Abstract: This chapter explores the dynamics of international law within a horizontal legal order, characterised by the absence of a central enforcement mechanism and the layered system of compliance that emerges. It conceptualises international law as a normative framework shaped by interactions rather than hierarchy, examining how states are induced to comply with legal norms despite the lack of centralised coercive sanctions. The chapter develops a five-layer model of compliance control, ranging from voluntary internal compliance to institutionally authorised sanctions, highlighting the interplay between internal state mechanisms, bilateral enforcement, collective responses, and institutional determinations. It examines how a horizontal normative order can operate under realist and rationalist assumptions about state behaviour, while showing that insights from behavioural theory, two-level analysis of state conduct, and constructivism enhance the understanding of state compliance with norms. International law operates by facilitating interaction, shaping expectations, and leveraging decentralised enforcement mechanisms to influence state behaviour.

Abstract: Drawing on the findings and examples from the various chapters, this conclusion argues that there is significant untapped potential for a greater role for international adjudication in the international society. In particular, developments in the law of state immunity may give rise to judicially legitimised seizing by states of assets of other states and even arrests of their state officials. In particular fields, legal mechanisms are being developed that mobilise the coercive apparatus of states to apply measures of constraint against other states, their assets, and their leaders. Though these mechanisms remain rare, they provide a glimpse into the possible operation of an international order characterised by judicially guided, coercively enforceable international law.

Abstract: This chapter introduces the theme of international adjudication and considers the ability of international courts (ICs) to influence state behaviour through judicial remedies. ICs hold delegated authority to interpret and apply elements of the normative framework that structures inter-state relations and establishes permissible and prohibited conduct, but are unable to determine the deployment of political and economic resources to coerce recalcitrant states. Their influence over state behaviour thus depends on ICs’ ability to mobilise, through mere authoritative communications, the forces that lead international law to influence state conduct in the first place. For this, ICs have at their disposal a variety of communicative instruments: their judicial remedies. The chapter presents a fourfold typology of judicial remedies – Mere Adjudication, Declaration of Breach, Consequential Duties, and Permissible Responses – that ICs use to calibrate the exercise of their adjudicative authority. Though all judicial remedies concern the interpretation and application of norms, their varied focuses allow ICs to selectively mobilise the different internal and external forces that shape state behaviour.

Abstract: This chapter explores an underexamined category of international judicial remedies: pronouncements that a state’s breach of legal obligations renders specific actions by other actors – particularly other states – permissible or required. Traditionally, such responses are adopted unilaterally, based on a state’s self-assessment of a violation and its corresponding remedy. International courts (ICs) typically examine these measures retrospectively, determining their legality after adoption. In international trade law, however, a distinct approach has emerged, requiring that responses to wrongful conduct be adopted only after their permissibility is adjudicated. This chapter investigates the potential for extending this concept to other regimes, analysing the feasibility of ICs authorising permissible responses through ex ante judicial remedies. It addresses questions of justiciability, the admissibility of pre-emptive requests for declarations of legality, and the scope of IC jurisdiction over such responses. By introducing an element of centralisation to international law’s typically decentralised enforcement mechanisms, judicial determinations of permissible responses hold particular significance. This centralising effect is especially pronounced in regimes, such as international investment law and international criminal law, where IC rulings can trigger enforcement measures against the wrongdoer by the coercive apparatus of states.

This chapter will delve into the relationship between intellectual property (IP) and human-computer interaction (HCI), examining how intellectual property rights and limitations influence the design process, drive technological progress, and shape user experiences.The chapter provides detailed discussions of the three main types of IP providing recognition and/or financial benefit for what people invent or create: patent, copyright, and trademark.

Based on international standards, the EU Directive on Working Time, implemented in the Working Time Regulations, places limits on the working week, mandates rest periods each day and each week, and provides for paid annual leave. These rights are subject to various exclusions for certain types of employment, permit some opt-outs by terms in the contract of employment, and also permit collective agreements to modify the rights. The chapter considers these various matters, and concludes by examining the weak remedies provided by health and safety inspectors and some civil claims.

EU law has developed mandatory requirements for employers to inform and consult employee representatives. These various provisions remain in force in British law post-Brexit, though Brexit will clearly have implications for their future development. In this chapter, we consider information and consultation obligations relating to collective redundancies, as well as the more wide ranging provisions in the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004, and the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999, as amended in 2010.

The common law permits employers to fix the wages payable under the contract of employment and also upholds a broad principle of no work–no pay. Statute protects employees against deductions from their wages that are not authorised by the terms of their contract. Subject to the express terms of the contract, in some circumstances employers may be under a duty to provide work so that employees can earn a living. These rules embrace a principle of mutuality that protects the expectation of the employer that work will be performed and of the employee that work will be remunerated. The National Minimum Wage sets a floor on wages for all workers. The chapter describes the method of assessing whether the minimum wage is paid in various kinds of jobs. It concludes by assessing the various types of enforcement mechanisms, including HMRC inspectors, penalties and civil claims, and assesses the effectiveness of the law.

