising the advisory function.

Chapter Seven focuses on China’s domestic policy imperatives and regulatory/policy support to enhance its dominance in the lithium supply chain. It examines incentive regimes designed to support EVs and the policy transition from government-led to market-oriented approaches. Given the increasing demand for EV power batteries and the supply shortage for lithium resources and products, this chapter critically analyses whether and to what extent China can achieve greater lithium supply chain sustainability. It highlights the need for sustainable material consumption through harmonised circularity standards and indicators such as recyclability, efficiency, environmental protection, carbon footprint, corporate due diligence, and accountability.

Chapter 1 sets out the aim of the research and identifies the structure of the book and the methodology that is used.

This is the account of an extraordinary year of sanctions and international trade measures imposed against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That year saw the use of economic warfare on a global scale. The coordination of national action was a remarkable feature of the 2022 sanctions, demonstrating the commitment of a large portion of the international community to the principle of territorial integrity.

Chapter 16 provides the conclusions and discusses why the book is relevant and its unique contribution to the literature on the use of force.

In this chapter, Daniel Franchini and Russell Buchan examine the status, nature, content, and scope of the obligation of peaceful dispute settlement. This chapter traces the emergence of this obligation under customary and conventional international law, analyses the conditions that trigger its engagement, and explores what measures disputants must take in order to discharge this obligation. This chapter maintains that the peaceful settlement obligation is an interstitial norm insofar as it influences the interpretation and application of other rules of international law relevant to the peaceful settlement of disputes.

Criticism is often made that the WTO Agreement has the potential to undermine human rights and accentuates the disruptive effects of globalization. Nevertheless, justice in sovereign terms is different from justice in human terms. This difference is perhaps best illustrated by means of a theory. This book puts forward such a theory. The theory posits that law does justice in order to sustain the good of the community. Justice in relation to the good can be thought about either according to the good’s distribution ex ante or its correction ex post after injury. The metric of distributive justice is equality, whereas the metric of corrective justice is fairness, or what is appropriate. This dualism is exhibited in thinking about WTO arrangements and is replicated in WTO law. In one mode WTO law is about the attainment of equality by means of obligations. In a second mode WTO law is about the attainment of fairness by means of rights. The two modes of law interact over time. Ultimately, they depend upon each other to generate a third, overarching structure in the form of interdependent obligations and rights manifested in a sui generis legal system.

Chapter 12 discusses the relationship between the principle of sovereignty and the use of force. It examines consensual intervention and the policing of territory against unauthorized entry of military aircraft, warships or military units on State territory and the basis for using force in such situations.