Archive
Legal and academic papers and journal articles
Film Finance: The Hidden Wager (2002) 118 L.Q.R. 187
Considers whether there is an insurable interest in film finance insurance policies. Published in the Law Quarterly Review, England’s foremost academic legal journal.
Cited in Malcolm A. Clarke, Law of Insurance Contracts, 5 Rev Ed (2006) §4-5M
State aid and third parties: a logical paradox (2002) 27 E.L.Rev. 628
On the Private Investor Principle (2003) 28 E.L.Rev. 70
In June 2003, at the request of MEP Philippe Herzog, Matthew Parish presented expert evidence to the European Parliament on a core issue in EC competition law. His critique focused on what he described as the conceptual incoherence of a central principle within the law. The presentation supported the proposed legal reforms then under discussion.
Why are developing world private finance contracts so difficult to get right?
This work explores the microeconomic challenges that hinder the successful execution of project finance contracts for privately operated infrastructure services in developing countries. It highlights the high frequency of arbitration and renegotiation associated with these projects. The analysis focuses on problems related to information asymmetry, cooperation breakdowns, and inadequate planning for dispute resolution.
Critique of the public international law “emergency defences” in the context of the global economic crisis, as elucidated through ICJ and investment tribunal case law, and the ILC draft articles on state responsibility.
The Proper Law of an Arbitration Agreement
Argues that conventional doctrines of dépeçage in the law of international arbitration are confused. The “proper law of an arbitration agreement” by which an arbitration clause’s validity is judged should generally follow the lex fori, irrespective of the lex causae; but capacity to arbitrate should be assessed by the lex domicilii, even for public entities.
Awarding Moral Damages to Respondent States in Investment Arbitration
Investment Treaty Law and International Law Am.Rev.Int’l.Arb. 23(1): 137 (2012)
This article examines instances where arbitration tribunals established under investment treaties have addressed issues from other areas of law. It analyzes the various methods tribunals use to resolve legal overlaps and conflicts. In particular, the piece explores the relationship between investment treaty law and human rights law, EU law, and international arbitration law.
Winner, International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution, Best Short Article of 2012
Also published in Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law (T. Weiler, ed., Juris 2014)
An Introduction to the Energy Charter Treaty Am.Rev.Int’l.Arb. 20: 191 (2010)Provides an overview of the jurisdictional requirements for US investors to acquire Energy Charter Treaty protections when investing in the energy sector in Eastern Europe and the CIS.
The public international law of bank bail-outs
International Officials Austrian Rev.Int’l.Eur.L. Vol. 13: 79 (2008)
Available on SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1651519
An Essay on the Accountability of International Organizations Int’l.Org.L.Rev. 7(2): 277 (2010)
This paper argues for greater legal accountability of international organizations, calling for the abandonment of traditional doctrines such as functional immunity from domestic legal action. It also advocates applying human rights treaties to the actions of international organizations. The work was first presented as part of a panel on accountability of international organisations, chaired by the author, at the International Law Association Conference: Challenges to Transnational Governance, held at Fordham Law School in New York City on 22–23 October 2009.
