Digital Commons Network^™

The Development Of International Law In Relation To Crimes Against Humanity, Nikki Redelijk

Global Tides

This paper will look at the development of international law in relation to crimes against humanity. First, juridically applied at the Nuremberg Trials, crimes against humanity has historically offered a compelling juxtaposition between naturalist and positivist law. Hence, this paper attempts to shed light on these juxtapositions, as seen by the respective arguments taken up by the Allies and Germany at Nuremberg. Likewise, this paper will illustrate the complexities within the definition itself. Finally, this paper will clarify the differing definitions taken up at the various tribunals following Nuremberg, leading up to the Rome Statute. It is a hope, that …

Restitution For Haiti, Reparations For All: Haiti’S Place In The Global Reparations Movement, Brian Concannon Jr., Kristina Fried, Alexandra V. Filippova

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Haiti’s claim for restitution of the debt coerced by France in exchange for Haiti’s 1804 independence has unique legal advantages that can open the door to broader reparations for the descendants of all people harmed by slavery. But in order to assert the claim, Haiti first needs help reclaiming its democracy from a corrupt, repressive regime propped up by the powerful countries that prospered through slavery and overthrew the Haitian President who dared to assert his country’s legal claim. This article explores Haiti’s Independence Debt, and the fight for restitution of it, in the context of two centuries of continued …

Unleashing The Beast: Confronting Animal Trafficking As Organized Crime In The Americas, Erick J. Wilson

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Wildlife trafficking is a serious yet often overlooked issue across the Americas. This Note examines wildlife trafficking across the Americas, analyzing the legal frameworks and challenges facing countries like the United States, Guatemala, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. Three key obstacles emerge: the lack of recognition of trafficking as organized crime, limited resources for enforcement, and deficient penalties. Though the United States has laws like the Lacey Act to address importation of illegally traded wildlife, weak foreign laws constrain efficacy. Many Latin American nations do not categorize wildlife trafficking as organized crime, despite its intricate parallels with activities like drug …

Operation Nation-Building: How International Humanitarian Law Left Afghanistan Open On The Operating Table, Nina Griscelli

University of Miami Law Review

Military campaigns often carry with them official names and underpinning objectives. In Afghanistan, these campaigns were known as Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, and later, in 2015, as Operation Freedom Sentinel. In total, the United States and its allies remained in Afghan territory for 7,268 days, twenty years, in support of the “Global War on Terror.” Within that time, the democratic construction of a “free” Afghan society—also known as nation-building, regime change, or transformative military occupation—deeply transformed the status quo of the population. To the West, “Operation Nation-Building” became the most strategic and “hopeful alternative to the vision of the …

Opening Speech, Claudio Grossman

American University Law Review

Good morning and good afternoon, depending on your time zone. It is a great pleasure to introduce this conference on “Sea Level Rise and International Law: Assessing its Impacts on the Americas.” Sea level rise is a pressing global challenge that could generate catastrophic effects, including in the Americas, which are surrounded by four oceans: the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. Several of the countries in the Region could suffer disproportionately from the consequences of this serious phenomenon. The implications for States and people all over the world are devastating, making rising sea levels a matter of …

Stars, Stripes, And Surveillance: The United States' Failure To Regulate Data Privacy, Sam Begland

American University Law Review

In the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s devastating decision to strip Americans of their constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, data privacy is more salient than ever. Without adequate data regulations, state governments and anti-abortion activists alike can harass and prosecute pregnant people attempting to exercise their bodily autonomy. This comment argues that the United States has violated its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 17 by failing to protect against interference with the use and collection of reproductive health data. Further, this comment analyzes interpretations of …

Discussant Commentary On The Twenty-Fourth Annual Grotius Lecture, Karima Bennoune

American University Law Review

I express my sincere thanks to the American Society of International Law and the International Legal Studies Program at American University Washington College of Law for the invitation to be this year’s commentator. It is indeed an honor to respond to Judge Charlesworth’s erudite Grotius Lecture: “The Art of International Law.”

