Digital Commons Network^™

Hurricane Katrina: When A Crisis Is An Opportunity In Government Innovation For Migration Solutions, Camilo Mantilla

Refugee Law & Migration Studies Brief

No abstract provided.

International Agreements Shaping Migration Solutions, Camilo Mantilla

Refugee Law & Migration Studies Brief

In an increasingly complex and interdependent state of international relations, international treaty negotiation, adoption, and implementation constitute an important component of global foreign policy and activity of states. International agreements embody sovereign and state-to-state relations and behavior in a global forum. International agreements manifest in ways that vary in form, subject, formalities, parties, scope, forum and many other elements.

Sanctions As Virtue-Signaling: Transitioning From Symbolism To Reparation For Rohingya Genocide Victim, Kelsey Peden

American University International Law Review

Kyi sat on the banks of the Inya Lake, saying goodbye to the place they said was no longer her home. The government of Myanmar had given her an option: leave or be arrested. She felt lucky to leave; most activists she knew did not get a warning first. A few kilometers away, her parents’ graves sat cleaned, adorned with fresh flowers. She hoped her sister would keep up the task in her absence, but she hadn’t been able to get ahold of her in quite some time. The feeling of the country was getting more concerned—"frantic" she explained, laughing, …

The Slippery Concept Of "Object And Purpose" In International Criminal Law, Patrick J. Keenan

American University International Law Review

In little more than twenty-five years, the field of international criminal law has grown from a small slice of public international law into a functioning system of international justice, complete with multiple juridical bodies and substantial scholarly attention. Building on the legacy of the Nuremberg Tribunals and drawing from international humanitarian law, human rights law, and domestic criminal law principles, international criminal law has become its own discipline. Creating any new field of law is a complicated endeavor; this is especially true when the field affects and is affected by so many politically sensitive issues. Throughout this doctrinal experiment, one …

Ukraine's Push To Prosecute Aggression: Implications For Immunity Ratione Personae And The Crime Of Aggression, Rebecca Hamilton

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine dates back to its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s southern peninsula, Crimea. It was Russia’s brazen full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, however, that captured global attention and put the crime of aggression – the resort to war in violation of the UN Charter3 – in the spotlight.

Criminalizing Environmental Degradation And Devastation: New Prospects For The Icc Rome Statute, Kelly Pisimisi

American University International Law Review

Over the last decade, steadily increasing voices are ringing the tocsin to the international community for the impact of human activities on climate and their potential consequences on human life and dignity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its recent (6th) Assessment Report, confirmed this assertion. Greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions (particularly CO2), as well as the retreat of arctic glaciers and the subsequent sea level rise causing—among other issues—the acidification of the oceanic waters, are some of the most evident human-induced implications on climate and the environment.

The Art Of International Law, Hilary Charlesworth

American University International Law Review

International lawyers study international law primarily through its written texts—treaties, official documents, judgments, and scholarly works. Critical to being an international lawyer, it seems, is access to the written word, whether in hard copy or online. Indeed, as Jesse Hohmann observes, “the production of text can come to feel like the very purpose of international law.”

Unwinding “Law And Order”: How Second Look Mechanisms Resist Mass Incarceration And Increase Justice, Destiny Fullwood, Cecilia Bruni

Human Rights Brief

For decades, the United States has used incarceration to achieve a particularized version of safety. Amidst the civil rights movement, presidential candidate Barry Goldwater wielded the phrase “law and order” against the masses of Black men, women, and children in their fight for equitable treatment. This came at a time when “[i]t was no longer socially permissible for polite White people to say they opposed equal rights for Black Americans. Instead, they began ‘talking about the urban uprisings’” and “attaching [those] to street crime, to ordinary lawlessness[.]” The result was a decades-long, persistent campaign to maintain order by arresting and …

The International Criminal Court’S Arbitrary Exercise Of Its Duties Under The Rome Statute To The Benefit Of Western Global Supremacy, Azadeh Shahshahani, Sofia Veronica Montez

Human Rights Brief

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a constituent institution of the United Nations (UN) that investigates and prosecutes perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. Established in 1998 by the Rome Statute, the ICC may open an investigation through referrals by state parties to the Statute; referrals by the UN Security Council; or the prosecutor’s own initiative. Additionally, non-party states may extend qualified jurisdiction to the ICC to prosecute cases within their territories, setting the scope of investigations and prosecutions as well as the dates they shall encompass.

