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Patents And Plants: Rethinking The Role Of International Law In Relation To The Appropriation Of Traditional Knowledge Of The Uses Of Plants (Tkup), Ikechi Mgbeoji
PhD Dissertations
Legal control and ownership of plants and traditional knowledge of the uses of plants (TKUP) is often a vexed issue, particularly at the international level because of the conflicting interests of states or groups of states in the matter. The most widely used form of juridical control of plants and TKUP is the patent system which originated in Europe. This thesis rethinks the role of international law and legal concepts, the major patent systems of the world and international agricultural research institutions as they affect legal ownership and control of plants and TKUP. The analysis is cast in various contexts …
Business And Human Rights In The Context Of Sanctions: A Road To Filling The Governance Gap, Bahareh Jafarian
Business And Human Rights In The Context Of Sanctions: A Road To Filling The Governance Gap, Bahareh Jafarian
LLM Theses
As concerns about the negative impacts of sanctions on the human rights of civilians and the environment increases, it is necessary to reflect upon the lawfulness and legal status of such measures in international law, and their impact on business enterprises and the field of Business and Human Rights (BHR). While current academic literature tends to focus on implementation, enforcement and business compliance with unilateral and multilateral sanctions, the negative impacts of sanctions on non-state actors and resulting human rights violations are overlooked. Specifically, the relationship between sanctions law and the responsibility of businesses to respect human rights and the …
Copla: A Transnational Criminal Court For Latin America & The Caribbean, Robert Currie, Jacob Leon
Copla: A Transnational Criminal Court For Latin America & The Caribbean, Robert Currie, Jacob Leon
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
States in the Latin American and Caribbean regions have long called for the creation of an independent, international court to prosecute members of transnational organized crime gangs. These organizations not only profit from the illicit traffic in drugs, people and cultural property, but are able to corrupt and undermine the domestic legal systems and judiciaries of the affected states. This paper examines the current proposal for the creation of the "Latin American and Caribbean Criminal Court Against Transnational Organized Crime" (COPLA). It reviews the rationale for creating such a court, examines the main pillars of the current proposal, and suggests …
Revisiting Transnational Corporations And Extractive Industries: Climate Justice, Feminism, And State Sovereignty, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This Article explicitly examines the relationship between climate justice, gender, and transnational fossil fuel extractive industries by drawing upon feminist theoretical insights. First, I provide an overview of the differential impacts of climate change on women and briefly review insights from select international legal scholars who have considered gender and climate change. Second, I describe the Philippines climate petition, a novel attempt to seek an investigation into the accountability of transnational fossil fuel companies for climate harms. Third, I examine three sets of issues arising in the Philippines climate petition and draw explicitly upon Karen Knop’s Re/Statements: Feminism and State …
Showing Them How It's Done: Justice Cromwell's International Law Jurisprudence, Robert Currie
Showing Them How It's Done: Justice Cromwell's International Law Jurisprudence, Robert Currie
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
This paper examines the international law judgments authored by Justice Tom Cromwell of the Supreme Court of Canada, focusing on the methodology used in applying treaty law within the Canadian legal context. It concludes that Justice Cromwell's decisions in this area are a model of solid methodology, clarity and attention to fairness to all parties.
