Ethiopian Yearbook of International Law 2019

Book excerpt: EtYIL 2019 comes out while the world is in the midst of a new coronavirus pandemic that has infected millions and killed thousands of people without distinction as to age, race, colour, or creed. As an attack on all humanity, Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has challenged the fitness of the global order as never before, and its institutional and normative frameworks have been found wanting. As is often the case in such circumstances, when the WHO is denied resources to assist those countries or the WTO is unable to guarantee access to Covid-19 medical supplies and protective equipment, it is the poorest nations that suffer the most. EtYIL’s mission is to provide a platform for purpose-oriented scholarly analysis and debate on issues of particular significance for African countries such as Covid-19, disputes over Nile water resources, and Ethiopia-Eritrea relations. Although the pandemic came too late for this issue of EtYIL, we have managed to include two important articles that examine the subject from geostrategic and legal perspectives. EtYIL 2019 also addresses a number of other topical issues, including the responsibility of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in climate-related risks to least developed countries, the Global South’s approach to environmental protection, the challenges of international regulation of arms brokering, and the contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr. to Pan-Africanism and international human rights law. Finally, the Yearbook also continues its coverage of regional issues such as the evolving Ethiopia-Eritrea relations, Djibouti’s accession to the ICSID Convention; the trilateral negotiations between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and the U.S. meddling and the role of the UNSC on the issue have also been covered. As before, our contributors come from all over the world, to all of whom we extend our sincere appreciations.