Also available on SSRN at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1651784
Discussed by the NGO UN Justice at http://www.unjustice.org/news49.htm
Reviewed by Opinio Juris
The Economic Logic of Formality in Property Law
The Demise of the Dayton Protectorate Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, December 2007
Discusses the rise and fall of the international legal regime in post-war Bosnia, under which a UN official called the “High Representative” ran Bosnia as an internationally administered governorate for over ten years. Available at:
OHR should leave as soon as possible, Glas Srpske, 12 June 2008
Republika Srpska: After Independence
Published in multiple venues:
Balkan Insight magazine 19 November 2009
Transconflict Journal 24 November 2009
http://www.transconflict.com/News/2009/November/Republika_Srpska_After_Independence.php
Buka magazine 27 July 2010 http://www.buka.ba/republika-srpska-nakon-osamostaljenja
Also published as: Conflict Resolution in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Laying Troubles for the Future in Proceedings of the 2010 Geneva Security Forum See also the extended interview I gave to Žurnal about this article, 28 and 29 August 2010:
See also the discussion in Depo (newspaper): http://www.depo.ba/front/da-ce-zapaliti-distrikt-brcko
Paradigms of State-Building: Comparing Bosnia and Kosovo
First presented at Columbia University 28 October 2010
Available on SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1680226
Arbitration in the Western Balkans: The Emerging Commercial Landscape
Pravni Život (Serbian academic legal journal), December 2010 Also presented at the conference of the Kopaonik School of Natural Law, 14 December 2010
Available on SSRN: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1685217
The political logic of Balkanisation
Proceedings of the Geneva Security Forum (2011)
Considers the successes and failures of secessionist movements around the world, the international law governing state secession, and the political conditions that make secession possible, in the context of state-building missions that seek to hold countries together in the aftermath of civil war.
International courts and the European Legal Order
European Journal of International Law, Vol. 23(1) (2012)
Considers the possibility of conflict between different areas of international law, in particular between EU law and other areas of international law, and reviews the opinion of the European Court of Justice declaring the European Community and the Patents Court to be inconsistent with EU law.
International sanctions and how to evade them
Analyzes the legal effects of differing regimes of international sanctions, and the ease of evading those sanctions. Includes travel bans, banking bans and export embargoes, principally considered in the context of the 2012 Iran crisis
Wrongful acts of international organizations: no remedy means no responsibility
Deregulating legal fees
Legal Studies, September 2012 (forthcoming)
Argues that regulators’ schemes for controlling freedom of contract between lawyers and their clients for their fee structures are self-defeating. In particular, the prohibition on contingency fees has no sound policy ground save restricting access to justice. Fee regulation is another sort of barrier to entry regulation and promotes cartel practices amongst legal professionals.
Judicial Politics and the Balkan Wars
Foreign Legal Life, Volume 2(2013)
A critical assessment of the decision of the Appellate Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia to overturn the first instance decision convicting the Croatian General Ante Gotovina of war crimes in the course of Operation Storm, expelling Serbs from Krajina, in August 1995.
International law and Great Power Politics
In David Feldman, ed., Law in Politics, Politics in Law (Oxford: Hart), 2013
Considers the relationship between the way international law is developed and adjudicated by international courts, and the relative political strength of the sovereign litigants that international law concerns. Advances the author’s pessimistic constructivism theory of international law.
International Law and International Organizations: The Legacy of the Twentieth Century
Право Журнал высшей школы экономики (2014), Vol. 2: 124
(Legal Journal of the Higher School of Economics, St Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Explores the rise of international organisations in the political history of the twentieth century, the consequent growth of international law, and the effects of this growth upon international relations, from a constructivist perspective.
Magazines, papers, book reviews
- Litigation in a fairy-tale land
Lovells Client Note June 2002. Discusses cultural, procedural and strategic issues when litigating in the EU courts.
- In Brief magazine
- Regionalism and Trade
- Une ville libre dans les Balkans
Revue Militaire Suisse, November 2010
Discussion for a military audience of international intervention in post-war Bosnia, and the country’s likely future direction following departure of the robust international presence occupying Bosnia since the end of its war in 1995.
- Book review: Davidson, Dundas and Bartos, The Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010
Practitioners’ textbook on the new Scottish arbitration legislation.
Transnational Dispute Management, Vol. 7(2) (July 2010)
- Industry Life after Deepwater Horizon: The new Swiss Arbitration landscape
- Moves towards protectionism: the impact on commodities
- Geneva: the new commodities capital?
- New Horizons in Commodity Trade Finance: Perils or Promise?