Just getting to say Judge Hilary Charlesworth alone is very meaningful. She is only the fifth woman judge out of 110 total judges on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) so far. Thanks to hard work by feminist international lawyers like her, there is finally an uptick in women’s …

Sustainable Development Goals, Between Politics And Soft Law: The Emergence Of “Political Normativity” In International Law, Ilias Bantekas, Katerina Akestoridi

Emory International Law Review

International lawyers tend to draw sharp distinctions between law and politics. Yet, despite the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its predecessors being a product of politics, the commitments undertaken therefrom suggest a new brand of politics where functionality overrides the search for normative characteristics. The political dimension of the SDGs overshadows its legal dimension because the implementation of the key stakeholders’ political commitments is crucial in achieving the SDGs’ stated aims. As international law and international relations are moving towards universal common interests and away from strict international normativity, the SDGs can best be described as a hybrid between soft …

Long Live Joint Criminal Enterprise: With A Particular Reference To Tadić’S Interactive Construction Between “The Beast” And Specific Direction, Miguel Ângelo Loureiro Manero De Lemos

San Diego International Law Journal

The idea that Joint Criminal Enterprise, in particular its extended version, contravenes fundamental principles of criminal law has gained track. Thus, not only did the International Criminal Court distance itself from the construct but, today, the widely held view is that the extended version should be discarded, not least because it is not grounded in customary international law. This Article challenges that view. While addressing scholarly criticism towards Joint Criminal Enterprise, and demonstrating why the “beast” is a solid construction, it argues that prosecutors and judges must look past the written provisions of the Statute of the International Criminal Court …

A Path Forward To #Niunamenos Based On An Intersectional Analysis Of Laws Criminalizing Femicide/Feminicide In Latin America, Melissa Padilla

San Diego International Law Journal

Since 2007, eighteen Latin American countries have enacted laws that criminalize femicide/‌feminicide in an effort to address gender-based murders in the region and to uphold their obligations under international human rights law. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its systemic lingering effects exacerbated the existent dangerous levels of gender-based violence in the region, resulting in an increase in gender-based murders. To address these murders, between 2020 and 2021, a quarter of the eighteen Latin American countries that criminalized femicide/‌feminicide have implemented or are in the process of implementing reforms to their laws criminalizing femicide/‌feminicide. Given this new trend to address the …

Security Council Resolutions And The Double Function Of Explanation Of Votes, Mark Klamberg

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

UN Security Council resolutions are not always clear: they sometimes need to be interpreted. Members of the Security Council may make statements in connection with their votes, termed explanation of votes. Explanation of votes may have at least two functions. First, they may contribute to the formation of customary international law. Secondly, they can be used as a means for interpreting Security Council resolutions in relation to a specific situation or dispute. The present Article examines different trajectories of conversations to show how Security Council resolutions and explanation of votes may protect the status quo in some instances and act …

(G)Local Intersectionality, Martha F. Davis

Washington and Lee Law Review

Intersectionality theory has been slow to take root as a legal norm at the national level, even as scholars embrace it as a potent analytical tool. Yet, in recent years, intersectionality has entered law and policy practices through an unexpected portal: namely, local governments’ adoption of international norms. A growing number of local governments around the world explicitly incorporate intersectionality into their law and practice as part of implementing international antidiscrimination norms from human rights instruments like the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of …

Foreword: Centering Intersectionality In Human Rights Discourse, Johanna Bond

Washington and Lee Law Review

In the last decade, intersectionality theory has gained traction as a lens through which to analyze international human rights issues. Intersectionality theory is the notion that multiple systems of oppression intersect in peoples’ lives and are mutually constitutive, meaning that when, for example, race and gender intersect, the experience of discrimination goes beyond the formulaic addition of race discrimination and gender discrimination to produce a unique, intersectional experience of discrimination. The understanding that intersecting systems of oppression affect different groups differently is central to intersectionality theory. As such, the theory invites us to think about inter-group differences (i.e., differences between …

