Chapter 2 introduces the concept of Accountable Design and provides a detailed exploration of the terms accountable and design. It draws on extensive scholarship from human–computer interaction (HCI), design research, technology law, and science and technology studies. It advocates for a human-centred framing of accountability and explores the various challenges of achieving more accountable Clever Computing systems. It advances three broad framings of design within Accountable Design, namely, design as a critical lens to help speculate and reflect on futures we want to build; design as an instrumental lens to engineering solutions to problems; and design as creative practice and methods. Normative concerns around design as a regulatory tool are presented, such as the legitimacy of designers’ role alongside the speed and the nature of the enforcement of rules through design. Analysis focuses on how to reconcile legal and design perspectives by exploring how to account for legal values in human-centred technology design processes.

This chapter examines the dynamics of European Union (EU) media regulation created in response to digital communication challenges that affect media freedom and pluralism. In the context of the trend of outsourcing digital regulation to global private actors, the chapter focuses on the redistribution of media regulation competencies between Member States and the EU as an implication of the European Media Freedom Act. Particular attention is placed on the problems of enforcement and compliance; discrepancies in how supranational regulations are interpreted, together with differences in resources available to national regulators, could prevent the intended outcomes. In conclusion, the chapter discusses the democratic legitimacy of EU media regulation, pointing to the widening gap between public deliberations and regulatory decisions in the transnational sphere.

This chapter examines international humanitarian law or the laws of war or the laws of armed conflict. Its development is briefly traced and its substance based upon the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 examined. These cover the principles concerning the wounded and sick on land and on sea, the treatment of prisoners of war, and the protection of civilians in times of war. The scope and meaning of occupation is examined, ranging from the start of such occupation, the rights and duties of the occupying power and its cessation. In this context, the principles of self-determination and non-annexation of territory are noted. The relationship between international humanitarian law and international human rights law is then examined, followed by an analysis of the rules governing the conduct of hostilities. The status of non-international armed conflicts is considered, and then follows a survey of the pertinent principles governing cyber warfare. The chapter concludes with a look at the enforcement of international humanitarian law.

This chapter demonstrates the divergence between textbook conceptions of the European Commission as the ‘Guardian of the Treaties’ and empirical practice by investigating developments in the centralised enforcement of EU law – that is, in the Commission’s use of the infringement procedure. Since the Barroso II Commission, the number of infringement files that the Commission has decided to refer to the CJEU has declined drastically. The chapter explores potential origins of this development and focuses on the consequences. It shows that the Commission has primarily reduced its enforcement action vis-à-vis the ‘old’ fifteen Member States. Previous ‘usual suspects’ such as Italy and Spain are now no longer discernible. Moreover, from a previous focus on the internal market, taxation, mobility and transport, and the environment, only the latter remains a substantive priority. The internal market, in particular, has gone from priority to afterthought in centralised enforcement.

This chapter begins by introducing a number of foundational concepts, which serve as the starting point in the field of public international law. Section 1.1 begins with the notion that states are sovereign equals and must consent to be bound by international law. This section also introduces the critical distinction that international law makes between states and ‘non-state actors’. Section 1.2 discusses the inevitable comparison of public international law with domestic legal systems, and the significant limitations of this analogy as a means for understanding the field of public international law. Section 1.3 introduces the subject of the relationship between international and domestic law. Section 1.4 concludes by explaining this book’s overarching structure as well as the approach of this book to the introduction of public international law.

This chapter starts by briefly sketching the development of international human rights law. It then presents the main categories, or generations, of human rights and discusses their key characteristics. The chapter subsequently turns to several matters concerning the scope of human rights norms, including their addressees, their territorial scope of application, and the circumstances under which human rights may be restricted by the state. Finally the chapter explains the monitoring and compliance mechanisms for international human rights under the United Nations and the three major regional human rights systems.

The Ptolemaic state did not pursue a policy of ‘state monopolies’ in industry and trade. Although state intervention was extensive in some sectors, markets played an important role in others. Fiscal contracts leased out to entrepreneurs shared certain procedures and terminology, but the reality of state control was different in every industry, determined by strategic concerns and practical considerations. Together, these institutions show a pragmatic state concerned primarily with securing revenues from economic activities. While the papyri also highlight the limits of state control and the possibilities to evade regulations, they do not show a general decline of state capacity in the second century. The impact of the regulations on economic performance varied. While the ‘oil monopoly’ caused significant inefficiencies, the same was not necessarily true in other sectors. The regulations stimulated the circulation of coinage, leading to increased market performance, to an extent supported also by state enforcement of agreements and property rights. Finally, the analysis underscores the significant fiscal and economic role of temples and professional associations.

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.

A framing case study examines a debt dispute between a Wall Street investor and Argentina that resulted in the seizure of an Argentine warship in Ghana. Then the chapter tackles the topic of upholding international law. The chapter discusses: (1) international legal enforcement, including major bodies, when these bodies refuse to rule, and access to non-state actors; (2) domestic legal enforcement, including jurisdiction and various forms of immunity; and (3) political enforcement via coercion and persuasion.

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.

A framing case study examines Russia’s 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia. Then the chapter examines how states break international law. The chapter first discusses the law of state responsibility, including: (1) determining responsibility by assessing attribution and wrongfulness; and (2) the consequences of state responsibility, such as cessation, prevention, and reparation. The chapter then examines various theoretical accounts of why states break international law, including the enforcement, managerial, and flexibility perspectives.

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.