- Drafting international arbitration clauses
- Transparency in international arbitration: towards a contemporary paradigm
Media interviews and editorials
- Glas Srpske (Bosnian daily newspaper), 16 October 2008
- Glas Srpske, 18 October 2008
- The Bosnian state is collapsing and the West looks away
- OHR should close, the sooner the better
- Is OHR about to appoint a Brčko Mayor?
- Lajčák resigns: what next for Bosnia?
- While the village burns, OHR brushes its hair (on the economic crisis in Bosnia)
- Bonus supertax sends the City’s super-rich to Switzerland
- Genève, l’autre crise du logement
- Being close to the Balkans
- Gregorian’s Departure weakens US interest in Bosnia
- Diplomacy Trail: A New Era
- Kosovo ruling reveals World Court’s Darker Side
- New powers for EU Bosnia envoy questioned
- Open letter to Ambassador Roderick Moore
Discussed by Ivan Lovrenović, Dani, 17 September 2010
- US courts chip away at the crumbling edifice of legal immunity
- The unfortunate case of Dragomir Andan
English translation also published:
- Tadić and Dodik: Friends in Torment
- The status of Sarajevo – question of all questions in post-Dayton Bosnia
- Richard Holbrooke, Balkan Peacemaker
- Dodik’s next move: squeezing Brčko dry
And on Peacefare: http://www.peacefare.net/?page_id=1494
- Floating in a Legal Vacuum
- Croat crisis pushes Bosnia towards endgame
- Court and Prosecutor’s Office Await Inevitable Collapse
Also published on Transconflict (in English)
- The elusive pursuit of employees’ rights, FICSA Newsletter, April 2011
- Alle Wege führen ins Nichts
- Court and Prosecutor’s Office Face Inevitable Collapse
Interview, Glas Srpske, 13 April 2010 http://www.glassrpske.com/vijest/2/novosti/56231/lat/Metju-Peris-Sud-i-Tuzilastvo-BiH-ceka-neizbjezna-propast.html Also available (in English) at
- Gotovina Judgment and the Politics of International Justice
Balkan Insight, 19 April 2011 http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/comment-the-gotovina-judgement-and-the-politics-of-international-justice
- Inzko’s imprecise threat of sanctions, interview, Glas Srpske, 2 May 2011
- Milorad Dodik and the Politics of Referendum, Transconflict, 16 May 2011
http://www.transconflict.com/2011/05/milorad-dodik-and-the-politics-of-referendum-165
Also published as: A Referendum was Never Dodik’s Real Aim, Balkan Insight, 16 May 2011
- The silent passing of Bosnian proconsulship, Balkan Insight, 14 June 2011
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/the-silent-passing-of-europe-s-proconsulship-in-bosnia Also published on Transconflict:
Excerpts published, Nezavisne Novine 16 June 2011: http://www.nezavisne.com/novosti/bih/Metju-Peris-Medjunarodna-zajednica-mijenja-politiku-prema-BiH-93882.html
Also in Glas Srpske, 15 June 2011: http://www.glassrpske.com/vijest/2/novosti/59368/lat/Metju-Peris-Medjunarodna-zajednica-mijenja-politiku-prema-BiH.html
- Kosovo: The Politics of Partition
Transconflict, 8 August 2011
- Waiting for Godot in Dodik’s Bosnia
Transconflict, 21 September 2011
Also published in Balkan Insight, 20 September 2001, Serb Machiavelli has Bosnia’s Future in his Hands http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/serb-machiavelli-has-bosnia-s-future-in-his-hands
- The Painful Legacy of Brcko’s Imperial Experiment
Balkan Insight, 20 January 2012
- Radio Frontier, 13 October 2011
Geneva lawyer says World Health Organisation could be sunk by legal fees
- Le Matin (Swiss newspaper), 2 November 2011
L’avocat qui veut faire payer l’OMS
- GHI (Swiss newspaper), 2 November 2011
Nous réclamons 500’000 dollars par employé viré!
