Engaging with Indigenous legal traditions brings to light the existence of different forms of legal conscience. The Indigenous legal traditions catalyse both the ontological questioning and its response. And they also offer a response to the critique of law and the evolution of legal practice. Approaching different legal traditions requires, however, a change of perspective. This reflection considers the insights of anthropology, linguistics, literature, translation and semiotics as applied to law. Towards a ‘shared framework’ and ‘common legal sense’, the semiotic approach enables us to visualise the legal landscape, beyond the borders of modern constituted forms, on a wider horizon of legal communication. It allows us to approach the narrative semiotics of different legal traditions, such as the dances, storytelling, artefacts like Wampum belts and protocols for ceremonies in Indigenous law. Furthermore, reconnecting legal traditions contributes to recalling, re-embodying and reconnecting the legal subject with the more-than-human realm – reconstituting the legal experience in its integrity. Beyond the operation of translation, what is at stake in the evolution of the legal language and practice is the constitution of a common semiotic space, a space of legal communication and understanding.

This chapter considers the ICJ and territorial disputes, an area where the Court has had significant scope to consider the applicable law in multiple cases. The authors identify three areas in which the Court has made a significant contribution to the law on territorial disputes: first, the reconceptualisation of the rules of international law governing the acquisition of territorial sovereignty; second, the clarification of the territorial implications of the fundamental principles of international law; and finally, the elaboration of a clear and coherent method for the legal settlement of territorial disputes, the core of which rests on respect for the principle of legality.

This chapter addresses the Court’s jurisdiction in contentious cases and its jurisdiction in advisory opinions, using specific examples from the Court’s judgments and opinions. It considers whether a novel approach is needed to confer on the Court compulsory jurisdiction across a wider range of disputes.

The chapter analyses each element of the definition of a treaty in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969: an international agreement, concluded between states, in written form, governed by international law, either in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments, whatever its particular designation. Agreements in simplified form such as an exchange of notes or an exchange of letters can also be treaties. The chapter examines the criteria which international courts and tribunals have applied in determining whether other instruments such as agreed minutes might constitute treaties. Relevant factors include: form and designation, terminology, subject matter, terms, context, intent, level of negotiator, definite or conditional terms, clarity, subsequent practice, and registration with the UN. Examples of electronic signature are noted, although state practice is sparse. A treaty should be distinguished from a non-legally binding instrument, such as a memorandum of understanding, although some states use the title ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ also for treaties with a certain subject matter. Unilateral declarations are not treaties but may in some circumstances have binding legal effects. Treaties have a wide variety of titles, including Protocol, but the title does not itself determine whether an instrument is a treaty.

This chapter examines specific aspects of the Court’s procedure in contentious cases. The authors focus on the key features of procedure: the institution of proceedings; provisional measures; preliminary objections; intervention; and non-appearance. For each of these aspects of procedure, the authors set out the current rules and practice, commenting on the way in which they have evolved, and making some suggestions for further innovation by the Court. They note that there have been recent calls urging he Court to codify aspects of its practice on procedural issues into generally applicable rules. While this might seem an attractive approach, the authors argue that this has the potential to unduly restrict the way in which the Court addresses cases – each of which may have its own particular procedural needs. They emphasise the need for the Court not to be overly prescriptive, but to ensure that it retains power to ensure a fair and just outcome in each particular case.

At COP26, countries representing 70% of the global economy agreed to work together to cross the tipping points where clean technologies outcompete the fossils in each greenhouse gas emitting sector of the global economy. This could mark the start of a new era for climate change diplomacy. Success will need support from all sides.

Performance and performative writing can play a key role in opening up an extralegal space for new representations of non-human species and Earth itself. This is apparent in two recent initiatives: the Rights of Nature tribunals and the Wild Law Judgment project. The Rights of Nature tribunals constitute an unconventional performative forum for recognition of non- mainstream representations of Earth and its communities. The Wild Law Judgment project has provided an important space for unsettling anthropocentric assumptions and expectations in the common law. In ‘dressing up’ as judges, as tribunal members and judgment rewriters, we perform law differently to achieve Earth-centred outcomes.

Although the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties devotes nine articles to invalidity of treaties, cases rarely arise in practice. Circumstances covered by the Convention include violation of internal law, error, fraud, corruption, coercion and violation of a peremptory norm of international law (jus cogens). Article 46 of the Convention covers the first of these, providing that a state may not invoke the fact that its consent to be bound has been expressed in violation of its internal law unless that violation was manifest and concerned a rule of fundamental importance. The chapter examines the meaning of the key terms of this provision and possible cases in which this might arise. In the context of coercion, the chapter looks at treaties which might be concluded by the threat or use of force, peace treaties and unequal treaties. The scope of peremptory norms (jus cogens) is also discussed, together with the consequences of invalidity.

Like contracts in ordinary life, treaties have always been an indispensable tool of diplomacy. They date from even before the classical period of Greece, the Egyptian and Hittite kings having concluded a treaty in about 1259 BCE.2 After 1815, so many treaties were adopted that Canute-like words of caution were voiced. By 1914, there were already perhaps over 8,000 treaties in force. With the establishment of the League of Nations, the rate of treaty making increased dramatically.3 Up to July 1944, the League registered another 4,822 treaties, to which should be added those concluded between non-members of the League.

The chapter considers the contribution of the ICJ to the law of the sea, highlighting four areas where the Court has made a key contribution to the development of the law: maritime delimitation cases, the status of islands and rocks, navigational rights in straits and lastly, the conservation of natural resources. The author notes that the Court’s influence is not equal in all of these areas, but emphasises the significant rule that the Court has played in developing the principles and rules of international law applicable to maritime boundary delimitations.

This chapter examines the work of the two largest and most important Islamic funeral funds in Europe, whose combined membership is nearly 400,000. Administered by longstanding and well-established Turkish Islamic associations, DITIB and IGMG, these funds first emerged in Western Europe in the 1990s with the aging of the first generation of Muslim immigrants in Western Europe and the growing need for culturally and religiously appropriate funerary services. Drawing on interviews with fund administrators and close readings of primary sources such as promotional literature and membership contracts, this chapter elucidates the strategies through which DITIBs and IGMGs funeral funds institutionalize, incentivize, and justify posthumous repatriation for burial.

A handful of governments can rewrite the rules for the global car industry, doubling the pace of the transition to zero-emission vehicles and radically cutting the costs. The COP26 campaign woke some countries up to this opportunity, while some of the world’s largest carmakers continued to fight back.

This chapter examines how a state becomes a party to a treaty, including signature, initialling and ratification, where applicable. Whether a state can participate in a multilateral treaty depends on the terms of the treaty. The practice of the Council of Europe is examined. Signature may express consent to be bound but often signature will be subject to ratification. Ratification is the international act whereby a state establishes on the international plane its consent to be bound. It is to be distinguished from the domestic process which enables a state to ratify. Advice is given on the form and content of an instrument of ratification. A state may also consent to be bound by acceptance, approval or accession. Accession is primarily the means by which a state may become a party if it is unable to sign the treaty. The chapter also examines rights and obligations prior to entry into force, the possibility of withdrawing consent to be bound, and the ways in which treaties might be developed.