Digital Commons Network^™

Weapons Of Mass Destruction & Public International Law, Michael Donlan

New England Journal of Public Policy

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) into the hands of rogue dictators and terrorists has brought a sea change in strategic international relations, and is accelerating the necessity of public international law to protect humanity. Traditional balances of power have little force left to deter WMD. Major powers must seriously revamp and proactively exploit public international law, and, to that end, bolster multilateral institutions to marshal an action plan to leash this unacceptable risk. Leadership is needed on three levels: 1) promote a new mission for public international law to address WMD; 2) muster a broad-based coalition of …

A Comparison Analysis Between The Standards Used In The Dneiper River Basin Clean-Up And European Union Legislation, Hannah H. Naumoff-Dulski

ExpressO

A recent case study involved the clean-up efforts of the Dnieper River Basin by three countries, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. The objective of the study was to provide a method for the identification, assessment, and prioritization of the most significant sources of pollution based on their impacts and characteristics. Herein, the standards employed in the Dnieper case study are comparatively analyzed against the relevant EU directives. The purpose in doing so was to determine if the standards employed in this project could serve as a benchmark for the necessary environmental regulations that would be required if these three countries were …

David P. Forsythe On Non-State Actors And Human Rights. Edited By Philip Alston. Oxford, Uk: Oxford University Press, 2005. 350pp., David P. Forsythe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

No abstract provided.

Handcuffed Hegemony: International Restraint In Unbalanced Systems, Mark E. Schaefer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This work contends that the current systemic view of hegemonic systems is incorrect. On one hand hegemonic actors are conceptualized as omnipotent actors that can mold the system to best reflect its goals. Still, others illustrate that such unipolar systems can never be achieved, or at best exist for a short time as other powers move to rebalance the international system. Mearsheimer illustrates a more realistic approach, that unbalanced multipolar systems can exist, in which a larger state is present in a traditional multipolar system, not a traditional vertical authority structure. He contends that such a system is transient, for …

Book Review: Transitional Justice Comes Of Age: Enduring Lessons And Challenges, Chandra Lekha Sriram

Faculty Scholarship

This review article considers recent developments in transitional justice through an examination of two recent works on transitional justice, one dealing with "reparative" justice and the other seeking to offer an historical perspective on transitional justice generally. Through a consideration of the virtues and vices of each volume, the article also discusses some lessons learned and continuing challenges from a field of study and practice that is, at about a quarter-century, relatively young but maturing.

World News, Blase Kornacki, Abby Okrent, Jennifer Rohlender, Mauro Zinner

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (“FAO”) announced that there is an increased risk of the bird flu spread- ing to North Africa and East Africa. The FAO warns that East Africa in particular will have difficulties containing the flu. The close proximity between humans and animals in East Africa creates an ideal situation for spreading the flu to people. A number of African countries have already responded to predictions of avian flu. For instance, Congo-Brazzaville banned poultry imports. South Africa’s Department of Health placed an urgent request for the flu medicine Tamiflu to be approved for use in the …

Water Privatization And Obstacles To Achieving Millennium Development Goal Seven's Targets For Sustainable Drinking Water, Maria Vanko

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

Militant uprisings in Cochabamaba, Bolivia in 1999 occurred after the private water provider implemented a 300 percent fee increase. In 2003, tariffs increased 700 percent while the water operator’s negligence led to cholera outbreaks in West Manila, Philippines. Increased prices make safe water unaffordable for vulnerable populations, forcing families to make trade-offs between water, schooling, food, and healthcare. Private industry is also less likely to participate in areas where recovery of their investment is riskier.

The Anti-Prostitution Pledge: Limiting Speech And Development, Rachel Moshman

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 (“Global AIDS Act” or “GAA”) places two limitations on organizations that are eligible to receive funding under this Act. First, funding may not be used to “promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking.” Second, any organization that receives funding must have a “policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking . . .” The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2003 (“TVPA”) has similar requirements. It states that no funding can be made available to “promote, support, or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution,” and that any organization receiving funding …

Keeping Cell Phones Affordable: Regulating The Private Sector's Contribution To Development, Rachel Moshman

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

One of the targets of Millennium Development Goal Eight, “Develop a Global Partnership for Development,” is to cooperate with the private sector to “make available the benefits of new technologies – especially information and communications technologies.” International development professionals, such as Jeffrey Sachs, have listed numerous benefits that can be brought to the developing world through cell phone technology, including communicating with long-distance family members, increasing communication between different villages, finding employment opportunities, having more options in emergency situations, allowing fisherman and farmers to check market prices before leaving the village, and allowing quick and easy transfer of funds. Cell …

