Digital Commons Network^™

A Community Of Courts: Toward A System Of International Criminal Law Enforcement, William W. Burke-White

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The European Tendency Toward Non-Extradition To The United States In Capital Cases: Trends, Assurances, And Breaches Of Duty, Robert Gregg

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Legal Orientalism, Teemu Ruskola

Michigan Law Review

Fifty years ago comparative law was a field in search of a paradigm. In the inaugural issue of the American Journal of Comparative Law in 1952, Myres McDougal remarked unhappily, "The greatest confusion continues to prevail about what is being compared, about the purposes of comparison, and about appropriate techniques." In short, there seemed to be very little in the field that was not in a state of confusion. Two decades later, referring to McDougal's bleak assessment, John Merryman saw no evidence of progress: "few comparative lawyers would suggest that matters have since improved." And only a few years ago, …

In Defence Of The Right To Trial By Jury: A Solution To The Ailing Czech Justice System?, Susan Rutberg

Publications

According to the pollsters, public confidence in the Czech justice system is very low. 65% of Czechs do not trust their judges. Certainly, there is a connection between this mistrust and the fact that approximately 40% of the CR's 2500 current judges have been on the bench since before 1989. To an outsider, it seems surprising that the post-communist governments did not make changes to a system that had been controlled by the Communist party. The institution of trial by jury may be one way to promote public confidence in the Czech justice system.

The purpose of this article is …

The Legal Development Of Taiwan In The 20th Century: Toward A Liberal And Democratic Country, Tay-Sheng Wang

Washington International Law Journal

This article was originally presented as The Development of Taiwan's Legal Systems: Towards a Western-style Law, CONFERENCE ON TAIWAN IN THE 20TH CENTURY: A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW, in THE CHINA QUARTERLY AND THE GOVERNMENT INFORMATION OFFICE, R.O.C., (Taipei, Dec. 14-15, 1999). When I wrote that piece, no one could imagine that the Council of Grand Justices would find the newly-amended constitutional provisions unconstitutional, that the National Assembly would be virtually abolished, and that the opposition party would win the presidential election for the first time in Taiwan's history. This revised version of course has taken these crucial events into account. …

Russian Compliance With Articles Five And Six Of The European Convention Of Human Rights As A Barometer Of Legal Reform And Human Rights In Russia, Jeffrey Kahn

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note examines two of Russia's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR): the Article 5 right to liberty and security, and the Article 6 right to a fair trial to gauge Russian compliance with European human rights norms. These articles lie at the heart of systematic legal reform in the Russian Federation. This Note defends the thesis that the agonizingly slow progress of judicial reform and the advancement of human rights in Russia is a function of the inevitable lag of conceptual norms behind institutional reform. Part I explores the weak place of the rule of law …

The Supreme Court Of Canada: Its History, Powers And Responsibilities, Frank Iacobucci

The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process

No abstract provided.

Relative Normativity: Challenging The Sovereignty Norm Through Human Rights Litigation, William J. Aceves

UC Law SF International Law Review

Since 1945, two developments in human rights law have challenged the dominion of the sovereignty norm. First, the international community has recognized the existence of competing human rights norms, some of which now compete with the sovereignty norm for primacy. Second, a diverse group of institutions has applied these norms to challenge the sovereignty norm by imposing civil and criminal liability on government officials when they commit human rights violations. This essay examines how the sovereignty norm has been challenged through human rights litigation. Two recent human rights cases. Filartiga v. Pena-Irala and Regina v. Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate, …

The Globalization Of Insider Trading Prohibitions, Franklin A. Gevurtz

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Comparative Jurisprudence On Participation Offenses: Joint Criminal Enterprise, Aiding, And Abetting In Jurisdictions For The International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda, The International Criminal Tribunal For Yugoslavia, England (And Wales), Scotland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, And The United States, Cwru Law

War Crimes Memoranda

No abstract provided.

The Special Court For Sierra Leone: Establishing A New Approach To International Criminal Justice, John Cerone

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

The proposed Special Court for Sierra Leone is sometimes referred to as a national/international hybrid entity.

The Plight Of The Street Children Of Latin America Who Are Addicted To Sniffing Glue, And The Role And Responsibilities Of Transnational Corporations, Charmaine J. Comprosky

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

A great concern for the international community is protecting the rights of children around the world.'

U.S. Drug Court: A Building Block For Canada, Lisa Strauss

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

Since the establishment of the first drug treatment court in Dade County, Florida, United States in 1989, these specialized courts have become a rapidly expanding alternative to traditional law enforcement.

Technological Advancements And The Evolution Of Terrorism, Cheri Ganeles

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

Terrorism is one of the most heinous crimes against humanity and human rights.

Isla Journal Of International And Comparative Law, Ilsa Journal Of International & Comparative Law

ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

The Death Penalty In The United States: Following The European Lead, Nora V. Demleitner

Scholarly Articles

None available.

Glittery Promise Vs. Dismal Reality: The Role Of A Criminal Lawyer In The People's Republic Of China After The 1996 Revision Of The Criminal Procedure Law, Ping Yu

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

In this Article, the Author examines the recent revisions to the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law. The Author maintains that while the revisions were intended to promote a more equitable criminal justice system, the political climate in fact has rendered the revisions a step down for both defense attorneys and defendants. The Author analyzes different aspects of the revised law in order to support this point. In his conclusion, the Author suggests some changes to the criminal procedure law that may help to bring the Chinese defense system up to international standards.