This chapter investigates moderating factors such as trust-related mechanisms, norms, and institutions, and their ability to explain the relationship between intrinsic motivation and compliance, which is free of regulatory coercion.

Dark patterns are the subject of a surge of regulatory interest in the EU. Much new legislation in the areas of consumer law, data protection and competition law include provisions on dark patterns. Businesses use dark patterns to increase their revenue at the expense of consumers who purchase products they may not need, spend more time or give up more personal data than they would otherwise. Instead of focusing on the more normative issue of when dark patterns should be considered harmful, the chapter compares the different legal frameworks applicable to these practices and asks to what extent the increasingly fragmented EU regulatory landscape can offer effective overall protection against dark patterns. While useful complementarities may arise when parallel sets of rules target different concerns or protect different values, there are also risks of inconsistencies that may lead to either under- or overenforcement due to the fragmentation of the overall regulatory framework. The chapter submits that three needs result from the state of play and offers suggestions to improve the enforcement against dark patterns based on the current EU regulatory framework.

Chapter 2 explores the constitutive elements of global environmental governance. International environmental governance works when states fulfill the commitments they undertake under international law, such as the obligation to exchange information on transboundary environmental risks and impacts and the duty to notify and consult with other states with regard to such risks and impacts. Mechanisms of global environmental governance include also environmental impact assessments and strategic impact assessments. The chapter examines, furthermore, how the monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) of compliance with international environmental obligations has been modernized by the wide application of technologies. It explores whether green democracy has become a universal aspirational principle, and how the system for the protection of human rights has been used as a tool for the protection of the environment, lending support to the emergence of a right to a healthy environment. Whether nature, as a legal entity, should be accorded rights and have a say on the development plans of states is also analyzed.

This chapter discusses the broad concept of a market and financial markets. It then delves into the markets for shares (securities) and derivatives. Important actors in the financial markets are highlighted, such as the market operators (the ASX), intermediaries (such as stockbrokers), investors and the largest and most powerful of corporations—listed companies. The regulation of financial markets in chs 6CA and 7 of the Corporations Act is examined, beginning with the definitions of financial products (securities and derivatives). The licensing and supervision of financial markets is then considered: first, the licensing of markets themselves and their supervision through a system of rules—the Market Integrity Rules, the Operating Rules, and the Listing Rules.

This chapter then examines the interplay between certain listing rules and ch 6CA which requires disclosure by listed companies of material information to the market. We then consider the regulation of market misconduct under pt 7.10 of the Corporations Act. Finally, this chapter considers the public and private enforcement of the aforementioned obligations.

Corporate law, like all law, has a context; indeed, it has many contexts. To understand corporate law today, we need to appreciate the forces—social, political, economic, global and local— which shape that law. Modern corporations and contemporary Australian corporate law should be understood as a product of, and a compromise between, various social, economic and legal ideas and philosophies. This is the focus of the first two chapters of this book.

In this chapter, we ask the reader to temporarily postpone the quest for a more detailed explanation of the legal concepts that are introduced. We will come back to examine these concepts in detail elsewhere in the book.

Chapter 8 turns to a paired comparison of secondhand smoke prevention policies, which offer a more optimistic picture of sociolegal change. In addition to more nonsmoking rules, changing social norms and declining smoking rates were conducive to realizing reforms—and benefited from them. This chapter details the contributions of tobacco control advocates through lobbying, educational activities, and lawsuits related to secondhand smoke, especially in workplaces and at subnational levels. Their multi sited activism is a necessary part of understanding why one is now much less likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke in Korea and Japan.

This chapter considers the various means and methods for the peaceful settlement of international disputes as envisaged under the UN Charter and associated mechanisms. The key provisions of the UN Charter are considered, followed by an assessment of various methods of dispute settlement: negotiation, enquiry, mediation and conciliation, arbitration and adjudication. Given its significance to international law, particular attention is given to the ICJ and its jurisdiction in contentious cases and to deliver advisory opinions. The relationship between the ICJ and the Security Council is assessed, as are trends in dispute settlement.

This chapter considers examples of State enforcement of international law, including in cases of war crimes and genocide. It then assesses collective enforcement under mechanisms provided for in the UN Charter, giving particular consideration to UN sanctions, including Australian law and policy approaches giving effect to sanctions, and peacekeeping.

The chapter outlines the requirements for creating a valid pledge, including the necessity of an agreement and the transfer of possession.

The chapter then explores the concept of a lien, which grants a creditor the right to retain possession of a debtor’s property until the debt is satisfied. It explains the conditions under which liens arise, typically through the provision of services or materials that enhance the value of the property.

A significant portion of the chapter is dedicated to discussing the priority of claims. It explains how pledges and liens interact with other security interests and the legal rules that determine the priority of creditors’ claims. The chapter also details the enforcement mechanisms available to creditors, including the sale of the pledged or liened property and the distribution of proceeds.

By analyzing these aspects, the chapter provides a thorough understanding of the legal intricacies of pledges and liens, emphasizing their practical implications for securing and enforcing debts in China.