- World Radio Switzerland, 4 November 2011
“They’re pretending the reason is the strong Swiss franc”
- Swissinfo (English language branch of Swiss national broadcaster), 4 November 2011
WHO faces multi-million franc lawsuits over jobs
- Le Temps (Swiss newspaper), 12 November 2011
À Genève, la doulousreuse réforme de l’OMS
- Radio Frontier, 14 November 2011
WHO job cuts http://www.radiofrontier.ch/features/who/
- La crise touché les négociants de matières premières
Interview, Bilan, 1 February 2012
http://www.bilan.ch/articles/finance/la-crise-touche-les-negociants-de-matieres-premieres
- The West’s Balkan Proconsulships are Doomed to Fail
Balkan Insight, 2 March 2012
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/the-west-s-balkan-proconsulships-are-doomed-to-fail
Also published as: War Crimes and Proconsulship in the Balkans, Transconflict, 8 March 2012
http://www.transconflict.com/2012/03/war-crimes-and-proconsulship-in-the-balkans-083
- Two decades on, Bosnia’s divisions are self-imposed
Balkan Insight, 9 April 2012 http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/two-decades-on-bosnia-s-divisions-are-self-imposed
Also published on Transconflict, 10 April 2012, as Reflections on the Siege of Sarajevo
http://www.transconflict.com/2012/04/reflections-on-the-siege-of-sarajevo-104
- International Justice: Progress or Mirage?
Edward Elgar, 10 August 2012
- Depressed West Averts Gaze from Bosnia’s Demise
Balkan Insight, 15 August 2012
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/depressed-west-averts-gaze-from-bosnia-s-demise Also published as: Bosnia’s ragged demise, Transconflict, 15 August 2012
- Eurozone collapse: the legal consequences
Holman Fenwick Willan client note, 22 October 2012
- Assessing race and inequality in international development
The Guardian, 28 February 2013
- L’ONU dégraisse dès avril, GHI, 21 March 2013
- Bosnian Serb secession: could it ever happen?
University of Texas at Austin Working Paper, 1 April 2013
- Investment treaty law and conflicts of laws
Holman Fenwick Willan International Arbitration analysis, April 2013
- International criminal law: justice or mirage?
Recap of comments delivered to UN General Assembly, Transconflict, 2 May 2013
http://www.transconflict.com/2013/05/international-criminal-law-justice-or-mirage-025/
Also reported in Glas Srpske, 3 May 2013
http://www.glassrpske.com/novosti/vijesti_dana/Haski-sud-prkosi-zdravom-razumu/lat/117665.html
- Tales from Herzeg-Bosnia: The trial of the Prlić defendants
Transconflict, 31 May 2013
http://www.transconflict.com/2013/05/tales-from-herzeg-bosna-the-trial-of-the-prlic-defendants-315/
- Egypt’s Democratic Phantasm
Transconflict, 16 July 2013
http://www.transconflict.com/2013/07/egypts-democratic-phantasm-167/
- Syria Disfigured: Options for the West
Transconflict, 27 August 2013
http://www.transconflict.com/2013/08/syria-disfigured-options-west-278/
- Sanctions and the Middle East: the Swiss deviation
Journal of Export Controls and Sanctions, Issue 24 (September 2013) www.worldecr.com/archives/sanctions-and-the-middle-east-the-swiss-deviation/
- Temperance in the Arab Spring: averting catastrophe through Great Power politics
Transconflict, 25 November 2013 http://www.transconflict.com/2013/11/temperance-in-the-arab-spring-averting-catastrophe-through-great-power-politics-251/
- Internet privacy in the Global Age: Towards a Regime for Transnational Data Protection
2014 International Conference on Information Technology and Management Engineering 26-27 April 2014, Hong Kong
- Winners and Losers in the Balkan Wars – lessons for Ukraine and the Levant
Transconflict, 12 May 2014
- Kosovo and Crimea: What’s the Difference?