Sovereignty, Territoriality, And The Rule Of Law, Joan Fitzpatrick

UC Law SF International Law Review

On November 13, 2001, President George W. Bush issued a Military Order in which he claimed power as Commander in Chief to detain indefinitely and to try, by ad hoc military commissions, persons designated by him as international terrorists. This Order represents a stunning claim to absolutist power and a rejection of any meaningful legal constraints on the treatment of the captives. The Order and the "War on Terrorism" on which it is premised challenge the most commonly accepted principles of post-Westphalian sovereignty: exclusive control over territory, noninterference, and equality among states.

The legal premise for the Order is the …

Let One Hundered Flowers Bloom, One Hundred Schools Contend: Debating Rule Of Law In China, Randall Peerenboom

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Article proceeds in three stages. Part I provides a brief overview of thin versions of rule of law and their relation to thick theories. Part II then takes up the four thick versions of rule of law. Part III addresses a number of thorny theoretical issues that apply to rule of law theories generally and more specifically to the applicability of rule of law to China. For instance, can the minimal conditions for rule of law be sufficiently specified to be useful? Should China's legal system at this point be described as rule by law, as in transition to …

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

Articles & Book Chapters

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 …

Extradition And The Conflict In Northern Ireland: The Past, Present And Future Of An Intractable Problem, Margaret I. Branick

UC Law SF International Law Review

British government efforts to extradite members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from the United States have posed challenges to U.S. extradition policy since the 1970s. Under extradition law, "political offenses" traditionally are treated as non-extraditable offenses. Use of the political offense exception to deny extradition of IRA fugitives from the United States prompted the United Kingdom and the United States to sign a Supplementary Treaty in 1985, which eliminated the political offense exception for broad categories of violent acts.

This Note briefly reviews the background of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and discusses extradition law and the political …

The International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women: A Comparison Of Its Implementation And The Role Of Non-Governmental Organisations In The United Kingdom And Hong Kong, Carole J. Petersen, Harriet Samuels

UC Law SF International Law Review

Although the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ("CEDAW") was implemented in Hong Kong a full ten years after its enactment in the United Kingdom, evidence suggests that it is having a more practical impact in Hong Kong than in the United Kingdom largely because Hong Kong women's organizations are making more use of CEDAW in their current lobbying efforts. This article introduces CEDAW and its enforcement mechanisms, and compares its implementation in the two jurisdictions. The authors analyze the extent to which CEDAW is considered in public policy making, the extent to which the …

Operation Enduring Freedom: Legal Dimensions Of An Infinitely Just Operation, Barry A. Feinstein

Florida State University Journal of Transnational Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Official Privilege: State Security And The Right To A Fair Trial In The Usa, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

The emphasis of this paper is on the effect of the state claiming a privilege of national security in a criminal case, either to: (1) prevent the defendant from gaining discovery of classified information which could be important in defending against the criminal charges; or (2) prevent the defendant from introducing classified evidence in his/her own defense, access to which has usually been gained by virtue of the defendant’s own activity with the intelligence services (CIA, FBI) or other police agencies. The state often claims national security in situations where the state itself is either dealing with criminals or using …

U.S. Jury Reform: The Active Jury And The Adversarial Ideal, Valerie P. Hans

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In many countries, lay people participate as decision makers in legal cases. Some countries include their citizens in the justice system as lay judges or jurors, who assess cases independently. The legal systems of other nations combine lay and law-trained judges who decide cases together in mixed tribunals. The International Conference on Lay Participation in the Criminal Trial in the 21st Century provided useful contrasts among different methods of incorporating lay voices into criminal justice systems worldwide. Systems with inquisitorial methods are more likely to employ mixed courts, whereas adversarial systems more often use juries. Research presented at the Conference …

The Criminal Law Of The People's Republic Of China (1997): Real Change Or Rhetoric?, Ian Dobinson

Washington International Law Journal

The 1997 Criminal Law supposedly heralds the beginning of a new era in Chinese jurisprudence and criminal justice. There are doubts, however, over the degree to which the revisions are substantial or symbolic. On the one hand, it can be argued that by making the criminal justice system more rational and predictable, China is moving much closer to the "rule of law" as that term is understood in the West. On the other, it can be argued that the changes are mainly illusory and that, underneath the veneer of rhetoric, China's criminal justice system remains a crude and arbitrary tool …

Organized Corporate Criminality: The Creation Of A Organized Crime Smuggling Market: Tobacco Smuggling Between Canada And The Us, Margaret E. Beare

Articles & Book Chapters

The intention of this paper is to serve in part as a warning to the international community concerned about corruption, to keep the focus based on the critical analysis of empirically verifiable information. In ways similar to how theorists spoke about organized crime in the 1960s and 1970s, articles today attempt to refer to corruption as if there were one agreed upon definition. However, like the concept “organized crime”, the term “corruption” involves diverse processes which have different meanings within different societies. Corruption (or a focus on corruption), may be the means toward very diverse ends and each may have …

Miranda, Confessions, And Justice: Lessons For Japan?, Richard Leo

Richard A. Leo

This chapter explores whether a Miranda-like warning and waiver regime could be successfully implemented in Japan. The chapter reviews the social science and legal scholarship on Miranda's impact on American interrogation practices and suspect behavior, concluding that most American suspects continue to waive their rights and law enforcement personnel continue to obtain a high number of confessions and convictions. Next, the chapter discusses the contemporary law and practice of interrogation in Japan. In Japan, interrogation appears to be routinely psychologically coercive and virtually all defendants make either partial admissions or full confessions to alleged offenses. Confessions are regarded as superior …