The Rome Statute assigns various other …

Principles On Effective Investigative Interviews: A New Instrument Of International Law, Juan E. Mendez, Matthew Ilsley

Human Rights Brief

International law absolutely prohibits torture and ill-treatment, yet such abuses remain prevalent and widespread. It most frequently occurs in the questioning of individuals by law enforcement, intelligence officials, and military personnel in the context of “fighting crime,” obtaining confessions, controlling detainees, and “counterterrorism.” The “Torture Memorandums,” exemplifying the deeply misguided practices used in the global fight against terror following the attacks of September 11, 2001, illuminated the pervasiveness of these practices.

Violating The Protections Of International Law: Examining Methods To Combat The Practice Of Female, Angel R. Gardner

Human Rights Brief

In 2021, the women’s rights non-governmental organization (“NGO”), Equality Now, filed a lawsuit alongside other organizations1 challenging Mali’s failure to outlaw the practice of female genital mutilation (“FGM”). FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to female genital organs for non-medical purposes. The practice of FGM traces back to an ancient ritual, however, current research reveals that it causes serious health problems. The case brought by these NGOs has the potential to create binding precedent against the practice of FGM across all the African States.

Local Human Rights Governance To Advance Migrants' Rights, Camilo Mantilla

Refugee Law & Migration Studies Brief

No abstract provided.

Memoria, Verdad Y Justicia: Situacion Y Perspectivas Etudes: Premiere Partie: Justice Transitionnelle Et Reconciliation, Juan Mendez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

La evolucion de los principios de justicia transicional en el Derecho Internacional de los Derechos Humanos debe verse con un enfoque juridico que ponga de manifiesto la frondosa jurisprudencia que se ha poducido en respuesta a las trabas y obstAculos en diversos paises para la realizacibn de la justicia. Esto es especialmente cierto en America Latina, donde el sistenma interamericano de proteccion ha establecido con firmeza varias de estas obLigaciones internacionales del Estado. Pern no se trata de reglas aplicables solamente en el mbito interamericano, sino que se irproducen de diversas formas en otros sistemas regionales y tambidn en la …

Louis Henkin Memorial Lecture University Of Miami Law School, Juan Mendez

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

I am deeply honored to be invited to deliver this year's version of a lecture series honoring Professor Louis Henkin whose contributions to the development of international law-and very specifically to international human rights law - are and very long will continue to be remembered. I am also a bit overwhelmed as I notice that the organizers have put me in the company of wonderful colleagues and masters of this field, several of them my friends and persons whose work I admire. It is also especially gratifying for me to have the occasion of renewing contact with the Henkin family …

Platform-Enabled Crimes: Pluralizing Accountability When Social Media Companies Enable Perpetrators To Commit Atrocities, Rebecca Hamilton

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Online intermediaries are omnipresent. Each day across the globe, the corporations running these platforms execute policies and practices that serve their profit model, typically by sustaining user engagement. Sometimes, these seemingly banal business activities enable principal perpetrators to commit crimes. Online intermediaries, however, are almost never held to account for their complicity in the resulting harms. This Article introduces the concept of platformenabled crimes into the legal literature to highlight the ways in which the ordinary business activities of online intermediaries enable the commission of crime. It then focuses on a subset of platform-enabled crimes—those in which a social media …

Toward Permanent Peace And Stability In Artsakh, George Yacoubain

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

The Failure To Grapple With Racial Capitalism In European Constitutionalism, Jeffrey Miller

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Since the 1980s prominent scholars of European legal integration have used the example of U.S. constitutionalism to promote a federal vision for the European Community. These scholars, drawing lessons from developments across the Atlantic, concluded that the U.S. Supreme Court had played a key role in fostering national integration and market liberalization. They foresaw the possibility for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to be a catalyst for a similar federal and constitutional outcome in Europe. The present contribution argues that the scholars who constructed today’s dominant European constitutional paradigm underemphasized key aspects of the U.S. constitutional experience, including judgments …

Worth The Effort?: Assessing The Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Diane Orentlicher

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Every international and hybrid war crimes court has attracted a measure of controversy, but none more than the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). While myriad aspects of the ECCC’s record are crucial to its legacy, this article explores one question of overarching importance: whether its performance has justified a key risk the UN assumed when it agreed to support the court — that case selection would be improperly influenced by the Cambodian government. More particularly, it assesses the ECCC’s performance in light of two questions: How well have safeguards against political interference worked? Are survivors of Khmer …

Child-Friendly Justice Behind Bars: A Comparative Analysis Of The Protection Mechanisms Of The Rights Of Arrested Children In The Practice Of The Working Group On Arbitrary Detention And Of The European And Inter-American Courts Of Human Rights, Áquila Mazzinghy