The Millennium Development Goals And Hiv/Aids, J.C. Sylvan

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

In the countries hardest hit by the epidemic, the problem is compounded by the reality that many national health care systems, which will bear the burden of improving available treatments, are themselves in crisis. In years past, many developing countries, encouraged by international financial institutions and trusting in privatization, cut their health care budgets. As a result, health care has been chronically under-funded in many of these countries. According to a recent report by the UN Millennium Project, “[p]overty, misplaced priorities, and years of externally imposed restrictions on social spending have left health services for over two billion people dysfunctional, …

Conditional Cash Transfers: Progress Towards The Millennium Development Goals, Blase Kornacki

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

Conditional cash transfer programs are transforming Latin America’s approach to social welfare. CCTs provide money to families living in extreme poverty in exchange for the commitment to invest in human capital. The programs aim at replacing the “traditional supply-side mechanisms” with “demand-side interventions to directly support beneficiaries.” Traditional mechanisms battled poverty with subsidies or direct investments in public goods, whereas the new approach channels support directly to the people and promotes investment in human capital, using market approaches as an incentive to use social services such as primary and secondary education and local health centers.

Protecting Children And Their Mothers: The Millennium Development Goals Push Lofty Heath Targets, Frank Pigott

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report 2005 (“UN report”) shows that child mortality is strongly related to poverty level, as poor countries have less access to advances in child survival treatments than wealthier countries. Five diseases are responsible for fifty percent of all deaths of children under five – pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, and AIDS. The data suggests that nutrition is the most important preventative measure, because malnutrition weakens the immune system. According to the UN report, safe water, better sanitation, education, and higher income levels can also increase a child’s life expectancy. Other measures to reduce child mortality …

Establishing Sound Chemicals Management A Prerequisite For Achieving The Millennium Development Goals, Kelly Rain

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

Modern society could not maintain its current standard of living without chemicals; however, sound chemicals management is necessary to prevent harm to human health and the environment. The United Nations Environment Programme – along with governments, relevant intergovernmental groups, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders – has begun the process of establishing a Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (“SAICM”). The importance of this process is far-reaching, demonstrated by the fact that hazardous chemicals hinder the achievement of development targets, such as the Millennium Development Goals (“MDGs”).

Access To Justice And The Right To Adequate Food: Implementing Millennium Development Goal One, Marc J. Cohen, Mary Ashby Brown

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

The first MDG adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000 is to “eradicate extreme poverty and hunger,” with a target of “[reducing] by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.” The 1996 World Food Summit (“WFS”) had similarly agreed on “reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.”

The Rule Of (Administrative) Law In International Law, David Dyzenhaus

Law and Contemporary Problems

No abstract provided.

Making Law Work: Environmental Compliance & Sustainable Development By Durwood Zaelke, Donald Kaniaru, And Eva Kružíková Cameron May Ltd., 2005, Cari Shiffman

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

The compilation, produced by the Secretariat of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (“INECE”), along with the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and the Program on Governance for Sustainable Development at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, at the University of California in Santa Barbara, is a two volume collection of literature by both academics and practitioners that details the strengths and weaknesses of environmental compliance within legal systems. Editors Durwood Zaelke, Director of the INECE Secretariat, Donald Kaniaru, Managing Partner of Kaniaru & Kaniaru Advocates in Nairobi, Kenya, and Eva Kružíková, co- founder and …

Promoting Gender Equality Through Global Education Targets- The Third Millennium Development Goal, Nikka Thakker

PEEL Alumni Scholarship

Achieving this goal by 2015 seems optimistic; the first half of the goal was not fulfilled since a gender gap still exists in primary and secondary education. In a report released in 2003, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (“UNICEF”) urged that “accelerated action” must be taken to get more girls into school over the next two years, otherwise other MDGs, including goals to reduce poverty and improve the human condition, would also not be realized. By keeping the girls away from the classroom, they will lack the knowledge necessary, for example, to keep themselves out of poverty and …

Spaceship Sheriffs And Cosmonaut Cops, Lee Seshagiri

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper examines some of the current legal regimes applicable to criminal law in outer space and offers insights into options for future legal developments in the cosmos. It begins by setting out the context for law enforcement in outer space, emphasizing the commercial nature of future space exploration and the need for laws and law enforcement in that environment. Next, various methods for assigning legal jurisdiction in space are examined, and the underlying justifications for the exercise of such jurisdiction are considered. The paper goes on to explore preventative approaches to space crime, highlighting the usefulness of such approaches …