The Cycles Of Global Telecommunication Censorship And Surveillance, Jonathon Penney
The Cycles Of Global Telecommunication Censorship And Surveillance, Jonathon Penney
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Internet censorship and surveillance is on the rise globally and cyber-warfare increasing in scope and intensity. To help understand these new threats commentators have grasped at historical analogies often with little regard for historical complexity or international perspective. Unfortunately, helpful new works on telecommunications history have focused primarily on U.S. history with little focus on international developments. There is thus a need for further internationally oriented investigation of telecommunications technologies, and their history. This essay attempts to help fill that void, drawing on case studies wherein global telecommunications technologies have been disrupted or censored — telegram censorship and surveillance, high …
Bio-Cultural Knowledge And The Challenges Of Intellectual Property Rights Regimes For African Development, Ikechi Mgbeoji
Bio-Cultural Knowledge And The Challenges Of Intellectual Property Rights Regimes For African Development, Ikechi Mgbeoji
Dalhousie Law Journal
African states have, since the colonial encounter, been part of the international regimes on intellectual property rights. Formal accession to various treaties and conventions on intellectual property rights instruments should not be mistaken for actual internalization of the policies, structures and norms required for reaping the promised benefits of participation in such regimes. There is ample evidence showing that most African states do not have the requisite structures for fruitful engagement with international intellectual property rights regimes. Until this anomaly is rectified, African states' engagement with international intellectual property regimes will remain structurally flawed and inimical to the human development …
Book Review: Gary Botting, Extradition Between Canada And The United States (Ardsley: Transnational Publishers, 2005), Robert Currie
Book Review: Gary Botting, Extradition Between Canada And The United States (Ardsley: Transnational Publishers, 2005), Robert Currie
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Both domestic and international laws regarding the extradition of fugitive criminal offenders are in a state of flux throughout the world. The current legal landscape reflects tension between the interest of state authorities in promoting “security,” on the one hand, and increasing recognition that human rights obligations are at play, on the other. Gary Botting’s book, Extradition Between Canada and the United States, successfully addresses this tension by way of a detailed examination of what is probably the most integrated extradition partnership outside the European Union.
Communications Disruption And Censorship Under International Law: History Lessons, Jonathon Penney
Communications Disruption And Censorship Under International Law: History Lessons, Jonathon Penney
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
With Internet censorship on the rise around the world, a variety of tools have proliferated to assist Internet users to circumvent such censorship. However, there are few studies examining the implications of censorship circumvention under international law, and its related politics. This paper aims to help fill some of that void, with an examination of case studies wherein global communications technologies have been disrupted or censored — telegram cable cutting and censorship, high frequency radio jamming, and direct broadcast satellite blocking — and how the world community responded to that disruption or censorship through international law and law making. In …
New First Principles? Assessing The Internet’S Challenges To Jurisdiction, Teresa Scassa, Robert Currie
New First Principles? Assessing The Internet’S Challenges To Jurisdiction, Teresa Scassa, Robert Currie
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
The globalized and decentralized Internet has become the new locus for a wide range of human activity, including commerce, crime, communications and cultural production. Activities which were once at the core of domestic jurisdiction have moved onto the Internet, and in doing so, have presented numerous challenges to the ability of states to exercise jurisdiction. In writing about these challenges, some scholars have characterized the Internet as a separate “space” and many refer to state jurisdiction over Internet activities as “extraterritorial.” This article examines these challenges in the context of the overall international law of jurisdiction, rather than focusing on …
Canadian Mining Internationally And The Un Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck
Canadian Mining Internationally And The Un Guiding Principles For Business And Human Rights, Sara Seck
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
Between 2005 and 2011, there was much debate within Canada and at the United Nations over what role home states should play in the regulation and adjudications of human rights harms associated with transnational corporate conduct. In Canada, this debate focused upon concerns associated with global mining, and led to a series of government, opposition and multi-stakeholder reports and proposals. These culminated in 2010 with the appointment of a Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor for the Extractive Sector and the defeat of Bill C-300, an act respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Mining, Oil or Gas in Developing Countries. Meanwhile, …
