Digital Commons Network^™

From Patchwork To Network: Strategies For International Intellectual Property In Flux, Paul E. Geller

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Laws of intellectual property define what is bought and sold on media and technology markets, notably works, trademarks, and inventions. Laws and treaties have traditionally been made and enforced by nation-states operating in a patchwork of territories. Now, the media and technology marketplace is being globalized in digital networks. The law is only beginning to respond to this change.

To analyze this process in the field of intellectual property, this Article will consider the following questions: First, how is the patchwork of national laws lagging behind new networks in this field? Second, how does the international regime of intellectual property …

The Belfast Agreement, David Trimble

Fordham International Law Journal

Jim Molyneaux and Ian Paisley, the then unionist leadership, began this process in 1987 when they gave alternative proposals to Tom King, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Brooke talks ended in apparent failure in November 1992, but from a unionist perspective, in fact made significant progress. There was a period in 1993 when it appeared that the British government was receptive to unionist urging to implement the "strand one committee report." Despite these doubts, we in the Ulster Unionist Party remained in the talks when Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, was admitted in …

The Good Friday Agreement: A Triumph Of Substance Over Style, Kate Fearon, Monica Mcwilliams

Fordham International Law Journal

This Essay consists of five parts. Part I locates the Agreement in a series of constitutional attempts to resolve the "Irish question" from 1971 onwards, arguing that the Agreement is both similar to, yet fundamentally different from, other settlement propositions. Part II introduces the reader to the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition (or "NIWC"), saying something of its founding rationale and environment before considering its priorities for the political process in which it found itself immersed in May 1996. Part III further outlines the role that the NIWC assumed in that process, and its modus operandi, going on to describe the …

The Belfast Agreement, Duncan Shipley-Dalton

Fordham International Law Journal

The Belfast Agreement (or "Agreement"), to give it its proper name, reached at Stormont on Good Friday 1998, is an important document of Irish history. It is certainly a political text, but it has important legal effects. And these I wish to emphasize. As a member of the Ulster Unionist Party ("UUP") - elected later to the Northern Ireland Assembly - I accepted the Agreement on April 10 as the best opportunity for the return of power to all the people of Northern Ireland. At the time of writing (early March 1999), the major issue remains the decommissioning of Irish …

Conflict In Northern Ireland After The Good Friday Agreement, Seamus Dunn, Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Fordham International Law Journal

These include a "commitment to the mutual respect, the civil rights and the religious liberties of everyone in the community" and eight particular rights are spelled out: the "complete incorporation into Northern Ireland law of the European Convention on Human Rights, with direct access to the courts, and remedies for breach of the Convention, including powers for the courts to overrule Assembly legislation on the grounds of inconsistency"; a new Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission; a new statutory Equality Commission; a normalization of security arrangements and practice, including the reduction in the numbers and role of British Armed Forces deployed …

Dash For Agreement: Temporary Accommodation Or Lasting Settlement?, Dennis Kennedy

Fordham International Law Journal

The same dilemma remains for those in Northern Ireland today who genuinely want peace, reconciliation, and stability, but who at the same time see in what is termed the peace process, if not deceit, then much glossing over, a lot of ambiguity, and a deal of bad history. In 1921 the new institutions in Northern Ireland, the regional government and Parliament began life under the fiercest onslaught from Irish nationalism, both within its own boundaries and from the rest of the island. It was also critical of the early peace process under which John Hume of the SDLP had commenced …

The Nature Of The Agreement, Brendan O'Leary

Fordham International Law Journal

This article contains the Ninth John Whyte Memorial Lecture which discusses the Multi-Party Negotiations, also known as the British-Irish agreement, which aimed to formalize the end of “The Troubles” in Ireland.

Prospects For Justice: The Procedural Aspect Of The Right To Life Under The European Convention On Human Rights And Its Applications To Investigations Of Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday, Kara E. Irwin

Fordham International Law Journal

This Comment examines how the new doctrine of the procedural aspect of Article 2 of the European Convention can provide recourse for the travesty of justice inherent in failed investigations of alleged violations of the right to life, such as the contended failure of the Widgery Tribunal's investigation of Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland.

