Digital Commons Network^™

The Duty Of States To Assist Other States In Need: Ethics, Human Rights, And International Law, Lawrence O. Gostin, Robert Archer

O'Neill Institute Papers

This article deals with a foreign policy question of extraordinary importance: What responsibilities do States have to provide economic and technical assistance to other states that have high levels of need affecting the health and life of their citizens? The question is important for a variety of reasons. There exist massive inequalities in health globally, with the result that poorer countries shoulder a disproportionate burden of disease and premature death. While poor countries have by far the greatest ongoing health needs, they also have the least capacity to meet those needs. In addition to the pervasive and debilitating effects of …

Myanmarese Refugees In Thailand: The Need For Effective Protection, Buhm Suk Baek, Gauri Subramanium

Cornell Law School J.S.D. Student Research Papers

This paper deals with the Thai government's policy on refugees with a special focus on refugees from Myanmar. It is designed to give suggestions to international human rights NGOs working in the Thai-Myanmar border areas for the protection of the human rights of Myanmarese refugees. Most international human rights NGOs in this region are lobbying for the Thai government to ratify the Refugee Convention or at the very least, take active steps towards the protection of refugees under customary international law.

This paper is, however, concerned by these NGOs’ reliance on the ratification of the Convention as a solution to …

Presidential Authority And The War On Terror, Joseph W. Dellapenna

Working Paper Series

Immediately after the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush claimed, among other powers, the power to launch preemptive wars on his own authority; the power to disregard the laws of war pertaining to occupied lands; the power to define the status and treatment of persons detained as “enemy combatants” in the war on terror; and the power to authorize the National Security Agency to undertake electronic surveillance in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. With the exception of the power to launch a preemptive war on his own authority (for which he …

Addressing The Global Tragedy Of Needless Pain: Rethinking The United Nations Single Convention On Narcotic Drugs, Allyn L. Taylor

O'Neill Institute Papers

The lack of medical availability of effective pain medication is an enduring and expanding global health calamity. Despite important medical advances, pain remains severely under-treated worldwide, particularly in developing countries. This article contributes to the discussion of this global health crisis by considering international legal and institutional mechanisms to promote wider accessibility to critical narcotic drugs for pain relief.

Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? Why Not Ask Charlie Wilson... Or George Bush?, C. Peter Erlinder

C. Peter Erlinder

No abstract provided.

Depoliticizing Individual Criminal Responsibility, Bartram Brown

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Intent-To-Benefit: Individually Enforceable Rights Under International Treaties, Sital Kalantry

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Citizens of foreign countries are increasingly using international treaties to assert claims against Federal and state governments. As a result, U.S. courts are being asked to determine whether treaties provide litigants with individually enforceable rights. Although courts have no consistent approach to determining whether a treaty gives rise to individually enforceable rights, they often apply the textualist methodology derived from statutory interpretation. However, instead of using textual theories of statutory interpretation, I argue that courts should use intentionalist theories developed from contract interpretation in determining individually enforceable rights under treaties. Two positive arguments and one negative argument support my approach. …

The Ethics Of Legal Process Outsourcing To India—Is The Practice Of Law A "Noble Profession," Or Is It Just Another Business?, Aaron R. Harmon

Aaron R. Harmon

Published as “The Ethics of Legal Process Outsourcing—Is the Practice of Law a ‘Noble Profession,’ or is it Just Another Business?” 13 U. of Fl. J. Tech. L. & Pol’y 41 (June 2008). In this Article, I analyze the emergence of LPO in India, as well as the ethical considerations raised for firms that offshore legal work. I focus on India, where the industry has evolved most rapidly, for two reasons. First, as a result of British colonization, many Indian workers speak English fluently, thereby facilitating an East-West synergy more easily than other countries. Second, India utilizes a common law …

The Private Military Company—Unravelling The Theoretical, Legal & Regulatory Mosaic, Jackson N. Maogoto, Benedict Sheehy

Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto

As an undeclared arm of the state, the PMC is politically expedient having proved to be highly advantageous in certain circumstances when states wish to engage in surreptitious or unpopular violence, yet easy to condemn when states need to gather political capital. In other words, the PMC has become an integral actor in the system of governance at both national and international levels. Such corporations, at least at one level, represent the evolution, globalization, and corporatization of the age-old mercenary trade. The worry, of course, is that they operate without the public scrutiny appropriate for military actors. Indeed, the matter …

Water Is Security, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Reasonable and equitable water resource decision-making is at the core of good governance around the world. Sustained water collaboration is an antidote to foreign relations disintegration. Lack of water quality and quantity policies can lead to water insecurity for everyone, yet bureaucratic obstacles such as inertia and corruption must be averted in altering water governance schemes. There are multiple ways to lower transaction costs and strive for optimal water use. Several ingredients of good water governance include: (1) broad participation through the entire decision-making process; (2) transparent flow of information; (3) equitable opportunities to increase well-being; (4) accountability from governments, …

A Climate Of Extremes: Transboundary Conflict Resolution, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This Article examines evolving climate change policy. In April 2007 Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency clarified that the EPA has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. This Supreme Court ruling coincided with the United Nations Security Council's decision to put climate change on its agenda. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that anthropogenic climate change has impacted the natural world and human societies. Scientific and governmental consensus has coalesced that multilateral climate mitigation and adaptation must be implemented. International institutions, governments, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and civil society can achieve multilateral greenhouse gas mitigation and climate adaptation.