Internet Access Rights: A Brief History And Intellectual Origins, Jonathon Penney
Internet Access Rights: A Brief History And Intellectual Origins, Jonathon Penney
Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press
If there is anything we have learned from recent protest movements around the world, and the heavy-handed government efforts to block, censor, suspend, and manipulate Internet connectivity, it is that access to the Internet, and its content, is anything but certain, especially when governments feel threatened. Despite these hard truths, the notion that people have a "right" to Internet access gained high-profile international recognition last year. In a report to the United Nations General Assembly in early 2011, Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, held that Internet access should be recognized as a "human right". …
Revisiting The Doctrine Of Intergenerational Equity In Global Environmental Governance, Lynda M. Collins
Revisiting The Doctrine Of Intergenerational Equity In Global Environmental Governance, Lynda M. Collins
Dalhousie Law Journal
In the absence of binding international enforcement mechanisms, global environmental governance must rely on a legal framework that has widespread normative force around the world. In addition, such a framework should be sufficiently detailed and pragmatic to allow for effective implementation, should achieve the goal of environmental protection, and should be reasonable in terms of the level of sacrifice expected of the present generation, particularly in the developing world. Itis arguedthat the comprehensive doctrine ofintergenerational equity is an effective and appropriate legal framework for global environmental governance. The doctrine ofintergenerational equityposits thepresent generation of humans as simultaneously beneficiaries of the …
Tax Discrimination In The Nafta Bloc: The Impact Of Tax And Trade Agreements On The Cross-Border Trade In Services, Catherine Brown
Tax Discrimination In The Nafta Bloc: The Impact Of Tax And Trade Agreements On The Cross-Border Trade In Services, Catherine Brown
Dalhousie Law Journal
This paper considers the impact of international agreements in disciplining tax discrimination affecting cross-bordertrade in services. It addresses three questions. First, how do tax and trade agreements interact in the discipline of tax measures affecting cross-border service providers? Second, does this interaction result in tax discrimination against foreign service providers in the NAFTA bloc? Third, if so, what remedies, if any, are available to cross-border service providers with respect to tax measures that are discnminatory? The paper concludes with illustrative examples that service providers in the NAFTA bloc, depending on the applicable treaty are subject to differing tax treatments, are …
Critique, Culture And Commitment: The Dangerous And Counterproductive Paths Of International Legal Discourse, Geoffrey Hoffman
Critique, Culture And Commitment: The Dangerous And Counterproductive Paths Of International Legal Discourse, Geoffrey Hoffman
Dalhousie Law Journal
In this article, international law is viewed as a social and self-constituting phenomenon As the product of international society's actualization, it contains many biases and prejudices. Given the inherent subjectivity of any system designed to regulate relations between people - and peoples - it is of utmost importance to subject international law to a searching scrutiny of its tendencies to emphasise certain interests, to exalt particular groups and to order society in preconceived ways. This article uncovers the insidious structural biases of international law including those just beneath the surface as well as those that are firmly embedded within the …
Collective Insecurity: The Liberian Crisis, Unilateralism, & Global Order, Chidi Oguamanam
Collective Insecurity: The Liberian Crisis, Unilateralism, & Global Order, Chidi Oguamanam
Dalhousie Law Journal
Recently, a democratically elected president issued an order requiring another President, also in office with, as it were, a democratic mandate, to vacate office. The latter complied and no dissenting voice was raised from anywhere in the rest of the world. The one is George W. Bush of the United States; the other is Charles Taylor of Liberia. This arrangement raises several questions: How is this state of affairs possible in 21st century Africa? How is it that Charles Taylor. a power hungry and known felon, became an elected president of Liberia in the first place, one that left in …
Charterwithout Borders? The Supreme Court Of Canada, Transnational Crime And Constitutional Rights And Freedoms, Robert J. Currie
Charterwithout Borders? The Supreme Court Of Canada, Transnational Crime And Constitutional Rights And Freedoms, Robert J. Currie
Dalhousie Law Journal
The first decades of the Supreme Court of Canada's Charter jurisprudence have coincided roughly with an increase in the extent to which Canada is affected by transnational crime and the nation s consequential participation in inter-state efforts to combat it. The Court itself has remarked on its discrete "jurisprudence on matters involving Canada's international co-operation in criminal investigations and prosecutions." This article examines the Court s adoption of a different approach to Charter analysis in cases involving transnational elements and surveys where the Court has "drawn the line" in terms of Charter application. By way of analyzing jurisprudence on exclusion …
