I model the ocean as an array of lines set within a two-dimensional frame, and show how the Exclusive Economic Zone emerged as an equilibrium in customary international law. I find that custom codifies the efficient Nash equilibrium of enclosure for nearshore fisheries. For highly migratory and...

This article offers a concise typology of spontaneous norms - i.e., norms that are formed or sustained through decentralized collective behavior in a community. The typology combines three criteria for identifying spontaneous norms: (i) implicit formation of (customary) rules, as opposed to...

I model the ocean as an array of lines set within a two-dimensional frame, and show how the Exclusive Economic Zone emerged as an equilibrium in customary international law. I find that custom codifies the efficient Nash equilibrium of enclosure for nearshore fisheries. For highly migratory and...

Although the Igbo customary law of succession, which espouses the primogeniture principle, has recently been lambasted by the Nigerian courts for violating the equality provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and discriminating against women, the judicial engagement with the Igbo inheritance law...

This article will assess whether the changes in asylum-seeker movement over the most recent ten years to more significantly involve new states, such as the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, may be bringing about changes in how we assess customary international law on refugee law. The recent...

In the most recent few years, customary international law is increasingly crystalizing to affirm that states must grant nationality to children born in their territory, if they would be otherwise stateless. In prior scholarship, this author has argued that such a norm of a customary...