The Functions of International Adjudication and International Environmental Litigation: ANZSIL Book Prize Seminar

ANZSIL History and Theory of International Law Interest Group is pleased to bring you this webinar on Dr Josh Paine's book, awarded an honourable mention in the 2025 ANZSIL Publication Prizes.

The Functions of International Adjudication and International Environmental Litigation uses environmental disputes as a focus to develop a novel comparative analysis of the functions of international adjudication. The book focuses on three challenges confronting international tribunals: managing change in applicable legal norms or relevant facts, determining the appropriate standard and method of review when scrutinising State conduct for compliance with international obligations, and contributing to wider processes of dispute settlement. The book compares how tribunals manage these challenges across four key sites of international adjudication: adjudication in the World Trade Organization and under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, International Court of Justice litigation, and investment treaty arbitration. It shows that while international tribunals perform several key functions in the contemporary international legal order, they are subject to significant constraints. Ultimately, the book makes a genuine contribution to literature on the role of international adjudication in international law.

Date/Time: Thursday 14 May 2026, 10AM BST/7PM AEST/9PM NZT

Format: Online (Zoom)

Speaker: Joshua (Josh) Paine is Associate Professor in International Law at the University of Bristol, specializing in international investment law and policy, international trade law, and international dispute settlement. His first book, The Functions of International Adjudication and International Environmental Litigation (Cambridge University Press 2024), was awarded 2nd prize in the 2024 Society of Legal Scholars Brazier book prize for Outstanding Mid-Career Scholarship and an Honourable Mention in the 2025 Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law Book Prize. Josh was the winner of the 2023 John H Jackson Prize of the Journal of International Economic Law and the 2017 European Society of International Law Young Scholar Prize. Josh has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals and in edited volumes.

Commentator: Chester Brown, Professor of International Law and International Arbitration at Sydney Law School. He is also a Barrister (Senior Counsel) at 7  Wentworth Selborne Chambers, Sydney, and an Overseas Member of Essex Court Chambers, London.

For enquiries, please contact htilig@anzsil.org. 

Registration: Please click on the register button on the left of the screen.  You will receive an automated email with the Zoom link once you have submitted your registration form. 

The flyer for the event is available here.