Transconflict, 2 June 2014
- An Enquiry Concerning the Donetsk People’s Republic
Transconflict, 6 June 2014
- The Bonn Powers, radio documentary, interview, November 2013
http://lleomonica.com/MASTER_ST_RADIO_25_03.mp3
- The Spectre of Nationalism in the Modern Balkans
- Living with the Islamic State
Transconflict, 31 December 2014
- Fighting Cold War in Russia and Ukraine
Transconflict, 9 January 2015
- Towards Kurdistan Independence
Peacefare, 15 January 2015
- Law and Genocide: Lessons from the Balkans
Transconflict, 9 February 2015
- Arbitrators rejoice: the increasingly exorbitant cost of the English Commercial Court
Global Arbitration Review, 6 March 2015
- The new Swiss perspective on international arbitration
Legal Business, March 2015
- Agreeing to end civil wars: reflections from the Balkans to Ukraine
Transconflict, 15 April 2015
Conference presentations and public speeches
European Parliament, 11 June 2003, Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs Services of General Interest: The Current Legal Framework and Proposals for Revision
- University of Graz, European Academy, 21 February 2008
- Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC, 15 January 2009
- Graduate Institute, Geneva, International Organisations seminar, 19 November 2009
The role of international organisations in peace building: the case of post-war Bosnia
- European Law & Economics Association (ELEA) 2009 Annual Conference, September 2009
- International Law Association Conference: Challenges to Transnational Governance
Panel Chair: Legal Accountability of International Organizations: Challenges and Reforms
- East India Club, London, 10 December 2009, public lecture
Book promotion: A Free City in the Balkans
- Webster University Geneva, seminar on post-conflict peacekeeping, 13 April 2010
- Geneva Global Security Forum, Webster University Geneva, 16 April 2010
- Friends of Bosnia and Herzegovina (diplomatic working party)
- Rutgers University, Newark NJ, 27 October 2010, public lecture
- Frozen conflicts seminar, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, NYC, 28 October 2010
- Columbia University, NYC, 28 October 2010, public lecture
- European Patent Organisation, Munich, 19 January 2011 (Staff Union invitation)
Law, due process and international organisations
- Humanitarian Space, 16th International Humanitarian Conference
- Geneva In-Sight (annual Geneva commodities trading meeting), 15 March 2011
Risky business: legal aspects of commodities trading in emerging markets, and future regulatory challenges www.academyfinance.ch/v2/next_events/GIS-programme.pdf
- British Swiss Chamber of Commerce, annual legal & tax conference, Geneva, 24 March 2011
Moving your business across jurisdictions: challenges and opportunities, Conference co-chair
- Geneva Global Security Forum, Webster University Geneva, 8 April 2011
Air strikes from Bosnia to Kosovo to Libya
http://www.webster.ch/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=784&Itemid=685
- Hart Legal Workshop, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, 30 June 2011
Abrogating Westphalia: The Perils of International Territorial Administration
- Society of Legal Scholars annual conference, 6 September 2011
Plenary session: Lawyers and the political: politics, lawmaking and governance
- American Branch, International Law Association, annual conference, NYC 21 October 2011
Panel chair: The Law of the International Civil Service and National Employment Law http://ila-americanbranch.org/ILW2011_Schedule.pdf
- Financing Commodity-Based Development in Developing Countries
UNCTAD Global Commodities Forum, 23-24 January 2012
http://www.unctad.info/en/Global-Commodities-Forum-2012/?id=74189
- International Law and the Return of Great Power Politics
- Refugees in the Balkans: The Lingering Political Landscape
Humanitarian Space Conference, 1-2 March 2012
http://www.webster.ch/about-webster/humanitarian-conference-refugees-armed-conflict
- The role of international arbitration in a new transnational legal order
Keynote speaker, HFW Geneva seminar series / Graduate Institute CTEI Speaker Series, 15 March 2012
- International sanctions against Iran and commodities trading
- The Origins of the Second Great Depression
- Asymmetric investment contracts in the African resource sector
15th African Oil, Gas and Minerals, Trade and Finance Conference (OILGASMINE), 6 April 2012
- Security for claims
Holman Fenwick Willan Geneva seminar series, 8 May 2012
http://www.hfw.com/event/security-for-claims-vs-enforcement-of-judgments-and-awards
- Commercial and investment arbitration in Switzerland and beyond
Panel speaker, St Petersburg International Legal Forum, Russian Federation, 18 May 2012
- The politics of judicial reasoning in the English and American common laws
- Bosnia’s Disintegration: Could we Have Avoided It?