Rurality As An Intersecting Axis Of Inequality In The Work Of The U.N. Treaty Bodies, Amanda Lyons

Washington and Lee Law Review

Rurality intersects with other identities, power dynamics, and structural inequalities—including those related to gender, race, disability, and age—to create unique patterns of human rights deprivations, violations, and challenges in rural spaces. Therefore, accurately assessing human rights and duties in rural spaces requires attention to the dynamics of rurality in a particular context, the unique nature of diverse rural identities and livelihoods, the systemic forces operating in and on those spaces, and the intersections with other forms of structural discrimination and inequality.

Although much of the work of the U.N. treaty bodies has in fact addressed human rights situations in rural …

Taxonomy And Restorative Justice: Can We Even See The Problem?, Dominique Day

Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity

No abstract provided.

Married To Sustainability: The Sdg Wedding Cake Framework As A Tool For Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility, Jacob Aubrecht

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

If anything can be said about the future, it is that nothing is certain. In this acceleratingly dynamic reality, stability and certainty are among the greatest assets a leader can have. The opportunity to secure long term stability is something that few would pass up. Broadly speaking, corporate leaders must be acutely aware of global market forces, government regulation, and their own power in the marketplace to create cogent predictions about the future.

This paper is designed for the burgeoning corporate leader that is looking to craft their strategic position on corporate social responsibility (CSR), or the savvy one looking …

"Authoritarian International Law" In Action? Tribal Politics In The Human Rights Council, Yu-Jie Chen

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The international human rights regime, a product of post- war liberalism, is increasingly falling under the shadow of authoritarian countries that try to influence the regime in favor of their illiberal agendas. This Article uses the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) as a prism to examine the changing dynamics among leading authoritarian and democratic actors as they contend to shape global human rights norms and institutions. This Article argues that China, the most resourceful authoritarian party-state, is engaging in what can be understood as tribal international politics, forming coalitions with authoritarian governments and developing countries that have different state …

Misappropriation And Patenting Of Traditional Ethnobotanical Knowledge And Genetic Resources, Maxim V. Gubarev

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Four-fifths of all pharmaceuticals have been developed from natural plant resources, and native plant resources similarly play a significant role in the development of new and improved crops.

The Trees Speak For Themselves: Nature’S Rights Under International Law, Samantha Franks

Michigan Journal of International Law

This note argues that the United Nations should center nature’s rights in the upcoming Global Pact on the Environment, solidifying the patchwork of international environmental law and encouraging domestic protection of the environment. Part II explores the current state of international environmental law, outlining the ways in which the doctrine remains incomplete. Part III establishes that Earth jurisprudence is an effective method to fill the gaps existing within traditional international environmental law. Part IV emphasizes the importance of soft law in international law. It draws a parallel between the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human’s Rights and a potential …

Is Climate Change A Threat To International Peace And Security?, Mark Nevitt

Michigan Journal of International Law

The climate-security century is here. Both the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) and the U.S. Fourth National Climate Assessment (“NCA”) recently sounded the alarm on climate change’s “super-wicked” and destabilizing security impacts. Scientists and security professionals alike reaffirm what we are witnessing with our own eyes: The earth is warming at a rapid rate; climate change affects international peace and security in complex ways; and the window for international climate action is slamming shut.

Some Remarks On The United Nations And Territorial Sovereignty In The Occupied Palestinian Territory, Giovanni Distefano

UAEU Law Journal

The present study is limited to the investigation of the possibility of the creation of territorial entities. It deals exclusively with the OccupiedPalestinianTerritory, i.e. the West Bank(including East-Jerusalem) and Gaza, leaving the Golan Heightsand the Sheba Farms aside. When one speaks about territorial entities engendered by occupation, one is induced to mention this possibility solely for Israel([1]). The other side, that is the Palestine Authority (hereinafter: PA), has never been able to avail itself of actual occupation “en tant que souverain” of the aforementioned territories. There is indeed no doubt that such effectiveness is clearly lacking([2]). …

The Legal Basis Of The Illegitimate Invasion And Occupation Of Iraq

UAEU Law Journal

The invasion and occupation ofIraqin 2003 had a big impact on international relations and the United Nations organization. The author will argue the illegitimacy of such an invasion and will point out the legal basis of said argument. All American allegations to justify the invasion of Iraq will be examined and will be proven illegitimate.

