Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Domestic Courts In The International Legal Order: A Tribute To Richard Falk, Janet Walker

Janet Walker

Forty years ago, when I was a child, the world was a different place. Tele- vision was a new invention:

Ashes To Ashes: Comparative Law Regarding Survivors’ Disputes Concerning Cremation And Cremated Remains, Eloisa Rodriguez-Dod

Eloisa C Rodríguez-Dod

One should plan for unassuming post-mortem issues, as most state laws do not provide a complete framework when there is no testamentary instruction by the deceased. Judicial determination is often needed, however reported opinions are scarce. Final disposition issues also arise in foreign law. Spain has no civil code regarding disposition of a deceased but delegates its funerary laws to local governments and autonomous communities, while the French have established an order of priority for funerary decisions and provide for a judicial determination and stay of the funerary process in case of dispute. The author gives a brief history of …

Criminal Justice In Revolutionary Nicaragua: Intimations Of The Adversarial In Socialist And Civil Law Traditions, Richard J. Wilson

Richard J. Wilson

No abstract provided.

Comparative Wrongful Dismissal Law: Reassessing American Exceptionalism, Samuel Estreicher, Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Jeffrey M. Hirsch

Commentators have long debated the merits of the United States’ “at-will” rule, which allows employers and employees to end the employment relationship without cause or notice, absent a constitutional, statutory, or public policy exception. One premise for both proponents and opponents of at-will employment is to stress the uniqueness of this default among other developed countries, which generally require “cause” for most dismissals. Although other countries’ cause regimes differ significantly from the U.S. on paper, this Article addresses whether those differences in normative law also reflect differences in employees’ protection against wrongful termination in reality. The existing literature on dismissal …

Financiación Por Promotores De Vivendas Asequibles Para La Clase Trabajadora Mediante Impuestos Y Recuperación De Plusvalías: Una Comparación De Los Enfoques Estadounidense Y Español, Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer

Julian C. Juergensmeyer

Este artículo explora las diferencias, similitudes, ventajas y desventajas comparativas entre los deberes de financiación de los promotores urbanos de viviendas asequibles y para la clase trabajadora en los Estados Unidos y España. Se hace hincapié en las impact fees como fuente de ingresos en los Estados Unidos y los requisitos de recuperación de plusvalías en España y en Cataluña en particular. El autor concluye que las impact fees norteamericanas proporcionan una base más amplia para los deberes de los promotores de financiación, pero que los programas españoles de recuperación de plusvalías ofrecen una mayor flexibilidad a las autoridades encargadas …

Practical Career Advice For Young International Lawyers: How To Build A Killer Resume, Network Effectively, Create Your Own Opportunities, And Live Happily Ever After, Mark E. Wojcik

Mark E. Wojcik

For those who are serious about careers in international law, there are probably too many applicants for too few jobs.

Shareholder Exit Signs On Us And Eu Highways, Raluca Papadima

Raluca Papadima

The Icc And The Security Council: How Much Support Is There For Ending Impunity?, 26 Ind. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 33 (2016), Stuart Ford

Stuart Ford

No abstract provided.

Business Insolvency And The Irish Debt Crisis, Paul B. Lewis

Paul Lewis

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Foreign Authorities In U.S. Asylum Adjudication, Fatma E. Marouf

Fatma Marouf

U.S. asylum law is based on a domestic statute that incorporates an international treaty, the U.N. Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. While Supreme Court cases indicate that the rules of treaty interpretation apply to an incorporative statute, courts analyzing the statutory asylum pro- visions fail to give weight to the interpretations of our sister signatories, which is one of the distinctive and uncontroversial principles of treaty interpretation. This Article highlights this significant omission and urges courts to examine the interpretations of other States Parties to the Protocol in asylum cases. Using as an example the current debate over …

Holding The World Bank Accountable For The Leakage Of Funds From Africa’S Health Sector, Fatma E. Marouf

Fatma Marouf

This article explores the accountability of international financial institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank, for human rights violations related to the massive leakage of funds from sub-Saharan Africa’s health sector. The article begins by summarizing the quantitative results of Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys performed in six African countries, all showing disturbingly high levels of leakage in the health sector. It then addresses the inadequacy of good governance and anticorruption programs in remedying this problem. After explaining how the World Bank’s Inspection Panel may serve as an accountability mechanism for addressing the leakage of funds, discussing violations of specific Bank …

All Over The Map: The Diversity Of Western Water Plans, Vanessa Casado-Pérez, Bruce E. Cain, Iris Hui, Coral Abbott, Kaley Dodson, Shane Lebow

Vanessa Casado Perez

Water presents a complex challenge to western state governments. Water is scarcer in the West than in the East and western states face challenges unknown to eastern ones. The textual analysis of their state water planning summaries produced by the US Army Corps of Engineers between late 2008 and 2009 confirms the differences in their policy priorities. However, there is also a wide variance among western states’ policies as the diversity in their water plans show.