- Conflict borders: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Brčko
European Centre for Minority Issues, Flensburg, Germany, 10 September 2012
- Legal risks in up-stream commodities and trading in the African continent
Seizing Africa’s Business Opportunities, Conference, Geneva, 19-21 September 2012
- Litigation and dispute resolution: methods of attacking offshore structures, and tactics for defence
- Dealing with defaulting counterparties, security and insurance
Conference: Innovation in International Trade, Hotel Beau Rivage Palace, 3 October 2012
- Defaulting counterparties and how to deal with them
- The Eurozone Crisis and the Impact of State Bankruptcy
Fédération des Entreprises Romandes, Geneva, 22 October 2012
- Arbitrator neutrality: A legal fiction, but is it an efficient one?
- UK anti-corruption legislation: the new framework
- Partition of Bosnia – When, How and What Response?
Secession Redux: Lessons for the EU, University of Texas at Austin, 1 March 2013
- Defaulting counterparties: How do deal with them? What do you do if you are one?
Lugano Commodity Forum, 5-6 March 2013
- The role of international criminal justice in reconciliation
Moderator and speaker, debate before the UN General Assembly, 10 April 2013
- Anti-realism and international law
Keynote speaker, Philosophy and Contemporary International Law, St Petersburg State University, 13 May 2013
- How to freeze a Swiss bank account
HFW seminar series, Geneva 23 May 2013
- Arbitrator Independence and Impartiality
Panel Chair, CIArb European Branch Annual Dispute Resolution Conference, Istanbul 19 October 2013
- The impact of EU and US export controls and sanctions legislation on (1) EU businesses and (2) non-EU businesses
Chair of two discussion panels, WorldECR Export Controls and Sanctions Forum, 14-15 November 2013
- Cross-border commerce in the global electronic age: the new regulatory landscape
eCom21 Riga International Forum, 21-22 November 2013
- Obtaining Security for Claims
Commodities Traders Alumni Conference, 28 November 2013
- Towards a legal regime for transparency in energy commodity prices: can it and should it be done?
Fall Conference of the International Relations Program of Webster University, Geneva
National Energy Policies and International Cooperation, 29 November 2013
- International arbitration between Russian businesses
- Asset-tracing and piercing the corporate veil
- How to choose your law firm
“Russian Banks in Europe – Specifics of Conducting Business”
Three speeches at a conference hosted by l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, Nice, France, 21-24 January 2014
- Shifting moods in the Boardroom: reflections from the bowels of the legal profession
- Lessons learned from the Dayton Peace Accords
19th International Humanitarian Conference: Conflict Resolution, Webster University Geneva, 13 February 2014
- OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan: How it is Affecting Tax Planning Strategies
The Upcoming Corporate Tax Reform in Switzerland: Analysis of Changes
INTAX Info Russia, 23-23 September 2014, Moscow, Russia
- Maximising benefits of investments: policy dialogues
OilGasMine Special Event Africa, UNCTAD World Investment Forum, Geneva 13-16 October 2014
- Russia: death of a market?
10th Annual Structured Commodity Finance Conference 2015, London, 10-12 March 2015
- Corporate tax reform in Switzerland