International Royalty And Continental Shelf Limits: Emerging Issues For The Canadian Offshore, Aldo Chircop, Bruce Marchand
International Royalty And Continental Shelf Limits: Emerging Issues For The Canadian Offshore, Aldo Chircop, Bruce Marchand
Dalhousie Law Journal
Article 82 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982, provides a novel obligation in international law that is likely to become operative within the decade. It establishes an international royalty on production from the utilization of non-living resources (such as oil and gas) on the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, but within the outer limit of a coastal state's jurisdiction. Producing states will have an obligation to make payments or contributions in kind that are calculated on the basis of an incremental rate applicable as from the sixth year of production and reaching a …
A Comment On The Complementary Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court: Adding Insult To Injury In Transitional Contexts?, Jennifer J. Llewellyn
A Comment On The Complementary Jurisdiction Of The International Criminal Court: Adding Insult To Injury In Transitional Contexts?, Jennifer J. Llewellyn
Dalhousie Law Journal
The author examines the principle of complementarity on which the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based. Unlike its predecessors, the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the ICC can only take jurisdiction over a case when a state is unwilling or unable to investigate or prosecute. The Court is thus designed to complement the work of national criminal courts. This article assesses whether this admissibility standard will allow the ICC to complement the work of truth commissions like that of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It concludes that the prospect of an …
Seeking Historical Truth: The International Commission Of Inquiry Into The 1932-33 Famine In Ukraine, A J. Hobbins, Daniel Boyer
Seeking Historical Truth: The International Commission Of Inquiry Into The 1932-33 Famine In Ukraine, A J. Hobbins, Daniel Boyer
Dalhousie Law Journal
In the 1980s the WCFU (World Congress of Free Ukrainians) undertook many initiatives to "educate" Western public opinion on the Ukrainian Famine of 1932- 33, claiming that the famine was a Soviet act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. The WCFU sponsored an international commission of enquiry, composed of seven eminent international jurists, and appeared before the commission as plaintiff. The Commission dealt with a number of controversial issues in international law, including the question of whether the charge of genocide could predate the 1948 convention. The Commission deliberations are examined in detail, frequently with the use of unpublished sources …
International Fisheries Management: A Comparative Analysis Of Legal Approaches To Management In The Context Of Polar Fisheries Regimes, Stuart Bruce Kaye
International Fisheries Management: A Comparative Analysis Of Legal Approaches To Management In The Context Of Polar Fisheries Regimes, Stuart Bruce Kaye
PhD Dissertations
This thesis examines the management of marine living resources in international law. The thesis considers the development of the two principal approaches to fisheries management. The first approach is based upon maximising the yield of particular stocks, and is reflected in the content of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It has evolved out of fisheries management theory developed since the 1950s, and focuses upon extracting the maximum harvest of a particular stock while still permitting that stock's biological regeneration. The second approach uses the precautionary principle, and may include management directed at the entire …
States Of Emergency - Moderating Their Effects On Human Rights, Venkat Iyer
States Of Emergency - Moderating Their Effects On Human Rights, Venkat Iyer
Dalhousie Law Journal
There has been a runaway proliferation of emergency regimes worldwide in recent decades. This, coupled with the high incidence of human rights abuses which accompany them, has made states of emergency a matter of increasing concern among human rights policymakers and monitors. The author evaluates the various measures that have been taken by the international community to moderate the effects of emergencies, and outlines possible future strategies to increase the effectiveness of such measures.
Future Directions In International Environmental Law: Precaution, Integration And Non-State Actors, James Cameron
Future Directions In International Environmental Law: Precaution, Integration And Non-State Actors, James Cameron
Dalhousie Law Journal
In this, the Horace E. Read Memorial Lecture for 1995, James Cameron discusses three developments in international environmental law,-the principles of precaution and of integration and the roles of non-state actors. The precautionary principle calls for regulatory intervention to prevent environmental harm even though the risk of damage remains scientifically uncertain. A wide consensus exists in favour of a precautionary approach to environmental management and state practice is sufficient to assert the principle has attained the status of customary international law, but it remains controversial because it demands changes in practice. The principle of integration takes a holistic approach to …
Judicial Jurisdiction In International Cases: The Supreme Court's Unfinished Business, Geneviève Saumier
