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Inefficient Customs In International Law, Eugene Kontorovich

William & Mary Law Review

This Article explores whether and when rules of customary international law (CIL) can be expected to be efficient. Customary rules are often regarded as desirable because in certain circumstances, they promote the welfare of the group in which they arise. Unless these circumstances apply among states, the efficiency arguments for the legalization of customary norms do not apply. The Article takes as its central observation the divergent treatment of custom in domestic and international law. In international law, if a customary behavior of states can be identified, it is automatically elevated to the status of legal obligation without any independent …

Historical Background: Evolution Of The International Criminal Law, Individual Criminal Accountability And The Idea Of A Permanent International Court, Cenap Cakmak

Human Rights & Human Welfare

© Cenap Cakmak. All rights reserved.

This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or hard copy provided it is not modified in any way, the rights of the author not infringed, and the paper is not quoted or cited without express permission of the author. The editors cannot guarantee a stable URL for any paper posted here, nor will they be responsible for notifying others if the URL is changed or the paper is taken off the site. Electronic copies of this paper may not be posted on any other website without express permission of the author.

Beyond Bankovic: Extraterritorial Application Of The European Convention On Human Rights, Federico Sperotto

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The obligations set forth in the international and regional instruments on human rights are considered as having a strictly territorial scope. States parties have the duty to guarantee the rights recognized in the treaties to all individuals within their territories. The territorial reach of these obligations is expanding by way of interpretation. In its decision on Bankovic, the European Court reduced the impact of this international trend toward a progressive enlargement of the protection granted by human rights treaties, affirming those attacks conducted by NATO against Yugoslavia in 1999 fell out of the extraterritorial reach of the European Convention. After …

International Private Rights Of Action: A Cost-Benefit Framework, Philip M. Moremen

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article seeks to chart a different course, by developing and applying an analytical cost-benefit framework, for assessing the costs and benefits of PRAs to enforce international law before an international forum. This framework is drawn from various literatures. For example, there is much to be learned about the potential benefits and costs of PRAs in the international setting from the rich literature comparing domestic PRAs with domestic regulation in the American context. More broadly, the article employs a comparative institutional approach, using a comparison between PRAs and regulatory enforcement mechanisms to shed light on their respective costs and benefits. …

Richard Posner Meets Reb Chaim Of Brisk: A Comparative Study In The Founding Of Intellectual Legal Movements, Samuel J. Levine

San Diego International Law Journal

This Essay aims to examine some of the common elements of law and economics and the Brisker method that have contributed to their success as intellectual movements. Toward that end, the Essay compares the founding principles of these movements, exploring similarities in their essential characteristics. Part I presents and analyzes representative examples of the conceptual approach underlying each of these methods. Drawing on these and other examples of each method, Part II observes that the success of the methods stems in part from their common reliance on historical antecedents as well as their emphasis on conceptual frameworks broadly applicable within …

Bollywood Is Coming! Copyright And Film Industry Issues Regarding International Film Co-Productions Involving India, Timm Neu

San Diego International Law Journal

These developments and mutual correlating interests underscore the rising trend in the number of international co-productions and cinematographic co-operations with India. Still, the practice of movie making in India differs in many ways from industry structures in the U.S. or Germany, which shall be analyzed as potential co-production partners. Contractual relations, industry regulations, involved parties, and the legal rules are so distinct, that a comparative view from a producer's perspective shall bring into light the frameworks and copyright issues of international film co-productions involving India.

U.S. Asylum Law Out Of Sync With International Obligations: Real Id Act, Victor P. White

San Diego International Law Journal

Focusing on defensive asylum applications, this Comment examines whether certain provisions of REAL ID violate due process and international obligations to asylum seekers. Part I situates REAL ID within the historical context of nearly a decade of restrictive U.S. immigration law and over two decades of Executive Orders aimed at deterring a mass exodus of asylum seekers from reaching U.S. shores. Part II provides an overview of the U.S. asylum system and argues that the system produces inconsistent and sometimes arbitrary results, indicating that segments of the system do not satisfy international obligations. Part III outlines three provisions of REAL …

Full Volume 81: International Law Challenges: Homeland Security And Combating Terrorism

International Law Studies

No abstract provided.