Seen And Not Heard?: Children's Objections Under The Hague Convention On International Child Abduction, Anastacia M. Greene

University of Miami International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Wto Constitution: Tertiary Rules For Intertwined Elephants, Joel P. Trachtman

ExpressO

Constitutions have many dimensions. These dimensions include at least the following:

• an economic constitution in the sense of a set of rules for exchange of value and authority,

• an interfunctional constitution that allows for the integration of various social values,

• a political constitution that reflects the cultural and democratic integrity of a group of people,

• a legal and judicial constitution that provides rules for the making of other rules, and for determining supremacy and the scope of judicial application of rules,

• a human rights constitution that limits the sphere of governmental authority, and

• a …

"Tools For Success": The Trips Agreement And The Human Right To Essential Medicines, Melissa Mcclellan

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

After Argentina, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Argentina recently completed the largest sovereign bond restructuring in history. As soon as the government announced the results of its $100 billion tender in March 2005, editorial pages worldwide heralded a new era for sovereign debt, for the emerging markets and, occasionally, for international finance. Their views on Argentina's lessons were as disparate as they were definite. Some said the exchange would close the markets to middle-income countries. To others, it reaffirmed the markets' resilience. Some claimed it proved the need for statutory sovereign bankruptcy. Others said it clearly discredited the idea. Most spoke too soon. The deal took months …

The Politics Of The Evolution Of Global Tobacco Control: The Formation And Functioning Of The Framework Convention On Tobacco Control (Fctc), Hadii M. Mamudu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The study investigates the politics behind the evolution of tobacco as a global issue leading to adoption of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in May 2003. The study relies on liberal-constructivist perspective to analyze the transformation of tobacco control between 1960 and 2003. The study uses a combination of elite interview and content analysis. It found that the presence of an international organization with constitutional powers in tobacco control, WHO and the diffusion and transfer of knowledge, information, and ideas about tobacco use and tobacco control contributed to the emergence of tobacco control as a global phenomenon and …

A Foundation For International Taxation: The Institutional Competence Of Nations, Eric T. Laity

ExpressO

This Article proposes a conceptual foundation for the field of international tax law. The Article refers to this foundation as the institutional competence of nations in global economic development. A nation’s institutional competence is its discretion to make decisions in pursuit of our collective goal of global economic development, discretion that is subject to a number of standards and limitations.

The Article constructs the institutional competence of nations in global economic development from institutional economics, simple game theory, and the literature on social norms. The Article expresses the institutional competence of nations through standards and limitations that reduce the abuse …

Kathleen J. Hancock On Breaking Silence, The Case That Changed The Face Of Human Rights By Richard Alan White. Washington, Dc: Georgetown University Press, 2004. 320pp., Kathleen J. Hancock

Human Rights & Human Welfare

No abstract provided.

Foreign Law And The U.S. Constitution, Kenneth Anderson

Popular Media

The use of foreign law and unratified international treaty law by U.S. courts in U.S. constitutional adjudication has emerged as a major debate among justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, with Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for a majority approving the practice in the March 2005 decision of Roper v. Simmons, and Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer undertaking an unusual public discussion of the practice in January 2005 at American University law school. This article examines the arguments made by Justices Kennedy, Scalia, and Breyer for and against the practice, setting them in the broader context of constitutional theory. It …

International Space Law In Transformation: Some Observations, Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

2005 Cardozo Life (Summer), Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Life Magazine

Table of Contents:

Around Campus, page 3

Faculty Briefs, page 16

God vs. The Gavel, page 24

An Interview with Robert Schwartz ’92, page 26

Adieu J.D.: A Tribute to Jacques Derrida, page 30

Clerking at the ICTY, page 36

Effecting Change Globally: Cardozo Alumni Working in the International Arena, page 40

Alumni News, page 46

Foreign Law And The U.S. Constitution, Kenneth Anderson

Kenneth Anderson

A Brief Essay On The Importance Of Time In International Conventions On Intellectual Property Rights, Vincenzo Vinciguerra

ExpressO

The paper is a philosophical essay on the manner in which time is conceived and manipulated in four international treaties, namely the Paris Convention, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Madrid Agreement/Protocol, and the Berne Convention. In particular, the paper discusses the competing concepts of time as linear or circular, and how the treaties sometimes displace a linear concept of time in order to achieve specific goals.