Digital Commons Network^™

The Origin And Role Of The Penitentiary In Brazil, Scandanavia, And The United States, Nitin Sapra

UC Law SF International Law Review

Modern penitentiaries offer valuable insight on the core of society’s sensibilities, perceptions, and values. They shed light on the relation between the State and the citizenry, particularly the lower classes. Beyond its explicit reformative goals to the criminal justice system, the penitentiary functions to affect social policy through norms of decency and respect for human rights. From the unique architectural choices to the minute logistical details, a government makes choices that intimately speak on how it views its most vulnerable groups of individuals. The origins of the penitentiary offer insight into the circumstances that interweave to organize the social fabric …

Ireland Goes Bananas: Irish Insider Trading Law And Price-Sensitive Information After Fyffes V. Dcc, Jeremiah Burke

UC Law SF International Law Review

In Fyffes v. DCC, the Irish High Court ruled that James Flavin, a non-executive director of the banana distributer, Fyffes PLC, did not engage in insider trading. The case is Ireland's most significant ruling on insider trading because it clarifies the test, under Irish law, for determining whether information available to an insider is price-sensitive. A comparison of Irish and American securities law reveals that an American court may have viewed Flavin's dealings as insider trading because American courts focus on whether non-public information is material. While Fyffes was not a sympathetic plaintiff, the Irish statutory focus on price-sensitive information …

Recent Developments In The Debate Concerning The Use Of Foreign Law In Constitution Interpretation, Lisa Sofio

UC Law SF International Law Review

Comparative analysis, the interpretive technique of using foreign and international law to better understand the United States Constitution, may be a valuable tool for modern judges. Legislative proposals and statements made by various members of Congress reveal that Congress is opposed to the judiciary's use of comparative analysis and appears prepared to take drastic measures to prevent judges from looking to foreign law to answer difficult questions. This note explores the propriety and reasons for this response and explores whether comparative analysis has merit as an interpretive tool.

Extradition And The Conflict In Northern Ireland: The Past, Present And Future Of An Intractable Problem, Margaret I. Branick

UC Law SF International Law Review

British government efforts to extradite members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from the United States have posed challenges to U.S. extradition policy since the 1970s. Under extradition law, "political offenses" traditionally are treated as non-extraditable offenses. Use of the political offense exception to deny extradition of IRA fugitives from the United States prompted the United Kingdom and the United States to sign a Supplementary Treaty in 1985, which eliminated the political offense exception for broad categories of violent acts.

This Note briefly reviews the background of the conflict in Northern Ireland, and discusses extradition law and the political …

Application Of The Elements Of Torture And Other Forms Of Ill-Treatment, As Defined By The European Court And Commission Of Human Rights, To The Incidents Of Domestic Violence, Ela Grdinic

UC Law SF International Law Review

Domestic violence has not traditionally been considered a type of torture. In fact, until recently, many European countries did not even have laws to protect women from domestic assault. However, the development of concepts in international law such as the individual right to petition, the positive obligations of states, the absolute character of certain rights, and the expansion of the application of state responsibility for the acts of private individuals, all provide fertile ground for the recognition of domestic violence as a human rights issue.

This Article argues that incidents of domestic violence in fact satisfy the criteria imposed by …

"Draconian" Yet Constitutional: The Republic Of Ireland's Offences Against The State Act (1998), Sean R. Elsbernd

UC Law SF International Law Review

On August 15, 1998, a terrorist bomb exploded in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The 500-pound bomb, which detonated in the main marketplace of the city, killed twenty-eight people and injured more than 200 others. Following the tragedy, Ireland's Prime Minister Ahern pledged to bring those responsible to justice by making certain amendments to the Offences Against the State Act of 1939.

This Note discusses whether the Prime Minister and the government of the Republic of Ireland succeeded in this task, and if their efforts conform to the Irish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Reconcilable Differences--The Interpretation Of Multilingual Treaties, Dinah Shelton

UC Law SF International Law Review

The practice of authenticating treaties in several languages has grown in recent decades as multilateral agreements are concluded in the six official languages of the United Nations or the corresponding number of official languages of other sponsoring organizations. Problems of translation errors, ambiguities, and deliberate differences lead to conflicts over the content of obligations and rights contained in the treaties. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides some guidance to interpreting texts authenticated in several languages, but more effort is needed during negotiations to avoid discordant texts. In addition, the author proposes that greater recourse be had to …

Radioactive Waste And Euratom: Towards A More Effective Regime Of Regulation, Samuel B. Angus

UC Law SF International Law Review

The accumulation of radioactive waste is increasingly becoming a world environmental crisis. Radioactive waste poses a special problem to the countries of the European Community. Europe has committed itself to nuclear power and has become one of the world's largest producers of nuclear energy. Moreover, with the 1992 unification of the European Community, nuclear energy output will increase, resulting in a growing production of radioactive waste. Within the European Community, the disposal of radioactive waste is governed by the Euratom Treaty. However, its effectiveness is sharply limited. Individual Member-states retain significant discretion under the Treaty to direct their nuclear energy …

Going To England: Irish Abortion Law And The European Commnuity, David Cole

UC Law SF International Law Review

Until recently, Ireland outlawed abortion altogether, subject only to the defense of strict necessity. However, Ireland may now be bringing its abortion policies into line with the more liberal policies of the majority of other European nations, most of which permit abortion. This Article explores the recent changes in Ireland's attitude toward abortion. In particular, this Article examines the interplay of European and domestic Irish forces in the struggle for reproductive rights in Ireland from 1983, the year Ireland adopted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to life of the unborn, to the present. The author proposes that the impetus …

The Emerging European Community: A Framework For Institutional And Legal Analysis, Martin E. Elling

UC Law SF International Law Review

The European Community is not just a common market but rather a nascent political union. Facile comparisons between the institutions of the EC and the United States are insufficient and miss the point that the EC is developing a hybrid institutional and legal framework. It is crucial that political, economic, and legal actors understand the subtleties of how the EC functions, its aspirations for 1992 and beyond, and the likely changes to be wrought by the decay of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe.

Terrorists And Special Status: The British Experience In Northern Ireland, Jay M. Spillane

UC Law SF International Law Review

The political and social fragmentation of Northern Ireland is well known, and the violent tactics employed by some members of the warring communities are infamous. This Note examines the conflict between Britain's treatment for politically motivated criminals in Northern Ireland and the human rights guarantees provided in various international conventions. The author concludes that politically motivated terrorists are now treated differently from other criminals and, accordingly, should be accorded the status of "special prisoners," with corresponding human rights protections.

Tom Sawyer's Apology: A Reevaluation Of United States Pesticide Export Policy, Mark David Mcwilliams

UC Law SF International Law Review

United States pesticide manufacturers are exporting increasingly large amounts of pesticides which are banned or restricted for use in the United States. The use of these pesticides presents dire health and environmental consequences in the developing countries which import the pesticides. Current United States policy dealing with the problems raised by pesticide export stresses notification of recipient countries when such pesticides are exported. This Note contends that the notification policy is fundamentally flawed in that developing countries cannot make use of the information provided by the notification process. The Note suggests that a new policy of direct regulation is needed …