Water planning is a challenge not only because of the variability of the resource but also because water basins do not map our local, …

Legal Services Regulation In Canada: Plus Ça Change?, Noel Semple

Noel Semple

In common law Northern Europe and in Australasia, a wave of reform has been transforming legal services regulation since roughly 1980. Old structures and approaches, based on the principles of professionalism and lawyer independence, are being replaced in these jurisdictions by new ones that prioritize competition and consumer interests. In the United States this has conspicuously not happened, leaving intact a regulatory approach whose broad outlines have changed little in the past 100 years.

Thus, I have argued that the legal services regulatory regimes of the common law world today are bifurcated into (i) a competitive-consumerist paradigm apparent in the …

A Choice Among Values: Theoretical And Historical Perspectives On The Defence Of Necessity, Benjamin Berger

Benjamin L. Berger

The author explores various theoretical approaches to the defence of necessity, rejecting both excusatory conceptions of the defence and those based on the notion of moral involuntariness. Rather, the author argues that necessity is properly understood as a justificatory defence based on a lack of moral blameworthiness. After extensively surveying the history of the defence in Canadian law, the author critiques the way in which the Supreme Court of Canada has restricted the defence. He contrasts the current Canadian approach with the treatment of the defence in other jurisdictions and concludes that Canadian law would be served best by a …

The Breakdown Of The Rule Of Law In Sri Lanka: An Overview, James Yap, Craig Scott

Craig M. Scott

This brief report, prepared for the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice and dated September 22, 2010, analyzes the state and the underlying causes of the current breakdown of the rule of law in Sri Lanka. The information herein is drawn primarily, while not exclusively, from three sources: Basil Fernando, Sri Lanka: Impunity, Criminal Justice & Human Rights (Asian Human Rights Commission: Hong Kong, 2010); Justice in retreat: A report on the independence of the legal profession and the rule of law in Sri Lanka (International Bar Association Human Rights Institute [IBAHRI]: London May 2009); Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, The Rule …

European Corporate Law And National Divergences: The Case Of Takeover Regulation, Peer Zumbansen

Peer Zumbansen

In this book review, Peer Zumbansen offers a review of Joseph A. McCahery's, Corporate Governance Regimes: Convergence and Diversity, Christin M. Forstinger's, Takeover Law in the EU and the USA: A Comparative Analysis, and Jennifer Payne's, Takeovers in English and German Law.

Shareholder Wealth Maximization As Means To An End, Robert P. Bartlett, Iii

Robert Bartlett

In several recent cases, the Delaware Chancery Court has emphasized that where a conflict of interest exists between holders of a company’s common stock and holders of its preferred stock, the standard of conduct for directors requires that they strive to maximize the value of the corporation for the benefit of its common stockholders rather than for its preferred stockholders. This article interrogates this view of directors’ fiduciary duties from the perspective of incomplete contracting theory. Building on the seminal work of Sanford Grossman and Oliver Hart, incomplete contracting theory examines the critical role of corporate control rights for addressing …

Legal Interpreter For The Jury: The Role Of The Clerk Of The Court In Spain, Mar Jimeno-Bulnes, Valerie P. Hans

Valerie P. Hans

The Clerk of the Court (secretario judicial) in Spanish provincial courts is an important legal actor in the proceedings of the modern Spanish jury, introduced in 1995. In contrast to the general verdicts of traditional common-law juries, Spanish juries must answer an often lengthy list of specific questions, and must provide the reasoning supporting these responses. Early on, many Spanish juries found the task of providing legally acceptable responses and reasons challenging. Because the law permits the clerk to enter the deliberation room to assist the jury in its writing of the verdict, the clerk has come to act as …

Introduction To Juries And Mixed Tribunals Across The Globe: New Developments, Common Challenges And Future Directions, Nancy S. Marder, Valerie P. Hans

Valerie P. Hans

This introduction to the special issue of Oñati Socio-legal Series describes the goals of the conference on Juries and Mixed Tribunals across the Globe, and identifies themes that emerged as jury scholars from all over the world examined different forms of lay participation in legal decision-making. The introduction focuses on common challenges that different systems of lay participation face, including the selection of impartial fact finders and the presentation of complex cases to lay citizens. The introduction and special issue articles also highlight new developments and innovative practices to address these challenges, including some tools, like decision trees, that remain …

Monetizing Diaspora: Liquid Sovereigns, Fertile Workers, And The Interest-Convergence Around Remittance, Jose M. Gabilondo

José Gabilondo

No abstract provided.