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice For Victims Of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Claudia Martin, Susana Sácouto, Susana Sacouto

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Despite persistent impunity for conflict-related sexual violence, there have been a limited number of significant cases holding perpetrators accountable within national justice systems. One of these cases is the Sepur Zarco case, in which two former military members were accused of committing acts of sexual violence, sexual slavery and domestic slavery near a military outpost in Sepur Zarco during the civil war in Guatemala. In a landmark verdict issued in February 2016, a Guatemalan court convicted the two accused, marking the first time a Guatemalan court has convicted former military members for acts of sexual violence committed in the context …

Lawyering Peace: Infusing Accountability Into The Peace Negotiations Process, Paul Williams

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

On August 28, 2019, Dr. Paul R. Williams delivered the Bruce J. Klatsky Endowed Lecture on Human Rights at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. This article, based on his lecture, examines how justice has repeatedly found a foothold in peace processes, and how the international community can continue to work towards embedding accountability into peace processes to achieve durable peace. This article traces the arc of accountability in peace processes, from an era of impunity and a period of stepping stones moments, to today’s uncertain moment for post-conflict accountability and justice mechanisms. The author argues that comprehensive transitional …

Documentation For Accountability, Paul Williams, Jessica Levy

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The cost of armed conflict is borne not only in the stark number of lives lost, but also in the grave atrocity crimes committed during these periods. Despite the legal protections set forth in the Geneva Conventions and other foundational documents of international humanitarian law, perpetrators continue to commit crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. Documenting these atrocity crimes has become a crucial step in efforts to secure justice for victims and survivors of these atrocities. To support the expanding field of human rights documentation, the international community must redouble its efforts to ensure that civil society actors engaged …

Sexual Exploitation And Abuse In Conflict: An International Crime?, Clare Brown

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

October 1, 2019 Broadcast: 'The Rohingya Genocide', Rebecca Hamilton

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Talking Foreign Policy: Responding To Rogue States, Paul Williams, Todd F. Buchwald, James Johnson, Michael P. Scharf, Milena Sterio

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

Dominic Ongwen And The Rotten Social Background Defense: The Criminal Culpability Of Child Soldiers Turned War Criminals, Raphael Lorenzo Aguiling Pangalangan

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Peace Vs. Justice Debate And The Syrian Crisis, Paul Williams, Lisa Dicker, C. Danae Paterson

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

Peace negotiators often face the difficult decision of whether to pursue peace at the potential cost of achieving justice, or to pursue justice at the potential cost of achieving near term peace. There are abiding ethical and moral debates surrounding this tension between peace and justice. In Syria—where the death toll has exceeded 470,000, 11 million have been displaced, and there are over 14,000 documented cases of torture to the point of death—the peace versus justice debate is a living dilemma with which negotiators are currently grappling. This article strives to examine a timely facet of this multidimensional puzzle: how …

Arbitrary Detention? The Immigration Detention Bed Quota, Anita Sinha

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

When President Obama took office in 2009, Congress through appropriations linked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) funding to “maintaining” 33,400 immigration detention beds a day. This provision, what this Article refers to as the bed quota, remains in effect, except now the mandate is 34,000 beds a day. Since 2009, DHS detentions of non-citizens have gone up by nearly 25 percent. To accommodate for this significant spike over a relatively short period of time, the federal government has relied considerably on private prison corporations to build and operate immigration detention facilities.

This Article takes a comprehensive look at …

The Transformative Influence Of International Law And Practice On The Death Penalty In The United States, Richard Wilson

Contributions to Books

No region of the world has been more vocal and persistent in its opposition to U.S. death penalty practice than Europe, which has itself become a death penalty-free zone. The chapter will examine the actions taken by European legislative and judicial bodies against U.S. practice of the death penalty, as well as those of the other regional treaty bodies, with particular attention to the Inter-American human rights system, in which the U.S. reluctantly participates. It then will examine U.S. interactions with its treaty partners in the area of extradition, where death penalty policy is acted out in the exchanges of …

State-Enabled Crimes, Rebecca Hamilton

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

International crimes are committed by individuals, but many – from genocide in Rwanda to torture at Abu Ghraib – would not have occurred without the integral role played by the State. This dual contribution, of individual and State, is intrinsic to the commission of what I term “State-Enabled Crimes.” Viewing international adjudication through the rubric of State-Enabled Crimes highlights a feature of the international judicial architecture that is typically taken for granted: its bifurcated structure. Notwithstanding the deep interrelationship between individual and State in the commission of State-Enabled Crimes, the international legal system adjudicates the responsibility of each under two …