Judicial Jurisdiction In International Cases: The Supreme Court's Unfinished Business, Geneviève Saumier
Dalhousie Law Journal
While the shortcomings of the common law rules of private international law were being reformed by statute in England, Canadian law, left to judicial development, remained mired in nineteenth-century thinking. A much overdue reassessment was finally undertaken by the Supreme Court earlier this decade. In Morguard Investments Ltd. v. De Savoye and Hunt v. T & N plc the Court recast the common law rules on jurisdiction and the enforcement of foreign judgments to conform with its perception of the "new world order" and Canadian federal structure. It then proceeded to endow these rules with constitutional authority. Although the Court's …
Application Of Ilo Conventions To Hong Kong After 1997, Shin-Ichi Ago
Application Of Ilo Conventions To Hong Kong After 1997, Shin-Ichi Ago
Dalhousie Law Journal
On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong will be returned by Britain to China. The date, established by the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984' is quickly approaching. The economic and political consequences of repossession by China are certainly of vital importance to the people of Hong Kong but the effect of various international legal obligations after 1997 is also a significant issue. In accordance with the Joint Declaration, a Sino-British Joint Liaison Group was established to address this issue.' It was charged with considering what action should be taken by the British and the Chinese governments to ensure the continued application …
International Consequences Of Norway's Decision To Allow The Resumption Of Limited Commercial Whaling, Dylan A. Macleod
International Consequences Of Norway's Decision To Allow The Resumption Of Limited Commercial Whaling, Dylan A. Macleod
Dalhousie Law Journal
In May 1993, Norway announced that it intended to resume limited, controlled commercial whaling. Although the International Whaling Commission (of which Norway is a founding member) voted by an eighteen to six margin to uphold the moratorium on commercial whaling originally established in 1985-86, Norway's decision to resume limited commercial whaling was not illegal. Norway had legally "opted out" of the moratorium by way of the Objections Procedure contained in the International Whaling Convention. Beyond being legal, Norway's decision to resume small-scale harvesting of minke whale stocks was in accordance with the findings of the Scientific Committee of the IWC, …
Effect Of Treaties In Domestic Law: Practice Of The People's Republic Of China, Li Zhaojie
Effect Of Treaties In Domestic Law: Practice Of The People's Republic Of China, Li Zhaojie
Dalhousie Law Journal
During the last decade, the world has witnessed a rapid growth of China's treaty relations with other states and international organizations. Today, almost every aspect of the social life in China, ranging from civil and economic transactions of individual parties to affairs of state is increasingly regulatedby international treaties.1 This situation gives prominence to an important question: what is the effect of treaties in China's domestic legal system?
Identifying A Future Refugee Problem: Hong Kong 1997, Daniel C. Turack
Identifying A Future Refugee Problem: Hong Kong 1997, Daniel C. Turack
Dalhousie Law Journal
On December 19, 1984, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and Premier Zhao Ziyang of the People's Republic of China, formally signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong whereby the status of the British Dependent Territory of Hong Kong will cease to exist. As of July 1, 1997, the Chinese Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) will resume or be restored to sovereignty over the total territory known as Hong Kong.
The Legal Regime Of Enclosed Or Semi-Enclosed Seas: The Particular Case Of The Mediterranean, Paul Gormley
The Legal Regime Of Enclosed Or Semi-Enclosed Seas: The Particular Case Of The Mediterranean, Paul Gormley
Dalhousie Law Journal
The 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention has not only codified the relatively scant corpus of international law relating to the rubrics of enclosed semi-enclosed seas, but it has also given some guidance toward the future evolution of this unique body of sea law. Accordingly the underlying thesis advanced by a number of distinguished authors at a conference - convened by the Inter-University Center in Dubrovnik - is that the Law of the Sea Convention does not represent a definitive or complete corpus of law; rather the general articles will acquire substance from state practice, bilateral agreements between …
The United Nations Decade Of International Law - Insights Into An Asian Perspective Of International Law, Jeremy A. Thomas
The United Nations Decade Of International Law - Insights Into An Asian Perspective Of International Law, Jeremy A. Thomas
Dalhousie Law Journal
On 15th November 1990 the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly completed its deliberations on the Report of the Working Group on the United Nations Decade of International Law (the "Vukas Report"). The Vukas Report sets out the proposed programme of activities of the Decade during the period 1990-92, and represents another important step towards the implementation of resolution 44/23 of 17th November 19891 and the fulfilment of the aspirations of strengthening the international legal order connected with that resolution. On the 19th November 1990 the Vukas Report was formally adopted by the Sixth Committee without a vote. The Decade …