Poverty In The Human Rights Jurisprudence Of The Nigerian Appellate Courts (1999-2011), Obiora C. Okafor, Basil E. Ugochukwu

Obiora Chinedu Okafor

The major objective of this article is to examine the extent to which the human rights jurisprudence of the Nigerian appellate courts has been sensitive and/or receptive to the socio-economic and political claims of Nigeria’s large population of the poor and marginalized. In particular, the article considers: the extent to which Nigerian human rights jurisprudence has either facilitated or hindered the efforts of the poor to ameliorate their own poverty; the kinds of conceptual apparatuses and analyses utilized by the Nigerian courts in examining the issues brought before it that concerned the specific conditions of the poor; and the key …

Conceptions Of Authority And The Anglo-American Common Law Divide, Dan Priel

Dan Priel

This essay seeks to explain the puzzle of the divergence of American law from the rest of the common law world through the lens of legal theory. I argue that there are four competing ideal-type theories of the authority of the common law: reason, practice, custom, and will. The reason view explains the authority of the common law in terms of correspondence to the demands of pure practical reason; the practice view sees the authority of the common law as derived from the expertise of practitioners (especially judges and practice-oriented academics) who try to develop the common law as a …

Diversity In The Boardroom: A Content Analysis Of Corporate Proxy Disclosures, Aaron A. Dhir

Aaron A. Dhir

My work in this field has focused on regulation by quota and regulation by disclosure. With regard to quotas, strikingly, the Norwegian law is not located in regulation that explicitly deals with human rights or equality issues; rather, it is found in the heart of the legal regime that gives life and personality to corporations – in Norwegian corporate law. I have conducted qualitative, interview-based research with Norwegian corporate directors, both men and women. It is only through understanding how the goals of the law have translated into the day-to-day existence of these individuals that we can begin to consider …

Treating The New European Disease Of Consumer Debt In A Post-Communist State: The Groundbreaking New Russian Personal Insolvency Law, Jason J. Kilborn

Jason Kilborn

This article examines the tumultuous transition from restrictive Communism to the debt-fueled consumer economy of modern Russia. In particular, it surveys Russia’s legal response to severe debt distress, situating it in the context of nearly one thousand years of historical development. Effective 1 October 2015, Russia finally joined most of its European neighbors in adopting a personal bankruptcy law, with characteristics that reflect both evolving international best practices and a series of lessons not learned. This article offers the first detailed exposition in English of the two steps forward represented by this new law, as well as an evaluation of …

Legitimacy Of Taiwan's Trade Negotiations With China: Demystifying Political Challenges, Pasha L. Hsieh

Pasha L. HSIEH

Intellectual Property, Asian Philosophy And The Yin-Yang School, Peter K. Yu

Peter K. Yu

As an introduction to a special issue on intellectual property philosophy, this article focuses on insights from Asian thought. Such a focus is needed not only to provide balance within this special issue, which includes articles focusing primarily on Western philosophy, but also to highlight the compatibility between Asian philosophy and the notion of intellectual property rights. More importantly, this article aims to demonstrate that Asian philosophy may suggest new ways to address the ongoing and highly complex intellectual property challenges confronting emerging economies and the digital environment.

This article begins by providing a brief discussion of the many different …

The Role Of Arbitration In Resolving Transnational Disputes: A Survey Of Trends In The People’S Republic Of China, Catherine A. Rogers, Frederick Brown

Catherine Rogers

The purpose of this Essay is to provide investors and practitioners with a realistic overview of the strengths and limitations of international arbitration in China. Part I of this Essay provides some general comments about the economic, social, and cultural reasons why arbitration is a popular choice among both international investors and Chinese nationals. Part I concludes that arbitration can only provide a partial solution to the ills of China’s legal system. Part II examines how the observations in Part I manifest themselves in recent developments affecting arbitration in China. Part III examines the range of efforts by foreign investors …

Lawyers Without Borders, Catherine A. Rogers

Catherine Rogers

Professional regulation of attorneys is still attempting to catch up with the burgeoning international legal profession, which until recently has been wholly unregulated. The primary effort has been through revisions to Model Rule 8.5 to extend the reach of the Rule to international cases and professional activities in foreign countries. Because Rule 8.5 was drafted for domestic multi-jurisdiction practice, however, it is based on assumptions about territoriality and the historical relationship between the jurisdiction of tribunals and the licensing of attorneys that are simply inapposite in international settings. As a result, applying Rule 8.5 to international tribunals and international advocacy …

The Reform Of The French Procedural Law On Arbitration: An Analytical Commentary On The Decree Of May 14, 1980, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

Prior to May 1980, the French domestic law on arbitration had not been subject to any substantial legislative reform since the early nineteenth century. The procedural part of that law, which contained practically all of the French legislative provisions applying to arbitration, was out of date and in need of reconsideration. Despite the considerable French procedural law reforms enacted in 1975, articles 1005 through 1028 of the Nouveau Code de procédure civile had not been revised to any significant extent since the enactment of the Code de procédure civile in 1806. The basic intention of the new legislative text is …

The Elaboration Of A French Court Doctrine On International Commercial Arbitration: A Study In Liberal Civilian Judicial Creativity, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

The task of the present article is to examine the historical evolution and current status of the French judicial doctrine on international commercial arbitration. It endeavors to compare the international doctrine with the French domestic law on arbitration and to illustrate briefly its conformity to the provisions of the international conventions on arbitration to which France is a party. Its chief design, however, is to concentrate upon the court decisions themselves, underscoring their progressive quality and pointing to their systemic implications.