Kristen Boon

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kristen.boon@shu.edu

Dr. Kristen E. Boon, Miriam T. Rooney Professor of Law,

specializes in public international law and international organizations.

 

Host States in International Law

 

​In international law, the concept of the “host” state is ubiquitous.    Host states are where International Organizations are headquartered; they are the recipients of aid and peacekeeping forces.  Host states are also the beneficiaries of foreign investment.  As opposed to the home state, where the business, entity, or troops are permanently located, the host state typically has a temporary relationship with the entity in question.  Treaties, contracts and other legal instruments with host states regulate the rights, duties, status, privileges and sometimes even immunities of the entities within its territory.

 

“Host” has a dual meaning in English:  its origins are connected to both the guest and enemy.  Moreover, as Derrida demonstrated, the notion of hospitality retains the trace of hostility, while hostility retains the trace of hospitality.  This duality in meaning of host and hospitality is particularly important in international law, given its emphasis on peace, conflict, and hostilities.

 

My interest in the concept of the host state in international law is connected to two substantive areas of development.  First, there has been great interest in the investor / state arbitration field regarding the rights and duties of the host state.  In an attempt to impose obligations on investors, so as to minimize their current unilateral right to sue, host states are increasingly using domestic laws to regulate the legality of investments through environmental and labor standards.  Host state regulation is an example of how host states can actively assert power over investors.  In contract, in the peacekeeping context, host states have largely failed to  regulating the activities of their “guests,” sometimes with devastating consequences.  When UN peacekeepers introduced Cholera into Haiti, for example, Haiti did not assert its rights to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, or to request resolution by a standing claims tribunal.  Instead, private litigants sued the UN for the death and injury of over 10,000 people, but were unable to proceed on the merits due to the UN’s immunities from host state jurisdiction. 

 

My project investigates the duality and power imbalances surrounding the concept of host states, and connects it to the broader conversation about hospitality, which is particularly pertinent in light of recent border closures due to CoVid.  In particular, I trace the long history of the concept of hospitality and hosts, from the ancient Greeks to Kant and more recently, Derrida and Arendt.  I discuss the perceived rights and duties of host states, and investigate how the fragmentation of the nation state, has complicated the public work of the United Nations with regards to non-state actors like terrorists, and the private work of Investors. I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss my research in an interdisciplinary context, and learn from scholars in other fields of study as I develop this project on how international law views the host state.  

 

Bio:

Dr. Kristen E. Boon, Miriam T. Rooney Professor of Law, specializes in public international law and international organizations. Professor Boon joined the Seton Hall Law School faculty as an Associate Professor of Law in 2006. She was promoted to full professor in 2011. In 2018, she was honored as the inaugural Patrick Toscano Jr. Research Scholar for significant contributions to scholarship and teaching and named Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development.

Dean Boon teaches courses in international law and contracts at Seton Hall. Dean Boon holds a Doctorate in law from Columbia Law School and a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2000. She was also awarded an M.A. in Political Science from McGill University and Sciences Po (Paris) in 1996, and a B.A. with honors, in Political Science and History from McGill University in 1994.

Her areas of expertise include public international law, international organizations, business and human rights, international arbitration, transnational law, and international humanitarian law. She is a member of the Executive Council of The American Society of International Law.

Prior to joining Seton Hall she served as a clerk to Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie and as a litigation associate with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. Kristen Boon is a member of the bar of New York (2002), the Law Society of Upper Canada (2003), and the US Supreme Court Bar (2008).

 

[insert definition of home state]

https://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e464?prd=EPIL