Labor’S Human Rights: A Review Of The Nature And Status Of Core Labor Rights As Human Rights, Roy J. Adams

Human Rights & Human Welfare

© Roy J. Adams. All rights reserved.

This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or hard copy provided it is not modified in any way, the rights of the author not infringed, and the paper is not quoted or cited without express permission of the author. The editors cannot guarantee a stable URL for any paper posted here, nor will they be responsible for notifying others if the URL is changed or the paper is taken off the site. Electronic copies of this paper may not be posted on any other website without express permission of the author.

Codes, Lawsuits Or International Law: How Should The Multinational Corporation Be Regulated With Respect To Human Rights?, Nancy L. Mensch

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Time To Overturn Turney, Paul A. Lafata

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

U.S. And U.K. Approaches To The War On Terror: The Surveillance Of Religious Worship, Jodie A. Kirschner

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Gabriel H. Teninbaum On The Witnesses: War Crimes And The Promise Of Justice In The Hague By Eric Stover. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 230 Pp., Gabriel H. Teninbaum Esq.

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague by Eric Stover. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 230 pp.

Official Language A, B, Cs: Why The Canadian Experience With Official Languages Does Not Support Arguments To Declare English The Official Language Of The United States, Marla B. Somerstein

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

The World Court's Advisory Function: "Not Legally Well-Founded", David L. Breau

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitutionality Of Wipo’S Broadcasting Treaty: The Originality And Limited Times Requirements Of The Copyright Clause, Adam R. Tarosky

Duke Law & Technology Review

Because the proposed WIPO Broadcasting Treaty extends perpetual copyright-like protections to unoriginal information, its implementation would violate at least two fundamental limitations on Congress’s Copyright Clause power: the originality and "limited times" requirements. But Congress has a trump card--the Commerce Clause. This iBrief argues that to give proper effect to the limitations of the Copyright Clause, Congress should not be allowed to implement copyright-like legislation under the less restrictive Commerce Clause.

Integrating A Human Rights Perspective Into The European Approach To Combating The Trafficking Of Women For Sexual Exploitation, Alexandra Amiel

Buffalo Human Rights Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Forgotten Threat: Private Policing And The State, Elizabeth E. Joh

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

What do Disneyland, the Abu Ghraib U.S. military prison, the Mall ofAmerica, and the Y-12 nuclear security complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee have in common? They have wildly different purposes, but they share a common characteristic as employers of private police. This answer-indicative of the prevalence and numbers of private police today-would have struck the nineteenth -century observer as evidence of a gross failure by the state. Yet that reaction, in turn, would seem odd to us. Vocal support of private police can be found among public police chiefs, lawmakers, and even President Bush.

What kinds of criticisms were once …

Religious Exemptions, Formal Neutrality, And Laïcité, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Rights to free exercise in the United States are governed by a doctrine of formal neutrality, which seems to resemble the French doctrine of la'cit6. This resemblance tempts one to conclude that the doctrinal regimes of religious liberty in the United States and France are also essentially the same. Despite their superficial resemblance, however formal neutrality and laĭcité generate regimes of religious liberty that are substantially, even radically, different. Notwithstanding conceptually similar organizing principles, there is a significant difference in the substance of religious liberty in the United States and France owing to very different conceptions of the proper role …

Using Global Themes To Reframe The Bioprospecting Debate, Jonathan B. Warner

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The objective of this Note is to use global themes and perspectives to aid in reframing the bioprospecting debate. The current state of this debate, its problems, and proposed solutions are reviewed. In looking at the impact of local responses to globalization on bioprospecting themes, I propose that more internationally competitive laws could allow an escape from some of the undesired effects of bioprospecting, while promoting more desired effects. I also suggest, independently, that undesired effects could be avoided and desired effects promoted through methods that seek to recognize the global identity of concerned citizens.