The study will also include a discussion on whether the invasion of Iraq can be considered as a crime against peace, and whether the American and British soldiers in Iraq committed war crimes and genocide. Next, the types of courts which have jurisdiction over such …

The International Legal System For The Protection Of The United Nations Peacekeeping Forces

UAEU Law Journal

In this research, we deal with International Legal System for protecting UN Peace Keeping Forces, based on the important and increasing role, which such forces practice in international relationships.

By this study, I find that international protection system has not achieved its intended purpose. It is stained by inability and ambiguity. Such is a natural result of the fact that such system has been formulated as reaction to the assaults, which such forces were subject to recently.

The rules and immunity of UN Peace Keeping Forces remained dispersed within international legal texts.

No clear criterion has been formulated to apply …

Excess And Deficiencies In The Practice Of The Security Council And Its Terms Of Reference: Case Study Of Iraq, Nayef Hamaida

UAEU Law Journal

This study deals with the competence of the securit council in the field of the maintenance of international peace and security, which are exercised either in conciliatory or repressive manner. The study shows that such competence is rather limited and must be compatible with the principles and aims of the United Nations.

Moreover, the study shows the excess or passive role of the Security Council in exercising its competence (a case study of Iraq) and demonstrates that the decision of the Security Council relating to the delegations of its power affects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq.

In addition, …

Ending Corporate Anonymity: Beneficial Ownership, Sanctions Evasion, And What The United Nations Should Do About It, Vineet Chandra

Michigan Journal of International Law

In the vast majority of jurisdictions around the world, there is a generous array of corporate forms available to persons and companies looking to do business. These entities come with varying degrees of regulation regarding how much information about the businesses’ principal owners must be disclosed at the time of registration and how much of that information is subsequently available to the public. There is little policy harmonization around the world on this matter. Dictators and despots have long taken advantage of this unintended identity shield to evade sanctions which target them; in July of 2019, the Center for Advanced …

Innovative Thinking: Modernizing Outer Space Governance, Diane M. Janosek

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Space security is essential to global safety and prosperity. International treaties should modernize and reflect the world’s innovation in space and governance needs. One must look back to 1967 for the inaugural “Outer Space Treaty,” the first and only binding multilateral agreement for peaceful space use and exploration. In 50 years, technologies and space capabilities have evolved; an updated global treaty and agreement should be developed and evaluated. Both China and Russia have demonstrated their capability to degrade and/or destroy adversaries’ satellites in space. Space wars are no longer a hypothetical. The future once discussed and anxiously anticipated after Sputnik …

No Child Should Feel Left Behind: The Illegality Of Orphanage Voluntourism Under Article 19 Of The United Nations Convention Of The Rights Of A Child, Lily Baron

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Legal Legacy Of The Special Court For Sierra Leone: The Sierra Leone Perspective—When The Story Is As Important As The Storyteller, Dr. Michael Imran Kanu

FIU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Global Apathy And The Need For A New, Cooperative International Refugee Response, Emily Gleichert

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

While an increasing number of nations move toward isolationist, nationalist policies, the number of refugees worldwide is climbing to its highest levels since World War II. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the international body tasked with protecting this population. However, the office’s traditional solutions for refugees – local integration, resettlement in a third country, and voluntary repatriation – have mostly eluded refugees who spend an average of twenty years in exile. The limitations UNHCR’s structure imposes on the office, specifically in its ability to fund its operations and compel nations to act, have contributed to its …

40 Years Later: It’S Time For U.S. Ratification Of The American Convention On Human Rights, Justin M. Loveland

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.