Law Commons^™

A Case Ill Suited For Judgment: Constructing 'A Sovereign Access To The Sea' In The Atacama Desert, Christopher Rossi

christopher robert rossi

Abstract: In 2015, the International Court of Justice ruled that Bolivia’s claim against Chile could proceed to the merit stage, setting up this Article’s discussion of perhaps the most intractable border dispute in South American history – Bolivia’s attempt to reclaim from Chile a ‘sovereign access to the Pacific Ocean’. This Article investigates the international law and deeply commingled regional history pertaining to the Atacama Desert region, the hyperarid yet resource-rich region through which Bolivia seeks to secure its long-lost access to the sea. Investigating the factual circumstances (effectivités), the post-colonial international legal principle of uti possidetis …

The Court Of Arbitration For Sport And Its Global Jurisprudence: International Legal Pluralism In A World Without National Boundaries, Matthew J. Mitten

Matt Mitten

This article considers an issue of global importance that has received little scholarly attention: whether the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), whose developing body of lex sportiva is a form of international legal pluralism, provides an appropriate level of procedural fairness and substantive justice to the world’s athletes, who are subject to its jurisdiction as a condition of their participation in Olympic and international sports competition. It provides an overview of the CAS arbitration system and the very limited scope of national judicial review of its arbitration awards decisions. It concludes that the CAS is a procedurally fair private …

Repsol, Ypf, And Argentina: A Hypothetical Look At The Pending Icsid Arbitration Over Ypf, Stephen Pelliccia

Stephen Pelliccia

In this paper I will discuss the 2012 expropriation of the Repsol subsidiary, YPF S.A., by the Argentine government and the upcoming ICSID arbitration on the legality thereof. Taking in to account basic tenets of international arbitration law, bilateral investment treaties, and ICSID jurisprudence, I will put forward some of the principal arguments of both parties could make and discuss a likely decision by the ICSID Tribunal. In addition to the ICSID award I will also discuss the difficulties of enforcing ICSID and other arbitral awards against Argentina and will discuss Latin American attitudes towards ICSID in general. Keeping in …

Law And Atrocity: Settling Accounts In Rwanda, Mark A. Drumbl

Mark A. Drumbl

Ten years ago, genocide ravaged the tiny African nation of Rwanda. In the wake of this violence, Rwanda has struggled to reconstruct, rebuild, and reconcile. Law-in particular, criminal trials for alleged perpetrators of genocide- has figured prominently among various policy mechanisms in postgenocide Rwanda. Criminal trials for Rwandan genocidaires' aspire to achieve several goals. These include exacting retribution, promoting reconciliation, deterring future violence, expressing victims' outrage, maintaining peace, and cultivating a culture of human rights.2 In this Lecture, I examine the extent to which these trials attain these multiple, often competing, and largely overwhelming goals. Part I begins by setting …

The Legitimacy Crisis In Investment Treaty Arbitration: Privatizing Public International Law Through Inconsistent Decisions, Susan D. Franck

Susan D. Franck

No abstract provided.

Negotiating With ‘Bulimic Man’: The (F)Utility Of Engaging Iran, Amit Chhabra

Amit Chhabra

In the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombings of September 11, 2001 (“9/11”), the American psyche has been inordinately consumed with the notion of terror and global jihad against Western culture. Even before these dramatic events, though, our unique sense of humor has traditionally emboldened us to enjoy a good scare. When terror strikes in the real world, then, we are readily at attention. Increasingly since the advent of the television, this aspect of our collective psychology has been commoditized by Hollywood and politicized at election time. The fact that Halloween traditionally falls less than a week before Election …

The Law Merchant-Redux, Art Gemmell Dr.

art gemmell

The Lex Mercatoria- Redux Arthur J. Gemmell and Autumn Talbott* ABSTRACT

The lex mercatoria developed as merchant-made, private law. Unlike other bodies of law, the lex mercatoria was not born of statutory or “natural” law but from practical, day-to-day commercial usage. In fact, medieval commercial activities propagated the “most favorable trading practices and customs of the various foreign markets within which [merchants] did business.”

What evolved in the Middle Ages out of necessity stands today as a sometimes controversial testimony to the power of self-regulation through a specialized and practical body of law: the lex mercatoria that has for centuries …