Religious Expression And Symbolism In The American Constitutional Tradition: Government Neutrality, But Not Indifference, Daniel O. Conkle

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

In this article, I describe and analyze three principles of First Amendment doctrine. First, the Establishment Clause generally forbids governmental expression that has the purpose or effect of promoting or endorsing religion. Second, and conversely, private religious expression is broadly defined and is strongly protected by the Free Speech Clause. Third, as an implicit exception to the first principle, the government itself is sometimes permitted to engage in expression that seemingly does promote and endorse religion, but only when the expression is noncoercive, nonsectarian, and embedded within (or at least in harmony with) longstanding historical tradition. Comparing these three principles …

Broadening Executive Power In The Wake Of Avena: An American Interpretation Of Pacta Sunt Servanda, Houston A. Stokes

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Litigating Child Recruitment Before The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Noah B. Novogrodsky

San Diego International Law Journal

In May 2004, the Special Court for Sierra Leone issued a landmark decision finding that an individual may be held criminally responsible for the offense of recruiting child soldiers into armed conflict. As a hybrid tribunal established by the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone to try those who "bear the greatest responsibility" for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the country's civil war after November 1996, the Special Court is the first international criminal body to indict a person for the crime of recruiting and employing children in war. The decision in the case of …

Brief Of The University Of Toronto International Human Rights Clinic As Amicus Curiae To The Special Court For Sierra Leone, Noah B. Novogrodsky

San Diego International Law Journal

This brief addresses three questions: 1) the illegality of recruiting child soldiers into armed conflict; 2) the application of penal sanctions in international humanitarian law; and 3) the proper application of the principle of nullum crimen sine lege. Part I of our argument will establish that the recruitment of children into armed conflict is and was unquestionably a violation of international humanitarian law at the time the alleged offences took place. Part II will explain when international law permits prosecution of violations of international humanitarian law irrespective of whether penal sanctions are attached. Amici conclude that such prosecutions are permitted …

Trips: With A Painful Birth, Uncertain Health, And A Host Of Issues In China, Where Lies Its Future, Allan Segal

San Diego International Law Journal

In recent decades, the United States and other western nations have used pragmatic and theoretical reasons to justify a strong, global intellectual property ("IP") regime. From a practical perspective, economically mature nations clearly have a direct, vested interest in preventing the piracy of patented goods and ensuring that their domestic agendas maximize financial protection for inventions or creations. Nevertheless, the supranational disregard of patent protection and IP piracy has a financial impact on numerous companies, as well as the taxpaying citizens, in developed countries. These disparate foundations for basic IP rights result in a haphazard theoretical grounding to the Agreement …

Christiane Wilke On Global Justice Or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice At The Crossroads By Hans Köchler. New York: Springer, 2003., Christiane Wilke

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Global Justice or Global Revenge? International Criminal Justice at the Crossroads by Hans Köchler. New York: Springer, 2003.

Public Trust And Political Legitimacy: Conflict Of Interests And The Role Of The Parliament's Speaker In Israel And Europe, Lior Zemer, Eyal Kimel, Sharon Pardo

San Diego International Law Journal

In its six sections, this Article examines the role of Speakers, the nexus between their many duties and powers, possible points of conflict among their different duties, as well as the connection between their official duties and personal interests. This Article takes the role of the Speaker of the Israeli Parliament as its organizing principle. Sections Two and Three discuss the constitutional underpinnings of conflicts of interest and the way in which these apply to Members of the Knesset. Section Four takes the Israeli Speaker as a test case and explores in greater details the many flaws and conflicts inherent …

The Clear And Present Danger Test In Anglo-American And European Law, David G. Barnum

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will examine the role that the danger test has played in the decisions of American courts and, more recently, in the decisions of British courts and the enforcement organs of the European Convention. Part I will briefly trace the immediate Anglo-American constitutional background from which the danger test emerged. It particular, it will examine the way in which the common law offense of seditious libel was defined by British judges and judicial commentators in the late nineteenth century. Part II will focus on the evolution in American law of judicial attempts to articulate both a "content-based" and an …

The Obligation To Use Force To Stop Acts Of Genocide: An Overview Of Legal Precedents, Customary Norms, And State Responsibility, Joshua M. Kagan

San Diego International Law Journal

Though the Genocide Convention was created to "liberate mankind from [the] odious scourge" of genocide, the dreams of its drafters have still not come to fruition. The commission of genocide, widely considered the most appalling of all crimes, did not end with the signing and ratification of the Convention in 1948. Genocide continues in the world today. While its sentiments were noble and its aims commendable, the Genocide Convention as it is interpreted and applied today is insufficient to stop the commission of genocide in the world. In order to rid the world of this crime, a new interpretation of …

The Emergence Of Positive Obligations In Bilateral Investment Treaties, Joshua Robbins

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.