Dhimmitude And Disarmament, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

Under shari'a law, non-Muslims, known as dhimmi, have been forbidden to possess arms, and to defend themselves from attacks by Muslims. The disarmament is one aspect of the pervasive civil inferiority of non-Muslims, a status known as dhimmitude. This Essay examines the historical effects of the shari'a disarmament, based on three books by Bat Ye'or, the world's leading scholar of dhimmitude. As Ye'or details, the disarmament had catastrophic consequences, extending far beyond the direct loss of the dhimmi's ability to defend themselves. The essay concludes by observing how pretend gun-free zones on college campuses turn the adults there into 21st …

Poisoned Milk And The Poisoning Of Democracy: Some Cautions About China Trade And Taiwan Sovereignty, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

This Paper examines some of the benefits and dangers of Taiwan's deepening economic ties to China.

In brief, the expansion of cross-Strait economic relations has benefited Taiwan economically, but may pose serious dangers to Taiwan's democratic sovereignty. China's rising Comprehensive National Power - which aims to suppress Taiwan's sovereignty and self-government - has been significantly enhanced by investment from Taiwan itself. China's trade policies are directed for political purposes, particularly for drawing the people of Taiwan into a subordinate relationship with the Chinese dictatorship.

China's strategy has already succeeded in imposing self-censorship on many Taiwanese voices, including many businesses and …

Liability For Terrorism In American Courts: Aiding-And-Abetting Liability Under The Fsia State-Sponsor Of Terrorism Exception And The Alien Tort Statute, Chad G. Marzen

Chad G. Marzen

The issue of liability for terrorism and supporting terrorism in American domestic courts is one of the most active issues of current judicial decisionmaking in the area of foreign affairs. Through the state-sponsored terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the Alien Tort Statute, liability extends to foreign governments (in the FSIA context) and to foreign governments, nonstate actors, or nonstate actors acting under color of law (under the ATS) when they provide support to terrorist activities.

In an October 2007 decision, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the Khulumani case held that a defendant is liable …

Of Prophets And Proselytes: Freedom Of Religion And The Conflict Of Rights In International Law, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

The case of proselytism presents a tangle of competing claims: on the one hand, the rights of proselytizers to free exercise of religion and freedom of speech; on the other hand, the rights of targets of proselytism to change their religion, peacefully to have or maintain a particular religious tradition, and to be free from injury to religious feelings. Clashes between these claims of right are today generating acute tensions in relations between States and peoples, a state of affairs starkly illustrated by the recent Danish cartoons controversy. Irrespective of their resolution in any particular domestic legal system, how should …

The Emergence And Structure Of Religious Freedom In International Law Reconsidered, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents a critique of the historical evolution of the right to freedom of religion in international law. In identifying certain conceptual tensions between liberal and value pluralist accounts in the literature, a general theoretical argument is advanced. Beyond standard Enlightenment narratives of individual freedom of conscience, this argument notices a second, more complex narrative of genuine pluralism in the evolving conception of religious freedom in international legal thought. This suggests that there is no simple, but rather a complex mapping of individual toleration in international law and no single path to modernity or to the formation of the …

Suspect Symbols: Value Pluralism As A Theory Of Religious Freedom In International Law, Peter G. Danchin

Faculty Scholarship

The grounds upon which states may limit the freedom to manifest religion or belief are divisive questions in constitutional and international law. The focus of recent inquiry has been on laws which proscribe the wearing of religious symbols in certain aspects of the public sphere, and on the claims more generally to religious and cultural freedom of Muslim minorities in European nation-states. Stepping back from these debates, this Article aims at a more rigorous theoretical treatment of the subject. It asks whether there is a coherent notion of religious freedom in international legal theory and, if not, why not? In …

International Legal Updates, Matthew Solis, Jennifer Jaimes, Rukayya Furo, Ari Levin, Morgan E. Rog, Mahreen Gillani, Alex Cheng

Human Rights Brief

No abstract provided.

El Derecho Humano Al Medio Ambiente: El Caso De Los Pueblos Autóctonos , Rodrigo Dellutri

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

2007 In Iraq: The Surge And Benchmarks - A New Way Forward? , Darin E.W. Johnson

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking The Political Future: An Alternative To The Ethno-Sectarian Division Of Iraq , Paul R. Williams, Matthew T. Simpson

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

La Contribución Del Derecho Humano Internacional A La Protección Ambiental: Integrar Para Mejor Cuidar La Tierra Y La Humanidad, Edson Ferreira De Carvalho

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Improvement With Impunity: Development-Induced Displacement And The Guiding Principle 6(2)(C) Proportionality Test Applied To The Merowe Dam Project In Sudan, Trevor L. Gross

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Prologue, Claudio Grossman

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Claudia Martin, Diego Rodríguez-Pinzón

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Los Derechos De Los Pueblos Indígenas Y La Protección Al Medio Ambiente Dentro Del Sistema Interamericano De Protección De Los Derechos Humanos, Rodrigo Durango Cordero

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Spoiling Movi's River: Towards Recognition Of Persecutory Environmental Harm Within The Meaning Of The Refugee Convention , Carly Marcs

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Christina J. Sheetz, Matthew T. Simpson

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Strategic Water For Iraq: The Need For Planning And Action , Frederick Michael Lorenz

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Iraq's Displaced: Where To Turn? , Roberta Cohen

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.