Policing And Change In Northern Ireland: The Centrality Of Human Rights, Linda Moore

Fordham International Law Journal

It is the contention of this Essay that the international principles of human rights must form the foundations of any future policing service in Northern Ireland. Leaving behind the sterile communalism that has characterized past approaches to policing in favor of a rights-based approach, would benefit all in Northern Ireland. A human rights policing framework would particularly relieve those living in working class communities, both catholic and protestant, who have borne the brunt of heavy policing policies and tactics. While acknowledging that no approach to policing reform can appease all shades of Northern Ireland's political and cultural opinion, the current …

Counteract: Working For Change, Billy Robinson, Stevie Nolan

Fordham International Law Journal

This article discusses Counteract, an anti-intimidation unit, that was formed in 1990 with the sponsorship and support of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Their aims are to develop actions, policies, and strategies to alleviate the incidence of sectarianism and intimidation in the workplace and the community. The article discusses how their work affects North Ireland, as it tries to become an increasingly pluralistic society.

Toward Peace In Northern Ireland, George J. Mitchell

Fordham International Law Journal

That is one side of the coin of liberty. When we adjourned for the Christmas holiday the prospects were bleak. It was in mid-February 1998, on the flight from Dublin back to the United States, that I began to devise a plan to establish an early deadline for an end to the talks. He stayed up all night at the White House, telephoning several of the delegates at critical times in the final hours of negotiation. Most importantly for its survival, the agreement was overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of Ireland, North and South, in a free and democratic election. …

Regulating Rights And Managing Public Order: Parade Disputes And The Peace Process, 1995-1998, Neil Jarman

Fordham International Law Journal

This Essay explores the problems that have emerged over the right to parade since 1994. It begins with a brief review of the historical significance of parades in Ireland before summarizing the background to the current disputes. This Essay considers the causes of the problem, the arguments of the various parties, and the development of legal controls on parades. The Essay then moves on to review the attempts that have been made to resolve the issue. In particular, the Essay focuses on the formal measures that have been taken by the British Government to resolve the disputes rather than the …

Beyond The "Band-Aid" Approach: An Alliance Party Perspective Upon The Belfast Agreement, Stephen Farry, Sean Neeson

Fordham International Law Journal

In the absence of a ready-made solution that could be adopted by the people of Northern Ireland, or a magical formula from the British and Irish Governments, the only alternative lay in locally-mandated political parties negotiating a political agreement. This alternative in turn entailed a common recognition that the zero-sum politics of "winner takes all" ultimately leaves everyone a loser. An accommodation, while requiring each party to sacrifice some of its aspirations, stood to benefit Northern Ireland society as a whole.

Prisoners, The Agreement, And The Political Character Of The Northern Ireland Conflict, Kieran Mcevoy

Fordham International Law Journal

This Essay first explores the historical context of prisoner release in Ireland, North and South. Second, the role of prisoners in the process of conflict resolution in the 1990s is examined in the periods before and after the breakdown of the first IRA cease- fire. The provisions within the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent legislation are then analyzed in so far as they relate to prisoner release as an incentive for peace among organizations outside the peace process, decommissioning, the victims of violence, and prisoner reintegration. Finally, this Essay argues that the "prisoner issue" represents a crucial acknowledgement by the …

The Stories We Must Tell: Ugandan Children And The Atrocities Of The Lord's Resistance Army, Rosa Brooks

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay is about stories--the stories that we are told and the stories that we, in turn, tell to others. It has become a truism that we have lost our faith in master narratives and that the "real" is composed of many competing narratives, all fragmentary, contradictory, overlapping. In this article, the author discusses the problems this view poses for those of us who see ourselves as advocates and activists rather than solely--or primarily--as scholars, but who nonetheless seek to combine social activism with intellectual rigor and honesty. In particular, she discusses the dilemmas this creates for the human rights …